texts: Are there apart from single, double-blind... review other common categories focusing choice/number of reviewers

texts:
A current question here reminded me on the Sokal affair/hoax initiated by physicist Alan Sokal in 1996 by publishing a nonsense article in an social journal.
I am wondering whether this triggered any major changes of the peer-review practices among journals or new categories of peer review (number of reviewers, can read review of other reviewer, reviewer suggested by author, etc....)

Reading the wiki article I could not see which type of peer review (single, double-blind,...) was applied by the journal Social Text at this time. The wiki article also suggests to me that the problem was maybe rather the choice of the reviewers (no physicists, although physics is "somehow" a topic of this article).


texts: Maximizing opportunities to be admitted in top schools

texts:
I did a modest undergraduate in Information Systems (3/4) and good master's in CS (3.4/4). I've PhD acceptance from a good school in Canada. However, I still need to go to top school , or at least a well-known school, in US.

I am planning to apply to top schools in CS next year (since deadlines already passed). I have done some research and got some papers accepted at good conferences. Beside getting good scores in GRE, what should I do to be well-prepared for the next year?

I am fully sponsored student by my government, how will this affect the admit decision?


texts: Including own published proofs in PhD thesis

texts:
I'm currently writing my PhD thesis, in a mathematical field in physics. I have published a handful of papers, and the thesis is going to be mostly based on these results. I assume that, even though they are published, I should be including full proofs in the thesis.

I also assume I will effectively need to rewrite these proofs, if only for copyright reasons, having surrendered some of my rights to the journals in which these papers were published, and also for self-plagiarism reasons.

Is there anything I should look out for, and are my assumptions correct?


texts:
What options are there, and how do they compare against each other, for digitally publishing (for example, a series of short stories)?

In addition to the issue of format management (producing whatever electronic file formats are appropriate) any information about distribution would also be welcomed.

I am a teacher in a graduate-level literature program and am looking for solutions I can pass on to my students, so this is not just for my own use.


texts: How important is relevant research for an undergrad?

texts:
I'm a student in electrical engineering, and my interests lie primarily in areas with a large overlap between physics and electrical engineering. I'm currently doing research with a professor of computer engineering, doing computer engineering research, which doesn't exactly line up with my interests, but it is research experience.

Now, when I'm applying for graduate schools, I believe I'll have to write a statement of purpose. How does it affect my chances of getting into graduate schools if I write about how I want to do research in [certain area of EE], but the school sees that all of my actual research experience is in an entirely different branch of electrical engineering?

Or in other words--do graduate admissions committees care about what field I do my undergrad research in, or do they only care that I do research in general?


texts: Transfer from a Hungarian to an Austrian University for non European student

texts: Can a non EU student transfer from a Hungarian university, for example Eötvös Loránd University, to an Austrian university, and if yes do you have to go through the same procedure that you would in your home country such as visa.


texts: Is it acceptable for professors to plagiarise material for an academic textbook?

texts:
I know a professor who has recently written two books which are used as textbooks/academic books. However, I spotted a pretty recurrent pattern of plagiarism. They copy sentences and sometimes paragraphs up to several hundred words from Wikipedia, other articles, books, reports without referring to that work through both of the books. Often when they do copy, they include the references they copy (e.g. they copy A which refers to B and C), and they keep the references to A and B.

Is this in any way considered common practice? I obviously think not, but I am interested to ask whether I am simply too draconian in this regard.


texts: How did German universities outperform the US's and the UK's, before the 1930s?

texts:
I narrowed the outperformed in this question to the US and UK, but please feel free to include other First World nations' universities (eg: Canada, France).

[Source:] The top American universities didn't really compare to the best in Germany, France, or the UK before then.

This subsequent question inducted this post.


texts: Can I still update my camera-ready submission on IEEE-CPS after the deadline?

texts:
I have already submitted the camera-ready version of my paper to a conference within the deadline. However, although it is now multiple days past the deadline, the submission is still open on the IEEE-CPS site with the option to edit my submission.
I would like to update my submission (to correct a minor mistake), but I am not sure if I should do so.


texts: My name in publications as an author is different from my name in the passport, how to prove that I'm the same person?

texts:
My name in all of my publications is Mohamed Abd El-Ghafour (Abd El-Ghafour, M.) while in passport is Mohamed Abd El-Ghafour Omar, so Abd El-Ghafour is a middle name, is this will be a problem in linking my publications to my passport?
Thank you very much


texts: My PhD supervisor cannot promise me a date to defend my dissertation before my visa expires. Should I just quit my PhD and start over?

texts:
I am doing my PhD in Germany and I’m under a three year DFG grant, which ends in September, and with it my visa. Although I can get an 18-month visa to find a job after my PhD, this won’t be granted until after my defense (when I get my certificate).

My supervisor had no idea that my residence in Germany depends on my employment contract/grant with the university.
I asked him if I could submit my dissertation at the end of July and be guaranteed a defense date in September. He told me cannot guarantee this and that I’ll just have to submit my defense earlier.

I don’t want to rush my writing (I’m technically submitting my PhD early already) so finishing earlier than July is out of the question. But if I don’t get a defense date in September, I will have to leave Germany and come back to defend it. I come from a country that requires a Schengen visa, so coming back won’t be as easy as hopping on a plane.

Right now I am seriously considering submitting my thesis in July and then flying back at the end of September with or without a defense date.  If I don’t get a defense date then I effectively quit my PhD.

What should I do? Any advice would be appreciated.

EDIT 1: Thanks for all of your advice. I'm slowly going through it.

I asked my supervisor if I can do it remotely and he said that Skype-ing for dissertation panels is not allowed. So he won't even consider a virtual presentation.

EDIT 2: My supervisor and I had a meeting and we discussed a few options. Since we are inviting a professor in the US to the panel, it is in everyone's best interest to have a tough timeline in mind. The timeline we selected is within the validity period of my current permit. Still no guarantees as anything could go wrong, but it's better than nothing.

Thanks again for those of you who gave thoughtful responses. To those of you who thought my question "makes no sense", I apologize deeply for my profound ignorance and I'm sorry that you didn't find my question relevant, unlike many people here. (Ironically my thesis is about online communities and how some more established members treat less active ones.)


texts: Which is more important for phd? university or supervisor?

texts: If you ought to choose a Phd program in scientific/engineering field: a top 10 university without good supervisor and almost self-guiding or a top 200 with expert in the field?


texts: Applying to a lab as a post-doc; I am peer-reviewing their work

texts:
I'm applying to a lab whose work I happen to be pretty familiar with, due to peer reviewing one of their articles.

Is it ethical to mention this information to them?  I feel that if I don't mention it, and they find out later, they may feel that I mistrusted or misrepresented during the application process.

Does the answer depend on whether the article has already been published, or whether it's still in the review process?


texts: Listing books read on a CV for undergraduate research in mathematics

texts: I am currently making my CV for undergraduate research internships in Pure Mathematics. I have read many graduate level books on the field out of my own interest. Whenever I was stuck on a difficult concept, I have sought the help of my professors and they can vouch for my understanding of these topics. Adding a section titled "Books Mastered" seems a bit narcissistic but I believe mentioning these books would add weight to my application.How can I leverage this experience and incorporate it into my CV?


texts: Publishing results posted Stack Exchange

texts:
Recently, I asked a question on stack exchange, to check if something I am working on was already done. I myself could not find this specific thing, so I asked the community.

Then, a discussion about my problem followed, and some people provided (possibly inaccurate) proofs. Independently, I figured out a proof by myself.

Now, I want to publish the proof of my result. Is this ok? Can I post this on Stack Exchange and then still publish it?


texts: What name should I give to be acknowledged in a paper?

texts: I am a first year PhD student and I was recently working on reproducing some results from a paper which is still being reviewed. In the process I noted a number of issues with the paper which should be clarified or fixed. I have been asked how I would like my name to appear in the acknowledgements. My full legal name is Kristian Tyn-Kai Chung, but I do not ever use the name Kristian, I have always gone by Kai to everyone I know besides by mother and grandmother who call me Kristian (with a Norwegian pronounciation). Should I use my full name? First and last? Should I use Kai? Any suggestions appreciated.


texts: I left the acknowledgment part in a double blind review paper submission, what can i do?

texts:
I forgot to remove the acknowledgment when i submitted my paper to a conference with a double-blind review conference. And the acceptance notice would be 4 months from now. I think it's useless to contact the chairs asking for re-submission as in top conferences they are not flexible.
But if i can be sure that the paper will be rejected then i can send to to another upcoming conference in during that time. But i do not want to deliberately revoke my paper from the conference!
BTW, the acknowledgment part shows my affiliation.


texts: What should I do when a former student tells me about misconduct from one of their current TAs?

texts:
While I was a TA for an undergraduate CS course, I built up a good teaching relationship with a student who was struggling. By the end of the course, she had turned things around and was performing much better.

We hadn't spoken since I was her teacher until she reached out to me about a graduate student TA in a later course who told her that she was so bad that she should just leave the major entirely. His comments seem to have damaged her self-confidence and she chose to talk to me, rather than to the faculty. I'm not at the university anymore, but I remain personal friends with that student's adviser.

Is this generally acceptable conduct for graduate students? Should I let the professor know? I think it isn't really the place of a first-year graduate student to give such unsolicited "advice," especially in such absolute terms at a time when the department has made it a stated goal to be more inclusive to women and underrepresented minorities. For context, the TA is a man.


texts:
What are the typical differences between doing a math phd and an engineering phd on the same research topic?

Take, for example, fluid dynamics.

Does working on a phd thesis on a problem in fluid dynamics, in an engineering program make the problem "more applied" than working on the same problem in the math program?  Do engineering phd programs do any work on theory at all? Or is it strictly applications?


texts: Homework is to be submitted according to a guideline that is nowhere to be found

texts:
I am a new transfer student from a much, much smaller university to a semi-prestigious one. The first set of homework has been assigned (due in three weeks) and says it should be “submitted according to the TA’s guidelines”.

However, I do not see any guidelines on the university’s site, nor on the TA’s site. I also have not met the TA yet, and office hours have not been posted.

Whom and how should I ask for clarification?

Should I email the professor directly?
Should I email one of the three TAs (I don’t know which one will be marking)?
Something else?

If it is relevant, the subject is mathematics and homework is graded.


texts: Which tenure-track jobs would a new math PhD have a shot at?

texts:
I will be finishing my PhD in pure math next semester, so I'm applying for jobs. I've noticed that on Mathjobs.org, listings for tenure-track positions do not say that one must have experience beyond completing the PhD. In some cases it will say this is preferred, but I have not seen any listings saying it is required, and most don't even mention it.

According to my adviser, one of the first things done by a hiring committee for a TT job, is to toss out an annoying quantity of under-qualified applications. He said I should not bother applying for most of those jobs. Yet he also said that my teaching qualifications are above average, so that I would actually be considered for some "teaching" tenure-track jobs. I asked him how I identify these jobs, and he said they will be at small colleges and have little research activity. But it can be hard to tell if this is the case just looking online.

Is there some good indicator that a certain position might consider me for a TT position, even though I'll be a new PhD? On the one hand it costs me nothing to submit applications to TT jobs, but on the other hand I don't want to waste people's time. I'll include what I've been going by: if a TT position does not require a publication list, I've been considering it worth applying to.

I also wonder why this state of affairs exists. If hiring committees are in fact burdened with such a quantity of under-qualified applications, why don't they filter some by clearly delineating what they are looking for in the job listing?


texts: Citing a paper whose title has received errata

texts:
I recently stumbled upon a published article entitled "ANCOVA versus change from baseline had more power in randomized studies and more bias in nonrandomized studies," which has an errata stating the following:

  The publisher regrets that in the above-mentioned article the title was changed without the author's approval. The correct title should read:

  “ANCOVA versus change from baseline: More power in randomized studies, more bias in nonrandomized studies”

If I am to cite the paper, should I refer to it by its published title (as I did in the reference list below) or by its corrected title?

References

Van Breukelen, G.J.P. (2006). ANCOVA versus change from baseline had more power in randomized studies and more bias in nonrandomized studies. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 59(9): 920-925
Van Breukelen, G.J.P. (2006). Erratum to “ANCOVA versus change from baseline had more power in randomized studies and more bias in nonrandomized studies”. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 59(12): 1334


texts: Have people been prosecuted for using fake degrees?

texts:
Diploma mills sell degrees at any level, ranging from bachelor to PhD. The way I see it, the sole purpose of getting milled diplomas is to deceive others. As such, I expect the consequences of getting caught to be sufficiently severe.

I wonder if there are known cases of people getting prosecuted for using such fake degrees to land a certain job. I know there are plenty of cases where said people got fired, for instance here.

I am mainly interested in the consequences of obtaining fake PhDs and subsequently using the supposedly obtained titles. In Belgium and the Netherlands, for instance, the formal title of 'Doctor' is legally protected, so unjustified use could lead to prosecution. I assume this is also the case in some other countries (examples are most welcome), since we have a lot of questions pertaining 'can I call myself X in country Y after obtaining Z'.


texts: How can a department head recruit international students?

texts:
I had a brief skype job interview for the position of department head at a mid-size/rank university in England. One of the key questions was about my plans for the international student recruitment. Contrary to other questions, I felt that they are not satisfied with my answer because I really didn't have a special plan for this. Still, I think a department head can support this but cannot think of any new plan to do so.

Do you have a convincing answer to this interview question?


texts: What is the status/reputation of the University of South Africa (UNISA)?

texts:
I would like to follow PhD studies in my field of Computer Science. The problem is that I have to work in my native country. I have read that this university, UNISA, is known because of their online Master and Doctoral studies.

The question that I have is because I see different comments from people from United States or Europe that wanted to enter into this online degrees. Does anybody have experiences or know if that university is worldwide recognized? Or would it be only a waste of money and time? In case of the latter, which institution of quality offers online PhD degrees in CS?

Consider that this question is not focused locally, because as I mentioned in the aforementioned paragraph; there are people from all over the world that want to take those UNISA degrees.


texts: In universities, how to team up with your colleagues?

texts:
Many times in universities, people don't dedicate much time to build friendly relationships with colleagues.
Unfortunately, this happens both in the tenured positions and in non-tenured positions, with many bad consequences (such as for examples, many researchers actually don't know what other colleagues are researching on...).

I've always been thinking that building strong friend relationships with colleagues can be very useful and powerful, for careers but most of all to create a more serene work environment.

I think that a good way to create friendly relationships with colleagues is organizing extra-work activities, such as dinners, soccer matches, etc.
Last week some of my PhD student colleagues organized a pizza dinner between colleagues. All my department (~150) PhD students were invited, but in the end we were just 9! :-(

What d'you do to build strong friend relationships with colleagues?
Could you tell some success stories?
Could you give some good advices?


texts: How to have a system of referencing citations so that it is short and well-styled

texts:
I am familiar with writing the citation part (in different styles). However, I have typically just used superscripts like Wikipedia to reference the citation, like this[1] sort of thing. I would like to get more advanced with it to make it easier for the reader to glean more information from the citation reference.

So I'm thinking something like this (Glen89) where author is Glen and year of publication is 89. But then what if there are multiple publications in 89 for Glen, then it would be perhaps (Glen89a) and (Glen89b).

But that isn't too descriptive. I have seen some cases where they list the publisher as well, like (Glen: MacMillan 89), but that is too long and specific to books.

In general I'm wondering the rules for how to do this, and wondering where I can get some inspiration for how to write these, if not a straight answer here on what a good style is.


texts: Informing supervisor for declining Research fellowship position in light of PhD offer

texts:
I finished my Master's in July last year and since then I have been applying for a PhD position. Due to some personal family related reasons, this search was largely non targeted for most of this year. In September I was accepted for a 1yr research fellowship post.

Being from outside of Europe naturally I had to apply for visa and after completing all documentation related formalities, I applied in late November and expect the visa to arrive soon. With my supervisor, It was agreed that it is OK to start in January.

Before applying for visa I had in a last attempt applied for a PhD position in another University in Europe. Surprisingly, I received a call for an Interview in December first week, after I had already applied for the visa. After almost an hour of fruitful discussion on the topic and my interests, the professor told me that they will decide this week. Yesterday, I received the communication that I have been accepted in the fully funded PhD program and can start in April.

Herein lies my dilemma, My supervisor for the fellowship and myself have put in continuous efforts for my arrival and now that I have been accepted for a 4yr PhD program it does not make a sense to go for the fellowship without any confirmation of continuity in the same lab post 1yr. I want to be respectful to them and prevent any unnecessary misunderstanding.

Could you advise me as to how to respectfully decline for the position and subsequently provide an option for starting in the lab before beginning at the other university if they agree (I know this is not the ideal scenario but this is the most I can offer from my position).

If there is any other recourse for this situation, I am open for same.

TL;DR: Got a 1yr research fellowship, all set to join in January. Received offer for funded PhD from another Uni. Need help for respectful decline without burning bridges.


texts: Is it OK to review a manuscript written by an editor who handled (and accepted) one of your papers?

texts:
I have been invited to review a manuscript written by several authors. One of them has been the editor of one of my recently published papers. This is the only interaction I have ever had with the author of the manuscript.

Would it be OK for me to accept the review request?

While I personally do not see anything wrong with it, it might be the case that I am positively biased towards the paper, without realising it. Hence my question.

Bonus question: the journal adopts an open peer review system, where the reviews and the reviewers' names can be published alongside the paper. Shall I accept the review request, would it make sense to disclose my concern in the review I submit? Assuming that the paper gets accepted, of course.


texts: Is peer-reviewing a manuscript by a coauthor of yours truly ethical?

texts:
Whereas it is often considered unethical to manage as an editor, associate editor or guest editor a manuscript from a researcher with whom you have coauthored one or more papers, this does not typically hold true for peer-review.

In other words, it is considered acceptable by most editors for me to review a manuscript from one or more authors with whom I have coauthored one or more papers, and even authors with whom I am currently collaborating.

But is this truly ethical?


texts: How do academic salaries work in Belgium

texts:
I'm looking at salary scales published by a Belgian institution.
I see figures published for monthly salaries. Is there a reason why annual salaries are not published? Is the annual salary not as straightforward as monthly salary x 12 months?
Elsewhere, I see mention that 'In addition to their monthly salary, all staff are entitled to holiday pay and an end-of-year bonus' - how does this work?
Thanks for any advice.


texts: Is uncredited use of grad students' unpublished research by professors accepted/common practice in academia?

texts:
I'm a master's student, and over the course of my studies I've conducted a few independent studies in which I investigate specific research questions that I formulate on my own. Those independent studies have culminated in final papers, and I then use the material in those papers as part of articles I publish and presentations I give at conferences--am trying to build up a public profile on these topics.

Recently, a professor of mine asked to see research I had done for one of those studies, ostensibly to use as background for something the professor was working on. I'm not this professor's employee or otherwise under contract for a project of the professor's. I'm conducting independent research during classes that I pay for as part of my degree. The professor is in other words just my adviser and teacher.

I provided the professor my research and presentation materials, and then heard the professor use my work--word for word--in a subsequent presentation. The professor had not sought out my consent before doing this, and I was not cited.

The same professor again asked for a full, unpublished paper I had written to use as background for a different project the professor was undertaking. I declined to provide the paper because I did not know how it would be used (though I didn't say that).

Am curious about whether this is accepted and/or common practice in academia. And if it is, should I just send my paper to the professor?


texts: How should I publicize a university event of wide interest?

texts:
I am a mathematics professor, and recently I invited (using my own grant funding) a speaker to campus give a lecture on popular math. As I expected, he gave a wonderful talk that any undergraduate could have enjoyed.

I decided to try to publicize the event widely, and I failed in a big way. Our Director of Public Relations (whom my chair urged me to contact) and one of his subordinates were very helpful, and they gave me a large list of people (with their e-mail addresses) to further get in touch with.

But, then, I then e-mailed these people individually, and wrote messages tailored to their job positions, and ..... nothing. Nobody even wrote back. It was humiliating. Ultimately, these efforts were all useless; it was essentially only people in my department that got back to me or helped me publicize the event.

I have been stewing about how incompetent our administrators are, but I wonder if this is foolish on my part. Might I have gone about this in a different way? (Perhaps admins rely on the phone and don't check their e-mail?) Or perhaps I was naive or presumptuous to attempt this at all? I hate to admit this, but I have been wondering if I should bother in the future.


texts: Journal rejects my conference-to-journal extension, saying it's copied from previous publication. What should I do?

texts:
My understanding of short conference papers being extended to journals was that I should have at least 30% fresh results and content (read that in answers to this question here). I had a short 4-page paper published and presented as a poster at a conference in the past year. I had extended the work, had plenty of fresh results with me, and decided to send it to a journal. I would say I had at least 70-80% fresh content and results.

I was surprised to receive a reply from the Editor that my manuscript was been rejected without review. The reason given by an editorial board member is

  A non-negligible part of this manuscript (~1000 words) has been copied by a previous publication of these authors.

And, thus, he suggested that the manuscript be rejected without review.

I agree that some basic data pre-processing modules are same in both papers (coz why would they differ!). Some introduction and related work part is also the same. Rest, the manuscript is fresh. My manuscript is easily 9000-10000 words. 1000 words just makes 10% of that. Keeping in mind that "30% fresh content" rule, I thought I was playing pretty safe. But this response has disappointed me :(

My  questions:

Should I bother to write to the Editor, asking for a clarification? Maybe I can just ask whether the editor bothered to read my cover letter (where I had clearly mentioned about the previous paper, and the overlaps with this paper).
If yes, how does one usually contact the Editor? The emails sent by the journal do not come from a personal account. Will it be wise to write to him directly?
After this rejection, I may submit it elsewhere. But what if it gets rejected on same grounds. Should I consider re-writing my manuscript and making it completely different from the previous paper?


texts: Are letterhead and signatures necessary in the LOR?

texts:
My manager (one of the recommenders) said that he is working from home for several months due to coronavirus. It will not be possible for him to give the recommendation letter on the letterhead.
Instead, he said that he would submit it via email.
My question is, will this letter count towards my application?


texts: What are the main difficulties for someone who is mute to be successful in academia?

texts:
There are several posted questions regarding people who have had struggles, but ultimately were able to succeed, in academia while being blind.

My question is regarding being mute (by choice or otherwise): what are the difficulties in being successful? Are there notable examples of such people? I'm not mute myself, but I thought it was an interesting question for the following reasons.

I would think working in academia means coming up with new and interesting ideas through research, while also conveying these ideas and results in an effective manner to an audience, both through papers and giving talks. So success should be possible in some aspects of academia (such as papers), but not in others (such as giving talks).


texts: Part-Time PhD in the UK? How does this work?

texts:
I'm from the US but I work as an engineer in the UK.  In the US, part-time engineering PhD students at high-profile universities are possible, but rare and usually limited to special cases.

In the UK, it seems nearly every school has a part-time PhD option.  How does a part-time engineering PhD at elite schools [Oxford, Imperial, Cambridge, UCL] work?
Is it possible to work full-time and obtain and obtain a part-time PhD at these elite schools?
What are your chances of being admitted to these top programs as a part-time PhD student (I'd assume there would be a bias against part time students)?


texts: Can you start using your married name on publications prior to getting married, but when the marriage is soon?

texts: Next year I am getting married and plan on changing my surname. Now I am starting to think about publishing my research can I publish under my future married name or shall I keep my maiden name for a year and switch? I don't want to deceive anyone but the appeal is that in the future someone can follow the development of my work without losing the first couple of papers.


texts: So I am an undergraduate in university right now studying applied physics with applications in aeronautical/aerospace engineering. I have a 5th year M.S option to get my masters in physics with applications in a certain field. After that 5th year M.S I want to go and get my masters in aeronautical/aerospace engineering but always wanted to do research at the PhD level, so is it possible for me to get a PhD in physics or aerospace/aeronautical engineering after two MS's in physics and aeronautical engineering respectively?


texts: ScholarOne Manuscripts status is 'Awaiting Referee selection' for nearly 3 months

texts:
I submitted an article to a journal using ScholarOne manuscripts on 20th February. it is now nearly 3 months and it hasn't got beyond 'awaiting referee selection'. I have emailed to ask, politely, if it will be sent to reviewers and if I can help by suggesting reviewers' names. I have received no reply.
Do people think this is normal / reasonable?
What, if anything, should I do next?
Thanks.


texts: Is it more difficult to score a Tenure Track position in the US when applying from outside?

texts:
I am currently located in central Europe. When I was hunting for an assistant professor position some months ago, I was also planning to apply to some US institutions for Tenure Track positions. However, one senior professor with some experience working in the US told me pretty much straight-up that this will be a waste of time, as "US universities do not hire people from outside the US/Canada on Tenure Tracks". Relativizing somewhat, stated that "of course exceptions exist, especially if they personally know the applicant, but generally you will get onto the reject pile immediately as they don't know your school well enough.". I was counselled to apply for a postdoc at an US institution first, if I really wanted to get into an US school.

Looking over the CVs of some existing assistant professors in good schools the statement could  be accurate (almost nobody with the job title Assistant Professor seems to come directly from outside the US - many graduated somewhere else, but the last position before was almost always an US institution).

In your experience, is this sentiment correct? Does it even make sense to apply for a TT position in the US from outside (under the assumption that your CV is reasonable for a TT in the first place, of course)? Computer Science is most relevant to me, but any information from any STEM fields would be interesting as well.


texts: confused after accepting PhD offer? Your experience or advice is very much appreciated!

texts:
I have recently accepted a PhD offer. The subject is very close to what I was working on during my Master's years. I really worked hard back then and fortunately managed to publish high-quality papers.
I had several offers at the time and it was really difficult for me to choose between them since they were all good universities. I finally chose the university that I felt better about it and I was happy by my choice at that time. The factors that I liked about the place I chose were that:

•   Their field is very close to what I have done during my Master's years and therefore I can easily proceed during my PhD.

•   The supervisor is a well-known person with a good resume and lots of connections in academia.

•   The chemistry seemed right and the supervisor seemed supportive and was very eager to have me as a PhD student.

The problem is, after some time passed, I started to develop lots of negative thoughts and now, some issues that were not important to me back then, are freaking me out right now.

I am thinking I decided too quickly and I should have applied to some better universities that I didn’t consider at that time.

First of all, The PhD offer that I have accepted is in a non-English speaking country. Although at first I was very eager and excited to learn a new language, it now freaks me out to live in a place where people don't speak my language.

Also, now I am thinking maybe my current field of research is not something worth pursuing. I was really passionate about this topic during my Master's years but now I am thinking maybe it is not a worthy topic and it will be too restricting when applying for a postdoc.
I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to decline my offer since I think it would really annoy the professor. And considering the fact that she has lots of connections in academia and that the academia is a very small world, I think it would be very bad for my reputation. But I just can't get rid of these negative thoughts.

I was wondering if anyone has been in this situation before and if this is common between students.

I appreciate any advice on this situation. Your thoughts and experiences will be a great help to me.
Thanks a lot in advance. 

UPDATE:
Hi every one. Thanks for all the answers. It has been 6 months from when I posted this and I just wanted to share my experience, I hope it might help someone.
I talked to the professor and asked for some extra time to decide. I was really lucky since the professor understood my situation and didn't pressure me. I ended up finding a much better offer and accepted the new one and I am totally happy about it.
Here is my advice to help others not to make the same mistake:
Never ever accept a PhD offer too quickly. Even if it sounds very good. Take as much time as you can and consider every option you have. Do talk to your classmates and previous professors. Their opinions might be very helpful to you when choosing an offer.
Hope that helps :)


texts: can I submit in a new journal after submission in a predatory journal who force to pay in order to withdraw?

texts:
after submission of my article, I realize that it was a predatory journal. I ask to withdraw my manuscript but they require to pay half of charges. what can I do?
If I do not pay, can I submit in a new journal? thank you


texts: Average age to start a PhD and correlation to future career

texts:
Which is the average age in which persons start their PhD? Is this age in some way related to the post PhD plans a person does?

In my (European) experience I have 3 groups of people, with the relative distributions:

(70% of the total) Those who started right after graduation (let's say when they were 24) without any job experience. Most of them (with exceptions, of course) are a bit fed up with research and willing to try a "real world job experience"
(25% of the total) Those who started 2,3,4 years later (so between 24 and 29), taking a full time phd. Generally people belonging to this group seem to be more motivated for academic career, even if starting a phd when one is 29 years old might be a bit late (or not?)
(5%) Those who start in their 40ties with the idea of taking a part time PhD as an out of job activity, and don't plan to leave their job.

Clearly there are all the possible shades between the above categories.


texts: Is it logistically possible to work on two PhD research projects at the same time?

texts:
Say someone wants to enroll in two unrelated disciplines: e.g. a Ph.D. in, say, Arabic Literature, and Ph.D. in, say, in Math Education.

I am not going into the capability of the candidate, or whether it is reasonable to seek multiple PhDs.

Is it logistically possible to work on two research projects at the same time?

What difficulties/barriers may come?


texts: If enrolled in Ms-PhD, do I have flexibility not to progress beyond MS?

texts:
I'm looking to do a graduate course in computer science in the US and was particularly attracted to several non-terminal MS CS programs, which you'd enroll as a PhD student, but acquire the MS en route. Some of these MS-PhD programs have better financial support by the institution compared to the terminal MS program.
For example Harvard offers all of its PhD students full financial support.

My question is:
If I'm enrolled into say Harvard's or any other PhD program looking to get MS en route.
After acquiring the Masters Will I be able to have the flexibility to not progress towards after PhD for whatever reason, without any consequences like having to pay back the financial aid or something?


texts: Is use of unconventional design elements or layout something frowned upon in academic context?

texts:
I quite enjoy paying attention to how I design my documents and presentations. I usually spend hours thinking over and designing my slides for a workshop or presentation, so that they are aesthetically pleasing and as intuitive as possible. Likewise I recently started revising my CV I figured and I wanted to make it stand out a bit more. (Just to make it clear I don't mean making a clown of a document but just better use of colors, contrast and design elements.)

I have long wondered whether or not this is something that can backfire, since most documents in academic context are extremely plain, at least in my experience. It's very common to see the default Powerpoint slides (white bg, black arial text) or something as hideous as that.

My question is as follows: is putting time and effort into design of academic documents something that can backfire? Will I risk being prejudged with first impressions such as "well he put much effort in the presentation his documents, perhaps because the content is sub-par"?

I realize that the question might be somewhat subjective from person to person but I encourage everyone to consider it in terms of this SE blog entry: Good subjective vs Bad subjective.


texts: Doing a PhD with significant external time obligations (e.g., marriage)

texts: Graduate school has a reputation for being a tremendous time-sink. I'm currently married with kids, and I have a fairly busy extracurricular schedule. Is it common for married people - or anyone, actually, with significant external time constraints - to not finish their graduate work, specifically due to conflicting obligations?


texts: Ways to tell interviewers you want some time to think about your decision (Employment in Academia)

texts: I am interviewing for employment in academic labs as a computer scientist, one of which a childhood friend is in and has some position of seniority. According to my friend who has spoken with the PI on the spot, the PI loves my letters of recommendation, my CV, my cover letter, etc. and the PI is willing to offer me the position on the spot if I don't screw up the interview. However, I am still wishing to keep my options open as there are other labs who have given me interviews during the same week as my interview with this current lab. How do I politely tell the PI I want some time to think about it? There are other factors that I want to weigh in like money, relative interest in the projects, my perceived contribution/role, etc.


texts: Digital media rights for online courses (US)

texts:
I've been trying to research how digital media can be lawfully utilized for online, distance-learning courses.  The specific use case here would not be a MOOC or anything massive, but an online course offered to homeschooled students that probably would have less than 20-30 signups per semester.  The sourced videos would include items such as this one:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/scottsboro/

Current American guidelines suggest that it is perfectly OK to offer this video in-person in a physical classroom:

  Classroom Use of Videos
  Public performances of a video/DVD in the face-to-face classroom is an exception to the public performance right §110 (1) and therefore lawful. The following conditions apply:

  The teaching activities are conducted by a non-profit education institution
  The performance is in connection with face-to-face teaching activities.
  The performance takes place in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction.
  The person responsible for the performance has no reason to believe that the videotape was unlawfully made.

Source:  http://www.ala.org/tools/libfactsheets/alalibraryfactsheet07

However, I am unable to find current and accurate guidelines that would apply to online courses in a similar manner.  At the current time this means that we are restricting our course videos to items that can be obtained reasonably on Amazon, Netflix, iTunes and so forth - however, this is so piecemeal that it becomes a real pain to attempt to track and maintain locations, prices, availability, and so on for the relevant videos.

Is there any legal path for a purchased educational  DVD such as the above to be made available online for a strictly limited educational audience in a distance learning context?


texts: Expletives in academic writing for coursework?

texts:
I was just wondering if I should include an edited expletive in an essay I have to write for a Software Development class. I'm currently writing a paper about debugging techniques and I wanted to talk about reading documentation to ensure the correct use of libraries and algorithms. This is commonly referred to as RTFM or "Read The Fucking Manual". So I was wondering if I should change it to "Read The [expletive] Manual", replace a couple letters with *'s, or scrap the idea entirely.

I just thought the teacher may enjoy a break from reading the same essay over 50 times that will include the exact same content (there are only so many debugging techniques).

I'm also thinking about including the "It's not a bug, it's a feature" with the following image while expanding on the line of thinking.

The reason why I think I can get away with this is because the teacher frequently cracks jokes during his lecture, and he has actually used the bug vs feature joke in class before.


texts:
In  my thesis, I am using other people's open data, and I cut and paste the description of it and reference its source and its copyright (if it is identifiable in the source).

My question is if that's the correct way to handle open data. Is cutting and pasting the description of the data (from its source) OK as long as I reference it, or should I interpret it myself?


texts: Is it common for a publisher to offer monetary compensation for a book proposal review?

texts:
I received a book proposal review request from Elsevier. Despite some reasons to believe that it is credible, there are a few things that look suspicious to me:

A monetary compensation is offered. Is this common, and how does this work in practice?
The request is sent from a personal email account.
It says that I was suggested as an expert in the field, but in fact it is not closely related to mine.


texts: Sending several PhD applications to professors in the same university?

texts:
I am looking to apply for PhD programs at university XX. My background is in chemical engineering and biotechnology.

Said university XX has a very ample offer on these areas and there are several projects ranging from rather small scale biotechnology-related topics to projects in a larger scale and more close to process or chemical engineering. And everything in between.

I find a lot of them very attractive and even in the hypothetical case of being accepted for several I would have a hard time deciding between them.

How bad would it be seen if I sent applications to several professors?. Will the professors even find out that I sent applications to their colleagues?. How many are too many?

The university in question is a swiss one, where it is traditional to send your application to each professor individually and doctoral programs where you enroll in a program instead of with a supervisor directly are not very usual.


texts: Is offering jobs to students I'm teaching as a "representative of industry" OK?

texts:
I have a simple question to which I was unable to find a simple answer. I was hired by a university as a "representative of industry" to deliver some courses. In my groups I have several promising students to whom I would like to offer a job after the course ends.
I think this would be OK from students' point of view (the job comes to them, instead of requiring them to spend time in job fairs etc). I think this would also be great from a company's point of view (they can get a student whose abilities and skills they can be reasonably confident in). However, this looks almost too good to be true and I have a feeling that there's some conflict of interest here.
Is such an arrangement common (i.e., hiring your students) or is it inappropriate and I should avoid it?
Edit to provide more details: the students are about half-way through their degree and the summer break is slowly appearing on the horizon, so the job would be a limited-term apprenticeship while they do not have any university obligations. The country in question is Poland.


texts: Is it okay/common/good to mention the submitted papers in my phd thesis?

texts: I have a couple of papers that I have submitted to some journals but no feedback is received yet. meanwhile i'm writing my phd thesis and the defense is in few months, surely before getting any feedback from the journals. I'm wondering if it is okay to mention those submitted journal papers in my thesis.


texts: Colleague erroneously got a grade that is too high

texts:
I know that for a certain project a colleague with whom I have worked on the project erroneously got a grade that is higher than he should have gotten (the administration made a mistake is my guess). He told me about this himself, but also told me that he is not planning on changing it. The course is a 12 ects course, so has quite an impact on someone's gpa.

Now I have two thoughts:

It is not fair to 'betray' a colleague who trusted me with this story
I also worked on this project and I got the correct grade, it feels unfair. And I also simply feel that it is simply not just in a way.

What do you think? And should I take action or not?


texts: How PhD classes are different from undergraduate?

texts:
PhD program is new in our department, and first experience of the faculty members and department head.

Our PhD classes are exactly like undergraduate classes: monologue lecture, strict attendance rule, no discussion, etc.

We are PhD students, and we have not experienced PhD classes before, but our expectation was something different. When we complain, the department replies this is the standard method around the world.

How can we gather some information/evidence that how is a standard PhD class to convince the department?
How the PhD class are actually different from undergraduate courses?


texts: Can I put an invited talk on my CV if the conference was canceled?

texts: I was invited to give a talk at an important conference, which has now been canceled due to coronavirus. Can I still list the fact that I was invited on my CV, with a parenthetical note? It's not the same as if I turned down an invitation or failed to show up. Obviously this is not really that big of a deal and I can accept it if that's not a suitable thing to do, but I'm trying to find a silver lining.


texts: How to handle team member who is unable/unwilling to collaborate

texts:
Okay, this is a problem I am really scared of lately. I am always willing to learn something exciting whenever I do any coursework. However, this adventurous mind of mine is risky and can often put my grades in jeopardy. Now, the problem is, there are "unfortunate" times where I have to collaborate with other students. It then becomes a serious issue of ego clash, when my classmate wants an easy way out, while I want to be all out conqueror (which I think should be the goal, since I am spending my time at college to learn something new, not to respect and elongate my comfort zone). So, it often happens that this internal squabble is very detrimental to the overall group performance and at the end of the semester the overall outcome results in a hodgepodge. Moreover, I end up having a bitter relationship with my classmates.

So, my question is how can I motivate my project partners to do something interesting and challenging, without distracting them to think that the project is hard(which it ultimately can be).

P.S: Thanks  for pointing out my mistakes, I will be more careful with my attitude.


texts: Why do we not introduce the concepts and professions of "Academia" to younger students?

texts:
I'm a first-year student at a private university in America. One of my classes for my first semester is essentially our English General Education requirement - it's called "Rhetoric & Composition". However, the class completely surpassed my expectations of the depth of discussion that would be had - we are learning a lot about research, academic integrity, academic "conversations" and professional mediums like academic journals and papers.

In our first unit we wrote rhetorical summaries of a few articles, our second unit had us researching different areas of health in refugee camps - a specific research area. Now, in our third unit, we're really delving into research - focused on the subject of cosmopolitanism vs. patriotism.

Our professor started today with a presentation on research in general - showing us the process of discovery, how researchers commit their lives to just a few academic ideas and submit their new perspectives on the world for ruthless critique by their peers... It was a very eye-opening discussion on how the real world works, where our cultural and scientific ideas come from, and why I'm even here, at college.

My question is... why did it take me eighteen years to receive this discussion? Why did our education system wait until adulthood to tell me these things: how ideas are discovered, why people go to graduate school...

Frankly I think education on "academia" should be a big part of your primary schooling. Ask an elementary schooler what they want to be when they grow up, and you'll probably get an answer of "firefighter" or "astronaut" or "doctor". Ask any high-schooler and most won't be able to tell you, because they know those easy answers aren't what they want but they don't know how most other professions work: as many as 75% of college students enter undecided on a major or change their major at least once. If we educate students on how academia works, where new knowledge comes from, they can start developing a well-informed decision on their career - whether it be in research or applying knowledge to a profession.

Our present high school english classes largely educate us on classic and modern literature - both fictional and non-fiction narratives or other types of creative works. Why not provide a better balance with academic english? Showing youth how degree-professions really work could inspire more to pursue higher education as opposed to stopping after high school because "why should I continue learning this boring literature and math and history when I could just go get a job and pursue my hobbies?" (Which is not a bad way to lead a life - but if  someone has academic potential, we shouldn't be discouraging them like this.)

My aim with this question is primarily to open discussion about it, but I still think it's suitable for the stack exchange format. An accepted answer would look like an actual discussion/debate/set of arguments from political bodies or researchers or really anything that's  established, but I like the idea of opening the discussion because all insights are valuable.


texts: Bad recommendation letter from previous postdoc adviser

texts:
I am completing my first postdoc and I had a pretty bad experience with my current adviser. I finally got to publish something, contribute in a grant writing etc., but overall it hasn't been great...

Now, I am going to start a new postdoctoral appointment under the supervision of a faculty I have been working with for several years and I will apply for tenure track positions once this last appointment has ended. I am pretty sure that my new adviser will be able to provide very good recommendation letters for me in the future. So the question is, will I need to provide recommendation letters from my current adviser? What if those are not good?


texts: What can I do if I face conflicts with my supervisor?

texts:
I am an international Ph.D. student in Canada. I have many conflicts with my supervisor and I really don't enjoy working under his supervision and I prefer to change my supervisor. However, the problem is that he has much power in our department and I guess that no other prof. will be willing to support me. If I ask the department to change my supervisor and they do not accept my request, it will be a nightmare. If they accept, I may still face some problems.
I would be thankful to know what I can and should do.
I should state that I don't wanna be in a situation that either university forces me to leave or I choose it.


texts: Is there a maximum duration for an MS in Germany, and are there allowances for medical leave?

texts:
Does someone here know how many years at the maximum one can take to finish MSc degree in Mathematics in Germany ? My friend enrolled for three semesters on regular basis but due to his mental instability he couldn't do anything. He almost has all the credits required and just needs thesis to be done. He is planning to take take a year gap to recover and may be finish his degree .

Is it possible for him ? Are there any provisions that restrict a person to take only certain number of semesters or that a person cannot take a year break or something of that sort ?


texts: What is a proper balance between reading research papers and reading books?

texts:
I am a student of electrical engineering and am currently involved in research. In order to remain active in research, I think we have to constantly keep reading the latest research papers.

However reading books is also very important. What is a good trade-off between reading books and papers? How many research papers should students be reading on a weekly basis? I will be thankful for any suggestions.


texts: Potential repercussions from overlapping university appointments?

texts:
Consider a situation in which a professor starts a position at one institution on the 1st of a month, and finishes their position at their previous institution of the 30th of that month.

What are the potential legal, conflict of interest, and professional issues? Would these be mitigated if the month is spent on leave? Are there other considerations?


texts: Seeking advice: Failed PhD due to academic + psychological reasons. Should I apply two years later?

texts:
Failed my PhD in Physics after 3 years in graduate school. I spent the whole first and a half year on foundation (courses and some learning projects) since I jumped in from a completely different field without any prerequisites. Then I spent another one and a half year on serious projects. I suffered in the second year due to the pressure from research and meanwhile, some personal issues which made me very very depressed. I failed a course (just could not work on anything at that period) and make unsatisfactory progress in research. And one can guess, failed qualifying exam. I left at the end of 3rd year without a terminal master, which is a large dent. If I apply immediately after quitting I will get rejected from all programs without problem. So, here is what I am thinking:

I still love research and would like to devote to R&D as my career.
I fully understand I am responsible for my failure and would like to deal with my issue.
I am fully recovered and actually learned a lot from this about managing emotion and deal with pressure.
I am planning to work in industry in related areas for a year or two or three, and during the time, keep looking for PhD openings. Taking exams, looking for research intern opportunities in my spare time. If lucky, I will go ahead and work towards a doctorate degree.

I have many concerns and therefore, need advices about this plan

does this sound doable in general? I've seen people doing phd in their 30s or even 40s, but I know these are not the normal cases.
What kind of job you would recommend if I want to go back to graduate school in near future? Or, what would be my best strategy?
How should I explain this part of my life to adcom when applying?
I enjoy doing research and would like to pursue a R&D career in industry. But, just trying to see the whole picture, is age a problem? If I choose to do this and succeed, I will be in my early 30s to start phd and ideally, mid 30s to start my career.

All advices are welcomed and many thanks!
P.S.
I do thought about my passion and whether it is physics after all these happened. tbh it was not a very wise decision I made 3 yrs ago. It turns out I am not very passionate about the research in this group either it was too difficult and I am not prepared, or I simply don't like it. But I do like some parts such the math tools, programming tools and HPC and I appreciate the experience I had in this group. I am considering about research in data science and healthcare/pharmaceutical domain, which would have more practical applications in industry and then more job opportunities than physics at least


texts: A potential PhD supervisor declined to accept me as a student; can I ask a second time?

texts: I found a relevant PhD supervisor who refused to supervise my PhD project by saying that he has no open position in his research group. Is it OK to mail him again and request to accept me as a student, because the work he is doing in his research group is extremely relevant for my research interests. I have received funding and just need space in a research group.


texts: Is writing a research paper on Overleaf risky for plagiarism?

texts: Is it safe to write research paper on Overleaf? Some of my friends say that it is not safe to write research papers on it as it is connected it internet. Please suggest. I am afraid of plagiarism.


texts:
I am a PhD applicant and I am preparing to send an introductory email to a potential supervisor.

I have two questions:

I am self-funded. Should I mention this in the initial email?
Is the following sentence grammatically correct?

  I would be delighted to undertake a research project under your supervision, kindly let me know if this might be a possibility; I have attached my CV and academic transcript for your consideration.


texts: What is the etiquette on presenting work-in-progress that's mostly literature review in a conference talk in the humanities?

texts:
Is it socially acceptable to present a conference paper which is not (yet) highly original research?

Being in the humanities, research requires much of literature reading rather than experimental or lab work. So, in a sense, it's inevitable that I need to take the existing literature as a starting point.

Personally, I consider journals to be the proper place to disseminate original research. As a starting PhD student I am trying to participate in workshops and conferences as much as possible.

Many times my presentations are work-in-progress and a personal synthesis of the vast amount of literature I have been processing. These presentations help me to make a "coherent story" of months of reading work. Making such a coherent story also helps me to orient my future research and accomplish intermediate research goals. Many times I submit an abstract to conferences to have some "external motivation" to finish some work before a certain deadline. Repeating this process, eventually, I am able to integrate these research goals to a higher plane where truly original research can be done.

Furthermore, I also consider conferences in a more broad sense. Rather than being a place to impress other people with your results, it's an opportunity to receive feedback and criticism. I also consider conferences as occasions where people with different backgrounds can meet each other, that is, meet each other qua human beings (not their research).

To formulate my story as a question: (a) How common is my vision of conferences? (b) Is it socially acceptable to present something which is derivative work-in-progress (and not yet revolutionary research?)


texts: How to write a proper subject line for a follow up email

texts:
I emailed a professor about a postdoc position three weeks ago. He replied me on Friday that week and showed his interest. I answered his question about partial funding in the new email but have not heard from him since then. It's been two weeks and I think it's time to send a followup email. I'm not sure how to write the subject line. Should I forward the previous email and write subject like this: Follow-up about postdoc position?
Thanks a lot. I'm a little nervous about the position and hope I can get it.


texts: How to write formally about skipping one year of highschool on CV

texts:
I’m writing a CV to apply to graduate schools right now. I’ve ran into problems translating some things in the CV.
How do I write the fact that I skipped one year of highschool formally? Should I just write -2016~2017: Highschool (skipped one year)? Or does this seem too informal?


texts: Ok to read my script in a 3-min presentation for a conference?

texts:
I have a 3-min presentation for a conference. I am an early researcher who has never done any presentation, so this will be my first.

Presentation is my weakness, and it is a challenge for me to give a smooth talk. I am feeling nervous.

Q: How common is to write out a script for a 3-min talk and just follow the papers?


texts: How to manage/avoid stress during manuscript writing?

texts: I have written few manuscripts so far and those have been published already (some ordinary peer-reviewed journals). However, I feel stressed so much when I write my new manuscript. How to manage/overcome this stress. I feel that other researchers also feel similar to me.


texts: Which is more important in academic promotion: getting funding, or its secondary effects?

texts:
Follow up question to How does research funding work in determining academic promotions? since it was too broad.

Take two equally talented researchers, Alice & Bob. Alice has acquired a large amount of funding, while Bob has not. How large is the effect of the grant itself compared to secondary effects in determining who gets promoted, such as the fact that Alice is likely to be more productive thanks to having the funding, for example due to being able to hire more postdocs and PhD students?

In other words, can Bob compensate for not having acquired the funding by working harder (writing just as many research papers, attracting self-funded PhD students, etc)?


texts: Letter of Recommendation for Business Analystics from Satisfied Client

texts:
I'm looking at MSBA programs in the United States and have the two recommended academic references lined, but should get a third reference slot open. Between my previous jobs I worked freelance and had a client for about 6 months who was very satisfied with my work, and even offered if I ever needed a reference or testimonial from them to reach out.

Question:

Would a reference like this be acceptable?
How would this option compare to a third academic reference?


texts: Do generous donations to U.S. universities influence STEM PhD admissions committees?

texts:
During the U.S. admissions process to PhD programs in the STEM fields, are the admissions committees typically notified by university administrators, if one of the applicant's family is a generous donor to the school?

If the answer is yes, does this cause PhD admissions committees to consider that candidate more favorably, assuming that he or she has the qualifications to be admitted?


texts: Returning to grad school after several years in industry, who to ask for references for NSF graduate fellowship?

texts:
I got a masters degree in computer science in 2012 and worked in Microsoft since then. I'm returning to get my PhD starting spring 2017.
I would like to apply for the NSF grad fellowship but having been out of school for so long and not being in school at the time of the application, I'm not sure who to ask for references. I have exchaged a lot of emails with my potential advisor on possible research directions and he will be reviewing my application but I'm not sure if that's enough for him to write me a letter.
For admission, I got letters from my former professors but I'm not sure if those will be strong enough.
I have a really strong research proposal. (At least thats what my potential advisor says)
Do I have a chance without strong reference letters?


texts: Academic job in country B, family in country A. Impact on work/life balance

texts:
I am applying for a job in academia in a different country than the one I live in with my family.

The job is in a very good institution, well paid compared to what I earn now. I am close to mid-career, and looking for a boost in opportunity and salary that I could not find close to here now.

We (spouse + 2 kids ~ 10yo) live in a country roughly 2-3 hours away (by plane) from the new job location. Their life is where we live now, the schools are good, etc etc, so they won't be moving with me if I take the job. I would have to commute every week or so.

S.O. and I discussed it and we think we can make it as a couple. The boost in responsibilities and salary are significant, but of course we have no experience of this (S.O. is not in academia).

What would be the impact of this change on our life as a family? How does it turn out most of the time?


texts: Will CS programs look favorably on an older applicant who already has a PhD?

texts: Let's say a recent math PhD in his early 30s realizes he's unlikely to land another postdoc after his current one ends, and he decides he really liked being a grad student and he really doesn't want to grow up and get a real job. He also really likes theoretical computer science and computational number theory.  Do you think computer science PhD programs would be weirded out by the fact that he already has a PhD, or would it be an asset, or neither?


texts: Is there an online engine like Google Scholar which allows me to sort the papers by citation count?

texts:
I could not find a way of sorting the list of relevant publications on Google Scholar on the number of citations. It would help a lot as I prefer to start reading well-cited references before moving onto less cited and more recent ones.
I am not looking to use a reference manager as I look for papers in diverse fields, many of which I do not go into depth.


texts: I received an acceptance letter. Before publication the EIC rejected!

texts:
March 2018: I submitted my paper in a Q2 journal. The Editor in Chief (EIC) approved for peer review. He sent it to Editor for Europe.
April 2018: I was asked by the Editor for Europe to re-submit it with changes.
May 2018: I re-submitted the paper. The EIC approved for review. The Editor for Europe sent out for peer review.
September 2018: I received a positive feedback by the reviewers. The Editor for Europe asked me for minor changes.
Early October 2018: I submitted a revised manuscript.
Mid-October 2018: I received an acceptance letter by the EIC and a congrats email by the Editor for Europe asking me to wait for the proof to check before publication.
End of October: I received a new reject letter by the EIC!

I asked for clarification. The EIC said that my response rate was low. He did not even apologize for the frustration they caused me for a long 8-month process and an amateur treatment. Nevertheless, I re-submitted the paper correcting a number that dropped the response rate; as he suggested. I received another reject letter.

My final response to the EIC: "I can accept nothing less than proceeding to the publication of my paper as it was accepted by you (reviewed by the Editor for Europe and by two reviewers); " The acceptance letter was attached with my letter. I am now waiting for his response within 48 hours" although I am not waiting for any change in his decision.

My questions:

Did this happen to anyone of you? If yes, what was the final outcome?
Is there a legal path to ask for my right to publish my paper?

I also worry for my data; it took me 6 months to finalize emails with repondents' list.


texts: Feeling like stuck in a wrong field of study due to inept technical background. Seeking advice on how to sustain in academia and research?

texts:
I completed my PhD from North America recently in a particular subfield in mechanical engineering. Though, I have published 3 decent publications and got a postdoctoral position afterwards, I am feeling lost about my ability to contribute well in my field of research.

The reason being that my research area is interdisciplinary and researchers from different fields like physics, computer science, electrical engineering, materials science, mechanical engineering, civil engineering work in this "hot" area. My background is materials science.

Mathematical expertise ( mainly Calculus), programming proficiency (python) and knowledge of statistical methods (for deep learning applications) is a huge advantage in my field, which I lack due to my poor mathematical background. My undergraduate mathematics grades were all B- and C. Didn't take any grad level mathematics courses.

I am self learning all the advanced concepts and relearning the fundamentals, but I feel that I will always be at disadvantage from my more fundamentally sound counterparts.

I am 30 now, want to give my best shot at academia for the next 3 years. I feel like I am stuck in a wrong field because of my poor fundamentals and knowledge. Any advice on thriving in such a scenario? I enjoy my research field, but being less technically sound makes me question my place.


texts: How successful would one be in switching fields from PhD in computational biology/neuroscience to postdoc in computer science?

texts:
How successful would someone be who completed his PhD in something such as computational biology or neuroscience but wanted to pursue post-doctoral training and beyond in computer science?

I say computer science because, presumably, dissertation work in computational X involves programming and a working knowledge of data structures and algorithms.


texts:
Why is a professorship sometimes called a chair? Are chairs only the correct term when the professorship has been endowed? (I don't think so, because endowed professorships are rare in the UK, but people still speak about chairs).

What's the origin and correct usage of the term?

Edit: Thanks for the responses, I would like to slightly expand on the 'usage' part of the question by asking whether every professor at every university could correctly be said to hold a chair? If it varies, what determines who has a chair and who is just a professor? Perhaps the term is more common in the US because the term professor is used more widely than in the UK, for relatively junior faculty (who would be called lecturers in the UK).


texts: In a paragraph about a paper, where do I put the citation?

texts:
I have a paragraph about a specific method used by an author and I am wondering where in that paragraph I should put my inline citation.

The paragraph in question goes something like this, where steps to complete the method is several sentences summarizing the paper.

  The Harman method was devised by T. C. Harman ....
  steps to complete the method ....
  Harman showed that ZT could be computed from eq. (2.1)

Where should I put the citation?  I see three options:

at the beginning (right after the name)
at the end of the first sentence
at the end of the paragraph

Or some combination of the three options above. I am using IEEE citation format.


texts: Recommendation letters: how old can experiences be, and what happens if you don't have particular recommenders for the field

texts:
I'm applying to a Master's program in Cognitive Science in Education. My undergrad was in Business, Computer Science, and Chinese, and my career has been in business and software engineering. I've always had an interest in applying tech skills to improve the educational landscape. I have a few questions on recommendation letters:

Some of my top choices for recommenders were from job and/or volunteer experiences from 5-6 years ago. While they'd obviously write current letters, the experiences they'd be referencing may seem somewhat old. Q: How far back can you go when asking someone to describe their experience with you?

I'm applying for this particular Master's because I've been building a video game to teach foreign languages as a side project, but feel I need a deeper understanding of the way students think and learn to successfully lead the project. That being said, I don't have any formal training or experience in Cognitive Science. Q: the only people I'd have to write recommendation letters are from my job experiences in tech and volunteer experience as a teacher, but none to write specifically about why I'd succeed in Cog Sci. Is this okay?


texts: Two different papers with the same title, how to split them up in Google Scholar

texts:
A friend of mine ended up in a weird situation that they're looking for advice about: they published two different papers under identical titles. Google Scholar lists both papers with the same number of citations, and with the citations listed being the combined list for both papers.

What should they do? One solution might be to change slightly one the titles. They might do this by adding "a review" at the end of one of the papers, as it is a review paper. Are there better ideas?


texts: Applying for industry job after accepting postdoc offer

texts:
It is clear that once one accepts an academic job, it is just not right to continue interviewing for the same type of academic job.

However I (and most others on both sides, I would imagine) think it is perfectly reasonable to continue applying and interviewing for permanent faculty jobs after accepting, say, a postdoc offer. Call this situation A.

However it is much less clear to me how the situation can be viewed from the new employers' perspective if after accepting an academic job --- whether postdoc or faculty --- the future employee applies for a (dream) industry job that just opened up. Call this situation B.

I fail to see how situation A is fundamentally different from situation B, unless I miss something.


texts: How to anonymize self-citation of source code repository in IEEE double blind peer review?

texts:
I am  going to submit a paper IEEE Communications letters.

In the paper, I cited my source code repository to provide an open access:

  ... For more detail, please refer [1] ...

  Reference

  My real name, My project name "https://my-source-code-repository", Accessed: 2016-02-17.

However, IEEE Communicaitons Letters is doing double blind peer review and information about authors should be blinded. In this situation, how could I make it blinded?

Anonymize project name
Anonymize repository URL

Reviews might not able to validate the work

Anonymize project committer
Anonymize everything


texts: How to give feedback to students after bad grades

texts: I realize that I have some difficulty giving feedback to students when they have expected to have a good grade and/or they have invested a lot of time. My impression is that there is a trade-off between clearly pointing out the weaknesses of the students' paper and, on the other hand, motivating them to continue and making it clear that such feedback is part of the normal learning process. How can oral feedback be structured to ensure that both are possible?


texts: Three given names, the second being my calling name: what to put on paper?

texts:
I have three given names, say Adam John Isaac. Furthermore I have one family name, say Harris. (The names are not my own, but the initials are.) On this website, I read that I can freely choose which names to put on a paper.

My first given name is not the name that I'm actually known as. Therefore, it feels a bit strange to put Adam J.I. Harris on a paper.

In other papers, I often see people placing initials between their (first) given name and family name. So far I have never seen initials before the first given name, like A. John I. Harris. This looks strange, in my opinion, both because an initial before the given name is uncommon, and it might be read as the word 'a' instead of the initial 'A.'.

Now I've been thinking of using John A.I. Harris on the paper. This way all my names/initials are there, and it looks less strange. Furthermore it's kind of funny, as I'm an AI student.

Another option would be to just stick with my calling name and family name: John Harris.

Do you have any thoughts on this? Can the initials A.I. be seen as some (stupid) joke, so could I better leave them out? Or doesn't it really matter at all, and should I just pick an option?


texts: How would you ask your professor to be your supervisor?

texts: I am currently a graduate student. I've completed all the exams and I am currently looking for a supervisor for my master's dissertation. Few months ago I surveyed the professor I would like to have as my supervisor. However, he told me that probably he would have not been able to be my supervisor if I decided to graduate in July 2020 (as I intend to do), because he will probably be out of the country on the anticipated graduation date. He said that it is a moral duty for a supervisor to be there on the graduation date. Now, I really enjoyed his lectures, I consider him the best professor I have ever had and I think he is really skilled on the topic I am planning to discuss. Accordingly I would be willing to accept the risk that he will not be able to be there on the graduation date. How could I ask him to be my supervisor?


texts: I've received a CV that includes a certificate on a "DVV/ICC Stage-One Test for the Certification in English". I don't know this test. What is equivalent, e.g. w.r. to the European Framework (A1-C2) or TOEFL score?


texts: Can I ask a postdoc who has closely supervised my research to write me a letter of recommendation?

texts: When I apply to a PhD program, may I ask a postdoc who closely supervised me to write a recommendation letter? My supervisor also has written one for me, but I believe the postdoc can comment on my research skills in a more detailed and precise way. Does a postdoc have enough authority to convince admission committee?


texts:
I'm wondering to what extent money is a factor in phd admissions?  For example, does an admissions committee limit the number of students admitted in a year depending on how much the department can afford that year? and approximately what percentage of the departments funds go to graduate funding(I am asking mostly in regards to US universities that rank in the top 20 for math.)?

And also, are qualified students who are less expensive more likely to get admitted because it wont cost the department much, if anything at all, since at many institutions certain groups receive their funding from the central administration rather than the department(such as women and minorities)?

Below is a source where the writer says

  Even as faculty members on committees expressed philosophical commitment to diversity, Posselt observed financial motivations at play. Some universities offer extra funds for minority graduate students, so that a fellowship might be paid for from general university funds and not departmental funds. Where such incentives exist, they appear to have a strong impact, Posselt writes.

and in What do admission committees look for in a diversity essay?, Paul Garrett says:

  being a woman in a STEM field (Science, Tech, Engineering, Math), or of ethnic origin other than northwestern European . . . opens certain money-pots to both the department and to the individual.


texts: Is it acceptable for an undergraduate researcher to ask to work on a project that will yield publishable results?

texts:
I am currently a summer student working on a project suggested by my supervisor. While the project will not directly result in any publication, it will open up avenues for further research for the group. I have completed the main objective for the project ahead of schedule.

When I originally started working with my supervisor, I expressed that two of my goals for the summer were to (1) contribute to the group in a meaningful way and (2) the possibility of publication. I feel that (1) will be satisfied by my current work, but (2) will not. I have one more month left on my research term.

I originally agreed to my supervisor's project suggestion on faith; I didn't understand the scope or scale of the other possibilities and I trusted that it would satisfy both of our goals.

Would it be too forward of me to ask to contribute to something that will result in publication (considering that I am an undergraduate and given that there is only one month left)? I would like to work on a publishable result, but I also don't want to mooch off of the hard work of my group members.


texts:
I am a PhD student works in computational theory. I have been doing coursework for nearly three years and right now I am starting to reading research papers. I am making progress very slowly, taking about two to three months to read a paper:  even after reading it, I have questions. I have to actually verify every and each sentence of the paper which requires mathematical knowledge, and I have done enough mathematics coursework. I am getting feedback that I am reading too slowly. I have tried to work hard as much as possible, but it is not giving much results. Although there were many times in the past in which I am able to complete the incomplete proofs given in research paper. Struggle basically means completing the incomplete claims or theorems of the research paper.

Question :  Is it okay to struggle with the content of research paper you are reading? and Is it going to improve with time? How to be efficient in this situation?

What seems to me little troubling here is I am in a surveying phase (reading research papers), then I will move to publication phase. So first I have read the paper then only I can work on them. I don't How much time other PhD students take to read a research paper. If I am taking 2-3 months for just one paper, is it okay?


texts: Advisor threatens to discontinue fellowship. What should I do?

texts:
This July I will be in the fifth year of my PhD. I am doing my PhD from India in bioinformatics. Within my four years, one year was for coursework, so that I did not get to delve deep into research in that time. In our institute, every year we have an annual evaluation, where it is decided whether a student’s fellowship will be extended for the next year or not. Today, my advisor expressed to me that he is not happy with my work.

My current work status:

one published review article,
one article has been rejected four times in peer-review. Most of the times, the decision was based on technical issues raised by the only peer reviewer. I try to incorporate all the reviewers’ comments as much as possible.
Not much of language related issues by reviewers.
two articles are ready for their first submission to journals (my advisor still not happy with grammar),
another article is in preparation.

I think the amount of work is pretty good to get an extension. When I asked him why he is unhappy, he said he had no question regarding the volume of work but my grammar mistakes are too much (I did tell him that I make my paper go through Grammarly (free version) and Microsoft word and also my husband who himself is a PhD). He also said that my papers are not getting accepted; hence he isn’t happy. Each draft that I write goes through about twenty times of checking by my advisor, yet they are getting rejected.
I am not getting any technical help from my advisor so I have to depend on the reviewers’ comments for this.

My point is: The work is in my hand but not paper acceptance right? It’s no one’s fault that paper isn’t getting accepted, right?

These uncertainties of probable fellowship discontinuation are stressing me out. I do not know what to do. Sometimes it feels like I will give up. Can somebody please tell me how to make my professor understand that paper acceptance is not in my hand and that he is increasing stress in my life which is doing me no good? How do I make him understand that grammar mistakes and papers not getting accepted are either too trivial an issue or out of my control (respectively), so that he does not discontinue my fellowship?  Can someone point out to me where my mistake is?

What I have understood is that he wants me to work till 2021. My institute will allow me to submit my PhD before 2021 and not beyond that. But he wants to stop my fellowship. It's like working without pay. He wants me to work without fellowship. He is not saying he doesn't want me as a PhD student.

Also, my institute does not have the privilege of having a writing center or having someone who checks English before publishing. We do all of this alone. Indian universities mostly doesn't have these priviledges. And mine isn't even a university, it's a research institute.

Now many of you may be thinking I am not working hard enough. I try to dedicate as much time possible to my research.


texts: How can I relate my undergrad works to professors research areas?

texts:
Recently, a professor answered my email for a graduate position. He asked me to tell him to what extent I am aware of his research. I have a background research experience in his research area, I can understand his papers generally but I can't talk about them in detail. Since he asked me to answer this question in detail, please help me to how can I talk about his research area?

Moreover, he asked me to tell him about a specific direction that interests me for my future studies and the way I can make a contribution to his research.
Answering this question is hard for me because I don't know how to define a specific direction that doesn't make me limited and lose the opportunity of working with him.

Please help me if you have any ideas.
Thanks in advance.


texts: Why do some universities refuse to issue duplicate diplomas?

texts:
Many universities have a policy of not issuing a duplicate diploma for a degree, unless your original copy is incorrect, damaged, or lost.

One example:

  University Policy forbids the issuance of multiple copies of a diploma. Each diploma is considered a one-of-a-kind legal document.
  http://www.queensu.ca/registrar/diploma-replacements

Another example:

  Replacement Graduation Diploma

  A graduation diploma will be replaced in the following cases:

  When a diploma has been lost or damaged.
  When the name of the holder has been changed under the regulations for the change of name process as per University records.

  Return of the original diploma with the request is required if the reason for replacement is due to damage or an official name change.
  In cases of lost or destroyed diplomas, the holder must submit a Statutory Declaration (form available below) to the University Registrar and have it signed and sealed by a Notary Public*, legally swearing that the original diploma has been lost or destroyed. The condition of the reissuance of a diploma in cases of loss or destruction is that if the original should be found at any time, the replacement diploma must be returned to the Registrar’s Office at Carleton University for cancellation.

  http://carleton.ca/registrar/academic-evaluation/replacement-diploma/

The most explicit example:

  Stanford University will not issue duplicate diplomas under any circumstances. This measure is taken to protect Alumni from identity theft. If your diploma was permanently lost or destroyed, a replacement diploma may be ordered from the Office of the University Registrar. You must fill out the Replacement Diploma Form, have it signed by a Notary Public ...

  (PDF) The Stanford diploma is a unique document; neither copies nor duplicates are available.
  https://registrar.stanford.edu/students/diplomas/replacement-diplomas

But then, there are other universities that have no, such, restrictions on duplicate diplomas.

The inconsistent policies between universities seem to suggest that some see it as a problem and some do not. Why would duplicate diplomas be a problem in practice?

My speculation, with no evidence provided:

Giving a duplicate diploma to another person who coincidentally has the same name as you?
This rule was born in an era before telecommunications and online services? You physically carried and showed your diploma to prospective employers and academic admissions officers?


texts: Reapply to a postdoc position that I rejected before?

texts:
In my field (math), usually one needs to do more than one post doc.
I'm in the middle of one right now and to get to this position I had to reject another offer.
I'll be at the position of applying for jobs again (most likely another post doc) and I'd like to apply to the one that I was given an offer before. However, the last time around, I had to ask the potential host for a letter and I feel a bit bad for not going there. Of course, this time round, I think there may be possibilities that they don't want me at all.
Are there some cautionary tales/wisdom that can be shared regarding situations like this? Am I over thinking?


texts: Is citing data from a presentation not trustful?

texts:
There is this investment bank specialized in the mining sector. I had access to one of their presentations where they have data regarding the production and end use of some chemical elements. They do not cite the data.

Do you think that is good or bad, trustful or not, to cite these data in my PhD thesis?


texts: Negotiating with journal publishers about intellectual property of the paper?

texts:
One of my colleagues told me authors after acceptance can negotiate about the intellectual property (IP) rights. It is frustrating to wait for peer review long times, and after acceptance publisher asks you to agree with his copyright without any modification.

I am keen to know when is the best time to negotiate my IP rights? Can I write to the publisher when the paper is under review (or even before submission)?


texts: What kind of knowledge is required to do a PhD?

texts:
I am currently in an engineer school specialized in Computer Science, and I will be done with it in a little less than 2 years. I spent a lot of time on some advice websites and this stackexchange regarding PhD for the future, as I would like to do some research (based on a internship I did before), and later on join the academic world (or at least the teaching world).

The big issue I am facing is choosing a laboratory that I would like to join. The first thing that came to mind was of course Computer Science related, but the real question is : What kind of PhD can I join ?

What kind of knowledge is required before engaging in a PhD ? Could I join a bioinformatics laboratory and do a thesis on a specific protein because I have some general knowledge on how proteins work and use my computer science knowledge only as a tool, or does my thesis have to be computer science related as it is my main field ?

As for context, the main reason I am searching for another field than Computer Science is because I did not find yet a subject I am passionate about in this field. I have a lot of knowledge in a lot of different topics that I can apply at work, but none of them is something I would consider researching on.

On the other end, I am very passionate about different topics that I would love to contribute on and where computer science would be useful as a tool.


texts: Can I put the editor in the Acknowledgements?

texts:
I am currently having an exceptionally good and fair editorial process with a paper.

One of the two reviewers suggested a rejection (still providing many suggestions for improving the manuscript).

The editor was able to understand that many issues raised by the reviewer were because of how the paper was written instead of the actual research design and the results of the study. Additionally, the editor was also able to understand that the study is multidisciplinary and that some issues were born on the side of the non-familiar discipline for us (both the editor and the reviewers are expert in this discipline). These issues were not severe but quite a few.

Instead of rejecting the article, the editor requested major revisions and actually provided substantial suggestions for improving the manuscript. Exactly how the reviewers did.

I revised the manuscript and acknowledged the "help of two anonymous reviewers". However, this time I truly feel that I should thank the editor, as well. I have never seen this in a paper. Is there a reason for that? Can I acknowledge the editor in my paper?


texts: Chances of research position in mathematics without going to a top graduate school?

texts:
I'm a student at a reasonably prestigious, but not top, graduate program in mathematics. I'm happy here- I really like the professors in my research group, and I feel like I'm a pretty good fit for the program. I have a fantastic supervisor, and many of the other professors in the department like and respect me.

But sometimes, I really worry about my future in academia. I feel like I'm doing pretty well compared to my peers, but I'm just afraid that given the job situation I'm not going to be able to get a good postdoc, and ultimately not a good research position, because I'm not at a top program. Given that the people in my research group are well-regarded and a great fit for me, how much will the fact that I'm not at a top program affect my chances of getting a good postdoc in the future?


texts: How are research assistantships for international graduate students funded in the US?

texts:
I was recently talking to a professor at a top university seeking advice for graduate school applications. The professor happened to mention that departments in the US have funding concerns when it comes to international students because they aren't eligible for government funding from agencies such as NIH or NSF. Moreover, admissions decisions are made based on whether there is funding available to support the student for atleast 5 years. I had a couple of questions on how exactly this works.

Can international students be paid through NIH/NSF grants (as research assistants) that are awarded to the PI or does a lab use funding from industrial sponsors or other endowments to fund them?
I was under the impression that theses government grants are usually good for a shorter duration (2-3 years). How can the department be certain of further funds at the time of admitting a candidate?

PS: The title of the question might be similar to some other questions but I am interested in understanding the broader mechanism of how this works instead of specific agencies that fund international students.