texts: Paper for software tool - Medical Domain

texts:
This is really related to this question (Creating paper on software tool).

But there was this comment there which asked for more details about the software's domain.

I created (still in beta stage) a software for Brain Tumor, but I would like to publish (if possible) about the software itself and not so much on the validation of it. (This would be eventually a later paper).

What's is the best approach for publishing about this software "proposal" for usage in medical clinics?

My concern is that while it's being tested. It wasn't tested enough for a full paper, but I still want to publish it.


texts: Is there any chance for a person with BSc in mathematics to get into good graduate level theoretical physics program?

texts:
I am a mathematics major without any undergraduate level courses in physics. I am lately interested in physics. Is there any chance for me to go into good theoretical physics graduate program without any background in physics?

I am not sure if this kind of question is acceptable here, though.

ADDED My concern is do Universities even accept students with math majors into physics department without physics courses?


texts: Should I email my professor to clear up a (possibly very irrelevant) awkward misunderstanding?

texts:
I’m doing my master’s and I recently had an exam with one of my favorite professors.
I spent a lot of time on my paper and got the highest grade and I’m very happy. But during the oral part of my exam, when I was supposed to defend my paper, the professor pointed out I haven’t referenced much literature he mentioned in class and asked if I found anything of the reading material he gave us interesting. I was very tired and nervous and sort of ignored the question/moved on to another subject. I later sort of indirectly asked him to be my thesis advisor because I’d like to do my thesis on a similar topic to the one I did my term paper for his class on, and he said another professor would be better suited (I don’t think that’s necessarily true).

The truth is I reaaally enjoyed all of his classes and found absolutely everything interesting and I really wanted him to be my advisor, but I think he got the wrong idea. Would it be crazy to email him and say I feel weird about the way I dodged his question and explain the situation? I feel like I gave the wrong impression, and that might be why he rejected me. On the other hand, I don’t want to look like a complete weirdo for still thinking about this (it’s been three days), and I think he might have went on vacation and I don’t want to bother him with this because it might all be in my head. What’s the right thing to do?

TL;DR: A professor I really like said he wouldn’t be my thesis advisor, and I think it might be because I didn’t answer his question when he asked if I found his class interesting. But I very much do. Should I email him about it?


texts: Are there hacks or smaller scientific search engines offering you context-sensitive/semantic search?

texts:
The many upvots on Gerrit's answer show how the majority of researches currently does search, filter, read scientific journals and books, as the best way, a context-sensitive search(X Algorithm near to Y algorithm near to Z database) is not available in scientific search engines to my knowledge? A lot of time has to be wasted for filtering out uninteresting content.

An google WEB search example would be:

etching AROUND(4) redeposition

Search hits will only show sites where etching is separated from redeposition by not more than 4 other words between those two. While many research papers often contain many keywords in intro and abstract of a paper (for retelling recent history in a field), which makes finding papers in a special context impossible (measuring effect X with method Y on material Z), in principle the AROUND(x) operator gives you this power back.

The problem is, google SCHOLAR hasn't implemented the AROUND operator, therefore I currently use it sometimes in google WEB search when searching papers (unfortunately only titles and abstracts are indexed by Google, but main body content isn't searchable) in a very specific context.

I'm really wondering if there are secret hacks for free (google scholar, scirus...) and commercial (ISI, scopus) search engines giving you the power of context-sensitive search, as it would make a lot of reading, searching, filtering, rating, sharing unnecessary.

My current way to solve this is downloading many highly-cited papers (withoud reading) as gerrit's answer shows and indexing it with my own desktop search engine (Copernic desktop search software) which has a similar operator. It really ticks me off, that a search technology that is available for years is not brought to the place where it would be most useful?! Maybe we should similar to thecostofknowledge just start to build our own search engines? There are some business reasons (traffic, downloads,..) that make the non-implementation of this operator in commercial search engines very reasonable to me...

So, am I missing some secret hacks or search engines that are near to context-sensitive/semantic search?


texts: Is it okay to address "Prof. X" as "Mr. X"?

texts:
I am from the Netherlands.

I have seen quite a few threads which address the question of whether or not it is acceptable to address a professor by their first name. However, none of them seem to address the point of whether it is still permissible to refer to them as Mr/Mrs X?

For example, if you know that someone's full title is "Prof. Dr. X" is it acceptable to write them an email starting with "Dear Mr/Mrs X"?


texts: My mum was recently diagnosed with cancer. Should I tell my supervisor?

texts:
Yesterday, my mum was recently diagnosed with cancer. However, we have yet to know what stage is her cancer and whether the cancer can still be removed from her body or it has metastasized to other parts of organs. This is a major health concern and it will of course affect my health and mental being for the next several years.

I am a PhD student and I thankfully successfully submitted my thesis a few months ago. So far, I have yet to receive the news regarding my viva. Given the history of my university and accounts from other students' experiences, my department is very tardy in processing viva examinations. It can take up to six months for students to finally undergo the viva and then a few months for correction afterwards. Now I have to worry and be stressful for two things: my mum's health condition and my viva.

I want to e-mail my supervisor about the possibility of speeding up my viva process. I have been well prepared for my viva for a month. I have re-read my thesis multiple times and re-read the journals that I cited. I really hope that my department can speed up my viva so I can move on with my life (getting a good job, taking care of my mum, etc.). Delaying my viva will certainly damage my well-being. However, I don't know whether emailing my supervisor will undermine my professionalism (the art of separating personal and work).

I am in my 20s with no experience of experiencing sudden loss of my loved ones and this news will definitely affect me in the immediate future. And I don't write this post to look for sympathy or anything. This news will certainly make me appreciate life and moments that we have now.

Should I e-mail my supervisor to state my current condition and hopefully she could do something regarding my PhD limbo?

EDIT: I do have a very good relationship with my supervisor. However, I don't want to come across as someone who tries to milk this tragedy for my own gain. Therefore, I am juggling the decision whether it will be fine or not to tell my supervisor and at the same time to request viva speed up.


texts: How many US institutions use letter-grades without + or - indications for GPA?

texts:
I'm currently reviewing graduate applications and had discussions with friends at Carnegie Mellon University. There, undergrad grades are assigned as A, B, C, with no + or - designations. Thus, a student who might get an "A-" (3.67 towards GPA) would always be rounded up to an "A" (4.0) and these friends said that "B+" (3.33) would almost always secure an "A" as well.

In this grading scheme, there's a huge range of performance that might earn a 4.0 GPA. A student performing B+ / A- work (e.g., 3.5 GPA at my school) would be rounded up to a 4.0. That makes a big difference when I compare to other schools that use the traditional A-/B+ US grading scheme.

As far as I know, this is a rare grading scheme - but I'm curious if there are other US institutions that use this scheme?

Source: CMU University Grading Standards


texts: Good ways to get teaching experience in non-teaching position

texts:
I am a PhD student working full time at a research institute (Drittmittelstelle) in Germany. This is a pure research, non-teaching position. I did both my master and bachelor at a Fachhochschule (FH) (University of applied sciences) and I am contemplating trying to get a position as a professor at a Fachhochschule following my PhD.
The issue is, that to apply for a professor position you need to have teaching experience, which I don't get through my current position. Because everything else is perfect, I would not want to change to another PhD position (with teaching responsibilities). So my question is: what are good ways to get teaching experience (in Germany) that will have relevance for a later FH professorship without having to change to a teaching position? My group leaders want to support me in this, and would allow me to make time for teaching alongside my regular PhD and project work (and maybe lighten my regular work lot a bit), as long as I still get those done.
I did single lectures and smaller workshops before -- but I doubt that would count as enough of a teaching experience for an application. I also have inquired at my old alma mater, but as long as they have all teaching requirements covered by existing staff, they don't really want to or can't hire an outside person (me) to lecture.


texts: My mentor during my master's degree was a PhD student. Does this lower my chances to get a PhD position in good universities?

texts:
My master's mentor was a PhD student in my university.

I had an interview in a Dutch University for a PhD position, and the committee made me feel weird about my former mentor being a PhD student. Although the University and my supervisor have said it was okay, I am still a bit worried about my chances.

Does having a PhD student as a mentor lower my chances?


texts: What should one look for in a statement of purpose (from the admissions side) in mathematics?

texts:
I'm a youngish (recently tenured) faculty member at a reasonably, but not extremely prestigious university in the mathematics department.  While I've looked at some graduate admissions files, this is the first year I have been on the actual committee and thus been responsible for reading many files.  I feel like most aspects of the application (CV, transcripts, test scores, letters of rec) I understand reasonably well, but all statements of purpose read like meaningless gobbledygook, and I tend to completely ignore them unless there's some aspect of the student's file I'm confused about and hope to find an explanation for (and of course, I often don't).

I've seen a lot of questions on this site about how to write statements of purpose, but not much about how to read them on the other end.

  Is it normal/reasonable to essentially ignore the content of SoP unless you are looking for specific information on something unusual in the student's application?  What other things should a reviewer look for as positive or negative signs?

I've asked about mathematics in the United States since that's my field, and I want to avoid stupid replies like "But how can you know what lab they want to work in!" but obviously, I am interested in thoughts from people in other disciplines.


texts:
I am using different programming books for extracting problems to be applied to a group of students for practices and exams. I would like to know if its necessary to put from where I took the exercises. I always reference the material in my lectures, but in exams is this necessary?

Thanks


texts: Should I include my latest job on my CV?

texts:
I just graduated this April from undergrad and I'm now applying to graduate programs that start September 2019. I'm taking a gap year between undergrad and grad school for various reasons, mostly to travel.

From the past May to August (right after I graduated), I worked in a research lab in exactly the field I'm applying to for grad school (computer hardware). I got a strong letter of recommendation out of it and it made my CV significantly stronger.

From next January to next September I'm going to be travelling. However, I was a bit short on travel funding so I accepted a software development position at a consulting firm this past September that I'm going to quit in December right before I head out. However, after I accepted the job, I soon found out that they only hired me because for various complicated legal reasons, they don't actually have any work for me. So the past 2.5 months, I've just sat at home doing nothing, it's been a paid vacation. Starting Monday, this company finally wants me to start coming in to do some work - however the work is Front End Web development, it doesn't have much to do with the field I'm applying to (computer architecture/hardware).

When I submit my applications to grad school, I'm debating whether or not I should include this latest job on my CV. I was hoping to get some advice on this. Here are my thoughts:

Advantages

I'm taking a gap year, so I'm sure many profs will be concerned about me being away from my field for so long. If my CV says I was working between September to December, it looks I'm only "away" for 8 months instead of 12 (yes, it's a mostly unrelated field, but I'm still working in a computer related field and applying soft engineering skills). It'll make the gap look smaller.

Disadvantages

I haven't done anything for the job yet, and I probably won't do too much in the next 1.5 months either. I won't have much to write about other than my title, and maybe a few vague description points.
My most recent work experience on my CV will now be this joke of a job instead of my research experience over summer. It'll be the first thing the admission committee/prof sees under work experience on my CV, so I'm concerned it won't have as "strong" of a first impression, despite my summer research being right under.

I was hoping I could get some advice, thanks.


texts: If my research is applying methods from field X to field Y, should I do my PhD in field X or field Y?

texts: Let's say I'm a PhD student in a field, let's call it X, and my research is all based on taking the methods developed in field X and applying them to some other fields, let's call them Y, Z, and W. Let's further suppose that I do not make any contributions to the theory of X, I only apply it to Y, Z, and W. Is X the proper fit for me, or should I really pick my favorite of Y, Z, and W?


texts: Non-English language papers submitted to REF for evaluation?

texts: So this is a little U.K. specific - I'm just curious whether any of you have seen or heard about such submissions. Now I'm completely aware that in many disciplines this seems unlikely, but how about in the fields of Arts & Humanities? What was the value of such submissions, if any?


texts: Is rejection the default decision for international applicants to PhD programs in the US?

texts:
I am applying to PhD programs in the US.

I am wondering if there is a default decision imposed on international applicants. This question may sound ridiculous, but, I still ask here because I have seen someone (a claimed PhD student who has been involved in graduate admission, for now I cannot recall clearly the website) on the internet said that every international applicant is assumed rejected.

What goes on in the admission committee members' heads? Specifically, is it true for international applicants that the committee member picks up an application, and says "Unless I find something good in this application I'll reject it"? (This paragraph is quoted and adapted from Willie Wong's comment below.)


texts: Shall I apply again after all my PhD applications are rejected?

texts:
I am 29. I've had informative, goal-driven, well written SOP, I'm guessing good recommendations. I have a masters in the related field (Computer Vision) with tier 2 publications. I'm in a research engineer job which can not add publications to my profile. I have been rejected by 13 US universities (all not Stanford, Berkeley). I had contacted the professors. Many did not respond though.

How do I ask for recommendations again if I try next year?
What can I add to my profile in this scenario?
Are younger students preferred?
Will there be sufficient opportunity if I complete my PhD after 35?


texts: Would a Russian specialist degree (diploma in dentistry) qualify me a for a master's program in Europe?

texts: I have a specialist degree (specialist diploma in dentistry) from a Russian institution. Would I be eligible for a European (e.g., German) master's program in economics? If so, how do I use the Bologna framework to convert my degree into its European counterpart?


texts: What limits the number of PhD students in universities with and without PhD tution fee?

texts:
Universities normally (as far as I know) do not limit the number of PhD students a research-active professor can have as long as he secure the funding for his PhD students. For example, if a professor have enough research fund can get 10 PhD students (instead of research associates) and pay them directly. Then, they pay their tution fees, and university/department can increase its capacty for PhD enrolment.

In fact, the university/department can increase its capacity as long as they are paying students, but I don't understand how this scheme works when PhD study is free (in some European countries).

In the latter case, the professor provide research funding for the PhD projects and their wages, but the university should invest for courseworks (pay more teachers for these unexpected students).

What limits the number of PhD students in universities without PhD tution fee?

And when there is normal tution fee, isn't there any limitation for the number of PhD students as long as there are good candidates?

EXAMPLE: A department arranges the admission of 10 PhD students (assigned appropriate professor for the courses). Now, a professor fund 10 more PhD students for himself. Now, the department head should plan new classes/courses (this needs budget). He may need more resources, which is normally approved by the Dean.

I understand that more PhD students fuels the engines of an academic unit, but the department head is not bothered with overload of PhD coursework. In other words, does the department head encourage professor to get more funded PhD students, and saying "don't worry, I will take care of coursework"?


texts: Where to send my research work for evaluation?

texts:
I have been doing some research (not connected to any university) on my own and written articles on different theories and models and hypotheses of management based on the application on maritime fiels. Some of the articles are only few pages and some are incomplete and I am still adding to them. These are my own work in the field but this is research-oriented and relates to the existing knowledge (not new knowledge) on the research topic that I have selected but it is totally my view. It may not contribute new knowledge beyond what’s currently available.

Now my question is: How do I know what is the value of my write-ups. Do my articles really mean anything? Who can tell? Where to send them to get an idea of these papers’ worth?


texts: Why are [some] professors ambiguous about material that is actually tested on exams?

texts:
I've noticed a majority of professors that I have had will tell students something along the lines of, the exam covers Chapters 1, 2, 3, or the exam covers topics X, Y, Z. Sometimes this is ends up being so broad that it is unlikely that students will even see all the material that is fair game on the exam. It also likely ends up with some material being more prominent than other material which means playing the guessing game.

Why are professors hesitant to tell students more precisely what they expect them to know?

I do realize that not all (perhaps even most?) professors have not written the exam at the point of informing students what is covered. However, given that undergraduate course material is fairly static, would not the professor be expecting the students to have the same knowledge as the previous students?


texts:
I am writing a computer science paper, and as part of what I did, I have a set of tests I used to evaluate my results against existing methods.
In terms of preliminary raw data, I have tables of hundreds of values of which I then take statistical parameters (e.g. mean and standard deviation).
From a scientific perspective I feel I should include the actual results that I got, such that if I forget something in my writeup, e.g. the mode, other researchers can look at my data and corroborate or criticize my results. Basically it seems good form to have all the data in the paper.
But if I do include the raw results I will get a good couple of pages that are nothing but numbers on a table. Which seems bloated for an article and I suspect reviewers won't like it I am not sure how I should handle this.


texts: How to avoid supervisors with prejudiced views?

texts:
There seem to be professors who hold beliefs such as:

Women students pose a special risk to male supervisors
Certain ethnic groups are smarter/lazier/harder-working than others
Older students are worse investments than younger students
Students with disabilities are less capable/more trouble than nondisabled students

No student should be saddled with negative prejudices from their supervisor. But how can this be prevented?

The big problem is that bigots are often hard to identify early on. They think of themselves as just being honest and realistic. Asking their current students might not help, because if they don't belong to a marginalized group, they will often only notice other characteristics, such as that the supervisor is nice and explains things well. Unfortunately, it's possible to be a very nice guy and also a horrible bigot.

There's also a corrosive secondary bigotry where the bigot insists that they themselves aren't bigots, but other people are, so good opportunities would be wasted on the marginalized student.

How can a prospective student identify these people and avoid them?

Note: There are very strange answers and comments here. I just want to know how a student can find out if supervisor might hurt a student because of hidden bigoted beliefs. Especially if the student does not have a lot of time to get to know the supervisor, for example when choosing a graduate program. I hope this is clearer.


texts: Disclosing work affiliation in journal paper

texts:
I'm completing my part time PhD in machine learning/computational finance and work full time at the asset management arm of a bank. I'm writing my first paper, where I've only used resources at my university and not from my work. The intention is to publish to a finance journal. Do I still need to disclose my work affiliation?

The IP clause of my contract is very broad. I'm effectively assigning "all present and future IP rights" during the course of [my] employment to my employer, whether "in whole or in part, alone or in conjunction with others, using work systems or not, during or outside of normal work hours"

[Edit] Ok, my brother is conveniently a lawyer and in his opinion the wording "in the course of your employment" means such restriction is only applicable for work related activity. Before I started my PhD, I've asked (albeit a junior member of)  our Compliance and was told that I can publish papers.


texts: Should I contact professors directly if a visitor's office exists?

texts:
I want to visit certain laboratories at Tokyo Institute of Technology (TITECH) when I go to Japan three weeks from now to get a feel for the research they do and if I would be a good Master's candidate for their labs.

My advisor has offered to contact the professors directly so as to give my request more visibility.
However, TITECH has a Center for Public Affairs and Communications.

I'd much rather contact the professors directly since I'm on a rather short notice and I feel as a less formal visit would accelerate things up.

Here's some other information that could be relevant:

I will finish my undergraduate degree in about two years.
I am NOT asking for any monetary compensation, theses visits are on my own vacation time and at my own expenses (unless that would be unusual?)
I'm mostly looking for simple tours of the labs, discuss their research a bit and talk about employment possibilities.

Would it be innapropriate to bypass the "official" process and contact professors directly?


texts: Importance of "independent" under-graduate research in graduate admissions

texts:
By independent research I mean, the research was not done with some organization or under a professor. I and my roommate tried out some new things that we thought to get published. My ultimate aim would be getting into research.

Though, I also have a paper published where the I did my work under the supervision of a professor.

But I was wondering if sharing the experience of independent research in a Statement of Purpose really matters while applying for masters ?


texts: Can you cite articles if you only read the abstract?

texts:
Well the question is pretty much self contained :

Can you cite articles if you only read the abstract ?

In a more general case :

1) Do reviewers actually read (or read) articles you cite ?

2) If the abstract is well structured, and you flied through the article content, everything seems reliable, and you do not need to have a thorough understanding of the methods for example, is it ok to cite it ?

EDIT : following O.R Mapper insightful comment

3) What if you cannot access the paper in no way ?


texts: What are some implications of taking a break before a PhD in the US or Europe?

texts:
I am a final year physics Master's student. I want to do a PhD after completing my masters. But instead of applying directly after completing masters, I wish to take a break from academics for a year and do a good research project with some professor unofficially, since doing good research is a big factor for PhD applications.

I have also got some comments that a PhD applicant with a break is given less importance, unless he has a high impact research done in the break.

Now I can't take a risk regarding high impact research. Hence I am confused regarding my future plans. What are the suggestions. How should I carry forward?


texts: What are some typical reasons for a professor to not list their publications on their school website

texts:
I know of a full professor who doesn't list any of his publications on his website.  He just gives name, title, email address and phone number.

Nothing more, literally.

When I search for his work internally through our library he has plenty of published work.

What are some typical reasons why he wouldn't want to list his papers online, especially in the publish or perish culture of academia?

I notice some other full professors do this too, nothing but a name, email and phone number is on their school website.  No advertising their work at all.


texts: Does the American Mathematical Monthly allow ArXiv posting?

texts:
This is a follow-up to the question Posting to ArXiv a longer version of a submitted journal paper.  The general consensus on that thread was that it is probably okay to do what I proposed, but that I should check with the editor first to make sure the journal does not have any kind of policy against ArXiv posting.

I've sent an inquiry to the editor in question, but haven't heard back (of course, it's summer and people's schedules are wonky, so I don't necessarily think the silence means anything).  I thought I would ask here:

  Does the American Mathematical Monthly have a policy prohibiting posting to ArXiv a longer version (or a preprint version) of a submitted manuscript?


texts: What could be the negative factors in getting a PhD position in theoretical computer science?

texts:
I have been searching and applying for funded PhD positions in Europe specially in Germany for a long time to no avail. I think, what pushes my applications back the most is the lack of proven prior research experience and also academic references. Each time I spend a good time researching the position and reading relevant publications and meticulously preparing my application.

A brief background on me: got a course-based master's degree in CS (3 years ago) with a fairly good GPA (not top of the class, from a competitive university in my home country), familiar with major theoretical subjects (e.g approximation, CG, randomization etc.), 30 years old and +3 years work experience in industry.

I had no master's thesis but instead took more courses than a research-based program. Despite being confident that I can manage a research job well, still couldn't convince a single professor to choose me over other candidates.
I love algorithms and their analysis and I want to grow my knowledge deeper and contribute with my best hard work. But it seems to me that high motivation and a good background and potentials is not worthy and maybe a hard proof of prior research is necessary. Although I had few research activities, but they were no close to a full research which ends up with publications.

I quit a software development job in Germany only for the purpose of finding a PhD position. I find pure development soul sucking and short of the challenges like in CS and too mundane. I know at this point of life it's late (if not too late) to think of these stuff but you should know things are not normal in my country and I had a difficult life during my education, otherwise for sure I could have had a more appealing CV.

Here is the question. Could it be more than a lack of research experience? maybe my age and not looking fresh compared to recent graduates? could it be my works in industry?
For some reasons I feel there is something that depicts me not DESERVING the positions or tagging me as a tech enthusiast with little respect for theory.

I read other similar answers but they didn't quite match. This has become very frustrating and thinking of going back to basic coding jobs would be like throwing away all I strove for. There might be folks reading this with similar experience or those involved with candidate selection. Any help will be very much appreciated.


texts:
I'm currently a graduate student in mathematics getting my master's degree. I am interested in a bit probability and partial differential equations, and, secondarily, a bit of mathematical physics; most likely quantum information theory. I'll most likely be moving to a different graduate program after completing my master's degree from my current institution , and I'm currently trying to figure out whether there are mathematics departments that have research groups in quantum information theory.
I believe I will want to stay in a mathematics department, as I'm not awfully interested in the experimental aspects of quantum information. I'm more interested in the mathematical aspects of the subject, and I'll definitely be applying with the approach where I'll try and cash on my undergraduate background in physics/quantum mechanics, and use my knowledge of math in topology, functional analysis, real analysis etc. to put it to good, meaningful use to solve inter-disciplinary problems.

However, I'm not sure whether there are a large number of math departments in the US that have research groups in quantum information? I know there's one at UC Davis,

http://qmap.ucdavis.edu/,

and I think the math department at UT Austin collaborates heavily with the physics/cs departments, so I won't be surprised if they have people working in quantum information over there.

I'm not, however, sure whether these departments/research groups are anomalies. It'd be great if someone could nudge me in the right answer to this direction? List of math departments doing quantum information? Or should I look at CS/Physics departments*?

*I don't think I will apply to physics schools because I am not really interested in the experimental aspects, and I don't think I can sum up the courage to take both the math/physics GRE this year, for which I will have to study from the scratch.


texts: How do I cite a mathematical definition replicated verbatim?

texts: I am writing a paper, in which I must include a definition of a particular mathematical structure. It's a structure with which very few people would be familiar, thus I wish to include it verbatim, as opposed to citing it. Rewriting it in my own words would only obscure the meaning. Putting a long mathematical definition (perhaps half a page) in quotes looks bizarre and messes up the type setting. Is there a standard way to indicate the definition is cited, whilst avoiding any appearance of plagiarism?


texts: Scholarship rejection | Should I tell Supervisor

texts:
So I applied to an MASc program in Canada where basically the supervisor approves students to admit. I applied for a separate departmental scholarship and got rejected. Is it a good idea to tell the supervisor about this?
Supervisor said he hasn't sent out the final decisions to the graduate studies department and he'll decide in a month. Also, the scholarship I applied for is separate from the funding that he provides.
My point is he did not specifically ask for me to apply here. I initiated it and he told me I could try. Would complete transparency in this case help me or kill the chances I have?


texts: Is it normal to CC my professor when they introduced me to someone?

texts:
Research student in Japan here.

Recently, my professor (Japanese but studied in the U.S. for  long) introduced me to his friend who was a guest lecturer. I got the guest’s contact information and communicated with him through e-mail. When I reported that at the next weekly meeting, my professor gently advised me that it is generally considered “rude” if I didn't CC my professor when I contacted someone he introduced me to.

But that confused me, because back in another university in the U.S,  when I CC’d my professor to contact another researcher, my American professor told me nicely,
“Let me give you a general advice. Professors don’t want the inbox clogged up. You generally always want to save your professor’s time. Simply report to me in our weekly meeting when there is a meaningful progress”

In both scenarios, I met the guest lecturer in person, and I was given their contact info directly from them, not through my professors.

While I will follow my current professor’s direction (to be safe), I was genuinely confused by what is the norm or standard in these situations.

Can anyone tell me what is the norm?
I assume it is safe to CC professors from now on?


texts: Should I add past full time experience for internship

texts: I am an international student in Canada. Currently, I am pursuing Master's in Computer Science from a well reputed University and I am incline to apply for summer internships. Before coming to Canada, I have worked professionally four years in India as a software developer. My concern is, should I mention this in my resume for internship? Will it be overkill for internship? I will be applying to similar jobs as my professional experience?


texts: How does Google Scholar rank coauthor list?

texts: I don't think the rank of the co-author list is random. It must follow some order that's definitely not the time order. I used to think that this rank depends on the number of papers you and the co-authors wrote, the number of citation of those co-authored papers have, etc. But I don't think this is true now since I found some hard evidence that this thought failed. So my question is how Google Scholar ranks the co-author list?


texts: A large part of my master's thesis (~25%) is essentially a summary of one book. How to cite correctly and in a tastefull manner?

texts:
one of the two tasks of my master's thesis, is to look into existing knowledge that deals with the overarching topic, summarize the knowlegde and discuss whether that knowledge can be applied to solve the specific problem. The specific problem is solved primarily with a numerical approach, this is the main task of my thesis. A comparison of the theoretical knowledge and numerical solution will be the outcome.

As it turned out, there exists a great book that covers about 80% of the general knowledge on the theoretical part. Knowledge that i haven't had before, as nothing specific about this topic was covered in any lectures i have visited. So 80% of what i have learned, is out of that book. The author is well regarded in this field, the book is one of the most recent publications on this subject and is therefore up to date. Hence, the book is my main reference for the theoretical part.

About a quarter of my thesis is just a summary of the relevant parts of said book.
I thought about secondary references, but as I'm using the IEEE citation style, secondary references are not allowed. I managed to get hold on a few publications mentioned in the book, but most of them are just outdated and their shortcommings are well discussed in the book.

Is it ok to have one main reference that covers such a big part? I'm using other references to complement where needed, but there are only a few.
How can i go about citing it without placing the same reference number after every few sentences? Or is it ok to place the reference number that often?
I thought about stating at the beginning of a section, that the presented knowledge is from Author's book [1] and that it is given as a condensed version in the following. In the following text, i would then write e.g.: "As Author states...." or "As presented by Author" without placing the reference number. Is this a good approach?

Maybe i'm overthinking the whole thing, but i'm just not sure on how to approach this.

Thank you! BR


texts: Do graduate students typically finish coursework?

texts:
I'm taking a pretty high workload class this term and I also have a paper deadline coming up. I'm wondering if graduate students typically finish all their coursework, or if they often have to hand in their assignments incomplete.

I am in a STEM PhD program in the US.


texts: Does impact factor of journal you publish in matter when getting a post doc?

texts: I have heard from quite a number of PhD students, that one can get a good post-doc, if the summation of the impact factors of the journals published by a PhD student is nearing 10. Is this true? How does the impact factors that you earn before your post-doc have an effect on getting a good post-doc? I am talking about the field of computational biology...


texts: Getting accepted to a funded PhD in the UK with low MSc grades

texts:
I have a distinction (first-class honours) in my undergrad degree from one on the top universities in my home country, which sadly is not in the top ratings worldwide.
This followed by a MSc in the UK, in one of the top-20 world universities. My grades were very low, I failed two subjects.

I was advised to make up for it by getting research experience. In the year after getting my MSc, I got two research internships in the EU, and also a research scientist position at a university.

My goal is to get accepted to a PhD program at the University where I did my masters. I need overseas funding. Now my background is sufficient for that, and I have enough research experience to succeed.

However, I was told that with low masters grades I have no chance to get the funding, ever. Even if I do another masters elsewhere and graduate with distinction, or get even more experience. The answer I got from my advisor was: "Studentships are allocated fairly schematically based on grades, references, publications. In order to get funding, a student has to tick all these boxes."

Is there any way to deal with this situation? Just the idea of not being able to get there ever, no matter what I do, even if I get another degree with outstanding grades, is too harsh to accept..


texts: What incentives can a faculty member offer to a potential lab manager?

texts:
As a new junior faculty member in life sciences, I would like to recruit a PhD lab manager/technician. The duties would include some basic administration (such as ordering reagents) but mostly carrying performing experiments and training students. I am open to the possibility of this person having their own research project. The position will be long-term, as one of the goals it to have a permanent senior lab member that can pass on experimental knowledge that we have accumulated. This means it is a critical position in the lab which requires good candidates.

I am considering how to attract strong candidates for this position. The problem is that the salary is set by the university and it is quite low compared to industry or tenure-track faculty.

My question is what kind of incentives could one offer for such a position?

The two main incentives that come to mind are the ability to do interesting research and relatively flexible hours. What are some other possibilities?


texts: When is it right to send an email when a conference misses its deadline?

texts: I have sent an article for a conference in Computer Science and in the Important Dates of the call for papers, it says the notification to the authors is April 20. Now we are at April 22 and the status of my paper still appears as Under Review. I was wondering how many days should I wait for sending a remainder email to see what has happened with my submission?


texts: Coming back to a tough subject after long break

texts:
I'm returning to college next semester after about 5 years of a break from school. I took Calculus AB about 6-7 years ago in high school and will be taking BC next semester, which I need to transfer for Computer science.

In this case, I don't feel that retaking AB would be particularly helpful because I'm rusty on that content as well, and if I'm being honest here, it just doesn't fit with my transfer timeline.

My question is - how can I effectively come back to a difficult subject after a long break of not working with the materials?


texts: Editor has requested major revisions to manuscript. Should I give up?

texts:
Three months ago, I submitted a manuscript to one of the most respected journals in my field. Today, I received comments from reviewers stating that my paper is not worth publishing in the journal. However, the editor decided to give it a major revision instead of outright rejection. Should I proceed to address all the questions posed by reviewers or should I just withdraw the paper and submit it elsewhere to save time?

EDIT:
Right now it seems impossible for me to pull off some of the outrageous suggestions from reviewers. They asked me to prove my theory by applying more expensive method that unfortunately cannot be afforded by my supervisor as her grant has already ran out and we lack of funding now. Another reviewer also ridiculed my experimental method and claimed that my method had lots of flaws.


texts:
I'm not sure what to tag this question as, and I don't know if it should be on Law.SE.

If someone is being investigated for academic misconduct:

accused of taking photos of tests and sharing it online, which is explicitly disallowed by the professor
and during that investigation, there is no evidence of the tests on the person's cell/camera,
but there is evidence of other crimes (completely unrelated to the university) on their cell/camera (e.g., video of this person bullying a child),

can the university/investigators take any action?

I think no, because the investigators were only to investigate academic misconduct and nothing else. But also yes, because they have evidence of improper behaviour.


texts: How do STEM professors become so hyper-efficient with their research?

texts:
When I compare myself to my advisor, I don’t compare our level of expertise, as I don’t think that’s so meaningful; he’s obviously years ahead of me in the field, and so any time I talk about research with him, I accept that I know less than him and am prepared to feel ignorant / make mistakes / ask silly questions.

But I do compare myself to him regarding things such as efficiency, organization, motivation, curiosity ... some other things perhaps.
And I would say it is the efficiency that stands out the most – and where he completely leaves me in the dust.

Does this mean that the writing is on the wall, and that I should drop out of the race for academia now? Is it more of an innate skill that is so significant that it separates the best researchers from the rest? Or, is that extremely high level of efficiency something that is learned throughout many years of training?


texts: Thanking multiple professors in an email thread

texts:
I emailed one professor (with a few others CCed) to inform them that I will be following up with X commitment. Each professor on the thread replied (all) to state their well wishes and excitement. There has been no information or tasks requested from any of the members of this thread, so not any actual “need” to respond.

Should I send some sort of thank you email, and if so, how should it be done?

The general consensus on SE for thanking professors in an email is to just do it when in doubt, however I do not think my question is a duplicate (or is necessarily answered by other questions I’ve seen) because it involves replying on a thread with multiple parties.


texts: I'm looking for an application or workflow which integrates data values into the writing process

texts:
Currently, on all of my projects, I do my data analysis, create my figures, put them into a word document, and then I start writing. I say things like "We saw a 35% reduction in the effectiveness of..."

100% of the time, these numbers change. We reach the discussion section and a co-author requests we change the analysis this or that way, or finds an error in my thinking.

Then, I need to go back and re-do the analysis. Then, I'll need to find every point of data that was potentially affected and manually change it in a word document. Occasionally, this back-and-forth leads to the introduction of errors.

I would love a writing platform that would allow me to integrate my data into the writing process. Instead of writing

"We saw a 35% reduction in ..."

I would say:

"We saw a <% print(reduction.round()) %>% reduction in.."

Of course I could do this from scratch on my own computer, but I then lose the ability to collaborate.

I'm wondering if anyone has had this problem, and how they have solved it?


texts: I have to defend my thesis. I have implemented new technique but the results are same(as with the old technique). So how should I defend it? Is this necessary to get the better results or implementation of new technique matters in thesis?


texts: Is there an implied requirement to include citations?

texts:
As part of a freshman Computer Science course, I've been assigned the task of writing an MLA-format essay on a relatively fundamental subject within the field. The instructor stated that "This essay may require additional research outside of the text." However, I'm able to completely describe the topic entirely from my own knowledge and experience.

In this sort of situation, is it implied that I must cite at least a few external sources, or is it acceptable to write an essay entirely from my own personal knowledge?

And, if so, do I omit the Works Cited page entirely or just put "None" under the Works Cited heading?


texts: How do I cite two near-identical papers by the same authors

texts:
I am referencing a paper that appears to be a textbook example of self-plagiarism. The same authors have published the same paper in two different journals several months apart. The differences in the text are minor (copy-editing level), except for one short section present in one but not the other.

Should I cite them both, or just the more extensive one?


texts: Timeline of "Quick opinions" in math journal refereeing

texts: Some years ago a fair number of mathematics journals started to ask for one or more "quick opinions" by experts on a received manuscript before sending it out for peer-review (with the obvious goal of avoiding the hassle of peer-review for papers that clearly don't make the cut). In your experience, how long does it take on average to receive a quick opinion? Or, phrased differently, how long after submission can you usually deduce that your manuscript has survived quick opinions and is sent out for peer-review? This question is only within the scope of mathematics.


texts: What is the best way to find plagiarism in a draft research?

texts: Recently I got a research from one of my colleagues. However, I suspect the draft of his work and think it is extracted from somewhere else and it is not a new research in the field of cryptography. I need to know due to the lack of the time I have can I make sure about this issue? what are the solutions for this?


texts: How often do people find mistakes in papers and not tell anyone?

texts:
I found a significant error in a paper with 1000 citations.  My advisor agreed that it is a significant error, but discouraged me from telling the author.

It occurred to me that maybe other graduate students also found the error, and never told the author, or they did tell the author and he just never corrected it.  I think an author would have very little incentive to correct his own work, especially if they were famous for that work, and readers are strongly incentivized against writing a correction paper, because the author would be mad at them.

How often does this sort of thing happen?  Can we really trust the literature?


texts: Soon to have a PhD in theoretical biology - now what?

texts:
So, in a bit more than 1 year, I will have my PhD. I have been doing well, I will probably with 4 papers published by the end of it. However, I have been feeling a bit empty. I feel like I started doing research because I thought I could make some difference but I'm feeling less and less that isn't going to happen.

So, I don't know what to do. Obviously, I could do a pos-doc, but I'm a bit afraid of the feeling staying there. I was considering other career options, but I don't really know what to do. One thing that I like is computers and I wouldn't mind working for cybersecurity, particularly associated with cybercrime. The problem is that I have limited knowledge. I do know that some people start working for software companies with PhDs in unrelated fields, like physics. Is it the same possible with a PhD in theoretical biology? I deal with maths and programming a lot, but can I expect that people will want me for that kind of position and offering me some basic training?

In general, are there any other career options for theoretical biologists besides academia?


texts: My wife is looking for a faculty position. It seems its not so easy to get a position in biology though she is doing postdoc at top 5 genetics programs in USA. I am wondering if I can offer a school funding equivalent to her pay for 5 years plus some more for research? I am wondering if good schools will be interested in it? Why I want to do is because at least my wife will cool down and will live a normal life!


texts: Why doesn't citation of a book give specific pages?

texts:
In papers or books, citation to another book usually doesn't contain the specific page, section, chapter of where a result is borrowed. If the book is really thick, and the readers may have different knowledge levels and familiarity with the book, some readers may find it not easy to locate the borrowed result within the reference book. So why don't people specify the source of a citation  as detailed as possible in books?

BTW, it is good to specify as detail as possible for citation to a paper. But since a paper is usually much shorter than a book and it is usually in a searchable electronic form, it may be much easier to find the source in a paper than in a book.


texts: Checklist for cited references, including nasty details

texts:
My personal library (.bib-files) contains references which I gathered from various sources, including academic search engines. This includes problems like:

Some information are missing
Journal names might be abbreviated or not
Capitalization might differ

What is a good checklist to ensure that the references are in a acceptable state?


texts: what are the best websites to do a Literature Review?

texts:
I have just started my master degree. so literature review is completely new to me. I want to search for papers published in high-rank conferences and journal with high impact number. Apart from Google Scholar what are the other websites?

I should add this to my Question:
Thanks for useful comments. But unfortunately, I don't have access to the library.


texts: Is it possible to write the abstract in more than 2 languages

texts:
I am almost at the end of writing my Ph.D. thesis. I study in Germany, the language of the work is English and my mother tongue is Turkish. The doctoral study was a result of an international project, in which Turkish cooperation partners have also participated. I want to write the abstract section in 3 languages (English/German/Turkish), as I can reach a wider community thereby.

There is also an emotional part. My Ph.D. thesis is the most important work of my life till now, I want it to have a part in my own language. Is it allowed at all?


texts: Quarantined at home because of COVID19 - how can I do engineering research productively?

texts:
I started grad school last September, and so far have been primarily busy with courses, but have been trying to do a little research on the side whenever I can. I recently finished all my courses though, and now I'm expected to dive into research.

My advisor hasn't assigned me a project and expects me to come up with one on my own. I don't mind this really, I like the freedom to work on whatever I want. However, this was only really feasible when I was in my lab and surrounded by senior PhD students with whom I could bounce ideas off and get a lot of guidance from.

However, now I'm stuck at home because of the COVID19 lockdown and don't really know how to productively spend my time doing research. My advisor is busy taking care of his family at home because of the lockdown, so he isn't very responsive right now understandably. I'm all alone at home so I don't have the guidance of senior PhD students either. I've tried messaging senior PhD students but it's not fair for me to constantly be harassing them for help...

Apart from heavily guided stuff in undergrad, I have next to no real research experience... Since I assume I'll be stuck at home for the next several months, how can I be productive research wise with basically no guidance or help from anyone? I don't want to just waste the next few months...

FYI, I'm doing research in engineering but everything is done using simulations, so while I have all the tools and equipment I need to do research at home, I just don't have the experience or guidance to efficiently do so.

I've been trying to just read papers in the meantime, but I can only read so many before I get sick of it. I don't want to just be reading papers for 40 hours a week for the next 3 months...


texts: Does Turnitin match my paper against sources found after I submitted by paper?

texts:
I have to submit my dissertation through Turnitin. I am planning on publishing the dissertation on my website a few days after submitting it through Turnitin so future employers can see what kind of work I produce.

I was wondering if posting it online after submitting it through Turnitin would cause any problems? The Turnitin content scrapers would find the disseration online after I submitted it through Turnitin so would it appear on the Turnitin similarity report and affect the similarity score?

TL;DR: I post the dissertation on the internet AFTER submitting it through Turnitin. Would it show up on my similarity report?


texts: I was asked the following question by someone who was interested in pursuing a career in devops, but wanted to learn things in a more formal environment such as a masters degree. Is there / Can anyone recommend any graduate program in the US that would help prepare said person for a career in DevOps? He already has a Bachelor in Computer Science in India.


texts: What to do if reviewers reject a paper without understanding the content?

texts:
One of my friends submitted a paper to a reputable communications journal and received some reviews a week back. The paper was rejected, but the review comments were abysmal:

The language was so bad in one of them that it was difficult to understand what the reviewer was hinting at. Besides, the comments pertained to trivial things like naming of axes and there was no comment on (or understanding of) the overall work.
The second of the three reviewers rejected the paper in one line saying it was impossible for him/her to understand what the paper aimed at.
The third reviewer appreciated the paper and its results and made good suggestions for improving the results.

The editor-in-charge has rejected the paper since the vote was 2/3 in favour of that, but my friend feels hard done as he feels the two reviewers did not merit to review the work.

What recourse does an author have if his paper is rejected by a reputable journal, but the review comments indicate a serious lack of understanding of the paper's work? Should the author write his/her grievance to an editor higher in the hierarchy (an associate editor, for example)? Or is ditching the journal and submitting it to somewhere else the only solution?


texts:
After reading countless posts about this topic, I still can't find my answer. I'm a little lost on the future study plan...

I am currently studying Advertising and PR but do not have an amazing interest in it. I will finish my undergrad next year and looking for postgrad opportunities. However, I was wondering how realistic it is to be looking at postgrad courses in animal science, biology, marine biology and so on...

I know it is 'easy' to switch from science to social but is it possible to do the switch the other way around?

Thanks!


texts: Sent a low optional math GRE score to a Statistics department

texts:
I took the Math subject GRE last year (in 2019) and I was not well while taking it, so I could not do well in the exam and got a 50 percentile. When I created my GRE account in ETS, I selected four Statistics departments, none of which even mentions the Math GRE as something they recommend. But I thought I would do well in the exam, and the Math GRE score would show my math aptitude, which is good, I guess, for a Statistics PhD program.
However, since my score is low, and ETS has already reported it to the departments, I am wondering whether the admission committee would at all look at this score when I apply to them in future. I have not yet taken the general GRE test, as I intend to apply for Autumn 2022. Due to the lockdown, it is hard to give the Math GRE now. Also, I do not wish to spend the money (I come from a financially weak background, and the price of the math GRE test is quite high in my home country) for a re-test if the score is not going to matter.
I am just concerned that the department might look at my score (because ETS already sent it) and it might create an adverse effect on my chances of admission? What is the best strategy in this case?


texts: How to handle a PI who constantly threatens to kick me out of their lab?

texts:
I am a first-year PhD student in Biology and I am currently working in a lab for a very hard-to-please PI (a new PI who started a couple years ago and only just recruited her first few graduate students). I am very interested and excited about this line of research and I really want to do what I am doing. But my PI's way of managing people makes everyone miserable and I am not sure what to do.

Background: Last fall, I rotated in a lab which I really enjoyed working in and generated some great data, but had to leave, along with the other rotation student, because PI had no funding. In the spring, I rotated with a brand new PI, whose lab I helped set up and started on a project, but did not stay in his lab because his management was very poor - was never around, didn't know or care what was going on with projects, etc, and I was also advised to join a different lab by the academic coordinator who said they thought this PI was not "ready" to handle a graduate student. So then, I started a THIRD rotation in another "new" PI's lab and have been here for three months.

This person's research is really great, but their management seems to focus heavily on threatening language and negative reinforcement. They often send very angry emails to the lab. When this person is feeling "iffy" about you because you didn't get fantastic results or you responded to an email too slowly, they will tell you to your face that you are not worth their time to mentor if you don't "try harder." I recently gave PI a sequence alignment, but accidentally gave them the wrong version of the sequence, and as a result, they said they would not be willing to fund me as an RA. PI actually made the same mistake when they did the sequence comparison (which is OKAY! It is an easy mistake to make!), but they were just so harsh on me for the mistake. All their communication with me makes me feel that, despite my good merits, progress or improvements, they disapprove of me or are angry with me. They deal with my labmates in the same way and my labmates have often expressed their worries and stresses to me over this. I should note that some of my labmates are well-accomplished, highly dedicated post-doctoral researchers who devote ALL of their time and efforts to their work. The dynamic in the lab overall is not very good, in part because people feel increased anxiety from the PI's anger or lack of professionalism in expressing themself. It is really a huge distraction from my work whenever PI is talking about kicking me out of the lab. I go from focused on an experiment to panicking about what to do or who I should talk to.

I still respect this person as a scientist, but I feel at times that this harsh style of management/dealing with people is too much for me. I am not perfect, but I am trying very hard and have made so much progress on my work, I just wish PI would recognize this. Almost in my second year of graduate school, and with the school potentially not able to support me with a TA in the future, and with me working in my third lab, I am extremely stressed out by this situation. I feel that, if I do not make it work in this miserable lab, I will be kicked out of the school and then lose my chance to earn a PhD.

What is a good way to deal with this type of advisor and how to keep clam and focused in the lab with this kind of stress? Any advice is appreciated.


texts: Where to include acknoledgement for used graphics

texts:
In the current technical report that I write, I have used graphic from an online-source where their policy requires that the author of the drawing has to be acknowledged in case that the drawing is to be used.

This policy applies to electronic and printed formats of the given work.

Where do I place the acknowledgement for this drawings? Probably the proper way would be to use footnote in the page where the drawing is shown but, the policy requires that the name of the author is written. I would like to avoid such content in the footnotes where I discuss important information.

Is it OK if I do the acknowledgement in an appendix in the end of the report?


texts: Is it OK to mention a two-body problem during a tenure-track interview, if getting the job would actually resolve the problem?

texts:
I'm having an upcoming phone interview for a tenure-track position and I expect that I will be asked the usual "Why would you want to work here?" question. Apart from reasons relating to the research competency and culture of the university, a major reason for me would be that moving to that institution would essentially resolve an ongoing two body problem - not entirely, as my spouse is not working at said institution, but at a place close to it.

  Is it fine to mention this during the interview?

Currently I reside in Europe, whereas the institution is in the US. My reasoning is that telling them should make it clear that I would indeed be serious to move there.


texts: Is it ethical to use proprietary (closed-source) software for scientific computation?

texts:
I have data from an ordinary scientific experiment. Now, in order to analyse the data, the most convenient way for me is to use some proprietary, closed-source software.

Is it ethical to use such kind of software in research?

If do use it then this part will be a big black-box in my research. So if someone cannot reproduce my data analysis with the same or with some other software, then it depends on the mercy of the software company if we can find out what went wrong. If the software company does not want to cooperate, then what went wrong might never be found out. I have the feeling that this opposes the principles of science.


texts: Advisor dies suddenly, advice needed for research students

texts:
This has not happened to me, but to a friend in the final stages of her PhD, she and the rest of the research group are understandably devastated, as the advisor was not only (in my friend's words), brilliant, but very kind and approachable.

My friend and all the research students are also worried about their research projects, as the advisor was one of the top researchers in that field and apparently, the only researcher in that university.  The associate advisors have indeed stepped up, but as good as they are, they do not have the insight that the late advisor had.

What is a bit of advice that people may have for this situation?

One suggestion is that the research group (students, co-authors etc) band together to help each other out, with the guidance of the associate advisors.

I have looked over this question and the posted answers, but I feel that this situation is considerably different as there is the ever-present aspect of the feelings of loss, that are present and should not be ignored.


texts: How to write statement or letter of intent for US graduate school?

texts:
I am applying for a Ph.D. position in US universities. One university asked for a statement or letter of intent. There is nothing written on their website(e.g. what I should include, what they are looking for, what I should focus etc.). Though I wrote the statement of purpose for other universities according to their criteria.
Now I am wondering how to proceed with this? Is there any standard way to write it. I went through google and the sample letters are also a bit confusing.


texts: Paper unknowingly describing technical bias as if it was a biological phenomenon of interest

texts:
Let’s take a very hypothetical situation. Suppose that a scientific journal (let’s use Scientific Reports for the sake of the example) recently published a paper that seems to be completely off track. By completely, I mean that the phenomenon described in the paper can be completely explained as a technical bias that has been ignored by the authors.

Some papers have an official means to address such concerns. For example, Nature has Matter Arising and Replies formats which can be used to engage in post-publication critics. The thing is, Scientific Reports does not seem to have such a mechanism.

I was wondering about the polite and efficient way to address such issue.


texts: How to write a recommendation letter if you are not sure about its appropriateness

texts:
As supervisors, many times we are asked to write recommendation letters.
In my case, I have been recently asked to write one for a student, who is looking to enroll in a Ph.D. program.
Due to the short time working under my supervision and the lack of results, it is not easy to highlight their strong points.
In fact, It is also difficult to emit my recommendation.
What would you do if you were in my shoes?


texts: Student registration fee at conferences for ex-students for work done as a student

texts: I did some work as part of my final year undergraduate project and wrote a paper which has now been accepted at a conference. Though I am now working in the industry, I have listed my affiliation as my University because that is where I did my work as a student. So, for registering in the conference, do I have to pay the full registration fee (because I am currently not a student) or can I pay the student fee (because I did the work during my undergraduate days)?


texts: Is it OK to have many graphs, tables, and images in a masters thesis?

texts:
I am writing my master thesis. In my document I have lots of tables. images and graph. Is this have a bad effect on any academic person when want to evaluate my  thesis.

I ask this question because I am afraid that they see my
document say "look at his thesis , he fills all his document just by picture" . But I am really take time and effort to draw them and I absolutely think they are essential. So what is your idea ?


texts: Crediting Authors who are not Cited in an Article but have influenced it using Chicago Author-Date System in the Humanities

texts:
How would I credit an author's particular article who is not cited in my text but who has influenced my work? I am not referring to any kind of general mentorship or any personal connection. According to the Chicago manual current online edition in chapter 15:
"Each entry in the reference list must correspond to a work cited in the text."
The problem is I am not quoting or paraphrasing this author's ideas rather they stand as a ground of influence on my approach. It seems strange that someone who has influenced my work would not be included in the reference list, meanwhile if I quote one sentence or one word of someone else they end up in the reference list.  This seems lopsided to me, even unjust.
I could consider explicitly adding a paragraph about the author's article in question and thereby open up the requirement to include them in my reference list but what if I feel that approach breaks the flow of my article?  Sometimes we want ideas to be under the radar as opposed to in the reader's face. I am open to any ideas, or possibly the Chicago style has an answer for this.


texts: Are there known issues with Black / glass dry erase boards?

texts:
I'm considering using a black erase board in my lab/classroom, primarily for aesthetic reasons.

Are there any issues with using a black erase board in teaching situations?


texts: In a tenure-track position application; Is it appropriate to ask for recommendation letter from a professor for whom I only served as a TA?

texts:
When applying for a tenure-track academic position in the US right after my PhD (in the US too), is it a good idea to ask for a letter of recommendation from a professor in my graduate school with whom I took a class where I got good grades while showing a strong interest (genuine interest), then later on served as a TA for that class?

I haven't done any research project with him though, but we get along well: he is one of the professors I appreciate the most both intellectually and personally, I would have chosen him without any doubt as advisor if I was in his area. He is well-respected in his field (say in the top 20, if you want some ranking). His area of research is a bit different from mine but useful for my research: he works on database management systems while I do machine learning, so there are some very interesting connections such as large-scale machine learning / data analysis (~aka. "big data"), query optimization, etc.


texts: Am I required to hand out private encryption key to head of institute?

texts:
I am a PhD student at a German university. Motivated by a longer absence of a (technical) coworker due to illness, the accessibility of data of the members of my institute has been discussed for such cases. My computer is owned by the institute, but I am the only one using it, and I have completely installed and configured it to my liking. In particular, I am encrypting my data. I do have some private data on that computer as well, e.g. emails since my private email account is linked in my email program, but also some music, and perhaps a few photos, my private PGP key, etc. The setup is pretty similar to some of my colleagues.

Now, I was asked to either physically or digitally hand over my private encryption key (or password) in order to get access in some emergency case. Apparently, my colleagues have done so already. I feel very strange about this, since I grew up learning that passwords should never be given away. I have raised my concerns, e.g., that this would also enable access to private emails or other data, and allow to send emails in my name.
But these were marked invalid, since private data has nothing to do on my work computer (even though everyone uses it that way).
Alternatively, I was told I could unencrypt my hard drives.

My questions are:

Am I required to hand over my private encryption key by law?
Morally, how would I best act in this situation?
Should I hand over a wrong (digital) private key and hope that this situation would never happen?
Instead of rebelling, I am thinking to give access to part of the system only, i.e., put certain data in an encrypted container that they cannot access? I do not have to mention this anywhere if I hide the container good enough...(maybe that is not even necessary).

It is probably worth to note that no one is really involved in my research topic, i.e., no one really depends on my data. I could however imagine someone to be interested in possible (unpublished) results in the case I am gone.


texts: Turning a conference proceedings into a book chapter. Is it self plagiarism?

texts:
I've recently sent some of my research to a local conference entitled "XIX Simpósio Brasileiro de Sensoriamento Remoto". After the conference, I started getting contacted by some publishers asking me to publish the work I sent to the conference in the form of a book chapters and another one even invited me to publish as a paper itself in a journal. None of them required me to edit the work in any way.

I'm aware that academics get scammed this way (I managed to identify some myself), but this particular invitation seemed okay. The editor was very honest about the publisher status ("We're not big", "We aim to achieve this and that in X months", etc...) and I have colleagues that have published with them and nothing went wrong (meaning publication really happened, the e-book is available for download and all).

Then, I received an e-mail by the conference staff alerting all participants to the risks of plagiarism if one is to accept these publishers' offers. They argumented that the conference proceedings are open access, they have a ISBN and used this as to validate their statements. Additionally, they said they would be taking legal measures. Honestly it seemed more like a power play than anything.

Normally, I would agree with the e-mail, face this as self plagiarism and don't even consider this as an option, but a fellow colleague pointed out that conference proceedings doesn't count as a publication because it has no DOI nor ISSN (both entries are used on my country to score for PhDs and funding, but not ISBN). In his mind, as far as academy goes, my work is still "new" and there would be nothing wrong in publishing it, especially considering nobody cites conference proceedings.

I understand that it is normal to use the conference proceedings as a type of feedback while you're developing your research, but I published a substancial amount of my results on this paper and I don't really know if I could only cite it on this book chapter invitation I received, otherwise it would be nothing left to talk about.

So, what I want to understand is: what are the rules to consider something properly published, and therefore, accountable for self plagiarism? Is there a way to publish this book chapter in a unethical way? For example, including that this chapter is a reissue of conference yadda yadda would do?


texts: How does one figure out which journals to submit a paper to?

texts:
I ask because I am finishing a paper and need to decide on which journals I'm going to submit it to, and I have never done a paper before.

I know very little about this, but my general sense is that I want to match the interest level of my paper to the renown of the journal (Nature probably doesn't want my lame paper, but I'm also not going to submit it to a fly-by-night journal that's purely for-profit). I have a vague idea of what some high profile journals are, and a few I know to be disreputable, but there's a pretty wide range in between I have no idea about.

I've heard of the concept of Impact Factor, but also heard (as that article mentions) that it's not everything and just a rough guideline. I've also heard favorable things about review journals, namely that they're often understated but can actually be a great place to submit because people often look there for fresh ideas.

Any advice on how to find the journal(s) that best match your paper?


texts: Can a committee reject thesis after approving it

texts: Is it possible that thesis committee first signs off on a thesis and later discovers some weakness (not plagiarism or academic dishonesty, but weak sections or incomplete tables) and rejects it. I am talking about US and time gap may be a couple of years. The defects found in the thesis do not invalidate the main idea, but are more related to incomplete references and data tables.


texts: Writing Sample Topics: Applying for History Phd

texts:
I am planning on applying to History Phd programs, and while I would love to apply for to enter next academic year, I am worried about my writing sample. For my university's honors program, I wrote a thesis based on a treatise that was originally written in middle French. To be honest, I'm proud of the work I did. It demonstrates my proficiency with French, and I think it's an interesting topic.

However, since graduating, my interests have shifted from early modern France to the French colonization of Brazil. I took Portuguese as an undergraduate, as well as a few upper level seminars focusing on colonial Latin American history, but I am worried that I will not be able to demonstrate my proficiency with Portuguese unless I have a writing sample that uses a substantial amount of Portuguese sources.

So I guess my question is: how narrowly focused should writing samples be? Should they broadly demonstrate one's ability to conduct historical research, or should I try to potentially alter another paper and scrap my thesis?

Thank you guys so much in advance!


texts: junior professor's strategy of postdoc recruitment

texts: If the professor has 15 publications and a postdoc applicant has 10 papers, will the professor think the applicant is too strong to colloborate well as to not obey the professor's ideas all the time?


texts: Is it ok to quote a line from a fantasy book in a scientific paper?

texts: I am writing a scientific pre-print and I found a widely known quote from Tolkien that would be very relevant to my introduction, is it appropriate to include it or would it sound unprofessional?


texts: What should I do with requests to be my PhD student?

texts: Putting aside the issue of obviously automated inquiries, what should I do with personalized emails I receive from students asking to be my PhD student?  Assume that I know the student is not going to become my PhD student any time soon, possibly because there are no vacancies currently. In particular, I am interested in departments where PhD admissions are not centralized.


texts: How to acknowledge unhelpful conversations

texts:
In an acknowledgments section to a mathematical paper, one conventionally says the paper has benefited from "helpful conversations" with so-and-so that clarified matters in some way, started one's wheels in motion toward an idea, and so on.

It happens fairly frequently, though, that I email or otherwise approach a colleague I suspect may have some insight, only to have an unhelpful conversation. By this I mean that although the exchange is well-informed and pleasant, through no fault of the other party I am unable to gain anything from it mathematically and it has no bearing on what I ultimately publish.

In these situations, my correspondents have made the generous donation of their time, so I feel they ought to be thanked, but on the other hand the paper has not actually benefited. How should I acknowledge their contribution?


texts: Would it be impolite to ask the time of selection decision, although the information is available online?

texts: I applied for summer internship(BSc level) in applied math in one of the North European countries a month ago. I would consider myself as a good applicant but I suspect that they accept very few international candidates, and range of countries of applicants is pretty wide. It is stated that the time of selection decision is march-april. I'm very curious and impatient about knowing the answers to "am I accepted or not?", "when will I get the answer?". In addition to curiosity, the reason of sending such email is to show that I'm ambitious(?) and serious and didn't applied just for fun. I believe that this might increase a little bit my chances. But I'm afraid that this email might turn against me, because I disturb the committee for almost(?) no reason, and it might give them an image of impatient student.


texts: Should I email Head of Depart. personally to seek faculty (unadervertised) positions?

texts:
I am finishing my Ph.D. and now I am looking for faculty positions globally.

If I contact the head of the relevant departments (HoD), will it be ok or will it leave a good impression that I am too eager for the position?
Note that I am talking about any unadvertised positions.

Thanks


texts: I got my math PhD degree more than 10 years ago, and my major is algebra. I have published some papers in some journals such as Adv. Math.. I really love math, but I am still thinking I haven't got a good and complete math education, and do not have a good picture of math. Someone may argue that I can teach math to myself. The problem is that I am a teather in a university now; I have to teach a lot of classes and have other duties. Now I have an idea which sounds crazy: I want to do another math PhD. But the problem is I am  almost 40 years old. So I am wondering if this is possible. Does someone have experience of such a second PhD?


texts: Aside from working on a manuscript, what activities can help improve scientific writing skills?

texts:
I have been out of school for 5 years.  My previous writing experience was nearly 10 years ago as I completed a  BA in  18th century literature of a foreign language, and  a BA in cultural anthropology.  I've changed field for my masters degree and I am currently working on a PhD  in a biomedical/population health science.  This year I have struggled through most of the program because of the writing. One issue I've had is that qualities I once considered as strengths are bringing on my demise. The  eloquent communication, pungent analysis and metaphorical language are no longer strengths and succinctness is not part of my style ( I actually don't know how to be brief).  My mother tongue is a romance language, which may to some degree  speak to my style of communication (but this is only an excuse). An honest self-assessment has shown me that when making a point I always resort to using an allegory to build suspense or just provide clear contextual knowledge to my audience.

My issues is this,  in scientific writing manuscripts are often limited to 3500 words and providing long thought-provoking expository narratives translates into a ramble or in the worse  case, it appears that I am just spilling out information to it's legitimize myself in the eyes of the audience.

Short of taking a technical writing course, I am trying to work on these issues on my own over the summer. My plan so far is to write  a 500-words weekly blog post (NYTimes editorial style) on an issue in my field  and to conduct as many critical appraisals of articles  I review in preparation of  a literature review I am working on as a way to familiarize myself with technical writing  style for scientific publications.

I don't know if this is the best route, and would like to hear your suggestions on how to proceed. What type of activities and deliverables do you think would help me work on honing technical writing skills, aside from working on a manuscript? What reference books/websites have you used in the past to help you improve technical scientific writing for academia?


texts: Is it unethical to poorly translate an exam from Dutch to English and then present it to the English speaking students?

texts:
There are two tracks for my field of study. One is taught in Dutch and the other in English. This is in the Netherlands.  A while ago we had to take a multiple choice exam in English, which looked a bit odd. The sentence construction of the questions makes little sense at first glance, and it took a while to even grasp the content. Furthermore, it seemed quite obvious that the exam was only roughly translated (possibly by a machine) as the exam just sounded as if someone used a thesaurus to make it. In addition some of the answer options were still in Dutch, which made it extremely difficult to understand the content. Moreover, some questions had literally the same answer option twice.

So in summary, the students in the English track took the botched translation version, while the students in the Dutch track took the Dutch version.

Is it unethical to give English speaking students a poorly translated version of the same exam that the Dutch students receive?


texts: How to intervene in a course that is failing to meet expectations?

texts:
All MA students in my graduate program (social sciences) are required to take a course titled 'Thought and Theory'. Ostensibly, the course should serve as an in-depth introduction for students to the contemporary debates and prevailing theories and schools of thought in our discipline. (This is particularly important as there are many students in the program who are new to the discipline, and because the discipline is very broad-reaching.) Students should, at the end of the course, be able to situate their thinking in the overarching disciplinary conversation.

For the first time, this course is being taught not by a social theorist, but by a professor who's specialization is more technical. Instead of assigning foundational texts or the significant thinkers in our field, the professor downloaded the past 20 years worth of publications in one of the field's journals, ran a textual analysis of it, and calculated the articles that had the highest 'centrality score'. We are reading only those articles, most of which have been highly technical, not theoretical, and which offer only a very narrow view of what is going on the discipline.

The students are extremely upset, and feel like we are losing out on an important educational experience. The professor has been unwilling to budge from his pedagogical position, despite many students expressing their exasperation and confusion. He told one student that she was wrong for feeling exasperated and confused.

My question is -- how should we as a current cohort of students in the department address this? The professor himself has been unreceptive to criticism (criticism which has been very polite and often at least trying to be constructive). Do we write a joint email to the department chair? I have close working relationships with other professors in the department, but feel uncomfortable complaining to them about one of their colleagues. What is the etiquette and best course of action here?


texts: Is it ethical to profit by trading on information in a research paper before it is published?

texts:
This is a hypothetical question. Suppose I am part of a team that worked on a research paper, which when published, will likely have a substantial impact on one or more stock prices. The research may or may not be explicitly related to these stocks.

Is it ethical to profit by trading on the knowledge that the information in this paper will have such an impact?

Edits suggested by the comments:

Assume that any stock purchase is listed as a conflict of interest.
Assume that the research does not make use of any proprietary or confidential information which is not available to the general public. That is, this situation does not fall under the standard legal definition of insider trading.


texts: Methods for figuring out the best schools for a particular field of study

texts:
I am about to graduate in Electrical Engineering and I wanted to pursue graduate studies in a field such as coding theory or software defined and cognitive radio.

But I'm not sure where to find the information needed to decide which school to choose. University rankings won't be specific enough to point out the quality of the research groups of my interest. I was looking for something that would point out volume and relevance of papers and articles published by the Universities' research groups.

I don't need answers on which school is best, but tools to figure this out by myself.


texts: Is strict adherence to a citation format really necessary in actual research?

texts:
In high school and college I remember whenever doing some research for a class, my English teacher then will look at the citation at the end and use a red pen to mark out any place where MLA format is not strictly followed. This is probably the reason that there are 106 million hits for "MLA How?" on Google.

Doubtlessly citation is necessary and very helpful, but I question over the strict adherence to a particular formatting style. But the problem is I have this idea that you must cite with 100% accuracy and adheres to a particular style. It was drilled into my head by my English teachers and professors particularly those in the arts and social sciences. Now I am in graduate school and I am faced with having to cite dozen of extremely well known literature with a very small audience in mind. Some of the authors are who works at another lab down the street or I meet everyday. In all honesty, the citation is done in the off chance someone who reads it and finds that he needs additional literature support.

By formatting style, I mean any generic formatting style MLA/IEEE/APA (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/) or otherwise that instructs you to cite as follows:

  [First Name][Last Name] "[Text]"...[Publisher][Page
  Number][Chapter]...[Web/Print/Hardcopy...][Date Accessed in m/d/y or d/m/y]...

Don't forget each [...] needs to be separated, by ; , or a dot, or comma as instructed.

For one, doing a strict alignment with a particular format a huge time waster for the author and practice feels a little bit cultish.

Secondly, if the most necessary information pertaining to a particular reference is included in the citation section, do I  REALLY need to ... align the format with a particular citation style with strict adherence? I think nowadays most people just look at the author and the book title and do an online search.

For example, is there a huge problem with writing:

A. Thomasz "Guide to IEEE or MLA format". Dover. 1999. Print.

or

Thomasz Antonie, Guide to IEEE or MLA Format, Dover, 1999.

or

Thomasz Antonie. "Guide to IEEE or MLA Format". www.guidetoieeeormla.com. Web.

Or

A. Thomasz. www.guidetoieeeormla.com.

Actually if I remember far back enough in high school you would actually need to cite another person if he speaks to you. So if I had spoken to Mr. Antonie (made up person), then I would have to cite our conversation in a particular style. "Verbatim" was the word, or "Orally", or "Presentation"? I don't think I have ever done that after high school, even in reality much of what I know is by speaking to other people, yet I never reference any of those people.

I have not yet written a research paper. Is strict adherence to a particular formatting style actually followed in practical research? Is there any big problems that would arise if a particular citation style is not strictly followed?

This question is inspired when I was exploring around and seeing how people in other countries say France do not particularly care about this issue and everything works fine. I am in the hard sciences if that helps.

Comment: looks like an American phenomenon, just so you know in American schools we are taught for the span of 4 years to manually type all citations in MLA (including the full URL link) Here's a paper addressing this interesting cultural practice


texts: Is it better to have a strong letter of recommendation from a professor in a different area of study or a weaker letter from the same area of study?

texts:
I want to apply for a graduate electrical engineering program next fall. I have one engineering professor who has written letters of recommendation for me in the past, however I only know her from more generic courses which I didn't always do well in (hence why I know her from office hours).
The other letter I could get would be from a business professor. I took two courses with him which I got A's in, spoke to him about a startup I cofounded, and was in a student community he chaperoned. He could likely give me a stronger letter of recommendation, however he was a professor for business management (specifically entrepreneurship), and knows little about engineering.
Although I do have one letter from another engineering professor I'll submit regardless (and one from another cofounder of the startup), is it better to have a stronger letter of recommendation from a professor in a different department, or is it better to have a weaker letter from a professor within my area of study?


texts:
I am just curious.

Coz, after all of those tuition fee hike, job visa ban, and so on is the UK still a popular destination to do a "3-year PhD"?

Is the number of non-EU/EEA students seeking PhD in the UK declining?


texts: Does a research competition with monetary prizes count as commerical use?

texts:
There are some datasets (bioinformatics, agriculture, weather, etc.) that state that they can only be used for non-commercial purposes. This would mean a corporation cannot take that dataset and use it in some way to make money. However, the phrase "for non-commercial use only" seems to be vague when it comes to monetary prizes (in the thousands of US dollars) from research competitions.
Can datasets that have this "for non-commercial use only" requirement be used in academic research that could possibly win money at a competition?


texts: Any book or tutorial about good practices or typical mistakes when conducting scientific research?

texts:
Some days ago I read this question:
Feynman describing a scientific error
and I found it quite interesting. Although it seems naïve it could be a typical mistake made by a beginner researcher as me.

My question is that if anyone knows a book or tutorial that explains the typical mistakes or some advices when conducting research (theoretical or experimental). By the way, I am not asking for advices such as the ones described in
Good research practices
even though they are also useful they are generic tips and do not describe the common errors done when doing research.

Thanks!


texts: Paper accepted by a journal without comments

texts:
Did you ever get a paper accepted by a journal without any comment at all? It has happened to me twice; both times with a very high-standing journal in my field.

I was initially confused, did not know whether to be pleased, or horrified. I then settled for the latter. In my opinion, this is a terrible consequence of the current publishing model where editors are not necessarily qualified to review papers, and referees do not have either financial or prestige incentives to do a good job.

Is this common? What did you think of this phenomenon?

EDIT: after all your nice answers and comments, and talking to people working in the editorial side of peer-review process, I came to the conclusion that the lack of replies was due to the fact that both papers were - somewhat - interdisciplinary. I understand it is way harder for editors to understand interdisciplinary papers (they are expert in a subject, not necessarily in multiple subjects) and thus judge for themselves and to find appropriate reviewers. If this was true, it would be particularly scary as the most groundbreaking papers are typically multidisciplinary and thus most likely be accepted with little criticism (if the author is already renowned) or dismissed without further ado (if the author is relatively unknown, at least in that area).


texts: What are some good books to read in order to improve my academic writing?

texts:
So I am going to write my master thesis in psychology. It is expected to be of roughly publishable quality since I am a research master student. I always struggled with writing and am often overwhelmed with the vagueness of theories and concepts in this field. I often get lost and thrown of path without a good structure.
What books can you recommend me that are for "dummies".

The things I would like to improve and know more about are:

The right attitude for academic writing
Academic writing pitfalls (e.g. when does something become too speculative?)
Smart ways to structure the process
Ways to make my writing more readable and make it flow better

Are there recommendable books that address such issues that are considered standard in any way?


texts: Is it a good thing as a teacher to declare things like "Good! Things are becoming clearer already."

texts:
Is it fine for a teacher who makes a topic look easy by saying things like:

"Good!"

or

"Easy!"

or

"Everything becomes perfectly clear now!"

Things I can think of in favor of doing this is that it might reduce students' concerns and will create an environment where nothing is too complicated.
On the other hand, I'm afraid it can also create an environment that if for some students the topic is not clear, they will feel worse now as the teacher said that "it's supposed to be easy" and they might even be afraid to ask to not show that they couldn't understand something that supposed to be "easy".