texts: Popular proprietary program or obscure open source substitute for reproducible research?

texts:
For a long time, I had been using open source software for my work to boost "reproducible research". I believed that if I made my codes open source and the softwares to run those codes in were open source too (or at least free), my research would be utmost reproducible. However, recently, in a discussion, it came through that research is more reproducible if one uses "popular" softwares instead of "unpopular" free ones.

For instance:

I had been using Scilab (Free) for a lot of my work and distributed my files to others. But I was surprised that more people had MATLAB ($$) and preferred if I sent  them MATLAB files instead (little modifications).

My question is :

Assuming I'm starting a new project and I wish to make it as reproducible as possible. Should I be using relatively unpopular free software or extremely popular proprietary ones?


texts: Withdrawing an article out for review when another journal posts a call for papers for a special issue that is right on topic?

texts:
I've recently sent out an article for review. I've been in email contact with the editor from journal #1 from the start, and was quite up-front that I wasn't sure whether or not my article would be a good match for their journal (in methodology, yes; in century and author focus, not so much). Today, I found a special issues CFP in journal#2 where my article would be extremely relevant. Their deadline is end of January.

I'm considering contacting journal #1 to see if they've started the review process, explain that I've found what may be a much better match for my article, and ask about withdrawing my submission if the review process has not begun.

Is this frowned upon?

Of course, I feel like I'm playing with fire here. What if I withdraw, resubmit to journal #2, article does not get accepted, then... go back to journal #1 with tail between legs.

Any advice?


texts: letterhead required for recommendation emails sent electronically?

texts:
I am applying to graduate schools in North America. Most of these institutes require at least three electronic letter of recommendations to be sent during the process.

I have already submitted my application to two universities, with the LORs submitted electronically using official email IDs of my professors (including one who primarily works at another university, and was an adjunct professor to me). But all of my professors submitted these without letterheads.

I have checked the Graduate Admission FAQs of most of these university and letterhead is stressed only for hard copies sent directly to the institute (i.e. there is no mention of a requirement for electronic LOR). How relevant is it for letterheads to be attached to the electronic LORs too?

Should I email every institute I am applying to, to clarify this requirement, or just let my professors know that submitting them as is, is fine? It may be worth knowing I am an international student.


texts: Getting into a MA or PhD (psych) program with a weak gpa due to recently resolved medical issues? Does work experience replace a weak gpa?

texts:
I have been attending a university in my home state for 6 years. My gpa at the end of this semester is on track to be 2.6 overall. My first four years of courses are not representative of my capabilities, this is due to a major medical issue that involved multiple surgeries each semester and even more during summer breaks.

I have decided that psychological research is the career I wish to strive for, more specifically reseach in Autism Sectrum disorders and related Intellectual/developmental disabilities. Statistics is something I'm very passionate about. The grades I've receive in these type of courses are excellent and my over all gpa has been on a steady upward trend because of them.

Since my medical issues have been resolved I have been conducting solo research projects, participating research groups, have been working as a research assistant for professors (working on data analyses and the article for submission), presenting at regional conferences, acted as a teaching assistant for research oriented courses, and even tutored students struggling in stats(unofficially). I'm on track to receive As or Bs in the toughest courses the program has to offer. I have extensive experience in the specific field I wish to work in, 6 years work (5 providing direct to those who experience disabilities and 1 developing plans of care and assisting families attempting to receive funding for implementation of these plans) and a brother who experiences a similar disability.

I could go on about what I've have achieved despite my low gpa, but ultimately I feel the responses I've been getting when speaking to programs locally and abroad is that my gpa is to low and most reviewers simply pass over those not meeting the requirements (both MA and PhD). The program I'm currently most interested in does not utilize GRE scores in their admissions process.

Due to financial strain I may be forced to just graduate now and dive into the workforce. The jobs I have found are research related and I am a good candidate for the positions, only if I have a BA. If I choose to graduate and enter the workforce rather than retake classes until my gpa recovers, what are the chances of being accepted into program with a weak gpa and good work experience?

Thanks for your time!

Preston


texts: Who decides which, if any, solutions are publicized to students?

texts:
For students, some textbooks publicize no solutions, some just half (either odd or even numbered exercises), and some all. How's this decided? Does the author have the final say? Can publishers override an author? A debate between both?
I'm not asking about instructors' solution manual that divulges solutions just to instructors.


texts: Is it possible to edit the names of Bibtex entries on Google Scholar?

texts:
Question as in the title. If I have got a Bibtex entry such as
smith2019apples

can I change it to, say,
smith2019pie

?


texts: Can a professor I didn't mention in my application accept me as his M.Sc. student?

texts:
A professor that I contacted earlier as a prospective student replied to me (and asking for interview) late when I already have submitted my application. I didn't mention him in my application, since I thought he might not be interested and deadline was near and I mentioned other professors who replied to me. If the interview is successful, can he still review my application and admit me under his supervision?

Note: I can't edit my list of Professors on my application, but I can still edit my SOP (maybe mention him only in SOP?).


texts: How do people in academia know whether their research, result, theorem or thesis is original work?

texts:
I am curious as to how academia continues itself without replication or reinventing the wheel. So many academicians in so many areas of work, how would one ever find out whether the work he or she is about to embark on can be considered an original work? That someone didn't already publish the very same result?

In engineering, we have all heard the story of Cooley-Tukey's method of Fast Fourier Transform. The story goes Tukey has been applying his own method of FFT for years without recognizing that the implementation was a fundamentally original approach. Until he brought it up in a meeting in the 1950s, he had always thought that this method was used widely given its extraordinarily simple implementation. Only later did everyone realize that Gauss had used the very same method 160 years earlier.

The same goes for the famed Wiener-Khinchin theorem in stochastic analysis. After two most ingenious mathematicians ever graced this earth came up with this theorem did they realized that Einstein had already published it a decade ago.

Doubtlessly, there are thousands of examples in all branches of natural sciences. It is less clear whether the social science encounters this problem since no two times and places are ever alike, and the social reality keeps on changing therefore novel results is always promised.

So how can one find out in the quickest way possible that his or her work is original work? Original in the sense that the end result is something that improves upon an existing result or opens up an entirely new field without duplications from other people. Does there exist a database somewhere to categorizes all recent and historic progress in a certain field? Are there people who are employed in academia or elsewhere to do this very task?

Edit: I guess same goes for asking a question without looking at the other questions first...seems like this question was resolved in another post T_T


texts: Would a journal paying money for reviews, with open access and ad-based revenue, work?

texts:
I am considering developing a new journal, with an innovative publishing method, and would love to hear some insights. The main concept is to change the review process. I would like to have a extra fast review period, by doing two things:

All the reviewers should be still PhD student or post-doc students. They are the ones with higher knowledge on a specific topic and more free time to quickly review a paper.
Reviewers get paid if they review in less than one week, lets say 10 USD, as an incentive.

Also, all papers are open-access and there are no publication fees. The income would come from ads on the papers. What do you think? Would you publish a paper in a journal like this? Would you be a reviewer?


texts: Generally, is it better to send recommendation letters or the referees' contacts when applying for a postdoc?

texts:
I'm a PhD student and hope to get my thesis defended during the next winter or spring. Before that time, I want to apply for a postdoc. In the lab which is my main dream (though I think it is very hard to get there), there are some permanently open positions for postdocs, and candidates are encouraged to contact the Lab supervisor by e-mail, without any further specifications on their web-site. This lab is in the US. I will certainly send in this e-mail my CV and cover letter, but how would you recommend, is it better to ask my current supervisors and co-authors to give me recommendation letters, so that I could send them at once, or to give their contacts in this first e-mail to my potential new supervisor?
Thank you in advance.


texts: Should one include irrelevant background on CV after career change?

texts:
If one changes careers/subjects dramatically,  would it be necessary in the interest of full disclosure to include irrelevant aspects of the educational background and work-experience etc. ?

For instance if somebody has an undergraduate degree in politics and 2 years of experience in PR but then goes on to an academic career in theoretical CS (essentially starting from scratch i.e. including an undergraduate degree), would it be better/necessary to clutter the CV by mentioning that earlier background ?

I guess there must be a certain degree of flexibility, as people would not include say a part-time job in the cafeteria etc. pp. but I am not sure what the academic conventions are in different scenarios. ( I am thinking about this in the context of applications for conferences, funding, workshops, travel funds etc. pp. )


texts: Any good way to tell a faculty candidate "We don't want you"?

texts:
I serve on a faculty search committee at a large university here in the US.  The part of the job none of us enjoys is informing a candidate who's visited and given a teaching demonstration that we've decided not to recommend a hire.  We do it in three pretty bare sentences thanking them for coming, telling them that unfortunately, we cannot offer a position (without giving any reasons), and wishing them well.  This is the best we could come up with.

Is there any better/best way to do this?  How do other search committees communicate rejections?  How much, if anything, do they tell the applicant about the reasons for the rejection?  Do they try to do more to soften the bad news?  And would they send the rejection by mail or email (including PDF attachment)?


texts: In a new job; is it OK to recommend a partner for a job search?

texts:
I just started a new job teaching at a university last September; because of that, I’m also in a long-distance relationship. (We’re not married or even engaged at this point.) My partner is also in my field and has applied for a job in my department which would start this September. My question is: is it out-of-line for me to contact one of my colleagues on the hiring committee, explain the situation, and ask about the status of my partner’s application? Obviously, since I am a brand new hire, I don’t want to be overstepping my bounds here, and I’m unsure if I have any real “say” in the matter to begin with.

Any advice would be appreciated!


texts: Will an Honours year grant me a second degree?

texts: I am about to graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology (Hons). I plan to further my studies with a Masters in Research. I would like to apply for an Honours year in Medical bioscience or related subject at a different university (perhaps in Australia) to gain enough qualifications to pursue an interdisciplinary Masters Research. Will doing the Honours year give me a second degree? And will I be able to even apply for an Hons year of a different major?


texts:
Due to the current pandemic I started working remotely on a research project several months ago under the supervision of a physics professor. Just a few days ago we finished and submitted a paper to a peer-reviewed journal. Since I plan to apply to graduate school I would like to mention in my CV that I carried out a research project with professor A from university B. However, since all the work was done remotely I am not sure how it would be convenient to put this on my CV.

Should I put it under the "professional experience" section? If the answer is yes, how should I include it?
Or should I wait until the paper is published and add it under a new section called "Publications"? I guess doing it this way would imply that I did research and it would not be necessary to add it to "professional experience".


texts: How should I write research description essay in my PhD application?

texts:
I am currently trying to apply for a PhD position in a university. For the completion of application I have to write two essays:

Statement of motivation
Description of research area (with vacant PhD position)

I have written my statement of motivation but I am unable to write a description of research area. In the application there are different research themes which have a vacant PhD position; we have to chose one research area from these themes. I am interested in one research area: its title is catalytic study of X-material . I have never worked in this research topic or material. So I am in a dilemma on what to write in my description of research area.

Should I write about the property of X-material, current research or should I make a research proposal for that research area (catalytic study of X-material)?


texts:
I'd like to share my google scholar library with some of my colleagues though wasn't able to find any relevant information online.
Is it possible?


texts: Can a university revoke my degree for not attending classes?

texts:
I have a 60 hour work-week due to work/school/commuting/homework, so I've had to make sacrifices -- usually this is attendance of mindless gen-ed classes. I'm worried that the university may revoke my degree if this comes to light.

Described in the answers to this question, a university can revoke a degree if it is found that the student broke the code of conduct during the course of the program. My university's code of conduct specifies that it is up to the instructor to determine attendance policies, and AFAIK none of the classes I have skipped had clauses that resulted in a failure of the class due to poor attendance (just grade penalties). Despite this, would it be unprecedented for the university to claim I was in violation of an attendance policy anyway and revoke my degree? I'm worried the school may see this as an insult and retaliate.

If it matters which classes and how severe, I skipped 50% of Physics II and only attended 4 days of Calc II (test days). I plan to do the same with Chem I this semester. I was not at risk of failing the courses. I am pursuing a bachelors degree of Computer Science at a US university. I have never broken any laws or cheated. I am in good academic standing and on-track to graduate at the end of the semester.


texts: master project topic bigger then I expected

texts:
I am a master student in Germany. I want to submit master project (not thesis) in 2 month. project has 4 months duration and 8 credit.
I don't have enough experience in research area.

The problem is my topic have really big domain. I thought I can complete in 4 month. unfortunately it come bigger bigger when I research more.

my topic to optimize fulfillment of norm requirements by EN50128 with agile and project management tool.

How can I make it simple without loosing quality of paper? please someone guide me how can i do research, something wrong with my way of writing paper?


texts: How do you cite an image no longer found on the internet

texts: I have been working on this report and I saved and downloaded certain images off the internet to put in my paper. When I was going back to cite them later, I reverse google searched the images by uploading the images to have the search engine find them on the internet. Some of these images could no longer be found. How do I cite the images I can no longer find the sources for? Or should I just find different images?


texts: Will my results still be publishable if I used ethically objectionable techniques in my research

texts:
At the moment I am involved in a neurobiology research trying to assess the feasibility of using emotional response to elicit distinct EEG (brain wave) patterns from the brain using static images. Distinct brain waves can be used as control signals to perform distinct actions traditionally done using a remote controller (i.e. flipping through the channels).

Conventionally, people have tried using different images such as a flower or a tiger,  a spaceship or a musician in attempt to trigger different responses. The team believes that these input stimulus are too "lite" to produce consistent and reliable results. We wish to investigate whether pornographic images, or images depicting violence, death will produce even stronger responses. Nothing too wild, but definitely involves things that people do not talk about while doing these kind of research.

Since there are a dearth of publications on this technique for eliciting EEG, the best way for us to meet the deadline is to go ahead with these "non-traditional" trials. On the one hand I think my project supervisor will be shocked that we have even thought about using these method, or he will reject it out right claiming an ethical issue, but we are hopeful that a small breakthrough may be reached if the team followed through with this experiment.

What should the team do in this case? Should we go through with our experiment and jeopardize our reputation or should we just give up on this train of thought and risk failure by continuing with the methods that are likely not to yield any useful results?


texts: Submitting an improved/extended version of a journal article under review

texts:
Ten months ago, we submitted an article to a journal, which is still under review. In the meantime, we have made a few extensions/improvements to the submitted article.
Can we submit the extended version to another journal? How can we cite the work presented in the article under review?
Do we need to inform the editors of both journals regarding the submission of the extended version?


texts: Authors' contributions statement to highlight contribution of an undergraduate student

texts:
Statements of authors' contributions appear to be a standard practice in journal papers from experimental sciences or similar fields. Yet I haven't seen many such examples in mathematics.

I'm wondering if it will be appropriate to have a statement of contributions in a paper (algebraic geometry + some applications) that states the contribution of a coauthor who is my undergraduate student. If yes, will it be strange if the statement only explain the contribution of this student coauthor but not other coauthors?

The intended purpose for such a statement is twofold:

To highlight the real (and nontrivial) contribution of an undergraduate student which may potentially be helpful for this student's career.
To avoid opposition from coauthors who may question listing a student as an author. (EDIT: To avoid opposition from coauthors who may question the actual amount of contribution)

EDIT: One crucial detail was left as it was somewhat subjective. The student's contribution is small but nontrivial in my opinion. It is only a nice-to-have result. This paper can live without it. But I believe it adds some depth to this paper. So the necessity of this student's contribution is debatable. I'd hope to preemptively eliminate this debate --- why argue with someone you'll work with for a long time.


texts: Writing a topical review paper with co-author(s)

texts:
Let assume a journal accepted a topical review proposal I submitted. It's often a good approach for a student like me (PhD student) to coauthor the paper with a more experienced researcher who is quite known in the field. In my previous papers, when was the first author, I wrote the whole paper and asked for feedback from the coauthors at the end of the writing (since they contributed in the experimental data acquisition for example, but not on the research development).
For the specific case of a topical review, I wonder how the coauthoring is done in practice ? Are the coauthors expected to write some parts of the review ?


texts:
I read on https://conferences.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/get-published/post-your-paper/ (mirror):

  Preprint: a form of e-print where an author posts a draft paper on the author’s or another website. The preprint is the paper in the form prior to submission to IEEE.
  Author-submitted paper: the version of the paper originally submitted by the author to an IEEE publication.

Where to draw the line between preprint and author-submitted paper?

For example, if I fix a typo in my paper draft right before submitting it, was the  paper draft before the typo fix a preprint and the paper draft after the typo fix the author-submitted paper?


texts: What kind of information are expected in the "Additional comments" section of a letter of recommendation?

texts:
A student of mine asked me to write a letter of recommendation for  undergraduate admission. I know Academia.SE focuses on questions about graduate schools and above, but I hope my question is general enough for this site.

The university my student is applying to has a standard form for the letter of recommendation, with standard information on the applicant (name, GPA, intended major,...) as well as on the recommender (name, position,...), followed by three essay-type sections about 1. academic/intellectual performance, 2. personal/interpersonal evaluation and 3. additional comments.

I am confident that I can give inputs on the 2 first essay sections on my student as I have been supervising her/him for some time, but I am clueless on the third one.

What kind of "additional information" is the admission committee expecting to read in this section ?

Would it give a bad impression if I don't write anything (I will write very enthusiastically on my student's academic and interpersonal prowess)? I am worried of it, as the form specifically mentioned that I "may attach additional sheets, if necessary".

Is it the right place to comment about the fact that the student's diversity (being a foreigner, a woman,...) would be an asset for the university she/he is applying to?

Note: this is not in the US, but for a university with a world wide reputation and the American-like system.


texts: How to enhance my use of Google Scholar?

texts:
I would like to enhance my use of Google Scholar. Specifically, I am looking for functionalities I do not know whether they exist.

Is it possible to "follow" a specific paper? I would like Google Scholar to notice every time some other works quote this paper, as I consider they relate strongly to my Ph.D. dissertation.
Is it possible to get noticed every time specific journals publish papers that include defined keywords in their title or abstract?

I am curious about all the enhanced uses you can have of Google Scholar. If they are extra options, which notably help watching new publication on specific topics, I would be pleased to know them.


texts: Grades are too high for the department - what should I do?

texts:
I recently taught an undergraduate seminar course, in which each student has to read a research paper, summarize it and present it to the class. In the first lesson I explained to the students the components of the grade: attendance, summary writing, and presentation quality.

Most of the students did great jobs: attendance was near full, summaries were good, and presentations were great. Many of them did more than I expected - they contacted the paper's authors to get more information, presented movies and demos, engaged the class in discussions, etc. So, when I wrote the grades to myself, most of them were between 90 and 100.

But then, when I told this to the department vice-chair, he told me "what have you done? You will cause a grade-inflation! The department policy is that the average grade on seminar courses should be at most 85!"
I totally understand this policy - grades that are too high might show that the course was too easy, and they do not sufficiently distinguish between good and better students. Also, they might be unfair to students who took the course in previous years.

However, I am not sure what I should do now. I haven't published the grades to the students yet. Should I just re-scale the grades so that 90 becomes 70? I feel this is somewhat unfair to the students who worked hard for their presentations. Are there better options?


texts: GPA dropped due to a death in the family. How do I explain this on graduate applications?

texts:
I'm in the process of applying to graduate school. Naturally the University will require transcripts from all coursework. The school doesn't just look at grades, and they place an emphasis on recommendation letters and a strong GRE quantitive score. I have academic issues which naturally need to be disclosed.

I first started my undergraduate studies in the early 2000s. I was young, dumb, and self-medicated for depresssion by drinking. Additionally I had an other illness which caused me to lose consciousness, and I had multiple concussions from falling and hitting my head. I didn't do well in school, and after 5 years was academically disqualified. I maintained a GPA just under 2.0.

I moved back home and turned my life around. I transferred whatever credits I had, took classes at the local community college, and transferred all this to a local university and finished my Bachelor's degree with a 3.6 school GPA, and a 3.1 GPA including my old coursework.

Even though I had a non-technical degree, I landed a contract at a big tech company through a contact. Shortly after that contract ended I got an offer from another company and did some interesting work in testing core mobile applications and my skillset grew.

I felt I had hit a ceiling in my career and lacked the knowledge base to progress because I lacked a CS degree.

I decided to do a post-baccalaureate program in CS instead of a masters. Shortly after I started my program my dad passed away unexpectedly in a violent manner. I was present when it happened.

I was emotionally messed up to say the least. My family was not near me . So I spent a lot of time traveling home to help my family. My performance was up and down, I got some B's, a few A's, and two F's, and withdrew from several courses.

Fortunately I did complete an intensive internship last year at a tech company, and have a lot of skills and strong recommendations to show for it.

I've moved home now and am figuring out if I want to continue this program (it will take several years) or just apply for an MS CS since I already have a bachelor's degree. I'll have family support near me in all the places I'm applying.

My strongest assets are my work experience, and a solid quant GRE score.

Sorry for the long story. How I should address all this. My dad's cause of death was very traumatic and violent. Should I disclose details to admissions officers so they can understand why I didn't perform academically? How should I address the issues during my first undergraduate program?

-This question was marked as a duplication to another question. I believe addressing a death in the family is a different process which wasn't addressed in the other question. There is also past academic problems.


texts: List *all* journals for which one has done peer-reviewing

texts:
Can it be counterproductive to list in one's CV all journals for which one has done peer-reviewing (both top- and low-rank ones), or whether it's better to list only the top ones and omit the ones too low.

The area in question is pure math and, if there are any journal metrics that might make sense to look at in the first place, I'd be happy to provide them to get a feel of the situation.


texts: How harshly will a potential project supervisor judge me for doing poorly in his course?

texts:
I need to choose a supervisor for my upcoming term project. I asked one of my professors if he had any ideas for a project for a student with my skill set, and he offered to supervise me as he wasn't teaching during the project timeline.

Getting to the point, this was way early in the course, and my professor has witnessed me do terribly in the course so far. My interests lie in the subject matter of this course, and I really enjoy this prof and want to do well, but for some reason, the way we are tested really throws me off and I end up overthinking and eventually screwing up the answer.

I'm worried about bringing the topic of my term project up to him again, because I'm worried he will not be impressed with me and refuse to work with a student doing terribly in his course.

Should I bother talking to him about it, or should I disregard the possibility that he could be my supervisor?

Edit: I do want to clarify that the testing style has nothing to do with what my prof asks, it is more of the type of question that throws me off... Because this is somewhat of a computer science class (which I have never taken before) we are asked to come up with algorithms on the spot, and that's what I have trouble with. I can only imagine that this can be remedied by more practice with the software we use.


texts: What to expect for an on site interview in German University?

texts: I have been invited for an interview at University in Germany. They have asked me to prepare a 10-15 minutes presentation. What should I expect in the interview and what should I include in the presentation? Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!


texts: Can graduate students be forced to leave graduate school under pressure from their advisers?

texts:
And how often does it happen? I know someone who was de facto kicked out of Harvard due to some conflict with his advisers, though he was later able to transfer to Caltech.

As an example - what if there was an irreconcilable difference between the student and adviser, and what if other advisers were reluctant to take the student on (for whatever reason)?


texts: What are some formal methods in measuring socio-economic impact or broader impact of research topic or individual research papers?

texts:
By formal method I mean a broadly known, standard and as objective as possible. For example, one of the major criteria for NSF grant are “broader impacts” which is not hugely objective(likewise with other funding agencies).
In recent years, Altmetrics and similar tools and indexes have been devised to measure informal citations and calling them "social impact" – e.g. social media or non-traditional citations/mentions.
In terms of economics and decision making for the policy making in academic research, is seems reasonable that should be some measurement method, performance index, or framework to evaluate “broader impacts” of the work we report in scientific publications or can refer to. Can you provide any references to such methods, indexes, or frameworks?


texts:
I'm thinking of hiring a contact/freelance editor to help me improve my paper, before I submit it.  I'm looking for someone to perform proofreading and copy editing as well as broader, substantive editing services, to save me some time.

How should I find and select a suitable editor?  Should I look specifically for a technical editor with knowledge in my general area, or will any editor be able to help?  Does anyone have any recommendations for how to make this most effective?

Clarification: the term "editor" is potentially confusing, because it has multiple meanings.  The meaning that's likely to jump to your mind is that of an Editor at a journal, but that's not what I'm referring to.  Instead, I'm referring to professionals who help with editing manuscripts.  Many folks are familiar with copy editing and copy editors; that is actually just one type of editing service, and other editors may offer other editing services (e.g., developmental/comprehensive editing).  I'm trying to be a bit more general and not limit this question to just copy editing -- but if you're not familiar with the editing profession, you can think of my usage of the word "editor" as referring to a "copy editor" and you won't be too far off.


texts: A person claims to have earned a PhD from Harvard University, but is offering no credible proof. How can I verify their claim?


texts: Is it wise to convert from full time to part time master by research

texts:
I supposed to finish my master at the end of this year. However it looks like I'm going to extend for another semester, which mean my scholarship will also end and I have to self sponsor myself for the tuition fee. Research grant also will end and I have no allowance for next semester. I'll not have any financial source after that.

My plan is to convert the mode and apply a job near my college so I can afford to live and pay the tuition fee. However if I apply for part time mode, the time for graduation will be extend to another 1.5 years.
Further planning is I'll try hard for another 1.5 years to get my master converted to PHD while working.


texts:
In my offer letter:

  $XX,XXX is being offered as "for Spring and Fall semester for the year 20XX"

Here what do they mean? Is $XX,XXX being offered on a per month basis or for the whole year?


texts: Can I delay a while signing an official postdoc offer letter

texts: I have got an official postdoc offer letter. The HR now is requesting my signature and then return the letter back asap. But I haven't made a final decision to sign it or not, because there may be another offer coming very soon, which seems better to me. I wonder if it is appropriate to delay the received offer a little bit. After that accept or turn it down.


texts: Ok to independently investigate questions of interest to previous advisor?

texts:
I am a Ph.D student in Mathematics, and during my undergraduate career, I worked with a professor on a certain topic (topic X, if you will) that strongly interests me. I have now moved to a different institution for my Ph.D studies. This summer I collaborated with him on a paper in topic X, although the collaboration seems to me mostly one sided (as in, I did virtually all the work, and am even unsure as to whether it is ethical for him to be an author of the paper).

I understand why the professor could not prioritize our work because he is really, really busy with other projects in many topics and with his own advisees. Nevertheless, I feel that I am at a point where I could start working independently on questions in topic X that are very interesting to me, and I think his supervision is no longer necessary. Therefore, I'd like to begin working on these questions by myself, or perhaps in collaboration with other people in the area.

I also have a very friendly, advisor-student (though he's no longer my advisor) relationship with this professor that I would not like to lose. Would it be, in some sense, a betrayal to his interests if I start working independently on questions that he is interested in solving too at some point? He is usually very "territorial" about his research projects, and I'm not sure whether he would feel offended that I want to work on these questions by myself, because I think he expects that it would be a collaboration.


texts: Proper way of refering to yourself, according to graduate level

texts:
I currently have a degree as a Master in Computer Sciences, and i was always wondering on how to call myself in a more "short" manner. For example, a PhD might introduce himself as a "Doctor" to other people, but how does a MSc call himself: "Master"? "Mister"? "MSc"?.

Talking to some PhD and MSC acquaintances, they had the same doubt about it, and i think this might be a good place to inquire about such topic, and i could not find another related question to answer myself.


texts: How to follow an article citations when you are not the author?

texts:
Thanks to Google Scholar, you can follow citations of an article you are the author.
Is there any way to that for an article you are not the author?


texts: What does a promise of possible funding "based on availability of departmental funding" actually mean?

texts:
I'm finishing up my third year of a PhD program this Spring. Until recently, I had assumed that I would have four years of funding as many of the PhD students do. However, after asking the department chair, I was told that "the department resources are stretched (as usual) and we made our recruitment plans based on those cycling off funding, including you. There is always a possibility that our recruitment efforts do not go as planned, but it is unlikely that we will be able to offer a fourth year of funding."

My award letter states that I have three years, with the "possibility of a fourth year based on availability of departmental funding." What does "based on availability of departmental funding" actually mean, legally? Does it mean that the department can continue to recruit new students instead of keeping on current ones?

I'm at a public university. Is there any way to find out whether the departmental funding is actually unavailable? Is it enough to ask HR, or might there be any other resources I should search out?


texts: Career for a mathematician outside academia

texts:
Briefly, the question is: what are sensible career choices for a trained mathematician (with a doctoral degree) outside of academia?

The situation I've found myself in is the following. I have been employed as a teaching assistant at one of the top Polish universities for a year now. The salary of TAs in Poland is borderline acceptable (as in, if it were a little bit less, one wouldn't be able to make ends meet), but when I was signing a contract, I was promised I will be promoted to assistant professor after a year.

Now, I was informed a few days ago that I am not getting said promotion, but they'll be happy to keep me as a TA. It was stated very clearly that this is happening not because I am not doing my job properly (in fact, I have a pretty solid track record); apparently the university is in financial troubles. As a corollary, I may be stuck as a TA for quite some time.

I have a family to provide for, so this is unacceptable for me.

To make matters even worse, the timing of the information left me without any option to pursue a postdoc position. This got me thinking that -- even though I enjoy doing research and teaching very much -- perhaps it's time to take that step and decide on changing career path. The problem is, I don't really have any experience in work outside of academia. I feel that I am professional and disciplined enough to handle any kind of work, but sending resumes at random doesn't seem like a good idea.

I realize the question may be too vague, but I'm thinking maybe someone has already been down that road and has some advices to share.


texts: How to get recommendations for PhD program when outside academia

texts: I'm looking into applying to another grad school to get another PhD, whether again in mathematics or a closely related subject. In assembling the application, where I should get recommendations from? I can't ask my advisor (I wouldn't be in this situation if he hadn't screwed me over the first time); and while there are certainly some other professors who remember me favorably, enough time has passed that I'm not sure they would have anything more than a desultory blurb to contribute. Math departments have little interest in recommendations from people in industry, and related subjects are presuambly similar. Is it possible to get some sort of recommendation or other bona fides available from industry that a PhD admissions committee in math, mathematical physics, etc. would care about?


texts: How to cite from a book with more authors?

texts:
Some books start each chapter with a short inspirational quote from some famous person e.g.

  Chapter 1.

  "I think, therefore I am"

  -René Descartes

I would like to do the same and I found the perfect quote, but the book it is from has three authors. What should I write on the bottom of the quote?


texts: What are good principles for naming an algorithm?

texts:
My previous publication was about improving a known method A and I called my algorithm XYZ-methodA, where XYZ is a catchy word and methodA is the known method. Now I apply my general theory to method B, so I am thinking of naming my second algorithm XYZ-methodB. This second algorithm uses a sub-routine, that I also developed. I am thinking of giving it also some name like XYZ-methodC. However, this sub-routine is not that related to my general theory anymore, but is just used by XYZ-methodB to accomplish my goals.

Is this a good naming approach for methodB and methodC? Is it a good idea to use XYZ and put it everywhere like bumper sticker, indicating it is from me and increasing recognizability? That was kind of the idea.

What are good principles in naming my algorithms in general?

Naming them after myself is apparently not a good idea. But what is a good idea?


texts: Can I enroll in just the second year of a master's degree program in Germany?

texts: In the french academic system, master's programs last for 2 years and one can start from the second year (if he/she fulfills the academic requirements, such as having already studied the first year or has already another master's degree in the same specialization). From what I saw in some german universities websites, master's degrees in germany last 2 years, but they don't precise whether one has the possibility to apply for an entry from the second year (if for example one has already a master's degree in the same field). Is it possible to join from the second year?


texts: Double publication & parallel submitting a same study as a Paper and Patent

texts:
I have seen some discussions in this community about Academia vs. Market world. However, they couldn't satisfy my this question:

Assuming what is written in answer of Why is Paper Publishing and getting a patent completely unrelated? by @Anonymous_Mathematicia, I can submit my paper and file the same idea as a patent, in parallel. However, it seems that it will cause a problem: Journals normally ask authors to submit only the "non submitted to others" studies and ask them "not to submit it anywhere else before rejection/withdrawal". Now, there are two plans (only the second one seems reasonable but I mention both for covering the possible cases) (a) if I am submitting the journal paper before filing the patent (that seems dangerous), then will I have the right of filing it for a patent? However, for plan 'a', even if for journal it is okay, for patent policy it may be considered as revealing the idea and burning the opportunity! (b) If I have filed (or published) the patent before submitting the journal paper, will I have the right of such submission?

In other words, is a published patent besides its copy as journal paper considered as double publication?


texts: Should an arXiv paper indicate the conference it was rejected from?

texts: We have had a couple of papers rejected from conferences quite a while ago, and we now would like to post them in arXiv. We are considering indicating on the paper which conference it was rejected from, mostly to state when the paper was actually written (we are also writing a new paper with additional results). Is this an acceptable practice?


texts: Do any of the big English textbook publishers have translations into Russian?

texts:
I am specifically looking for freshmen-level textbooks in Biology, Chemistry and Physiology that have been translated into Russian, but would be interested to hear about other topics too.
I know houses like Cengage, McGraw Hill and Pearson regularly publish translations of popular textbooks into Spanish, for example, but I'm wondering if any Russian translations are available.


texts: Is it acceptable to wear the same outfit every day?

texts:
I am a male graduate student in natural sciences at a public university. I want to simplify my life a little bit by wearing the same outfit (more or less) every day. (Obviously I would have multiple copies to be hygienic.) I tend to wear untucked casual button-downs with some casual khaki pants and sneakers. Would this be looked down upon by the faculty? I am not so worried about other graduate students, but I do not want to make a poor impression on the faculty. Any guidance on this would be much appreciated!

Of potential importance: I am TAing one class right now and will be taking two classes this upcoming semester.


texts: Affiliated institution wants to remove name from already published paper?

texts: We have published a review article, years ago, and since then all of the authors left the institution. Now the institution has suddenly woken up and realized that the authors did not get permission before publishing the article. And the institute does not want its affiliation any more on the already published article. What to do now?


texts: How badly will a master's thesis plagiarism report affect my career?

texts:
This is a question continuation of this post: How to defend plagiarism in master's thesis. I want to thank all the people who helped me in the last post with their answers.
In the academic committee, I admitted that I made a mistake but it was unintentional. I was not given a chance to correct my errors but I presumed it because in private universities, they actually have many restrictions and I was sad because I knew that unknowingly I did a bad mistake. I learnt my lesson. I got my master's degree by clearing exams and without taking credit of the master's thesis.
My university dean informed me that they will keep this in the University record and they will release it if some graduate school and government officials ask about me to the university. I have the chance to appeal against it. Personally, I feel that there is no good that. I got a good PhD opportunity in the USA as I had an MSc from India and I am doing my research there. I want some suggestions:

Do you think that I should appeal?
If I don't appeal, I will get my MA degree from the previous university in the USA anyway. Should I submit my MA degree certificates and result to any other US universities in future in post-doc or for any job?
How drastically will this incident affect my research career in the future?


texts: How should I state my affiliation and funding if I am not funded and have no academic affiliation?

texts:
I started a project during my math/physics PhD but am now continuing with it from outside of academia, using my own time and funds to purchase resources. What are the conventions for stating my affiliation and funding when writing up this work?

In particular, do I need to/should I name my current (non-research) employer as one of my sources of funding? They have had absolutely nothing to do with this project, other than hiring me to do a different job; they have not endorsed it and should not take any responsibility for it. On the other hand, it is a general principle that funding sources should be disclosed.


texts:
I am currently having a disagreement with a coauthor on a paper over the matter of significant figures.

He would like to specify (for example) that a certain organization has an environmental footprint of 7,622 gha.  Environmental footprinting rests on a tonne of assumptions and is not a precise methodology, so I don't think we have anything like 4 significant figures of precision in our calculations - more like 2 at most.  So I would like to publish that figure as 7,600 gha.

I have pointed out that doing otherwise implies a level of precision we don't have.  Currently we are publishing an executive summary prior to peer reviewed journal paper, so I also said it would be embarrassing if the precision issues were picked up at peer review stage and we thus ended up publishing two different sets of figures.  He responds that he has never had a problem with publishing more accurate figures in previous journal publications.

The coauthor does not have a quantitative background so has limited understanding this issue, however he is more senior.

So two questions

does this issue even matter?
what would you do about it?

UPDATE

It looks like you all agree with me that this matters.  Good, I'm not insane :)

As we are currently writing an executive summary/press release for the general public, there is no place for scientific notation or estimates of error - they will make it harder to read and likely put off some people.

Can someone link me to a good, polite and authoritative rant on why this matters that I can show to my colleague?  The trouble with almost all material I have seen on significant figures, is that it doesn't discuss rounding off digits left of the decimal point.  i.e. it talks about turning 7.36654 into 7.4 but not 736654 into 740000.  I suspect my colleague draws an arbitrary line in his head at the decimal point, being unaware that the position of the point is just a function of the units used.  And I doubt they would be open to that sort of argument.


texts:
I hold a PhD in pure mathematics and am looking for mathematics teaching positions in the UK, preferably at University level.

What would be some websites where to find such ads?
What is the standard application procedure/requirements? When are the deadlines for applications? When are the offers typically made?

A note on question#2:

I would be interested in finding out whether there are any general comments one could make regarding the application/selection process by analogy to the US postdoc application system outlined in the next sentences. In the US, in order to apply for a postdoc position [research and teaching] one typically needs to submit 3 research recommendations, 1 teaching recommendation, a research statement, a teaching statement, cv, cover letter. Most deadlines are around November, December, January and I believe most offers are made in January - early February.

Thank you.


texts: Non-English literature: should we check for prior work?

texts:
How far should we go when considering the possibility that a (non spectacular, bur relevant) result has already appeared in any other language different from English?

Is it safe to ignore non-English publications in some fields like computer science, chemistry or physics? That would be assuming that foreign researchers will publish in English, if they are serious about it.


texts: Is it OK to have a PhD thesis with shortcomings and inaccuracies?

texts:
I recently defended my PhD thesis and was awarded a pass with some minor corrections. I am due to submit the final version of my thesis very soon.

The examiners were both very happy with my thesis, which explains the final verdict. However, as the saying goes, no one understands a thesis better than its author, as the person was invested in it for years. When polishing the papers to send for publication, my supervisor and I found a major issue with the thesis, which although it does not invalidate the overall findings, it would change a significant portion of the methodology in my thesis. While I am currently addressing these issues for the publication of one of the chapters, as well as my job market paper, this issue has to led to severe depression and has made me feel inadequate as a researcher. I worked incredibly hard and had a particularly difficult PhD process; so it is difficult for me to find that at this stage (post defense) I am submitting a thesis that is predicated on a methodology that should have been approached entirely differently; and frankly while in my corrections, I have in essence remedied the problem so that it fits my analysis, changing it as I had intended it to would imply changing a substantial portion of the thesis. This in turn has caused a feeling of despair and inadequacy.

I spoke to a friend who is currently working as an associate professor and he comforted me by saying that irreproducibility, inaccuracies, and mistakes, be it major or minor are very common in vast majority of PhD theses and that I should not beat myself up for this and that the said PhD title is well deserved. However, I thought I ask for some second opinion.


texts: At what stage of the selection process for a faculty position should I ask for references from colleagues?

texts:
I'm second year faculty in my first position (practitioner/accounting). It is in a small business school. I am treated very well. However, a position has opened up at my alma mater. I am qualified, but I would consider myself a bit of a long shot. Not anywhere near 'impossible', but I certainly won't be the only qualified applicant.
With the 'long shot' part in mind, my question is about when should I ask colleagues/mentors to be included as a reference to take another position? That is, I know they will give me a reference. I also know they don't want me to leave and they had such high hopes that I would stay.
I want to do this the right way. But I don't want to secure references only to have them never hear from the university to which I'm applying.
My gut instinct is to ask them upfront, but I don't want them to worry over nothing (they had an unfortunate string of bad luck before me). The other choice is to wait until/if I'm contacted and actually getting the new position looks promising.
If this question is a duplicate, and you have a relevant link I would appreciate it.
Thank you so much!


texts:
A few days ago I uploaded a pre-print to arXiv. Today I got an email from  a service called PubSure offering to evaluate the manuscript with AI (?) and give me a score on how "publishable" (?) it is. In their own words:

  PubSURE is a super cool AI-powered solution that evaluates research manuscripts and provides a score to indicate their submission readiness.

I signed up to check it out (although my pre-print is already accepted for publication) and they ask you to upload the article (Doc and Docx files) to evaluate it (which I did not do).

I'm getting scam vibes from this one (but I could be wrong!). Anybody heard from this service before (perhaps even used it)?


texts: Active voice: Using "I" to show my contribution and "we" to include the audience?

texts:
I've read the other questions on active vs passive voice. But my question is slightly different.
Let's say I'm writing in active voice and using "I" as I'm primarily writing a thesis-like document. When I present results, is it okay to say "we" as a way include the audience? For example, consider the following paragraph:
Option 1:
"I used algorithm X to perform Y on data Z. [...] In Figure 1, we can see that A is greater than B."
Is that acceptable? Or is it more proper to rewrite as:
Option 2:
"I used algorithm X to perform Y on data Z. [...] In Figure 1, I show that A is greater than B."
My intuition tells me option 2 is more correct; however it just sounds slightly awkward to me in certain places. Are there better/other options than the aforementioned options?


texts: How write in CV about lecturing experience while being a PhD student

texts: I am currently PhD student, and giving lectures to undergrad students (4 semesters). Is it legit to write about this activity in the CV separately. If yes, then how (i.e. lecturer)?


texts: How do I ensure I'll be able to claim authorship over a math proof, as an amateur math student?

texts:
I found proof for an open math problem. I know it likely has flaws, but I can't catch any and I'd like to put the proof out for revision. But without losing the credit for it, in case it turns out to be correct.
The thing is I'm just a math student and I have no experience publishing math papers or anything.
I've already checked a post here with the same question I'm asking, in which many people recommended talking first with a mentor or a trustworthy teacher, but I've never had a relationship with a teacher. And currently, I'm not seeing my teachers in person, because I'm in quarantine and my classes are virtual. Moreover, it would be really embarrassing for me to talk about this with people I know, especially if they rapidly find a mistake in the proof. I fear they'd think I'm silly for even considering the possibility I may have proven something no mathematician has been able to prove before. So I don't want to share this with anyone I know unless the proof is reviewed by expert mathematicians and I'm fully sure it's correct or at least seems to be.
Finally, as you may have noticed, English isn't my native language, so I don't know how I could manage to write down this proof in English. I'm not familiar with the math language and notation used in English.
I want an English version because once the proof is published, I'd like to send it to important mathematicians for revision and I don't know important mathematicians who speak my language.


texts: W2 Positions in Germany after Postdocs elsewhere

texts:
I am currently a research fellow in Europe and am possibly interested in permanent positions in Germany. I can find resources about how one climbs through the ranks in Germany from W1 to W2 or from Habilitation to W2. I know that German academia is quite competitive, but they do make senior hires from outside of Germany.

My question is:

Does Germany require a Habilitation or W1 before hiring someone for a W2 position if they are coming from outside of Germany? If so, is this rare? What's the standard trajectory in German academe for someone that has done postdocs elsewhere?


texts: Is there a professional etiquette regarding jackets in academia?

texts:
So, I’m sure we all know about the stereotype of the professor in the tweed jacket. Based on a cursory web search, it looks like the stereotype started because tweed was a relatively cheap but warm material, and professors were a relatively poorly paid class of professionals, so they kept wearing them until the elbows wore out and they patched them.

I’m aware that these sorts of things can get a degree of momentum of their own, though, so I was wondering if there was any etiquette in modern academia regarding jackets? I’m a master’s student who is planning on doing a PhD afterwards with the intention of getting into academia; would buying a tweed jacket to try to look professional be viewed as presumptuous or anything?


texts: Right way of requesting research project from a professor as a non-affiliate

texts:
I am a new immigrant and my question is about norms in American universities. I have MSc degree from abroad and in order to improve my chances for admission to a decent PhD program I would like to get published. I would appreciate your answers about the following questions:

Is it acceptable for someone outside a department/university to contact a professor and ask him/her for a research project (as a non-student)?
I do not have journal publications. What else can make them convinced?
Finally, what would be an ideal etiquette/strategy for contacting professors with a plan for making such a request, if it is sensible at all.


texts: Which methodology of a research paper around a proposed software system

texts: Part of a systematic literature review, I'm looking to the methodologies of the papers I review, and many papers doesn't explain the methodology used. My questions is : Can I assume that a paper which talks about creating a system or a software is a Case Study? Please note that some researches do some exploratory steps to gain insights like from StackExchange for example, in this case I also assume that mixed methods used. Please help if you have ways to identify methodologies if they are not explicitly given or shown.


texts: How to explain to my boss where not to publish?

texts:
I have some continuing misunderstandings with my advisor. For some time I am actually doing my research as a one man show, but due to my faults and a lot of work I still did not finish my PhD. I am paid by him, so I still need to have good relations with him.

However, he often gets some real and spam "invitations" to journals and conferences and he always tends to send my work there (he doesn't have more or less anything else). The problems is these journals are often fake journals like from the SCIRP publishing. I managed once persuade him not to send the payment a year ago, but now they wrote him again and he sent them the money and came to me to say that they accepted our article. I do not particularly like to have my name in these "journals".

A similar problems is with conferences. Maybe this one is not that bad– I am even not able to google this random conference about everything in Gdansk now, but they promise publications indexed by ISI or SCOPUS –  but I already submitted the paper to two conferences (two disjunct parts of it) I chose and I want to publish it in a good journal from one of them or some other one. I don't know if the extended paper from that conference my boss wants to visit might spoil the better publication.

I also forgot to say he puts himself as a first author. But actually, he writes the complete article himself, but he doesn't have full access to my data, just a couple of graphs and images, so the quality of the articles is not that good, and I prefer not to waste my time to edit articles to these strange places, so it is probably better I am not the first author.

How can I persuade my advisor NOT to publish my work in these 'fake' conferences?


texts:
If a student feels that the grade he received is lower than he expected, because he has been working very hard, and truly trying to understand things, but sometimes at the cost of sacrificing details. But the instructor might think differently, as the student sometimes made careless mistakes in assignments and didn't have much time doing them.

Can he email the instructor for possibility of changing his grade, stating the reasons above? He knows if he never asks, the grade will stay the same, so he wants to have a try. Also as far as he knows, course grading generally has more or less flexibility.

If he does, is there some ethic issue that the student should be aware of?

Thanks!

PS: This is in a U.S. university.


texts: Decision about getting a job while completing MSc Studies

texts:
Last year I got accepted in a full time informatics MSc. During that period I also had a fulltime job as a software developer in a startup and I was trying to make some publications with my thesis supervisor from my BSc. However all these simultaneous activities had a very negative impact on me, since I had no free time and I slept very little time every day for an extended period of time. Things became worse when a close relative of mine died.
As a result I decided to quit my job and although we managed to publish some papers with my supervisor I decided to end my collaboration with him as well (although it was very fruitful) .
The aforementioned situations also had a great negative impact in my studies and as a result I passed only 2 out of 5 courses in the first semester.
My studies are really important to me as I want to pursue a PhD. Therefore i decided to fully focus on the MSc and improve my grades. So, during last summer I managed to pass almost every course I had failed before, with high grades.
Recently my BSc thesis supervisor called me offering a job in a research program.
This job interests me a lot since:

I would really like to work with him again since we had a great
collaboration...
there is a high chance of publishing again...
I would also earn some money...

However:
I am afraid that this may impact negatively once again:

my studies (despite being close to the completion of the MSc)
my grades (and as a result this could possibly affect getting accepted in a PhD)

I am afraid that if I refuse the offer, he may deny future collaboration.
What is your advice about this ?
Should I accept the job or would that possibly be a bad idea ?


texts: What external funding opportunities are there for American or British students undertaking a PhD in Sweden?

texts:
Consider an American and/or British (dual) citizen who is currently undertaking a PhD at a Swedish institution.

For instance, in America there are a variety of National Science Foundation fellowships available to graduate students in America.

Possibly, an American could use the Fullbright fellowship to fund their study at the Swedish university they are already at?


texts:
Is it common for a graduate student to ask a question directly the author of an IETF RFC?

I have a subtle doubt about an aspect of a protocol addressed by a certain RFC and I have already searched online and posted question on stack exchange but I haven't found an answer yet.

Should I contact the author directly to the address shown in the RFC?

Thank you.


texts: Is it OK to turn down a postdoc offer (contract not signed yet) after getting a better postdoc offer

texts: I have received a postdoc offer from a world famous university (ranking ~ 60 worldwide) early June and accepted the offer via email. The university helped me applied for the visa an I have obtained the visa. The hardcopy of the contract, however, has not been signed. in early Aug. I received another interview from a top university (top 3 by some ranking) and got another offer. I have emailed the supervisor in the latter university and explained my situation and his idea is that it is OK to change to his offer since the work has not started. Is it OK to tell the first supervisor about my condition and ask whether he could permit my turning down on his offer?


texts: Could a paper be rejected due to poor quality of figures?

texts:
I recently saw a paper (biological sciences, genomics) that had such poor figures that made consider if I as a reviewer could have suggested rejection based on that. Issues in said paper:

i. 3D-barpplots;

ii. Multi-layers 3D donut plots ;

iii. red-green color schemes;

iv. inconsistent plots with poor labels.

This goes on for the 8 main figures, add nothing to the paper, and is so distracting that makes reading it and interpreting the results quite difficult. I assume the authors (two) know how to make decent figures because in some panels they used stacked barplots which in my view would have been used as replacement for the 3D donut plots.

So in an hypothetical scenario, is it ethical or acceptable for a reviewer to recommend rejection of a paper because of poor figures? Assumptions:

the authors were asked to improve the figures but ignored the request or did not improve enough;
the quality of the research is otherwise acceptable.


texts: Junior faculty/senior faculty grant sharing

texts:
I am a junior faculty (research assistant professor) in a full professo's lab. I was a postdoc in this lab and got promoted to Asst. Prof. due to the grants I brought in to the lab. Oct 2017 I wrote an NIH R01 grant (the whole grant - people from USA would know this)  - the full professor just looked at it briefly and suggested very minor changes, basically did not have time to look at it. I was the key senior person and the prof was PI. Though being Assistant professor, I was not allowed to be co-PI as the prof mentioned I might lose early investigator status.
We got the good scores in Feb/March (not fundable) and around same time I got a tenure track faculty position in another university that I will be joining in Jan 2019. Meanwhile, for the resubmission of the R01, I asked  the full professor if I can be co-PI instead of key personnel as I was the lead on the project and wrote the whole grant. However at the point the prof mentioned that I was very junior and it would not look good on an RO1 to have my name as co-PI. Furthermore, the prof said if the grant was funded there could be a subcontract given to me at this new unviersity. So I  wrote the grant (with revisions etc.) and submitted it as key person. Now we got the grant funded.
Two main questions:

The prof has announced that I will be managing the grant even after I move to my new position at a faculty meeting, but "managing" can mean getting free work done. I have been subservient to the professor many times but now how do I ask my share? or should I just give up the project and look after my own tenure etc.

If my professor agrees for a subcontract (I dont know if this will happen) on this grant will I lose early investigator status?


texts: Commercial Academic Press versus University Press

texts:
I need some guidance about how best to proceed about publishing my first book. Let me preface my questions to note that I am not a full-time academic, but at some point, I might transition back from being a practitioner to seeking a full-time academic role in the future.
I am preparing a book proposal in the urban studies arena for a "hot" topic that BOTH academics and practitioners are currently addressing.  I have had some initial conversations about guidelines for submitting a proposal with acquisition editors of some high-tier university presses and the acquisition editors of some global commercial academic presses (e.g., Routledge). Both sets of acquisition editors have been supportive and have encouraged me to submit a proposal.
A few questions:

Both sets of editors (commercial academic press and university press) allow for multiple submissions.  So do I send them tailored proposals to each editor ON THE SAME DAY and wait out the process? (I understand that this is a dice roll).
If I do that, what if one publisher comes in before another?  I don't know what to do to wait the clock out.
As this is my first book, and again I am not in a tenure track post but some later go back to apply for tenure track positions, is there any advantage/disadvantage with publishing with Routledge (who publishes tons - some of high quality, some not) in the urban field) versus a university press ?  I don't know what the distribution would look like for either, but I am aiming for overall impact in the research community. (I used Google Scholar to gauge hits on books that are published by both presses - mixed results - and I used WorldCat to gauge the number of libraries that carry particular books of interest - again mixed results)
I am publishing as I do have something worth saying (or so I hope) and I am not publishing to get my name out there (or to impress my family and non-academic friends).

Advice would surely be appreciated.  I am thinking of sending out the proposal(s), depending on what I learn from everyone, sometime in early spring.
Thanks to all in advance.


texts: Should I show mark boundaries on academic CV?

texts:
I am writing an academic CV for PhD applications. I have included the marks for each exam I did in my final year.

The marking scheme is slightly unusual: the threshold for the highest mark was 59 (normally around 70). I got (~10 marks) higher than 59 in a few papers and I want it to be clear that I was above the boundary, should I mention in the CV that the boundary was 59?


texts: Serious error in published journal paper by a faculty member

texts:
Consider the following scenario:
Paper A used a model developed in Paper B.
This model developed in Paper B was corrected over the years in an erratum before Paper A was published.
This makes the outcome of Paper A invalid.
Paper A is published by a faculty member in the department you study as a research student.

Questions:
1) Do I contact this professor with this problem?
2) Do I go ahead and submit paper based on the corrected model in Paper B, which calls for a slightly different methodology hence different results, and stating that Paper A published earlier by the professor is wrong?
3) If 1) is the case, how do you ensure the professor would retract the paper or even include you as a coauthor in an erratum?


texts: How to pursue graduate admissions in mathematics seven years after a humanities undergrad degree?

texts:
The simple version:

I've been out of college for 7 years and want to pursue graduate studies in a field unrelated to my undergraduate degree but am not sure how.

The detailed version:

My college career began as a Physics major.  I made what I now consider the mistake of changing to a technically driven humanities major (Electronic Media, Arts and Communications) although I completed a great deal of my pure sciences coursework.

Years later I have a very solid job in a field that I hate and want desperately to get back to school to work towards higher degrees in mathematics.  I've spent the last five years as a systems engineer with a focus on network distributed video and have a very solid resume in my field, but my academic credentials are poor.  A 2.8 GPA (albeit from a strong school) and an unrelated B.S.

I've made it a point to keep up studies in math, participing in a great many MOOCs to try to backfill my mathematical education and keep my skills sharp.

What I don't know is how to re-approach academics.  Would I need to earn some additional undergraduate credits before applying for a graduate program?  I expect GREs will be required, but that's not a major issue as I've been scoring quite well on practice exams.

I know that I lack educational recommendations and undergraduate research, and I have absolutely no idea how to supplement this lack...


texts: Should peer review invitations be accepted if one is unemployed?

texts:
My colleague lost his job in academia due to COVID-19. He has zero income at the moment and there is little to no funding or employment opportunity in his field (invertebrate taxonomy) in his region (a developing country). He is now looking for other non-academic jobs.
But being one of the few experts in his field, he is still frequently invited to review manuscripts. Each of these reviews takes a long time (especially large taxonomic monographs) and takes away his time to develop skills and look for jobs. And hours spent on peer-reviewing are not remunerated by anyone. Should he just outright reject such invitations? Should he give reasons for rejecting such invitations too?


texts: Should I be credited for my programming contribution to a dissertation?

texts:
A psychology PhD candidate has been doing research on students (sorry i don't think I can be any more specific than this).  They needed someone to develop a application that gathers metrics about each student and then reports back to a central database. The PhD candidate then accesses the database and runs various metrics on the data to try to uncover patterns.  I was the person chosen to code the application.  I put about 100 hours into building this software application and I was compensated fairly for my effort.  Since then I have done regular maintenance and updates on the software/database and I continue to get compensated. Other than the software aspect, I really know nothing more about their research or dissertation.

My question is: Is there any expectation that I should be credited in the dissertation for my work on the software?  Without my software, the various studies simply would never have happened because there currently doesn't exist any commercial software that does what was needed.  On the flip side, I didn't actually help with the research, i had no say in the design or manner of the studies and was essentially uninvolved with anything that did not directly deal with the code.

The reason I am asking this question is mostly to see if I can use my work on this project in future resumes or CV's and actually list myself as a contributor on the project. In my normal life, I am not an academic or involved with any sort of academia other than this one incident so I am pretty clueless when it comes to this type of stuff.


texts: Is it fair to punish the student for not knowing what's in the course?

texts:
A number of questions (e. g., this one or that one) discuss the situations where the student is punished after invoking, in the exam context, knowledge that's outside the scope of the course. This leads to a more general question:

  Suppose the student knows and understands perfectly all the material taught in the course, and perhaps some more. Is it fair to lower their grade for not knowing which material has been taught and how it was presented?

From the answers to the above questions, it seems that many feel that there's no problem with lowering the grade. I can think of two arguments in favour of that view:

in order to test knowledge, the exam questions have to include implicit context, notation, etc., that require familiarity with a particular course. More details on this type of reasoning can be found in this answer.
anyway, the grades are often not determined solely by what students know in the end; e. g., attending lectures, participating in the class discussions, etc., may be part of the grade. And if you have done so, surely you know what's been in the course.

Let me explain why the above arguments do not satisfy me. The first one concedes that it may be unfair, and then essentially admits a failure on the part of the professor to design a fair exam. But then, shouldn't one rather strive to make the questions as self-contained and unambiguous as possible? For the second one, we may ask, again, why it is fair to take anything but the end knowledge into account for the grade, and the answer will likely be that some version of "we use attendance etc. as a proxy for final knowledge" which, once again, brushes off the question as to how fair is this.

  Is there a coherent argument that justifies that it is fair to lower the grade in the above circumstances?


texts: Are there any research careers except professorship for a person holding PhD in pure mathematics?

texts: I'm interested in mathematical research, but want to know if there are good jobs besides being a professor.  Are there any lucrative research-centric careers out there for someone with a PhD in pure mathematics?


texts: Trauma affected my grades while in undergrad, how will it affect me getting into graduate school?

texts:
I was traumatized by an abusive relationship. While in the relationship, my grades were affected. Out of the relationship, I chose to stay in school and struggle with my studies instead of medically withdrawing. I attended therapy and completed psychiatric care.

I'm back to being a straight A student, but what will graduate school say in reference to those 2 years on my transcript? Should I explain it to them? Will I be granted an interview even? My GRE scores are great, but my major is competitive. What can I do? Should I include a letter that certifies what occurred in those two years from a professional?


texts: What kind of career path might be possible for a professor following a plagiarism scandal?

texts:
Prior to transferring to another university, I attended a college in a different state with a renown reputation for integrity and academic rigor. The year before I left, I enrolled in a course that was taught by this new professor. It was the only 8:30 a.m. course that I eagerly woke up for- the professor would literally jump around the room, making the lessons lively and hilarious. He'd even devote the last 3-4 minutes of class to discussing some of the most insane industries around the world. I didn't enjoy my time at that college, but his classes were downright memorable.

Outside of class, he was much calmer, but always with a warm smile and approach. People only spoke good things about him, and his respective department decided to hire him full-time, on a tenure-track position.

The autumn after, I left that college and even switched majors. I kept in touch with a few individuals from that college, and one day, they told me to check out my old college's website. This professor was discovered to have plagiarized multiple papers. I won't get into the details, but the extent would make a slam-dunk case for blatancy. He no longer teaches.

If you Google the professor's name, the first page or two will only show a massive plagiarism scandal.

I tried reaching out to my former professor via email or Facebook, because for whatever reason, I feel bad for people going through rough times, even if they're severely at fault (contingent upon remorse, etc). There was (and still is) no contact information available, and after much time scouring the internet, I can't seem to locate any social media profile. It only then occurred to me how screwed up this person's future must be: never mind having a portion of your grad school wasted (although one could argue it was wasted when he plagiarized anyway), any background check on him will yield really unfavorable results.

My question is: what does a person like that do from this point forward? Is academia pretty much a "no-go"? Does he count on connections in the industry? Does one change his or her name? I thought I'd ask here since several users here have had experience with plagiarism in one way or the other.

TL;DR A professor that I used to like got busted for plagiarism, and his name's all over the internet. Does someone like that have a second shot at academia? How would he go about getting into the workforce? ...etc


texts: Why does a post-doc fellowship application ask where else do I apply?

texts:
I'm applying for a post-doc fellowship, and one thing that confused me is that they ask for:

  Names of other fellowships for which you are now applying

I have no problem with including them, but I wonder how is this information relevant to this particular application and whether it increases or decreases my chances if I mention I apply for other places or not. (I'm not going to lie of course though!)

Any ideas are appreciated.


texts: What can happen if someone acknowledges a grant on papers not related to that grant?

texts:
When I was preparing the camera-ready version of a paper, one of my co-author asked me to put in the acknowledgements section that his research was funded by the grant N12345.

Just out of curiosity, I searched the grant number, and found its description: "applying technique X on problem A".

I was very surprised, because my paper is completely unrelated to either X or A. Moreover, I know very well that this co-author has very little background in both X and A, let alone doing research. Although he is a very good researcher, these just are not his expertise.

The grant is for 3 years, and it is going to expire in a couple of months. He has not published any paper related to A or X. However, he has published many papers in completely different topics, e.g. the paper with me, and claimed that they were supported by this grant.

Is it the way to do if your field of research has limited funding? Might he go into troubles if it is discovered by the funding agency that the papers are actually not related to the grant proposal?


texts: Phd in Mathematics (Analysis, Analytical Number Theory)

texts: Does one have to study algebra at a graduate level (master's degree) in order to do a Phd related to complex analysis and analytical number theory, or functional analysis and PDE? Is a master's degree in analysis and PDE sufficient?


texts: Getting a letter of recommendation when the referee gave no indication about the strength of the letter

texts:
Usually when I ask for a letters of recommendation, the professor give me an indication about how strong it is going to be. I asked a professor whom I am taking a course with, and while he doesn't know me very well, I did well in his course project which made me think that he might write a good letter. So I went and asked him (Before project submission) and he said that to put his name as a referee and gave me no indication about how strong it is going to be. He also said that he is looking forward to read my project report. (I told him it is a chance to get to know my work).

The next day I submitted project report and a few hours later I received an email from him telling me that he didn't receive letter submission link yet. I went and asked him what did he thought about the report and he said that he didn't read it yet. I hesitated because I already have 3 letters and his would be the fourth one which is really an extra.

A few days later, I ran into him and again he mentioned he didn't receive submission link and again I asked if he read the report and got the same response. This situation is a little confusing for me because I would rather not having his recommendation if it is not a strong one. On the other hand, he asked me three times to put his name as a referee which made me think that he is going to make a good letter.

Since I already have all the letters I need, should I take the risk of having his letter ? (I am applying to a long shot school anyway and he is well connected in that school, so his letter weights a lot, whether it is positive or negative)


texts: Is it ok to asking several profs at the same time for a letter of reference on short notice?

texts: I got an offer for an exchange program and I have paid the deposit, which isn't cheap. The application deadline (which I was only informed a few hours ago) is due in two weeks, on 2nd March. I have to get a letter of reference from a professor by then, but it's hard to contact them right now because public holidays (lasting for around 6 days) are starting on the day after tomorrow. If I do it after the holiday then I'll have less than 5 days until the deadline. I have emailed a prof, asking for an appointment but haven't got back any response. Is it ok to ask a few more profs in case I don't get any replies or get rejected by said prof?


texts: Does PhD acceptance depend on my current MA's completion?

texts:
I applied to PhD programs on my supposedly last semester of my MA. I'm doing thesis, and I am worried I won't finish in time.  I have been accepted to the PhD program I wanted, and it is in a different field than my MA, though it is still somehow related. I did say in my personal statement that I'm completing my MA.

The PhD acceptance letter didn't say anything about conditional acceptance, so I guess it's just acceptance? Does that mean even if I did not complete my MA, my PhD acceptance would still stand?


texts: How many publications to list as "selected"?

texts: I'm applying for CS tenure track positions this year, and was advised to add a "Selected Publications" part to my CV (out of 20+ conference and journal papers). How long should this section be? Can I pick all my top-tier publications (seven) or do I need to select among them?


texts: How many graduate credit hours are generally required teach in a department?

texts:
I've heard some conflicting reports on this, but in general, how many graduate credit hours are required to teach in a department or secure a professorship in it?

I'm an interdisciplinary PhD student with a heavy focus on computer science, but I will have close to thirty credit hours in social sciences when I'm done and I'd like to know if it is worth getting the count up a bit.


texts: Alternate university course allocation mechanisms

texts:
When it comes to course enrollment/registration in a limited-enrollment course, most institutions use a sequential system where students pick their course schedules sequentially (often ordered by seniority, then first-come-first-served or randomly within groups with the same seniority). Some institutions, particularly business schools, use "bidding mechanisms," where students bid (in bidding points, not real money) on the opportunity to take over-demanded courses.

These have their advantages and disadvantages, but it seems like there ought to be other ways to handle course allocation. For example, a university might use a system like a sports draft, in which people pick just one course at a time.  Are such draft systems actually used and are there other interesting non-standard ways of handling registration for restricted-enrollment graduate or undergraduate courses?

A clarification: By sequential mechanisms, I mean mechanisms in which students one-by-one select their full course schedule for the upcoming term. Obviously some systems allow a group of students to register within a given window. I still count this as sequential as it is processed sequentially: the order within that window is determined by the order in which the students in that registration window submit their requests. In economics and mechanism design, this is typically referred to as a sequential dictatorship (or a serial dictatorship, which is slightly different only in that the order is predetermined and not dependent on previous selections).


texts: Can you be working remotely on your PhD thesis of another country and then enroll and get a master/PhD in US at the same time?

texts:
A friend of mine has finished his courses needed for his PhD. He's just working on his thesis now. He can do that remotely.

He's coming to the U.S. for his wife to study. During this time, can he enroll in a masters/PhD program at an American university?

Would this create any problems in the academic world or if later he applies for work and they an overlap on his years? Or this is something completely legit and legal?

I've already seen Master and PhD program at the same time but that doesn't answer this question.


texts: Why do citations in physics journals leave out the article title?

texts:
I'm not a physicist but I read the occasional physics paper. Coming from another discipline I find it odd that most article references in physics journals leave out the article title - this seems like a valuable piece of information to include for future researchers (not to mention their research assistants or library staff who may be asked to track the article down).

This reference style is recommended in the Physical Review Style and Notation Guide (PDF, p. 7) and the AIP Style Manual (PDF, p. 9) so I assume it's fairly widespread (although as a counterexample, the Reviews of Modern Physics Style Guide (PDF, p. 8) encourages an optional "long format" that does include the title).

Why does the physics community prefer this reference style, and what's the history behind its adoption?


texts: What should someone who has been rejected from all PhD programs do to improve their application for later admissions cycles?

texts:
I tried asking this question in cstheory.stackexchange.com but it was closed and it seems like this question is more appropriate here.

I am an undergraduate and an American citizen who recently applied to Computer Science PhD programs in the US. Based on conversations with friends and posts on gradcafe I am very likely to be rejected from all the programs I applied to (I haven't heard anything while others have gotten acceptances and interview requests from all the schools I have applied to).  I am now trying to brainstorm ideas for what to do after my graduation in order to improve my chances of getting into a PhD program when I try to apply again next year.

One option that seems to be brought up a lot is to attend a master's program.  However, unless I can get funding, or transfer credit will lower my tuition significantly (I'll have 6 or 7 graduate level cs courses that will not count towards graduation requirements by the time I graduate), I'm not sure if I can afford such a program.

Another popular option is to be a lab technician or something similar.  I'm not sure if such positions are available in theoretical computer science.

Is there anything else I can do?


texts: My supervisor spells my name incorrectly

texts:
I've discovered that every time my supervisor has cited any of the papers or technical documents I've written she/he would:

spell my name incorrectly or forget to add my name
spell the article/technical document title incorrectly

These are citation made in articles already published (!!) or at final stage (where she/he denied to make any effort to try to correct them). Althought this means she/he also loses citations of these articles she/he is doing mistakes only on my papers/technical documents, not with others.

I am obliged to add her/him in every paper as co-author, although she/he never engages in any discussion concerning any of the papers or phd. This is not someone that has a flock of PhD and MSc students under her/his wings, the number of students are really reduced.

How should I react to this? What should I do about it?


texts: Should the incentive of research be discussed in the literature survey?

texts: As a postgraduate engineering student, I'm doing a thesis project on a technical system that encourages people to exercise. Now I need to write a literature survey for it. As I never wrote literature survey before, I wonder whether I should discuss the incentive of my research like the advantages of doing exercises on it, which requires me to spend time looking for some sociology papers and reading them. Instead, if I just discuss the technologies used for my system in my literature survey, is it also OK?


texts: Top tier publications for job application in the Czech Republic

texts:
I am asked to provide my Tier 1,5,10 and 25 publications for a job application in the Czech Republic. Is there any standardized way how to interpret this? Does this refer to journals with impact factors > 5, > 10 etc. or does this rather refer to the number of citations for each of the relevant publications?

Maybe somebody can clear this up for me.
Thank you in advance!


texts: How shall I report an error in a given paper?

texts:
I am currently at my last MSc year in Chemical and Process Engineering (Italy), and our last course on Industrial Chemistry has a mandatory pre-exam exercise which reads:

  Find an existing, published research paper in the field of Chemical Engineering and try to autonomously replicate its results (plots, data, equations et similia).

My chosen paper X was published in the Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research journal, and I suppose it passed peer-review. X shows the application of a new algorithm to a chemical reactor with a given physical model.

However, after my revision and replication trial, I found that using their same model, I do not obtain the paper results. There is no presence of replication error by me, since I checked every passage with the TA.

The same TA pointed out flaws (of fundamental nature, for example F = mv instead of F = ma) in the model, and once corrected allowed me to obtain the results shown in the paper.

I do not think it was a overlook error, since the same reactor model was used in X and two cited sources of X. I want to inform of this error, but I do not know what to do now.


texts: What exactly happens in your arXiv account if you no longer have institutional affiliation?

texts:
The question is similar to this one but in addition I would like to ask the following:
Don't  I need to change my email address if I am no longer affiliated to an institution?
 Won't a new mail of the form www.someone@hotmail.com  make me lose ownership of all my papers and then need endorsement from another arXiv user?

Thanks in advance!


texts:
I have been alerted to a mistake in a (mathematical) paper that I published about 8 years ago, during my PhD. The error is relevant, in the sense that it affects one of the claims made in the main result, but does not invalidate the rest of the paper. After some effort, I now also know how to correct the error.

So one course of action would be to submit a 'correction note' to the journal where the article was published.

On the other hand, since the time the paper was published also my understanding of the topic has matured a bit. In hindsight I would write the paper somewhat differently, I have had some related ideas that were not included in the original paper and finally I am also not convinced that my choice of journal was optimal.

So another course of action would be to write a new paper, including the corrected result and some new additional results and submit it to a different journal.

What course of action would be best, from an ethical and from a scientific point of view?


texts: Should I mention that I was an athlete in a curriculum for a PhD application?

texts: I am going to apply for a PhD in mathematics in north Europe. During my high school and undergraduate years, I was also a semi-professional athlete, and I retired when I was a graduate student to focus on my studies. I think being an athlete at a high level tells many things about a PhD student. A high level former athlete has probably developed a strong attitude for work, knows how to focus and how to manage their time; moreover, high level sport teaches you also how to manage stress and failures. However, I am afraid that a potential PhD adviser might get the wrong idea: I don't know any former athletes doing a PhD in my field, but I know at least one professor who thinks being an athlete could be a distraction. Unfortunately, in my country there is not a strong sports culture, and hence the academic and sport worlds are completely disjoint. Do you think I should mention my former career as an athlete in a curriculum for a PhD application?


texts: How to make a full article out of one straightforward, but interesting point?

texts:
I have an interesting idea, and did a fair bit of writing and research, with some good examples to display the idea. However, I still feel like the whole paper is too monolithic, like an extended display of one point.

How can I transform the project into something with full article potential?  I’m not sure if this would require changing some aspect of the original idea to add more potential to it, or if there are some writing strategies that can be used to surround the original idea with more substance.