texts:
I'm writing a Design Report. This is about 12k words long.
Because it's about research I've done and certain choices I've made, I'm using a lot of "I". Personally I don't think this is a problem, but my mentors have told me my papers are annoying to read, because they contain a lot of "I".
Example:

For the health belief model I had to discover four specific points.
Perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits and
perceived barriers. Because I noticed people aren’t very open when
talking about covid, I had to be careful how I asked questions. First
I let them rate the severity of each point from 1 to 5. Then after
they answered all the questions I’m asking them to justify their
answers. Doing it this way gives me answers that are more truthful.

I'm curious how I can make my writing more academic in general. Right now it's a bit like I'm writing a diary.


texts: Is a citation typically considered plural or singular in academia?

texts:
My question parallels that of https://english.stackexchange.com/q/99886/117318, which asks whether "Gamma et al." should be considered singular or plural for verb conjugation. The top and accepted answer says that it depends whether the verb refers to the researchers (since the translation of the Latin is "Gamma and others", which is plural), or if it refers to the publication/work.

Which usage is conventional in academia?
Is there significant variation across fields that anyone is aware of? Are there best practices to avoid confusion?


texts: How important are extracurricular activities as a Mathematics Major?

texts: So I'm about halfway through my Sophomore year of college at LSU and on my way to a major in Mathematics with about a 4.05 GPA so far. My main objective is to be a desirable candidate for a good grad program. It doesn't really have to be a super top-tier school, but I wouldn't like to do a grad program in Mathematics at a school like LSU; I would like it to be a higher tier than that. I understand that my GPA and internships/work experience in my field are the two most important things for my major. So far, I haven't done any extracurriculars at all during the semester and worked at a summer camp the summer after my Freshman year. I plan on doing a math-related internship this summer. So, how important are extracurriculars during the semester? I find myself not having as much free time as I'd like when school is in session, so I held off on them. Is it important that I do something such as a community service group (which would be my main extracurricular interest) in order to make myself more desirable as a grad candidate? Thanks


texts: Moving from government research to academia

texts:
I am a mid-career scientist at a government research organisation, and I am considering a move back into academia. My current employer is looking after me very well and I know I am valued, but I have a hankering for more intellectual freedom and more opportunity to work with students, especially graduate students. I've enjoyed the little bit of teaching that I have done.

I have 15 years post-PhD experience and have reached a fairly senior level - equivalent to a level D academic in Australia (perhaps equivalent to a newish full professor in the US). But I have much less teaching experience and a lower h-index than I would expect from an academic at my level. (My h-index is 14 and I am in the environmental sciences). Instead, I have spent a lot of time working closely with clients and government departments, managing people and large projects within my organisation, and working to demonstrate the real-world impact of my applied research. In short: my current employer has asked slightly different things of me than a university would. If I move back into academia, will these things be valued, or should I expect to take a demotion initially?

Finally, I am considering applying for a fixed-term (3 year) full professorship that I have recently seen advertised in a nearby research-intensive university. This would be a promotion if I were successful, but would come with a loss of job security. How would this be viewed on my CV if I were looking for another academic position in 3 years' time? Better or worse than staying where I am for those three years, and getting an internal promotion later?


texts: Do universities care about bias experienced in group projects?

texts:
I am a master's student, and I will complete my master's program soon. During my second year of my MA program, I had to work on a two-semester group project because it was a requirement for the program. My question is the types of critical issues universities care about because universities seem to see issues like academic dishonesty as the most serious offense. Would universities care about the types of incidents that I am about to share below?

Example:

I was in a group project of five people, and four of the members were Caucasians (I am a racial minority female). I was treated terribly by two of the members (one female and one male). We had the final paper that was due just yesterday. The male, who was the editor, tends to procrastinate, and he literally waited until the last minute to make significant changes, and demanded from everyone to make the changes. We did this paper in a shared Google Doc by the way. I had another paper that was due at exactly the same date and time, so by the time that he started to become actively involved, I was much more focused on my other paper. He sent everyone an email on the morning of the day just before the due date, demanding significant changes. I was able to look at emails late that night, and he had sent me another email in the evening, asking if I was still involved in the project. By this time, I was already much more focused on my other paper. My response to his email was that I understand that we all have different schedules, and it is possible that we do things at different times. I had worked on the document and made changes a few days before he became actively involved. His response was basically how dare I challenge him, and called me a passive-aggressive person. He even dropped the F-bomb in his response. Now, the other girl. She also had similar tendencies to procrastinate and got along well with this male. On the document, she purposefully deleted my name, and put a comment, "Let's keep it this way." My relationships with these two individuals had not been positive throughout the year, but I think this incident went very far.

I never had these kinds of incidents during my four years of undergrad at a different university in the US. I am certain that this type of incident is very rare, especially at the graduate school level. I think that I should share my experience with the school because I think that this is a critical issue.


texts: High likelihood I'll be unable to submit my thesis before the deadline... What's my outlook?

texts:
Ok, so I'm in a pretty dire situation here. I'm coming towards the end of my PhD contract in France. For a litany of reasons, it hasn't gone too well.

I had extreme difficulty getting my experiments to work, and as I'm working with living organism (microalgae) this often meant months of delays. My experimental schedules were often incredibly strenuous and I had nobody to help me with them.
My supervisor is a kind person but far too busy for me, and I've never really been a real priority to her. She's often away for weeks, responds incredibly slowly or not at all to requests for review of my work or help, and has decided to go on a research cruise just before my deadline date (while continuously delaying review of my currently written chapters). I don't want to be too pessimistic but I feel like she gave up on me months ago and didn't suggest I quit because she wanted me to finish the work and publish the papers.
Ridiculous bureaucracy in France has no leeway on deadline for submission -- 2 months before the prospective defence date and no later, and no defence date outside of contract end (to avoid paying unemployment benefits to students while they continue to work). Apparently I am unable to waive this either, as I would be happy to do if it meant a few weeks more time.
The difficulties of living abroad and alone exacerbated incredibly my pre-existing depression and anxiety and this meant me having extreme difficulty self motivating and keeping good time. I've had probably 4-5 mental breakdowns over the last 3 years due to experimental scheduling.
I didn't have a good grasp of what I was supposed to do in my PhD apart from experimentation, and I was ostracised pretty badly by my mostly French department (I'm English). Other PhD students (French) all received great advice and tutelage under the senior members of staff, whereas most staff here don't know my name nor have ever tried to talk to me.

I feel like I've just failed life. I don't have any idea what kind of employers would accept me after this 3 year mess. Due to my extreme experimental schedule I feel very underdeveloped as I didn't manage to publish anything (yet), go to many classes, go to any conferences... etc. The only thing going for my is 5 years of lab experience. However most lab jobs I've seen (in the UK - my home) that pay well require experience in techniques I haven't used, and low paid ones that I could adapt easily to require only A levels; having a first class masters would probably mean they think I’m overqualified.

Science was always my dream and it's been my career path since my youth. Now that I have the experience of what not to do in a PhD I feel like I could enter another program and succeed easily. I made SO many mistakes this time around that could've easily been avoided if I'd known what to expect. Unfortunately, almost nothing at all was communicated clearly to me on what I had to do to succeed until it was too late, and the language barrier meant that I had a hard time finding this info myself. However, I don't know at all if another project would accept me. Also, I don't know if I could handle the stress.

Sorry for the rant. The advice I'm asking for is:

Do I have any career prospects?
How on earth do I present myself to prospective employers as anything but a failure?
Would a potential future PhD supervisor ever consider me given my failure? It's unclear, while I feel like i'm advantaged because I know what to do now and I'd have the confidence and drive not to repeat the same mistakes, I don't know if anyone would see me like that. I've truly learned from my mistakes.

Thank you for your time...


texts: How should I ask for letters of recommendation whose strength is dependent on intended program?

texts:
TL;DR I finished bachelor's and master's in mathematical finance but want to pursue pure mathematics, particularly in probability theory. I'm not sure if I should apply directly for a PhD. I might apply for a second master's first.

I think the strength of the letter of recommendation (or whether or not there will be a letter of recommendation) from my professors may depend on the program to which I am applying. How should I ask for a letter in this context?

My past questions: 1 2 3 4

[Details removed following suggestion in comments]

So how might I ask for a letter of recommendation under this context? What I think to ask so far is to first request a consultation asking for advice in applying for graduate programs. At this point I explain I'm not sure if I'm going to apply for a second master's or a PhD. Then of course I ask for a recommendation letter. But how? These are what I have in mind:

  Would you be uncomfortable writing me a letter of recommendation?

or

  Would you be uncomfortable writing me a letter of recommendation? Would the strength of the letter depend on the program to which I am applying (whether second master's or PhD)?

or

  Would you be uncomfortable writing me a letter of recommendation? Would the comfortability of writing the letter depend on the program to which I am applying (whether second master's or PhD)?

or

  Would you be uncomfortable writing me a letter of recommendation? Would the strength or comfortability of writing the letter depend on the program to which I am applying (whether second master's or PhD)?


texts: Teaching uninterested/under-engaged students in science courses

texts:
How should one engage uninterested students in a fast-paced, densely fact-packed science course such as chemistry or microbiology? I find that the only students who truly understand and engage with the material are those who already have a strong background in the material being covered, while the rest of the class is usually ranging from bored to panicking, depending on how much they care about grades. (For most of the students in these classes, the science courses are required for their major, so they are taking them because they have to, not because they are intrinsically interested in the sciences.)

So how could I engage the interest of these students without dumbing down the course material or slowing down the pace of the class? Neither seems a viable option given department wide standards at this institution.


texts: Should I host my academic website under my institution domain or under a domain of my own ?

texts:
My institution provides a dedicated storage space to host our academic websites, which is reachable via the institution domain (something like http://people.institution.org/John.Doe/).

I try to have a tidy website of a few pages listing my publications, research area, contact, etc. It is currently reachable through my institution domain. I try to also put some efforts in SEO when people look up for my name or particular research area on search engines.

I'm in my last year of Ph.D. and I will undoubtedly move to other institutions in the next few years, so I am wondering if it wouldn't be preferable to host my academic webpage on a dedicated domain http://www.johndoe.com, which would prevent the need to do the SEO all over again each time I will switch to a new institution.

The only advantage to use my institution domain is the affiliation, but this information is present on my website anyway.

I'm a Ph.D. student in electrical engineering in France, if it matters.


texts:
I have used data of my colleague with her permission in my article while that data was funded by an external organization for her other project. Although my research is not funded by that organization, I made use of some data.

Is it okay to acknowledge my colleague and the other organization in my article, or do I have to provide funding details to answer the question 'Did the research in this article receive funding?'.

Thanks


texts: What facts constitutes as citation-worthy

texts:
If I were to state a fact that is simply a part of a field, do I need to cite a scientific article that supports this? Like, let's say I write something like this:

"... tryptamine being a monoamine protein in the body, involved in the regulation of serotonergic, dopaminergic and glutamatergic systems in the brain."

Do I need to cite this? Is there anything one can remember to guide oneself in situations where one wonders whether to cite or not?
(I'm writing a treatise, which has been defined to me at least, as  a text type somewhere between an essay and a scientific article)


texts: Can I use facts from surveys which are done by others and are available on internet?

texts:
I am doing a research on family business and there are few survey available on internet providing a lot of key information/data.

For examples, there is one detailed survey done by a accountancy firm (2000 interviews around the world) and showing very interesting results which I want to use in my research paper.

This accountancy firm is sharing this survey with viewers on their site, they are even allowing to download the .pdf copy.

So my question is, can I use this information (of course I will give credit to them for this information) OR do I need permission from them to use these facts?


texts:
I have finished my BSc and I am considering applying for a Msc. I have no idea about the etiquite of applying for grad school. Do I apply using the online form or should one send an email to the proffesors and doctors?

If they are important, what does one say!?

Thanks, and any advice you have is welcome!


texts: Alphabetical Order for Authors in Computer Science

texts:
I was wondering, in the field of Computer Science, if there is a convention for acknowledging that author ordering for an academic paper is by alphabetical order, not contribution.

I know that in CS, alphabetical ordering, isn't all that common, however due to a lack of internal consensus, alphabetical ordering would be preferred in my situation.

Even in fields outside of CS, is there a convention for perhaps indicating in a footnote that the author list is alphabetical and NOT by contribution?

EDIT: To elaborate a bit more, after examining the question posted here, our field would likely be considered 'computer systems' (rather than theoretical computer science) where it is stated that the first author is usually the team lead. However in our situation, as I said, we are having internal disagreement over which person would be considered 'leader', and I was wondering what the best way to indicate equal contribution, or perhaps use alphabetical ordering to avoid the issue all together. We weren't really expecting to submit our work for publication (we're undergraduates), so this all has been rather unexpected.


texts: How to tell professors I am not interested in working with them right now, but might want to, later?

texts:
I am PhD student who was (and still am) trying to find an advisor. Over the summer I contacted many professors, and started small 'trial' projects with them. Since people respond at different times and move at different paces, all of these projects started a few weeks apart, towards the end of the summer. I very recently decided I want to focus on one project with the professor I liked best and want to politely let the other professors know that I no longer want to work with them on their projects. I had not met these other people more than thrice (in three weeks), and had only got to the point of finishing reading a couple of their papers. None of these professors was/is paying me for research, either.

Here's the thing, though - the professors who I don't want to work with are the ones who are willing to take me right away, because I have the skill set they want in their groups. The professor who I want to work with wants to 'test' me for a quarter, so there's always the chance that he might eventually reject me. I however do want to give it a fair shot, since I loved his work, working style and personality the most (we've met twice so far, and both were technical meetings).

So coming to the point, I want to have the other professors that like me as back-ups in case this particular professor is not sufficiently impressed with me by the end of the quarter. How do I convey that to them without pissing them off?


texts: Should you mention your ranking in specific courses in statement of purpose?

texts:
I would like to know if it is good to talk about your outstanding ranking in important courses in your statement of purpose.

For example, is it good to say I took "Quantum physics" in the second year and my rank was 1st out of 100 students? Or to mention a list of courses where my rank was 1st or 2nd among many students in the university?

The reason I am asking is because your transcript does not give the complete story of how well you were doing in your courses. You might get an A, but so did 20 other people.


texts: How to correspond with academics as a young researcher in high school?

texts:
I just started my freshman year of high school, and one of the electives I'm taking is a year long research project where we can choose any topic, do an experiment, and write a paper about it. I chose to do a research project with mathematics, specifically a really cool subject called class field theory.

I understand the topic, most of the current papers and literature I've read on it, and I have done an experiment on a certain cause/effect. The problem now is to analyze the data I've gotten and write a paper. It looks really promising, but I will occasionally have questions on certain topics that are really hard to research online. For this, I usually try to contact a researcher who is knowledgeable in the subject I'm researching and just ask if they would be interested in giving some of their time to answer some of my questions.

For example, the way I structured my last email (that spurred this question):

  Hello Dr. *****,

  My name is *****. I'm 14, and I live in South Carolina. Recently, we were assigned a year-long research project, which I chose to do on Hilbert class fields of global function fields. In one area of my research, I encountered a problem with [short, general topic of problem].

  I see that you have taught a lecture on class field theory (including Hilbert and ray class fields). I have studied the lecture notes and it has given me a lot of clarification, but I still have a few questions that I feel most of the resources out there do not address.

  I've also read some of your work and it seems right up my alley.
  I appreciate your concise yet poignant and very understandable way of explaining things. I was wondering if perhaps we could start a short correspondence to help me understand what I'm writing about, and to gain more knowledge of class field theory.

  With gratitude, ****

The response I got to this, and unfortunately to the majority of responses I get to similar emails, is condescending in tone and treated me as a child. Of course, I understand this, as I am a child, but in this specific area I would not like to be treated as one. I tried to just not tell my age, and I got much more enthusiastic reactions, but what was suggested to me was to "talk to my advisor" or cited other resources that are not available to me as a highschool student.

Is there something I'm doing wrong in my emails? I've never been part of the whole "academia culture", so this is just me trying my best to sound professional. In any case, what can I include in my correspondence or generally do to be respected as a young researcher?


texts:
I'm finishing Applied Physics this month, and the next I will finish my other bachelor degree, engineering. I have many ideas for starting my own research (at the frontiers - not doing things already attempted) and I feel like it would be a waste of time to attend a graduate course, also because I learn more on books than from listening lectures.

In my specific case, I already started attending conferences since a couple of years and presented a poster at one of them. I'm interested in theoretical physics and the possible connections with biology.

Does it make sense to try for one year to do something on my own and see how it goes?

I think that people here sometimes get annoyed at me for reason I don't really understand, so I will explain: I read quite a lot of papers until now, so I have some idea of how it goes nowadays. I don't really want to pollute ArXiv with some utter nonsense, but rather the contrary. My aim would be to learn what I would learn in a normal course, by myself, more deeply, and not only basic things of everything. This example here shows some good resources. For example Feynman learnt calculus by himself, but better. In modern times there are many resources for self-teaching and something like Physics from a theoretical viewpoint should be perfectly doable and learnable from books on my own, like for programming or Biology. Anyway maybe this question is more suitable for Quora?


texts: Can my work on manufacturing, designing & fabrication of an electric solar vehicle be considered as an original research & can it be published

texts:
My classmates and I are pursuing B.Tech in Mechanical engineering and we have formed a team to manufacture, design, fabricate, and develop an electric solar vehicle which would operate under safe speed. We are designing it in a way to reduce weight and make it much lighter. We are also trying to minimise the cost of production &  making sure that it works both at day and night.

We have designed it using Solidworks and have taken into account all types of loads and stresses that will be generated. Apart from these goals, we are also working upon various other parameters which include efficiency and other considerations. We have fabricated the solar cells on our own.

We expect to complete our work in a couple of months. I want to know if our work can be claimed as an original research and if we can publish it. If so, how many people can be authors on the research paper ?


texts: Turning down a scholarship...with the hope of getting more funding?

texts:
I recently applied for an intensive language program at my university; the program's relatively expensive, but many students get full or partial scholarships to cover some of the cost. I just got a letter confirming my acceptance into the program, along with a modest scholarship. I'm thrilled, but, unfortunately, there's no way that I can afford this program based on the scholarship they've given me.

I have to write back to the program executive, who I've spoken with several times throughout my application process, either accepting or refusing the scholarship. What I'm wondering is: is there some way that I can refuse the scholarship while also hinting at the fact that the only thing keeping me from attending this program is money? I've had a lot of friends who have written letters along the lines of "I would love to enroll in University X, but University Y has given me a larger scholarship", and have gotten larger scholarships from law/grad schools. I'm wondering if sending an email like "I appreciate this opportunity and would love to attend, but, unfortunately, cannot afford the tuition" would have a similar effect, or does it seem... I don't know, slimy? Is trying to subtly manipulate my way into a larger scholarship inappropriate and/or a futile effort? Should I just politely reject the scholarship offer instead?

Any previous experiences/advice anyone has would be a huge help!


texts: Time management and organization for PhD Student in first year?

texts:
After failing the first year of the PhD program at a top university, I know that my poor performance resulted from dealing with a tremendously debilitating psychological condition, but it all was exacerbated by a serious lack of time management skills and poor organization. This academic year, I constantly underestimated the time it would takes me to complete every assignment. Consequently, I found myself asking for extensions and even then, I was incapable of making the extension. I can't use the excuse that I simply am unfamiliar with the subject matter, as I have earned a master degree in this field with honors from another prestigious university and worked for several years prior to starting the program. I also can't blame my failure on procrastination, as I  generally start weekly assignments  3-5 days prior to the deadline, and  work on term projects for at least a month prior to their deadline.  To say the least, my professors are irritated with me. Their frustration in part comes from their knowledge of my abilities. Every single one has set me aside and provided candid feedback and in their words...once I manage to complete an assignment and submit it on time, "the content and quality is pretty good". Now that my health has improved, their feedback confirms my self-assessment and I am 1,000% certain that my failure to thrive is due to serious time management and organization shortcomings.

For those of you out there that have encountered a similar situation and been able to overcome it, what did you do? What strategies did you use for completing assignments on time (specifically writing assignments or a critical and technical nature)? Can you recommend any resources that have helped you tackle these problems?


texts: Should I respond to editors about unprofessional review?

texts:
I think I am in a very similar situation to this question, with the exception that my submission has been refused.
I do not want to start a flame, but to me, one of the two reviewers didn't took the necessary time to do a proper review.

The first reviewer made a thorough summary of the paper, and explained in an extremely clear way what were his/her doubts and which parts were not strong enough.
The second one looked like a baby plugging his hears and screaming "It stinks! It stinks!".
He only attempted to make a point that resulted to be wrong since he was substantially criticizing how an algorithm works (Random Forests), even though it's empirically demonstrated to be effective.

Now, based on the constructive critiques of the first reviewer I refined the manuscript and attempting to submit to another journal. What I can't stand is the behaviour of the second reviewer.

Generally speaking, is the idea to respond to the editor about the bad (where bad is like in the linked question) review(er) a viable action, or should I just ignore all of this and go on?


texts: Is a humorous "easter egg" in the academic homepage acceptable?

texts:
This is my current homepage at my university's website,
I've considered adding a little "humorous" thing to the homepage to make it less "boring" and more approachable (the "updated" version can be found here, click at the button on the bottom of the page - this is still not uploaded as my main homepage).

My question is, is something like that considered acceptable? will it leave any bad impression? Personally I find it quite funny and like small jokes hidden in serious websites / papers / h.w / books / etc.


texts: What is the correct procedure to report typos or errors in journal articles?

texts:
I have found an error in a journal article which I believe to be a typo. It is minor but it does affect the technical aspects of the paper so it should ideally be corrected.

What is the correct procedure in these cases? Should I contact the authors? Should I contact the editors? Does this vary on a case-by-case basis? If so, what should I consider?


texts: What is the best way to find an external examiner for an MSc (e-government)

texts:
I am an advisor trying to find an external examiner for my student for an MSc (area: e-government).

Currently the thesis is at the proposal stage (which also needs to be assessed by an external examiner). I'm a relatively young supervisor and therefore found it a bit difficult to find a suitable candidate. The person would have to have a Ph.D. and be proficient in English.  There is also some money involved (but the details can be only disclosed to those who are really interested).

My approach so far has been to check papers on e-government and try to contact the authors.  But maybe there is a dedicated forum where I could approach potential researchers in an easier way?


texts:
Is it okay to mail an Associate Editor in his personal e-mail?

I have submitted a manuscript in a journal and I want to know the status of my manuscript.

The publisher of my journal is "World Scientific".
There is no option to mail the Associate Editor of the journal to whom I have assigned my manuscript.
Neither is any email address of the Associate Editor provided in the Journal Hoempage.Only his name and affiliation has been given.

Also there is only two templates of email address provided which are
1.Extending Submission Deadline.
2.Extending Revision Deadline.

There is no template to ask about the status of the manuscript.

Is it fine to mail the Associate Editor in his personal email provided in his homepage?

Kindly comment.


texts: what happend status of the journal changed back to the under review from reviews completed?

texts:
I submitted an article to JMES (Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Sciences) on April 3.

On April 10 the status was changed to "Under Review" and on May 7 to "Review Completed", but then on May 22 the status was changed back to "Under Review".

Can anyone explain this?


texts:
Plagiarism is the reuse of other's materials without proper credit and acknowledgement [1]
Credible sources are vaguely defined, but it can be attributed to verifiable facts in the literature [2]
I want to ask that, in a situation, when an academician found an "inspiring" idea (not necessarily well-defined) on the non-academic part of the Internet, such as some blogs, or discussion on the social networks, a Youtube video, or some crude Python scripts, etc, and work out on their own to shape up an explicit scientific study or, for example, write up a sophisticated numerical package, then two there are two things here: (1) the source does not provide a scientific study, nor in an academic form, thus it cannot be considered as "credible source", so usually it cannot be cited, (2) but it provides a crude idea that one formulates a scientific problem based on it, so not citing it should be considered as plagiarism.
What is the way to deal with it? Whether to cite or not to cite? For a casual discussion on the Internet to inspire research might be rare in reality, at least it is me who hasn't seen a case, but what if this situation came into reality?


texts: How much work is preparing a MOOC-ish course

texts:
I have been offered the chance  to prepare and deliver 4 undergraduate courses. There are to be forty 15 minute videos per course all to be written and presented by me.  It seems they will in the first instance use the video for their current undergraduates but may then  roll them out as part of some future MOOC-ish course.

My question is, does anyone with experience of producing this sort of material have any suggestions for how much work it is likely to be? I know how much work preparing a normal lecture course is of course but I don't have a good feeling for how much more work making the video lectures is. Ultimately the university wants me to say how much money I would accept to make the courses.

This related question from 2013 is sadly without any concrete answers but maybe there is more information available these day?


texts: How do I ask a professor to recommend me to another professor to hire me as a teaching assistant?

texts:
I have been admitted into a college in the US for a master's program. I am applying for TA positions under various professors because TAs get tuition benefits.

One of the professors who taught me as an undergrad (Prof. X) knows a professor in the department where I will be studying (Prof. Y). How do I ask Prof. X to recommend me to Prof. Y?


texts: Is there a list of countries (or universities) showing which prefer direct communication with referee?

texts:
My students often request letters of reference from me. Sometimes to attend graduate school in the UK, Germany, Switzerland, and sometimes in countries not internationally known for their education system.

Quite often the student says the university wants them to enclose the letters of recommendation and clearly some universities do not want the student to be involved in that communication process.

My question is, how do I know when I am writing a letter to a specific university if they prefer the student to submit the letter or if they prefer me to communicate directly with the school? I could check with each school as I write the letter but that seems like a lot of work which need not be repeated for each letter-writer.


texts: Firstly manuscipt 'rejected' and then status changed to 'revise'

texts:
I submitted a paper and in the cover letter, I mentioned that the work is related to our previous publication (published in the same journal). After 25 days (for that time status was 'with editor') I received an email from Editor that I need to mention in "manuscript (and letter)" about the difference between the published manuscript and submitted manuscript. I wrote few lines in the manuscript and added some text in the cover letter (I did not prepare response letter as there was no option to upload it) explaining the difference. I submitted the manuscript again after one day of receiving the email from the editor.

On the very next day, I received rejection email from Editor saying it was not made clear up to which extend this work was different from published one. I wrote a reply email to Editor saying that the submitted manuscript is much different from the earlier one (I wrote 6-7 lines email) and allow this manuscript to be judged by the reviewer.

Here is the twist. The editor replied (within 2-3 hours). He said that the manuscript was reviewed by the reviewer and it was not found to be suitable to publish in present form.  However, he invited me to revise it if I could respond to the reviewer's comments. And the decision was changed from 'Reject' to 'Revise' and a new deadline was given to me.

Now what should I understand out of this ? Is it a good sign or editor is just passing time ? Can anybody guess the chances that the editor will see this without prejudice, becuase he earlier rejected this. Moreover, I am confused whether it will go to the new reviewers now. (I believe it was not gone to reviewer otherwise it would take at least a week to get the response)

And is it usual in peer review process ?

Thanks in advance for sharing your opinions and advice.

Regards.


texts: How to greet when having a PhD panel interview?

texts: What is the most proper greeting for when you enter a panel of faculty members for a PhD Interview, and what for when you leave? I'm in the UK, in case that's relevant.


texts: Resources for quantitative social science research workflow

texts:
I'm interested in best practices for research workflows for quantitative social science. The best book I have encountered on the subject is "The Workflow of Data Analysis Using Stata" by J. Scott Long (2008). As the title suggests, it is largely about working with Stata, but the author begins by discussing general characteristics of a good workflow: accuracy, efficiency, simplicity, standardization, automation, usability, and scalability. (It is also a decade old now, and does not discuss version control software, unit testing, etc.)

What other resources (books, websites, etc.) are helpful for designing research workflows for quantitative social science, both generally and for specific packages (Matlab, Python, R, ArcGIS, Stata, etc.), and what are the strengths and weaknesses of each such resource?


texts: Is it okay to restructure a literature review to fit a broad topic?

texts:
I'm aware that most literature reviews follow a similar structure, which is:

Introduce a topic
Discuss and cross reference papers that cover this topic

The literature review that I am covering is a very broad topic (medical applications for machine learning) and is interested in all the research covering this topic. Is it okay to write a literature review with the following structure?:

Introduce paper
Discuss paper
Move onto next paper and repeat.

This could be discussed in the methodology of the lit review.


texts: What is the purpose of an e-book with random verbatim abstracts pulled from journals?

texts:
I just found an abstract of mine, copied from a Journal, in an online book titled "Issues in Ecological Research and Application." It looks like this is a free book to download that just has random abstracts from various ecology journals. However, it appears like it doesn't take every single abstract from these journals. This company appears to also do this for many fields.

Actually, it is a bit stranger than full abstracts, it's basically full abstracts broken up with phrases like "journalists obtained a quote from researchers at University '..."

So my questions are, how did my abstract get in such a book? And what is the purpose of such a book? Abstracts are freely available online everywhere. Back in the print days, I could, perhaps, see the purpose of a library owning such a thing, but I can't quite understand what this is used for. Also is this even legal and should I be concerned about such things?


texts: PhD in GIS after Bachelor Degree in Computer Science

texts:
I have a bachelors degree in Computer Science & Engineering and have specific experience in geographic information systems (GIS). I am planning to enroll in a GIS PhD program and have searched for United States universities with GIS PhD programs. However, none of these PhD programs are offered from a Computer Science department: all programs are in either a Geography department or Civil Engineering department or Earth Science department. Should I apply to these other departments even though I come from a Computer Science background?

Can a student complete his PhD program in a university department other then the department of his undergraduate work?


texts: How important is it to show students an application of the topics seen in an undergraduate course?

texts:
I am currently designing a proof-based Math course for my University. I already designed and ordered all of the theoretical content in the course and included some ad hoc exercises for practicing each of the particular topics in the course. However, I have also designed a long final assignment that introduces a problem covering roughly all of the topics in the course.

My question is on how helpful is it for the student to work on these kind of general assignments. Assuming he already understood each of the topics individually, will it be beneficial spending some weeks analyzing an application involving almost all of the topics seen? Is there any research on the educational benefits of these type of exercises?

EDIT: I would be grateful if someone could cite a research paper that talks about the benefits of showing these kind of general applications involving many topics in undergraduate courses.


texts: Manuscript status changed from "Under review" to "Required reviews completed" and again to "Under review"

texts: I submitted a paper to a journal where the status changes from "Under review" to "Required reviews completed". The status "Required reviews completed" was there for 2 days. Now, again it is showing "Under review". What could this mean?


texts: How thorough should I be when reviewing chapters for a book?

texts: I'm editing my first book and, as part of the process, I have to review the chapters from the different authors. I'm doubting about how deep the review should be, I mean for example If I think that if the authors include a certain figure the section will be more clear, should I comment it? Or do you think that it is personal style and each author should keep his/hers?


texts: My significant other is a member of a research project that I coordinate. How to allocate funding?

texts: I'm responsible for a large research project, with many members and some substantial funding for traveling to conferences. However, I'm now in a relationship with one of its members. How should I proceed regarding allocating funds to my significant other? I'm worried that I may be accused of being unethical if I allocate whichever amount to them. What should I do? Namely, I would like to declare a conflict of interest, but there does not seem to be a way to deal with this conflict without some drastic consequences.


texts: Shall I give a template to the rec-letter writer?

texts:
Many professors, specifically in China, wants students to provide at least a template (half-written letter). In US, is it similar? I've read an article from Harvard Business Review website saying that it is better to enclose a template. https://hbr.org/2010/04/how-to-ask-for-a-reference-let-1-2 I think HBR is a credible source for US professional practice?

However, I am afraid that this practice would seem really creepy to some most honest professor. For example, I once informally ask a professor if he wants a template. He decisively refuses.

After that experience, I never mentioned about a template in US. However, later, some professors (in US) asked me in a vague way that they want a template. So I am kind of confused. What is the default way?

Here are my options:

Include the well-written template letter along with my materials (he might be insulted)
Mentioning that I am going to include a "narrative list of accomplishment in third person tense", along with my PS and CV. I would also mention that this is just to save his time and minimize his trouble; it is not to force him to write me in this way. If he does not refuse, then I send him all documents. If he explicitly says that he does not want the "narrative essay in third person tense", I would just have him writing the letter or switch that guy.
Ask the professor directly if he wants a template letter written (he might be insulted but he might just think that I am ignorant)


texts: Differences between fellowships in Europe

texts:
From the perspective of a young postdoc career in Europe, what are the differences between applying to a Marie-Curie, a Humboldt (in Germany), or an Emmy Noether fellowships?

Bonus question: Are there other fellowships other than the three listed above?


texts: How to contact professors as a high school student?

texts: I am a high school student who is interested in mathematics. As such I have been emailing several professors from prominent universities. I have been running into trouble when trying to figure out what their research is from their websites (it's either way too specific and jargon-filled, or so general I can't find anything good to ask them.) Would it be a good idea to just plainly say: "I see you research 'area in math.' Would you mind telling me what specifically your research entails?"?


texts: Does the peer review reciprocity principle apply globally or per venue?

texts:
It is commonly accepted within academia that if you submit and publish peer-reviewed papers, you should also do your share, and review your peers' papers.

Does the underlying principle apply globally or per-venue? Should you aim to do approximately as much review work as your own papers received, considering the total sum of all your contributions in your field? Or is there a social convention or moral obligation to do peer review work in the same venues that you submit or publish papers in?


texts: Do Europe committees care about my community service for GRE learners?

texts:
I have finished applying into US schools, and now I turn to other countries. Since I don't think that there is much different between US and Europe (more specifically, UK) in the requirements in the SOP, I plan to just simply reuse it (of course this time I'll use the British spelling checker).

However, in my SOP apply to the US schools, I have a paragraph describes my contribution to GRE learners. While it may help when it serves US committees, I wonder if it would help in Europe ones. Apparently it's because GRE score is not required in Europe. It can be possibly that they don't even know what GRE is for.

Q: So, is it worth the space to mention about the contribution for GRE learners?

My draft is as follows:

  I also have contributed to GRE learners community with a refined Anki deck. One powerful flashcard program that is very helpful to learn GRE vocabulary is Anki. Although I have managed to learn a lot of words from existing shared decks, these decks were poorly designed, hindering the effectiveness in memorizing words. Seeing the need to have a well-designed deck, not only for me, but also for the community; I decided to dedicate one month just to create one so that the spaced repetition method could achieve its highest potential. Once complete I posted it on my website. The result was incredible. Every month approximately a hundred visitors download it from my site. Within a couple months this popularity has pushed my site to the front page of Google, and the good news is that I haven't forgotten a single word since.


texts: Missing out on a position due to false HR advice. What should I do?

texts:
Following up on my previous question (Academic Progression via Promotion vs via Recruitment), where I wanted to apply for an assistant professor position at a university where I am currently a postdoc. The HR advice then was that I cannot do that as an external applicant and that I need to apply for promotion next year. For more background please see my original question.

Last week I discovered that a couple of the potential candidates for this position are actually postdocs in a similar situation as mine, and already work for the same university. They are going to give presentations to the staff next week (This is how I knew). This implies that the HR advice to me was not accurate or something odd has happened.  I contacted HR for explanation but didn't receive back.

I missed out on this opportunity due to false advice from HR which is not fair. What are my options?


texts: Is there a way to ethically hire somebody to write "rough drafts"/"extended outlines" for your PhD dissertation?

texts:
My girlfriend (let's call her Rose), who is a graduate student, got approached by a person of influence in Rose's industry (call her Elizabeth) who is currently working towards her PhD. Elizabeth asked Rose to "help" her write her literature review and she will receive monetary compensation. Rose, wanting to make a good acquaintance with Elizabeth, agreed to "help." Elizabeth asked Rose to write 30(!) pages of literature review -- a "rough draft" -- which Elizabeth will use to write her literature review.

I already told Rose this is unethical behavior. However, Rose doesn't want to burn this bridge. Is there a way for Rose to ethically help Elizabeth? Possibly, in a way that Rose's credentials also grow?


texts: My advisor demands second authorship, but my collaborator contributed much more than him. I don't want to be unethical, what should I do?

texts:
My PhD supervisor has contributed 0% to my research and he even does not know the basics of my research. On the other hand, I have a collaborator from another university who has contributed significantly to my work. Now that the manuscript is ready to submit, my supervisor demands to be the second author, after me as the first author and before my collaborator. My colleagues recommended that I do whatever he asks because he can easily screw up my life for few years by delaying my graduation. The reason he claims for the second position is that my university pays my scholarship, not my collaborator's university.

I am confused and worried. I do not want to be unethical .... Any idea?

Just and update :
According to my university authorship guidelines
"Acquisition of funding, the collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, by themselves, DO NOT JUSTIFY authorship. "

But if I remind him the ethical issues, it's like a declaration of war!


texts: How to transition from MBA in Finance to PhD in Financial Economics?

texts:
I want to pursue a PhD in Financial Economics in USA/Canada. I am a software engineer and going to Canada to pursue an MBA in Finance in September from an average public university.

I have studied a lot of high level math courses in Engineering (Undergrad).  I will study many Finance and Econ courses in the MBA program.

I am interested in a PhD from a US university (average public university, not targeting top level).

I am really crazy about this subject. I know that I wasted a lots of time on other things but I still have time and I am very interested in teaching.

What opportunities can I take advantage of during the MBA to maximize my chances of PhD admission?


texts: Are Canadian applicants favored in graduate admissions or funding for Canadian graduate programs?

texts: I'm not sure if this question is off-topic here, but I have applied to some Canadian master's economics programs as an international student along with my Canadian classmates. Even though I have a better academic record than they do, I didn't get into the schools with as much funding as my Canadian classmates. My question is why is it so? Based on my knowledge and experience, I don't think that schools in US have this type of a double standard policy, as I received enough funding from some public universities there. I know I could be wrong as I may well be generalizing.


texts: Can I update my MSc thesis after submission

texts:
Due to events beyond my control I couldn't finish the writing as planned. Most of the thesis were rather ready and not to bad (if I might say) but I didn't finish all chapters well, there are some logical gaps and moreover some of the rather central diagrams were not clear at all. In normal circumstances this could be fixed in a few days, but in this case there were no way to do it.

I couldn't postpone to submit the MSc thesis (due to maximum time allowed) so I just quickly wrapped it up (removing comments in text and tried to cover some logic steps in sloppy sentences etc).

Now, the thesis are to be archived and moreover, some colleagues from other universities want to read it. It's a rather big interest, but I'm embarrassed about the missing parts and even some typos. Would it be immoral to correct the errors and fix the missing parts to create a better, more readable study, if I clearly state that it is an updated version? Could I call it a report based on my thesis or something like that?

What would be the best way to deal with it? I'd love to produce a well written document at the end, but shouldn't hide the problems of the original, submitted thesis. I have no intention of hiding the original thesis, but the results would be much clearer with n update.


texts: I recently submitted a journal article and it is under review. I have not heard back yet. I am in contact with a potential collaborator, and I think it would be beneficial for her to read I have in the submitted paper. Is it advisable to send out preprints that have yet to be published? Rejection of a submitted manuscript is always a possibility.


texts: How can a grad student get funding without doing research?

texts:
I am a 1st-year graduate student at University of Oregon, and I am trying to find funding for my education.

The problem I am running into is finding funds that don't require research. My career path doesn't involve deep research projects and it seems the requirement for a majority of scholarships require students doing research.

Any tips?


texts: A Last Minute Meeting Request at the End of the Year

texts:
The class and year has ended.   I wanted to meet with  a professor who served as a great mentor with me during this year. I wanted to thank her in person and discuss pedagogy. I unexplainably dissed her by leaving at the end of the last class without thanking her or saying goodbye.

Feeling great guilt and disappointment, I emailed her to set up a last chance meeting. She responded with a long winded email about how busy she was [possibly a polite-go-away], but suggested possible times a week later.
I responded, in a clearly selfish and urgent manner, that I was available after the dates she suggested.

She responded with a "ok Ethel... i will write to you when I'm finished this week."

Upon further consideration, I feel that I might have come off as entitled to her time.
I'm considering taking back the meeting request and just writing a heartfelt email instead, possibly before she has a chance to attempt to set up a meeting.

Does anyone have advice?


texts: What are the advantages and disadvantages of taking an Erasmus exchange semester abroad, and will it have an effect when it comes to finding a job?


texts:
I am writing my master thesis in English and I understand that usually italics are used to put emphasis on a word, because it is an important or a newly introduced technical term. But I still ask myself if I have to use italics for these two cases:

Variables' names. For instance, let's suppose that I have a complex equation and the variable n appears inside this equation. If I am describing the equation in a text paragraph, and I am talking about n (e.g. "if the value of n is large enough, then..."), in this case, should n be italicized?
For programmers: should class names and data types be italicized? E.g. "a variable of type UInt32 is used".


texts: Should I take an extra but "short" recommendation from a bigshot?

texts:
Usually during postdoc application in my field applicants are asked to arrange three letters of recommendation. Sometimes one can add more than three letters. Recently I visited an institute for two weeks and gave a seminar on my work. There I also interacted with a faculty member who is a very famous. I asked him if he could write a letter for me. He told me that he could write one. But that would be very short since he knew me only for two weeks. He asked me to take letters from people who knew me for few years and also said that he could write a "fourth letter" if I insist.

Will it be a good idea to ask a letter from him?

(From my personal experience and after discussing with some other people who know him very well, I know he is an excellent human being and also very friendly.)


texts: Writing about a paper that won't be published (but got accepted) in my resume

texts:
(I believe my question is not a duplicate, I've seen all others related to this.)

I'm an undergrad and I need to make a resume to apply for jobs (in industry) including a paper that we submitted to a conference. The paper got accepted, but we weren't able to get a visa. So, the paper will go unpublished. (We plan to submit it elsewhere, but that'll take time)

Is it correct to write (in my resume) that I have an accepted paper? If it is, can I just mention it as "accepted"? In that case is it unethical to not mention that I know it won't be published?

Thank you.


texts: avoid auto-plagiarism in publishing results from PhD thesis

texts: I'm currently writting my thesis, where are exposed unpublished results that I would like to publish (may be after my PhD defense). Can I directly re-use text from my thesis ?


texts: My research supervisor left the university and no one told me

texts:
I am currently doing my Masters in a program that has both a practicum component and a thesis component. My research supervisor and I had been working over the past few years on a thesis topic. The last time I spoke with her was at the end of March and we were close to defending a research proposal (I just needed to do a few edits to the proposal). Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic happened, and research was closed down for a few months during the summer. At the same time, I had to adjust to doing my practicum placement online. I didn’t hear anything from my supervisor during the summer and to be honest, I didn’t get in contact with her because I understood that her expectation was that I would get in touch once I had something to share.
In September, I tried to get in touch with my supervisor using her university email and I kept getting an error that it was “undeliverable”. I tried looking on the faculty listing and noticed that I could no longer find her there. I got in contact with one of the graduate student assistants in my program and told them about the situation and they told me to email my supervisor on her personal email.
I finally received an email from her, and she informed me that she left the university at the end of June because her the funding for one of her programs was cut. She also mentioned that she had informed the head of the department with my name and thesis topic and asked them to check in with me. I was never informed about this change. My supervisor didn’t send me an email to inform me when this happened in June and I still haven’t been contacted by anyone from the department.
I have tried to get in contact with a professor at my department and they basically said that I need to get in contact with a different person who would set me up with a new supervisor. This prof informed me that depending on how that conversation goes and who the possible available supervisor would be, I would have the following two options:

start working on a completely new research topic + proposal with a new research supervisor – which would mean that I would have to start my lit review all over again

possibility of continuing my current proposal if someone is willing to take it but knowing that no one has any expertise in that area

Considering that there is no one else in my department that focuses on my topic and I was counting on my supervisor’s expertise to guide me, my only option is to start all over again. This means that I will have to delay my graduation by a year. I feel so burnt out and the thought of having to start all over again is excruciatingly painful.
So, my question is:

Am I right to be upset that no one informed me that my supervisor was leaving/has left? I am not sure if I am justified in expecting the department to have gotten in contact with me by now? And expecting them to not have put the burden on me to figure out who to get in touch with to sort this situation?  I feel like if I was informed in June, I could have started on literature review for a new topic much sooner rather than wasting time on my current topic.

What are my options here? have you been in a similar situation? what should I do? Part of me wants to just push through and start the new project. Another part of me wants to give up on the thesis and just switch to an equivalent program without a thesis.


texts: How to quote a passage with a punctuation error?

texts:
I want to quote the following passage (actually, the original passage as somewhat longer but let's consider this a minimal working example)

  Awareness of others, can address affective needs.

but the misplaced comma bothers me.

The common sic is not only often perceived to be impolite due to its overuse as a way ridicule the original author of a text, it also seems overkill in this case and – worst of all – it might not be clear that it relates to the tiny comma that comes right before but might be understood to refer to "awareness of others" instead:

  Awareness of others, [sic] can address affective needs.

A missing comma could just be put in square brackets itself as a way to more or less silently add it to the quotation without misquoting but the least distracting way to remove a comma that I could come up with is

  [Awareness of others] can address affective needs.

Of course silently dropping the comma would be even less distracting but it might also constitute a misquotation:

  Awareness of others can address affective needs.

What is your opinion on this? Is there a standard or otherwise widely accepted way to do this?


texts: How to handle students not returning borrowed equipment?

texts:
I frequently bring my own equipment to the classroom for student use. Some students forget my announcements to bring certain items. Some items are infrequently used or kept ready on standby when time permits or need to be carefully prepared beforehand. For these reasons, I provide my own equipment, rather than requiring students to bring them.

The problem is, the students are walking out the door with my stuff. By the end of the year, I must go out and buy everything again. Most items individually are cheap (~$1 each), so I do not think any administrator or security officer will pay attention when I complain, however, the quantities add up over time.

I am surprised to find such behavior among college freshmen. How should I deal with these thefts?


texts: How can I get more feedback from my Ph.D supervisor in our meetings?

texts:
I am currently a math Ph.D. student, and I meet my advisor every two weeks for an hour.

I have been here for over a year.  I spent the first six months studying the basics of the topic, though I still have no clear vision of what my advisor wants me to do.

During our meetings, I always try to discuss my research ideas, propose topics and show my results.  However, he seems to agree with everything I say, and at the end, I don't think I am really having any feedback from him. I don't know what topic he wants me to do research in.

Questions:

Is it normal for math Ph.D. students to not receive feedback when interacting with their advisor?
What can I do to get more feedback?


texts: Is it possible to order individual academic journals?

texts: Is it possible to order a physical copy of an academic journal? If I were published and wanted a copy of that Issue to keep, could I buy a physical copy? The journal that I might be published in is Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A, which is an AIP journal.


texts: Finding non-REU funding for my undergrad math students

texts: As a professor, I am sometimes asked to help undergrads (I'm currently at the University of Michigan) find funding for math research during the summer. In the past I have seen some get funding from the NSF REU program. The only problem with this is that it is only 8 weeks (At least at my school). Are there any other research grants that are given to undergrads that could last the entire summer?


texts: Is it okay to break a contract for a teaching position to get a job outside of academia?

texts:
I have another year in my contract as a visiting assistant professor. However, it is possible that I might be recruited for a non-academic position before the end of the next academic year.

Would it be okay for example to accept a job if it meant having to leave before the end of the contract? Obviously I couldn't just leave in the middle of a semester, so at worst I'd be skipping out on a year's work or just the spring semester.

Additionally, the potential job(s) are in the same relative location, so I can't cite moving as a reason. (I know people have broken contracts for spouses relocating for work for example). Does anyone have experience with this? Especially considering that the question revolves around leaving academia, I'd be interested to get any feedback.


texts:
Is it considered bad style if I have a section with multiple subsections and start my text only in the subsection (no text below the section heading)?

  1. Section

  1.1 First subsection

  This is where the text starts …

  1.2 Next subsection

  This is where the text goes on …


texts: Must one use the © symbol on a book's copyright page when using a CC license?

texts:
Most books I've seen released under a Creative Commons license also have the copyright symbol (e.g., "© 2016 by me") plus, sometimes, "some/all rights reserved" listed on the copyright page.

Is it necessary to say copyright on the "copyright" page when using a Creative Commons (CC) license?


texts: Are university lawyers usually faculty members or “just” support staff?

texts:
Many universities will have a Faculty of Law whose academic staff would be largely (or entirely) composed of certified lawyers; I imagine that the same would be true of many of their PhD students.

Similarly, many universities will have dedicated legal teams that assist the university staff with dealing with legal issues (e.g. corporate  compliance issues, patent law, etc).

Would the lawyers in these legal teams typically be composed of staff members and/or postgraduate students from the Faculty of Law, or would they simply be lawyers that have been hired by the university as support staff?


texts: How to find a list of all articles published by a particular journal?

texts:
My colleagues and I are looking into ways to get a list of all articles published for the history of a given journal.  Primarily, we are looking to for a list that includes title, authors, year, volume, and issue number, but more/less information is good too.  Our primary function is to just use as a resource for various reviews that we might conduct.

I've had some success with Web of Science citation reports, but for some journals, the citation reports are incomplete or do not cover far enough back in the journal's history (the journal that I'm currently having difficulty with is published by Taylor and Francis).

Are there other resources available to generating these lists?


texts: How should a graduate admissions committee view (possibly false) accusations against an applicant?

texts:
My question is about a situation that nobody wants to see but might have already happened in history (I have heard of this only from some second-hand sources). I ask this because there are people in here who are serving or have served on a graduate school admissions committee and would like to hear their thoughts.

Suppose during the admissions process a department secretary or a professor on the committee receives some emails accusing an applicant of academic misconduct. In most cases, such letters could be forged by the writer (out of jealousy or enmity) and they probably don't come from official email addresses especially when then information is fake.

I wonder in practice how such letters will be regarded in the admission process. Should the committee inform the applicant of this and let them explain it or contact the institute of the applicant to verify or disprove the claims?


texts: How to structure a proof by induction in a maths research paper?

texts:
I am 16 years old at the time of writing (so I have no supervisors to seek advice from) and I have written a mathematics research paper, which I plan on submitting to a journal for publication.
For a couple of the assertions that I make, I use proofs by induction. Now, in school we're encouraged to write proofs by induction in the following (rigid) format:
Base case:...
Assumption(s):...
Inductive step:...
Conclusion:...
I have noticed that no research articles that I have seen have written proofs by induction using this sort of format. The authors usually make it flow much more smoothly, eg 'For the base case, the result is trivial. Now assume the result holds for some $n=k$, so that... Now consider the expression for $n=k+1$...and by the inductive hypothesis this equals...hence the result is true by mathematical induction.'
So, is it good practice to write proofs by induction in the pretty rigid structure I first outlined or is it ok/better to write the proofs more naturally so that it flows better?
Thank you for your help.


texts: How to submit two separate works simultaneously to two conferences when the works are similar in a few parts?

texts:
I want to submit two separate works to two different conferences in CS field. The conference deadlines differ only by 3 weeks and one of them would be held in November while the other in September.

The problem is that i designed an algorithm and used that in both of the works. This algorithm is not the essential part of these papers, so i can introduce it completely in paper A as a novel method and just cite and use it in paper B; or vice versa!

But the problem is that at the time of submission, both of them are just submitted works, and i'm not sure if citing a submitted work is acceptable? Especially because if i only cite and use it in paper B, the reviewers cannot read paper A to see the complete proofs.
And even i'm not sure which paper may be accepted/rejected!

Also if i introduce the method in both papers as a novel method, then if both of them get accepted they will consider it plagiarism!


texts:
I am soon to complete a PhD and am quite interested in teaching roles. I have been doing some ad hoc teaching as a lecturer in my university, and quite enjoyed it. I apparently have done a pretty decent job.

I don't think it is likely that I'll be able to obtain a full-time academic position (as assistant professor/professor) as just having a PhD is unlikely to be sufficient qualification for such a role. I'm not even 100% sure this is the career that I permanently want to pursue.

In the meantime I would like a meatier teaching role (perhaps something with an actual contract). I have heard of the position of 'teaching fellow' and of someone who was apparently hired to such a position, but I've never seen any advertisements for these roles.

The area of my PhD is Computer Science, but I would also be very interested in teaching outside of this field (for instance in Business in the field of Information Management). This makes the task of finding such teaching positions very difficult.

The ad-hoc positions that I've obtained have come from personal contacts, and while a good resource, it's one that I've pretty much exhausted. People who already have had ad-hoc positions are looked at with suspicion by administration, as you can obtain workers' rights if you are kept in ad-hoc positions long enough (at least in my country). This makes people who don't personally know you less likely to want to run the gauntlet of administration to have you hired. Finally, people in the discipline of Humanities or Business are probably going to be somewhat hostile to someone from Computer Science muscling in on their territory. That my skill-set would be suited to positions in both these disciplines would only exacerbate this.

How might it be possible to overcome this significant hurdle? How can I get academics, who have never heard of me and have nothing vested in my employment, and for whom I may cause a bit of hassle, actually consider me for a teaching position?


texts: Are results from CFD analysis enough to write and publish a paper?

texts:
Some intro :

I am a student of BTech Aeronautical Engineering from India.
And I am going to publish something in a scientific journal.

 Dilemma :

My research is about CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and has been, mainly, taken into account by simulation, as developing a real model will be infeasible for me, in view of financial issues.

So, is it possible to publish the results only, with the data of the CFD analysis result backing up my thesis?


texts: In a journal, what's the difference between an "article" and a "monograph"?

texts:
This journal issue has contents that are grouped as "article" or "monographic section". What's the difference between these two sections?

I checked the dictionary definition of monograph: "a highly detailed and thoroughly documented study or paper written about a limited area of a subject or field of inquiry", but can't we say the same about the regular articles in this journal? Why do some texts get classified in "article" and some in "monographic section"? To make it more confusing there is also a "Miscellaneous" section in that issue, and I have no idea why it was considered so versus the other texts.


texts: possibility of transfer from a fixed-term Lecturer to a continuing appointment

texts:
Recently, I have got an Lecturer position in a UK University. However, when I got the offer letter, it said that "The appointment is for a fixed-term of five years, with the possibility of subsequent transfer to a continuing appointment." It seems to me that this is not a permanent position.

I am wondering how much possible one can transfer to a permanent position after five years. Is it suitable for me to ask this kind of questions to my Head of School? Thanks.


texts:
I graduated from university last year with a bachelors degree in Mechatronics Engineering. Good learning and GPA is quite good. I have planned to do a Masters degree from the US next fall with a focus on data science (I am very much interested in learning all of computer vision, data visualization, machine learning and using these to solve practical problems eventually - I have made some projects related to these in my undergraduate as well). Unfortunately, where I live in the third world, there are barely any work opportunities in this field and most which exist require years of experience and/or a PhD.

I have been working in a Fortune 500 company as a service engineer for the past 4 months. It's a bit stressful and the job feels quite menial because while there is quite a bit of work to handle, it's simple (replacing parts if a machine breaks down, sending emails, etc) and in terms of actual learning there isn't much. My manager told me this as well. I only get time to research and work on my personal projects after work. But because I have to travel and work overtime quite often, I tend to "miss" a few days which ruins my flow of learning. Case in point is when I was about 25% of the way through a machine learning book but then later hadn't touched in the past 2 weeks because of excess work. So I have to start all over again.

So recently I was thinking to quit and work an easier job I've been offered (which again is not too related to the field I want to get into, but nevertheless a job is a job) that gives me more free time. I even considered the option of not working at all and taking several MOOCs (I feel like there is a lot of good material there), learning as much as possible related to the field of study I want to pursue for the year I am still here. For the record, money is not an issue for me, although not working an actual job at all feels very degenerate and does look bad on the CV.

So my question is: what do the universities really want to see and what would help my chances of getting admission? Corporate experience? Should I sacrifice my "good" Fortune 500 job for an easier one to work more on my personal projects / research? Will this help more because I can mention more things related to my field of study in my SOP? For example I want to further improve some of the things I've made in undergrad but it's hard to find the time to do that with the job I'm currently doing.

Advice would greatly be appreciated. Please let me know if I have been vague anywhere as well.


texts: Administration possibly forcing student out

texts:
In my (mathematics) PhD program, the administration has started to crack down on students who are not making their way through the program in a timely manner. This has only started in the last year, and is being aimed mostly at the lower years students who have not passed their qualification exams yet.

The problem is, there is a third year student who has not passed all of their qualifying exams, but is doing good research, and has a published paper, has an advisor, and so on.

They might pass their quals now (we offer them at the beginning and the end of the year), but if they does not, the executive officer of our has made it clear that they will be kicked out (they are one of the six, out of twelve, third years under such threat). This seems ridiculous to several of us, since they are working much harder and making more progress than many of the older students.

Several of us have decided that this outcome is not acceptable, given the circumstances. How should we proceed, if they do not pass the two quals they need to? At this point we are planning to draft a joint email. Should their advisor cosign this, or would a separate approach be better? There are several other faculty who would cosign as well, if that is relevant. Are there other actions we could take?


texts: In Mathematics, what is the standing of the journal Proc. AMS?

texts:
This is a question specific to mathematics.

  what is the status of the journal Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society (Proc. AMS)?

It seems to be a generalist journal that only publishes short papers, and has a massive output (in 2018: 12 issues on 5485 pages). The blurb says :

  "To be published in the Proceedings, a paper must be correct, new, and
  significant. Further, it must be well written and of interest to a
  substantial number of mathematicians. Piecemeal results, such as an
  inconclusive step toward an unproved major theorem or a minor
  variation on a known result, are in general not acceptable for
  publication".

Yet on Scimago it is ranked below most of the journals I have heard about (in their math/stats ranking it is #256, edit: in the subranking that lists mostly pure math journals, it is still lower than most I know edit ends). Nevertheless, I see that very well established researchers sometimes publish there (I won't give names obviously).

So to be more specific :

  do you always submit somewhere else first, and it the paper is rejected then consider Proc. AMS ?
  or maybe is publishing there an act of "giving back to the community by promoting the AMS" ?
  or is it mostly a journal for anybody who needs a quick publication (as the workflow seems quite fast) ?


texts:
My official, legal name is A, but I'm know by most people as B. B relates to A as Bob to Robert, however this connection is only obvious in my country of origin where I am no longer based. I am known primarily as B, among my friends and colleagues. In order to build a consistent professional profile over the past several years I've been making a conscious effort to not use A at all, as I've noticed it causes some confusion. My undergraduate degree certificates have my legal name on them but I feel like in a Masters I am currently writing up I would like to proceed with "migrating" over to being a "full-time B". I am not sure though if that in itself won't generate damaging inconsistencies in my professional profile / online presence etc, with various certificates awarded under different names.

Should I use my official legal name or the one I'm known by on my Master's dissertation? What kind of problems can I expect from going either way?


texts: Change from one PhD-Program to a much more prestigious (and better paid) new program at my institution

texts:
I started my PhD last year in November. I've now heard of an incredibly attractive program that is just starting this autumn, with insanely good working condition (the salary is basically twice as high as my current salary and there are also nice internship options, which my program completely lacks.) My PhD advisor actually also participates in the program as an advisor. Thematically it is very close to what I am working on currently. I'm not unhappy with my current position or working environment.

Is it advisable to talk to my advisor about applying for this program? Of course, it is not very likely that I would even be admitted to the program, but it is so attractive, that not applying seems stupid. For different reasons, even though my advisor also participates in the program, I would not be able to apply for a position supervised by him.

I would have definitely applied for this program, had it existed last year. Also, when I started my PhD I did have the clear intention of finishing it, so some possibly related questions do not apply here.


texts: When did citation counts emerge as indicators of academic impact?

texts: As we know, today, citations of an academic get lots of attentions about whether his research is impfactful. I am just wondering what is the history of citation numbers becoming this important? When were they first calculated and whose idea was this?


texts: Number of accepted papers at conferences

texts:
Is the number of accepted papers normally determined before papers are submitted? Or is it determined based on the quality of the papers?

I'm primarily interested in CS conferences.


texts: Advisor miscalculated the personnel budget for research grant

texts:
I am a PhD student directly employed by a German university, this means my salary is paid directly by the federal government.

In Germany, the salary of PhD students is (often and in my case, definitely) determined by the TVöD. This is the tariff negotiated between public sector workers and the state. The tariff contract deals not only with salary levels, but also on salary increments. These take place automatically after a fixed amount of years (one, three, six years, etc). Everything is practically set in stone.

It appears my advisor forgot to take into account the TVöD and the automatic salary increments when making the personnel budget for the grant for my research project (which is kind of funny since he is also subjected to them, and they are a big deal in Germany).

I will be shortly starting my third year. The matter came up after he reviewed the project finances and noticed the automatic and mandatory (please correct me if I am wrong) salary increment after the first year. In his own words: “you are earning too much money”. Just to be clear, all PhD students at our chair have the same salary level (E13, 100%) and are subjected to the same TVöD. This is in no way a surprise or something unexpected. The personnel budget was calculated as if my salary remained unchanged for the entire project duration.

This miscalculation means that the funds obtained form the research grant for personnel costs will not cover my salary until the end of my third year.

I have a contract directly with the German government up to the end of my third year, and I am outside my probation period (Probezeit). I have had no problems at all, and the chairing professor of my committee (not my advisor, these are two different persons) seems pleased with my progress.

I am looking for any legal and practical advice:

Is it possible for them to “demote” me to a lower level, part time, or similar?
This was an error from my advisor. I can imagine that eventually I will have a meeting with the chairing professor and my advisor to discuss this. What can they ask from me? What can they legally ask/demand from me?
If I have learned something in the past two years is that just as in companies, academia is a boy’s club (not in the sexist sense) in which you do not want to rock the boat. I do not want to burn bridges or have unnecessary legal confrontations. But I also refuse to being taken advantage of, specially since PhD students already work a lot of unpaid overtime, and this would set a terrible precedent for future colleagues. How should I go about dealing with this?


texts: What is the current industry standard for online course exam proctoring

texts:
I am curious what is the current industry standard for delivery of online course materials. I have in mind coursework which traditionally has been graded on the basis of in-class residential tests which are closed-book and timed. For example, Physics, Chemistry, Calculus, Economics, Biology at the university level. When we offer these same courses online then:

  Is there an expectation of proctoring of exams.

Proctoring generally meaning that either the student goes to a testing center where they are monitored by a service with no conflicting interest. Or, perhaps a webcam service where video is recorded to check if the student is:

1.) who they claim to be,

2.) actually doing the work on the test without using cheat sites.

Thanks in advance for your insights. I am particularly interested in scholarly articles, but anecdotal evidence is also useful.


texts: How hard is it to get admitted to a PhD programm in UK/Ireland having specialist's degree from a mediocre Russian university?

texts:
I am going to study "Bioengineering and bioinformatics" for the next 5 years and plan to pursue a scientific career afterwards. My family does not have much money to support me studying in cities like Moscow and Saint-Petersburg, so I chose a university with the best cost/prestige ratio(Mordovia State University). I am worried that the type of my diploma (specialist) and mediocrity of the university will decrease my chances of getting admitted so much that hard work won't be able to offset that (grades and research experience won't be an issue, I invest all my time in studying). I know that 5 years is a lot of time and I haven't even started to study, but I don't want to find out one day that my degree is useless and I won't be able to achieve my life goals.

So the main questions are:
How is the specialist's degree in such a field perceived in UK/Ireland?
How much will mediocrity of my university affect chances of getting admitted to a PhD program in a more or less good university?
What is more important in the admission process anyway, prestige of a university or hard work and passion that a candidate has?


texts: Should I reach out to a potential PhD supervisor about applying when they have a relationship with my current PhD supervisor?

texts: I've had a really bad relationship with my supervisor since I started. I've even had to take time off to get a mental reprieve from everything that was happening. At this point, I really want to go somewhere else. This is not an American university, and I'm in the social sciences. In order to apply for admissions, you have to have the support of your prospective supervisor. I know the person that I would like to have as my supervisor at the other university and they sponsored me as a visiting student at their uni for a semester. However, this person has a strong relationship with my current supervisor. My concern would be that the prospective supervisor wouldn't want to jeopardize their relationship with their colleague by taking me on and that reaching out to them will jeopardize my ability to get a recommendation from them after I graduate. I'm also concerned that this would further strain my already intolerable relationship with my current supervisor, as I'm guessing that the prospective supervisor would reach out to the current one. For background, my research is progressing, and I don't have research or academic-related problems. It's really that my supervisor and my department are unsupportive to downright abusive.


texts: Is it OK to ask questions in a paper-presentation about subjects that were not covered in the presentation?

texts:
I was at a presentation for a paper that I have studied and I have several doubts about some aspects of it. During that presentation, the author didn't go into details around the novel-theories proposed that I find more difficult to comprehend. I thought I could try to ask him after the talk, but he just vanished.

Would it have been OK to ask questions about these issues even though they were not addressed at all during the talk?


texts: Getting work experience recognised as a master's degree?

texts:
Note: I'm asking for an older relative with close to 30 years of relevant experience in electrical engineering. He has a bachelor's degree. We both live in Canada.

Due to how his employer's criterion work, having a master's degree would help greatly for getting a promotion. He has published 2 articles in IEEE and 3 patents. He also works closely with the R&D department and has developed a new technology (on which the papers were based).

Is it possible to use relevant experience and publications to get a master's degree? Possibly an accelerated program that would not take two years?


texts: Is it worth going to college when you have no real passion for the subject you will study?

texts:
I'm in my last year of high school and about to move on to the next stage, undergraduate programs. The problem is that I don't care about any of my subjects enough to continue them at a higher level. I don't have any of that love for my potential subjects that good students seem to have, which gives them so much motivation.

On the other hand, there's no better time than after secondary education to get a degree. Should I suck it up, continue, and get a degree and better job prospects sooner? Or wait a year and spend more time to try to find something I would really like to study?

Quick note: The universities of the country I'm in don't do a liberal arts style (US style) education. We pick our subject before we go, then study solely that subject for 3 or so years.


texts: Big switch of field (from synthetic biology to cosmology) of research from PhD to postdoc?

texts:
I am pursuing a PhD in synthetic biology in the EU. I will finish my PhD in approximately 11 months.

I feel my PhD has been mediocre. I should end up with:

3 first name research articles (two on a ≈3 IF journals, one on a ≈9)
1 middle name research article (≈9 IF) and 1 review (≈3 IF)
couple of courses I taught and, hopefully
Chapter for a book from Springer.

I am tired with my field. I want to continue in academia, but not doing wet lab research. I have become interested in cosmology after reading some books on cosmology.

Should change fields because of my changing interests?
Would I ruin my career? I also would like to remain within the EU, but I can also move to the US.

Does anybody know of specific fellowships for such extreme cases? I was looking into the Human Frontier Science Program but they would still require me to work into something related to the life sciences.


texts: IEEE Computer Science conference paper: Author order if equal contribution?

texts:
We are four undergraduate students who have equally contributed to the research for a paper, each towards a different module. Will the co-author whose name is mentioned first be considered the one whose contribution was greatest? If we mention our names alphabetically, will all be considered equal contributors?
I ask because my name will be last alphabetically. Should we mention, or more specifically, is it allowed in an IEEE conference, that our contribution was equal?


texts: Formal Title for Someone with a Masters Degree?

texts: We all know that someone with a doctorate is called a Doctor (or abbreviated as Dr.), is there a formal title for someone with a Masters degree? I've never heard someone refer to a person with a masters as "Master". I've also heard that Esquire is sometimes used as a formal title for someone with a masters, is this correct or is there another title?


texts: Is it appropriate for a journal to cancel an accepted review request before the deadline?

texts:
I have recently received an email from the editor manager of the journal. In this email, they mentioned, because of unforeseen circumstances, they need to cancel their request.

I am really confused because I spent a lot of time reviewing the article and I don't know why they did that.


texts: How important is an Honors Thesis for MSW programs?

texts: I plan on applying to grad school for social work, but wasn't sure about the general expectations for prospective MSW students. It seems like overall, I would be considered more competitive with an honors thesis; however, would I then be considered less competitive if I chose not to do one? I have research experience since sophomore year of college and will be doing an independent research project this summer through a program called McNair Scholars. I was hesitant about the honors thesis because a) I have yet to find an advisor and we are expected to have one by the spring term before our last year (which is now for me) and b) I wanted to study abroad in the fall meaning I would be ineligible for an honors thesis since I am expected to enroll in a year-long course for it.


texts: Is it still true that CS PhD programs don't do interviews?

texts:
I'm currently an applicant and have tried to read extensively regarding this topic. It seems to be the consensus that "interviews are rare for CS PhD programs." However, observations from places like Grad Cafe (not the best source, but there's not really an alternative), anecdotes from other professors and students, etc. all indicate that in reality professors interview applicants extensively. After all, this makes sense since you're basically an employer in charge of someone for at least a few years.
I've also read that in many cases interviews happen mostly for international applicants to assess their ability to communicate in English. However, I've noticed a vast number of domestic applicants (in the US) and international applicants with high TOEFL scores also receiving interviews.
My question is, is it still the case that interviews are rare for CS PhD programs?
I'm also curious where the consensus that CS PhD programs don't do interviews stemmed from, because come to think of it I haven't heard of any professor who would be comfortable with agreeing to advise someone just by looking at their application.


texts: Is it ethical to express thanks and gratitude to a reviewer in the reply to the review text?

texts:
I want to know whether is it ethical to express thanks and gratitude to a reviewer
in the reply to review text. I feel we should express thanks to reviewers who spent valuable time to review our work.


texts:
I recently read a dissertation where I recognized sentences that appeared in earlier papers but are not cited in the dissertation.
Here are some of these sentences.
He also appears to be copying from flashcards , also without citations.
Does this constitute plagiarism?


texts: What is expected in a Thesis Abstract, on a math job application?

texts:
I'll be finishing my PhD in May, so I'm applying for jobs. I have my application materials prepared and have been sending them out. Occasionally an application demands something I don't already have prepared, leaving me to decide if it's worth creating that extra item to apply for that job.

As far as I can tell, a thesis abstract is basically like the introductory portion of the research statement, which I already have prepared. If I was asked for a thesis abstract instead of a research statement, I would chop down the latter to create the former.

The problem is, there is a job I'm very interested in that asks for both. I'm not sure how to interpret this. What are they expecting?


texts:
I have a new algorithm which I would like to publish.

I'm not a student, so I wanted to know a few things:
1) What should I publish? Just the algorithm with explanation? an academic paper? What are the principals of writing such one?
2) Where to publish?
3) What are the outcomes of publishing the algorithm? Legally or any other aspects I should be aware of.

Any other tips and helpful things I should know will be welcomed


texts:
What lessons did you learn while doing your PhD? What advice would you give somebody just starting off with their PhD that could save them time and grief?

I have collected some of the lessons I learned along the way. Feel free to add your own lessons learned, and link your thesis to give people an idea of just how different a thesis can be in different subjects and parts of the world.


texts: RA position: accidentally submitted incomplete documents

texts:
I am coming to the end of a PhD, and recently submitted an application for an RA position at another university. For the application I had to submit a CV and cover letter.

Today I found out that my application was unsuccessful. However, after examining the documents that I submitted, I realised that I actually submitted a very early, incomplete draft of the cover letter (less than 100 words) and not the final version. This is completely my fault, an error on my part. The CV was the correct version.

Is there anything that I can do in this situation? I feel that the job role fitted my skills very well, almost a continuation of my PhD, so the correct cover letter could have made a difference. I am considering sending an email to explain the situation with the correct cover letter attached. However, the deadline for applications is closed, and I feel like the fact that I submitted the wrong document to begin with has reflected very badly on me, so probably won't make a difference.