texts: Awaiting AE recommendation - Can be rejected?

texts:
I already referred to this post, post, post
I recently submitted my paper to a journal 40-45 days back.
For the first 10 days, it was reviewed by the managing editor and sent to us for some format issues, etc.
Later, it has been under "Awaiting review scores" for the past 25 days.
And from the past few days, I see it as "Awaiting AE recommendation". I know the next stage is to Editor In chief. But my question is as below
a) Is it possible to be rejected at this point? Because we didn't receive any email till now on clarifications, request to revise something, etc. Could it mean direct rejection? Like reviewers gave low scores and it is bound for rejection?
b) For ex: Let's say the paper requires some revision based on reviewers. In that case, will it be communicated directly to us (by the managing editor) or even request for revisions/clarifications will also happen through "AE" and "EIC"
c) Am I right to understand that based on the info that I shared, there are only two possible outcomes. Either outright reject or acceptance notification is the next possible step? No revisions because it is already "Awaiting AE recommendation"


texts: Do faculty at Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, etc. only want to hire people from those universities?

texts: This is what I have heard from someone who did his PhD at Princeton. Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, Princeton, MIT, etc. are biased towards accepting candidates who got their degrees from those schools.


texts: Can I have ResearchGate organize peer review of my paper?

texts:
I've uploaded an article to ResearchGate, and ResearchGate asks me whether it has been peer reviewed. It hasn't, and I'm wondering whether ResearchGate can get it peer reviewed for me.

Is this possible and if yes how would I do it?


texts: I have already submitted a manuscript to an outstanding math journal. It is under review for about 9 months. I would like to know about the probability of rejection of a paper after 9 months?


texts: Who decides the paper acceptance rate at a workshop organized as part of a conference: the workshop organizers or the conference organizers?


texts: How rampant are "smart drugs" in academia?

texts: Is it common for people in academia to use "smart drugs"/prescription medications to help them be more productive? Or do most people just use things like caffeine to be more productive?


texts: Where do English/History or Humanities professors post their research publications?

texts: What's the search engine for research papers that professors of English,History or Humanities wrote? I looked up my english professors on google and couldn't find any of their dissertations or papers. Google scholar fails.


texts: Best way to find references for statements in the thesis

texts:
I am struggling finding proper references for the known facts that are mentioned in my thesis.

For example: foundation of Cartesian coordinate system introduced the grid system for data visualization techniques.

How can I possibly find a reference to support that claim?

What is your best method for finding references?


texts: Number of publications needed to get into a computer science PhD program?

texts:
I've looked at the resumes of the type of candidates that get into computer science PhD programs at the top few universities (e.g. Stanford, MIT etc.) and a lot of them seem to have multiple publications (2-4) done during their undergraduate years. Is this representative of the entire pool? Or is this just a self-selected group that puts their resumes online.

I currently have one first-author workshop paper (5 pages), and I wonder how this might affect my chances at entry into these top universities.


texts: How to interview a candidate for a university teaching position?

texts:
We are interviewing some candidates for a part-time teaching faculty position to teach 2 upper level undergraduate courses in mathematics.

Since it is my first time to be in such committee and since this is a teaching job on the university level, I wanted to know what are the criteria/questions that are teaching-related and that should be asked to the candidate in the interview?


texts: How can I narrow down my CS research interests when my undergrad institution doesn't have a large CS department?

texts:
I am currently a 4th year CS senior from a smaller liberal arts school with a small CS department.  So far, I've pursued a few semesters of opportunities to do one-on-one research with my head of department, but these research opportunities have been limited to his Post-Doctoral field of work (classifier algorithms and biometric analysis).

I was hoping to get a better idea of other graduate programs that schools offer before attempting to apply to graduate school in a month or so.  Is there a good way to go about this given that my school's departmental resources are so small?


texts:
We all know how important proper attribution of ideas is. At the same time, certain things have become basic enough that citing the paper where they were first discussed is overkill: to give an extreme example, if you need to do some differentiation in your math/physics paper, you don't need to go and cite Newton and Leibniz. Now, on occasion students ask me how one can determine if a piece of knowledge is common enough that they can forgo a citation. The rule of thumb I give them is:

  If it is something that is explained in a standard first-year undergrad textbook, then anybody who is going to read your papers knows about it and you don't need to provide a citation.

[Here I want to emphasize that I give this to them as a rule of thumb, and I always tell them to ignore it and provide the relevant citation if they think it is necessary to do so in a specific case]

Are there better or alternative ways of drawing the line?


texts: How do I refuse to work on military-focused contracts?

texts:
I'm applying to programs in Computer Science and Robotics and would feel very uncomfortable working on defense-focused or funded projects.
Is it unrealistic (in terms of funding opportunities) to refuse to work on such projects?
If not, at what point in application/admission does it make sense to make this expectation clear?


texts: What happens if the second reviewer for a conference proceeding keeps missing their deadline?

texts: I have submitted a journal article to a conference proceeding which will be held in June this year. Though I submitted it on time in December and the first reviewer accepted it in the first week itself, still I didn't receive a second reviewer's response. In the online submission system it appears as initial submission status, with the phrase "reviewer missed the deadline" repeated thrice in red color. If I cannot get a second guest editor what will happen to the article? Is it possible to accept an article without a second editor? How long would this usually take?


texts: Is it advisable to get a recommendation letter from industry for a Masters program in Computer Science in the US?

texts:
Most US colleges require three letters of recommendation from prospective Masters students. There are two professors that I have worked with extensively in my institute, and I am sure that they can give me excellent recommendation letters based on my research work with them. The only other professors who can recommend me are professors with whom I have not interacted with too much outside class, and may not be able to give me much more than a "He performed excellently in my courses" recommendation. I do not feel that they can add much to what the first two professors say, seeing that I performed well in their courses too.

I worked at a large software company as an intern and left a very favourable impression with my manager there. He has said that he would be willing to write me  strong letters detailing my teamwork, coding ability, communication skills  and ability to work with tight timelines.

I wanted to know which letter MS programs in the US would value more as a third letter - the impersonal "He is a good student" from my professor or the more personal and authentic one from my internship manager.


texts: What are the guidelines for using public datasets for publication?

texts: Data are available publicly on several websites e.g. icpsr, databank, UK Data Archive. I am seeking guidelines, references and examples about using these open data for research. In other words, I want to publish a paper based on analyzing some publicly available datasets. Do I need permission first or they are available actually for me to use them in my research ?


texts: Can somebody with a PhD in theoretical physics become a Assistant Professor / Instructor in Mathematics?

texts: Most community colleges and universities ask for PhD / Master's in Mathematics in order to become a Assistant Professor / Instructor in mathematics. I know that this will greatly depend on the particular school, but do people in academia view theoretical physicist (someone with a PhD in theoretical physics) as equivalent to someone who has a PhD in mathematics? It's not mathematical physics, but I would expect theoretical physics to be a mathematical science too.


texts: Is it a good idea to write a larger than expected project report?

texts:
A professor expects a report for a project to be around 3-4 pages (but never said anything, this is only my guess).

Is it a bad idea to submit a report of 12-13 pages if it contains useful information and detailed analysis? Doesn't this show I am interested in the subject?


texts: What are the differences between a presentation in academia and a presentation in industry?

texts:
I think that I am pretty good at presenting my work during my PhD, and I am still being invited to conferences for some papers I did 2 years ago.

Now, I am working in industry. My manager always complains about my presentations and my reports.

I tried my best to follow his guidelines, but still he does not understand my presentations.

What might be the expectations in industry different than academia in terms of presenting some work?


texts: Are there any PhD scholarships for 3.5 CGPAs?

texts:
I have recently thought of pursuing my PhD. I have managed to make a research proposal. I have done part time MS (i.e. struggle after working hours) with thesis and managed 3.5 CGPA (85%) out of 4.0 and I managed to have one publication in an IEEE conference.

While corresponding to supervisors, I feel some of them like my proposal but it always comes down to availability of a scholarship. For example, I started a correspondence with one supervisor in New Zealand who was willing to supervise me but he won't give me go ahead for university admission because I haven't secured any funding and he thinks that I have no chance to win any university scholarship with this GPA. I told him that my average is 85% and I have over 5 years of relevant work experience. I asked him the minimum % to win a scholarship, to which he replied "100%". He says work experience is never a major factor for scholarship award.

Now as it seems that my GPA is a barrier to even have an admission in a university let alone win a scholarship as most of them don't want to waste their time on a candidate who won't be able to fund himself.

Situation for me looks bleak. Can't bring back the past to work hard and get better CGPA or should I start thinking of doing MS again? As for now it seems that PhD scholarships are only for the applicants with Gold medals and 4.0/4.0. Any ray of hope? Is there any chance that I'll be able to have a scholarship?


texts: Use of future tense to refer to following sections

texts:
While writing papers (computer science, on the border with digital humanities), I find it quite natural to write

  In the following section we will present some examples of such and such.

or

  To illustrate these point we will use a few examples of increasing complexity.

Many style guides forbid the use of the future tense and suggest the following formulations, that I personally find too stiff.

  The following section presents some examples of such and such

and

  Examples of increasing complexity illustrate these points.

(The last sentence is plain ugly.)

I do understand the will to use a language that keeps papers as much factual as possible, but should this dry style be used also for the more narrative parts of a paper?


texts: how do I add an article to google scholar

texts:
How do I add an article that is published in a journal and is online as a PDF on the journal's site to Google Search? To clarify, I am not adding it to my google scholar profile  but instead want it to appear in a Google Scholar search. The link to the article is below and you will see if you run a search on Google Scholar it doesn't exist. How do I get it or the full journal to appear in Google Scholar search. It appears in a regular Google search but not in Google scholar. I manually added it to my profile in Google Scholar. But there is no link available in the manual add function so I can direct people to this publication.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjp3O-KvoncAhVH6IMKHR6OCoYQFggqMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpress.insciencepress.org%2Findex.php%2Fpress%2Fcatalog%2Fdownload%2F6%2F8%2F82-1&usg=AOvVaw3iZQzL4WUa_qfsUMV0rowI


texts: How do textbook authors and professors cook up homework/assignment questions?

texts:
I was looking around on the internet and I found some notes with homework appended to them (for those interested, it is math). What struck me is that these questions are not only lengthy, notationally challenging, but also appears to be quite complicated. For a biology course no less.

Can any authors or professors illuminate as to how (i.e. the process) these assignment questions are developed? I thought about this and found several scenarios which are quite interesting to think about, but at the same time, ridiculous to me.

For professors/authors:

scenario a: the professor/author goes home and quietly sits in front of a fireplace and starts brain storming weird scenarios and writes down these random thoughts

scenario b: the professor/author demands his graduate students to pump out 10 questions on a weekly basis, the rest is history

scenario c: the professor/author picks up another book and make adjustments to questions that looks interesting and then puts into his own book. But then this sort of becomes a chicken-egg problem. What about a completely new field that no one has touched before?

scenario d: there exist a large central depository of problems that professors submit to it, and draws question from it, a massive database out of reach of any students. This is some fringe conspiracy theory.

scenario e: The Hamilton approach. Ideas just flies out at random say when you are taking a shower, or buying some groceries and then you jog them down very quickly and then send it to a depository. Kind of like scenario a but much more random.

What about people who are cross discipline and working on their own field? Are there dedicated personnel who is neither an author, nor a professor, but just works on developing these assignments all day? This question just opens up a can of worms.

Please feed my curiosity, I would love to know how they are developed because maybe I will also develop my own someday. I know there exist some distinction between authors and professors (although the two coincides on a great degree), let me know if things done differently between different professions.


texts:
I've received a perplexing peer-review to a submitted paper of mine. The editor asks for major revisions, and sent us two reviews. The first one is serious and raises good points: we'll work, amend the manuscript and send a detailed reply to the editor.

The second reviewer, however, has a 3 (minor) weird questions, and his fourth is:

  The authors claimed that “[some sentence taken from the abstract]”. Please give more detailed explanations

where the sentence is actually a summary of our two-page “Results and discussion” section, i.e. the core of the paper.

I'm concerned that the second reviewer has actually not really read the full paper [1], and wonder what the best option to deal with it. I've come with the following ideas:

In the response to the editor, respond to this request by simply saying “This claim is backed up and discussed at length in section IV”.
Do not respond, but write to the editor saying I am concerned about whether the reviewer actually read the paper at all.
Try to do some editing and write an evasive response, like “We have edited the manuscript to improve the clarity of the discussion on this point”.

I want to take option #1, because I think the editor will read between the lines. I'd hate to badmouth the reviewer (option #2), or risk deteriorating the manuscript by silly editing (#3).

What's your take on this? Do you have advice or suggestions on how to act in this situation?

[1] I must say here that I started by doubting the clarity of our paper, first. Trying not to be overly defensive of my work! But after asking a friend a second opinion on it, he agrees with me that the review seems shoddy.


texts: Is it reasonable to require students to bring a laptop to every lecture?

texts:
In the next academic year,
I'll be teaching a class on how to use a statistical software package
(the R programming language).
I foresee that each class will have two parts:
a lecture and software demonstration,
and time for the students to get their hands dirty
by trying the software themselves.
I now have to decide what type of classroom to request.
Option 1: Computer laboratory
If I hold the class in a computer laboratory,
the advantage is that every student will have a computer
with the software already installed.
The disadvantage is that the classroom layout
is optimized for students to use the computers,
so it is difficult to lecture.
I foresee that it would be difficult for students sitting in the corners
to see the projector screen when I am speaking.
Option 2: Lecture theater
If I hold the class in a lecture theater,
the advantage is that every student will be able to see the projector screen when I am lecturing and demonstrating the software.
The disadvantage is that students would have to
bring their own laptops once a week.
Although I estimate that at least 98% of students own a laptop,
I don't want to embarrass or cause difficulties to any students who do not.
So bearing these two options in mind,
which type of classroom should I request?
Is it reasonable for me to request the lecture theater,
knowing that this will be inconvenient for students
who don't normally bring their laptops to university?
Edits
There will be around 90 students in the class.
My plan is to ask the students to form groups of 3-4 students,
so that they will help one another as they do coding and data analysis.
I will probably have a TA to help to run the lab session
given that there are many students in the class.
I've attached a floor plan of the only computer lab in my university
which is able to accommodate 90 students.
As you can see, if I am trying to give a lecture in this lab,
it can be very hard for me to have eye contact with the students,
and to perceive any confusion or uncertainty in their minds.

What I decided to do
After considering the input provided by the various answers and comments,
I decided to adopt a hybrid approach,
i.e., 1 hour of lecture followed immediately by 2 hours of computer lab time.
During the lecture time,
I will be showing the students how to use the software
and how to estimate and interpret statistical models.
During the computer lab time,
students will apply what I taught in the lecture to a different data set.


texts: Is it acceptable to submit a postdoc fellowship application (same lab, same project) to two funding agencies at the same time?

texts:
I've already applied for one post-doc fellowship with one project with the consent of my possible future supervisor. I will know whether I've been succesfull in 6 months.

Now I realised that there is another fellowship to which I could apply - my potential host supervisor agreed that she would support me for both fellowships.

From my view I see no obstacles to ask for both, nevertheless I want to ask, what would be the opinion of a potential reviewer if he/she will get the same project for review twice from different agencies? If I will apply for both fellowships, both the review process and the results anouncement would run more or less in the same time period.


texts: Feeling frustrated by colleagues' behavior, considering leaving the university

texts:
I'm aware, that this question is going to appear too emotional and exaggerated, but I'll try my best to describe the whole situation as it is, unbiased.

The point is, I'm major degree student who changed his field of study from Informatics and Computer Science (I've got B.S. from it) to Computational Mathematics. I was not very happy with lecturers' behavior in B.S. degree (HERE is my question about Bachelor's thesis, where my supervisor effectively refused to cooperate), but now it's much worse than everything I've ever imagined.

Most of my colleagues in this new field look down at me, like I was some pauper who went there to steal something to eat. The most terrifying thing is, that even some professors obviously share this attitude, that Informatics and CS student are not worthy of being accepted by mathematicians. The first incident happened approximately 2 weeks ago and I asked about it HERE.

Today, the second incident happened, or better, climaxed. Since the first week of this term I was trying to contact one of professors, who was responsible for my acclimatization plan (one subject, where are the most important things from B.S., so you could catch up with your colleagues in your new field). He was supposed to send me some studying materials and tell me, which topics I should learn. Also he should tell me about terms of my exams and the topic of the project he wants me to do. He did none of these things, so I was contacting him again and again.

He usually responded to my e-mail with some vague info about "consulting it next week on Skype". Yesterday I insisted on consultation, but he told me, that he only wants to do it through Skype. Then he send me some messages late in the evening and in the morning today with the text similar to this: "Do you have the time to consult it right now?" I had no chance to even read it exactly in the time the message was delivered. Today I accepted the whole "Skype thing" and send him an e-mail in the afternoon again. He told me that he'll be online today at 8 p.m. But, even after three my messages, he wasn't. I got only short e-mail about him being ready in 5 minutes (so he was near his computer), but he wasn't. I gave up waiting in 9:30 p.m. After 10 p.m. I got e-mail from him with text "OK, tomorrow I'll be here from 10 to 11 a.m.".

I consider this last message to be a pure mockery, he probably wants me to wait for him again and again, even in weekends.

The problem is, I don't know, what should I do now. My greatest dream was becoming a successful scientist. After B.S. I was offered a part-time job in our research center and I got about 6 offers to the industry positions (even a programming job for company which produces airplanes). Even if those positions were much more lucrative, I accepted the position in research. Because of this research center is our university ranked top in my country.

I've sacrificed everything I could to this dream. My friends (who are away or in the CS field), hobbies (bodybuilding, martial arts and even fishing were too time-consuming activities) and my health too. I've started loosing hair, weight, my hands are trembling permanently and I had to undergo lesser back surgery because of long-term sitting, so now I have the typical "drug-addict look". It didn't matter too much to me, I was working and studying about 14 hours every day.

But now I'm incredibly frustrated, sad and shocked because of my new lecturers' and colleagues' attitude. I feel like I cannot continue my degree here, but I don't want to leave either, because I would've left my job in research.

Ok, so here are my questions:

What do you think I can do about professors' attitude? I don't think an official complaint is the best idea because of their positions.
Is it possible to suspend my career in the academy, take the job in the industry and try to get into another research center next year? Or will it damage my career as a researcher deeply?

I'm sorry for a very long description of my problem.


texts: It is worth to ask equivalence from an Advanced Studies Diploma to a Master of Advanced Studies in another University?

texts:
I hold MSc (120 ECTS) and Bsc. (180 ECTS) degrees in Materials Science and Engineering. I also hold an Advanced studies diploma (60 ECTS) in Mechanical Engineering. All this were done in a University in the European Higher Education area. I've read some stuff about the MAS- Master of advanced studies.
So long, I found it to be equivalent to an Advanced studies diploma that I have.

Questions:

Can I ask equivalence from my Advanced studies diploma to a Master of advanced studies (both in Mechanical Engineering, or course) in another University in the EU?
If I do it, do I have anything to earn, in terms of CV? Would it become easier for me to get a job abroad if I get equivalence of my ASD to a MAS in a UK or another country?
Can I get a joint degree? I mean, can I keep the ASD I have and earn a MAS degree at another university in the UK, or elsewhere in EU? Will I keep the original diploma? Or I lose it, and I earn it at the new University?
How much do I have to pay in terms of administrative fees?


texts: Is there any special field in political science to study security issues?

texts:
In my country, students can follow a special field in political science which is about security issues (like Terrorist, Threats and  opportunities) in Masters programmes. The graduated people can work for Foreign ministry, intelligence services or embassies.

I know the fields in master can vary country by country, but is there any similar fields in German Universities?

What about UK?

If there is, can a non-citizen person study in these fields?


texts: How to reuse/cite your paper in your thesis when both have same topic

texts:
I’m writing my thesis and I submitted a paper on the same topic to a conference, where it got accepted. However, the contents such as methods, results, and conclusion are identical in text, i.e. I copy pasted the content from thesis to the paper.

Now I want to submit my thesis but I suppose it is self-plagiarism if I don't cite my paper. My question is, can use the same content in my thesis and paper if yes then how do I mention that content is reused? or should I rephrase my complete thesis now and then cite paper? But if I rephrase then how about the experiment results and figures? should I cite paper there as well?


texts: How do I tell my advisor that I lost interest in the subject?

texts:
I got my MSc in physics working on a certain subject with my advisor. I'm now starting my PhD studies under the same advisor.

The problem is, there's a tacit assumption that I'll do my PhD on the same subject as before, but I really lost all interest for it, I don't feel the same about it anymore. I really don't know what to do instead and how to find my new path, but I don't want to stay on this subject simply out of inertia.

What's the best way to tell this to my advisor without giving the (wildly inaccurate!!) impression that I lost all interest for physics? He's a great guy, btw, and he listens.

... If my advisor is reading this, I guess that's a way too xD

EDIT: It's theoretical physics and my advisor's knowledge is fairly wide and aligned well with my general interests, so doing the PhD under him is definitely something that I still want.


texts: Letter of recommendation before Skype interview

texts:
I recently applied for a tenure-track faculty position. The recommendation letters were not requested when I applied. After 2-3 weeks, I got an email that my referees should send them the letters and it seems they have done some screening based on the email I got.

My question: how large is this initial long list? Will they interview (Skype) all candidates (i.e. those asked for recommendation letters) at this stage? What is the main purpose of letters at this stage?


texts: Weird volume and issue number for an IEEE publication

texts:
I recently got a paper published in IEEE, but on IEEE Xplore it is listed to be in volume pp, issue 99.
What does that mean?


texts: What is an effective means to educate non-academic colleagues of the importance and time needed for Adjunct Lecturing research?

texts:
My situation is, I am an Adjunct Lecturer (Physics); however, to support myself, I work full-time as a high school teacher.  Essentially, the situation is that an Adjunct Lecturer is working amongst non-academic colleagues, who unfortunately see the research as nothing more than a 'hobby'.

What is an effective means of helping these non-academic colleagues comprehend the importance and time-needed for the research involved with being an Adjunct Lecturer?


texts: Journal paper and conference proceedings note appear to be identical, is this plagiarism?

texts:
I am looking at these two papers in the field of astrophysics. One is this journal paper and the other is a proceedings notes from a conference.

It almost looks like these two papers are copied word-for-word, with the exception of Equation 4.24 in paper 1 (although I guess considering the flow of things, it should maybe correspond go Equation 61 in the second paper). Is this plagiarism? I understand that it varies from field to field. How does one go about determining whether it is?

Two issues:

The latter journal article does not cite the proceedings notes.
The latter journal includes two authors (the proceedings notes has only one author), and the newly appearing person is listed as the first author.

I guess this highlights the ethics issues which aren't brought up often enough.


texts: What is a wise way and the right timing to inform a professor that supported you of your rejection?

texts:
Let there be some professor who whole-heartedly supported your application to some position in academia; let the decision be a rejection. Then what is a wise way and the right timing to inform the professor of this matter?

I think: if I inform the professor right after I am aware of the decision, then I may hurt his/her feeling, because he/she was for me; if I inform him/her later, then the same concern takes place and I cannot justify why I procrastinated letting him/her know it. Moreover, I am not quite sure what is a wise way to draft such an email.

I know that there is no "the" right timing; I just want to know a win-win timing, so to speak.

Thank you for taking time to share your wisdom.


texts: Does a supervisor have right to submit paper without consents of coauthor students?

texts: Me and another PhD student, we are first two authors in a paper. We had a disagreement with our supervisor about submitting our paper to conference. We both opposed the submission as we think it's too early to submit our result and the paper will most likely be rejected. Our supervisor said, academically he has the full authority to submit the paper even if we oppose. My question is does a supervisor have the right to submit a paper from the point of view of the university?


texts: Asking to get paid for academic research work

texts:
I am currently a student working for a professor full time over the summer on science / engineering research projects. My first meetings with this professor took place during the spring semester. During these meetings, the professor agreed to hire me and agreed (in speech only) to pay me for my work. No specifics were ever discussed and the remark about paying me was made casually. I have signed no financial paperwork of any kind at any time. If I were to get paid, I would almost certainly be paid minimum wage. After this meeting, payment for my work, which I have been doing most of the summer, has never been brought up again by the professor or anyone around them.

I have not brought this issue up to the professor because:

The experience working on the projects I am being assigned is metaphorically worth its weight in gold to me right now. It is both work I am intensely interested in pursuing, and also a great resume experience listing for potential future employers.
I am in a financial situation that allows me to offer my time for free. Since this is my first experience working on academic research, I did not want to be turned down by the professors I asked because of money. I also will almost certainly need to ask this professor for a letter of recommendation for future internships to very selective companies in the same industry as this professor. I also know this professor regularly communicates with high ranking industry professionals who work at the same companies as I want to apply to. Thus, my relationship to this professor is of paramount importance above all else.
I will almost certainly be working for this professor through the end of the next academic year (however, I will have to work part time during the school year since I am a student). I have considered the possibility that it might be wiser to wait until I have worked for this professor longer before asking to be paid for my work. As far as the feedback on work I have already performed, I seem to produce results that are on par or better than they are expecting, and I deliver my results on or ahead of schedule.

All of this said, I still would like to get paid (however small an amount it may be) for this position since I am working full time and, when I was hired, the professor I work for did (again, verbally only) say I would get paid. I feel like I am in an awkward position here, and I am unsure what the best way bring this topic up is. How should I bring this up to professor if at all?


texts: What are the considerations when using an advertising slogan, song lyric, etc. in the title of my paper?

texts:
I've noticed that in economics and business, people often use catchy or interesting titles for their papers. I was wondering specifically about the use of references to song lyrics, slogans, TV shows, movies, literature, etc. in paper titles. For example,

"Dancing with the Stars: Innovation Through Interactions" references the TV show
"Hazed and Confused: The Effect of Air Pollution on Dementia" is a pun on a movie name
"Too Much Ado about Morgan’s Men: The U.S. Securities Markets, 1908-1914" is I believe a Shakespeare reference

My question is, are there specific legal or ethical considerations when appropriating text from (or making references to) someone else's cultural content? For example, could I be sued for copyright violation, or for misrepresenting the original work? Or is this just poor practice generally?

Specifically, in my case I want to use a tag line from a popular ad campaign. A comparable example would be: "Got Milk? The impact of Heifer International’s livestock donation programs in Rwanda on nutritional outcomes". The one key difference is that the ad campaign was produced by one of the companies discussed in my paper.


texts: When meeting a professor for the first time, is it always a good idea to ask about their research interests?

texts:
I'd imagine that a good fraction would actually start to tire (a bit) of the repetitiveness of describing their research hundreds of times over, and would probably want to talk about something else.. After all, does the professor usually benefit when they talk about their research to a random undergrad?

Yet, "ask the professor about his research" is generally considered to be standard social advice in academia... (after all, people love to talk about themselves - http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-people-brain-scans.html ). Is the pleasure of talking about your research similar to the excitement of having the liberty to be self-centered and to talk about yourself?

But maybe professors would prefer to talk about something else - it's just that it's hard to think of a topic that they would prefer talking about, so it's simply a "safe option" to ask them questions about their research?

What I am really interested in - is this - would professors usually prefer to talk about something other than their research, if some such common topic could conceivably be found?


texts: Can you switch from a non-competitive program to a more competitive program easily in university?

texts:
I don't really know how to properly phrase this question but can you transfer from any program, maybe one that's not as competitive, to a more competitive program in university?

I've always been curious: for example, let's say I'm applying for Harvard, a super competitive school. I understand that they don't require you to choose a major until second year. If I were to indicate my interest of a less competitive program, like gender studies or african dance choreography, would I be able to transfer/select a biology program 2nd year? Surely it's much easier to be accepted into one of those programs than a competitive science program, so wouldn't people try to cheat the admissions system by applying for a non-competitive program and then end up choosing a competitive program?

I don't really see what would prevent someone from doing this, as the schools all allow you to choose whatever program you want regardless of your indicated interest.

Question doesn't really make sense but I wanna see what yall say regardless.


texts: I am still early on in my PhD. I have not passed my comprehensives (or even began studying for them yet), but I have finished my courses. Over the past year, I began working with a group that I initially felt was a good fit for me. At the time, they were the only ones working in this area in our department. However, as time has gone on, I have realized that my professor has absolutely no idea about my field and their relation to it is completely from a different angle (hardware vs software). They are unfamiliar with the conferences in my area, acceptable standards, state-of-art work, etc. In fact, the other day I was told that everything my professor knew about my area was learned from me. Originally, I thought they were active in this field, but actually they are in a COMPLETELY different field altogether. Recently, we hired a new professor that I am certain is in my field (publishes in the conferences of my field, etc.). I have decided to switch and begin working with this new faculty member. Is this unusual? I am very scared of my current faculty member and have heard horror stories, who by the way,  is a retired professor (emeritus) but still can advise me.. but at this point I don't think I want it!


texts: Finding area of research and people that offer PhD's in this area

texts:
I'm currently in the first year of my MSc in an European university and as time goes on I'm thinking of what to do afterwards. One of the options is continuing on to a PhD and so I find myself from time to time browsing arXiv or some other journals in my field of interest, hoping to see a professor/group at a university doing something that interests me. While doing this I came to the realization, that in almost all cases, I have absolutely no idea what the papers are about. This isn't really surprising to me (I checked with my peers and they feel the same way), but it leaves me wondering how exactly I'm supposed to find out what topics in my field could interest me.

To hopefully explain the problem a bit better I'll take myself as an example, but I'm pretty sure this applies to a lot of other disciplines as well: I'm studying physics, most of my subjects focusing on theoretical aspects of physics. There are obviously several sub-fields in theoretical physics, but all of them are really broad and today's research seems really far away from what is thought in university classes. Most of the classes are only introductions to theories that have been refined for the last 50 years or more, leaving a huge gap between what I may be working on in a couple of years and what I know of today. So how exactly am I supposed to asses how interesting, challenging, etc. a direction in a particular sub-field is, when I almost know nothing of what is relevant in that field today? And, maybe even more importantly, even if I exactly knew what I wanted to do, how do I exactly single out the people who work in that area?

Some remarks about things that I've tried so far and the situation at my university:

There are almost no research opportunities at my university for students in the BSc and even in the MSc category (at least in my field of study).
The contact between the students and faculty is almost non-existent. I maybe have spoken to like three professors in the past 4 years for about 5 minutes (not counting the exams). I speak to PhD's a lot more regularly, but to no-one who has more experience in the academic world. I asked them more or less the same question, but the answers range from "you just kinda slip into a PhD program" to "I already knew in year one of my studies that I wanted to do XYZ, so I can't realate."
I talked to the "Students-Help-Office" of my university, which is basically a senior researcher from my university. His comment on the question was that he doesn't think that planning that far ahead is useful... Is this true, is one to two years of planning ahead to much in this context?
I've also seen this question here, but the top answer reads kind of like it's searching for the "best" place to do your PhD and less for the "best-fit". I'm not so much concerned about going to one of the best places in the world as much as I'd like to find a topic and adviser that actually fit me (obviously the other way around as well).


texts: What is the point of a non-confidential reference letter?

texts:
In this question, it seems that most people think it is acceptable for candidates to see their references. I find this very strange, as in the vast majority of case I have come across it is expected or required that all references are confidential.

What is the point of having a reference that the candidate is able to see?

The person reading such a reference has no way of telling whether any praise is genuine or simply included to please the candidate. Likewise, the chances of negative points being included are minimal, even if they are very important. Thus the reference becomes little more than a vague sign of support. I understand that in business that is generally sufficient, but in my experience academic references are relied on much more heavily to discriminate between candidates.


texts: Quitting a postdoc: how to justify myself with my PI?

texts:
I am 8 months into a postdoc that  is not matching with the job description and the proposal. The project was about investigating an unknown phenomenon that emerged during some experiments carried out before my started.
However, someone just switched some columns in some databases and this caused the misinterpretation. Therefore, my project now only consists in fixing the databases, and what is emerging is that there is no new phenomenon at all. There is nothing new worth a publication.
Since I already have an alternative lined up, I will quit my present institution. I will give no more than a two-week notification before leaving, as I have to start with the new position.
Some other info:

my PI perfectly know of the situation and of the data mistake.

fixing the remaining data is something that someone else in the team could easily do and in any case it is so trivial that they will be able to find a replacement.

I do not have any teaching or mentoring assignments.

Now the question. What should I tell my PI? Should I be sincere and (politely) tell him that I don’t like the project anymore? Or should I find some other excuse not to risk offending him?


texts: I'm in my third year, but I'm still not clear with my I'm doing

texts:
I'm a PhD student in computer science.

A few days before I started my PhD, my supervisor sent me a new proposal which was a different topic from the one that I proposed in the application. I had no option, rather to agree. After a few months, I started realizing my main supervisor was not specialized in the research area. I started to have a doubt about him. However, with some idea, I passed my proposal defence in my first year. He didn't know what the hell I was doing.

A few months later after my proposal defence, He called me and talked to suggesting to remove him as the supervisor by giving some excuse that he didn't want to simply in the supervisor team without contributing anything. I'm not sure whether this is the right reason or just an excuse to leave me. I changed my supervisor to someone who has no knowledge at all in the area and still doesn't understand the area till now. I had to change my supervisor since the previous supervisor asked me to do so.

Now, I'm in my third year. I'm still not clear with what I'm doing. I'm still working on the idea. The idea is like something to solve a particular problem using a particular approach. I have tried some existing algorithms, it seems it they don't work well. These algorithms have not been applied in my area. I'm benchmarking the results of those algorithms.

I haven't developed any new algorithm so far. I haven't came out with any novel work so far.

What should I do?


texts: Citing statistical information presented in a table using data from a variety of sources?

texts: How do I cite information that I am presenting in a table (i.e. that I have created), when the statistics I have compiled are from different sources?


texts: Potential advisor does not seem willing to accept me into group. How do I approach others in the same field?

texts:
I have been trying to get into this professor's lab right from the time I joined my PhD program last Fall. We are in EE, and she does very theoretical work which is what I want to do.

She told me in our very first meeting that she wasn't sure of my mathematical abilities to cope with her research. I took all her recommended classes, and this quarter I took a project-based course with her. I chose a theory-heavy topic hoping to get good results in it and impress her with it.

However, I haven't got any results for the problem I chose. I have been working on the problem for a little more than a month, most of which time I took to just understand the existing literature.

The professor's senior students consoled me saying it's a hard problem, but regardless of that, it looks like the professor is not going to take me in her group (she hinted at this in a meeting last week).

So my question is: my university has lots of professors who work in this field, but only this one professor in my department who does this work. If I approach faculty in other departments, I am afraid that they'd just ask me to contact this particular professor, since she is known exactly for my area of interest, and is in my department. At that time, I'd feel very embarrassed to admit that I am going to them only because this professor rejected me.

What can I do about this? I am sure people get rejected getting into labs all the time. How do you approach alternate professors?

I also want to point out that though the professor doubted my abilities to do theory research, I do want to continue at least trying to work on my current project for a bit and do not wish to change my area of interest without even giving it a fair shot.


texts: Math teaching job after PhD in the United States for a foreigner

texts:
I am currently at the beginning of my math PhD career at a university in the U.S. after getting higher and college education in Europe (where I am from). I have always liked teaching and math, but I'm realizing that even though I am doing quite well in pure math research, I find it really stressful and I don't think I would like to that for the rest of my life. I enjoy much more teaching, and I would like to that in the United states. Now my question is in regards of the following 3 different opportunities. From what I understood, I could search for a job as a professor at:

High school
Community College
Liberal arts school

Is the salary increasing from 1 to 3? This is what I would expect, but I heard that, for example, the salary of a high school teacher is higher than the salary of a no tenure track position/ lecturer even at a good university. Is this true?

Would the PhD be enough to teach in a high-school? And also, is it going to be much harder for a non American to get hired at a high school rather than a college?

Would a position in either of the 3 types of institution give me vacations for the summer? I assume high schools are closed in the summer, but maybe colleges will require to teach during summer.

Any other suggestions or insights on the matter would be greatly appreciated, and I apologize if the question is a little vague, but I guess others might be in my same situation.


texts: Can too many submitted manuscript hamper your candidacy for getting a position?

texts:
I've been working in a lab for more than 3 years and during this time I have worked on several projects. I have collaboration works too. Most of my projects have been submitted recently. For example, I have finished a project a year ago but it got so many corrections from the supervisor that it took a year to be submitted. Side by side I finished another project. Now, while upgrading my CV, I see so many 'submitted' projects.
Will it make a negative impact on the Ph.D. admission committee thinking that my work might be substandard?
Or is it ok to include all the projects that I have worked on and still working? (almost 6/7)

P.S. All my published works have been published in good journals till now.


texts: Back to academia for physics after M. Sc. In mathematics and 4 years working

texts:
I need your advice. Have a Msc in Math from a decent uni, that I got around 4 years ago. I am working in London at the moment but I really can't stand it any longer. What I want is to go back to uni for a second master in physics and hopefully go on to get a phd. I can go anywhere in europe, but a place that would welcome me even without recommendation letters and being a bit older than the average student would be better. Any good uni to suggest? Alternatives?
Really hope to read some suggestions. You can be specific.


texts:
As the title says, do student reviews of teachers actually ever matter?

At least in the U.S most universities I know of have their students evaluate their teachers at the end of each term. I do know that things like tenure, if they do research, or if they are just an instructor plays a role in how weighted these evals are but even so, does anyone know if anyone actually cares or does anything with the reviews?

I've had many teachers of all types and some were notoriously horrible. Every year hordes of students would write lengthy reasons why the teacher was bad, give them very low marks, etc... And yet the teacher has remained.

I do know some teachers who do actually care (the teachers get them a semester  later) and they can look at what the students liked/ disliked, etc... Which seems like the only way these evals are used. At least the way it feels to me, the administration (the ones who require these reviews), simply collect them, put them in a file, and never speak of them again.


texts: Approach adviser to help publish a paper/Journal

texts:
This topic may seem very close to Unable to defend and graduate
  because of advisers fickle mentality.

I am a Masters thesis student, and been doing my research for nearly 3 years now. Which I assume is quite long for Masters. So why such a long time. Well my adviser ( caring and supportive ) doesn't stick to or follow/have a structure for the thesis. Its like wandering about and finally OK yeah lets do this. Sometimes I face problems midway because we dint plan the thesis properly before hand and foresee what issues we could or would have to tackle way down the thesis, in which case it can be called more structured. Adding to this he is never present when needed.

In-spite of all these, I have somehow reached the very final stages of my thesis and trying to get some good results. I would like to open up and talk to him frankly and still maintain a good rapport so that I can ask to help me publish a paper/journal.

Could someone please give me a template of how I should approach him politely and convey my situation and get the best of this.


texts: Can I put a preprint of a paper on arXiv without informing my co-authors?

texts:
I am the main author and have three co-authors on a paper that I have been working on for quite some time now. Two of them have given me constructive suggestions and do think that the paper is a publishable material.

However, the other one, who also happens to be my supervisor, has been nothing but pessimistic and rather critical in a negative way. Moreover, his suggestions are totally irrelevant to the paper. I am beginning to think that he is trying to deliberately block my paper. Believe me when I say that I am trying to give him the benefit of the doubt; I am trying as much as possible to fulfill his irrelevant and unreasonable demands.

On top of that, my contract with the university is about to end soon. I have found another position in the same field. If this paper was even submitted, which it should have been months ago, it would strengthen my CV a lot.

Can I put it on arXiv without informing my supervisor? If not, what is the best way to deal with the situation?


texts: How long should a graduate school statement of intent be?

texts: I'm attempting to apply to a graduate program for medicinal chemistry and the prompt for the statement of intent doesn't explicitly state a page length. Should I assume about one page? And are paragraphs generally single spaced or double spaced?


texts: Is it possible to attend my "backup" school but reapply to my top choice and go there if accepted?

texts:
I applied to several graduate programs and was accepted to my back-up choice. The professor at one of my top choice schools contacted me personally to say that he was interested in my application but had no room for me this year; he suggested applying next year, as "re-applicants" have a good chance of getting accepted on their second attempt.

Though pleased, I mentally dismissed this. I had a tangible acceptance to a school I did want to attend (albeit last choice), and I enrolled in classes. I immersed myself in my new environment, took on a healthy course load with a teaching assistantship, and have received lots of praise for my work and work ethic from my professors and colleagues.

However, with each week I am here, I hear more and more people--students, professors, the head of the department--admit that my program is lacking in many ways. The school offers very few courses in my actual field (a fact they omitted on the school website that boasted what the program had to offer its students). There are two professors in my field, and one is always away. One of them has also been known to cancel classes frequently, a fact that had been addressed to and dismissed by the department. This means that the few opportunities I have to study in my field have decreased. The program is very heavily based on teaching--that is, the teaching as part of my assistantship. Two of the required classes I am taking this semester are teaching-oriented, and while I am happy to teach now, it is not a long-term career goal of mine, and I expressed this to my advisor. It seems, though, that despite what I was made to understand before coming to school, that this program ultimately tailors its candidates for a teaching career.

Ordinarily I would just accept it, as each program has its problems. Yet, I cannot shake the fact that, especially given the last fact, I am going to be geared toward a career I specifically do not want. Add to that the invitation from the professor of one of my top-choice schools, and I find myself wondering if it is unprecedented for a graduate student to switch. I would not be losing any time; if anything, a switch would save time, as the program I am currently in is unusually long, whereas the program I would be entering is comparatively shorter and more compact. Plus, as the assistantship the other school offers is not a teaching-based one, I will be able to take courses in the field of my choice. But before I keep considering, I would like to know if it is even possible.


texts:
Some background:

I graduated 3 years ago from a big state research university.  I had an irrelevant sociology major and graduated with a 2.9 GPA mainly because I had no inclination that I would ever want to go to graduate school and thought it was more important to just make sure that I had a job to support myself and graduated on time.

After graduation I had a crappy office job for 2 years and took some random IT graduate courses which lead me to eventually get a job as a programmer at a large marketing firm for about a year and I got really interested in the more complex world of computer science especially computer vision, modeling and simulation.

Which brings me to now.

I will be beginning a CS Master's program this summer at a medium sized state university with a concentration in Modeling and Sim.  I plan to to the thesis option and I've already begun contacting professors about research opportunities.

My GRE score is 162/155/4.5 but I didn't study because I found out I had to take it at the last minute.  With some prep I think I can at least bring that up to about 165/160/5.

All that said, do you think that with my thesis, a publication or 2 and a stellar GPA my masters work would over-shaddow my crappy undergraduate career enough to get me into a good PhD program.

My dream department would be Caltech.  But I'd at least like to go somewhere reputable if I'm going to bother with a PhD.

Diversity note in case this helps my cause: I'm female, 1st generation college student, armed forces veteran.

TL;DR

BAD UNDERGRAD: 2.9GPA/unrelated major

If I do really well on my CS Masters program, get some research published, and get my GRE score up to like a 165/160/5 do you think a top program would ignore the transgressions of my youth?


texts: Further improving PhD thesis vs publishing as a post-doc

texts:
I am a PhD student in mechanical engineering in The Netherlands, with four months left on the 4-year contract, writing my thesis. I have sufficient content to be able to submit the thesis by the end of the contract, as far as my supervisor and I are concerned. It is going to be a collection of papers that are either under review or have been published.

Although it seems the thesis can pass, I am not entirely happy with the whole as a body of work. For various reasons, I have obtained results relatively late in the process. I feel that a proper reflection and utilisation of these results would require 4 - 6 additional months, in order for me to be able to process and write it down.

Though there is funding, my university is generally not willing to extend PhD contracts. It would likely be possible, though, after submitting my thesis, to continue as a post-doc and work on publishing said results.

Up to this point, I have felt inclined to work on delivering a very good thesis, and considered working on it without pay for those additional months. Upon reflection, it seems that this is largely due to my emotional investment in the PhD project.

Is there any reason career-wise (I am still debating an industry or academia career) that it is better to work on my PhD thesis than to take the post-doc position and publish the papers after the thesis?
(Obviously, financially, the post-doc option is highly preferable.)


texts: Applied Mathematics Master's Thesis Practicality

texts:
First a little background on me. I am a first semester masters student in applied mathematics who is on the wait list for a decision on admission to the PhD program. I have reached out to a specific professor in the department inquiring about doing a research project with him. First, he told me to wait until I receive my decision on the PhD program. I followed up with him about a potential research project over the summer after not receiving a decision for 4 months now and he suggested a masters thesis and to reach out to my advisor. It really does not seem like this professor is to keen about doing a research project with me (maybe I'm taking it too personally). Anyway, does it make sense for me to work on a masters thesis when I am set on trying to get into a PhD program? I also asked my advisor this question but he hasn't gotten back to me yet.
My goal is to be able to be admitted to the PhD program during my second or last semester of my masters so I can get potentially funding and a TA position for those semesters. What do you guys think?


texts: Do I have to disclose the exchange program of participating student as funding in a paper?

texts:
I am currently writing a paper together with an exchange student of an international academic internship program. As it is common practice, I disclose the research grant, which funds my work. However, the student is paid by the exchange program. He did most of the work and is first author. I am his supervisor and continuously guided his work, though.
Would it be required or is it good practice to disclose the source of his payment or is the grant of my superordinated research project sufficient?


texts:
We always hear about the increasing number of publications published every year and the resulting information overload in science. I wanted to show this trend to students to highlight why they should care about information literacy and search strategies. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a reliable source that highlights this trend, e.g. in an easy understandable figure.

I searched for publications including this information and even hoped for Web of Science or Google Scholar to publish this information but couldn't find anything useful. It is not that important what kinds of publication types are included, e.g. only journal articles or all kinds of publications.

Has anyone a reliable and relatively easy to understand source highlighting the trend of increasing global number of publications over time?


texts: How can I deal with students who try to steer a course (in the online setting)?

texts:
I am not a course instructor, but I am a teaching assistant for a large course in STEM in the large US school. I have been soliciting advice from students to improve the course and tutorial for the past some eight months.
However, during this time, I have been dealing with a series of taking students suggestions (or witnessing the instructor taking students suggestions) that "steer" the course, but then regretting it because it made things worse.
For example,

I host tutorials using PowerPoint slides. Students requested en masse that I should post my tutorial slides ahead of time. I followed their suggestion and the tutorial attendance plummeted to around 10 students, down from 80ish and the tutorial interaction disappeared altogether. Now I am basically talking to an empty room.

Students requested that the course problems should be more representative of the course, i.e., they should look like exam questions. The instructor and I decided to put test questions as assignments. Now the students complain that it is too hard and too lengthy. We augmented the questions and made them easier, now the student demand to see the actual exams and solution because now the questions are not the original ones.

This happened in the last semester. Two very vocal students went on week long rants about how hard the course was and how because of COVID-19 and all the stress we need to lower our exam difficulty. We took their advice and made the exams simpler. The course average wind up to be ~95% and those two vocal students were actually the best performing students all along. Even a snail could pass this advanced, highly technical undergraduate level course. The past year average were around 75%.

I have reached the perhaps pessimistic conclusion that

some students don't know what they want

some students just love to complain very loudly, even in anger, knowing that we have to remain placid, professional no matter how bad things get

students don't care about learning, only care about high score on exams. Some students would love it if the entire course was just one guy explaining the solution to all the previous year's exams.

How do we deal with following student suggestions in the online setting? I noticed that due to various online platforms and discussion board we provide them, in addition to semi-anonymity, some students are much more vocal, persistent. The instructors I've worked with are also more likely to give in to this small minority, lower the course standard, and basically getting steered by students into making the course worse.
Obviously I am a TA and my power is limited. But this might be useful for when I become a instructor myself or for other course instructors.


texts: What should I do when a professor is teaching inaccurately?

texts:
I have a professor who is teaching an upper class man renaissance art history course. I am very passionate about this subject so I already have lots of prior knowledge.
I found some inaccuracies in her lectures and tried to confront her about them, providing sources and all. She still insists she is correct and graded me unfairly. Again, this is an upper class course and she teaches it like an introductory level course. The information she provides is inaccurate and she teaches by asking us to a memorize each picture and its statistics (name, date, medium, size, location), and covers none of the historical elements of the piece artist or era.
I'm very frustrated with her and I'm not sure what to do.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.


texts:
There is another research group at another university in my town. They asked me to join one of their monthly brown bag meetings and to serve as a discussant. They have invited an external speaker and he will present something that is related to my own research.

I received the presentation slides in advance and I have read two related papers of the speaker to prepare. Although I do have some questions and points to discuss, I am not exactly sure how to go about this. I have never done this before and I have only once witnessed such a thing at a conference but thought the discussant there wasn't a good example.
So I was hoping for some general advice and experiences. Some questions are:

Should I prepare some slides myself?
How long is this kind of discussion usually?
Should I try to engage the audience or is it more of a one-on-one between me and the presenter?


texts: Intellectual theft by a former colleague, how to respond?

texts:
I was recently given a green light by my former supervisor to conduct an analysis on individual patient data from their recently published trial for a stats class assignment (Msc). The idea was we could flip the assignment into a research letter/full manuscript if the results are interesting. I didn't describe the full analysis since I knew it would be enough to just give them the overall jist.
I later called my former colleague, the clinical trial coordinator, to describe the data I needed, the analysis I was going to do (more detailed), and discuss data security since it was a group project. I mentioned if my members could not have access to the data, I could do the analysis myself since I had already signed confidentially etc in the past. The coordinator then told me the question/hypothesis I was asking was something s/he wanted to see done but did not have the statistical expertise to do. I want to emphasize here that the coordinator does not have a methodology background and was not familiar with the analyses/methods that I described but just thought what I wanted to do is like what they had imagined.
However, a few hours later, I receive an email from my former supervisor that is clearly written by the coordinator saying that on further consideration, the analysis I was going to do probably belongs in a secondary paper that '[they] want to do'. Complete 180 and phrased 'we' exclusive since I am no longer part of the team. Now, its common for my old supervisor to delegate decision making / email writing to his staff as s/he is a busy clinician so there isn't any uncertainty around the email. They have also offered me an alternative data set for my class but I cant help but feel robbed.
What do I do?


texts: Can you charge open access fees (e.g., publishing in a PLOS journal) to an NIH grant?

texts:
Question is in the title. I have researched this myself and this part of the NIH FAQ seems to indicate the answer is "Yes"

https://publicaccess.nih.gov/faq.htm#810

However, I don't know exactly what is meant by "all other applicable rules on allowability of costs" means. Has anyone here ever charged open access fees (e.g., if you published in a PLOS journal) to an NIH grant or another publicly funded grant (SAMSHA, CDC, NSF, etc.)? Any info is very much appreciated.


texts: Is it rational to lose confidence in authors whose books contain many typos?

texts:
I make mistakes too as a flawed human. Yet I always lose confidence in and doubt authors (whose native language is English) whose textbooks or journal articles contain glaring typos or orthographical errors. Is this expectation rational or warranted?

For instance, Michael Spivak's Calculus contains many such typos. But I've spotted no typos in David Benatar's books. Here are my assumptions:

The author or the publisher can hire or engage multiple proofreaders (who can be university students, friends, or family members) to proofread.
The publisher permits the author to read a draft of the book before it's printed, to spot any last-minute mistakes. So these typos aren't the publisher's fault.


texts: Acknowledging Someone in a Research Paper

texts: We finished preparing a manuscript and there is a researcher who helped and advised us on many aspects of the research. I know this may sound trivial but I would like to ask if it is required from me to ask him if I can mention him in the acknowledgment or not. Can I mention him without taking his permission to do so? Thank you in advance...


texts: Filed for a patent, then wrote a research paper about it: should the paper cite the patent?

texts: I filed for a patent, then wrote a research paper about the same idea. Should the paper cite the patent?


texts: How to cite Kindle books/ebooks when no fixed page numbers are available?

texts:
I got the following info from the Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide website in relation to citing Kindle books or ebooks.

  If no fixed page numbers are available, you can include a section title or a chapter or other number.

I am wondering is there a preferred method of citing in this case?

I am history Mlitt student and have only recently started to use a kindle for research purposes. At the moment I use the loc (location) reference that is produced by the kindle in the notes text file you can download from it, that shows all your highlights/bookmarks, but I am confused as to the proper citation method as my supervisor queried if this was the standard way of citing a kindle. I have a copy of my history department style-sheet but it makes no reference to kindle editions.


texts: Should I be careful who I share my unpublished results with?

texts:
If I have a very good result, should I share it with an academic (Professor) from another part of the world who is an expert in the subject, but whom I have never met?

I’m interested in collaboration, but then again I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag and then have nothing come of it, especially before I’ve published anything. On the other hand as a professional, the other party should stick to their academic code of practice and I should have nothing to worry about, right?

This is work I’ve done in my spare time outside of my other academic duties. Work I do in my paid roles I would just publish myself and wouldn’t feel the need to seek collaboration in this way.


texts: My PhD seems daunting and overbearing. How shall I regain motivation and interest?

texts:
EDIT: I should clarify this is not the first draft of my PhD, it's the first draft of my upgrade document to go from MPhil to PhD.

I have been working on my PhD for about two years now, it is a six year part-time program. I have a very good relationship with all my supervisors and they are very supportive. I am fortunate to be part of a good university which is open-minded and free-thinking. I also have attracted the interest of a well-known external academic who is an authority within the field and who wants to be involved. I am very lucky.

The problem is that I am just not that interested or convinced by my research [chiefly its significance]. I have to submit my upgrade document [MPhil > PhD] in about five week's time, and the viva is a week after that. I have written a draft document which is 12,000 words and my main supervisor has written a lot of comments which are suggestions for improvements. The issue is that I do not feel that interested or compelled to work through them.

I am under the impression that my supervisor is not that convinced by my research, even though she keeps saying she has no concerns. I feel my research is too vague, too broad but also too overbearing. It incorporates three disciplines [at the advice of one of my supervisors], disciplines A B and C. Discipline A I am not that interested in - I was for my master's but now I find it quite tedious but it is quite an important part of the whole. It is a well-worn discipline and feels rather old and stale to me now. Discipline B is quite new and interesting, I have published within this discipline. Disipline C is very new and up-and-coming. I find it quite exciting and my supervisor has written the least amount of comments about it in my draft paper, which I take to mean she has the least amount of complaints about it [she has a lot of comments to make about dispclines A/B]. She has also said that discpline C is a 'key' part of the PhD.

I do not know what to do. I am really not that interested and the whole thing seems so daunting. My PhD focuses on A and B mostly with C being only a feature, but I am wondering whether I should switch things round entirely and make it more about C. I feel I will not really be able to convince my panel about the significance of my research in the viva if I am not excited about it or convinced myself. In my master's I was always keen to research and write, now I am not, but I know I would be if the topic were carried out a bit differently.

What shall I do, how shall I regain interest? My PhD seems rather fluffy and not sharp enough. Additionally, I am daunted by the scope of the whole thing: it seems too large to work through and 'bigger' than me. I am kind of at a loss for what to do.


texts: Request to referee from obscure journal (physics)

texts:
I have received a request to referee a paper submitted to a journal I hadn't been aware of before. The paper is in my area of expertise, and I've been working in the field for a few years and read arXiv & major journals (nobody I know has published there, as far as I know). Though to be fair it is published by Springer Nature and has an impact factor of about 2.5.

I'm reluctant to accept the request, because (i) it would cost me time, (ii) I never read the journal, (iii) the abstract is badly written (grammar mistakes, and it's of the form "We use standard methods to calculate some properties about a standard system, which have been discovered in many slight variations before").

Is it okay to reject review in this case? I'm afraid that my judgement may be off.


texts: Is it okay to use the same footnote with exact same words in two different chapters of a thesis?

texts: Can I use the same footnote with exact same words in two different chapters? The ibid. is used in case of a repetition of the footnote exact above. But what if I want to use the same footnote in different chapters.


texts: How are conference TPC (Technical Program Committee) members selected?

texts:
I've been a member of TPC (Technical Program Committee) of some famous conferences for few years. But this year, I, along with many, were not invited.

Wondering how is TPC selected? I guess the TPC chairs select those? But TPC chairs are actually the same as before!


texts: Where to put the theoretical framework in a PhD dissertation (social sciences)

texts:
My dissertation consists of an introduction, background, literature review, methods/research design section, and a chapter for every aspect of a policy issue that I'm addressing. My theoretical framework states how I harness the literature that I summarize to my particular research problem. I thus feel like this could thus go in the lit review or as part of the research design.

I know it seems silly, but any suggestions would be great. I'm one of "those" people who needs a sense of structure (however illusory) to proceed on good faith.

Also, I've tried to search for examples in other dissertations, but it seems that a lot of work in my area these days goes straight to the analysis and primary research.


texts: Where can I see the standard salary range for California State University Assistant Professor?

texts:
Is there a website where I can see the standard salaries for recently hired tenure track Assistant Professors in California State University system? I am on the job market and almost in the process of getting an offer. I wanted to get an idea of what to expect and negotiate.

EDIT: it is California State University system.


texts: Will I be paid a percentage of the fee that readers pay to download my article?

texts:
I am a fresh PhD student and I have a question regarding the scientific publication process.

Let's say that I have submitted a paper to a certain journal in Springer, Elsevier etc... and it has been published.

The editor will charge 31.95$ to anyone who would eventually download my article.

How much do I get from it (as the article's writer) ?


texts: Potential Change of Supervisor: Who to talk to first?

texts:
I am considering trying a change of PhD supervisors.

While I do get along with my current ones as humans (they are nice to me), I feel like this is not the case academically. Our interests don't align as much as we originally (end of last year, when I started) thought, and I feel like they are going to take me into a kind of project now that does not fit my expertise or where I want to go as an academic.

There is a group at my university that does things that would fit my expertise and that I would be interested in working with. I want to contact them about it and see whether they would be willing to "adopt me" (I am funded by the university with funds that are not bound to a project or a supervisor).

My question in this situation: Who should I ask first?
I am worried that if I tell my supervisors about this without having sorted my "exit option" I would put myself at risk of alienating them and then being stuck in that situation if the other group does not want me/this or if I somehow need them to make this change. Then again, if I talk to the other group first, they might point out I should just talk to them first. Any advice?


texts: Method and content in selecting a social science dissertation project

texts:
General question: When working in an area of social science where method matters just as much as content (i.e., theory, question), how does one choose which should be the starting point for a dissertation? In other words, should one (option 1) choose a question that is of great theoretical interest/relevance and then try to find compelling methods or (option 2) choose a question that can be answered using cutting-edge methods and then frame it in the literature as well as possible?

This question matters because, although a project will need some of both in the end, the starting point of a dissertation will determine which one of the two goals above is more feasible. I recognize that it takes years of hard work to achieve just one of those two goals. Also, the answer cannot simply be "both," since that just means waiting to find a methodologically great project that has theoretical relevance. As I can see it, that's just a very successful execution of option 2.

Personal specifics: I'm a PhD student in political science in the US exploring potential dissertation topics. (I applied with a research topic but, because I'm in the US, I'm free to change it in the first few years of the program.) I work in a niche of political science that places a lot of value on "causal identification" using a certain set of statistical strategies. This means that most books and articles celebrated by my advisors use some statistical strategy to estimate the effect of an intervention on an outcome. This usually requires that the researcher find some intervention that was randomly assigned (e.g., by nature, or a government, or an NGO, etc.).

Despite the general emphasis on method, my advisors say that I should pick a question/puzzle/topic first. Also, I have spoken with the authors of some of the aforementioned books, some of which grew from dissertations. The authors mostly state that they picked the question first and later luckily happened across their identification strategies. Part of me wonders if they are just saying that because it is the way that one "should" start a research project. (Unfortunately, I'm not friends with these authors so I cannot have a totally frank conversation them.)

In general, it seems more intellectually honest to select a question or topic first and then find good methods for studying it. But it generally seems more feasible to select a question that I expect I can answer with a cutting-edge technique first, and figure out how to frame the question later. How does one manage this tension at the beginning of a dissertation project or (I suppose) any long-term research project?


texts: Is 100 hours per year of teaching a heavy load for a lecturer?

texts:
I have recently been appointed as a lecturer in a scientific department. This is a permanent position. The responsibilities of the position include: teaching, conducting high level research, administration tasks, mentoring and supervising students. The teaching load is 100 hours/year, which I found a little bit excessive.

My question is: are 100 hours of teaching a heavy load or is this common in academic institutions (universities)? In particular, scientific departments (chemistry, mathematics, physics ...).


texts: Can you use quotes / poems in published papers?

texts:
Sometimes I see quotes or poems at the beginning of a peer-reviewed article. I am guessing that there are some copyright laws to consider here. How does one check whether or not a quote or a poem can be used in such a capacity?
There are poems in the "public domain" here: https://www.public-domain-poetry.com/, but does that mean that one can use it in a publication as one could with creative commons licenses? Peer-reviewed publications aren't for profit by the authors, but I am guessing they would be considered as for profit for the publishers. How does one navigate such issues?
A related link here: Can I use images showing up in Google search for my presentation slides without violating any copyright? is helpful, but not exactly what I am looking for.


texts: Feasibility and procedure for getting graduate admission in CS with non-CS-related engineering background?

texts:
It is often said that branch change is possible while going for MS/ PhD in USA. But almost all examples (as seen on university sites and various blogs) are of someone completing undergraduate studies (ie BE, BTech) from ‘Circuit’ branches of engineering i.e. Electrical, Electronics, Telecom, Instrumentation etc and joining MS/PhD in CS.

How difficult it is to go for MS or PhD in CS, having studied in ‘Non Circuit’ branches like Mechanical, Civil, Chemical and Aeronautics Engineering?
Are there people out there?
What one should do if one has a strong drive, skills and suitable projects, seminars, publications to support the same?

(My query refers mainly to top ranking colleges, say top 20)


texts: Method of self-assessment of academic potential

texts:
I am a soon-to-be-CS-grad at a small teaching university I'm sure you haven't heard of.  I have had several internships, most of which were more development than research (teaching programming at local high schools, developing web services at local companies, etc), and would like to "try on" research before I commit myself to a post-grad program.

Is there a way to accurately assess my ability to perform in a research environment?  I do well in classes, but I am realizing that has little bearing on research ability.  I feel that I am  fairly smart, and know I put in more hours than my undergrad peers, but again, that means basically nothing.

How can I tell if I would be a productive researcher, or if I'm just suffering a minor case of DK-itis?  Is committing to it and spending years of my life the only way to discover my own hackery?


texts: How should I cite a tool or a library in my article?

texts:
When using an online library, tool, framework or something similar, what is the proper way to reference it in an article?

(I work in Computer Science). For example, I want to say that many popular implementations of the method presented in [article reference] use a slightly modified version of the main formula. I mention some examples for the implementation (e.g. OpenCV, VLFeat).

When thinking of a way to reference this, I have several dilemmas:

I could put a small explanation in a footnote or add it to the list of references
I could use the link to the main webpage or to an online manual
do I reference it at all?

This question about how to reference Python is somewhat similar. The difference is that the tools I want to reference are fairly well known in my community (unlike Python for biologists).
In short, I am looking for a good way to acknowledge tools, frameworks or libraries not associated to any article in my writing.


texts: Publishing erratum to arXiv and other best practices

texts: Is publishing a single page erratum to arXiv an acceptable practice? And does it violate the copyright of journal who published the original work?


texts: Fail to reproduce results in a published paper. Is this an academic misconduct?

texts:
I've downloaded the source code and data published in a paper. I've followed their methods, in particularly, copied and pasted their sample code. Unfortunately, I've failed to reproduce the figures in the paper with their software. For example, the variance accounted by the first principal component reported in the paper is about 10% more than I can see on my computer.

My generated figure:

Their reported figure in http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v32/n9/fig_tab/nbt.2931_F3.html

The difference is small but the medians are different in the paper to my generation. The figure in the paper looks better and more aligned to the medians (a good thing). I did a PCA plot (they also did that for the paper), the eigenvalues are different to reported.

I followed their methods in https://www.bioconductor.org/packages/3.3/bioc/manuals/RUVSeq/man/RUVSeq.pdf

I simply copied and pasted their code and used their R-package.

Can I consider this as an example of data-manipulation (to make the figures look better) and therefore academic misconduct?

EDIT:

The method is non-stochastic, it involves computing singular value decomposition for factor analysis. There is nothing stochastic, no random number is generated. Identical data-set (downloaded from their R-package).


texts: How can PhD student repair relationship with supervisor after PhD student engages in independent research without supervisor?

texts:
When I had just started my PhD in Computer Science in Korea, a Physics PhD student in the EU proposed a collaboration. He and I wrote one paper for a conference. I learned last week that the paper was accepted. He is first author. I am second author.

I did not tell my professor about this project even though he was my supervisor then. I mentioned it to my professor recently. He became very angry. He asked me to remove my name from the paper. He said that all my work represents his lab and my university. I shouldn't conduct other work.

My professor's points

The collaboration should be done between supervisors. (My professor's background and interest do not fit with my coauthor.)
Another issue is none of us can present the paper at that time, asking someone for authorship is acceptable for this situation?

My question

How can I mend things with my professor and continue to collaborate with my coauthor?


texts: Academic mobility and the 2020 UK research review

texts:
The UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the centralised mechanism by which the government determines the research output quality of an institution.

In the 2013 UK REF, it was possible for researchers/academics to move to a new institution just before the REF but still have research performed entirely at their old institution count towards the new one.

Is this still to be the case with the 2020 REF?


texts: How do U.S. research institutions typically reimburse a faculty candidate's airfare costs for multi-city trips?

texts:
I am interviewing at several research institutions in the U.S. for a tenure-track faculty position all around the same time. I booked a multi-city flight to avoid having to fly back to my current hometown between each interview because that would be lame. I plan on asking the institutions for guidance on how to get reimbursed, but figured I would ask here about what I should expect or what is commonly done for this situation. As an example, say for three interviews, ideally each institution would pay a third of the cost, but each institution has its own rules and they are not bound to do what other institutions would in any case.

So, how do U.S. research institutions typically reimburse a faculty candidate's airfare costs for multi-city trips?

Related: How to buy plane tickets for job interviews?


texts:
I am a senior undergraduate about to publish my first academic paper, and have been thinking about taking an academic pseudonym to make myself easier to identify.

My full name is shared by at least three famous people (including one celebrity and one international athlete), and at least two people inside academia (one of whom works in my field). This is my major reason for wanting to change. In modern academia, it seems online identity/SEO is becoming increasingly important, and I don't want to have to compete for namespace with other people, who are:

more famous than I'll likely ever be; and
already have established careers and goodwill under that name.

Basically, it seems like it could be a real hindrance when trying to get my career off the ground.

I am quite attached to my first name, so I'm thinking about changing my last name only to an ancient variant of it. It's a similar name, but much less common, and it couldn't be mistaken as a misspelling of my real name (think Busher vs Bouchier, or Lombard vs Lambert). I can't find evidence of anyone online using that name, so it seems to solve all the problems mentioned above.

I hope to continue into academia and become a professor, in which case I would publish and be known professionally under the new name.
I'd rather not legally change my name, or have to change my name within my personal life, so it would be a situation of having separate professional and personal names. In the event I don't succeed/continue into academia, I could always just revert to my real name (unlikely that my published work will be relevant anyhow).

I'd like to get advice from you all, especially those of you that use a pseudonym in your academic work. A couple questions I have:

Does this seem like a worthwhile idea?
Could there be any issues with having different legal and professional names in a university IT system?
Should I change my undergrad enrolment to be under my new academic name? How about when applying to postgrad/PhD programs?
If I don't do (3), could/should I get degrees reprinted (once I have an established career) under my academic name, rather than my personal name?
Are there any hairy issues that could arise from this, which I might not have considered?

Thanks!


texts: When applying to PhD programs in Computer Science, how much does subfield/specialty selection matter?

texts:
I recently finished applying to several Ph.D. programs in Computer Science, and as part of the application process I had to select one or two subfields of CS that I was interested in. For many of them I selected specialties like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and I've already started receiving emails from professors in those fields who would be interested in advising me.

My statements of purpose mentioned that I was "particularly interested" in AI and Machine Learning, and whenever possible I checked those boxes on the application forms. However, I'm also interested in other specialties (e.g. Theory), and although my statements of purpose do mention that I have varied interests in CS, I never specifically selected Theory as one of my desired specialties.

Have I painted myself into a corner here? If I'm accepted to a Ph.D. program in Computer Science and I selected specialty X on my application, can I still conduct research in specialty Y?


texts: Questions about authorship rank and academic politics

texts:
Disclaimer! I am a first year CS/Applied math master student so I do understand very little in how academia works. I am trying to fix it before I go into PhD.

I have discovered a scientist who works in the field I am interested in. This scientists is very successful career-wise. The scientists finished a prestigious university and had stays in very good places. Now the scientists is an assistant prof in a high-ranking US university.

However, literally >90 %  of his papers were written in co-authorship (as a rule, not the first nor the last author) with other more experienced researcher who we recognized as leaders in the fields. In fact, the only solo paper the scientist has is ones thesis! All PhD students so far have been also co-advised.

I have very little research experience but it seems to me that coming up with a good idea one can further develop is the trickiest part. Implementation (or, sometimes, even writing down actual proofs) is a technical work. I guess that the coauthorship was earned for some implementation work. It seems to me that there are much more people capable of / actually doing these technical work both in academia and in industry who do not get such recognition as the aforementioned scientist.

I may be envy but I find very little proofs of that scientist actual skills. Instead I have a feeling that the scientist makes very wise political decisions or is good as self-advertising.

Also I did very limited empirical studies and found that researchers who have highly-cited solo papers tend to have higher (4K +) citation counts then those who have almost exclusively co-authored papers.

My question is many-fold:

is what I have described normal? Update. Is it normal to have almost exclusively co-authored papers?
what should I do to mimic that behavior. It does not seem to be noble at all but apparently this is how successful academia people work.
Are indeed funding and promotions based on citation counts? If this is not the case, how those researchers without solo papers are assessed?
Is it true that those researcher who has successful solo papers are much better supervisors?

Update. I am talking here about theoretical research in CS/Applied Math. I guess in other fields there are many more opportunities for equally valuable contributions of many sides.


texts: How important is research experience of undergraduates in the application for graduate school?

texts: I'm planning to apply to graduate school in applied mathematics, but I do not have any research experience. The reason being is that I did not become a math major until my junior year in college. How will a lack of research experience affect my application?


texts:
We are a masters degree student group who have conducted a quite significant study which has pulled a lot of interest from the HCI/MI communities in CS. We have been encouraged to host all our data for the public such that other researchers can use it in their research (them cites!). We have phyiological synchronized data for galvanic skin response, electroencephalography, 17 point face tracking and heart rate information. We also have video data, but those are not included for anonymity reasons.

The data comes from two experiments conducted. The first is a test where participants are exposed to positive/negative and neutral images and included 49 participants. The second is a usability test while having sensors attached, then a cued recall session with sensors (with a new data set) and a cued recall debrief session with SAM values. It had 39 test participants.

The raw data is in the area of 50GB compressed. We have personally used the data for two articles where we first classify emotions, and in the second paper find usability problems / frustrating events from physiological data.

Now, the actual question - where can we host this? We considered github but that seems odd. Does google maybe have a solution? We could host it our selves, but that would mean maintaining a website with it for years to come.


texts: How to avoid thinking about research in free time?

texts:
I work on research, trying to get grants and publish papers and the like, I really like my job, could not think about doing anything else. When the weekend comes, or just free time I have the problem that I can not stop thinking on research, it does not matter what. Sometimes it is that I feel so relaxed during the weekend that new ideas come to my mind and then I can not avoid to write them down or think a bit more about them. My wife obviously does not like this, but I try my best.

Do you experience the same and do you know how to avoid this?


texts: Why do some US states have multiple universities?

texts:
California, for example, has two universities: University of California and California State University. Why would any state not simply have one university for all the higher-education programs it wishes to fund? It'd be easier for the students, as they now wouldn't have to go through a transfer application process just to go to a different state-run campus. They wouldn't even have to worry about whether the course work they did in - or to get into - their current university will be enough to get them onto that other campus.

The only reason I can come up with is feasibility.