texts:
I know a professor who is really brilliant, but also very modest. This professor has helped me to progress in life. Now, I want to express my gratitude by nominating him as ACM Fellow. However, I have no experience in situations of this kind and I would like to ask you a couple of questions:

When you are nominating a professor for a fellow title, do you need to ask permission to him? or should I keep the process in secrecy?
In case the fellow title may not be granted to him, could this fact hurt his reputation?
Is it ethical to try convince other professors to support my nomination application?


texts: What do US universities mean when they mention anything above the "Calculus" course?

texts:
I am applying for a PhD in pure maths. Now a lot of places that I am applying to are asking for detailed lists of courses and books that I have followed for anything more advanced than calculus.
Now I am not quite sure what they mean here, because in our institute the course that was named calculus was an introduction to differential forms and theorems regarding those. And from there it went on to give us an introduction to manifolds. (This was our third semester undergrad; prior to this we had taken linear algebra, analysis 1, multivariable analysis, topology, and group theory.) I am from India.
Now if this is considered to be a basic calculus course then I am not quite sure how to judge exactly what courses are supposed to be more advanced than this.
Since some folks have asked regarding the syllabus:

Axioms of the real number system without construction, applications of the least-upper-bound- property, Archimedean principle, existence of nth roots of positive real numbers, ax for a > 0 and x > 0.
Convergence of sequences, monotonic sequences, subsequences, Heine-Borel theorem, lim sup and lim inf Cauchy sequences, completeness of R. Infinite series, absolute convergence, comparison test, root test, ratio test, conditional convergence, complex numbers, power series, radius of convergence of power series.
Continuous functions on intervals of R, intermediate value theorem, boundedness of continuous functions on closed and bounded intervals.
Differentiation, mean value theorem, Taylor's theorem, application of Taylor's theorem to maxima and minima, L'Hôpital rules to calculate limits.
Construction of ez using power series, proof of the periodicity of sin and cos.
Riemann Integration: Riemann integrals, Riemann integrablity of continuous functions, fundamental theorem of calculus.

This is the analysis 1 syllabus. I suppose this is going to be equivalent to calculus.


texts: Is having your hand in your pocket during a presentation bad?

texts:
Someone I know has given a presentation at a American University.  He supposedly had his hand in his pocket while giving the presentation.  A foreign student attacked him for this.  The person supposedly said "how would you like it if I gave a presentation with my hand in my pocket."  At the end of the presentation, more people started ridiculing him

I am not sure if he was attacked for the content of the presentation, because unfortunately, I have heard this through the grapevine.

What is the proper way to give a presentation?  Did the students act appropriately?


texts: On average how many research questions do you come up with before finding the one worth pursuing?

texts:
Like every other Ph.D. student, I am having a tough time finding a good research question.
Thanks to Varian's advice "how to build a model in your spare time", I can come up with a lot of interesting topics and questions (judged by my peers and supervisors). Still, when I start looking at the literature or the data structure I need, I find myself in one of the following situations:

There is already a published article way better than what I thought explaining the issue
The problem is worth pursuing and there is a gap. Yet, the dataset is not available or too costly for my budget

This process seems very time and energy-consuming, and while the latter resource may be renewable, the former is not.
Am I doing something wrong? How many research questions does an experienced researcher throw away as not worth pursuing?


texts: Failed my BEng dissertation in a computer/electronics related field twice, how do I move forward?

texts:
I went to university to study a degree which has computer software and hardware elements to it. I didn't do badly in my normal modules at all, I never got below a 2:1 grade in any module, and some of them I got to over 80% percentage wise. Now, I don't feel like I come from a terribly good home, and there has been a lot going on in the background that is sort of still there, at least some of it is.
When it came to my dissertation I picked a topic somewhere in September last year. My topic was to do more with physics and graphics than my actual degree. I thought it would be interesting to find out about these things. I tried to do it in C++ which I already knew, and apply OpenGL to see it on the screen.
Honestly, I didn't know how or why but learning anything on the topic didn't work for me. Creating the programming environment took me days and sometimes I still have issues with just making the bare skeleton of things work. I followed a tutorial from over 10 years ago (so quite outdated for my liking) on how to do this particular thing, but its 2 days from hand in date number two and the practical side doesn't work. To give you an idea of time, I say I failed twice because I managed to get a 3 month extension due to Covid, and failed to hand anything in on hand in date one, and now will fail to hand in anything on hand-in date two because I simply can't learn how this works.
When it came to actually working and meeting with my supervisor, every meeting I would want to break down and cry, and so I'd avoid most meetings, and then further not be able to do any meetings online during Covid, because every single second I knew that I didn't understand a thing, and there was nothing to say to him. I haven't spoken to him for over 3 months. I generally tried to do work in the mornings, and only started with my hobbies in the evening so that I gave myself at least 3-6 hours of work per day to do this, especially after the extension was given as this was my only work for those three months. But it looks like I am just too stupid to do this. Tutorials for OpenGL took me days to get through in a way that I understand what was going on. I got some medication for my panic attacks, but generally, due to this work, I've been waking up to me sweating and breathing really fast for the last few weeks especially, not to mention constant nightmares I have. Needless to say, I find it difficult to be happy right now and people have been telling me I am distant and I act like I hate them.
I don't know how to move on from this failure and tackle the re-take, if it happens at all at this point. I want to ask for some sort of study leave, so that I can study what a dissertation is, and what is it that I could possibly research instead of this, and then hopefully go back and do the retake, not run away from my supervisor, and actually feel like I know what I am doing like I usually did during my modules. In general, I need some recommendations on how to tackle dissertation and failure, as well as how to pick a dissertation topic I feel like I can do.
Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask for help, please leave a comment on where I can go otherwise, but mostly I just wanted advice from people that actually have an academia background and could write a dissertation, especially in a computer or programming related field.


texts: Should I define two essential terms in abstract?

texts:
A big aspect of the novelty of our paper is distinguishing among two things which are often conflated, or at least a bit garbled together in some non-standard way per application, within our community.  It’d be helpful to explicitly label and identify how we will use these (original, not repurposed) terms ASAP in the paper to bring our readers on board with how we’re tackling the problem.

It’d be useful to have the terms loaded with our meaning to use them in our abstract; so useful that I’m willing to devote the first two sentences of our abstract to this purpose.

Is this appropriate?  I haven’t seen it done.  I’m also worried that it’s a bit of a buzzkill / alienating to read an abstract which throws new language at you instantly.  If may be helpful to know my target audience is engineers and physicians.

My current solution “masks” the definitions a bit:

  In this work we draw a distinction between X, [definition X], and Y, [definition Y].  For example, in [example my community knows about] X which is [instance X in example] and Y which is [instance Y in example]. ...

I’m avoiding giving more context as it would be burdensome and make this question less relevant to others who may stumble on it in the future.


texts: What should be the theme of a presentation in a research visit?

texts:
I am having a one-week research visit in a far east country.

I was asked by the head of the hosting group to give a presentation. I have never done this before, hence I am quite confused about the content of this presentation.

To provide you some extra context: I am the first member of our group visiting this group, at the same time I am the most junior member in our group. As I am visiting this time, we expect in a reasonable amount of time to have a member of their group visiting us.

Some information that I could include in the presentation are:

information about our group (history, group members, research focus, ongoing projects, methodologies, tools...)
information about myself (personal info, academic experience, research focus, detailed explanation of most recent work, desire to learn from the visit...)
information about the city we are located at (to make the case that it is worth sending a student...)

I think the list is too extensive. What would be a goldilocks in terms of duration and content to include in the presentation?

I have to make the most out of this visit and presentation, to be able to build upon it later on. The hosting PI is top 5 in the world in his respective field.


texts: 24 years of personal research which needs to be academically recorded but how?

texts: I need some guidance, 24 years ago I started to research a specific topic which slowly developed into my collating related documented evidence that I accessed worldwide. Today, my research is finished and ALL the related historical documentation etc compiled. But now what? I am being told by those interested in my research and findings that I need to publically ensure such is available to others, but how. Unlike those that embarked on a PhD journey, my journey was one of a personal nature that ended up being Thesis style, any suggestions?


texts: What software program do most use in the health sciences for preparing paper for submission to journal?

texts: I am submiting my first paper for publication without any academic setting or advisor.  What software programs do researchers/writers use to submit papers for publication?


texts: Should my class be more rigorous, and how?

texts:
I just finished my first semester teaching. The class average was about 88% +/- 9. This seems high to me. The class is normally taken by third and fourth year students. I don't want to push the current grades down, but I don't know if I should make the class just a little more difficult next time I teach it, or how to make it more difficult if I should.
I don't have a lot of information about how the previous professor ran the class, but based on his syllabi I probably covered about twice the number of topics he did. So I assume he spent more time on each topic and covered them in more detail. I don't know how much I could do that, I feel that it's important to introduce the topics I covered, and attempting to add more detail to each topic would take up time I might not have.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to know if a class if difficult enough, and how to adjust the difficulty?


texts:
How should I cite the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2020?
If possible in BibTeX format.

This question was originally asked in meta Stack Exchange, but it was closed for being considered off-topic.
Emphasis is mine:

DO NOT USE this tag unless your question's about the Developer Survey's integration with sites other than Stack Overflow. Most questions about the annual Stack Overflow Developer Survey should be asked on Meta Stack Overflow, not here.
https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/survey

This question was also asked in Meta Stack Overflow.


texts: Should I say/write the n-word in a quote?

texts: I'm quoting a book (To Kill A Mockingbird) and using a quote where the n-word is used. Later I'm going to have to read that out loud while my teacher also has a copy. Should I censor the word when reading or writing it?


texts: Was forced out of PhD for academic/health reasons, need advice on what to do next

texts:
I was accepted into a PhD in maths at a fairly highly ranked school in 2017. My supervisor was known for being quite demanding, but I wanted this because I wanted to push myself, and he is quite well known in the field I was interested in, which is algebraic geometry.

During the first year I was doing background work and developed my maths up to the point where I could start actually doing research. This involved going through textbooks and exercises and generally learning maths at a high level. Each week he was unhappy with my work, and would find holes in the proofs and logic, and holes in my understanding. After this happened over months, he began to suggest that maybe maths wasn't for me. Eventually he basically explicitly said this, and said that I wasn't understanding the material and wasn't able to think mathematically. He suggested that I drop out and "do something else with my life".

The other issue here is that I was suffering from depression, and was fairly burned out from my undergrad, and I blame that in large part for not being able to study efficiently and think clearly. I did end up leaving the program late 2018, and I got a medical certificate to document the depression.

The thing is, I am determined to succeed. I know for a fact that a PhD in maths is what I want to do, and I am not willing to give up on that. I am certain I have the ability, and am putting my failure down to the above mentioned issues. I am still doing maths every day to keep my skill level up and increase my understanding. At some point I want to reenter a PhD program. That is where my question comes in.

What is the best way to get back into a PhD? How much will my past dismissal (technically I left voluntarily) affect my chances? Given that my supervisor has said flat out that he doesn't think I am cut out for maths research, how would I go about getting an academic reference for any future application? Any other advice is appreciated.


texts:
When does a PhD student officially stop being a PhD student? To be more specific, are you no longer a PhD student when:

you have submitted your PhD (and thus stopped working on it),
been approved for the degree, or
graduated?

I have looked on the Internet and on Stack Exchange and I cannot find a clear answer to this question. On Academia Stack Exchange, one question asks something similar but from such a different perspective that it provides no help. While I know I can ask some administrative body in the university (and have), I remain sufficiently confused about the general consensus on this matter that I would appreciate answers from experts here.

I have a personal interest in knowing the answer to this question as I am involved in a society which is only open to current students and unsure as to when I will become ineligible.


texts: Admitted to a masters in Cambridge - no scholarship!

texts:
I was admitted to the MPhil masters program in "Advanced Computer Science" at Cambridge, UK, but unfortunately I wasn't offered a scholarship. I browsed the internet a bit, but as I'm not from England (though from the EU) I couldn't find any possibility of loans or studentships, that would cover the whopping 20000£ needed to cover fees and living costs for the 9 months the program takes.

Does anyone here have any experience what possibility for funding exist ? Cambridge, as it seems, of at most grant me a bursary which does not nearly cover theses costs.

Would it be a good idea at all to take a loan (supposing that that's possible) ?


texts: Lack of passion from the beginning of my PhD

texts:
I chose my current PhD position because of funding limitation and the reputation of my institute last year. After a year, it's a disaster, because I have no interest in my PhD project. I haven't read any papers in my personal time since I started my PhD. I'm not interested in what my labmates are doing whenever they are presenting. Though my project works perfectly fine, I just don't care about it.

Many rumors prevail in our lab regarding our supervisor; for example not supportive to graduating PhD students. Therefore, the morale and atmosphere in our laboratory has been strange. Yet, I've managed to maintain a moderate relationship with him. I have worked as a summer student in several labs and understand that no lab is free of anecdotes from the supervisor.

My only concern is that my passion in science will decay with my project. A year ago, I still had the lust to ask infinite questions in the summer lab, but I'm like a dying whale on the beach today. I feel very sad, because my family and my friends have great expectation from me.

I would like to change labs or start from a master's degree level again, but I'm not sure if it is feasible, especially since my supervisor is rather special. Please help me and give me some suggestions.


texts: Encountering former, abusive advisor at a conference

texts:
I'm a PhD Student in the US and am going to a conference for poster presentation soon.
I just realized that my poster will be right next to my former advisor's poster (To be precise, it's his student's poster).

To explain the history with the advisor, I worked with him for about a year. But he was emotionally abusive and unsupportive. I had panic attacks whenever I had a meeting with him. After a year in the program, I quit and applied to another program again. This second program has worked out really well, and I'm very happy with my current advisor.

The separation with the former advisor seemed okay at first (he wasn't upset or angry about my decision at least when I talked about it. He sounded like he understands my decision). But then, after the conversation, he started ignoring me, which means that he wasn't okay at all.

The thing is that I'm now having a panic attack and become very anxious after realizing that my poster is right next to his. It seems unavoidable to run into him at the conference.

I'm really stressed out as this reminds me of all the traumatic events I had gone through. But at the same time, I want to use this opportunity to overcome this anxiety associated with him.

Can anyone give me advice on how I should react when I see him at the conference? How can I react in a professional way? Should I just ignore him? I can say hi to him, but I'm concerned that he will ignore me (This happened previously, and likely to happen again).

Any suggestions or advice will be appreciated!

UPDATE: Thank you all for very helpful suggestions and support! I think it's too late to relocate my poster. But after reading all the comments, I start to think maybe I just misinterpreted his neutral response or indifference as something negative or aggressive. Maybe I was overreacting initially. After reading everyone's comments, thinking about it for a couple of days really helped me reappraise the situation. Thanks all!


texts: What does "Reviews Completed" mean one week post-submission?

texts:
I sent a paper to a Springer journal. After two days the editor was assigned and after 5 days the status changed to "Reviews Completed".

Is this bad news?


texts:
Some guides say to limit the references to up to 5-6 years old.
But I've speculated as to, whether it's possible that research would become "deviated to pursuits for which in the history there existed multiple paths". I.e. since old research may suggest new research, but not all new research is necessarily "all research", then wouldn't it be possible to grasp an old article and then do new work on that?
I'd assume that this could be very feasible in mathematical papers for example. What about computer science papers? Something else?


texts: Is it common practice in the US for students to propose master thesis topics themselves, or do labs have a list of topics to pick from?

texts:
I'm currently doing a masters in electrical engineering (image and video processing, machine learning, etc.) at a renowned European university.
For my masters thesis, I'd like to go to the US (or Canada).

Now, at my university (and at a lot of European universities) it is usually the professors that create a list of thesis topics. The students can subsequently pick one.

However, during my search for suitable thesis topics I could pursue in the US, I didn't find this kind of lists.

Is it common practice for students to propose topics themselves to relevant labs and hope to get them approved?
Or could anyone shine some light on the usual procedure to find a thesis topic and advisor?


texts: Is it okay to assign free marks for students assignments?

texts:
Regarding to a course for undergraduates (especially in computer science, but i would love to hear opinions from others too):

Is it okay to assign free marks for assignments? Meaning, the students who submitted the assignments will be assigned full marks.

If yes, in total how much percentage of free marks you assign from the overall 100% of the course? Is 30-40% too much?
How many assignments do you give?

This is because, students tend to discuss or copy paste the assignments from friends. And I don't want them to do that because of fear of losing marks. When I say I don't deduct marks for a particular exercise, I see that some students are willing to take the challenge and be creative with their answers, although their answers sometimes are wrong. I believe that people learn from mistakes.

But people might question me if I just give them full marks for 30~40% from the overall course marks. I couldn't measure whether I am too lenient, unbelievable, too dumb, etc, because of lack of experience.

So please, any opinion would be appreciated.


texts: Missed registration deadline that was not announced for second exam of a course, how should I proceed?

texts:
I am an undergraduate student in Germany.
Due to scheduling problems I couldn't attend an exam last semester. Subsequently, because of COVID-19, the date for the second exam was unknown. To register for an exam you need to access the list where all university courses are listed, and then just click on the exam and press on a participate button. I did not want to register for the second exam before the date was announced, because I did not want to have this show up in my grades if I did not attend.
The professor only sent the e-mail of the date of the exam to those registered for the second exam, excluding the students otherwise registered for the course or the first exam. Also, no information on the second exam is available on the course page. Yesterday, I got an e-mail from the professor about hygiene and covid measures in the exam which apparently is this Friday. Also, the deadline for entering was 2 weeks ago. In all the other courses I participated in, all attendants of the course got information for the second exam.
After explaining the situation to the professor I got the answer that attending now is not possible.
This is an incredibly bad situation for me. My whole plan on finishing my degree in time depends on passing this exam. Otherwise I won't be able to attend a lot of courses that have this course as a prerequisite. Effectively, I will need a year longer to finish my bachelors.
How shall I proceed? Do I have any rights for a third exam in this situation?


texts:
I am entering my senior year of undergraduate study in Computer Science at a small, primarily undergraduate institution. I plan to attend graduate school and pursue a PhD in Computer Science and Mathematics, my main goal to teach. The school I attend is quite small, and is all but unknown outside our geographic region. As such, I've attempted to add as many positive bullets to my CV as possible, mainly because I feel I will have to fight harder than my colleagues at larger universities to get into a great program.

One of the things I have attempted to add to my vita is teaching experience. I have had the opportunity to tutor in our Mathematics Tutoring Center for a couple years now, and have fallen in love. I have also had the pleasure of assisting a professor in her Freshmen CS labs. Last fall I spoke with her about increasing my duties to more than just fielding questions as the students type their programs. I wanted to start grading lab submissions, and perhaps even hold office hours. She was delighted that I wanted the increased responsibility, but sharply objected to calling it a "TA" position.

Is there a stigma of assigning the title TA to an undergraduate?


texts: What is the timeline for hiring tenure-track Professors during the Summer?

texts:
I'm curious to know if anyone has any experience with conducting a tenure-track job search during the summer for positions in the US.  I've noticed jobs posted from late May through early July.  What's the timeline for hiring decisions this late in the cycle?  Should I expect a typical interview / campus interview / offer process?  How late are these decisions typically made?  If I applied for a position in early June but haven't heard anything by early July, should I assume the position is closed?

I'm looking for positions within English departments at four year teaching institutions and HBCUs, pretty exclusively.  Thanks so much!


texts: What to do if the corresponding authors do not share the referees' response?

texts:
My PhD advisers and I have an under review paper in a top tier journal. Recently, I received an email from the chief editor of the journal informing us that the paper has been reviewed and they encourage us to re-submit it.
After one week, I asked my advisers to share the response of the referees with me. Two weeks passed and I did not get a response. So, I sent another email and did not get a response yet.
To give a bit of background, I had informed my advisers that I don't have time to continue working on the paper. That said, it seems unreasonable to not share the referees' response with me (this is primarily my PhD work). I want this paper to be published.
I'm considering directly emailing the chief editor (cc'ing my advisers) and asking for the referees' comments. What do you suggest?
I would appreciate your thoughts and comments.
Edit: I got a response after several weeks. That said, as mentioned in the comment section, I successfully checked the reveiwer's response by logging in the journal website.


texts: Developed technique but was not added as co-author

texts:
I developed a novel technique (from 2016 until my graduation in August 2019) in my area of study as a PhD student. I transferred the technique to another PhD student, which took all of Fall 2018. Today I found that the second student and my (ex)advisor submitted a paper in July (before my graduation), and neither included me as co-author (even though I helped the second student adapt my technique to his problem with significant hand-holding), nor cited my papers documenting the technique.

Today my (ex)advisor sent an email asking me to help transfer my technique to a third student. The third student informed me that the second student (who left the research group for another) is not cooperating, and stalling with excuses of other commitments. Of late, my (ex)advisor has become very toxic to work with, and has lost numerous good grants. What do you advise I do in such a situation?


texts: Meaning of et al. when referring to multiple papers with the same first author

texts:
I am citing some papers with the same first author but different co-authors.
For example, [1] is a paper by X, Y and Z, and [2] is a paper by X, A and B. Would X et al. [1,2] be appropriate here? because essentially et al. in [1] refers to people other than those referred to by et al. in [2].

There is a similar question about Harvard references. But I am interested in cases where only the reference number is shown in text.

Update in my field in computer science, it's common to refer to the first author and use et al. When there are multiple ones. Usually the first author is regarded as the one who did the majority of the work.


texts: Can one determine whether somebody's work may have been plagiarized?

texts:
Background

A friend of mine submitted a very original presentation proposal to the largest academic association in her field for their annual conference about 10 months ago. About 7 months ago, she heard back that her topic was rejected (according to her, it was probably because her proposal was about a project that didn't have data yet, which is nonstandard but sometimes acceptable in her field if certain other criteria are satisfied).

She is now attending a similar conference in ~2 months. She was looking over the list of topics and found one researcher's abstract that was almost identical to the idea she had proposed.

A little digging told us that this researcher had been one of the anonymous reviewers for the proposal-call my friend submitted to, and that the researcher has a publication-in-progress for this project. This researcher's previous work is not in line with this new project at all.

My question

Obviously scientists independently come up with good ideas and perform similar research all the time. In many fields, research groups working independently on similar projects can even mutually support each other if they come to similar conclusions. Still, it's not always innocent.

Are there any ways to determine whether an anonymous reviewer may have stolen ideas from one of the submitted proposals and published them -- as opposed to two researchers coming up with the same ideas independently?

If so, how serious is this?


texts: PhD student, issued contract at year 3 which will sign over intellectual property. Is it legal?

texts:
I'm EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Science Research Council, the biggest UK funding source in the sciences and engineering) funded. Several months into my PhD an industrial sponsor came along. In exchange for additional funds they wanted me and the other PhD students in our group to spend some time during the PhD at their sites and work on industrial problems. This is known as a CASE award. I'm not sure what the university signed, but I have not signed anything. It was a verbal agreement with my supervisor.

I'm now in my 3rd year and writing up. The industrial sponsor has decided to renew their agreement with the university and just issued me with a contract (it states the university and industrial sponsor have agreed upon additional clauses as of early 2015). The clauses/contract that I've been asked to sign states that I will give the industrial sponsor all my intellectual property (to which I currently own) generated over the course of the last 3 years. It also states that the industrial sponsors will review all publications and stop me publishing anything they think will give them a competitive edge (Note I'm not and have never used any of their data, resources or industrial knowledge/work/ideas etc. this is my own work) - I'm just about to publish the remainder of my PhD and then submit my thesis in the coming months. I was in good position to finish early and focus fully on moving to the industrial site for the remainder of my PhD and work on the projects the industrial sponsors wanted me to look at. Clearly for any projects done while there, the IP would belong to the industrial sponsors - however they want everything, including the stuff I did before they even got involved!

Additionally signing the contract means that they can make my thesis closed - i.e. future employers are not allowed to see it. This could damage my future prospects as I was also looking at work outside of academia and they will no doubt want to know what I've been up to. This was never part of any agreement and I would have never taken on a PhD with these terms. Academia is all about the publishing and the free flow of ideas - this all makes me a very cheap slave!

Legally, where do I stand? I understand that as an employee issued with new contract I would have to either sign or walk away, unless it goes against the heart of the contract. But I'm a student and I'm in the last few months of my PhD, if I walk I get no qualification.

I've been told that they can't make me sign it - but won't go into detail as to whether it will affect my PhD or not? Again I'm EPSRC funded the industrial sponsors have paid me extra around 10% of the EPSRC stipend in exchange for me spending several unpaid months at their site working on projects of their choice. I've been told by my supervisor that it's in my best interest to stop resisting and ultimately sign the contract. Can they do this three years in? Has anyone been through anything like this? Anyone have any advice?


texts: How to handle swear words in quote / transcription?

texts:
In my research, I interview practitioners/real users. One of them, a native english speaker, used a lot a swear words (basically the f-word).

Question: how to deal with curse words in content you need to quote?

Since I use transcripts for a content (and not formal) analysis, I sometime 'smooth' interviewee wordings (like removing "hum", "well", "you know", and other recurring verbal tics). In some case, I could remove the f-word:

  it's just super f*cking slow, and really f *cking annoying

However, in some cases it is less harmless, because it more deeply changes the perceived meaning:

  if you don't want to do things, just don't f*cking do it

  oh f *ck, we'll just go back to do, as we were doing

and in some other, I simply cannot change interviewee's words:

  [...] he really tried and wanted to build up, but he completely f*cked up every single part of every single thing.

Since I am not a native speaker, I don't know how "bad" would using the f-word be perceived (which is why I tried to be careful here.)

In some cases, I could do a cut quote, e.g. "it's just super [...] slow, and really [...] annoying", but it looks like I'm not accurately depicting the wordings.

I've also seen on the internet people using 'f*ck' standing for the f-word. Could this be a solution? (I personally find this solution a bit prudish.)

Otherwise, could I simply quote them? Should I put a warning somewhere?


texts: Can I apply to a PhD program if I will be graduating with my undergraduate degree in the summer term instead of the spring term?

texts:
I am interested in applying for PhD programs for fall admittance. While I think most undergraduates will graduate in the spring, take the summer off or do something otherwise productive, and start their program in the fall, I want to use the summer semester to finish up some general education requirements.

So my basic timeline would be:

Apply for grad schools in the late fall/early January, and of course be doing coursework in the fall semester
Take more classes in the spring, and hopefully be accepted somewhere
Finish up final degree degree requirements in the summer (only general education requirements), and graduate
Enter grad school in the fall

I want to do this so I can take more math classes in the fall and spring, and finish up my required art class and economics class in the summer. I have never heard about undergraduates doing this. Is it common, and is it okay to do? I cannot find much about it online. Is there any reason NOT to do this?


texts: Will lack of teaching experience be a major hindrance for a faculty position?

texts:
I'm currently a post doc (in theoretical computer science) and the only teaching experience I had so far was to teach some tutorial classes for undergraduate courses and giving some "guest lectures" in some graduate classes. It seems that most positions for assistant professor require you to show some teaching experience, i.e. at least co-teaching some courses. The problem is, my current department is quite inflexible giving such assignments to postdocs.

On the positive side, I got some pretty good student evaluations for the tutorials I've been teaching, whether that is considered helpful without teaching a "real" course, is of course a different matter.

Overall, my research record (several tier-1 publications) beats my teaching record (by far).

Will my lack of teaching experience be a showstopper when applying for follow up positions?


texts: Copy pasting sentences from abstracts of other papers for describing related work

texts:
This topic has already been described to some extent, e.g. here:

Is verbatim copying several paragraphs of text with citation considered plagiarism?

But I do no think that it has been completely discussed, especially in the context of related work and abstracts.

When I am writing the section about related work in my papers, I tend to describe the work of each other related researcher in a few sentences with my own words and referencing their papers. However, in a current paper that I am writing I have realised that the abstracts of more than a few papers that I want to mention are so well written and are so concise that I cannot do any better. Writing my description would be just a waste of time, and result in a less concise text.

So I am thinking about copy-pasting two or three sentences from the abstract of each referenced paper. And possibly adding, removing, or changing a word or two that may not be relevant in the context of the paper that I am writing, so it's not really a plain copy paste.

I have read that it may be a good idea to put quotes, but I find quotes, especially their immoderate use, as bad style.

Can I get in trouble for this? I would not go that far in considering anything of this as plagiarism, as the work is referenced and I am not taking credit for someone else's work.

Personally if one would do the same with my work, I would not be concerned at all, on the contrary, as long as not more than a few sentences are taken and the work is properly referenced, but you might have a different view.


texts: How to quote a previous paper with different authors?

texts:
I am writing a paper that builds on a previous one, where another author was present. How should I quote the previous one?
For example:
"In a previous paper [1] we proposed ..."
or
"In a previous paper [1] we and a collaborator proposed ..."

What is the correct one both scientifically and linguistically?


texts:
I have recently obtained a PhD in engineering from a US university and am applying for a researcher position at a university in Norway. They are requesting an academic letter that includes "a description of scientific interests and motivation for applying".

I am treating this application letter as a cover letter. Can anyone with experience comment on the differences between applying to US positions vs Norwegian positions?
For example, how long should this letter should be? What are some key items that I should include in this letter? They mention that this position could lead to a tenure track position. Should I discuss my goal to become a faculty member? So far I am talking about my research interests, future research directions, experience publishing, and experience writing grant proposals.


texts: Cancelled Summer Program due to COVID-19

texts:
I am sure this question has been asked in some capacity on this site. I am a first year graduate student. I was contracted for a summer program that would have looked very good on my CV about 6 weeks ago.

However, due to the spread of COVID-19 the program was cancelled. Is there any way I can express this on my CV (possibly have an asterisk next to this activity)? If not, how should I explain the situation when applying for positions next year (because, now it is unlikely I will have anything noteworthy to put on my CV for this summer).

Thank you


texts: How to prepare for an on-site interview for a TT position without much direct research experience

texts:
I am rather lucky to get an on-site interview invitation for a TT position (focusing on both research and teaching) at a R1-tier university, which, however is not in my main research area. Only my B.S. degree is closely related to this position, but both my M.S. and Ph.D. degrees are not that
relevant to it. To be honest, I have no much direct research experience and no any publications in the discipline of this position. Throughout the course of my research, I have been actively publishing and acquired some software and hardware skills that may be of general use and applied to the position.

For the time being, I start to prepare for the upcoming interview, both research and teaching talks. Given my obvious shortcomings, I want to seek some strategies and tips that help me stand out from the interview. As for research talks, I am not sure if I need to focus on my previous research that is not that relevant to the position or the envisioned research for this position. What do the searching committee really want to see from my on-campus job talks, and how can I better demonstrate myself as a good fit.


texts: How do I protect my research algorithm and findings from being infringed or stolen by anyone, including a professor of mine?

texts: I have been working on an NLP project (Natural Language Processing) regarding a variety of Arabic. I had to observe and look for patterns and rules in this variety as the resources are almost absent or very rare. I then started working on this module that classifies, tokenizes, stems, and returns the part-of-speech of each instance of the input. I'm afraid of the high possibility that one of my supervisors with such a history of stealing others work and labeling it as his. When I present my research, must I present the source code to the supervisor, or must I only live-experiment the model? I do not have a problem with distributing or open-sourcing the whole thing; I am willing to. But I am afraid he takes my work and make it his with no credits or rights.


texts: What does it mean to have vacation time in European academia?

texts:
I am a US-based researcher who recently accepted a postdoc in Sweden. My offer letter states that I will be entitled to a 6-week annual vacation during my appointment. Being from the US where I have been in charge of structuring my own schedule (except for teaching), this obviously confuses me for several reasons.

First, I am not sure if we are legally entitled to vacation days in the US, but even if we were, I have never seen people officially take "vacations" in the US. This is, in my mind what school administrative staff or office workers do, not academics. Over the past years, I have structured my work and vacation time around my teaching schedule and figured out when to rest and when to work on my own without having to count days or ask my department's permission. Of course nobody cares when I take vacations as long as my vacation time does not overlap with my teaching schedule.
So the fact that my new department is emphasizing "legal vacation hours" is a little strange. What does vacations mean when I will likely be spending whatever free time, rushing to finish my manuscript, grant proposals, or course prep anyways?
Also, does the fact that the school is counting vacation days mean that I have to be in my office during "normal work hours"? I've never heard anything sillier, because for academics, number of hours in office does not equate productivity, and I actually like switching up my work location time to time rather than being stuck in an office! (In the US, I only show up to school about 3 days a week-- mostly when I have to teach and want to be in office. Other days, I just go to a local cafe to write. If possible, I'd like to keep things this way...)

I'm wondering if anyone can clarify what academic vacation means in Europe and if it really differs from the US?


texts: Is the "meal plan" chiefly a North American thing?

texts:
I've noticed that this idea of a "meal plan" among students is pretty common in the US. Usually this involves:

Some amount of money (e.g. "flex dollars") that can be spent on any food (or sometimes even other things) that the student desires, provided that the student spends this money on certain on-campus locations.
The student may get a fixed number of "meal swipes" for eating at the dining hall.
This is all paid for in-advance by students, often as part of a "room and board" fee.
Some universities even require students to purchase such a plan if the student lives in certain parts of university housing, even at some urban universities where there might be more dining options. (I have heard students claim that it would cost the same amount of money as a meal plan to eat at neighbourhood restaurants.)

I have also seen some version of this in Canadian schools: for instance, there was a complaint circulating about poor dining hall management at Memorial University, which alludes to a required meal plan. Generally speaking, as a student, it seems that such meal plans are chiefly used by undergraduates, although I've also seen graduate students eat at the dining hall.

I suspect that this system is specific to North America, although I'm not completely sure. For instance, I saw this document, which stated that the Hebrew University doesn't carry meal plans. I've noticed that university cafeterias in Hong Kong make students pay for food with actual cash when they get their meal, even if there are occasional loyalty schemes (of the same variety that might appear at any fast-food restaurant) or discounted items (where things are much cheaper than they would be off-campus). From a quick glance, HKU and HKUST's housing websites appear to make no mention of any sort of "meal plan". (Meanwhile, the University of Chicago's housing website has a page for residential dining.)

Thus: is the meal plan system (where students pay in advance for dining hall meals and potentially other on-campus perks) a chiefly North American thing? For obvious reasons, I would assume that it would be more common in heavily non-commuter universities (which perhaps dominate the US and Canada more than the rest of the world), but I'm wondering if this is generally true, even if we take the commuter/non-commuter thing into account.


texts: When Are Fall Semester Grades Usually Issued?

texts:
I am a middle manager at the US subsidiary of a large multi-national corporation, and a member of my staff has been accepted to grad school in her field of expertise. Our corporate policy is that we pay a set maximum amount of the tuition (something like $5000) per year. That reimbursement is not issued until grades have been posted, and payment applies to the year the grades are issued, rather than the year the classes took place. The payment cutoff for a calendar year is 15 December. The university in question issues grades for the fall semester well after this cutoff, and to me this raises questions about the logic behind our corporate policy.

My question is this: how realistic is it for a US-based graduate student to expect to receive their grades for the fall semester before 15 December?


texts: How should an undergrad pick a journal to submit to?

texts:
I am an undergraduate who has been doing research in a lab since my freshmen year, and I have usually just worked on projects with a PhD student. That being said, as of now I have co-authored two papers (both accepted) with said PhD student.

The professor has entrusted me to do my own research and he is really pushing that we publish a letter as soon as possible on the research I was doing, since no one in our (relatively new) subfield has even touched on this method. The first journal he said was Physical Review Letters (which made my eyes light up). Now though, he is leaning more to Applied Physics Letters or a much more specified journal.

I am looking to go into a PhD program in physics; should I submit to whatever journal my professor says to? He is very open and I think I could convince him to let me send it to Physical Review Letters but maybe he knows something I don't (like that it would be a waste of time - autorejection). Are there any other physics-based letters for broad and novel physics research?


texts: Are there still journals who only publish their papers in the paper form?

texts:
As far as I can say, for the papers published nowadays, there is usually a possibility to get an electronic version of the paper. (Often it requires payment or institutional subscription, but many publishers offer the papers free of charge for older issues.)

Are there still journals, which do not offer possibility to get electronic version of the paper online and use paper version as the only way of distribution of their journal? If yes, is it the case only for small publishers? Are there differences between various disciplines? (I have experience mostly with mathematics.)


texts: When/whether to do pre-submission inquiry at high impact journals

texts:
I'm curious to hear whether there is general guidance on when and whether to submit a pre-submission inquiry to a high impact journal (field: biology). Our goal is to identify a journal that will send our paper out for review. I understand pre-submissions are best when there really is a question of appropriateness, e.g., you are submitting a software-oriented manuscript to an experimental biology journal.

I am less clear on whether the current situation will benefit from a pre-submission inquiry. Consulting with my PI, and other faculty on the floor, there seems to be wide disagreements about the utility of pre-submission. Some argue these inquiries are more efficient than full submissions, since formatting a paper for each journal is usually time intensive. Others say they've had pre-submissions meet strong approval, then get editorially rejected. Any general thoughts on this?

Edit 6.27.15.
I'd like to specifically highlight bitwise' comment below as that has proven to be the most useful advice. In the last 9 months I've submitted multiple articles not fulfilling the exact formatting requirements, length limits, supplement guidelines, and even figure guidelines, and this has not seemed to affect whether we get reviewed. One paper is currently under review at Molecular Cell that is 4000 characters over limit and has a wildly incorrectly formatted supplement, and 1 figure over the limit.


texts:
I was unable to find any information online about this. I asked a colleague who told me that there are no restrictions on who may review an article, although he thought it was very unlikely that an un-published person may be asked to review. I would like a general answer to this question; nevertheless, the specific context is in the following paragraph.

I am submitting an engineering research paper in the near future and the submission process requires that I suggest at least three reviewers. One of the reviewers I would like to suggest has not yet completed their PhD, although they have three publications that are closely related to mine. I know that it will be up to the editor to decide whether to contact this person, but it made me wonder if there are any specific criteria that reviewers have to meet.


texts: When a PhD program asks for academic transcripts, are they referring to university-level transcripts only or also earlier transcripts?

texts:
I have some questions regarding graduate admission (PHD) in us university.   The guidelines  stated  on the maximum university websites   are  that they require  academic transcripts.  My question is that, are the Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Masters of Science (MSc ) transcripts only?
or I will have to send all the academic records(verified) from the childhoods?


texts: Where to go after academia in the humanities?

texts:
I am a full prof in the humanities at a small liberal arts college in rural America. I am relishing my sabbatical in a European country with a flourishing economy and appealing culture. I do not want to return home. I travel abroad every summer and so do not attribute my thoughts about a major move to reverse culture shock. I mainly want to stay for the benefit of my children where here they can get a better education and have better opportunities.

There are currently no jobs in my field that I have seen advertised in the country where we are living. I have also been putting the word out to my academic contacts here that I want to stay, but so far I haven't heard about any job opportunities.

I'm not certain I could compete for jobs when they come up given that I have devoted my career thus far to teaching and service, and I'm not a newly minted PhD. I have pubs and am doing research, but not on the level of what I'd have had I been at a research institution all these years. While I'm passionate about teaching, I'm far from retirement age and am prepared to make a career change.

How can I channel my training and work experience to something that would be of interest to a European employer (or an employer at a better city in the US to at least get us out of our rural community)?


texts:
I was just offered a postdoc at 34 000 USD a year.

I am wondering whether this is an ok offer. Can someone give me feedback on this?


texts: What happens if too many student withdraw from a course

texts: I am taking a four week online summer course in the U.S. and the professor just canceled it because all but me and one other student (out of 30+ students) withdrew from the class within the first week. I guess the minimum for the class is 20 students. Is this normal? I'm not sure yet but I think we get our money back for the course, I just am not sure if it is standard for this to happen. and if so what happens on my transcript?


texts: Is it ethical if I use lecture slides of another professor and modify only 15-20% for my lecture and provide an acknowledgment at the end of lecture slides that lecture material was taken from Prof. XYZ Course ABC? In the given condition do I still need to send a personal email to professor to inform that I am using his/her lecture material or acknowledgement is enough?


texts: Why do some countries have three-year PhDs?

texts:
I attend a university where PhDs take four years, and three years is considered short. But I know in other places, three years is common.
Why do some countries have shorter PhD programs? Why do some have five-year programs?


texts: Referee reports I have written in tenure packet?

texts:
I’m currently preparing a tenure packet. I have reviewed a few papers for journals in the last few years. I am wondering how I should include this activity.

Certainly I will be including evidence of this professional activity (e-mails with the editors acknowledging the receipt of the report, etc.), but I presume that it would not be standard practice to include the reports themselves. It already feels a little odd to quasi-publicly acknowledge that I was an anonymous referee for some papers that didn’t get published (Hmm, I wonder what my report was like), but this seems like the right way to go.


texts: What is the difference between cumulative dissertation and regular dissertation?

texts: The university is asking me whether or not my PhD thesis is a “cumulative dissertation”. I’m wondering what the difference would be for the university. By cumulative, do they mean stacking the published/submitted papers?


texts: Are there guidelines for amount and content of text in figure captions for theses?

texts:
In writing my thesis in geosciences I have a number of figures with a fair amount of text content. Is there some limit I should adhere to -- say for example max 5 lines -- before I should just write 'refer to text'?
A related question is where citations should go, especially in the case of several needed for one figure (e.g. a plot of n sets of data from n different sources). Again, is there some point where I should say refer to text for citations?


texts: How valuable are poster presentations for new Ph.D. student?

texts:
I have submitted my first paper in a very top conference, but the paper was accepted in the poster section instead. I am ok with that, as the reviews were very helpful.

However, is it interesting to travel (it is far from my workplace) to do a poster presentation? I have never done such a presentation as I just finished my first Ph.D. year, but I believe it would be interesting to meet people and have some feedbacks. I am just afraid that people will go through the poster and not ask questions, so the work would have been done for "nothing". I still hesitate because the conference is very good in my field.

Thanks for your feedback.


texts: Are colleges prepared to offer a PhD position to one who already has a PhD

texts: I am a PhD holder in Analytical Chemistry from Iran and now, I am very interested in applying for a PhD program in a somewhat different field like Nanotechnology in the US and Canada. I have invested much time and effort on preparing for taking GRE and TOEFL exams and I have a strong research background, but now I heard recently from one of my professors that most institutions are not prepared to offer a PhD position to one who already has one PhD. Could you say more about this issue? Is this true?


texts: Is it wise to change my supervisor in the late stages of my PhD?

texts:
I have been doing my PhD for 3 years, and my supervisor has been a real pain. This has made my life like a hell. His behavious includes yelling, bullying, and demeaning me. He has no regards for me and he does not keep the privacy about my work. Since, other people in our group are all from his country, I am the only one with whom he speaks/yells in English, so almost everybody at school is aware of the situation. His bad manners are not limited to this, it is much worse, but I don't want to write about him, rather I want to write about my problem.

I wanted to change my supervisor in earlier stages of my PhD, but the school suggested only one option whose research area was quite different from mine (We work on similar problems but completely different approaches). Also, because my stipend was sponsored by his grant, I had to apply for another scholarship. In the end, I decided to keep working with the same person (ignoring this bad behaviour) and avoid a new unknown situation.

Later in my PhD, I came to know other supervisors at school and started working with them. Though, I kept working with other professors, and I kept my main supervisor notified about what I am doing. He was also happy, because he could see that I am much more productive. However, his behaviour remained the same. Every time that I talk to him, he kills my motivation and self-confidence.

Now that I have finished 3 years, the scholarship has ran out and the supervisor failed to provide me with any financial support. Unlike him, other professors has been really supportive and provided me with some financial support. I still have a thesis to write and I really cannot tolerate his behaviour. I was wondering if changing my supervisor at this stage is a wise decision. What are the drawbacks of this decision?


texts: Research Proposal for PhD - Rude or Good

texts:
I have completed my bachelors and am now nearing the end of my Master's, and I am looking for PhD positions across the globe in the field of Computer Science. While applying/perusing possible application paths for PhDs, I realized that while all universities recommend contacting a prospective advisor beforehand, none explicitly state whether or not I need to write a research proposal (some do enforce it during the application).

Now I am unable to decide if writing a research proposal (during the prospective supervisor search phase) is a good idea or if it is, well rude.

My justification for each are:

Good: The prospective research guide gets to know the academic aspirations of the prospective students, analytic abilities etc.
Rude: He may not be interested in my area of choice at all and think of me as a know-it-all guy, who is not welcome to changes, analytic shortcomings etc.

What is the standard way of handling this dilemma (or is there an academia wide sweet spot on how to approach this)? Are there any major points that I am missing/should be aware of, in order to tackle this problem?

Thanks.

Added Info: I do have a specialization and an area of interest and competence.


texts: How to find a good part-time programs by reputable business schools?

texts:
I have a bachelor degree and work for a marketing research company as a senior research analyst in Morris County in NJ. Having this day-time job, my options for further education remain part-time programs only. However, I do want to get a formal degree from reputable part-time programs, such as part-time MBAs/Master degree. Not just some random courses or certification training offered by community colleges or education institutions.

I work till 5:30 everyday so I am only available after that or on weekends. And the place of lecture has to be close enough to my office/home. Not some place too far away.

I am wondering if there are any programs meeting these criteria. I am not sure where to find, who to ask or which website I should look at to search for these kind of programs. Where should I start? What are the other things I should consider when I plan my further education and choose the programs?


texts: How important is the TOEFL speaking score?

texts:
I am a student from China, and I want to apply for (pure) math PhD this fall, in the USA. Now I have a TOEFL score which has 102 points in total but only 20 points in speaking section. I am hesitating to take another TOEFL test.

What I want to know is, how important the TOEFL speaking section score is. Does a 20 speaking score will make me rejected? Also, I want to know how the professors view applicants' TOEFL scores. Some universities, such as the UCSD, said that "Our department also looks critically at the speaking scores of the TOEFL and IELTS. It is strongly recommended to have at least a 23 speaking score on the TOEFL and a 7 speaking score on the IELTS.". Does this means I have no chance to be admitted? Should I try to get a 23 score in TOEFL? I think it is not very easy to me, and a TOEFL test is somewhat expensive...

Another question that I really want to know is, even if the university said that they only require a minimum score in total score of TOEFL, will a low speaking score undermine my possibility of being admitted?

Anyway, I will appreciate anyone who can help me. Any advice is welcome.


texts: Why did my professor criticize my performance indirectly?

texts:
I'm an international graduate student studying theoretical physics in a US university, and I'm in my 4th year of PhD study and plan to graduate at the end of the 5th year. Yesterday, I heard something from my advisor really hurts me.

Yesterday afternoon, I was working in my office while my professor was having a meeting with a prostdoc in our group in the small meeting room just outside my office. We are in a suit-like office so that there is a very small common meeting room outside our offices. The meeting room is very small and very close to my office, so that I can hear what they said rather clearly. Usually I will close my office door when there is a meeting outside, but yesterday I left my door opened because my professor planed to have a meeting with me after they finished the meeting with the postdoc, and there was only a short period of time between they started the meeting with the postdoc till the time we scheduled to meet.

And then in the middle of their talk, I heard my professor talking about she was very happy about a new graduate student is about to join the group, so that the new student can help the postdoc to run part of the numerical calculations, because "XX is not productive as before", where "XX" is my name.

As a background, before the new postdoc joined our group about 3 months ago, I had a great time working together with our former postdoc, who is also international with the same nationality as I'm. We worked very closely together with many of the projects, and published several papers together in about two years. Just before the end of last year, my professor assigned me to work independently onto a new project which is in a new area that no one in our group has any experience before. It went smoothly until early this year when I plan to take my general exam. I originally plan to take my general exam at late February, but until the very end of approaching the exam data, the exam was rescheduled one month later and moved into March, due to misunderstanding of emails between our department and the graduate school. So in that two months period, I almost stopped updating the new project and totally devoted into the preparation of my general exam. After I passed my general exam at the end of March, I thought I could pick up my research, then I was caught by another unfinished project we started last summer. This project is a collaboration between our group and an experimental group, and we did have some disagreement of the results between the experimental data and the theoretical simulations from the beginning. Then this project get stop-and-go until just after my general exam, we get pushes from the experimental side that they want to finish the project and submit a paper soon. Since the former postdoc is already left, I was placed to in charge of it. I have to deal with all the conflicts between the experiment and theory results and exchange drafts of the paper with the experimental side, and almost have no time to deal with the new project I was doing. The last important update of my project is about 7 weeks ago.

I think I'm a hard working student, at least in the standards of my friends in my department. I work almost 10 hours a day and almost 7 days a week. After I hear about her criticism yesterday, I almost started to rethink whether it still worth my devotion into this.

So, what should I take from my professor's criticism of my performance, in her talking with others, under the obvious condition that I can hear it? She never criticized me before as far as I know. And what suggestions do you have to deal with this situation?


texts: Is the topic research for a post-doc position supposed to be more general than the research conducted towards a PhD degree? Or rather the opposite?


texts: Suggestions to turn an "accepted, pending revisions" into an "accepted"

texts:
As far as I understand "accepted pending revisions" is not the same as "submission accepted".

What are some important things to keep in mind while revising the submission in order for it to be finally accepted? Which have been the most useful to you?


texts: A better way to train future Theoretical Computer Science researchers

texts:
My questions:

  Are there universites offering a B.Sc. in computer science aimed solely at giving the best training to future theoretical computer science researchers?
  (in the universities I checked, the programs are a combination of training people for research and training people to be programmers in the industry).
  As it seems not to be the case in most universities, is there a reason not to offer such programs? (financial maybe)

The motivation for the questions:

I am a mathematics M.Sc. student.
I had several conversations with researchers (full/associate professors) in theoretical computer science when I was looking for a thesis advisor. Three of them mentioned to me that they wish they would have learnt more mathematics in their basic training (two of them had a B.Sc. in mathematics and computer science and said they wished they did an M.Sc. in mathematics as well and one of them studied computer science only for a B.Sc.).
Their comments referred to funtional analysis (by a researcher in metric embeddings), to group theoretic constructions of expander graphs, etc.

This led me to check the program in computer science and here is what I found:

If a student really tries to get as much cs-theory and mathmematics in his B.Sc, he can study: 38% theoretical computer science, 40% mathematics with mathematics students, 6% mathematics with cs-students only, 16% technical courses. This amounts to 16% waste of time (for a future theoertical cs researchers) and 6% non-optimal use of time (as these math courses with cs-students feel a bit like high-school math).

I included the basic programming courses under theoretical cs because I believe they are essential in order to "know what you're talking about" when studying algorithms, computability, etc.
The situation is even a little worse from the perspective of this student because I included all the graduate courses in theoretical cs offered to undergrads, so he will have less theoretical cs courses to take during the M.Sc.

It seems like a much better choice for a future cs theory researcher is to study mathematics and take the cs theory courses (together with the most basic programming courses) as the "free choice" courses. I feel lucky to have done that as it seems that I would not have received such an excellent training if I had gone for the university's fixed cs+math program.

I think that the cs world could benefit alot if universities offered both B.Sc. and M.Sc. programs in "mathematics and theoretical computer science". This can be good both in giving a better training and in encouraging future colloboration.

So here's another question:

  Do you agree that such programs ("mathematics and theoretical computer science") are a better alternative to cs-only programs or math+cs program which include many technical courses, as far as future theoretical cs researchers are concerned?


texts: Survey or original article: Which one is more important to get postdoc or tenure-track position?

texts:
There are two main opinions about originality and contribution of ISI (journals which are indexed and listed in JCR report by Thomson Routers)* survey/review journal articles compared to original articles in ISI journals. Some scientists consider survey papers lacking originality while others think the opposite especially for survey articles presenting the state-of-the-art and research challenges. So, I am wondering, in general, which type of article has the most impact on an applicant's success when applying for a postdoc or tenure track position; survey or original article?

*It was asked earlier, so it is wise to put its meaning for clarity.
-Certainly having both of them is the best, but among these two which one has more impact.


texts: Is it better to apply to doctoral program in the fall semester or spring semester?

texts:
I plan to apply for USA universities. Is there any difference between the number of PhD opportunities in spring and fall semesters? I mean in which semester do I have a better chance to be approved?

In my country application for spring semester is not so usual. What about USA?


texts: What are the time demands on a PhD student who is helping set up a lab?

texts:
I am mulling over pros and cons of different advisers and a quirk I have found with some of the newer professors is the issue of lab start up activities. I have seen some anecdotes online about it being a bad deal overall, but I wanted to pose a few questions to the community on academia...

A few questions

What constitutes as normal and what is a red flag for PIs requiring start up assistance?
Are there benefits to being involved heavily with lab setup if you are not really committed to the academia route?
What generates the time sink that seems to overburden most students?
How can you mitigate this impact to time to degree?
Where does one draw the line between beneficial experience vs being taken advantage of?

Any anecdotes, tips or advice on evaluating would be much appreciated


texts: For applications where prospective students upload transcripts, is there a preference between scanned official vs unofficial transcripts?

texts:
It is my understanding that most graduate schools will want you to mail them a sealed transcript if accepted, but my question is about the application process.
I thought that I could upload an unofficial transcript that I retrieved from the school's web portal, but after some more investigation it appears that maybe I should upload a scanned copy of an official transcript.
Of course an official transcript is no longer official once it is unsealed.  But do graduate schools prefer it that way?  The answer might vary depending on the department, but I think a scanned version might be the safe bet.  Although, it would require a bit more effort on my part to request an official transcript.
Edit
I should have included this originally, but I didn't want to make the question specific to one school.  But this school is specific about wanting a scanned copy, whereas others are not.  I'm just wondering if it should be assumed that a scanned copy is preferred if not made explicit.
From FAQ:

Do I need to mail hard copies of official transcripts in addition to the transcripts uploaded with my application?
No, simply upload a scanned version of an official transcript that has been "Issued to Student." It is understood that once you open the envelope to scan the transcript it is no longer considered official. It may also be possible that the scanned copy may have the watermark COPY on it, which is fine. Do NOT mail transcripts to the Department nor the Graduate School unless asked by the Department to do so.

Obviously, if I were to apply to this school I should use a scanned copy, but it's what caused me to reconsider if this is really what other schools want as well even if they don't state it explicitly.


texts: Is it true that 'nice' professors fail to produce good students?

texts:
This is a very tough question to ask because there are so many advisors on this forum so I am expecting most inputs from the current grads. This question largely stemmed from a post I read online about picking advisors.

The top recommendation offered on a list of things about picking supervisor is to never pick someone who is nice, friendly and available. Specific examples being "nice associate professor ladies" and "prof emeritus".

This quote caught my attention the most

  If you’ve never cried before, during, or after a meeting with your advisor, something is amiss.

But this is just one person's opinion. So my question is to what extent does this idea actually hold in academia? Is there any truth to nice profs are less capable than mean profs in producing good students?


texts: I have contacted a potential PhD supervisor and he sent me back that I appear to be a motivated and interested student but  his funding does not allow him to supplement a student at PhD level. However, I have my own funds, and I intend to fund myself through my PhD studies for 1 year. How do I raise this issue formally with him?


texts: I am a PhD student and hate it here. How can I warn prospective students during admit weekend without ruining my reputation?

texts:
On the one hand, I want to warn students not to come to my program.  On the other hand, I don't want to be "that one," and I also don't want to tarnish the reputation of the specific people I worked with (who I mostly like).

More specifically:

I want to warn students about lack of funding, administration being uncaring towards students, certain PhD requirements being a lot more onerous than they say they are, general departmental atmosphere and culture among the grad students, general culture of the school, poor location, etc etc.

Also my school is the only top school in my field that has a "rotation system" for picking advisors, and that is generally framed as a benefit, and a reason to choose the school.  But I don't think students really realize how much rotations suck until after they've come here.


texts: Is there an independent oversight body of Journal Impact Factors?

texts:
I have read many questions on this site that relate to Journal impact factors, for example, in relation to how that may affect where to publish etc.

I am wondering is there an independent oversight body that regulates the area of impact factors?

I was thinking along the lines of something like the International Organization for Standardization that regulates the ISO standards across the world.

Specifically is there an independent body (either commercial or not for profit) that sets the standards for impact factors and audits them so as that one impact factor can be compared with another with the knowledge that they are calculated in the same way?


texts: At a loss after enrolling into PhD programme

texts:
I am currently into my first semester into my PhD program and at this point I am just at a loss. At universities like mine, we can enroll into PhD programs after graduating with a Bachelors and bypass obtaining of Masters first. The advice that I got from several seniors and professors were that the content will just be more advanced than the Bachelors program, apart from the >10 hours of research per day. I was used to looking at screens for 14-18 hours at a stretch so I thought I would be fine going into it.

My motivation for going into PhD was to research on what I liked, which was cryptography and cybersecurity, and to hopefully have something of impact to society. The other reason was to dream of wearing the gown in 4 years.

Now I am into my eighth week and I have 3 coursework projects, 3 research projects, 2 courses that I have to teach. I feel that I do not have enough time to do any work and I do not even have the mood or motivation to do any work nowadays. I know that most of the time people will just tell each other to walk around and breathe in some air, but I feel that the method of reliving myself has long expired.

I hate to say this but I am quite stubborn at times with my decision and think that I will be able to persevere through, as I did during my undergraduate years but I believe that I cannot hold on to this any longer. Other friends of mine who also enrolled into PhD (albeit different courses in the same university) have told me that I look more mentally drained than usual during our lunches. My parents also are quite sad at the sight of me staring into screens the whole day not knowing what I'm supposed to do next. Passing on family outings have also taken a toll on me since I do regret not spending enough time with them during the final year of my undergraduate study and do not want it to be commonplace. I have seriously been contemplating this thought of withdrawal for about 2 weeks now and recently teared up while bringing this topic up with my mum. I feel that my mental state has been shattered and cannot see anything ahead.

I've talked with my family and they will support my decision if I do withdraw from the program. I am currently on scholarship so my estimated cost will be upwards of $10k that I will have to pay back to the university. My parents don't mind this and encourage me to borrow from the bank in the meantime while I work full-time.

My workplace I would say is far from ideal but in my country, in our local university, I don't really feel home at all. Our lab has a capacity of 100+ people but 95% of our office are non-locals and you can imagine where most of them are from, I don't want to speculate things about them here. My professor is somewhat decent but he has close to 60 PhD students under him in my office alone, and it becomes very difficult to talk about issues like this. My professor wants me to be in the lab every weekday but I don't see myself doing any constructive work. In fact, I am more tired at my desk than if I work from home. Hence, you could infer that I suffer in silence in the lab.

The constant stress and worry from all these factors is weighing me down and I think that I am starting to have a recurrence of panic attacks again from the time before I started my undergraduate studies. I have just made an appointment to see the councilor but I'm really afraid for myself and to bring this up to my professor. I would really appreciate some advice from the community on how to approach this and move on.


texts:
I’m not a professional academician by any means. I’m just a medical student trying to write a paper in my spare time.

I don’t have an excellent grasp of the literature in this field. A lot of the information I’m learning comes from a single excellent review article/book chapter.

Here lies my question. This book chapter will say, e.g., ”such and such [1][2]”. Do I just cite the book chapter when I describe such and such in my background? I think not; I should probably cite [1], [2], or both.

So, the real question: is it OK/acceptable/ethical to just believe that [1] and [2] contain such and such; and just cite them without actually reading the papers? To be able to do this would save me quite a bit of time.


texts: Is it a good idea to cold-email someone in a museum to ask for PhD funding opportunity?

texts:
I am an international (non-EU) student and have been offered admission to an art history PhD program in an UK university. However, the offer does not come with funding, and I do not have the financial means to fund it myself. My supervisor advises that I speak to government bodies in my home country to ask for funding, starting with the art museums. This is because my research area is related to the museum’s collection and my research can make an impact on the interpretation of some of these artworks. Additionally, I can work for the museum after I graduate and return to my home country so as to ‘give back’ to the museum for funding my PhD.
I did what my supervisor suggests, and looked for funding opportunities given by the museums. The problem is, there is no mention of any funding opportunity in these museum’s websites. After some digging, I manage to find one person who is now doing her PhD while she is a curator of a particular museum, but I am not sure if the museum funds her PhD or she holds a scholarship from the university. The financial statement of the museum also does not mention anything about scholarship or funding PhD studies.
In my current situation, I am willing to give anything a try. I am thinking of cold-emailing someone from the museum to ask about funding opportunities. Perhaps I can start with the curator who is now doing her PhD, if I am able to find her email online. My questions are, is this an unusual thing to do? Have anyone of you done or receive such cold-email before? What would you advice?


texts: Is including references of journals with low or no reputation considered bad practice?

texts:
I am working towards my PhD in a quite specialized area of engineering, at the overlap of two technologies. Because of this, there are not as many publications available in my field compared to other topics. Furthermore, there is no journal specializing in my area of work, and articles are published in a wide range of journals, some of them not the most reputable ones, to put it gently.
I nevertheless have used such references from journals perceived by some as disreputable, just because there are not that many in total to choose from. But often also because the articles aren't of bad quality, in fact, some of the articles in "shady" journals can be of better quality (IMHO) than articles in more reputable publications.
On the other hand, a lot of academics seem to find the idea to publish in a "low quality" journal abhorrent and claim they would never do so, indicating that these journals represent second-class science.
So my question is: is it bad practice to reference journals of low or no reputation or is it OK to do so if

there is a limited overall number of references to chose from?
the quality of the article is high enough? (This would beg the question if I, a lowly PhD student would be able to determine quality in a publication...)
any other reason

I am curious what your opinion on this is.


texts: Is there a standard approach for grading sequence-based questions?

texts:
An assessment I'm looking at contains a few questions along the lines of:

  Arrange the following in the correct sequence:

  __: The third in sequence
  __: The second in sequence
  __: The fourth in sequence
  __: The first in sequence
  __: The fifth in sequence

What is the standard method for grading such a question?

The correct sequence of numbers to be written into the __ spaces would be 3, 2, 4, 1, 5. However, if a student misses, say, the correct starting point, but has the remainder of the sequence correct relative to each other (eg: 2, 1, 3, 5, 4), does one generally consider the entire sequence incorrect, or is partial credit of some sort more appropriate? If the latter, are there any ways to easily automate the evaluation process?

One option that comes to mind is to create a list of possible options and convert the question itself to a multiple-choice question.

Eg:

  A. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
  B. 5, 1, 3, 4, 2
  C. 3, 2, 4, 1, 5
  D. 2, 1, 3, 5, 4

However, (a) I feel that it then becomes a bit more confusing to answer, and (b) I'm not sure if it is really assessing the same skill at that point.


texts: In which universities are permanent research positions common?

texts: I would like to find information about in which universities (not research centers), is faculty hired with permanent positions, for performing mainly (more than 90% of their time) research activities.


texts: How exactly does submitting an interdisciplinary NSF fellowship proposal affect your chances at winning it?

texts:
I've received differing answers from many people on this. I'm proposing a planetary atmospheres project and while I'm submitting it to Geosciences - Climate Dynamics, I'll also probably include "Physics and Astronomy - Astronomy" and "Physics and Astronomy - Theoretical Physics" as part of the "% of program for Primary Field of Study". I'm in a geoscience department, but my adviser is a theoretical physicist and I come from an Astrophysics background. I'm slightly hesitant about including panels beyond geoscience though, since the physics/astronomy applicant pool is far stronger than the geoscience applicant pool, and there may be much bigger expectations expected from people in physics/astronomy.

One person told me that they might just average the scores of the reviews from both panels, while someone else told me that it can't hurt at all.

  Is your proposed graduate program interdisciplinary?

  Note: Interdisciplinary research is defined as a mode of research by
  teams or individuals that integrates information, data, techniques,
  tools, perspectives, concepts, and/or theories from two or more
  disciplines or bodies of specialized knowledge to advance fundamental
  understanding or to solve problems whose solutions are beyond the
  scope of a single discipline or area of research practice. Please
  provide an estimate of the balance among the Fields of Study
  represented.


texts: At what point should I stop caring about writing papers after leaving academia?

texts:
Some background: I'm near 40, I have a PhD, I work as a computer scientist at a Very Large Company's R&D Lab, and I have about 35 reasonably non-embarassing publications to my name.

Writing papers is "encouraged" by my company, but it's not core to my job. My main job duties are managing projects and transferring R&D ideas into products, and I get paid a very nice 6-figure salary for this. Frankly, I'm one of only a few people here who care about writing papers, and recently I've only had enough time to submit to workshops and mid-tier conferences.

At what point should I just stop caring?

I keep saying to myself that once I reach 40 papers, I can stop.


texts: Changing field from Computer Science to Philosophy

texts:
I am a Computer Science graduate and I have been realising that my true passion lies in Philosophy, as for the past 5 or 6 years (I am 26) I have been constantly asking questions about life, conciousness, the universe and the relationship between them. I am also in the process of writing a book which can be considered as Philosophical, although I am not yet quite sure whether it will be Philosophical Fiction or Non Fiction.

My question is, is it possible to continue as a graduate and start a Masters or Doctorate in Philosophy? Since I would like to become a professor so I can help others pursuing answers to such questions. As already mentioned, I would also like to start writing unfortunately, in our current era, it is very difficult to be taken seriously if you do not have academic background on that field.

From what I am reading, this might not be possible since Philosophy is an ancient field and hence there is the usual sequence of degree, masters and PhD. For instance, some new fields, such as neuroscience do not have any directly related degrees and hence you can transition to them from other fields.

If this is not possible, will I be taken seriously if I transform my book into a paper (assuming it is actually a good book) and be allowed to start a PhD without any previous academic philosophical background? My current targets are either Oxford University or UCL.

Looking forward for your response.


texts: Submitting Long Papers versus Short Papers

texts:
I am new really to submitting papers for publication.  I have an upcoming deadline for a conference.  My paper seems to fit the guidelines for a long paper but it is closer to short paper length than long paper length.

How could I submit it?
Could I submit it as both a long paper and short paper?
If I submit is as a long paper, could it be accepted as a short paper if it were rejected as a long paper?


texts: To what extent do PhD students in computer science collaborate equally with other PhD students when working on a research project?

texts:
I hear a lot that PhD students are expected, and for the most part, work independently on their research projects. This seems to be reflected by how being a 'first-author' on a paper is highly valued as that implies he or she has done the vast majority of the work.

However, I've found from my own experience that I'm a lot more productive with my ideas if I'm working together with one of my peers on a research project.

So I'm wondering how often does equal collaboration between peers occur. If it does not happen often, why isn't it encouraged more?


texts: Language certificates when applying to positions in the USA

texts:
I am non-US citizen and I want to apply for an academic position in the USA.

At which point do I need to show up a language certificate? For example, together with the job application, or together with the visa application?


texts: Applying for tenured positions while on sabbatical

texts:
I plan to apply for a tenured position at school B.

I am currently on sabbatical at my school, school A, for the fall semester of 2015.  According to the rules of school A, I have to stay with school A for the whole year of 2016 (I heard that this is the case for most universities: you have to stay for at least six months or one year after you receive a sabbatical).

Therefore, if I get an offer from school B, the earliest time I could start working would be the spring of 2017.  School B is hiring for the tenured position starting in September of 2016. And I am afraid that school B will not have openings in future after this hiring.

So my question is: Should I apply to the position at school B and telling them: "I can only start working with you starting the spring of 2017"? Also, if I say this, will it affect my chance of getting the job? Or, would it be the case that I will not be considered and I should simply apply for academic jobs that advertise a start date of September of 2017?


texts: Is it acceptable for the secretary to have full access to our entire Outlook agenda?

texts:
Today we were asked by the management of our department to give full access of our agenda in Outlook to the secretary. By full access, I mean the possibility to look, read, write, delete (own) slots in the agenda. It was mentioned that it's imperative not to alter any settings so the entire agenda will be visible to them.

The rationale is that sometimes people come in the department looking for us and by giving full access of our agenda, the secretary can advise these people on when/how to contact us.

On a personal note, I have never experienced something like that. People who want to find me can call me or send me email. I do not see why I should give access to my Outlook agenda, where I also store personal events.

So my natural question is: Is this normal/acceptable? How can I
politely say that this, in my opinion, is an unacceptable practice
possibly violating privacy?

My department is located in the Netherlands for what it's worth. No prior communication of this problem has been done/discussed.


texts: Repeat dropper and failure at multiple community colleges. Is there no hope for me?

texts:
I had a very rough upbringing and I have been lost for all my 20's. I just turned 30 a month ago and its really hitting me hard. I dont want to be a nobody all my life.

I've finally had enough and I have a fire lit under my ass to change my life, but before I can, I need some questions answered:

I want to go back to community college and transfer to a UC (berkeley or UCLA) to get an EE or CS degree. I know I am capable of it and I know I can do it, there is nothing stopping me, I am so hungry for it.

However, in my early 20's I was enrolled at 3 different community colleges at different times and flunked out each time. When the time comes that I want to transfer, will this screw me over? I have heard in the past that they will find out all schools you went to, is this true? These events happened about 10 years ago, do community colleges keep transcripts this long for inactive students? Could I simply just enroll into a community college that I have never attended?

I dont know what my best course of action is, if I did academic renewal on all 3 schools, would they not factor in all the GPAs?

I'm just having a hard time thinking lets say I go back to community college and get a 4.0 with 60 credits.  But since I have my previous past grades with pretty much less than a 1.0, effectively making my GPA like a 1.5 or something.  Is this how it works when I want to transfer?  I understand there are personal statements and all that stuff but would this all be for nothing if I decide to go back to school?

Thank you for any help you can offer.  Im in a dire situation.


texts: Does mentoring an undergrad give an edge on job or grant applications?

texts:
Simple and short question: as a postdoc (or a senior grad student), is it a good idea to mentor an undergrad?
How much edge will it provide perhaps for a future (NSF) grant, or a job application?


texts: Should I notarise my transcript or attest it?

texts: US universities ask for an official transcript. Can I send a notarised copy of my transcript? If yes, is it better to attest it by my university officials or notarise it?


texts: While applying for PhD in a particular topic, how useful is research in a different (maybe slightly related) topic?

texts:
I have done 2 research projects on a topic, say "A". But now I am changing my field of work slightly, to say topic "B", and will do my masters thesis on "B". How useful will my projects on "A" be while applying for PhD in "B"? Will an arXiv/journal publication in "A" be comparable to one in "B", from the point of view of PhD admission committee (for graduate schools in US/UK, in particular) ?

I am a Physics master's student. The topics I mentioned above are related High Energy Physics/Gravity. "A" was mostly computational while "B" is purely theoretical.

I understand that any research is good and will add this in my CV in any case. I just want to know how good it actually is. The answer to my question will help me get an idea of graduate schools which are in my league and I could focus on those.

Thanks in advance!


texts: Acknowledgment of funding and adding an affiliation in exchange of permission to use experimental data?

texts:
Since it is required to be precise and ask one question at a time, I had to split my problem into two. The first part (background) is mentioned here:

Gifting co-authorship if the topic of research was suggested by my boss?

The second part is here. So, I had finished 40% of a paper 1 as a postdoc in institute X. And, I had resigned from X on 31st of May. After completing the paper 1, I am planning to work and write paper 2 which will be an extension; probably a much advanced version of paper 1. I will start working on paper 2 from July/August and probably submit it in November if everything goes according to the plan. But for paper 2, I need experimental data and even though I had many options for sources to get the data, I thought it was better to seek permission from my boss at X before I use their data.

Also, note that the topic of research for paper 1 was was suggested by my former boss at X, please see the link I mentioned above.

But my boss at X has two conditions: First, I am required to have affiliation of his research unit for paper 2. Second, in the acknowledgement section, I will have to strictly mention that the research of paper 2 was funded by a project grant from his research unit.

In reality, he had the data from the year 2008, from a private seismic survey company XYZ and such data is very regular thing to obtain in any seismic survey. I have such data as well from my previous job profile as a geophysicist. I can easily get more of such data and permission to use them from other companies without any hassle.

As a result of this conflict my relationship with him has also got strained. I tried to clear things with him through a meeting, sent him two emails, but he did not replied. He has probably burnt the bridges and avoids confrontation. He may also be upset from me as I am going away from his clutches. He had even restricted me that I cannot contact the company XYZ directly for asking them for the permission to use the data.

Is this not a form of bullying?

Also he made it sound as if I was stealing their data, on the contrary, I was merely seeking permission to use them. I was kind of miffed with that, not acceptable to me.

I was thinking, that if I am allowed to use the data, I will acknowledge the company, my boss at X and his research unit. Also I would acknowledge him for suggesting me the topic of research for paper 1. Regarding the data permission, I have done this before as well in a different institute with another professor. It was never a problem. A simple acknowledgment sentence in the paper has been sufficient for such purposes.

So how fair are the demands of my boss at X?