texts: How do I tell my advisor about mental health problems?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate student (20f). I have 2 academic advisors - one in the Honors College & one in my department. I met with the Honors advisor recently to discuss study abroad and we somehow got on the topic of me not ever taking breaks. My GPA had fallen the past semester, and she warned me that if I don't start taking care of myself, I could burn out before getting my PhD (which is my goal).

I've suffered from anxiety/depression for years and recently begun to see a psychiatrist and counselor when I stopped eating, starting passing out, and developed repeated thoughts of suicide. All of that happened this past semester when I took an independent study with my Dept advisor, and I don't think he noticed. I want to be able to continue my research, so I'm trying to take care of myself. Unfortunately, that means I need to diminish my work load some.

I've been working with my Dept advisor closely for 2 years. He's helped me go to undergrad research conferences, get published, get grants etc. Always there for me academically, but the relationship's still very professional. We're officially starting my thesis work in the fall, but I told him I would start the readings this summer (halfway through the list). However, if I'm going to slow down the pace, I feel like I ought to give him reasons so he doesn't just think I'm slacking off. At the same time, I don't want to make it overly personal and make things awkward between us. He always asks how I am and it's a joke between us that I always say "tired" and he says "me too." I know that he pushes himself incredibly hard and never gives himself a break.

I would really appreciate examples of how I could word the email. I was thinking of asking him to meet some time (we're both in town over summer) to discuss and then tell him. Would it be better to do it over email? How do I tell him that I can't handle my current workload and still expect him to respect me as an academic?


texts:
I am joining in few days a computer science conference where I will have to present a poster, based on a paper accepted to the conference.

My poster is a standard A0 3 columns poster, and presenting it  takes me around 5 minutes; I have no idea if 5 minutes is the right amount of time, as this is my first poster presentation.

I am afraid that it may be too long: the full poster session takes 30 minutes, with about 10 posters exposed.

Any experience on this? Should I try to shorten my presentation?


texts: How to cite a paragraph in project report?

texts:
I am writing a project report for my master degree in STEM (U.S.). I have to cite a large paragraph of others' work. This paragraph describes some basic stuff (For example, a duck has two eyes and two legs). I did not change a word in that paragraph.

I have already cited this paper at the end of my report. Is there anything else I can do to avoid plagiarism?


texts: Tips on how to format a manuscript in marine biology and physiology

texts:
I'm working on my first publication on work I did as an undergrad. My adviser from undergrad will be helping me edit and go through multiple drafts, but because I'm now at a different university for grad school I haven't spoken to him about this first draft.

I've looked at the publisher's website, but they were vague and provided only general comments about how to format the manuscript. I don't want to send my draft to my old adviser and have him think I'm an idiot because my formatting is different from the norm. (Perhaps relevant: this publication has to do with marine biology and physiology.)

What font is appropriate? Times New Roman 12?
Double spaced?
Do figures go at the end? Should I space my figures the way I want them spaced in the publication?
Do I include line numbers?

Side question: What is an appropriate length (in number of words/pages/whatever) for this type of publication? I know it depends on the journal, but it's hard to translate pages in a journal to typewritten pages. I'm submitting to a journal with an average impact factor.


texts: Website allowing one to look up mathematicians, publications, and number of references for each paper

texts:
I have been to such a website about a year ago when deciding which PhD program/advisor I wanted. I can't remember the name of the website! You could search someone's name and university etc. and it would pull up their publications, which journal they were in, and number of references that paper had in other papers.

I used it specifically for mathematics, although it could have been a more general data base (I can't remember).


texts: I'm currently studying mathematics in UK and am going to graduate in a 4-year undergraduate masters program.  I would like to know where else (other than UK and US) can I apply for PhD?  As almost all European PhD programs require a master degree and that European masters usually consist of 2 years rather than 1, would I be eligible to apply to those?  Are there other options?


texts:
I am an international PhD student in an engineering department in US and was fully funded for all two years, but just two weeks before the fall semester (without any warning), my advisor informed me that he cannot support me, apparently he lost all the funding sources this July. He is quite happy with my research and wants me to pay this semester at least half of my tuition and live on half of the monthly stipend. He informed me that after this fall he will find a TA to support myself.

Now, my problem is that my work is experimental and needs constant funding. While TA will cover my expenses, it will not cover the experiments. Even he does not know how and when the funding for experiments will come (he didn't look confident at all). Should I think of changing the advisor now? I am personally thinking of taking an MS with my current work and looking for a funded lab for PhD in the same university.


texts: Request for startup package details at interview stage

texts:
I have an upcoming interview/campus visit for an assistant professor TT position with a US R1 university in the sciences. They have asked that I bring a details about my desired startup package to the campus visit. I have never heard of anyone being asked for details about their startup package prior to an offer being made.

This seems to have two effects. First, to some extent my startup package depends on what is already available in the department and the interests of the department. Second, it seems it potentially changes the negotiations. With an offer in hand, you can ask for more in your startup package, since they may not give you what you want, but they won't take the offer away. If I ask for too much in my startup package before having an offer, they may not even make an offer.

I guess I have three questions. First, is it common for US universities to ask for details about the desired startup package prior to making an offer? Second, how does this change what I should include in my startup package request? Third, can I ignore this request and only give them a general outline of what I need to do my research?


texts: When a conference has an abstracts and a later papers submission date, is okay to skip the abstract submission and just submit the paper?

texts:
I want to submit a paper for an ACM conference and I see that there are two dates like this:

Full Papers

Abstracts due: May 10, 2013
Papers due: May 17, 2013

The issue is that I am still working in tabulating the results from my experiments and I do not think that I will reach the deadline of May the 10th. Can I skip the presentation of the Abstract and submit the full paper on the other date? or should I prepare the abstract and only submit that in the first date?

Any advice will be great, thanks.


texts: Ownership of environmental samples (or other material) analyzed during a PhD

texts:
I am a PhD student researching environmental science in Europe. As such, I have received hundreds of environmental samples, including water, sediment etc. over the past year and a half, the extensive work with which has let to two peer-reviewed publications. However, I am still struggling to understand who actually owns these samples - is it the faculty, my supervisor, myself, or the party that sent the sub-samples in the first place? My question is basically - what can I do with the samples without looking at potentially serious issues. More specifically:

1) If there is considerable disagreement between myself and my supervisor as to which analyses are to be carried out on said samples, from a strictly legal standpoint, am I free to carry out the analyses I want to, and which I am sure will benefit my thesis, even though my supervisor disagrees with my approach. There is more than enough material to carry out both mine and my supervisor's methodology.

2) Can I sub-sample and share some of these samples with other institutions or individuals for the purposes of possible (not documented or otherwise agreed upon) collaboration? Again, I strongly suspect my supervisor will not be happy with this, but would it be considered illegal or as academic/other misconduct. Obviously, my supervisor would know and probably be a co-author on any ensuing publications (if any).

What are the possible repercussions of the above? Could I be expelled from the program, or my PhD revoked after the fact? I could not find any discussion on such topics, and instead kept coming across the usual "fabrication, falsification and plagiarism"-related discussions, hence my questions!


texts: Why is plagiarising words such a big deal?

texts:
Plagiarising the ideas of others is obviously a big deal. You are stealing the hard work of others and misleading your peers by pretending it is your original work.

But why is plagiarising words and paragraphs considered a big deal? I mean, isn't the point of academic effort to transmit ideas and knowledge? Who cares what specific words were used to transmit it? It's not like we are writing poems here: the words themselves don't matter, the underlying ideas do.

For example, say you are writing an article, and you need to add a short section on some background information. Your original source for this information is some book by a guy called Juntao, in which he writes

  It is well-known that the K-Group is hyperdifferentiable and pseudo-geometric. It can further be shown, given certain assumptions on the continuity of the underlying complex manifolds, that the associated Einstein-curves are super-composites and universally dense in the field of measurable spaces. Indeed, this was shown by Hilbert and Plato in their seminal work on uncountable and analytically algebraic left-Sylvester Deligne graphs.

Say you need to provide this information in your paper. What’s the problem if you just copy it verbatim? I mean, I could write it in my own words, easily. But why should I be forced to waste time on that? Why is it a problem if I just use the above formulation?

As long as you refer to the original material, such as by ending the section with

  For more information on this material and proofs of the stated theorems, we refer to the works of Hilbert and Plato [1840]. A complete summary of the material can be found in Juntao [1998].

then everything ought to be fine, isn’t it? And yet, there are question like this, where somebody wanted to "seek justice" just because somebody else stole a few sentences of his.


texts: How to get interdisciplinary when your program isn't

texts:
When I was shopping for graduate schools, I was very interested in a particular subdiscipline of mathematical logic. I got into a pretty good state school, but now that I've been here for two years, I am no longer sure that I want to do research in that field anymore.  I still think it's cool- I could fuss with it all day, and I'm sure I could write a thesis on it- but I have lost faith that it is useful. I want to do something that is good for society, and this is decidedly too pure.

We don't have to pick an advisor until the end of this year. I've looked around, but all the professors seem to be working on very narrow problems that don't interest me.  What I would really like to do is integrate computer science into my work, since programming has always been one of my most enjoyed hobbies, and since it plays well with logic in general.  But nobody is doing that here.  Unfortunately, due to family issues, transferring is out of the question.

How does one go about making his research interdisciplinary when he is not in an interdisciplinary program?

Is it a bad idea to just pick an advisor that I get along with, even if his research is not directly applicable to mine, and try to carve my own path? What can I do to make this approach successful?


texts: Lecturer in Math position application - UK - Teaching statement

texts:
I am currently applying for a lecturer position in mathematics, in the UK. I just have a general question regarding how the applications usually compare to US applications. In the US, most of these jobs require a very precise list of documents: recommendation letters, CV, research statement, teaching statement, and maybe some other stuff. Usually it's very clear.

In the UK, most of the applications I found require an application form + supporting material. In many of them, it's not so clear what this supporting material should be. My plan was to include at least my CV, publication list, and research statement (similar to the one I would send to a US application). But what about the teaching statement? I don't want to make my application extra large by attaching unnecessary documents which could end up being detrimental. Specially a teaching statement, the idea of which I never bonded with.

I'm willing to write one and submit it as well, but I wanted to know from UK people (specially those that have been in hiring committees) about this.


texts: Invited to write a review on a field that neither my Prof nor I are experts in?

texts:
As a PhD student nearing the end of their degree my Prof invited me to write a review with him. A decently well known journal had asked us to write a review on a topic that is only tangentially related to our labs area of study. My prof thought this was a great idea since it "guarantees a publication" for the lab and would help get me a first author publication, but I was extremely hesitant at first because I have 2 parallel experiments running and neither the prof nor I were experts in the field. At first I was super optimistic that we could write the review but the more I researched the more realized just how in over my head I was.

Thing is that my Prof. said other grad students in our lab also wrote reviews at similar stages in their PhD degree but looking at their reviews it was clear that the their topic was either something they were actually directly studying, or something that my Prof. was an expert in. Both of which is not true for the review I have to write.

With only a year left in my PhD, I am really worried if this review is a massive waste of time, since all my experiments will need to be put on hold while i read countless numbers of papers in a field that I'm not really an expert in. Should I tell my Prof. that this review is a bad idea and cancel it?


texts: Is it acceptable to ask how a professor would like to be addressed through email?

texts:
I am an undergraduate student working for a professor this summer. Up to this point, I have referred to the professor as Dr. LastName. I have met his research group; his graduate and PhD students refer to him by his first name. Moreover, he signs his emails to me with his first name.

Is it acceptable to ask, through email, how he would like to be addressed? Or is it proper etiquette to wait for him to correct me? I would prefer to ask him in person, but I will not be seeing him for several weeks.

For example, in an email: "I have noticed that you sign your emails as 'FirstName'. Would you prefer that I address you as 'FirstName'?"


texts: Does IEEE accept a previously rejected paper for peer review?

texts:
A few months before, I have submitted a manuscript to an IEEE journal. But, unfortunately, it has been desk-rejected (because the manuscript is written like a report). The editor has mentioned in an email not to submit this manuscript again in the same journal.

However, I am planning to submit it again in the same IEEE journal because, I have made so much modifications and believe that this time the manuscript is up to the mark.

I have mentioned the above issue in the cover letter.

Is this a good idea? I mean does IEEE accept a previously rejected paper for publication? Because, the editor has explicitly stated not to submit the manuscript again. Does the editor consider the fact that we have modified the manuscript a lot?


texts: What can I do to get an admit in a Neuroscience program?

texts:
About me:

I work full time often more than 60 hours a week but I want to go to
college to be a neuroscientist.
I live in the US and have bachelors
degree in Chemical Engineering.
My goal is to get a PhD in
neuroscience.
I work in the IT department in a corporate but do
mostly documentation.

My plan is to begin by doing the following -

Preparing for Bio, Psyc and Math GRE subject tests
Subscribe to Scientific Weekly and Scientific Mind to get current research news
Read a college level Biology textbook to get some background on
Biology.

Can you please help me with the following -

Offer some advice if I am headed in the right direction.
What else will help me get into school/neuroscience research.
Any pointers on getting scholarship/aid.
Will I be able to get into a Masters program (with some pre-requisites) or do I need to start from undergrad?


texts: Obvious authorship and “blind” peer peview

texts:
Need to publish results of one my research in a journal. Springer’s manuscript guidelines prompt me to make a blinded manuscript containing no author information, but links in the References section (this one and to my images published with explicitly advertized authorship) quickly reveal who the author is.

Should the author
 formally obey the blindness rule and ignore its silliness in the conditions given,
 or replace such references (at least for the peer-review time) with some stuff included directly,
 or what?

Would it be acceptable to hold the paper/preprint accessible by URL (especially with links from third-party sites) during expected peer review?


texts: How to deal with political (literal) situations in the workplace?

texts:
A few days ago, I went to have lunch with my colleagues (working in the same group). Somehow, the conversation turned towards politics and the "immigrant emergency" that Europe is currently facing.

To put it mildly, I as a person have very strong convictions regarding such issues. I am from India and I have to deal with passive racial profiling on a regular basis (People looking me up and down and then holding their bags a bit more firmly; No, It was not my appearance, I was very well dressed/groomed). After having experienced it the first few times, I understand the biases that affect such behaviour and do not really mind it.

Nonetheless, it is very difficult for me to ignore it when my peers portray this issue from a one-sided perspective. At that moment, I let the matter be because a short argument over lunch is not going to change a people's minds.

Yet, at this moment I feel very angry at myself for not having spoken up.

For future reference, how should I go about addressing such sensitive issues without raising a furore?
In other words, how can I present history/societal and political issues from the other side of the fence without creating a fuss? Is that even possible?


texts: Grade assignment methods to make learning efficient

texts:
The way a grade is assigned in a course influences the way students study which in turn influences their gain from the course.

I want to focus on ways to assign grades which aim to eventually increase the students' gain from the course (in contrast with grade assignment methods which try to single out the most talented students).

I'll start with the questions:

  What are such grade assignment methods?
  Are there texts/papers/other resources discussing this subject?

An answer should address issues such as: memorization vs. creativity, the temptation to get help from external sources while doing homework, spoonfeeding vs. self-learning, etc.

I will now give my own example of grade assignment components:

Excercises which are graded regularly throught the semester
Exercises for self-learning with a solutions manual provided
Quizes during the semester
Strictly technical questions in quizes/exams
Questions in quizes/exams which mostly require to repeat what was taught in class
Questions in quizes/exams which require some creativity
Student presentations
Practical assignments (programming/labs)
Interviews (oral exams)

I believe all of the above may have a place in some courses with the specificed goal in mind and would like to get new ideas for grading components, for how to combine them, and to know whether any written work exists which tries to answer this question.

I am thinking mostly of courses aimed towards math and CS students and mostly about senior undergraduates, but I do not want to limit the question to these subjects and this level of students.


texts: Life sciences publishers that support/encourage collaborative manuscript review?

texts:
Full disclosure: I'm asking this as a displacement activity while I should be reviewing a paper.

Given how well journal clubs etc work, it has occurred to me a few times that reviewing a manuscript as a group would probably result in faster turnaround and more detailed comments. However, typically journals approach individual reviewers and place confidentiality restrictions on the reviewer so this mechanism wouldn't work. Does anyone know of any journals, ideally in the life sciences, which support or even encourage collaborative peer review of manuscripts?


texts: "Awaiting AE recommendation" before first notification of acceptance or rejection

texts: What does "Awaiting AE recommendation" mean for the first notification (not after revision)? I sent my paper to an IEEE Transactions journal and I am waiting for the first notification and the status is now "Awaiting AE recommendation." Could I conclude that my paper is accepted?


texts: Permission to include a segment from Google Maps as a figure in a publication

texts:
For the application of remote sensing, a satellite imaging of an urban land cover is required. The image I require is readily available in Google Maps.

Who must I contact to receive permission to include a portion of the map as a figure in my paper?


texts: Is this psychological abuse? Should I switch supervisors?

texts:
I am in the third year of my four year PhD, which is funded by the department. My supervisor a week and a half ago called a meeting with me, after an email complaining about sending off an updated version of a manuscript to a conference without full approval. During the course of this meeting, when two others were present, he said a lot of things. However in this meeting he stated that I was on a "final warning" to be kicked out of the university (I had not received any previous warnings, and I'm not sure he has the capability to do this) and also his research group. He also said that he was engaging in a 'strategy of intimidation' so that I would be scared to make similar same mistakes in the future. I found this to be very worrying.
Following on from this he was especially nice via email, asking whether I would like to collaborate with a prestigious professor abroad. Indeed, the next day he spent 2 hours helping me prepare this manuscript, along with a postdoc.
This is part of a pattern of behaviour from this gentleman. Two months previously, after he said I shouldn't apply for IRB approval only weeks before, he had stated that I had committed severe ethical violations and that I should scrap the paper that I had worked on for the previous 7 months due to these violations. He also asked me whether I would like to go to jail for these violations.
Apart from this, my publication output has been relatively good. I got into a top journal in my field in my second year as first author.
I am very close to trying to switch supervisors and am just wondering, is this a stupid idea? Am I being overly sensitive? Is this psychological abuse?
Clarifications:

My aim here is not to raise a stink, I would be subtly switching supervisor, not reporting this to anyone, giving vague excuse of differences. I still have a lot of respect for the advisor as a scientist and fear of him.
If not clear enough in the initial question, part of my problem is that I was told not to go through the ethics process, then latterly reprimanded for not applying for ethics and committing unethical research. There may be a point here with regards to ethics in the first place.
I am thankful for some of the more hostile responses here, as they have made me aware of things that I may not have considered . Indeed they have made me aware of how this would be likely to be perceived. It has also made me slightly more cognizant of my own role in this.
I am a native speaker and have copied the quotes verbatim.

One final clarification:
Being asked too many questions here, will leave thread as is and not reply further. Thanks for all replies.


texts: Reviewer asks to add more references to already many references

texts:
For a submitted review paper, I got a response from one of the reviewers: "More related references should be added". The thing is, I already have around 70 references, and as the topic is pretty specific, there are not many more references out there. I could probably find a few more after very time consuming search, but IMHO, the number of references is both sufficient and able to convey the point. Also the reviewer left literally only this one sentence on the issue and did not even make clear in which aspect the number of references are lacking.
I am still pretty fresh to the academic publishing world, and I don't really know how to answer this request. Can I simply decline the revision request? (the other two reviers did not critisize the number of references)


texts: Have you ever experienced that "accept but needs final editing"

texts: I have submitted my article to springer journal. We re-arrenged the manuscript that was requested by reviewers. And we submitted again. 50 days later, the decision was "accept but needs final editing". Has any one experienced this status? Is still there any rejection risk? Thanks.


texts: Publishing research using outdated methods

texts:
I'm currently an Economics MA student doing a referee report on a paper that employs a dated empirical method. This particular method was originally created in 1980 but then improved upon in 1998 by other researchers, after they had discovered certain issues with it.

This got me thinking about how exactly those on the cutting edge of research seem to lag behind by over a decade (or more) in method and still manage to get published.

This is concerning because it shows that published researchers make mistakes and don't review all relevant research before publishing. I can imagine that in the hard sciences and medicine this would happen also, which is especially concerning knowing that those on the cutting edge could be decades behind in knowledge which has been around for a while.

Is this acceptable? If so, why?


texts: Should I disclose gender, race, disabilities etc. in tenure track job applications?

texts:
I am applying for assistant professor positions in the U.S. and Canada, and I often have to fill in forms of voluntary self-identification disclosing my gender, race, veteran status, disabilities etc. I usually do that, even though I am not certain whether and how this information could affect my prospects of getting the job.

However, recently I have been asked to a fill in a form and choose whether I make this information available to the hiring committee:

  Please indicate whether you

  DO NOT wish to self-identify (in which case we request that you make no indications in Sections A through D below and simply return the form with your name and the date only);
  Wish to self-identify FOR STATISTICAL PURPOSES ONLY (in which case the information you provide below will be used only by the Equity Office and will not be shared with the Appointments Committee of the Unit to which you are applying); OR
  Wish to self-identify FOR THE APPOINTMENTS PROCESS AND FOR STATISTICAL PURPOSES (in which case the information you provide below may also be used in the Appointments process, in accordance with Article 24 of the Collective Agreement)

(boldface emphasis is mine).

What should I do to increase my chances of getting the job and avoid standing out in a bad way?

I guess that by choosing to make the information available,

a Male, Caucasian, Non-disabled person might lose an edge due to preference towards minority candidates; while
a Female, Black, Disabled person could gain an edge?

But it could also go the other way around if the hiring committee has preferences that do not quite align with the official policy of supporting minorities etc.

Two somewhat related but different questions are

"Should all voluntary self-identification forms for faculty positions be filled?" and
"What “Applicant Confidential Data Form” has to do with tenure-track positions?".


texts: Affect of not finishing degree within 3 years due to a disease

texts: I am currently pursuing a degree in bsc. Hons is of 3 years in an esteemed university in india. I am at the final year now. Through the two year my grade was of around 7 cgpa. But at the last semester I am affected with a disease and can't appear in the exam for final semester. Although I am pretty sure I can complete the degree within 4th year, but my dream is to go to foreign so I am scared that it may hamper my dream to get admission in grad school in foreign universities, despite of having good work experiences as I have done 3 internships and one conference. So it will be great if any one can tell me how much not finishing my degree within 4 years will affect my chance of getting a good grad school.


texts: Two abstracts accepted for oral and poster presentation, but I prefer they are swapped

texts:
A conference has accepted my two abstracts in the same track, the first for an oral presentation and the second as a poster.

However, I expected the second one would be accepted for oral presentation, as I believe it is more important and relevant to the area and probably to the track and the conference in general. It is also about my primary work, which is more sophisticated and robust than the first one, and I think it would be better for me to present it orally.

But I understand the conference committee have their evaluation and criteria for deciding the way of presentation for each abstract.

Shall I just accept this allocation, which is good anyway? Or is it common and accepted to request, with justification, that they swap the two abstracts - provided they didn't print and disseminate the program yet?


texts: 'Teaching position or teaching oriented position' in Mathematics in Europe?

texts:
Here I am talking about teaching positions in Mathematics. In the US, we know of many positions in the US (also in Canada?) that is teaching position or teaching-oriented position. For example

1) Some universities need 'regular postdocs' like other places, but they have more teaching load (3+2 courses or 3+3 courses for a year)

2)some are called 'teaching postdocs'.

3) Positions in liberal arts or community colleges etc.

Is there any such equivalent position in Europe? I have never been to Europe so far, but I hear there is no concept of 'colleges', they only have universities or institutes. I know there are some places in the UK where they advertise positions for teaching purposes. But for Europe minus UK, say Germany, Austria, Scandinevia etc. is there any such position for teaching at a higher level than high school (could be undergraduate courses, beginning masters courses etc.). Where can I find out about these positions? Mathjobs and euro-math-jobs don't seem to advertise them.

If you know any source for it, could you please provide me with the link(s)? And do you have any idea whether these positions are permanent or temporary and how much normally do they pay?


texts: There is a postdoc from another group in my department that frequently helps PhD students in his area when they have questions or want to talk about a particular subject. I would like to know if this is expected/normal. In other words, can I go to a postdoc looking to talk and ask questions related to our field?


texts: I am preparing for my PhD applications, and my referee passed away unexpectedly. What should I do?

texts:
I am now preparing for my PhD applications to be submitted soon later this year. I recently was informed that one of my academic referees passed away quite unexpectedly.

The late professor was a great teacher and a wonderful person all round, in addition to being very well respected in my field. After recovering from my initial response to the news, I now have to decide who could write for me instead. I consider myself having done quite well and participated actively in the professor's class, hence the letter would have been quite positive.

I have considered asking my other tutors who have taught me in university, but I had not done as well and we were not as close, so I don't expect there would be credible or indeed useful details to be included in their recommendations. I have also considered asking my current supervisor (at another university) to write for me, though I have only been working for them since this summer.

Therefore my questions are:

What should I do and expect now?
How should I bring this up in my applications? Or should I? I certainly would consider it crass to include him anywhere on my CV or personal statement.

I have read discussions on situations where advisors passed away (e.g.1, e.g.2), but think my situation here is a little different, since I am still in the process of preparing for my applications and this was the first time he would write recommendation letters for me (he did not leave a letter, obviously). Hope this is ok.

I hope this question does not come off as insensitive, as I am at a loss thinking what to do next.


texts: Skipping MEng to go straight to EngD or PhD from BEng

texts:
Generally, the "standard" path of further educational progression in the UK is:

Bachelor's -> Master's -> Doctorate.

However, I've been doing a BEng part-time whilst working full time and as part of my work I also have to do a significant amount of research and have written many academic-style papers (albeit they have only been published internally).

Would it be generally considered acceptable to jump straight from a BEng to a doctorate or are there significant barriers that would be caused by this?


texts: How much does video broadcasting on youtube benefit you academic life?

texts:
Recently, I was working on implementing a new optimization approach to publish a paper. Additionally, I've also implemented the other famous existed methods in the area in order to demonstrate the efficacy of my approach.
It is worthwhile to note, I had a lot of difficulty in implementing the existed method as their Matlab code was not publicly available anywhere.
So, I thought it is useful to create a series of videos (4-5 video/ 15-20 min each) so that, other researcher can learn how to implement these famous methods in Matlab.
Thus, I need a good reason to do so. In other words, what is the outcome for me.
- Would they cite my youtube channel in their paper?
- Does it help my academic reputation?
- Does it help to get a better scholarship for Ph.D. program?
P.S.> I should note that, I have 3 published work in high-rank journals of my field. But if this idea (video broadcasting) doesn't have any significant outcome, I would stick to write another paper and save my time.


texts: Does one always have to present new results when publishing a paper?

texts:
I am an undergraduate student who had already worked in two undergrad "research" projects, but both of those projects were basically applications of methods that were already discovered. Furthermore, the results were actually estimations, and not something exact or close. By the end of each one, I had to write a final report for my university, and discussed all the method and results in a poster during a scientific conference of undergrad research in my university.

I had never thought about a possible publication surging from these two projects, but nowadays (it's been two years since the first project) I thought about the fact that I could have published these projects in a formal scientific journal, even though they just confirm an already known method with a certain level of accuracy.

Considering this scenario, my question is that whether it would be possible to publish such kind of research project in form of a formal paper or not, also, would it affect in a positive way my scientific "career", since I would be able to say that I started publishing studies early than the usual (I mean, my knowledge tells me that publish stuff during undergrad means "early")? Moreover, would it be a positive fact to have papers publicized, even if they don't have new results or anything unpublished?


texts: Research grants for international PhD candidates

texts: I recently came across a friend who is applying for a PhD in my lab. He happens to be from Brazil, on an F-1 visa. He was told by my advisor that his citizenship status affects the sources of funding available to support his work. I was always under an impression that the principal investigator applies for research grants and funding does not depend on visa status (if any) of the students under his guidance. Was I wrong in making this assumption?


texts: Rejecting Postdoc Extension for Other Grant Management Opportunities

texts:
I helped my PhD supervisor to secure a funding for an 18-month project in 2019. My supervisor got the grant in April 2020 and she asked me to consider doing a postdoc under the project. I was not very keen to continue doing lab research activity, yet I still agreed to take up the postdoc because of the uncertain job market during the pandemic. Since then I started to work on the postdoc project planning and budgetary control while preparing for my viva.
I successfully submitted my final thesis in September 2020 and the postdoc contract officially started in November 2020. The offer letter stated the contract is valid for 6 months, renewable until the end of project. This condition is regulated by the university.
As my 6-month postdoc contract is nearing its end, my supervisor asked me to liaise with the HR on extension. I hesitated to extend my postdoc because I lost the interest in doing lab research any longer. I also stumbled on a few job openings for research grant management elsewhere, which I am interested in applying.
The foundations of most of my postdoc research activities has been laid out/completed by now because I started the project before I passed my viva, e.g. communications between the project stakeholders, organizing workshops, pilot reactor design & procurement. The tasks left are mainly the reactor operation and data collection.
Should I let my supervisor know that I would like to move on to a different career path, since the 6-month contract is nearing its expiry? Or am I obliged to extend the contract so that the project does not get stuck in the middle? I feel the guilt because I had the experience of having to take over other postgraduate student's work because they left.
I would appreciate advise from postdoc/project PI who experienced similar issue. Thank you in advance!


texts: Register as a listener to access course materials with no intent to attend lectures

texts: In the USA, is it regarded as OK to register as a listener for a course to be able to access the course materials but with no intent to attend the lectures?


texts:
I'm accepted at a PhD math program for the fall and I will be expected to take 3 very rigorous pure math classes a semester and TA about 10 hours a week. I am a slow learner and it takes me a long time to truly understand difficult concepts (at least it seems longer than what it takes my peers).

I would appreciate any tips in the following:

What are some tips for managing my time in grad-school?
Is there anything I can do now before I start to help prepare me (other than learn more math of course)?
How to grade or teach time efficiently?
Is it better to focus on learning material for one class per day, or allocate a little bit of time each day for each class?


texts: The variance of peer-review types across research disciplines

texts:
While I clearly encounter the fact that the preferred type/types of peer-review varies/vary across research disciplines, like pointed out in this question, I wonder which disciplines prefer which type/types and maybe even the underlying reasons.

Is there any kind of a peer-review map showing which disciplines prefer which type/types of peer-review and maybe even why?


texts: Data exchange between academic institutions

texts: Is there any publicly available statistics on the amount of exchange of data that transit through Internet between academic institutions? (e.g. X TB yearly from institution A to institution B)


texts: How to deal with my results being stolen?

texts:
I have experienced a couple of times the following problem: I have asked another researcher to cooperate and provided mathematical results (as a basis for an algorithm). The cooperation has not proceeded as fast as expected and the other party has taken my results and integrated them into a work that he has published with other people. There are two questions:

How to initiate cooperation with new people and still avoid this problem? The mathematical properties are central in our research. New algorithms cannot be created, unless we first invent some clever properties that prune the search space (so, the properties are the heart of the algorithm, the rest is usually straight-forward). So, they have to be invented first and this inventing happens to be my speciality. Unfortunately, it is easy to proceed without me, when I have done this difficult part. So, I don't know whom and when I could give the results. They should be shared pretty soon, since we should all be able to ponder together how to integrate the new properties in the algorithm. Sometimes we may also find that they are not useful or strong enough and new results are needed, so ideally this invention-brainstorming process would be iterative.
How should I refer to my own results, if others have published them first? Should I still give a reference to their publication, when I use them for something new? This is now an important question since I have invented a new use for one of my previous results. (Naturally, I don't like the idea I should refer to somebody else for my own invention.)

I would also like to understand the behaviour of those other researchers. I have a few hypotheses:

It's possible they underestimate the invention work, because I
usually present only the final results as nice compact proofs +
explanation what the result means in practice. In reality, deriving
the results may easily take 100 hours or more - proving by trial and
error, guided by intuition and earlier results.
I have been only a post-doc, when this happened, so I had no authority. They may think it is easier to get a paper published if it is written with some better
known researchers.
These people have been from other countries and had a different mother tongue than me, while they have published the results with
people who were either geographically close (even the same research
group) or spoke the same language they did. So maybe the question is
about easy communication and cooperation?
The original research had suffered from delays, like rejected project application. It would have continued but not in the original schedule (from my part). So maybe they wanted to get things published faster or even assumed I won't get any funding for future research.

What do you think is the explanation? Understanding the reasons would help to avoid the problem in future.


texts: Can we use a book figure/illustration in a review article and cite the source without getting permissions?

texts:
I included two figures from book in review article. I emailed the editor and author of the chapter for permissions, but they didn't reply. I also mailed CRC publisher for permissions, but still didn't get response from them.

If I still use those figures in a review article and cite the original source, will it be legal or not?


texts: Should I apply again to the same research group where I used to work and haven't got any PhD offer from the professor?

texts:
Approximately a couple of years ago I was working in a Computer Science project abroad. The task was to implement a software analysis tool with the collaboration of a professor, and if all went well then I could get a PhD position at one of their departments.

Well after expending like half of the year on the project, due to some personal problems that did not allow me to focus entirely on the programming task, ie. taking care of my old parents, it was that the project suffered a delay.

When I was about to end the project and got some finishing results, the research was published in another country by other university. It seems here that the phrase "publish or perish" was more real than ever. Because of that reason the professor in charge did not offer me the PhD position, so I was some sort sad about it.

I have the inner feeling that I could have done better to get that position, so I don't know if I should ask to the professor in charge if he could give me another chance. Maybe if I do that I will bury myself academically, but I don't know what to do.

Any advice?


texts: I believe a portion of a paper I am coauthoring is false

texts:
I have mildly contributed to a research project which is now ready for publication.
However, I am convinced the treatment of the experimental data is wrong.

I shared my concerns with the PI of this project and shown him why I believe this was not correct. Yet, I only made him doubt and he still wants to publish it as it is. This treatment of the data is not necessary to reach the conclusion of the paper which still holds with more standard data analysis, but it looks less fancy. Now what should I do ?

should I go ahead and work on the publication ?
should I withdraw from this project (which is a side project for me) ?

On the one hand I still believe the conclusion of the paper is true and I could use an additional publication on my CV. On the other hand I feel it is dishonest to publish something which I believe is not true.


texts: How to find jobs for someone who holds a PhD degree but lacks English proficiency?

texts:
Does anybody know how to find jobs for someone who holds a PhD degree but lacks English proficiency?

My mother, who was a professor at a reputable university back in my home country, came to the United States for my education and since then, she has been working as a babysitter and at dry cleaners, and I'm increasingly noticing her misery. She is fluent in Korean and Chinese (native bilingual proficiency), but her English, especially in terms of writing, is on an elementary level. Looking for jobs online that fit her specific situation proved to be extremely difficult. I'm trying to reach out to my professional network, which is pretty small to begin with. That leaves me thinking whether I should look up specific bilingual companies on LinkedIn. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for your help!


texts: I found another proof of my theorem. Can I present two different proofs in the paper?

texts: My area is mathematics. I have just found another proof of the main theorem in my paper. It is slightly more elegant than the previous proof that I wrote, but the idea is very different. When submitting this paper, can I include two proof in the paper, or must I select only one? Personally, I don’t want to delete either of them, but I don’t know how the editor will deal with this situation.


texts: Someone referenced my work in a journal paper using my first name only, do I contact them or the journal it was published in?

texts:
Someone referenced my work in a journal paper but they did not cite it the right way.

They only included my first name, my supervisor's first name, the name of the paper and the date.  They did not include our last names or the journal that the paper was published in.
Do I contact the authors or the journal to correct this? Or can it not be fixed?

Currently, the citation is not included in my Google Scholar page because they didn't write my last name nor my supervisor's last name.


texts: How to escalate a complaint about errors produced by a journal from the Nature publishing group when Editor doesn't respond

texts:
We have a scientific paper that was published at the beginning of this year in "Scientific Reports", an open-access journal by the Nature publishing group. However, upon publication, as authors we were shocked to see some of the figures (which were uploaded to the journal's website during submission) altered in an unacceptable way that changes the scientific meaning of the paper. It was clearly a "production" error during the final processing of the manuscript by the publishing team.

We have since been complaining to the journal and its Chief Editor (for several months now), but without any meaningful response from them; the Editor never bothered replying and another assistant promised to fix the errors but nothing happened.

As authors we are very frustrated to see our work being distorted online (in front of the readership) and we don't know how to complain about such negative experience and get the errors fixed.  Any advice on who to complain to or who can escalate this seriously with the editor/team of this journal would be appreciated?


texts: Can two people use the results of their publication for their theses?

texts:
I've been working on a case study paper with a colleague, who is the first name on the paper. He is writing his PhD thesis and I am writing my MSc. thesis under the supervision of the same advisor.

Is it okay both of us to use the same results/findings of this paper in our theses?

Advisor told me that this is not okay and added that even if the other guy would be okay with that, he didn't accept this.

At the time that I will be defending my thesis, the paper wouldn't be published yet. The PhD guy will be defending after me in the future.

What is wrong with that? People cite other people's work and use them in their theses. Why is it  not accepted for me to use the results of the paper that I am contributing?


texts: Reapplying to same PhD program after one year, should I state I applied the previous year?

texts:
I was wondering if someone who is reapplying to the same program after it was not accepted the previous year is seen as a negative thing.

If in the application form I am asked if I applied the program in the past, should I state that I did or would that look bad on my application?

Why is this question been asked? And does not really matter what my answer is? The university clearly states that all application material is destroyed after a few months. Thus the admission commitee look at this question?


texts: Do I need to rephrase my conference abstract when submitting the corresponding journal paper?

texts:
I am submitting an abstract for a conference that, if accepted, will be published in its "book of abstracts". I know that wouldn't cause any issues for submitting the paper to a journal, but I'm wondering whether I can actually copy and paste the sentences that I'm using for the abstract in the journal draft, or I have to rephrase them. Is it self-plagiarism?
(The field is NOT CS, so the conference is worth very little, and probably after publication only the journal paper could receive some attention.)
I reviewed the answers to these three questions, but I couldn't find the answer to my question. Only this answer says "I'd avoid the same wording", but it's not clear whether that's just optional or could be as serious as avoiding plagiarism.
(Note: The conference's book of abstracts will be published quite a while before the journal paper, and probably even before submitting the journal paper.)


texts: I am a graduating PhD in USA. I am hoping to apply for a post-doc position in IHES, France. However I cannot find an application form any where. What should I do? (I cannot find it on mathjobs website).


texts: What should I do if I think that a professor has graded a course based on his personal impressions of students?

texts:
I recently took an advanced course with a professor. The course had two exams, a final project and assignments. I got excellent marks in both the exams and assignments. At the beginning of the course, the professor stated that since the course is advanced, he'll keep some weight on the class performance of students, so that exams (which may be tough) don't decide your grade completely. I attended the first few lectures and no class ever involved any significant participation from any student.

The classes began with the professor asking people if they have solved any problems from the textbook and some students usually said yes. Ultimately, I received a very bad grade in the course and it seems that only those students whom the professor knew outside the classroom received good grades. The grading was ultimately made in such a way that the exams carried little weight (I even doubt the professor checked the papers) and most of the weight was on 'class participation' which, in my opinion, translated to personal impression. One of my friends, who was also a victim of this scheme of things, tried to reason with another teacher, only to receive 'A professor has full liberty to decide on grades' as a reply. I feel that he did not grade on any concrete activity at all, but simply on personal impressions. Students who often went to him to discuss (often materials outside the course) or whom he knew from before seem to have received the best grades. What should I preferably do in such a situation?

As a first step, I've asked him the grading policy and was told that he has graded on his own perceptions of who mastered how much. (As a side, he says that even the final project was immaterial, since everybody has done well on it). Let me repeat that none of his classes had any significant activity that could have substantiated such perceptions. The professor has asked me to treat the issue as closed and move on. Should I do so if I feel that there was some serious injustice involved? If not, what should I do in such a situation? How should I present a case if at all.

This is in one of the premier institutes in India. We do have a grade review committee. I just wonder if escalating it to them is advisable


texts: Has anyone transfered from an MPhil to a Phd?

texts:
Has anyone applied for an MPhil then switch to Phd 1 year into the course?
How is the process like and are there any implications?

I have applied for Phd program but I was unable to secure any scholarships for Phd. Therefore, I was thinking of applying for an MPhil first, then if possible, switch to Phd halfway through the program.
Is this possible and advisable?
Is the scholarship selection threshold lower for MPhil?


texts: Will I be accepted into another PhD program if I leave my current group in Europe in which I don't fit in?

texts: I am now doing my Ph.D. in Europe and I think I am not a good fit for my research group. It is not possible to change to other research groups in Europe and I was planning to drop out of my program and then reapply to some other group working on a different topic. I need some advice on whether it is possible to do so?


texts: How long outside academia without publishing is too long?

texts: I finished a PhD in Earth Science 10 months ago and now work as a software engineer. I haven’t done any research or published in these 10 months. Is it too late for me to go for a postdoc and have a realistic shot at tenure track? My PhD is from a good school in our field and I have a good publication record in top journals in our field.


texts: Couple of weeks ago, several professors from one of the universities I received an offer from wrote me asking if they could help me with anything (to decide on a place I choose). As pleasant as it was, I wrote (what I think was) a very nice email declining that PhD offer to each one of them. It's been quite a while now, but none of them have replied, while from other places I've received wishes of good luck. Have I burned some bridges there?


texts: Meeting with Professor for letter of recommendation

texts:
I am applying for PhD positions. I emailed one of my professors asking them to write a strong letter of recommendation for me. I took two courses with this professor and I got an A- in both of them. The professor replied and asked me to meet with him.

What should I expect from this meeting? What kind of things will he ask me?

[I think I am asking something stupid but I really want to prepare myself before going in front of this professor as he's always very rude and angry]


texts: Posting to ArXiv a longer version of a submitted journal paper

texts:
I have written a paper (about 14 pages long) and submitted it to a journal.  The editors suggested I cut it down to a 5-page paper and resubmit.  I can do that, but will end up leaving a lot of material on the cutting room floor.  That material isn't strong enough to command a published article of its own, but I don't want it to be lost forever.  I am considering a couple of options:

Upload the original 14 page version of the paper to arXiv.
Try to piece together the scraps that were removed from the longer piece to make a ~9 page paper and upload that to arXiv.

Which of these seems like a more sensible / standard practice?

A secondary question is whether I should do this before I submit the 5-page version of the paper (and then include in that shorter version a reference to the arXiv version), or whether it would make more sense to wait until there is a decision on the 5-page version.


texts: Ways to conduct complete, effective research?

texts:
Let's say you are conducting research in a given field. You want to extend or gain knowledge about concepts in the research field and search for literature that explains these concepts, e.g. by typing in some keywords into Search Engines like Google Scholar or digital libraries.

Now some questions appear:

How do you know that you have completed (most likely) the search for knowledge about a given concept?
What is the most efficient way to find knowledge about a subject?

For 2, my methodology so far is searching a keyword in Google Scholar, reading the first X most cited papers or papers with relevant titles. Then reading citations that further explain an unclear or abstract concept in more detail. Afterwards, I look for articles that cite the most descriptive articles I've already read and have a closer look at citations in these articles etc. This is a similar process as described in this paper.

As to 1, I think the answer is when you don't find more information about a given concept.

Am I missing something? Is there a better way or answer?

Note: If you think I can phrase the title of this question in a better way (e.g. more descriptive keywords), please edit or comment.


texts:
In most (or at least many) fields of academia, peer-reviewed publications are essential.  For a compilation thesis, no papers means no PhD.  For tenure, you need papers.  To get grants, you need papers.  Universities may distribute internal funds based on the number of papers per group.  In short: publish or perish.

On the other hand, it is quite cheap to offer someone co-authorship.  Send a nearly finished manuscript to a colleague/friend at another university for review... colleague reads it, offers some advice, perhaps just minor.  First author offers co-authorship in return, and colleague has another co-authored paper for possibly less than a day of work.  One can discuss if it is the right thing to do, but that is not my question here.  It happens.  (NB: I am not suggesting such has happened in the examples listed below!)

Criteria for co-authorship differ per field, but some papers have a lot of co-authors.  Perhaps due to having an instrument that was used in an inter-comparison/validation study.  Some examples of papers with lots of co-authors, not particularly extreme:

Kasai, Y., Sagawa, H., Kreyling, D., Dupuy, E., Baron, P., Mendrok, J., Suzuki, K., Sato, T. O., Nishibori, T., Mizobuchi, S., Kikuchi, K., Manabe, T., Ozeki, H., Sugita, T., Fujiwara, M., Irimajiri, Y., Walker, K. A., Bernath, P. F., Boone, C., Stiller, G., von Clarmann, T., Orphal, J., Urban, J., Murtagh, D., Llewellyn, E. J., Degenstein, D., Bourassa, A. E., Lloyd, N. D., Froidevaux, L., Birk, M., Wagner, G., Schreier, F., Xu, J., Vogt, P., Trautmann, T., and Yasui, M.: Validation of stratospheric and mesospheric ozone observed by SMILES from International Space Station, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 6, 2311-2338, doi:10.5194/amt-6-2311-2013, 2013.

Milz, M., Clarmann, T. v., Bernath, P., Boone, C., Buehler, S. A., Chauhan, S., Deuber, B., Feist, D. G., Funke, B., Glatthor, N., Grabowski, U., Griesfeller, A., Haefele, A., Höpfner, M., Kämpfer, N., Kellmann, S., Linden, A., Müller, S., Nakajima, H., Oelhaf, H., Remsberg, E., Rohs, S., Russell III, J. M., Schiller, C., Stiller, G. P., Sugita, T., Tanaka, T., Vömel, H., Walker, K., Wetzel, G., Yokota, T., Yushkov, V., and Zhang, G.: Validation of water vapour profiles (version 13) retrieved by the IMK/IAA scientific retrieval processor based on full resolution spectra measured by MIPAS on board Envisat, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 2, 379-399, doi:10.5194/amt-2-379-2009, 2009.

(Again, I would like to stress than I am absolutely not implying that there is anything inappropriate about these two examples!)

On the other hand, I rarely see papers written by sole authors, and I have the impression that such papers were more common in the past — but I have no evidence thereof.

Is there an inflation in the number of authors per paper?  In other words, is the number of authors per paper increasing and if so, does this reduce the value of a co-authored publication?

Related: What is the average number of articles written per author in a year and has it increased recently?


texts: How to deal with arrogant e-mail of a student

texts:
I have sent the solutions of some assignments to the students of my class.

One of my students sent me a message that reads as follows (not greeting or anything, no closing, just the following):

  The proposed solution of Exercise X is obviously wrong because of reason blah blah. An appropriate solution to your exercise would be such and such.

Now, the student in essence is actually correct: there is a slight error (but it does not alter the essence of the solution). It is just a small wording issue that might raise some confusion (but the calculations are clear).

What troubles me is the attitude, which I found kind of offensive (but I might be wrong).

Is it appropriate a student to behave like that? What would be the right approach to deal with this student?

I answered as politely as I could that the student is right, thanked the student for spotting it, and updated the solution manual. But I feel that the student would create similar issues and make similar comments if some typos are found in subsequent notes.

Note: The actual problem might be that the student might start bad-mouthing me to other students/professors and this might negatively influence other students in believing that I am doing a bad job and consequently this could be reflected on my teaching evaluations (given also that I try to get tenured). Maybe I am paranoid (hope so!), but in relatively small classes where everyone knows each other, the power of bad-mouthing can be great. I want a way to (a) avoid confrontation and (b) make it clear that these issues are completely minor (they are) and not worthy of such aggressive (which they might not be, but I do not want to take chances) messages.


texts: PhD students publish without supervisors – how does it work?

texts:
In my field (experimental physics) the supervision of PhD students works roughly like that: freshmen come to the lab, they are given tasks, then they do experiments, discuss the results with their supervisors, do more experiments, discuss more, and then at some point they start writing papers about their results. There, of course, both PhD students and their supervisors are co-authors on papers, often together with other internal and/or external collaborators.
I've been working in a few countries, and the system was always more or less like that. I do understand why it is functioning this way: in a relatively complicated field of knowledge, a new PhD student is absolutely incapable of writing a paper which would stand up to the standards of the respective scientific community. So the student gets supervision as to which experiments are interesting to do and which not, how to do the experiments, how to analyze results, how to present them, etc. In return, the supervisor, at the very minimum, publishes a paper and gets the work done (and published), as it was described in the funding proposal from which this PhD student is paid. I mean, it is not usually referred to as a deal between a student and a supervisor, but if everything goes well it's a win-win for sure, and it's all pretty obvious, so I am not even sure whether I should have written it in so much detail.
However, surfing through Academia SE, I found a number of questions from PhD students about whether they should publish papers without their supervisors, and, surprisingly, a significant number of answers encouraging them to do so, in the spirit of: “It’s your PhD, how are you supposed to work independently if you can’t publish a paper on your own”. From this I conclude that there are at least some places where this is indeed how the system works, so PhD students publish papers without their supervisors as co-authors. And so, I wonder: How is this system supposed to work long-term? What would be the motivation for supervisors to actually accept and supervise students, if they don't even get a publication from this student's work? Supervision, if done properly, takes quite some time, so as a research scientist, I'd rather spend this time on my own work which will be published under my name, rather then help other people publish their papers.
I can foresee an answer that goes like, it is a sort of moral obligation of a scientist to "raise" PhD students, and he or she should not expect anything "in return", not even a publication. Although some people might indeed share this belief, it would be very naive to build the entire system on moral grounds, so I am sure there is something else.
Update. I would like to quote @AlexanderWoo: "Mathematics is weird is that standards for authorship usually differs in an advisor-student context than outside of one. There are definitely contributions that would merit coauthorship if one were not the advisor of the other author but does not if one is the advisor." Sounds bizarre but again, what do I know.


texts: How to book a flight for faculty interview with no knowledge of available budget?

texts: I read that universities invite candidates and ask them to book a flight. If universities don't specify the amount available, can candidates select any airfare? Should the candidates ask or just book any? 100$ or 1000$, would that matter? And do booking the cheapest flight be a positive sign?


texts: How can you precisely match Chinese academic positions with western style?

texts: Since 1919 the first time "democracy" and "science" was introduced into China, two academic position systems have been carried out in Chinese research and educational institutions. One is from Former Soviet Union, known as the "研究员" ("Researcher" or "Research Fellow" in rough English translation) system, the other is from western style, that is "professorship".  Who knows how to properly translate "研究员" or "副研究员" into English equivalent positions? This questions confused me and other Chinese academics for years.


texts: Perception of Phi Beta Kappa on a resume?

texts:
I'm a student in the US, about to graduate with a BS in zoology. I've just been invited to join Phi Beta Kappa and am trying to find some more up-to-date discussions of whether or not it's worth it and I see a lot of conflicting opinions/information.

It costs $99 for me to join, which some have said reflects poorly on the society, while others say PBK is super prestigious and eye-catching. I've seen some saying it has gotten them positions, and others say its meaningless or they even look down on people who include it on their resumes.

I'll most likely go to grad school eventually and have no intentions currently to do any work/study outside of the US (I've seen many folks from outside the US saying they see honor societies and have a negative reaction because of Greek Life). Anyone have thoughts on this?


texts: Will it be a good idea to write professor who has just interviewed me for a PhD position?

texts:
I had been interviewed by a professor recently for a Ph.D. position(US). During the interview, he asked me if I had gone through his homepage. Actually I went through superficially as the interview was the very next day after he wrote to me (Also his works are a bit off track with my work). So I answered yes I went through superficially ( I did not want to lie about anything). He seemed quite ok with that and it was kind of a good conversation (maybe he was satisfied with my answers/he was being extra nice-not sure). But before hanging up, he asked if I want I can write to him emails too (he meant further queries).

Is it a good idea to write to him? I mean will it add extra value in my application? (Like I can go through his homepage or publications and ask some questions? or Professors just say it formally?

How long it takes to declare their decisions if I am accepted or rejected? One more thing to share. Some of my scores (GRE, IELTS) is not submitted yet, I mean I sent them but they are on the way). But I got this interview call within two days after uploading my other papers, even before the deadline.


texts: contacting advisor before admission can be helpful?

texts:
I am an Mphil student from India. My field of interest is complex analysis. I plan to go abroad for my PhD. I know the process of GRE exams and all. But I want to ask, is talking to any professor, with whom you wish to work for PhD, from your desired university, helpful in getting admission?
Can it be helpful somehow?


texts: FAFSA for US PhD (hard sciences — physics) students?

texts:
I have a question regarding filling out the FAFSA or not as a incoming PhD student.
What is the benefit of filling out the FAFSA if you are a(n) (incoming) PhD student? In the US (at least in physics), PhDs are (to the best of my knowledge) fully funded — full tuition waiver + a "decent" TA stipend initially and then an RA later. And so I'm a bit confused if I should fill out the FAFSA at all.
Is it a case of "you might as well," since it could end up supplying me additional funds to supplement the TA stipend (which is usually less than RA stipend)? Could the additional funds go to unforeseen student fees and such? Or is it simply not needed as my tuition will be fully waived and I will be getting paid?
For reference, from a graduate school's website:

Types of Financial Aid
A variety of aid is available for all income levels, including various types of student educational loans (Graduate and Professional Student Loans, Short-Term and Emergency Loans), grants, and Work-Study funding. Contact your graduate program regarding the availability of work-study funding.
Apply for Financial Aid
All students interested in educational loans are required to apply for financial aid via the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) or the California Dream Act Application. Both applications are free. Whether or not students think they are eligible, we encourage you to apply for financial aid each year. You may apply for financial aid before you have been admitted.


texts: PI puts up a "facade" of great research, but doesn't support real academic work. Is this common? How to recognize this kind of situation?

texts:
I am not sure what word is best used to describe this situation, but the PI puts up a facade of great research, advertised to incoming students as groundbreaking, but after one or two mediocre papers in low-tier conferences (heavily publicized) the support for the research disappears, so the work never gains momentum. Is this kind of thing common? How could an incoming graduate student recognize this kind of lab?

In my situation, I am a PhD student at a well-regarded, top-15 STEM program. My advisor is decently well-regarded in field A, and also purports to do work in field B (not specifying the fields as they are uncommonly found together). He heavily recruited me into his lab for field B. In field A our lab regularly publishes work in top conferences, but in field B the work never seems to gain momentum. However, when my advisor discusses his work publicly, he only advertises field B as it is a "sexier" field and more exciting to talk about, and to hear him talk about it we are doing exceptionally ground-breaking work. However, behind the facade, I am one of just two students working in field B, my work is not supported, I have little to no funding to do the projects he recruited me for and continues to recruit good students for. I have managed to get a couple of publications in decent venues, but the last publication I tried to work on he actually told me I should not publish (upon discussion with someone actually in the field, that person said it was very worthwhile work). Instead, I find myself regularly writing newsletter-style articles about work in its infancy, for non-academic venues, which bring a lot of publicity to the lab but are worth nothing to my academic career.

Additionally, as I progress (slowly) in my research it is painfully apparent that he knows absolutely nothing about this field. In my last meeting with my advisor, I came prepared with a list of 5 different research ideas, and after presenting them all, I was told "You should work on simple, practical things, not hard academic research." I told him what the top conferences were in my field and he said I was wrong (I am right) and told me to publish in incorrect venues. I am early in the program and am looking for a new advisor, because it is obvious that if I stay in this lab I will never be able to publish in my field and thus never be competitive for an academic (or likely even an industry) position in this field--at this point I am basically an academic publicist.

A lot of detail, but is this "research facade" a common occurrence? It is almost analogous to falling victim to an "academic con artist." For awhile I thought it was my fault, that I just wasn't working hard enough and that I just had to work harder to make the work gain momentum, but every time I am on the cusp of making progress on something the funding dries up and I am diverted to another project (after of course writing several press releases). Also, how would one recognize this type of lab in the future? It seems difficult as an incoming grad student being promised exciting projects to tell the difference between active research and sham projects.


texts: What are typical rules for parallel academic appointments?

texts: Many universities have visiting (also sometimes termed adjunct outside the US) faculty positions for non-salaried academics associated with a department. My question concerns the cases where faculty members, rather than an adjunct appointment, hold parallel appointments at two different universities, perhaps as a part-time appointment.  What types of rules are there regarding e.g. attendance, affiliation in publications, teaching, PhD supervision, committee membership, access to funding, lecturing responsibilities, and salary for such cases? I'd appreciate pointers to corresponding policies or regulations.


texts:
I heard for the second time today that a discipline is "superfluous". This comment was made by a young assistant professor, who does not do research in this discipline. Just to be fair to the commenter, that was not a serious comment, but just a casual remark.

However, I think deep in his mind he believes that this discipline is "superfluous". And deep in my mind I have the same doubt from time to time. Can a discipline be superfluous? How do you know whether a discipline is worth researching or not?

PS: In this case this discipline is HCI (human computer interaction), but you could replace it with any other discipline.


texts: How to extend and convert a conference paper into a journal submission?

texts:
I have been asked to develop a extended version of an accepted conference paper. This extended version will be submitted to a journal for review.

Please tell me how to develop the same. Is there any need to provide complete/partial results in this extended version?

Is it not only sufficient to further improve the idea instead of presenting the results?


texts: How can I make the most of this opportunity? Any suggestions for a 2nd/3rd year student interested in research?

texts:
I am currently a student about to come towards the end of my 2nd year at University. I had a great professor at the start of the year, and I was interested in trying something outside of traditional studies. I approached him and asked whether I could start trying out some research and whether he would supervise and guide me. He agreed and even provided some nice topics.

We've decided on a topic and I'm ready to get started.

Question. Does anyone have any general advice for me, so that I can make the most of this opportunity? What types of skills should I aim to pick up? With what attitude should I approach this research to make it as fruitful as possible?

I am only just starting research, so I don't have a lot of background behind how it works, and what are some ways of getting familiar with a given field? Any useful websites or ideas are appreciated!

What would be a reasonable goal? Publishing a paper?

Would publishing a paper require actual new mathematical discovery, or for a start would compiling together various core theorems and ideas and re-proving them from different existing papers count as well?

Thanks!


texts: How soon to send dissertation to committee before defense?

texts: Basically, I set my defense for 3 weeks from now but forgot that I will need to send my dissertation to the committee before the actual defense (it's been a busy week), and I need as much time to work on it as possible. I'm thinking I will send it to them a few days before the defense (e.g., over the weekend if the defense is in the middle of the following week). Knowing them, it would probably be fine anyway, but would that be really bad form? Just trying to get an idea of what is typical.


texts: Paper ending: conclusion vs. conclusions

texts:
What should the last section of a scientific paper be called? Conclusion or conclusions?

I always felt like conclusions were things to take away from a paper, and a conclusion was the end of something (a book).


texts: Should I use what the professor says to me in the email as a material to write in the SOP?

texts:
So a professor agree to accept me to his lab. I guess that I should write this down on my SOP to increase my chance. The question is: should I use what he said as a material to write in my SOP?

Below is my draft:

  I have contacted him, and within an hour I got his reply: “You would be a terrific addition to our group!”. He said that I'm “correct that more insight is needed on the relation between A and B”. The lab is currently working to formulate a C theory. He sent me a paper he wrote with his student, XYZ, to illustrate one of the approaches. I have suggested some ways to expand the work during my discussions with the professor.

One feedback for this:

  Very awkward. I'd delete. At the very least rephrase. It feels like a brain dump. He already knows you'd a be a great addition, no need to state it here...It's also a bit presumptuous to me that you're so comfortable critique a professor and such. Could be another bias of mine?

I'm speechless. This is the only paragraph that will make me stand out from the others, yet it is presumptuous? Is this the culture problem or is it just me? I can't see why this is presumptuous.


texts: Why do you need to study a subject at a university level to teach it at a high school?

texts: If you want to teach mathematics at a high school for example, then why do you need to study it at a university? You will learn new stuff, but you won't teach anything of that at a high school.


texts: How to properly use paid participation survey in my research?

texts:
My field of study is business communication and I tried to gather responses for my survey by contacting target audience by email directly, however response rates were next to 0%. Now I'm considering using paid participation survey service to gather information I need (which is possible with some screening).

1) How to include "paid participation survey" explanation in my methodology section? (Should I mention paid participation at all?)

2) Is it normal/generally accepted to use paid surveys in Academia, because articles I read on my field never mentioned it?


texts: How do I follow famous authors in my field on arxiv and other venues?

texts: To stay aware of the latest developments in my areas of interest, I'd like to be able to follow authors. I am quite unaware of any way to do this other than manually look them up on google scholar and subscribe to them. Is there something more effective out there that most people use?


texts: Comeback advice: how to return a decade after dropping out, when job schedule makes formal study difficult?

texts:
What helpful advice would you give an age 30-something woman to reach her dream with the following background? She dropped out from college a decade ago despite many hard years of dedicated trying, had to take on a low income, shift work job to earn a living, but never stopped to want to make a comeback in the demanding major where she dropped out and participate in science where her heart belongs?

The shift work prevents her a lot to get up to date again and prepare for college and nobody supplies support against her worries of failing again.


texts: Faculty leaving to get a second degree, see training, etc. Is it heard of in Academia?

texts:
Is it possible for a faculty to take leave for 1 or 2 years to go and learn some new technologies in order to broaden their research area into a more interdisciplinary area?
Imagine you are working on statistical and computational modelling of cellular dynamics, now you want to go and learn experimental technologies in order to generate your data, validate your results, etc and basically turn into a dry lab/ wet lab instead of a totally computational lab. Is it possible to be funded by your university in order to go and do some self-improvement which would eventually lead to dramatically better research outputs in the future even though it may cause a hit in your short-term output? Something similar to sabbatical leave but not exactly that, as sabbatical leave policies are not funding your goals during the leave and might even stop you from your regular compensations.

I am especially interested in Canada and the US.


texts: Late letter of recommendation for grad schools

texts:
One of my recommenders has not yet submitted recommendation letter for my PhD application. Unfortunately, he lost his brother and has not been able to "take care of his professional duties for some days". The application was due on Dec 15 (today is Dec 28). What should I do?

I have submitted my application for PhD programs at UIUC (CS), CMU (RI), GaTech (ECE), TAMU (CS), UMich (CSE), and McGill (CS). Do any of these programs even consider PhD applications (or admit students) with 2 recommendation letters?


texts: Can I use the term 'abuse' if someone submits five papers to a conference?

texts:
During my career as a researcher, I have attended many high-quality conferences in my research field and presented papers. In general there are some rules about the number of papers accepted which belong to a researcher as an author. I can take it normally one person can be an author for a paper, or two. What about five papers?

My question is;

Can I use the term abuse if someone (first author or not) submits five papers to a conference?


texts: Can someone collaborate between universities for a PhD?

texts:
I am enrolled as a student in a U.S. university. I will be applying for a PhD program in physics in the coming months and I can't really move to another city. Therefore I am considering to stay at my current university A for my PhD (where I will receive my B.S). I am 100% sure that I will be accepted and I am very happy here.

However, there is no research going on at university A that I am interested in for graduate school or for a career. My main interest is in theoretical physics.

There is a top-ranked school B for physics about forty minutes away. This school has exactly what I am looking for in graduate research, but for other reasons I did not like school B at all, when I briefly attended it. Moreover, it is very unlikely that I will be accepted there for a PhD program.

I am wondering:

Can I pursue uni A's PhD program and have an advisor from uni B?
If so, should I bring this up with both universities before I apply or should I wait until I am in the program and chose my adviser?


texts: Is it worth posting reproducibility studies

texts: As an undergraduate interested in Academia, is it worth posting your reproducibility study of a paper on arXiv and linking to it on Google scholar? Is it useful to future graduate schools? Specifically with regards Machine Learning and Computer Science..


texts: What can PhDs offer to high school teaching that Masters graduates can't?

texts:
I refer only to academic PhDs, not doctorates in education.  Many swanky fee-paying schools in England and the US  hire PhDs as teachers. So what qualities are likely unique to PhDs and may not be mastered (pun intended) by teachers whose highest degree is a Masters?

Charterhouse's PhDs in math include:

  Dr Graham Kemp, MSc, MMath, PhD
  Dr Philip Langman, PhD
  Dr Stephen Marshall, MMath, DPhil

Phillips Exeter Academy:

  Zuming Feng, "Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University with an emphasis on algebraic number theory and elliptic curves."
  Panama C. Geer, M.S., Ph.D.
  Filip Djordjije Sain, PhD Applied Math

St Paul's Girls' School (in London):

  Damon Vosper Singleton (Head of Department) — MMath (Oxon), PhD
  (London)
  Pip Bennett BSc, MA (Durham), PhD (Bristol)
  Alexandra Randolph MMath (Oxon), PhD (Nottingham), MIMA

Tonbridge:

  Head of Department
  Dr Ian Jackson
  MA (Hons) Mathematics : Trinity Hall, Cambridge
  MMath : University of Cambridge
  PhD (Radial Basis Function Methods for Multivariable Approximation) : University of Cambridge

  Dr Jeremy King
  MA (Hons) Mathematics : St. John's College, Cambridge
  PhD (Finite presentability of Lie algebras and pro- groups) : University of Cambridge

  Dr Zi Wang
  MA (Hons) Mathematics and Statistics: Christ Church, Oxford
  MMATH: Christ Church, Oxford
  PhD (Sparse multivariate models for pattern detection in high-dimensional biological data): Imperial College London


texts: How to deal with inactive students in undergraduate projects?

texts:
I am in the field of computer science, and I have noticed a trend among a group of students when dealing with undergraduate programming projects. The situation is that there are some students that when faced with a programming project they seek for students who have that skill; so that in the long run they just do not program anything at all whilst the others do all the work.

I do not know if that could be categorized as a plagiarized work, because they are taking credits for something they have not done. The issue is that is becoming a big problem in our faculty, and it is not easy to track those students.

What would be the measures to be taken for avoiding that behavior?


texts: Laboratory second-in-command aggressive towards me

texts:
I am a Ph.D. student on a student residence permit in Germany, currently in the middle of my second year (out of three, but the project may be extended).
There's a woman in the laboratory who gradually became more and more aggressive towards me, screaming at me and banging things against the table when I made mistakes. ETA: I have not observed her attacking anyone else, so either she is good at being alone with her victims, or I somehow present a special interest for her.
Around a year ago I tried to have a talk with her; since she doesn't speak English well and my German was only A1 at the moment, I asked my effective supervisor (the laboratory head) to translate, which he did. This seemed to help for a while: we were able to interact in a solidly professional manner for some months. Interaction with her is unavoidable, by the way, since she's responsible for ordering all the chemicals and she knows where everything is stored.
A few days ago the problem returned: she started by making nasty remarks about my underperformance and underattendance and described my experiment as "hopelessly contaminated" (despite my supervisor later agreeing that the levels of contamination were well within acceptable limits). Yesterday she screamed at me for using the wrong kind of qPCR plate, took it from under my hands and threw it in the trash bin despite most of the plate having been taped off (as customarily done in the lab) and available for reuse. When asked why and to stop screaming, she cited lack of time.
My supervisor, when contacted about the incident, told me that he "understands her", since the plates are expensive. I am not handling this well. What should I do?
ETA:
Should I start walking around with dictaphone running? Last time I tried it, we've already had the talk and she stopped attacking me, so I didn't get any useful evidence. My supervisor "knows" that she attacks me, but there is no paper trail. (yet?) And even if I get any evidence, who should I submit it to? My supervisor, again, hoping that he'd understand me this time? Someone higher up the chain? Even then, what should I be hoping for, with that evidence? Getting her fired (which I don't find desirable or expect to be possible in the first place) would certainly be a pyrrhic victory, making my supervisor want to dispose of me -- and he'd find a way.
Should I try to leave the place (as recommended by Sutton, 2017)? As an international student on a residence permit, I can always go home, but that would wreck me psychologically. Is it even possible to change labs for an international student on a government stipend in Germany?


texts: As a grad student how to approach a possible breakthrough research?

texts:
I am in this peculiar position whereby I started off my grad school in subject X and got very boring projects in it and eventually around my 3rd year I started studying a new subject Y  (partly because I met some inspiring profs in Y who motivated me)

Now in some sense it was just lucky that after about 6-7 months of working in this new field I along with another co-grad student hit upon a breakthrough research idea possibly solving a famous long-standing open question in this field Y! It was sheer luck that we hit upon an idea which seems to work! (though we are struggling hard to prove the theorem)

Now when I am trying to officially shift departments/institutes to pursue Y, I am explaining in my statements this new possible breakthrough that we hit upon. But I am a bit worried as to how senior established profs in Y will react seeing such a thing in my statement.

I think all answers till now are completely missing the point of this question and what I am worried about. So let me break-up the context in parts.

(1) In mathematical stuff no one wants to put on arxiv a "possible" method unless one has a rigorous proof for it to work. If we had a proof then I wouldn't be asking this question!

(2) In my SOP if I don't write about this progress then what else do I write about!? This is the main stuff that I have been working on ever since I decided to shift fields. So I don't see a choice but to write about this idea!

(3)  The professors who have seen the idea seem to have no opinion at all. They take the view that unless there is a rigorous proof how do we know whether this is right or not. At this point all evidence is numerical simulations. (and the prof who originally inspired me to start Y remarked that he had himself independently also tried one of the ideas we came up with)

(4) I have anyway linked from my SOP a draft which explains the idea.


texts: Two questions on Marie Curie Actions and current open calls

texts:
a) There seems to be a fellowship for 'experienced' researchers (link below), which seems different than IIF, IEF or IOF, it's called 'IF' (Individual Fellowship). The recent call link is:

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/calls/h2020-msca-if-2014.html

Is the above a postdoctoral fellowship by any chance? Is it different than IIF, IEF or IOF? (it seems to me it is different!)

b) What confuses me is that the Marie Curie action page calls this 'Research and Innovation stuff exchange' (if you go back one page from the above, you get the link: http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/apply-now/open-calls/index_en.htm), which should be named IRSE, not IF, which the following informative website suggests and informs that it is not something of interest for postdoc applicants, and I believe it (Link to the site: http://www.caroline-angelard.com/marie-curie-fellowship.php#Marie3), but when I click on the link on Marie Curie Webpage, it becomes 'Individual Fellowship'. Am I missing something in here?


texts:
My research lab organizes monthly “internal” seminars, where we give the opportunity to talk to PhD students around the middle of their PhD, as well as newly arrived post-docs (who can talk about what they did before and present their project). However, attendance is a big problem, and it's the same people who never show up, unless the speaker is from their group. I suppose good team leaders encourage their whole team to show up, while a few others have told me point blank that they consider it “wasted time”, because it decreases the time students can work at the lab bench. So, while they cannot forbid them to attend, they just discourage them.

So, I am wondering what we can make to help increase student turnout. What do you use to attract people to seminars? We have tried coffee and sweets, which didn't work very well.

Some specifics, if it can help: research lab is about 25 permanent staff, and between 2 to 3 times that number of students and post-docs. Seminars are held every month, rotating between teams.


texts: How to write a personal statement for a "PhD orientation program" (in mathematics)?

texts:
I'm about to apply for a short "visiting and orientation program" at a large prestigious university where I may be interested in applying for graduate school.

  This program lasts a couple of weeks and consists of

  several courses that present the research done by every research group in the math department;
  meetings with the faculty members and current students.

For the admission, I'm required to submit a statement of purpose.

Now, the scope of statements of purpose written for graduate admission is quite clear: they need to show research potential and experience in an area of interest.

However, I'm confused about what makes a good candidate for a PhD "visiting and orientation program".

  That is, what kind of information, qualification, and motivations may admission committees be looking for in a candidate for such a program?


texts: Department not allowing me to take courses from another department even though everyone else is allowed

texts:
I am a graduate student here. There are two set of rules applying to the degree I am seeking:

rules from the university
rules from my department

Using the above sets of rules, you have to make a plan of study (POS) which would be the list of coursework you complete towards your degree.

I followed all those rules, but a few days ago the administrative assistant who’s in charge of all this suddenly said that I was not allowed to take courses from a certain department.

I asked them for the reason for this and got varying responses which included:

The university office raised an objection.
The department in question raised an objection.
There was some new rule which has been in power since last year.

(I found this hard to believe because as long as you follow the university and department rules to the letter, which I did, you're basically allowed to take whatever courses you want to fill in your additional requirements.)

After some digging in, it turns out there’s no such rule. In fact many people from my department have taken courses from that certain department this semester.

What should I do? I feel like I’m being singled out here. I feel this is also unfair if I’m the only one who’s forced to follow this non-existing rule.

This just happened:

I kept asking them about it and the reason for all this changed to the CSCI department again.

They denied singling me out, this was a lie, due to the reason highlighted below.

Finally, I revealed how other students in the my dept are also taking these courses and how people typically busy with research would only do so  for courses which they can use towards their degree (so they were not taking them to fill in credits only).

In the end, get this, this person tells me that the whole ordeal was just a 'mistake' which also suggests that this would have gone unnoticed if I hadn't asked.