texts: In biology papers, is it standard to to list names of people who contributed to code tools, but did nothing else towards a paper?

texts:
A while ago, I spent some time working for a lab doing biology research. While I was there, my main job was to write code to automatically perform specific kinds of analysis on the collected data, because they collected too much data to be analyzed manually. I did that job for a couple months, and then moved on to doing other things.

Now, I'm seeing that it would be quite beneficial to be able to point to a paper that exists with my name on it. Naturally, I'd like it if I could get my name on papers which used that code (because who doesn't want to get more credit for their work). However, I don't know what the standard is for biology papers, and I'd like to know what the common practice is before I have this discussion. Also note that I haven't had any discussions about this topic with the professor who heads that lab or anyone else in the lab, so I don't know what their thoughts are.

Is it standard practice to include on the list of authors of a paper, someone whose only contribution to the lab was the creation of a computer program to automatically analyze the data?


texts: Why don't researchers publish failed experiments?

texts:
The following might be a slight generalization for all fields but something I've noticed especially in the field of Scientific Computing:

Why don't people publish failures? I mean, if they tried some experiment and realized at the end that they tried everything and nothing worked. Why don't they publish this? Is it because such content won't get published or is it because it is shameful to have a failed experiment in a journal alongside prize-winning papers?
I spent a better part of a year working on, what now looks like, a dead problem. However, most papers that I read initially took you to the point of feeling optimistic. Now that I re-read the papers, I realize that I can say (with much confidence) that the author is hiding something. For instance, one of the authors who was comparing two systems, gave an excellent theoretical foundation but when he tried to validate the theory with experiments, there were horrible discrepancies in the experiments (which I now realize). If the theory wasn't satisfied by the experiments, why not publish that (clearly pointing out parts of the theory which worked and which didn't) and save the future researchers some time? If not in a journal, why not ArXiv or their own websites?


texts: How Important is the GRE General / Subject compared to ACT / SAT?

texts:
I am about to graduate with a B.A. in Math and want to pursue a Ph.D. in the subject. I understand that most graduate schools require both the general GRE as well as the subject math test.

I am wondering exactly how important these exams are for admissions. Obviously it varies by school, so I was hoping people could compare them to undergraduate admissions with the ACT or SAT.

For example, as a high school student we were told that SAT / ACT scores were an important but not determining factor in admissions. Accordingly, I stressed quite a bit about my scores and even retook the ACT.

For a graduate program, especially in mathematics, is the general GRE really that important? Or is it more of a check mark — that is, to make sure candidates are able to read and write, but not necessarily to pick those with the highest scores.

Similarly, are the subject tests decisive at all? Or are they used to just make sure that you know the "basics," while the course load and letters of recommendation are far more important.


texts: A year + for first review, one referee report in, want to withdraw paper

texts:
A paper of mine has been under review for more than a year now. About 6 months ago I heard from the journal that one referee report is in while they are waiting for the 2nd. The editor promised he would get in touch with the Associate Editor to speed up the process.

In any case, nothing has happened until now.

I am thinking of withdrawing the paper citing excessively long review times. Could I ask for the one review that the journal received on my paper?

What is a good way to frame the withdrawal email with the request for the journal office to be kind enough to share at least the single referee's report they received?


texts: How does 'accepted' but not published paper look on my CV?

texts:
I am an undergraduate who recently worked on a 1-page abstract (as a team of 3) and got it accepted to the conference.
However, neither our advisors nor the university agreed to aid us on the registration fee, which means that our paper will not be presented (I am not saying published here, because 1-page abstracts are not published in the journal).
Now I am wondering if I included this in my CV, how this paper would appear to whoever's reading my CV.
To be more specific, I will probably be applying for a Master's degree, and I was intending to use this to simply showcase my various experience and that I worked hard.
The paper I wrote is not related to the major I will be applying in.
I am basically asking this question whether it will be worth it to pay for all the fee ourselves to get it published(presented), or would it serve its role as it is.
Thank you in advance.


texts: Dedicating PhD thesis to my Dad who recently passed away

texts:
I lost my Dad while waiting for the examiners reports of my thesis. In my final copy I would like to include a dedication page to him (in addition to the general acknowledgements page), but I'm not really sure what to say. I know I would like something really short, but more than "I dedicate this thesis to my Dad."
I was thinking including something about how I know how proud he was even though he won't be around to see me graduate. Or perhaps referencing how I hope my dedication to my field in science stays as strong as his dedication to his own field (engineering).
I would appreciate any suggestions or examples of dedications as I haven't managed to find too much online and I'm lost for words.


texts:
I want to find someone who is already or willing to begin researching the answer to this variation of the linear assignment problem as it has practical utility.

Is there a systematic way to find such a person? Is this web site the best answer or are there other alternatives?


texts: when and how can I write a thank you letter for my professor?

texts:
I took a course with my supervisor this semester. the class is finished.
I really enjoyed every moment in class. I could ask all of my questions very easily and he always was available to answer them. it was an interactive class.
The final exam is not taken yet.
I wanted to write a thank you letter to my professor and thanking him for the course.
I was wondering if you could tell me when is the appropriate time to send him an email. and what should I say to him in my email?


texts: Is it reasonable to not study previous research to avoid bias?

texts:
I am currently a student at a tech school and otherwise unemployed.  I’ve never been a scientist or published a paper.

So I am a little skeptical of some results I have been hearing about experiments using computer simulations, and I would like to at some point do my own experiment.  (The topic is among differences in gender, homosexuality, global warming, etc., i.e. a topic that can provoke emotions.)

I figured that I should probably learn as much about research as I can before I do any experiment.  On the other hand if I learn how exactly the others did their experiment that would bias how I construct mine.  I would be prone to solving problems by doing the same thing rather than coming up with a new way to test it.

So does it make any sense to limit the study of existing experiments for the sake of more diverse testing, or should I try to learn as much about them as I can?


texts: My Phd advisor does not appreciate anything I do, and provides no help

texts:
I have completed five years in my Ph.D. (computer science) in a reputed research institute in India. The area of my research is not Machine Learning or Data Science, nothing to do with data. I have one publication in a reputed conference, and another paper which I have written and I had submitted but it got rejected and now I am working on it some more.
My friends and family will describe me as an extremely cheerful and jovial personality. But I am not happy. It is majorly because of my current situation in my Ph.D. and my advisor. They are an extremely manipulative person I have ever met in my life. There have been only a few occasions when they were happy about the progress that I am making. The thing which bothers me the most is that they never give any suggestions from his side. I don't know whether it is because they want me to think of my research independently or because they hate me. I think the latter. They have told me many times in the past that I should only meet with them when I have something constructive so that the precious time of my advisor is wasted to the minimum. I go to the meeting with an idea (of the third and last project), and they are not satisfied. I go with another idea and they ask me critical questions (which I am thankful for because I consider them as feedback) and if there is a flaw in my idea or approach, they give me a lecture on my competency (being in 5th year, I should have thought about the answer before coming in). So, next time I go with a solid approach that I took 2 weeks or so to formulate (after thinking and reading papers and doing research). At this stage, they tell me that they can not see any progress and that we have been discussing this design and problem in the air for very long. Is it not the technique? To formulate a problem, think about how you want to solve it and then discuss it? Am I mistaken somewhere? Is it all about churning about results and fast?
Today there was a meeting and I went in with a solid plan to discuss (I was confident that this meeting will be fruitful and I will not be suffering any reprimand). I spoke it and we discussed the idea (that was the agenda of our meeting). But after a while, they got into the scope of this project and the difficulty of it and that I should target something else (no suggestions about what). They went back to the earlier project and started discussing what my plans were regarding that project. Why is it taking so much time (they want results, and fast). Today I felt like crying in the meeting, I was humiliated and ridiculed and compared with a RA who has joined after B.Tech. (not claiming any superiority points here). I was asked how many papers I read in the past few days, how many hours do I put in my research each day. I said I have been preparing for a talk, for a doctoral symposium and they say it should not have taken more than a day. I know this is not a normal routine for most Ph.D. students. I am eaten up by this feeling that my advisor never appreciates me and that I will never be in their good books. Many will suggest that I should communicate with him but I have zero hopes with such a meeting because as I said, they are an extremely manipulative person and they will not conclude the talk in any one way.
I am open to any criticism and I am ready to work on myself. Because I know I have not been the star student that they expect. I work 5-6 hours each day. But if it is not the way it is supposed to be, I do not want to be in this hell-hole, there will be many other prospects. I do not regret spending five years and then leaving without a degree.


texts: Bologna Process - Equivalence note in European Supplement

texts:
I recently graduated from a MSc in Spain.

When applying for PhD abroad I discovered the equivalence system in place in order to "translate" my grades here into a standard one, as part of the Bologna process.

The system in place in Spain is the following for the MSc, a grade over 10 :

From 5 to 6.9 : "Satisfactory"
From 7 to 8.9 : "Very Good"
From 9 to 10.0 : "Excellent"
"Honors" is given on exceptional occasion.

I insist on the exceptional occasion. On any course, there cannot be more than two students with honors, and often none is given.

The "European standard" grade is a grade from 1 to 4. It looks like each country decided for the equivalence system. And here is my issue, there are HUGE discrepancies between them. In Spain, they chose the following basic equivalence (see the Royal Decree 1044/2003 for Spanish speaker):

Satisfactory -> 1/4
Very Good -> 2/4
Excellent -> 3/4
Honor -> 4/4

Meaning that even if you get a perfect score of 10/10 in an exam, this will only show as 3/4 in the European Supplement. That makes NO sense! Especially when you know that the same system in very different, in the UK for instance. I spoke with several teachers in UK and in Spain, and clearly the system is biased : From their own word, in the UK, a student with less than 3/4 will be regarded as "average" when applying for PhD, while in Spain, there are no simply no student with grades over 3/4 (at least this year at my uni) ! Again, words from Spanish teachers, here a student with around 2.5 grade will be considered as a very good profile.

The issue is that this EU system (from 1 to 4) is directly used as is by several processes of PhD and grant applications, inside and outside of Europe. Meaning that Spanish students are at a big disadvantage here.

  is this issue well known in Europe? Is there anything feasible in order to remedy it?

I don't fear long administrative process. I know that I can try explaining the issue every time I apply somewhere, but this wouldn't be true solution, as it is often not possible to communicate with PhD application's jury, and many students are not even aware of this.

  Also, does anyone knows where I could find the equivalence system for other countries? I would like to look at the topic further.


texts:
I want to cite a paper [A], which has been corrected by an erratum [B] in the same journal. I have not found a rule how to cite this case.
Is it proper to cite [A,B], or just [A] or just [B].

I am rather looking for a recommendation by some sort of scientific organization or major journal than for personal opinion, so please provide a link.


texts: Can I revise and use a part of my published paper in PhD dissertation?

texts:
I have a published journal article and a book chapter (both are single-authored). I am in the process of getting permission from the publishers respectively to make the most of them for my PhD dissertation.
Well, my question is about what actions are okay as 're-use.' I asked these questions to a publisher once, but I have heard only very abstract answer (like, [...] a journal gives permission to 'reuse' and 'reproduce' to [...]).

Is it normal and okay to use only a certain part of the published article/book chapter?
(For example, exclude introduction and use only the analysis results).

Considering the overall flow of the PhD dissertation, I have theoretical discussion (Chapter 2) and analytical results (Chapter 6) far apart from each other.
In the published paper, as you can imagine, one come right after the other.
In this case, is it okay to split the published paper and put the parts in Chapter 2 and Chapter 6 separately?


texts: The utility of graduate math study for theoretical physics

texts:
This is question that should primarily be answered by theoretical physicists, as mathematicians always are going to want to say to take more math.

I am going into my third year of undergraduate study major in math and physics and I hope to eventually end up in a good theoretical physics PhD (probably cosmology or particle physics). I have the ability to add a year at my current institution and do a masters in math, and I am trying to figure out if pure math at a graduate level is interesting/useful for serious theoretical physics.

Some classes I would be interested in taking as part of the degree would be (all grad level) Functional Analysis, Complex Analysis, Lie Algebra, Differential Topology, Riemannian Geometry, Theory of ODEs, Theory of PDEs, Operator Algebras, Real Analysis, Topology, Algebra (a lot of these classes are two semester sequences).

I am interested in hearing how useful people think having such a formal mathematical education would be to doing the physics. I am primarily interested in very foundational physics, and I am concerned that the brief treatment the math is given in physics books will prevent me from having a full understanding of the math at play in fields such as QFT and some the more out-there cosmology. I of course understand one can self-study some of these topics, but it seems fairly clear one would get a deeper appreciation by actually taking the courses in a proper academic setting.


texts: Joining ArXiv without university affiliation

texts:
I no longer have a university affiliation and in particular no longer have access to a unviersity email account. I've have had two papers recently accepted for publication in closed access journals (published by Elsevier and Springer). My university affiliation appears on the papers
because that is where the research was done at the time. I would like to upload the preprints to ArXiv. Both the journals and my co-author are happy with this. There are dire warning on ArXiv of claiming university affiliation when this is not the case (eg. lifetime ban).

My question is how do I join up? Is it even possible for me to do (the previous questions below suggests that it may possible)? Ideally I would like my previous affiliation to show up on the site in some way even if it is marked as 'formerly at university X'.

Note: my co-author could join ArXiv but he doesn't want to (a combination of being retired and not liking technology) and I respect his reasons.

Previous questions  on Academia.Stackchange that are relevant but that are somewhat different from the present situation:

Can you submit to Arxiv without an institutional affiliation?

Is there something I need to do on arxiv if I lose academic affiliation


texts: What's the point in appending your CV to your Master's thesis?

texts:
Several Master theses in my department contain a CV of their author. I don't really see the point in doing that - anyone you're sending your thesis to that would need your CV, you'll probably be sending your CV already anyways. So why do people do that?

(I've edited this question so it's less of a 'does your university do that' kind of thing - sorry to the guys who already answered.)


texts: Should a paper be reviewed in entirety, if the introduction contains plagiarized passages?

texts:
I'm very new to being a peer reviewer. I agreed to anonymously review a paper for publication, and while reading it for the first time, I was a little annoyed by the writing style. It sort of reminded me of the feeling I get when reading a paper from a student in an undergraduate Liberal Arts Math course. When I began to read it again, I was very uneasy about the writing, especially in the introduction. There were inconsistencies in style. Some short, dry sentences followed by longer passages using flowery language.  I looked at the references and noticed a few secondary sources. One was a NY Times article. I looked up the article online and in the first paragraph found a passage that was almost identical to one in the introduction section of the paper I'm supposed to review. I was shocked. And then I found more.

So far, all of the plagiarism that I've found is in the introduction. I haven't read the rest of the paper carefully yet because I'm fairly disgusted.

My question is this: should I even bother writing a review? If this were an undergraduate paper, the student would get an F on the assignment and get reported to the Dean. I want to write to the journal editor and just tell him that the paper doesn't deserve to be reviewed.

Has anyone seen this before, and what did you do? If you decided to review a paper like this, how would you phrase your feedback?


texts:
I recently reviewed a paper for a math journals. I recommended to reject the paper but my decision was overridden because of two other positive reviews. Is it a common practice to ask to see the other reviews ?

I am curious about what the other reviewers thought of the paper. I am not going to fight about the paper acceptance or anything, I am just being curious.


texts: I am in doubt if I should share new academic opportunities, studies, etc with college's friends, because they will may be my future competition for a job and they may get the job thanks to the help I gave to them. What do you guys think about this. Am I being selfish?


texts: Should I mention that I worked as a professional online poker player on my university application?

texts:
I'm 27 years old and I'm applying to university. On the applications it ask the student to list activities and employment during time away from school. I played online poker for living for ≈4 years, should I mention this? Or would I be looked down upon and perceived as a gambling addict? There's no room on the application to go into details.

If I don't mention it then I'll have this big empty gap with no jobs listed – only activities. I'm applying for undergraduate studies into CS.


texts: How can I request for a pdf of a book on academia.edu?

texts: How can I request for a new document or pdf on academia.edu.Will academia find it for me?


texts: Why are tenure-track professors hired on the basis of their research when they spend most of their time teaching?

texts:
I was just looking at a different post that cites National Center for Educational Statistics about how professors of all levels spend their time. I am actually doing some research on faculty hiring practices at research universities.

How much time do professors have to do research on their own?

The thrust of the data is that most professors, whether tenure track or non-tenure track spend more than 50% of their time on teaching. I imagine this data is averaged across both research and teaching universities, but still teaching must make up the bulk of time or even professors at research universities--whether that be teaching classes, mentoring grad students, committees, etc.

But at the same time, I know that the hiring criteria for the research universities focuses on publication records with little if any concern about teaching evaluations and such. I am not trying to make a critique or political point, this is just something that I have understood from my interactions with professors and other graduate students.

Now my assumption is that most research university departments get the majority of their money from student tuition. I might be wrong about this, and if I am wrong please let me know. We also know that the ability to do research does not always correlate with teaching ability.

So I want to understand the mechanisms that allow research universities to continue to hire professors who are not necessarily the best teachers? Of course, there are many amazing professors at universities who are excellent teachers. I am not trying to make a blanket statement by any means. I just mean that you would probably get better teachers if the primary hiring criteria was teaching ability, right.

By mechanisms I mean, if student tuition is the main source of money, then why do students keep paying for classes taught by not always the best teachers? Or is there just so much money coming into research universities from grants, etc., that they can afford these large professor salaries despite the loss of undergraduate students? Like how does this actually work?

I imagine part of the answer to this question is associated with the growth in non-tenure-track faculty like adjuncts. That seems like it would solve some problems. But still why can universities who seem to get most of their money from students, get away with paying so little attention to students when it comes to hiring faculty?

Any insights are welcome. Again, if I phrased anything indelicately, please forgive me. I was not trying to cast any aspersions on anyone. Just purely thinking from an economic rationale.


texts: How to present participation in undergraduate research experience programs on CV when applying for jobs in industry?

texts:
I am mathematics undergraduate student interested in joining the workforce out of undergraduate (quant finance and data analysis). The past few summers I have been participating in pure math research programs (REUs), and I am struggling to write a résumé section for the REUs.

If any mathematicians are reading this, my most recent REU problem is PDE regularity. I'm at a loss for words on how to explain that to a layperson without making it sound useless.

How do I effectively talk about my work/results in the context of a resume read by applicant tracking systems and human resources?


texts: Dealing with 'less than optimal' data or study designs

texts:
I am a PhD student in a quantitative social science field. For the first study of my dissertation, I was given the opportunity to ask some questions that could be applied to an ongoing survey. Affiliated researchers have already used some of this data for a short commentary/descriptive article, and there is interest to apply the data in a slightly different 'modelling' study.

However, the underlying study design leaves much to be desired. Although the sample is relatively large, it is a convenience sample from only a fraction of all possible survey sites in the population. There is no opportunity to expand the data collection process. The data itself is unlikely to have measurement error, but almost any estimate produced from the dataset is highly likely to suffer from sampling bias.

Nevertheless, I realize this is a somewhat 'common' situation graduate student find themselves in. There is active interest from the affiliated partners to carry out the study, the design isn't 'ideal', and there are logistical considerations of invested time (or as I see it, sunk cost fallacy).

While I have many questions, I think the most straightforward is: should I attempt to make 'lemonade out of lemons' or 'stand my ground' that such a modelling study would be inappropriate?

Other potential information:

Supervisor is 'ardent' that such a study should be carried out
I have sought out external input as to what methods would be 'most' appropriate, there are some that might be 'less' worrisome than others


texts: Relevant math courses for theoretical physics/applied mathematics?

texts:
I'm finishing my bachelor's in physics and for my masters, where I have a few free choice courses (~5), I'd like to take math courses that would be relevant for a future as a theoretical physicist or applied mathematician.

Rigorously (as in taught by mathematicians) I've had Calculus, Calculus in R^n, Complex Analysis, Linear Algebra, Probability and Statistics and just a small overview of differential equations. I've had more math in physics courses but not in a very rigorous way.

I'm setting my eyes on the following courses:

Ordinary Differential Equations
Partial Differential Equations
Group Theory
Stochastic Processes
Functional Analysis

Are all of these relevant? Which others could be added to this list?


texts: What is the "initial screen" for displaying a journal's copyright?

texts:
I submitted my first journal paper to IEEE today, and when I considered posting it on ArXiv just to be safe from scooping, I noticed that IEEE has a policy for submitted content, which does not mention anything about the paper being allowed on ArXiv after it has been submitted to IEEE.

But, since IEEE allows posting a submitted paper on institutional repositories etc. as long as the copyright notice is displayed, I'm assuming I can publish it on ArXiv too, since they may have accidentally ommitted mentioning it, thinking that everyone would first put their pre-print on ArXiv and only then submit to IEEE. They didn't expect someone like me to submit to IEEE and then put it on ArXiv. Even TechRxiv's FAQ is ambiguous. Although IEEE's manual on page 88 states:

  IEEE does not restrict the rights of authors to use their
  IEEEcopyrighted articles in their own teaching, training, or work
  responsibilities, or those of their institutions or employers. In any
  preprint version archived by the author after submission, IEEE
  requires that IEEE will be credited as copyright holder. Upon
  publication of the work, authors are asked to include the article’s
  Digital Object Identifier (DOI).

To put my paper on ArXiv or TechRxiv now, I'll have to follow IEEE's policy of "IEEE must be credited as the copyright holder with the following statement included on the initial screen displaying IEEE-copyrighted material:". I don't understand what this "initial screen" is. Should I mention the copyright below the title of my paper or anywhere on the paper, as long as it is on the first page of the paper?

ps: TechRxiv mentions "Includes permission to reuse previously published or copyrighted material, if applicable". Again, I'm assuming I can submit to TechRxiv if I mention the copyright on the first page?


texts:
I am encountering some problems for making my research in English, due that this is not my native language. Even though my ideas are crystal clear in my language I find it extremely hard to express them in English.

For checking issues related to grammar and syntax I have been using Proofread Bot, it is an online grammar and syntax reviewer, but their results are not so accurate. I have been checking some persons that make this task, but their fees are pretty high (almost 200 USD for a 3 pages articles); and I would not like to be paying this amount every time that I want to submit something.

Does anybody knows another software reliable english editor tools online?


texts: Citing a preprint - which year to include?

texts:
When citing a preprint (which has been published on arXiv), which is the correct year to put? Options that seem reasonable include:

The year the first version made it to arXiv (that's when the theorem was originally published),
The year the current version appeared on arXiv (that's the closest to "official published version" of the paper),
Current year (that's the best available approximation of when the paper will be published),
Some way to indicate that the paper is forthcoming, such as "2017+", "forthcoming", etc.
No year at all (just say it's a preprint).

Which of these, if any, are acceptable? If more than one, which is the best option?

I am especially interested in the case when the paper appeared quite a while ago, and it is by no means obvious that it will end up being published.

Some related questions:

Citing a paper with multiple versions - this concerns a paper which was already published by journal, and discusses more subtle issues such as establishing precedence. The accepted answer states:

  If a paper has been published, always cite the published version.

Choosing which version of an article to cite - this one concerns a paper which was published at several conferences.

When citing an arXiv paper, what year should one write? - this one is concerned with choosing a particular arXiv version to cite, but it does not address the fact that the paper will probably be eventually published by a journal. The answer accepted answer states:

  I would cite the exact version you are referring to in your work.

This is not very helpful if the versions are very similar modulu irrelevant technical details, but I suppose it gives priority to (current version) over (first version).


texts:
There was another question In universities, how to team up with your colleagues? which talked about building relationships but what I am really curious about is:

Are there any universities which actually have teams of teachers?

I am not referring to simply two teachers sharing the same module. I am also not referring to teachers being friendly with each other. I'm referring to teachers actually being developed into a formal team. In a team not everyone has the same skills and those differences make the team stronger, not weaker. In teams there is a genuine interdependence. In a team, there are common objectives which you know have been met or not.

There are many examples of increased effectiveness of teams (and certainly plenty of books and articles written about them) but since teaching is such a solitary activity (meaning you do not interact with your colleagues while teaching) perhaps it is natural to ignore the idea of actually building teams of teachers.

Edit: When studying team dynamics, we can see that "real" teams do include some risks but my point is not about the weaknesses (which are typically overcome by the strengths). Teams normally operate an a higher level of efficiency than non-team-groups-of-people working together. A key element of real teams is that objectives are team objectives and individual accomplishments are not highlighted. For example, if 3 teams are all competing to get to the top of the mountain and we give a reward to the first person to summit the mountain, then we are really focusing on individual efforts (so each member would naturally think of themselves before the group as a whole). However, if you simply reward the team which first plants its flag at the top, then individual accomplishments are minimized and one member of the team is more likely to sacrifice for the greater good of the team.

Indicators of real teams (as opposed to groups of people who work together but are not a team) include: Interdependence, shared accountability (each answers to the boss but also to every other member), common goals, and members having skills which compliment each other in order to affect the common goals.

Do we ever see these qualities in groups of teachers?


texts: Motivate students to work on exercises if solutions are provided

texts:
I am in the following situation. I got a class with theory an exercise once a week. The students do the exercises at home and have the opportunity to discuss them at the exercise sessions. In each session, there is a test about the exercises from the previous week (similar, but different questions).
I am unsure if I should provide the solutions of the exercises directly after the session, the week before the test.
Pros: They could see if they solved the exercises correctly before the test. (They may think they got them correct and don’t ask). Unfortunately, I cannot correct all exercises individually as there are too many students. I have about 130 students and 2 TAs.
Cons: There is little motivation to work hard on the exercises, as they see the solution before the test. (Yes, good students know they should do them on their own. The problem are the not-so-good students.)
Is there better solution that encourage students to work on exercises on their own?


texts:
Why So Many Chinese Students Come to America

Why doesn't China reform its higher education sector/industry to keep its money and human capital at home?


texts: How to judge length of exams when teaching undergraduate engineering

texts:
I am a first-time lecturer for an American university (am a PhD student), and am giving midterm and final exams in the course, which comprises an introduction to engineering and how to work with systems in a methodological way.

I am designing the midterm exam for the course, and the students have an allotted 50 minutes to complete it. Most of the questions are brief short-answer questions (around 2-3 sentences for an answer is sufficient), followed by some multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank questions.

I took the midterm by myself and timed the length of completion, which was around 12 minutes for me. From other professors that I have taken classes from, this seems to be the standard (i.e., if the professor can complete the exam in 1/4 of the allotted time, then it is an appropriate length).

Does this seem reasonable? I'd like to hear some related experiences from other instructors.


texts: Do I mention that a paper in mathematics is a "Short Communication" or "Note" or "Research Article" when citing it?

texts:
Apologies in advance for a possibly naive question. When I search for literature relevant to my research work, I come across articles that are published variously as either a "Short Communication" or "Note" or "Research Article". Possibly there are other variants as well. I have seen this distinction in the articles published by the Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B.
My question is regarding the importance of the distinction between these categories for the purpose of properly citing a paper. Do I mention in the bibliography whether the article is a "Short Communication" or "Note" or "Research Article"? Somehow, explicitly naming the last category feels redundant, but the former two not so much. What are the best practices to be followed here? Is there a general rule that is to be followed for these as well as other categories?


texts:
In my field it is common for Americans like myself to do a 5-6 year PhD where the first two years are basically a masters degree. However, when I first applied two years ago I was rejected from all PhD programs and instead did a free-but-unfunded MS. Now I am applying again and got an amazing offer from a top 10 US program! If I go there, will it look bad in post doc/faculty applications to have a 4 year undergrad, 6 year PhD(+MS en route), and a separate 2 year MS in between?

I am also still being considered for funding by the very top non-US program for a 3 year PhD where a MS is required beforehand. I had initially thought a longer PhD was better in order to do more research and make more publishable discoveries. But is the potential CV oddity worth considering if I get into this other top program?


texts: In what parts of the world, besides the US, do endowed chairs exist?

texts:
Browsing academia.SE, I discovered the existence of "endowed chairs" or "named chairs", i.e. professorships named in the honor of someone else and paid for by a donor with a gift to the university. I've never heard of anything like that before (I live and work in France so I mostly meet European academics).

Apart from the US (where this apparently exist), do endowed chairs exist elsewhere in the world?


texts: What are the prospects of a Math Master student applying to Finance PhD programs?

texts:
What are the prospects of a Math Master student applying to top tier Finance PhD program?

So here's a little bit of my background.

I'm currently in my second year of my Mathematics master degree, applying to Finance PhD programs. The top tier Universities are definitely what I'm aiming for. What are my prospects?

Aspects where I felt like I am disadvantaged compared to other Finance PhD applicants:

  I have not taken a lot of Finance/Econ course
  I have little research experience compare to other applicants
  Admission commitee might question my determination to go into the field of Finance

Aspects where I have outstanding performance/other information:

  I have a background of Master in Math, which I assume most applicants don't
  I have taken plenty of courses in applied math, including real analysis (I'm currently the grader for the  first year graduate real analysis class)
  I graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 4.0 GPA. I am still keeping the GPA in my graduate courses so far.
  General GRE scores
  -Quantitative: 170/170(98% below)
  -Verbal: 156/170(71% below)
  -Writing: 3.5/6 (38% below)
  Math GRE scores: 860/980 (89% below)

I would very much appreciate if someone in the Finance/Econ academia (graduate student/Professors) can give me some advice. Besides my odds of getting accepted,

  What are others things I can do to improve my chances of getting into the top schools?


texts: How to stop feeling guilty about unfinished work?

texts:
My biggest challenge as a PhD student is best summarized by the following from PHD Comics:

"Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham
www.phdcomics.com

A consequence of working in research is that the end is never in sight - unlike other jobs, there is always more work for you to do.

I am pretty good at making sure to take care of myself, because I know it's important. I can force myself to go for a run, get something to eat, participate in a regular activity that's not related to academia. But I can't turn off the voice in my head that keeps nagging me about the work that's waiting for me back at the office.

This is especially true when there are deadlines and people relying on me to meet them. On top of my research, I have mentees I should be spending more time with, students we won't be able to hire if I don't get my grant-writing act together, collaborators who keep asking when I'm going to write up that work we did together last summer. If I don't do this, nobody else will; it's not like a normal workplace, where your boss can reassign an important task if you are too overloaded to handle it.

So, my question is:

  How do you avoid feeling guilty about all the unfinished (and unfinishable) work in academia?

I am looking for specific, practical techniques based on research and/or personal experience, not suggestions that you just thought of but have never tried.

One technique I've tried with limited success is to make a daily to-do list that is limited to three items, and tell myself that I'm not allowed to feel guilty about not doing things that aren't on the list. It works when I'm not terribly busy... but most of the time it doesn't.

Related questions:

How to avoid thinking about research in your free time is related, but I'm not trying to avoid thinking about research in my free time. I'm just trying to avoid feeling guilty about research in my free time.

Also related is How should I deal with discouragement as a graduate student? but those answers seem to address how to convince yourself that your efforts are worthwhile. I (usually) realize that my efforts are worthwhile, I don't know how to convince myself that I'm putting in "enough" effort (whatever that means).


texts:
I'm writing a manuscript for a journal that has a word limitation for papers:

  Papers should be no longer than about 6500 words to include Figures,
  Tables and References.

I am not totally sure, does it mean that Figures, Tables and References are not included in this limitation or does it mean that the entire paper must not exceed 6500 words?

Update:
Following your recommendations, I contacted the editors:
References are included in the 6500 words, words in tables and figures are not.
My references comprise about 1000 words, so now I have to shorten all other parts, which is not easy.


texts: On areas of overlap between Computer Science and Economics

texts:
For those who want to be involved in both disciplines throughout academia (BS to MS to PhD) as well as in the workplace/career, what are some places of overlap between Economics and Computer Science?

Take, as an example, statistical computing using R as a programming language in econometrics.


texts:
I'm a second year graduate school mathematics student. Due to my university regulation, I didn't have a thesis advisor yet. During my first year of grad school, I passed Qualification exam. So this year soon, I have to choose a professor as my thesis advisor(Tutor, guide). I attended some several course only related to pure mathematics such as PDE(Partial differential equation), Numerical mathematics analysis, Mathematical statistics, Real analysis, and Abstract algebra.

As you all know, choosing an thesis advisor is the crucial time in my mathematics life. But it is (generally) hard to decide what the field which professor I choose. But in the first year, I have some professor in mind from their lecture.

One professor, his major is Stochastic PDE(SPDE) which is pure mathematics. The other person is majoring in climate change specialized in El nino(ENSO) and la Nina who is a joint professor from School of Environmental Science and Engineering(JA). I went to both professor, SPDE twice, JA once. And I noticed that two professor are joining their work(co-working) these days, and are very close.

I got some comments from them :

First joint professor said(in short) : Welcome. But I'm almost
unaware of mathematics. So I can't help you in math field. If you
want you can work jointly with SPDE professor.
Second, SPDE professor said : Welcome. But you'd better go to JA. If
you really want, I can accept you. (After I asked I need his help on
studying mathematics if I choose JA) I don't know I can help you. The area is
different so that the basic language is different.

In this point, I have two questions.

Are there some cases that a math student choose a non-mathematician thesis advisor? My final goal is to be a professor. Then is there any drawback?
Any suggestion for me? I'm a little nervous. If I choose JA, it must be a big challenge for me. I haven't learnt 'Climate theory'.

Thanks in advance.


texts: What is the difference between a research paper and a Master's thesis?

texts:
I checked several answers online to this question, but they are all extremely vague. If my understanding is correct, both a research paper and a Master's thesis require to have original contribution to the field, but in what precise ways are they different? More clearly, since they both seem to be very similar documents and contain original research and contributions to the field, why do they differ in the following points:

Usually, you can't publish a Master's thesis to a scientific journal?
Why does a Master's thesis earn you a Master's degree and not a Phd, even though you have contributed something to the field?


texts: Are TOEFL requirements waived for foreigners with US bachelors degrees?

texts: I notice that perhaps most US graduate programs require non-native English speakers to get a certain mark on the TOEFL. Is this requirement typically waived for students who completed their bachelors degree in the US before applying to a masters program in another school also in the US?


texts: Publish in ArXiv/Munich Personal RePEc Archive/SSRN

texts:
I have just finished my paper on case study in quantitative finance, and thinking of publishing my work. Although, I am an undergraduate student and getting published in a decent academic journal requires both funds and many months until the final decision after a potential acceptance. My thought was to share my work in a repository such as ArXiv, Munich Personal RePEc or SSRN Electronic Journal to share the results.

My questions are:

1) whether I am eligible sharing in the aforementioned, since the paper is not a working paper and I am not willing to get into the publishing process.

2) Is my work safe and equivalent in terms of copyrights as a published paper in a peer-review journal?


texts: Reporting yet-to-be completed graduate study on CV

texts:
I am currently enrolled as a graduate student and am working towards my PhD. I need to update my CV and was wondering how others reported ongoing graduate study when the completion date was uncertain. That is, I know that I'll be graduating in, say, 2019 +/-3 years, and therefore can't honestly list my graduate work as, say,

  XYZ University, PhD, (Expected 2019)

Would something like:

  XYZ University, Graduate Study, (2014-).

be clear enough? I think that most people in my field will correctly assume that this is graduate study towards a PhD. However, it is probably not ideal to rely on assumptions. Another idea is:

  XYZ University, PhD, (2014-).

But I think it could be read as though the degree is practically complete, which might come off as a bit presumptuous. What about replacing "PhD" with "PhD (in progress)". This seems to fix the "presumptuous" question but also seems less clean.

To be clear, I'm more concerned about the phrasing than the formatting of line. (Although I recognize that certain formatting styles may convey the proper message more effectively.) Any thoughts or additional ideas appreciated.


texts: Interviewing for teaching position in a department that is similar to, but not exactly, my own field

texts:
I'm going to be interviewing for a teaching faculty position in department X.  My own PhD was in a field that included many concepts from X, but I am not strictly a "researcher in X" - I am contributing to a different field entirely.  As a result, I am not up on the exact lingo/journals of X.  However, the courses that are offered by that department include many, many things that I can easily teach, as well as a few that are specialized that I'd have to learn a lot before teaching.

I really want the job, since it's a great department and, of the courses that are offered, I feel comfortable teaching a great many of them.  However, there is a nagging suspicion in my mind that they will start asking me questions about so-and-so's work, or important publications in the field, and I'll obviously have no direct experience.

How can I demonstrate my value to the department while also acknowledging that my field is not entirely the same as their own?


texts: Engineering degree structure in the United States

texts:
I often see in the US that many engineering programs are listed as a BSc or an MSc for Master's.

In my country (New Zealand) one can obtain a BSc in three years in a science field, or, if wanting to pursue engineering, a bachelor of engineering (BE) can be attained, most often with an honours component (BE(Hons)) in four years.

The honours component includes a year long research project with thesis in the final year as well as additional non-research related coursework.

To put it simply, my question is:

In the US, what is the duration of a BSc in an engineering field?
Does this include an honours component such as the one I have mentioned?
If not, is there a significant emphasis on research?
If yes, is this something all students complete, or is it optional?
Is this honours/research component very important to the overall degree?

My confusion arises due to the name of 'BSc' and also due to no honours being mentioned i.e. it is not 'BSc(Hons)'.


texts: Buy a server or cloud computing for a new lab?

texts:
We are starting a new computer lab and expect to have data that is 50-100 TB of text, images, and maybe videos to process. We will need to run tasks occasionally (10-30% utilization per month), so mostly it will be used for storage. Should we go for a server or cloud computing? Some points to consider (I am not expert in hardware):

Server pros:

Last for years
Cheaper

Server cons:

Maintenance, upgrade problems, and other issues are common given that our expert is always busy

Cloud pros:

Easier to use (no hassle)

Cloud cons:

Might be expensive to host large data
Need to pay for it after 1-2 years (some funds needs to be spent within 1-2 years).


texts: How to account for big gap between scores of course work of the first two years and scores of the comprehensive exams ?

texts:
My comprehensive exams failed recently because of  lower scores "D" in the written examinations of three fields( one major field and two minor fields).

When Graduate Chair conveyed the result to me at the meeting, I asked her why scores of course work in the first years are good, GPA 3.5, whereas scores of the comprehensive exams are so low despites the fact that the course work and the comprehensive exams are the same professors and the same requirements whereas I had been diligent and complied with instructions of faculty, reading, writing papers, step by step moved towards the coming of the comprehensive exams.
 Graduate Chair replied that the standards between the two are different, is it reasonable?


texts:
It's not hard to find sources that say that the UK punches (punched?) above its weight in the research, and there're lots of people who want to go to the UK for work or study. We can see this in StackExchange questions as well - people often explicitly ask about doing PhDs in the UK.

Why is the UK so attractive to researchers & students? Presumably the availability of funding is a big deal, but as long as the UK is part of the EU, funding levels shouldn't be too different from the rest of Europe. It's possible the UK has high quality of life, but it's not like other EU countries do much worse in this area, in fact several outperform the UK. It's also possible that the UK simply has many more prestigious universities than the rest of the EU, and prestige attracts people; however I find it hard to believe that this is a major factor, especially at postgraduate level and beyond. The only other thing I can think of is that the country uses English as its primary language, but that should be less of a factor in academia since most academics can speak English (it is the language of academic communication after all).


texts: Can asking for travel and equipment support hurt a grant application?

texts: If 2 proposals were similar, the first asks for travel and equipment and the second didn't. Would the second have a better chance of being funded?


texts: Are (academic) job chances improved by extra-academic activities (Podcast, Popular Science Books)?

texts:
This might be a really silly question, but I am wondering whether the chances to land an academic position can be improved by extra-academic activities. Say, people who are famous in their fields, but not for scientific contribution, but for say having a famous podcast on the subject or having written popular books on the subject?

I would assume that these researchers are attracting more students, but I am not sure how important that really is.

Of course we are not talking about a bad researcher, but imagine a choice between two candidates for an academic job: all things being equal, would this be a factor?


texts: Requesting the mentor regarding the PhD research topic selection

texts:
One of my friends is doing PhD under a good faculty from one year.

The mentor wants to give PhD only if the student writes two papers in SCI journals. The student wants to do his PhD on number theory conjectures. The mentor is saying that the PhD and groundbreaking research work are independent and hence the mentor saying my friend to work on small incremental work that will give papers quickly.

How to make it allowed to work under the same mentor (mentor is good enough and one year completed)?


texts: Historical data for success rate of grant/project applications?

texts:
Is there any publicly accessible information regarding the success rate of grant/project applications for science/technology and other research grant programs (e.g. NSF grants) and its variation over time?

I'm not interested in an exhaustive list but some illustrative examples would be much appreciated.


texts: Can public political criticism of my alma mater result in my BA being revoked 35 years later?

texts:
Perhaps it is a sign of paranoia that I even ask, but is there a chance that the private college I got my BA from back in the 1980s would revoke my degree if I were to publicly complain about its political stances?
Unfortunately, I have never donated significantly to the college, so my views don't hold any real force.
I doubt they would do so. And if they did, I find it unlikely that it would set off a chain reaction. But theoretically, my teaching degree depends in part on my MA, which in turn depends in part on my BA. Theoretically, if my BA got revoked, I could lose my teaching accreditation and hence my job. But can they?

Thank you to everyone for these thoughtful and detailed responses. My fears have been broadly dispelled, although some anxienty remains. I probably have more to fear in my current setting directly, than through a chain reaction involving my degree.
I have posted some thoughts in the comments under the first response and will remain engaged in the discussions above.


texts: Experimental research work on a similar experimental setup patented by someone else

texts: For my PhD thesis, I have conceptualised an experimental setup which is similar to an already existing patented design. Can I do research work on that setup (conceptualised by me) by simply citing that patent ? Are there other things to keep in mind ?


texts: Does getting a request to review from a professor count me as a reviewer?

texts: I got a request to help comment on a paper in a journal from a professor. It's an informal request -- the professor is the one who officially reviews the paper. Can I put "reviewer" in my CV or not?


texts:
I am writing my Master's thesis on topological quantum field theories, and would like to cite the following paper:

arXiv version: https://arxiv.org/abs/q-alg/9503002
Published version: https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.531236

The published version is from 1995, while on arXiv there are two versions, one from 1995 and one from 2004. Which one of the papers should I cite (published or arXiv)? And how should I cite them?


texts: What are characteristics of a "good" thesis topic?

texts:
This may be too discipline specific, but I'm going to give it a shot.

I'm still relatively new to grad school (6 months), but I've been told by several older students to keep an eye out for potential thesis/dissertation topics.  I'd like to start a list of potential ideas for myself - I'm sure some will be solved before I start my actual thesis, and others are already solved and I just need to read more. But what are some characteristics of a "good" thesis topic?


texts: Are European schools experiencing the same cost raise as American schools?

texts: After factoring in government subsidies (or lack thereof), is the total price for one year of undergraduate education in Europe increasing at a rate similar to America?


texts: My math students consider me a harsh grader. Is my teaching attitude wrong?

texts:
I am a math major grad student at a big public school, and we need to do TA every semester.

I got assigned to lower level classes last couple semesters, and it's been quite difficult for me.  Even though I am a pretty nice person in general, I have so much trouble tolerating my students' sloppiness, arguing for more points when they don't deserve, and just explaining very simple things to students again and again in general (for example, why log(a + b) is not equal to log(a) + log(b)).

I am sure many will think my attitude is wrong, and probably I need to hear that.  I am also a "harsh grader", as my students would probably call me.  The way I was raised, it's very hard to accept people not working hard, but feeling entitled to good grades.  I have students coming to me asking how they can get extra points without doing any actual work.  I feel offended by that.

Let me know what you think about teaching in general.  I enjoy doing research in mathematics and want to be in academia in the future.  However, I feel this could be a problem for me if I hate teaching so much.  Should I think more positively about this?


texts:
I don't know maybe this question seems off topic but anybody get the chance to look at vixra.org archive?

It seems it is blown up by some manuscripts from a guy, which is called "George Rajna", and more interestingly all of them are about some ridiculously (excuse me I didn't find another appropriate word!) hot topics in quantum physics or general relativity. Sometimes in my spare time I just look for crazy things for fun in internet that seems really funny to me. I can't believe "George Rajna" is a real guy (I mean someone really exists with his name or identity!) but it seems it's a just article posting robot, which blow up vixra.org?!

Again, I know maybe it sounds completely off topic but I appreciate if someone has any idea about people post their article (If you could call it a real article, which I'm not sure really?!!!) in vixra.org?  People do it just for fun or really they have some serious intention?!


texts:
I have finally found my true calling. I want to work on autonomous underwater vehicles trying to solve different problems from research to oil and gas industry.

The problem is that I am having issues finding the PhD positions for this:

If I search for marine sciences, I usually end up reading a PhD position about oceanography related to biology and physics.
If I search for computer science PhD, it is usually very broad as it includes creating algorithms for autonomous robots.
"PhD in Marine Robotics" does not bring many results.

I specifically want to work on making underwater robots as autonomous as possible.

The only PhD program that I found is in MIT, but the chance of getting in there is quite low. Can anyone hint me on how to search for this specific PhD position? Thank you!


texts: I want to do a PhD but I think I need more supervision. Should I be more direct in setting up more frequent meetings with my PhD supervisor?

texts:
I began a paid position as PhD research assistant in Germany. Immediately after beginning the position, the principal investigator (PI) who hired me moved country and left the project (but remains part of the project as he secured funding). The ex-PI, new PI and I have meetings once a month to discuss progress, with little contact between these meetings.
I also enrolled on an associated PhD program and got assigned a PhD supervisor who is an expert in my area of study. I have monthly meetings with my PhD supervisor. There are therefore 3 people who are supervising my work, but it feels like I am without any supervision because these three people have overlapping and minimal roles. I am employed by a research institute and taking a PhD at an associated university. My supervisor and new PI are associated with the research institute.
I want to do a PhD but I feel like without any supervision I am in a post-doc like situation. I think I need more supervision/guidance mainly from my PhD supervisor, but it is not his role to discuss the work I am paid for, that should be the new PI.
Do you think I should be more direct in setting up more frequent meetings with my PhD supervisor?
Is anyone aware of how to best manage the paid positions that are quite separate from the PhD itself, and the multiple people involved?


texts: How many papers should a Ph.D. student review for their professor per year?

texts:
My professor asks us on a frequent basis to review papers and get together, discuss their merit and come up with a review. This happens in bursts, where I may do 2 one week 2 another and then go for 3 weeks with none and then back to having 2 or so a week to look at. There is never more than a 2 week notice given before we must have these reviews in. I would say at a minimum I review 6 papers a semester, with 10 being the max.

So my question is how much time should a Ph.D. candidate student be putting toward reviewing a paper? Also how many papers a semester or year would you consider an average having to review as a Ph.D. student?

Now realize I understand that I need to be reading papers and the state of the art in my field but that is not what we are asked. I feel it is more involved to come up with a metric of determining originality and such with each paper for a review.


texts: No reply after almost two months since the first interview

texts:
At the beginning of March I applied for a postdoc position that was very close to the research topic of my PhD. I also sent an email to the Professor who posted the position in order to persuade him of my qualifications and my willingness to obtain the position.
On the 18th of March he replied to my email and we scheduled a zoom meeting on the 22nd of March. The meeting went well, and he told me that there will be another formal meeting after a month (around 22nd of April). However, the 22nd passed and no meeting took place.
After I sent him another email on the 27th of April, he told me that there have been issues related to the funding at the faculty level and everything has been delayed, and that they promised him he will get an update in the next few days, he also promised he will keep me updated.
However, to this day I have not received any updates regarding the situation, and I am confused as to whether I need to contact him again. I don't want to look rude nor pesky, but I really want things to move forward and do the second interview as soon as possible.
Should I contact him now or should I wait more? I believe the next few days means 3-5 days and should not exceed one week, but this is now the third week and I am still waiting.


texts: PhD student hiring a LaTeX expert to typeset thesis?

texts:
I am close to finishing my PhD. Some of my peers use LaTeX. Obviously, it looks much better than Word and alike. As I wrote a few papers that go into my final thesis, I however have numerous formats depending on the journal in question. I would like to transform them all into one final document with matching layout. I am OK with TeX, but I'd rather see a professional do it.

I am now considering two options:

Taking my limited TeX-Knowhow to the next level.
Hiring an expert.

My time is limited. I've got a couple more weeks to go and that should be enough for option #1, as I already know a bit of TeX. But I am an external PhD student and I work on the side.

I have two questions:

What factors should I take into consideration in deciding which route to take?
If I decide for an expert, what criteria do I need to evaluate if the expert is any good?


texts: In how many conferences should I serve as PC member?

texts:
Three months ago, I served as a PC (=Program Committee) member in a top conference in my field (CS). Now, I was offered to serve as a PC member in another top conference.
Although I found this job quite fun, I still wonder, in how many conferences "should" I be a PC each year? ("should" in quotes, since there is no formal obligation).


texts: Writing the dedication in language different than the language of a thesis or a book

texts:
How is it received by the readers to see the dedication in, say, Chinese, while the entire other parts of the thesis or a book is in English?

Would that annoy the readers who do not know the language of the dedication?
Would that be considered as "putting private message in a publicly-designated document"?

Is there a reference that says whether this is a good/bad practice?


texts: Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I could cite a material safety data sheet (for a chemical compound) in the AMA format? An example would be appreciated, because I couldn't find anything helpful online.


texts: How to react to unfair criticism to my published study?

texts:
Background

Few years ago, I have published an article on a peer-reviewed internationally recognized journal. My study went through an extremely sound (blind) peer-review, which allowed me to improve many aspects of the final manuscript. The article has been cited a sizable number of times since then.

Problem

I came across an article by a colleague, published in an edited book, in which the author express criticism about some aspects of my study. I am always open to criticism and suggestions when they are constructive, sound, and polite. What I have found particularly upsetting is that, in an attempt to bring to the forefront what s(he) thinks are flaws in my published study, the colleague has actually shown his/her plain misunderstanding of many of the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of my work.

Question

I am wondering what could be a viable option in front of the above-described situation.

Shall I do nothing, leaving the scholarly community to judge who is right, or should I try to publish somewhere a polite but firm reply to what I consider an unfair criticism?

If the latter is the case, should I write to the Editor of the journal on which I published my article to ask him/her if the journal would accept a sort of reply "in defence" of my earlier publication?


texts: Reading list about the organisation of education in colleges in America

texts:
I have been chosen by my university (where I am a professor in science) to be part of a task force determining the undergraduate general education requirements. To be a better informed committee member, I am trying to understand the general situation at colleges in the country (the US) and the debates that have concerned this kind of questions. (To circumscribe a little the question, let us say that by "college" below I mean the top (e.g. top 100) liberal arts college and the top 100 colleges integrated in a university (Harvard college, etc.))

More specifically, I am trying to find good books that

1) describe the different types of policy that the colleges have.

For example:

a.-- Some colleges ask students to choose a major and a minor, other two equal concentrations. Are there colleges that require nothing of that sort? Which college do what? How many?

b.-- Some colleges force students to take classes in a variety of fields (science, humanity, arts, etc.). How widespread is that? What form does these requirements take?

c.-- Some colleges strongly encourage or force students to take a large number of courses where they would read about the "great books" of the Western Culture. See for examples the "core curriculum" at Columbia and Chicago. Other don't have that requirement, and some on the contrary require students to take a minimum number of courses directly concerning non-Western Cultures. Again, I'd like to know examples, and statistics.

d.-- Some colleges require student to know or learn at least one foreign language. How general is that? Are there schools that require two foreign languages? or one ancient language (like ancient Greek, Latin, Biblical Hebrew, Old Arabic, Hittite, Sanskrit, etc.)?

Etc.

2) Either neutrally explain or take a side with detailed arguments in the vigorous debates that have taken places in the academic community and beyond about those issues. (For example, my haphazard research with google led me to The Closing of the American Mind, which takes a vigorous position in factor of the first option in 1c above)

I am very thankful for any suggestion of readings on those subjects.


texts: Typical experiences of transgender people in academia?

texts:
I've recently come to accept that I'm transgender (MtF, male-to-female).  I won't go into the exact details of this as it's personal, but I have a "girl mode" where I identify as a female.  I'm also a researcher/lecturer at a respectable university.  I'm yet to reveal this side of myself at work, but it's not impossible that my colleagues or students will run into me in girl mode e.g. at the mall.

  Question: What are typical experiences of openly transgender academics?

I'd be particularly interesting in examples of successful academics who are openly transgender.

I know there are both legal protections and university policies which prohibit discrimination based on being transgender, but no policy can make people like you.

(Update: As things developed, I gave an answer to my question below.)


texts:
I have just addressed reviewers’ comments to one of my papers. I am the first author and did most of the job.
One of the authors does not want to resubmit. They offered no explanation and have been avoiding me. How to behave in this case?


texts: I have been on a junior professor position for three years and I start thinking about my future. Is there any suggestion for young faculty on how to come up with a long term research agenda? I feel that being under publication pressure for several years has somehow restricted my vision and turned my research towards incremental work. Of course there is always an idea to get another paper done, but is this the right mindset over the long run?


texts: Is there a certain time of year that Canadian Universities make graduate admissions offers?

texts:
When do Canadian universities start to offer and finish offering admission to their graduate programs? If it matters, I'm applying for a masters in computing science.

For background, I've already received one offer, but don't know what to expect on timeline for possibly receiving offers from other places I've applied.


texts:
I want to apply to CS PhD programs this year. Just a litte background: I did my BS and (non thesis) MS in EE/ECE at the same school. During my BS I did two semesters of undergrad research that went fine and gave me valuable experience.

During the second (last) semester of my MS I took on for-credit research with a professor. We got all the forms settled and decided on a project. However, after a certain point (me reading papers to catch up on the work) he stopped responding completely. I sent him emails frequently asking for resources to start my project (required some simulation resources at the least), but he never responded. I also tried to catch him at his office whenever I was free during the semester but completely failed. At the end of the semester I was awarded a B. Should I even address this on my application? Would it look bad to not include this experience at all?

The other weird caveat is that this is the only B throughout both of my degrees, so it is pretty noticeable.


texts: personal motivations in job applications

texts: I am a US post doc applying for a position in Norway. The application asks me to include my motivation for applying for the position. Should I mention my personal willingness to move to Norway? I recently visited and loved the culture and outdoor lifestyle there. Of course my letter is primarily focused on my research interests and how they align with the posted position, but I was wondering if it is appropriate to include 1-2 sentences about my personal desire to live in Norway.


texts:
My colleagues believe that if you submit your manuscript revisions quickly,  reviewers will be impressed by your confidence about the issues raised.

However, I think that a quick response  is not always the best option. If you consult with other people, you may submit better revisions which of course requires more time.

Are there any benefits in responding quickly to a request to revise and resubmit a manuscript?
Are reviewers impressed by a quick response to a request to revise and resubmit?


texts: I'm 2 months into my PhD. When can I ask my supervisor about the rejected candidates?

texts:
I was recently accepted for a PhD position after going through the application process of submitting the usual documents (CV, motivation letter,...) as well as an interview.

I have heard, from my now colleagues, that during the application process, my supervisor had mentioned that I had come across as very motivated.

I am curious however, if there is ever a good time (say after one has established a rapport with one's supervisor) to ask about the other candidates who fell short? Or is it something quite taboo?


texts: Need advice about a vague question on postdoc position search and post thesis submission dilemma

texts:
I am a veteran PhD student who have just submitted my PhD thesis and am waiting for my defense. The defense is to be scheduled for the end of the year (end of November). Due to lack of proper foresight and getting overwhelmed during the last year of PhD work, I have no option for my next career move.

I will be getting supported by my advisor till I defend my thesis. However, I am worried that I don't have enough time to get a position anywhere by the time I defend. I have started looking for positions and applying for them.

My advisor says that due to the lack of funds, she won't be able to keep me as a postdoc after my defense but she can support me for 4 months into the next year as a research assistant till I get some position. At the moment, I am submitting my papers, working on remaining projects. Also, would apply for fellowships.

My question is very vague, and is borderline panicked rant, and I apologize for it.

How should I effectively utilize my remaining months before my defense?
Is it possible to get and start a position within 4-5 months?

I am an international student and will secure a work visa after my PhD defense. So, there shouldn't be any visa issue.


texts: Optimal project stage (ripeness) for conference presentation

texts:
I need to choose one of two recent experiments to submit to a psychology conference taking place 10 months from now. Both studies are equally relevant to the conference topic, but they differ in terms of their maturity stage:

I have only recently started to analyse the data of. In the Abstract I would submit I would just mention my hypotheses and methods, and speculate about results. Thus, this study feels a bit 'unripe' to base a conference submission on, and indeed might rightfully get rejected as being too high-risk (unclear if a "null result" would still make for an interesting research report).
I've been working on its manuscript for a while, which has very recently been accepted as a peer-reviewed journal article. This study, on the contrary, feels to me a bit too 'ripe' to present at a conference since, as a soon-public article, it's no longer newsworthy on any extra 'channels'.

The two choices I am faced with lead me to a question that I've long been pondering: what is the optimal stage at which an (empirical) study is best presented at a (scientific) conference, i.e. how early or late into its lifetime? Else put: should one err on the side of too ripe, or too unripe

My guess is, somewhere in between having (almost) final results for analyses (but no write-up yet) at one end, and having the manuscript under-review but not yet accepted, at the other end. My current choices are just a bit outside of this ideal interval, on either side!

We've all seen people at conferences pushing both ends, i.e. either putting themselves out on a limb and winging work that is obviously still in progress; vs taking "on an academic tour" work that isn't by any means recent anymore and in some cases even recognisable from previous conferences/papers. But my question has to do with the optimal stage at which to present stuff, from the point of view of both the presenter and the audience.

I see this as a trade-off between how well the presentation would come across  ((1) risky: conference public being the first to see a "first draft", vs (2) safe: presenting already-reviewed data that's likely to be well received) and how useful said presentation actually is in terms of getting feedback ((1) very much so, since there will still be time to implement feedback; vs (2) not at all since the work is done and published, if even just very recently so).


texts: Is there any formal format for statement of purpose?

texts:
I'm about to submit my application for various PhD programs and I was wondering how should I format my statement of purpose.

Should it be addressed like a formal letter? Just contain my name and say 'Statement of Purpose'? Should I end it with something like 'Sincerely, ...' ?


texts: Is it OK to re-use data from a previously publication in a new publication?

texts: In a previously-published paper we have one chart with about 6 traces — a pair of controls, and four test subjects.  We are now preparing a follow-up paper in which one of the test subjects now acts as a control, with another half-dozen new traces compared to it.  Assume that each of the experiments is technically valid (i.e. presenting either figure alone would be fine in terms of replicates, stats, setup, etc.) Is it OK to re-use the data for the shared trace in both papers?  We would prefer not to repeat the whole experiment — aside from cost, there's an ethical issue (animals are involved and we want to minimize suffering). We are tentatively thinking that we can re-use the data along with an explanatory note ("Trace X in Figure 3 is re-used from reference Y") but I'd appreciate other thoughts.


texts: When should I publish in interdisciplinary versus subject-specific scientific journals?

texts:
Most science research is published in subject-specific journals, of which there are many. However, there are a relatively small number of interdisciplinary journals, some of which are the most highly cited of all journals (Nature, Science); others have impact factors comparable to subject-specific journals (e.g., PLOS ONE, J. R. Soc. Interface, etc.).

If we discount arguments around open science and similar business model arguments (which could favor journals like PLOS ONE), and assume that the purpose of publishing is simply to get your research read (and cited) by the largest "relevant audience", when should one publish in an interdisciplinary journal versus a subject-specific journal (assuming they have comparable impact factors)? (Are there any papers out there that compare the fate of publications [or their authors!] in the two different types of journal?)

Thanks in advance.


texts: Is It Okay to Continuously Use One's Private Email Address?

texts: I would have a question: Is it okay to use one's private email address to reply to all the university-related emails after having set up a forwarding to one's private email address - be it as a Professor, PostDoc, PhD-, graduate or undergraduate student, and use one's university/work email only for the most important emails that one wants to send?


texts:
I am in the process of submitting a paper to a conference. In the submission page I read:

  Title Page (Mandatory if multiple submissions, submitted to a
  pre-print archive, or substantial overlap with prior publications)

Why would a conference ask for a title page if the submitted paper has been submitted somewhere else?


texts: Travel grant for summer conference between PhD and first job?

texts:
I am a PhD student in the US (mathematics) and I expect to graduate in May.

I got invited to speak in a European conference in June, which is in the awkward time between graduation and my first job (I expect to get a postdoc, and those start August or September). My current department has told me that they cannot fund me after I graduate.

The conference offers some support for young researchers, but it is very meager and I will be flying trans-continentally. I was wondering if there is an outside source that might fund single-conference travel grants for young mathematicians?


texts:
I am writing my thesis and I have decided to add a list of glossaries to explain certain terms. I decided to copy most definitions for these terms from here because I believe they are best explained there. This site, SEVOCAB provides definitions by the IEEE for international standards in Software and systems engineering.

My questions:

1) Am I correct in copying directly the definitions from here? I thought it would be best to do so because you are using approved definitions to explain concepts that may frequently be interpreted differently by different authors

2) Of course I understand that I need to cite the website and that the definitions come from there. I thought of adding a sort of disclaimer or reference either at the beginning of the glossaries or somewhere in the thesis itself. For example, I have a section called clarification of terms whereby I make a distinction between Software Engineering and Software Development. How should I go about this?


texts:
What is a scopus indexed conference and how to identify the same?
I want to know what is meant by a conference indexed in scopus?
Its easy to know which journals are indexed in scopus from the scopus homepage.
In my case I want to know if there are any conferences in Mathematics which are scopus indexed?
Does there exist any page like this https://www.scopus.com/sources.uri?
If someone can provide any information, then I would be grateful.


texts: Why do many talented scientists write horrible software?

texts:
I am a software engineer and I have been working with people with academic backgrounds for several years. Many times, I've noticed that (even otherwise brilliant scientists) produce code of extremely low quality (unless their background was precisely Computer Science).

Since those people are very good in doing their research - and eventually obtain remarkable results - it seems they are clever enough to write decent code. Is it just that they don't think it's worth the effort? Plain arrogance? Lack of time?

Examples

It seems to me that in academia the most popular languages are C/C++ and Python (neglecting MATLAB and other vendor-specific languages). The language where I have seen the most amazing pieces of junk is actually C++. The main points are:

Really, really naive C++ code. They claim they chose C++ over Java/Python/whatever because "it's faster", but they new everything, even an array of 3 floats that is deallocated few lines later, where 3 is known at compile time.
They have learned pointers from C and they use only them.
Some of them (not most of them) have read some random blog posts about OOP and now put virtual everywhere, using abnormal levels of abstraction.
They are convinced of pointless optimization choices.
They lack proper memory management.
They copy/paste massive amounts of code from project to project and within the same project as well.

And in this list I am omitting the problems with the process, rather than the product. Scientists use:

no version control,
no automated builds,
no documentation,
no software process at all (neither agile, nor traditional waterfall).

The workflow is:

  I devise the algorithm, I write it as a massive 10k LOC piece of C++ and I click build somewhere.

As this assessment could be probably biased by my own experience, I have inspected some open source projects run by researchers (and maybe a few software engineers) and cited in many important papers. Virtually all of them were:

crashing on corner cases,
had ugly GUIs,
and the code - in my opinion - was ready for a complete rewrite.


texts:
I am currently getting my masters in Public Policy and considering getting a PhD in the near future. I'm looking for advice on whether to pursue a PhD in public policy or economics. I've heard that public policy phds are not as well received as econ phds on the job market. My fear with applying to the econ phd program is that I have not taken the advanced course work in linear algebra, matrix theory, real analysis and the other standard econ prerequisites. I will say though that a majority of my courses in my masters program have been quantitatively focused, having passed the equivalent of calc I and II, but my concern is that they are not in depth enough to make me a competitive candidate for admission.

Would something like coursera or MIT open courseware math courses in these subjects be sufficient? or should I take something for credit at a local college?

Appreciate the advice!


texts: Writing a thesis acknowledgement: should I address the person as "you" or use 3rd person?

texts:
I'm writing an acknowledgment for my thesis. I looked at several written acknowledgments and realized that the people who are acknowledged are addressed by "you" rather than "He/She". For example,

"I'm thankful to Dr. Marry. You have been the weekly contact ...."

But I personally prefer to address them in a 3rd person format saying "She has been the weekly contact".

I'm wondering if my preference is wrong and not common.


texts: How do I stop feeling unwelcome in my department?

texts:
I could not find a PhD advisor and the person in charge of my PhD program suggested that I leave with a master's degree.  He said that I was good at carrying out tasks but I did not have the motivation to advance the state of the art in my field.  Some time later I found an advisor in a different department, and he seems to like me.  But I still cannot get over what the graduate coordinator said, and now I hate visiting the building because I feel I do not belong and I don't want to talk to anyone I know.  What should I do?

After I found an advisor the graduate coordinator said something like "I knew you had it in you, I just wanted to see how much you wanted it."  But I don't know if he really means it, and if he did, I think that's kind of a mean thing to do.


texts: Why are PhDs the most common doctoral degree?

texts:
I have heard many people say they have a PhD in a certain area.  For nearly all of my life,  I thought a PhD was simply a doctorate,  and I didn't know that it had anything to do with philosophy.

There are many doctoral degrees, why are PhD's the most popular doctoral degrees by a long shot?


texts: If my B.Sc.project contains source code, should I include it in an appendix?

texts:
I do a B.Sc. degree project in computer science at KTH Institute of Technology. The work included a fair amount of source code written in C and NuSMV and the report is somewhat technical even for a CS report. We had a peer review this week where I got to know

put the problem statement up front and clearly
adjust the language for a non-technical audience
put definitions and acronyms in a glossary
use the shared latex template
remove some duplicated text
update the illustrations with text and numbering
scale down the images so that they look better
maybe put in an appendix (with the code)

Do you agree that the source code should be in an appendix or is it better to put it inline or even maybe not include the code at all?

If you want to you read the draft from this link.


texts: Advisor retirement while finishing doctorate on limited time constraint

texts:
I am a doctorate student in mathematics, having returned to finish my Ph.D after a long absence. Four years after my initial departure, I returned after gaining maturity in the working world and rekindling a personal interest in higher-level math, and to become competitive for work nearer to home.

Since I was restarting with a long-tarnished reputation, but since my advisor was very forgiving and gracious, I was allowed to conditionally resume my degree under extremely stringent conditions, which I met - I passed tough qualifiers and I completed my coursework in a short frame of time on my own dime while maintaining full-time work.

Following completing my qual and degree program requirements, I began to focus strongly on my research in order to complete the dissertation. I recently passed my preliminary oral exam for my dissertation in May, spent the first half of the summer reviewing additional papers for my writing, and commenced writing my dissertation formally in July with hopes on a December graduation.

The trouble began anew when my advisor retired suddenly in August. Although I had been updating him on my progress and asking him for advice while writing, finding time to meet with him became problematic, as he started to become absent and increasingly difficult to reach and schedule with. However, his "hands off" approach had me still writing, and I had a substantial amount of work to review and share with him, and he agreed to meet with me yesterday.

That meeting yesterday was when disaster happened. I noticed that he had become very temperamental; he was highly critical of what little he let me present to him, and overtly stated that he was not going to waste his time and read what I had written. The solutions that I was able to present to him were dismissed out of hand without any further explanation, and his first statement was to tell me to trash everything I had written and start from scratch (even though he didn't read it or hear anything but a small portion of it).

As the (heated) four hour conversation progressed, he jumped from clear and reasonable critique to complete incoherency, which I found unusual and hard to incorporate moving forward.

When the conversation concluded, I realized that he had in mind a different dissertation problem for me to solve, one that wasn't even covered in my preliminary exam in May.

He stated that I had until the end of the weekend to clean up my writing, make it presentable, and incorporate the new problem he presented, adding three extra tasks to boot (one of which he had never required me to research before). I am to send the writing to my committee at the end of the weekend and have them evaluate its status.

I mentioned that while my work has substance and progress, it was not complete and organized (that's why I visited him in person), and that my final oral exam was supposed to be the point of my committee's evaluation, not when the writing is still in media res. Without his confidence, my committee will not grant scheduling my final oral, and will likely not take the time to read what I send until they hear the word from my advisor anyway. He didn't care.

In short, this unexpected, sudden, and strange conflict with my advisor has suddenly put my graduation in heavy jeopardy with respect to the stringent deadlines imposed by the Grad College for December graduation (due to my long absence), has put new my job at risk (since obtaining a Ph.D was part of the hiring requirements for contract renewal next year), invalidates three years of hard work to rebuild my formerly tarnished status after my long absence, wastes the tens of thousands of dollars I paid out of pocket to do this, and permanently ends my twenty-year dream of obtaining a Ph.D.

Thank you for listening and for offering whatever advice you offer. I am at the end of my rope and feel powerless, worthless, and hopeless.


texts:
I am a postdoc working in one university till 1. July. I am leaving for another university after that. During my stay at my current work, I wrote a paper as a first author for a conference that will kick off in September.

Which affiliation should I use? Taking into account that the conference travel will be covered by the new employer, however, the paper is written at my current university.

By reading this article, it looks like using the two affiliations is one approach. But I'm not quite sure if the new employer will be happy with this.


texts: What kind of work is expected in Masters dissertation for admission to PHD in Number Theory in Europe

texts:
I am a Masters students in mathematics at a University in Asia.

I am applying to European Universities for Phd position in number theory.

I am interested in Analytic number theory and wanted to do my Masters dissertation in it, but no one in my university works in analytic number theory.

But fortunately, 1 professor from another Institute agreed to guide me . So, he has given me a research paper to study when I went to his institute to discuss with him but we couldn't discuss more about msc dissertation as he was very busy.

  My question
  1. what is exactly expected in a masters dissertation by European Universities in pure mathematics for admission to a PhD program?
  2. Am I expected to prove new results?
  3. If I am unable to prove new results then how many papers I am expected to read given that I have 4 months of semester for dissertation along with 3 compulsory courses?

What will European universities expect of me in my masters thesis?


texts: Unacceptable quality of writing in a letter of recommendation

texts:
I have received a letter of recommendation which clearly has been written by my referee's assistant, rather than himself. That in itself wouldn't be a problem if it didn't contain phrases such as what's more... and like event study etc.

What should I do about this? Do I just forget about the reference? Do I very carefully suggest to the assistant to make some minor changes (this letter is based on a previous draft I was asked to submit)?

It may also be worth noting that the referee is the first supervisor for my thesis and I do not want to seem ungrateful by requesting changes to my letter of recommendation.

It seems to me that the use of the phrase what's more in a letter of recommendation is per se unacceptable, but my native language is German, so any comments by native speakers of English in this regard is appreciated.


texts: Credit, recognition, or compensation for reviewing an accepted article as a native english speaker?

texts: I have been asked to review a paper that has been accepted for publication in english because I am a native english speaker. This request is coming from the director of a center. I am still a student. I don't technically work under this person or this center but I do have an affiliation. The review is going to take a couple hours of work. Is there any appropriate recognition or compensation for doing this review?


texts: How to handle multiple versions of a paper (e.g. conference and journal version)

texts:
A usual flow of a project (in my field) commonly looks like this:

  having a result -> (1) writing a paper (with all the proofs) -> (2) making a conference version -> (3) uploading a full version to eprint -> (4) journal version

Usually, (2) is a shorter version of (1); and (3)
 is almost the same as (1) up to some changes that came up during the process of making (2); Yet, the work on (2) and (3) happens almost at the same time.

The question is how to deal with maintaining both versions (full + short) of the same paper.

So far I have been keeping two separate "papers", but this solutions has its problems: if you make a change to one (say, fixing a typo), you need to remember making the same change in the other one (which you usually forget).

What is the best strategy?


texts: Are 'please cite my paper' emails socially accepted?

texts:
I am a PhD student in physics. A few months ago, I submitted a paper (which has meanwhile been accepted, but not yet published). The preprint is on arXiv.

Now, I saw that a few days ago, another manuscript, from a different group, has appeared on the arXiv, and I think there are large parallels. It's not that my work would dramatically alter the interpretation of their conclusions, but I think it would have been appropriate to link the works.

They also have a very broad 'catchy' title on their paper to make it sound spectacular and it seems to me that this title also relates to my work.

I'm not really suspecting conscious malice from the authors or so. But I wonder if I should send one of the authors a link to my paper, or if this is frowned upon.


texts: Does the Americans With Disabilities Act require accommodations for students whose disability prevents them from behaving ethically?

texts:
Does the Americans With Disabilities Act require accommodations for university students whose disability prevents them from behaving ethically?
Does it forbid punishment of unethical behavior which is caused by a disability?