texts: Can I ask to be assigned to another project, if the ones I'm on seem unsuccessful?

texts:
I'm doing my MSc. in Computational Mathematics in Central Europe. Right after finishing my Bachelor's degree I began to work in our National Supercomputing Center, a research institute that is associated with the university where I'm studying. It is considered quite a prestigious position in my country. Because of this offer I quit my job in the industry.

At first, I was enthusiastic about the research topic and after several months I was assigned to the second project (completely different from the first one).

This job began to consume almost all my time, so I gave up all my free-time activities and devoted myself just to this research. Because of the amount of work here I got into some serious problems with school projects and exams, but, so far, I managed to pass them.

In the first project my job is the implementation of some direct solvers, but some time ago we found out, that the technology used in the implementation is not suitable to our problem at all, so this solver will be useful just in some special cases, or possibly, it'll be unusable at all.

The second project appeared well - we managed to write some papers and tried to publish them. This week I found out that all of them were rejected.

Now I feel terribly disappointed and inferior to the others. All my colleagues have some publications, because, their other projects are usually successful. I'm working on two projects, where both of them are now just a waste of time for me, because I'm not going to have even one publication from them.

Normally I would try to discuss this with our team leader, but, to be honest, I'm scared to do that. He's not very sympathetic to the fact I'm still studying nor to the fact I'm there just for part-time job, so I shouldn't be working this much. I'm afraid he'll simply tell me, that in my position I should be glad to be working there at all, or something like that.

I'm not asking about some "improvement" of my personal feelings, as in How should I deal with discouragement as a graduate student? - I'd rather like to know, if it's a common situation and if I can ask to be assigned to another research topic (I have no prior experience with research, so I don't know if it's considered impolite etc.).


texts: Asking professors to advise me during a self study after graduation in exchange for programming work

texts:
I plan to study a topic which is at the intersection of several fields. I am not aware of a graduate degree in this topic, so I will self-study it after graduating. I will receive my undergraduate degree in the Spring for math and computer sciences.

My goals for the self-study are to either publish, or to make enough progress that if I joined a team my work could solve problems.

I would like to enter into an advising/consulting relationship with one or more professors in the related fields. In exchange, I would offer programming consulting or work. Is this type of relationship common, and is there a better way to frame it? What else can I offer professors in exchange for research guidance?


texts: What is the difference between a taught and research MSc and a research MPhil degree?

texts:
I'm in my senior year of Bsc Civil Engineering, in which I've started applying towards my grad studies in the  U.K.

In searching for the courses I've seen an MSc of Engineering Science by Research (2 years long) and MPhil of Engineering (1 year long). The first is a kind of taught and research degree while the second is only a research degree.

What are the differences between these kinds of degrees, academically? Which of them is a more prestigious degree?


texts: Leave out the last chapter as it anyway should be addressed in second edition?

texts:
I am an amateur (not affiliated with an academy) mathematician.

I have written a research monograph (see my site).

The current status of the book is that it is well written and is reasonably checked for errors. However there are serious errors in the last chapter. I may remove the last chapter and try to publish the rest of the book without it.

I sent my book (not yet including the last chapter) to several publishers. They all say either that my book is too original and rough for book form and should be published as articles first, or that my research is unmotivated. (I disagree and consider my work fully motivated.)

And now my book is in consideration of a publisher. After I sent my book to the aforementioned (last) publisher, I realized that before writing second volume of my book I need first create second edition of the first volume (which is in consideration now). I had two ideas how to rewrite it when it was already in publisher's review.

I doubt what to do with the last chapter (which as I've said above is currently erroneous). The simplest thing is just to remove it now, because it anyway should be rewritten in the second edition (and the rewrite is rather massive).

Should I for now remove the last chapter and leave this work to the stage when I will write the second edition of the first volume?

Or maybe should I stop any publishing attempts until I finish writing the second edition? (I'm afraid that if I happen to die, my work may be lost unpublished.)


texts: Meeting PhD advisor during first year (coursework year)

texts:
I'm starting my Ph.D. this year. My first 2 years will only be coursework. So, I won't be able to do any serious independent research. My research will only be in the context of what's required for the specific courses, so nothing too serious.
I am aware that I should meet with my advisor regularly, but what should I talk about? Usually, graduate students will talk about their results, advancement of their thesis, etc. Should I be talking about my courses and such?
Thanks!


texts: My Prof Does Not Know My Thesis Field Well

texts:
I am doing my MSc thesis research and it is becoming apparant to me that my supervisor does not have that much domain knowledge in the field that I am in. She has some idea but by no means is she even close to an expert in the field - I say this because I am reading papers in my field (Operations Research) and her papers are not published in OR journals.

I am curious if others have had this experience and had to essentially lonewolf their MSc thesis? It's unfortunate because I would like to have conversations with her about the field, but she doesn't know enough to talk fluidly.


texts: Blown up deadline and I choose a large bite to chew

texts:
For my master's thesis at a Greek University, I proposed to my supervisor to do end-to-end encryption of multiparty situations. I chose my topic because I had a plan for a post-master project and thought I can do bibliographic research through my master thesis. I presented this long-term project to my supervisor in an earlier semester essay.

On mid-term, my supervisor told me that bibliographic research was not enough. I suggested implementing an existing end-to-end group key agreement in javascript (having on my back of my head as a possible software stack t my project) and I laid down a timeframe.

I did manage to make a program but even though I tried my best to implement it I could not find a solution. Also due to time limitations and lack of any help (including from my supervisor), I found it too hard to approach it in a timely manner because I have to put together the pieces for the final thesis text as well.

But instead, I did manage to have an initial overlay architecture and requirements for my own long-term project by doing the literature review.

So I thought: "I can be honest and tell whatever happened about what I did manage to understand through the literature review, what gaps I found, lay down the initial architecture for my long-term project and present to the thesis examiners at the thesis examination what I did and why I failed and show them that I tried hard to achieve that."

Is this sufficient to get a master's degree, or will my attempt at honesty hurt me?


texts: PhD manuscript with grammatical errors and informal phrases

texts:
I have made a very good contribution in my PhD and just graduated two years ago from a top university with honors.

Today, I revised my PhD manuscript and surprisingly found several grammatical errors, informal sentences that I don't feel comfortable with now, and honestly also found two technical errors (they are correct in my published papers but not in my PhD manuscript). I am really disappointed, and feel like "I don't deserve to be graduated from a top university" with a PhD manuscript that contains a lot of grammatical errors and several informal things.

When I wrote the manuscript, I was happy with the informal things I added, but today I feel really sad by having them in my manuscript since I think they decrease the reputation of my work.

Although that after my defense the committee gave me one month for the minor corrections, but I don't think I have really benefited well from this opportunity. Is this normal? Any suggestions?


texts: Is there a way to improve my grade after graduation?

texts:
I graduated around 3 years ago with a degree, from a Russell Group university, in Mathematics. I had some mental health issues in my final term which essentially bombed my grade. Since I had no previously reported issues with anxiety, my extenuating circumstances were denied, (despite me having a panic attack in the middle of an exam and going to A&E since I thought I had some sort of food poisoning.)

Luckily, I was on track for a high 2:2/ low 2:1 so I did still pass my degree overall and obviously this was around 3 years ago and I have been doing well in my career etc. so this isn’t about how to find a job with this grade.

I don’t like having this grade and I know I can do better and I was just wondering: does anyone knows a way that I can increase my grade (post graduation)?

I’m working full time and don’t want to go back to university full time, but I’m open to taking night classes/extra courses. I wouldn’t mind taking something more related to the work I’m doing now rather than mathematics, but most of the courses I’d be interested in are closely related to my original degree. (e.g. coding, cyber security, finance)

Living and working in London

To update anyone who is reading this in the future and was feeling the same as me - pretty bummed about my grade. I have received a job offer recently for an incredible position. The position usually would require a 2:2 or higher, but due to my 3+ years of experience in industry they offered the job (not just as basic pay but with an experience and skills bonus). To everyone who answered, thank-you! - You were all right and it's not something I need.


texts: What percentage of phds in math actually get a tenure track academic job?

texts:
I'm interested in knowing what percentage of math phds actually succeed in landing a tenure track academic job?

Also, does a phd from AMS Group 1 guarantees you an academic job in top universities? If not what other factors come in to role to play?


texts: How can I post my own version of a published SPIE paper on arXiv?

texts:
SPIE policy for web posting of papers states the following:

SPIE grants to authors (and their employers) of papers, posters, and presentation recordings published in SPIE Proceedings or SPIE Journals on the SPIE Digital Library (hereinafter "publications") the right to post an author-prepared version or an official version (preferred version) of the publication on an internal or external server controlled exclusively by the author/employer, provided that (a) such posting is noncommercial in nature and the publication is made available to users without charge; (b) an appropriate copyright notice and citation appear with the publication; and (c) a link to SPIE's official online version of the publication is provided using the item's DOI.
This authorization does not extend to third-party web sites not owned and maintained by the author/employer such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu, YouTube, etc.
SPIE content published under a Creative Commons CC-BY license is exempt from the above requirements.

Emphasis in the above text is mine.
So if I understand correctly, once the paper is accepted in SPIE (journal or proceedings) for publication, then I cannot post it on arXiv (since the arXiv server is neither exclusively controlled by me/my employer). I am talking about my own version, not the published one.
I tried to submit my own version on arXiv and they understandably rejected it saying that they cannot accept anything that has a journal copyright. So is there a way around it for me to submit my article to arXiv?
If not, I think I can surely post it on my own website, right? I will post the copyright and the DOI in that version.


texts: What kind of PhD proposals should I read?

texts:
I am finishing up my master's in mathematical finance and am hoping to pursue a PhD in stochastic analysis.

I was given a sample PhD proposal from an education office that helps people apply for universities in the UK and some other countries (some of those countries require specifically a PhD proposal so you can tell that the US is not one of them). I was told I should look at PhD proposals outside of my field and thus was given something in Chemistry.

Relevant links at this point:

No. 5 here: With a background in mathematical finance and desire to apply for a mathematics PhD in another field, do I need a second master's?
How do mathematicians conduct research?

As mathematicians do not really collect data or conduct experiments for their research, I think I should countersuggest something in theoretical physics, theoretical computer science or something of the sort. Do you think that's okay? What would you suggest?


texts: Is it normal for collaborator to rerun experiments himself?

texts:
So I'm a few months into my PhD. It's built on top of previous work that has not been published. My supervisors, collaborators, and myself are working on to get this published. Now here's where things get a bit weird for me.

I found some problem with the previous work. Discussed the problem with my supervisors and have fixed them. For the publication, I'll need to redo the experiment.

So far I'm not getting a satisfactory result as it's tricky to get right. Not gonna go into why, it's just tricky.
My collaborator has been impatient with the result I'm getting. So now he has decided to rerun the experiment himself and double checking that he's getting the result I'm getting. Turns out it's quite similar. So now he's trying his own idea he has only briefly disclosed to me and one of my supervisor. When asked indirectly why he's doing this, he said he's just trying to understand the experiment better.

I found this disturbing. Why are you repeating my experiment yourself only to come and tell me you found exactly the same problem and result?

What's everyone take on this? I would like others opinions first before I discuss the issue with my supervisors.


texts: Do private religious institutions ever consider hiring someone clearly not affiliated with said religion for a faculty position?

texts: I am wondering if private religious universities consider hiring faculty members who are clearly not affiliated with said religion. For example, someone who is clearly Muslim applying to a Jesuit university for a tenure track position. Is it a waste of time for the very obviously Muslim candidate in this example to submit an application?


texts: I'm applying to get a Masters with Transfer and Transient undergraduate semesters during undergrad

texts:
After graduating high school, I went to a private out-of-state University for one semester, and it wasn't a good fit (it was a very strict religious institution), and so after the first semester, I became a transient student at a local community college, where I took courses for three semesters.

After getting the required hours I needed to transfer, I enrolled into the flagship University in my state, and graduated from there after three more years with two bachelors degrees- one BA in a modern language, one in BBA in International Business.

During one summer semester, I enrolled in a joint program between the flagship University I was attending, and the University to which I am now applying, for a foreign language program.

There's no academic dishonesty or anything to hide from those earlier schools, but I wasn't sure what is relevant or necessary to include as a part of my academic history.

The application I'm using offers the following guidance: "List each institution after secondary school, Including [University Name], that you have attended or are currently attending."

Additionally, there is no description, or note field where I could offer further explanation.

So, with that as background, here are my questions:

1) Generally, should transfer students put their old institutions on their history, even if they seem to be irrelevant (courses transferred, and graduation from the new University)?

2) Should I put the first religious University as one semester, or three semesters, or not at all? (Technically, I took classes there only one semester, but I was technically enrolled for three.)

3) How should I represent the community college where I was a transient student?
Or, since all credits transferred, do I need to list this institution at all?

4) How should I represent the joint foreign language program I attended between the University I graduated from for both degrees, and the school to which I am now applying? There was no degree for the program, but did offer course credit.

Any and all thought or feedback is appreciated.


texts: Would my paper get rejected if the related work section takes up too many pages, and what would the optimal maximum length for this section be?

texts:
I have recently submitted my paper to the journal of IEEE Access. They wanted me to only expand the related work section, so I have additionally included dozens of papers, most of which were suggested by them, into this section and will resubmit the paper in the following weeks. However, that section takes up three and a half pages now.

Would my paper get rejected because the related work section takes up too much space? Or, at least would it make a bad impression on reviewers and, if accepted and published, on prospective readers? If you suggest that I shorten this section, what would be the optimal maximum length for the literature survey section for a prestigious journal?

I ask this, because the related work section of most of the papers I've come across in this journal takes up one page at most in general. As I said, when the reviewers asked me to include all the papers they recommended, the related work section had to be much longer.

FYI, this journal has a specific policy such that you can resubmit your paper only once after the original submission. That is, if they reject your paper one more time, no more resubmissions will be allowed under the name of revision.


texts: Is it a good practice to put the initial work and improved version (both published) in PhD thesis?

texts:
Suppose for my PhD thesis, I solve problems like the following:

1) At the begining I solve one problem

2) Later, before any one improve the results, I myself improve it.

Suppose both of the papaers get published. Will it still be considered as two different problems in thesis or just a single one ? Should one avoid to do such practice and try to put the best results only in thesis.

PS: By improving I mean earlier I solve some problem under some stronger assumption and later I weaken it.


texts: How do I explain my failed career decision to a potential postdoctoral/academic manager/employer, when I'm almost seven years past my PhD?

texts:
First a bit of chronological background:
PhD in pure math (2 publications, 1 preprint), 1 year of postdoc in pure math (unproductive) 2 years of postdoc in computational medical imaging (1 publication each, and one of these postdocs were in application of differential geometry and machine learning for medical imaging), 1 year of postdoc in computer vision (unproductive, as I was partially spending my time to move to industry - I accept the blame here, mostly as a data scientist or machine learning researcher), 2 years of failed industry experience (4 jobs, all permanent, all let go within the first 4-5 months in the respective trial periods). So in essence, 4 years of postdoc, partially productive and 2 years of failed industry experience after PhD.
What's going on now:
I've a strong realization that the traditional industrial positions are not from me, and I'm planning to go back to academia, as well as on my way to obtain my freelance status, so I'd be able to consult on the side. But since I worked 2 years in industry immediate prior, I feel I need to get a long (at least a year and a half) project to get back to the full research mode, find a line of projects and use that to get a permanent position. These projects wouldn't be in pure math, but rather in theoretical machine learning, statistics or applications of differential geometry/topology to solve data analysis problem.
Immediate next - a potential answer to a question I might be facing during my next hiring:
I'll be having a few interviews, and I'm sure some postdoctoral advisors would ask me why I'm not looking for a permanent position, since I'm already 6 years past my PhD. My honest answer would be: "Initially I thought that the academia wasn't for me, that the stakes of getting a permanent position are pretty low, and even then, I thought it wasn't rewarding enough, me being based in Europe and not planning to move. So I wanted to move to industry but in R&D and I thought I'd be doing almost fundamental research; but I was wrong - the industry mindset and environment I found to be very different than the academic one, and hence I'm realizing my mistake only now, and trace my way back into academia."
My question(s):
But if I do give that honest answer as I wrote above, will it hurt my chance to get into postdoc positions that I'd want to get into? I don't want to paint a wrong image of myself to my future academic employers, but I fear that if I tell them that I moved into industry as I thought I wasn't good enough for academia and it was not rewarding enough, then my potential academic employers might think that I'm coming back to academia as a second choice and not out of passion. But the thing is that I had to go through a two year period of self-realization, and yes I did make a career mistake, which I'm planning to rectify. So how do I convey this truth in a manner that doesn't make me look like I wanted to run away from fundamental research (in fact I didn't, I planned to do it, but outside the scope of academia, which did fail and seemed almost non-existent) and work against me in an academic hiring process?
If you want more details about the reasons for being let go:
They're mentioned as comments to the answer by @jerlich.


texts: What are some typical questions one might be asked in a Computer Science PhD Viva?

texts:
I know that you are likely to suggest "Ask your supervisor. He/She will know best.".

While that is obviously true, I would like to know from your personal experience either as the PhD candidate or as the examiner: What should I expect in my viva?

For example:

Should I expect to be asked about the history of my topic?
About the research cited in my thesis (i.e references - will they ask me about them? I have over 100...)?
About methods used?
About justifications for my conclusions?
etc

What should one expect, in general, to be asked? I am PhD student in the UK.


texts: Is it unethical to add same environmental data such as temperature and salinity in two different papers?

texts: I have collected sea water samples from a location to study the microbes. The study is basically divided into 2; one is considering the total community and another one is specific to a particular groups. If I write 2 papers considering these two matters, can I use the same physico-chemical properties?


texts: How do I communicate effectively and work in an interdisciplinary research team?

texts:
Forgive the MS paint.

But as someone who often straddles two different domains of research and knowledge, how does one translate the jargon that is commonly found in one field and effectively communicate it to someone in another without coming off as a jerk?

Note: the intent was to use generally understood words within the field to communicate, not to come off as a jerk.

The example where my attempts to communicate between members of two different worlds and I received an earful was when I was tasked to develop a website with an existing member of a team who had extensive experience with the dept. but not with the technical details of developing a website.

Words like scrum, development cycles, production and development, were foreign to the individual. When I utilized them, I was called well... less than polite words.

After conferring with trusted confidants, I regrouped and re-approached the topic and design specifications while giving plenty of time to explain concepts that I perceived (through verbal, facial and vocal cues) that the individual did not understand. This resulted in a far better working relationship and the project was completed on time.

Now that I reexamine the subject, I can foresee that as a graduate student, inter-disciplinary collaboration with people from widely different academic backgrounds would be necessary, with differing depths of knowledge of necessary skills to complete a given research objective.

It is one thing to take the time to explain, which I don't mind if the person is willing to listen and learn. But at what point do I decide that the cost/benefit of additional units of effort expended results in diminishing returns? To put it more bluntly "you should know this already, I don't have the time to explain it to you".


texts: Stating surprise about another researcher in my talk

texts:
I will be giving a talk in a research seminar in mathematics in a couple of weeks. During this talk, I'm planning to present one particular result of mine which shows that a certain method introduced by another researcher several years ago is quite limited. This limiting result is really simple and I cannot believe that this researcher did not notice when writing their paper.

When presenting this work to my colleagues at my own department I expressed my surprise during the presentation quite bluntly.

I cannot go into much detail but given the structure of the paper in question I cannot imagine that they were not aware of this fact at the moment of writing the paper. To me it rather seems that they omitted this limiting result to make their paper seem better.

How should I behave at the research seminar at a university I'm only visiting where I don't know the faculty that well? Can I also express my surprise there or would this be considered bad etiquette? Not sure if relevant, but some of the people there might know the researcher in question better than they know me.

Edit to address some comments/answers: First of all, thanks for all the helpful answers, they really give me a new point of view. Secondly, I wanted to mention that it was not my intention to criticise another researcher in public. I was (and am still) honestly surprised about both my result and the other researcher. I learned from the answers that others could misinterpret my intentions and will therefore only mention facts. Thanks for that!


texts:
I have little understanding about invited papers, but as far as I know, I think these are non-peer-reviewed papers presented at a conference.

Now why and when does one go for an invited paper? Is it only to advertise one's work? Is there any other merit in this?
Also, are normal papers and invited papers the same as far as cost is concerned?


texts:
I am a first year undergraduate student pursuing a B.S. in Chemistry (I'm very much interested in Biology too), and I am new to this world of Academia. It would be very helpful if someone could answer my questions.

What exactly does one do in a PhD? I know that in the first year, you take a lot of advanced courses on your specific field of study, and then you decide on a topic and start researching. But when do you stop? I see that there is no definite time limit for completing a PhD. It can be anywhere from two years to... is there an upper limit? Do you complete a PhD when you have discovered something new and published a paper on it?

I realise a lot of what I'm saying might be my own ideas of what happens. Please feel free to correct me.


texts: Computer Science Publications: conference vs journal on application form

texts:
I'm a UK post-doc working in Computer Science -- specifically, Computer Vision and Robotics. For the next stage in my career, I'm aiming to apply for some very competitive post-doctoral research fellowships. Reading through the application guidelines, they list the metrics which are used to judge each candidate's ability.

Now, two of these metrics are related to publications. The first of these, is called "Number of peer-reviewed papers (not including conference papers)". The second of these is called "Number of papers presented at conferences". My understanding of the reason for this, is that in most academic fields, conferences papers are often not peer-reviewed, sometimes exist only as an abstract in written form, and are generally considered to be inferior to journal papers.

However, in my field of Computer Vision and Robotics, conference papers are in fact the dominant medium for publication. Typically, a conference publication consists of an 8-page paper, which is thoroughly peer reviewed by a number of reviewers, together with a rebuttal stage. The acceptance rates for these papers range from around 20% to around 40%. My peers and I always publish our work as a conference paper first, and then sometimes combine a couple of conferences papers into a journal paper. However, these journal papers are almost always just an extension of a conference paper, and usually act as an archive rather than the release of your latest research.

Therefore, in my field, conference papers are far more common than journal papers, and often have lower acceptance rates than journals. For example, I only have one journal paper, but I have eight first-authored conference papers, and this would be considered a good CV.

So, my question is, how should I fill out the application form for this fellowship? If I abide by the strict wording, then it will appear as if I only have one "serious" publication. However, if I put all my publications in the first section (number of peer-reviewed papers), then this will technically be incorrect, because most of them are conference papers. The fellowship I am applying for covers all areas of engineering, and I do not want my application to appear weaker than it actually is.

Thanks!


texts: Dealing with a huge block of similar definitions between two papers

texts:
I want to write a private research paper, which aims to have an academic level. I'm not yet a participant of academia, that's why the paper is "private", in case you wondered. Anyways, since I have chosen an authors suggestions for further research as main topic, I'm going to use their definitions. So not same text, but same math symbols. (a bit more formal, though) Nevertheless, there is very much to define and it feels just wrong to "copy", even thought you can't really define it in another reasonable way.
How do you deal with somewhat equal introductions? Should I care if I use almost all predefined terms of another paper? Should I write the possibly huge boilerplate or just reference the paper X?

Overall it's just one question: What's the proper way of writing a following paper?


texts: PhD application form, 1-2 word "relationship to you" for an instructor

texts:
I'm working on my PhD applications right now, and I'm on the section where I have to fill in information about recommendation providers.
I have put a Professor that taught one of my related course as a recommendation provider, however I'm not sure what I should put under "relationship to you". Any suggestion? (there's not a lot of space, I can only put in one or two words)


texts: Is it acceptable to write a report for one university mentioning unpublished research done in another?

texts:
Last year I got in touch with a professor by email. I was somewhat familiar with their topic, and very enthusiastic about working with them. I had a very positive exchange with them and did a call, after which they were willing to offer me a research internship. Their university is in the US, the field is computer science, and I am an undergrad studying outside the US.

The internship went well as far as I could tell. At the end, they offered to write me a recommendation letter (without me bringing it up), and we agreed to keep working remotely after I returned home. We had a very interesting discussion going on, even after the official internship ended, which got to the point where they asked me about my intentions for graduate school. By that time I was also finishing up the results of the work I did, in preparation for publishing it at a conference, which we had talked about when I was still in the US. It was to be my first publication.

Back at my university, I was asked to write a report of the work I did, because it was counted as the mandatory internship experience required to complete my undergraduate degree. I knew beforehand that I was to write a report, but took it as administrative overhead which nobody takes very seriously, and did not mention it to my internship supervisor until after the internship was over.

I sent them an email before writing the report, saying that I couldn't write anything very convincing about the work I did without at least mentioning some of the ideas we had discussed. I asked them about the level of detail they would be comfortable with me including in the report, given that we intended to publish. I also mentioned that the report would be used by my department (which is Electrical Engineering) only for evaluation purposes, and that it would not be read by anyone working in a field remotely close to the one we had worked on during the internship.

After that email, I did not hear back from my internship supervisor at all. Many months have passed now. I even sent them the results of the internship work, and multiple reminder emails.

Was it wrong to fail to mention that I had to write an evaluation report earlier? Or was it just unacceptable to write a report at all about unpublished research? Might they have felt that my email was not written in good faith and that I was trying to share their ideas with my department, which in reality hadn't the slightest idea of the topic I was working on?


texts: How to list my name in publications, given that I am referred to by my middle name?

texts:
I prefer to be referred to by my middle name. How should I list my name on publications?

I'm not sure if this is correct, but in the past I have written: First initial. Middle name Last name.


texts: How important is one's first publication in affecting prospects, assuming others are to follow?

texts:
With respect to a first publication, how would the following factors affect prospects (in academia, as well as in research-based industry)?

Whether or not the publication is in a top-tier journal. Of course, I realize that the better a journal, the better. What I mean to say is, given that I have some work now (such as, for example, observing certain trends when a simulation is run on a high performance computing cluster, and explaining any anomalies that arise) which may be publishable in a non-top tier journal, and some other work (which works towards providing improvements to a recent paper) which has a chance of faring better than a non-top tier journal, but which will take more time to get ready (say, 6 months more?), is it worth waiting for the completion of better paper (i.e., the paper which may get into a better journal)?
Like in 1, given a choice between publishing as a non-primary author now, versus publishing as a primary author later, should I wait to publish as a primary author later, and only then submit the journal in which I am not to be a primary author (assuming, of course, that the primary author has no issues with waiting).
Would it matter if one's first paper is in a journal or a conference? I have heard that it is better to send a paper in for a conference before a journal (especially for a first paper), since conferences tend to give much quicker replies. Am I correct?
Does the content of a first paper matter? Whether it is a review-based paper, a paper suggesting improvements to an already existing paper, or a paper submitting a reasonably novel idea? Assuming of course, that other methods or ideas would eventually be published, should I, say, wait to propose something more, umm... novelish first?

Long story short, how much would my first publication (in terms of parameters such as reputation of journal, how much it goes towards improving knowledge in the field, whether or not I hold primary authorship and so on) affect my prospects (whether in the industry, or in the academia).

NOTE 1: If it matters, this question is with specific reference to Computer Science (a little more to the applied side than to the theoretical side). Also, I am an undergraduate.
NOTE 2: By a journal of less repute/non-top tier journal, I do not mean to say a disreputable journal, such as a predatory one, merely a journal with lower impact factors, higher rates of acceptance, et. al.


texts: Can a degree be revoked for minor misconduct?

texts:
I was wondering how possible it would be that, after graduating, the university would investigate a minor misconduct during college. By minor I mean, if found guilty the worst punishment would be / have been a semester suspension.

If you had already graduated, what are the possibilities that the punishment would include revoking your degree?


texts: How to deal with advisor writing a thesis chapter for you?

texts:
How would you respond if an advisor writes a chapter of your thesis for you and asks you to rewrite what they wrote? Something seems wrong but I can't pinpoint it. It seems like a grey area. What are the potential plagiarism implications if I do this? And how can a student rewrite it any better than what someone with so much experience has written?
What would be an ethical and courteous way to respond? If there are any other sources or places you think I might be able to find more information or help from about this, I would like to hear that too.


texts: Is it helpful to tell a university that I have admission and scholarship from another university?

texts:
I have got an admission letter with full scholarship (i.e. covering tuition fees, living expenses, etc.) from a top university X (ranking under 50) but I want to take care of my grandmother who is not from my birth-country so I want to continue my Master program at that country B; which I don't have its citizenship; so I will be a foreign student and the number of full scholarships (even partial ones for covering tuition fees) at country B are very limited for international students. Also, the university Y at country B has ranking between 2000-2500.

My question is : Is it rude to telling (and emailing) them my admission letter that I have from university X to university Y? And will it be helpful to enhance chance of getting scholarship or quite the reverse?

Thanks!


texts: What to do: PI lied to me and is keeping my grant!

texts:
I've written 14 grants for my principal investigator (PI), from conception to writing the entire thing, which has resulted in over $10 million in funding for my PI.

I refused to write any more grants for him; however, he threatend to fire me if I didn't. I was fine with that, at which point my boss told me that if I wrote the 14th grant and we got it, I could take it with me.

Well, I did and we did get it.
Now he's refusing to give it to me, threatened to fire a technician/friend of mine, and has insisted that we got the grant because of his name (not the idea/grant itself). He knew his name was there from the beginning — how can he argue that at this time? This grant would have been submitted as a K99 for myself, but instead I had written another, independent grant thinking I'd have two shots to get a grant. I didn't get the K99, but the other grant should be mine.

This is/was my key to obtaining a faculty position. I also have previously filed an initial patent form indicating that the idea was conceived and developed by me. I'm on the grant as co-investigator (my boss said I cannot be listed as a Co-PI since I work in his lab) but no budget has been given in my name.

What should I do?


texts: how could I mention sequence of figures in a research paper?

texts:
I want to say that:

Figure 1, 2, 3 and 4 illustrate ....

how could I mention them?
 is the above sentence correct?
 or I should say figure 1 to figure 4


texts: Standard protocol for withdrawing published paper that has wrong (or erroneous) data (published without wrong intentions)

texts:
Suppose a research group publishes an article after thorough data analysis, statistics based on repeatability and reproducibility of experimental data. Now I consider three cases:

a). Published article had erroneous uncertainties associated with measured data

b). Published article had erroneous measured data notwithstanding repeated experiments

c). Published article had wrong interpretation of measured data

Now, in such cases, what is the standard protocol for withdrawal of published paper, and whether it is really necessary? If the same research group publishes another article giving more accurate experimental data with revised uncertainties with more reliable and logical interpretation, does this in any way puts a question mark on the credibility of the research group?

What according to the strictest ethical rules of publishing should be done in order to accept mistake and provide justification on why the earlier interpretation was wrong and what makes the research group change its view on the same experimental data (in this case, revised data)?


texts: Does a high score in Math subject GRE helps in applying to a Finance PhD program?

texts:
Does a high score in Math subject GRE helps in applying to a Econ PhD program?

Say you got to the 90th percentile, so in a sense that shows your math is better than 90% of the math majors. In an Econ PhD program where math is heavily involved, I suppose this would make a difference?

(a side question to this, how can you highlight a good score in math subject GRE when normal applicants only takes the General GRE?)


texts: Should I offer to come to campus if given a phone interview?

texts:
I applied to a faculty position at a university (a small state school) near my hometown and I just received an email invitation for a Skype interview later this week. Coincidentally, I am visiting my parents' house this week, which is about a 20 minute drive from the institution offering the interview.

Would it be weird if I mentioned that I am nearby and/or offered to come in and meet some of the members of the department in person while I'm here?

I didn't mention anywhere in my application that I grew up nearby nor did I indicate that I have family here. I did all of my studies out-of-state and I'm currently living on the other side of the country. However, I am excited about the opportunity to move back "home"!


texts: How to best address authorship issues with PI?

texts:
I am a postdoc working with the same supervisor who supervised my PhD thesis. During my PhD time, it was tacitly assumed that my work is his work too. It went as far as me doing the entire planning and execution of a paper and writing the first draft, while he later looked over the draft and made suggestions on what to expand and what to change. None of the suggestions were fleshed out. Yet we are the only two authors on this paper and he wrote in the author contributions footnote that he and I both conceived of the study, I did the experiments, and both wrote the paper.
Since the paper used some of his data as well as experiments funded by a grant given to him, I obviously cannot publish anything on my own.
However, now, in my postdoc function at the same institution, I find myself in a situation where a PhD student and I are doing a lot of work for a paper and there are two professors involved. My advisor and another professor.
The current paper grew out of another study for which I did all the experiments and coding with a lot of input from the other professor (not my advisor), while the advisor wrote the first draft. My advisor ended up as the first author, even though only the initial idea of working on the topic was his, but he barely contributed to the design of the study, nor does he understand the statistics used or the experimental design.
In this follow-up paper it is, once more, tacitly understood that my advisor will be first author and the other professor the senior author. The work, meanwhile, is done by the PhD student and me with some input and supervision from the other professor.
Is it possible to somehow broach this inequality in my/our position without destroying one's future?
Additionally, I'm getting more and more messages that sound like I'll be part of more papers where I'm clearly the only person doing all the work. Is it normal to have the lab leader as a senior author even though he doesn't contribute any work, nor any meaningful feedback (simply because the methods are not accessible to him)?
And also I've been getting signals that sound like if I publish my own work, not using the data gathered at work, I'd still have to run it by my PI, and possibly have him as a co-author. This last part is particularly disturbing. Has anyone ever been in a similar situation? How do you discuss these things?


texts:
Last semester, I was teaching a class where
there is a small assignment (~2% of the total course assessment)
that students need to submit every week.
Unfortunately, some of the students joined the class late,
due to add/drop forms that needed to be signed manually,
or for other unknown reasons.

Is it fair to give zeros to students who missed early assignments
because they added the class late?
There were a few students who may have missed 3 or 4 weeks of assignments.

Response to comment

Q: Were the students not able to physically be present?
Were the students not able to predict that they would take your class?

They were physically able to be present.
Some students may not have been able to predict
that they were able to take my class.
For example, one student had to add the class after the add date deadline,
because he was admitted late to the university.

Edit

After thinking things through,
I checked that the last date for adding the course is the Monday of week 2,
and the first weekly assignment is also assigned and due in week 2.
I found in the data that there were several students
who did not attend in week 1,
but all of these students attended and submitted
the weekly assignment in week 2.

Consequently, all of the students in the course
were registered by week 2,
and would have been able to submit all the weekly assignments.
Thus any students who did not submit a weekly assignment
deserve to get zero for that assignment,
unless they have a reason to be excused.


texts: What kind of help can I request from a terminally ill professor?

texts:
I am a student in Mathematics. There is a field I'm interested in (possibly enough to make it my main research area) which is not studied in my city. I've read a lecture notes on this topic a few months ago and sent the author a list of typos/inaccuracies I'd found. He responded in a positive way. When I was looking him up I found out he is terminally ill which, besides being extremely tragic, prevented me from asking for his guidance.

Since then I brought him up in a conversation a few times and people told me that it is very important for someone with terminal illness to know they are appreciated. I am thinking about requesting some help with my study of the field from him. However, I believe, the author was a great professor and mathematician so he probably has a lot still going on and I shouldn't bother him. Thus, my first question is: is it okay to ask him for help in this situation?.

If the answer is yes, what should I ask of him?. For example, would it be appropriate to inquire if he knows a colleague who could potentially become my adviser? Or perhaps I can ask about current research? I already used the opportunity to ask for some literature in the first letter.

To state it more clearly, is there a favour/question I can ask that is

Appropriate for the level of contact we had;
Easy for him to do and hopefully would make him feel appreciated;
Would be helpful for my own studies/career?

The last (and least) issue: in his email he thanked me for the list of typos and said that because of illness it would take him some time to implement the changes. It's been two months and the text is still in the first version. Should I offer assistance with this?


texts:
I'm writing an academic paper in the CS field. I'd like to define five symbols as tersely as possible.

Can I say this as the following using 'let' and semi colons? Like:

  Let $a$ be xxxx; $b$ be xxxxxx; $c$ be xxxxx; $d$ be xxxxx; $e$ be xxxxxx.

If answer is no, I would appreciate if you suggest a suitable and short alternative for an academic paper.


texts: Is it possible to download paper from academia.edu without being registered there?

texts:
Based answers to Is Academia.edu useful? it seems that there are some legitimate reason why many people would prefer not to have academia.edu account.

On the other hand, it might happen that you see a paper there which is interesting for you and which might be difficult to obtain in a different way.

I have noticed that when I find some paper on academia.edu using Google Scholar, I will also have a direct link to download. To give one random example, when searching for ultrafilter site:academia.edu you can see that I get direct download link to this paper. (The link contains the string "expires", so it is probably only temporary.)  On the other hand, when I try to find the same paper on academia.edu and try to download it, I am asked to login/sign up.

Is there some way to get the url for download from academia.edu website without being logged in? (This could be useful if neither Google Scholar nor some other searches give me a direct download link to the article.)

EDIT: To clarify (since I received an answer copying parts of the above paper). When I made this post, I was able to download it via the direct download link I have mentioned above. And this particular paper is also available on another website. So this is not a request for a paper. (Requesting papers would clearly be an incorrect use of academia.SE.) It is a question whether the annoying restriction to be registered before downloading something from academia.edu can be somehow bypassed. I have simply chosen a random paper as an illustration.


texts: For faculty positions: Cover letter vs. a letter of application

texts:
In the announcement of a tenure-track faculty opening in computer science in USA, I see a request for

  a letter of application explaining your interest in ⟨university⟩ and in this position

Other documents (CV, research & teaching statements, scholarly work, references) are also requested, cover letter not being among them. The application goes to a small, mostly liberal-art university.

How many pages are typically expected for the letter of application? Is a cover letter expected in addition?

I have read What are the differences between a cover letter and an application letter?, which, however, speaks about a PhD position. I have also read the links provided there, but, they are targeted more towards the non-academic job market.


texts: How do I turn down postdoc offer for an industry job?

texts:
So I am in a bit of an unusual situation. I will be graduating this summer and I have been in touch with a professor for a couple of months about postdoc positions in his research group. He encouraged me to write proposals for fellowships to fund my postdoc stint with him. Since these fellowships were very competitive and I stood a low chance of getting them, he promised me a year of funding if none of the fellowships came through. Unfortunately, none of them came through. We talked about the situation last week and he suggested that I join his group and write grant proposals during the first year to fund my second year. Now that seems like a very bad idea to me because I am also supposed to publish papers and plan for what comes after my postdoc. It's also problematic because I am an international student in the USA and I would go out of legal visa status pretty fast if things go bad and I become unemployed after my first year.

I haven't expressed any of these concerns to the professor yet [my fault, I was too shy]. However, I have been applying to industry jobs on the side and was recently made an exciting job offer. I have about a week to sign their papers which I intend to do. My question is, how do I communicate all of this to the professor? He is a very nice guy, seems super helpful and is a big name in the field but going the postdoc route seems risky and stressful at this point.


texts: Is it the number or quality of internships that is more important for Graduate School admission into Computer Science?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate in Computer Science who's has just completed his 2nd year. However I could not get an internship for the summer leaving me extremely tense about the future since there would be only one summer left (i.e., the summer of 2015 since I graduate in 2016).

I intend to apply to graduate schools in North America and Europe after my UG. However since I will have only one internship under my belt (assuming I bag one in summer 2015) will it put a damper on my prospects? Or is it the place of and quality of work done in my internship (coupled with good recommendation letters—which I doubt I will get) that would be far better than the number of internships under my belt?

I'm in the process of building a portfolio of real-life projects to demonstrate my skills and capabilities. I am also contributing code to open-source organisations in the next two months à la Google Summer of Code (however without the formal recognition) on a totally voluntary basis. Will that help in overcoming lack of an internship between my second and third year? What else can I do that can help me build a better application for graduate school?


texts: Is it possible to have a PhD advisor from another university?

texts:
I am a graduate student, 2nd year, in a STEM field at a US university. I have passed my quals.

Is it possible to ask from a Professor who is not at your university to be your advisor?  Did anybody hear of a similar situation?

I am very interested in the research of a professor who is at a nearby university, I really want to work with him but I don't know if this is even possible. (Maybe I should also note that his university is not necessarily better than the one I am now.)

Any suggestions?


texts: How does grad school view a consistent B average in a course sequence?

texts:
I'm a math major, and in an undergraduate real analysis sequence I got a B- and B over the two semesters. A year later I took the first year graduate real analysis sequence and got a B+ and a B over the two semesters. I know there's a lot of outside factors to consider, but in general how do these grades affect my ability to get a Master's in Statistics and a PhD in Computer Science?

My overall GPA is an A-. How can I remedy this track record if it looks negative? Does it involve taking even higher level courses in Real Analysis  (i.e., comparable to 6000 level) and getting A's?


texts: PhD consisting mainly of programming work

texts:
I'm currently a second-year PhD student, in computer engineering.
My research area is in computer graphics and virtual reality.

I currently don't have a specific goal or problem to solve, except generally to improve the state of the art in some regard. (i.e. develop a method/algorithm that gives better visual quality output than others described in the literature). According to my supervisor I'm supposed to find during my work a more concrete path to follow (like an existing method, and an approach on how to improve it).

So far I have mainly been doing programming/software development work, and developing a C++ framework for flow based programming. My question is if such a software development project can qualify as a PhD topic. There are plenty of complex problems to solve, involving time synchronization, guaranteeing that the system is lock-free, scheduling, etc. Here there is a clear goal: The user defines a graph for the data flow with various attributes (time windows, parallel execution, ...), and the framework does the necessary transformations, etc. to be able to execute it.

However it seems more like an open-source programming project than like a research work. I'm basically choosing for myself which features I'm adding to it, and how to implement them. Most of the time is spent programming and refactoring code.


texts: Creating a reading group with one of my students

texts:
I am currently a PhD student (on a teaching scholarship) at a UK university. A part-time MSc student in one of my classes has asked me for some advice on how they can prepare for their courses next year. I'd like to suggest that we spend some time over the summer (when there are no classes) learning something that would be mutually beneficial to us (in a sort of reading group style). I feel that this would be a good opportunity to motivate myself to learn some basic things that are missing from my education and also perhaps to make a friend. However, I wonder whether this would be unethical as it could potentially lead to this student having an "unfair" advantage over their peers?

Note. Other PhD students in the department tutor some of their students privately (for money).


texts: How to avoid gender bias when writing letters of recommendation?

texts:
Finding letter writing guidelines that simply say something like "avoid gender bias" is rather easy.  Finding letter writing guidelines that explain what this means in more detail is extremely challenging.

What do men and women tend to do differently when writing letters?  What do letter writers tend to do when writing about men or women candidates?  How can these biases be recognized and mitigated?

This study by Bell, Cole, and Floge shows that male letter writers write differently than female letter writers and that both write differently when recommending men for a position than when recommending women.  But that's one study, published in 1992, and it is relatively hard to extract concrete advice on avoiding gender bias when writing recommendation letters from this paper.  Is there other work in this area?  Can it be distilled into something that's more directly applicable to letter writing?

(Note that there is a somewhat related question about avoiding gender bias when evaluating prospective applicants for an academic position.)


texts: Do ACS and RSC journals have identical credit in a tenure-track application?

texts:
I am a postdoc in chemistry and have published 15 papers in RSC journals. I hope to publish about 8 papers during the next year and then apply for a tenure-track position in the US.

My group leader strongly prefers RSC journals. Both ACS and RSC have similar titles. As I compared, they publish similar numbers of papers with similar impact factors.

Since I want to apply for a position in the US, is it beneficial for me to publish some papers in the ACS journals or it is OK to have all my publications in the RSC journals?

ACS: American Chemical Society
RSC: Royal Society of Chemistry (UK)


texts: How to write a reminder mail to a Professor asking about the application?

texts: I have applied to a advertised post for a Postdoctoral position in U.S.A. It's been a month and a half since I have sent the application documents via e-mail to the professor. I haven't received any reply yet. How should I from my reminding e-mail, without offending the professor?


texts: How to archive an academic blog or website?

texts:
Academic blogs and websites are emerging as an important component of academic discourse.

However, I often lack confidence that the content will remain accessible in the short term (e.g., 5 years) let alone the longer term (10, 20, 50, 100 years).

An important function of journals is to archive the content and provide a stable citation system.

In particular, I'm worried about:

academics who change employment where the site is hosted by the previous employer
academics who die or lose interest in their content (e.g., domain names lapsing; site hosting fees ending)
Internet services that close down

Question:
What can an academic blogger do to ensure that their blog content remains archived and accessible in the longer term?


texts:
At what stage of research career one can write a 'review article'?

Obviously a graduate student in the beginning stages cannot/may not write one. But how experienced does one need to be before attempting to write reviews? Does authoring a number of papers in the relevant field equips one for that?

Can a graduate student publish a review article? Do acceptance of review article (for publication) depends on the reputation of the author or co-authors?

EDIT:  As @JeffE has pointed out anyone can write a review article; the question is about getting this write-up published.


texts: Correction of Diploma Having Two Types of Honors

texts:
Last semester, I was graduated from a four-year university, and am now a Ph.D student at another university.  I received two separate degrees: one in Pure Mathematics and one in Computer Science, both Bachelors of Science.  The honors in question are:

Summa Cum Laude (1): This is a direct, university-wide, GPA-related thing; it applies to both degrees.  I fulfill these requirements and so deserve the honor.
Summa Cum Laude (2): This is applied if the student does a Mathematics thesis.  I did not do this, so I do not deserve this honor.
Computer Science Departmental Honors: This is applied if the student does a CS thesis.  I did do this, working independently to produce not just one but two theses, containing publishable work.  One won best paper at a small conference.

The two separate diplomas were shipped well after graduation, and well after I had moved to a different state.  They contain:

Mathematics: Summa Cum Laude
CS: <nothing extra>

Clearly, there is a problem.  Since I didn't do a mathematics thesis, the "summa cum laude" on the mathematics degree refers to the strict GPA thing (the mathematics department confirmed this).  However, by the same reasoning, I should clearly have gotten the same on my CS diploma.  And, in any case, I might have expected the departmental honors to show up too.

The first thing I did was ask the university help office, which directed me to the (single) email contact at the registrar's office.  This email contact ignored repeated, direct questions asking to clarify the above; replies consisted mostly of one-line, semi-incoherent, half-caps, half-cut-and-paste of irrelevant information I'd already seen on the University's webpage.

Were it not for the typos, this lady wouldn't pass the Turing Test.

The mathematics diploma is correct (since I do meet one of the options for having the honor).  However, the CS diploma needs to be fixed.  I have surmised that the only way to get a fix is to send the original diploma back with a somewhat ambiguous correction form.

This leads me to two questions for the academic community:

Is it common practice to include both a summa cum laude honor and a lesser honor?  In my opinion, my theses represent far more value, especially research value, than a stupid GPA.  The contact was . . . unable to clarify whether the university has an established policy on this--but my impression is that it does not.  The CS department says it's not their format, so they don't know.

Under these assumptions, I am forced to conclude that there is no established format at my university.  Further, as it seems they are taking suggestions, I will submit my correction form to list both honors.  If they really do have a policy, they'll know and can contact me.

I am having trouble thinking up a good way of stating the honors, however.  If this contact was representative of the registrar's office at large, then I definitely want my correction to be verbatim.  What is a simple phrasing of the honors that makes them clear that they are distinct?


texts: On citing common knowledge and giving credit to the 'right' authors

texts:
Suppose that I am reading a marketing book and, while reading a specific chapter, I find like there are 10 footnotes with most of them related to specific examples or specific numbers; in other words, most of the information presented in the chapter are not cited and, judging by the context and contents, such information do not appear to be 'invented' by the author(s) of the book (not primary data). In that case, they could just be common knowledge information related to the field of marketing and business (example: purpose of marketing, strategic analysis, financial measures, etc...)

Since 'when in doubt, always cite', if I want to write about information taken from such book, is it bad if I just cite the author(s) of the book since I am taken the information from their book? To clarify, I am worried that I could be 'giving credit' to people who did NOT come up with such information presented in their book and therefore, I should not cite since it's common knowledge or whatever.


texts: Faculty job on-campus interview: changing flights

texts:
I am from Europe. I am currently on my tour around the US for several on-campus interviews for assistant professor positions. As I am from far away, I managed to arrange the domestic flights between the places without having to go back and forth between Europe and the US. After my last interview, says at university A, I am booked to fly back to Europe and the one-way ticket was already bought by A.

Now, I have just received another invitation to an on-campus interview at university B. B really likes my profile and they want to interview me as soon as I can (it's also the end of the interview season, so I guess they are in a hurry to grab someone). If I come back to Europe as planned then fly to B again, I will be so exhausted because each flight will be 16 to 20 hours, and I have already spent a lot of hours flying and interviewing so far. So ideally I would like to fly directly from A to B then back to Europe. But the ticket bought by A is non-refundable, and I was told before that it's very unprofessional to change flights like that, which could harm my chance at A. I am thinking of skipping the return flight bought by A without telling them (it's a one-way ticket). My questions are:

If I skip the flight, will A know? They bought the non-refundable ticket through a travel agent.
Do you have any suggestion for a more elegant solution?

Thank you very much!


texts: Teaching Loads by Field at Research Universities

texts:
For computer science tenure-track faculty, the standard teaching load at a major research university in the US is 1-1 (meaning 1 course each of the two semesters).  My understanding is that in math the standard teaching load is 2-1 (two courses one semester, one course the other).

What are the standard teaching loads in other fields (e.g. physics, history, etc.) at major research universities in the US?


texts: Copyright for creating a video that is a chapter-by-chapter Analysis of a Technical Book?

texts:
There is a technical book that I like a lot and is widely respected in my field.  It has about 80 "rules" in it with example code.

I would like to create a series of videos to further explain and review each of the "rules".  I will narrate the video in my own words.  My goal is for the video series to be like a tutor that is walking the viewer through the book.  I plan to fully credit the author and cite his work.  Some questions:

Can I use code samples from the book if I give proper citation (title, author, page #)?
Is creating a chapter-by-chapter review of a book and putting it on YouTube considered an ethical gray area?  To repeat: every video will fully credit the author of the book and it will be obvious that I am explaining ideas in my own words.

I am asking this question here because of all the stackexchange sites, people here seem to be the most well versed in copyright and fair use.

Thanks.


texts: Taking into account word lengths when writing humanities articles

texts:
I am currently writing an article that I hope to submit to a specific journal on women’s studies. The journal’s word limit is 6,000 to 9,000 words.

I am still in the planning phase of writing.
How should I organise my writing in light of this?
Do I aim for the lower end of the word count or should I aim for 9,000?


texts: Good approaches to integrate research and teaching?

texts:
There is an effort at my university to promote "research integrated teaching" [Barnett, 2005; Robertson, 2006] which got me thinking about the topic. I generally make an effort to discuss research problems and recent results when they fit with the material we're covering in a course, but it occurs to me that this is a very passive approach.

I'm interested in developing more active or creative ways that research work and teaching efforts can be combined to benefit the quality of teaching without negatively impacting research. Are there any approaches that have shown to be particularly effective?


texts: Is a professor allowed to ask me what grade I got in a previous class?

texts:
I'm a student in Michigan, in the United States. I've just started a class for which a previous class was the prerequisite. The professor of my current class asked that I give him my grade for that previous class. (This was an e-mail sent to me and all my classmates.) I don't like the feel of it. Does he have any right to that information? Obviously he isn't going through the system to get the information, and I feel like it's because this isn't on the level.
On further research, I found the FERPA website. It declares:

Generally, schools must have written permission from the parent or eligible student in order to release any information from a student's education record. However, FERPA allows schools to disclose those records, without consent, to the following parties or under the following conditions (34 CFR § 99.31):

School officials with legitimate educational interest;

There are additional parties/conditions, but this is the only one that even comes close to my situation. Another reference I found is Huntingdon College's General FERPA Information, which defines a school official as:

a person employed by the College in an administrative, supervisory, academic or research, or support staff position;

There are other definitions, but again, this is the most applicable to my situation.


texts: How to start a talk about a topic that cannot be explained without some background information?

texts:
I am going to give a presentation of my research soon at an undergraduate conference. I have read that it is best to begin a presentation with the ‘thesis’, i.e. a brief explanation of the topic of my research.

However, I’m rather stuck as to how to explain it simply. It seems like it won’t make sense until I’ve explained the concepts behind it a little. To be more specific, the topic is a formalisation I’ve done in a proof verification system. But the students attending won’t know what a proof verification system is. Is it better to begin by explaining what mechanical proof verification is before explaining the topic?

Time parameters: 20 minutes for the talk, and 5 extra for questions.


texts: Publishing a letter: how much extension can I ask for?

texts:
I am attempting to publish a letter in a IEEE journal. The journal gave me 2 weeks to address the comments. It also mentioned that if I need more time, I should let them know as soon as possible so the editor can reset the dates. How much of an extension can I ask for?

I dont know how long its going to take to complete the revision, and frequently I find that I need more time that I originally think I would need. So instead of asking for extensions multiple times, can I just for say more that I think I would need at this point (say 2 months)?

Is that too much? First time publishing, so no idea of the protocols.


texts: Should I ask colleagues of my mentor for internship opportunity?

texts:
I have a mentor from an industrial research lab. I use the tool he has developed in my PhD research, and we have been working together for several months. We have some results that he likes very much, since my work is a new application of his tool. However, unfortunately our paper has been rejected two times.

About a month ago, I saw an ads of internship positions at his group, so I asked him about the position. He hadn't replied anything until some days ago, he replied that this year he is busy organizing a (top-tier) conference, so he was reluctant to get students.

The ads is still there, and I still want to apply. Should I ask his colleagues if they are accepting students? More specific questions:

Should I ask my mentor which his colleagues are accepting students?
Should I ask my mentor's colleagues, there are 4 of them, without notifying him?
If I contact my mentor's colleagues, should I mention his name.

My worries are about the reference that my mentor can give to me. My impression is that he likes my work, but since the paper is rejected two times, I don't know that if it is good. I also don't know if it is rude asking to work with others while working with him.

My mentor is an established researcher with great personality, he treats unknown students like me just like his friends or colleagues. I'm very happy working with him, and I don't want anything that may damage our collaboration.


texts: Applying for PhD position to multiple professors in the same department

texts:
I got interviewed by a potential supervisor but she said she couldn’t accept me because I have no research experience related to her projects. I still want to do research in her field; so I contacted some supervisor from the same department as her and will be interviewed next week.

I want to know if it is ok to contact another supervisor from the same department if she finds out about it.


texts: Responsibility to new PhD students regarding bad environments

texts:
(Given that the question was put on hold, I try to ask the question differently. If it is still off-topic I vote for deletion. Still having trouble grasping the question.)

If you know that an institute/department/adviser is looking for new PhD students, but you also know that this institute/department/adviser is really bad for a scientific career (e.g., high attrition rates, few if any get tenure) — what do you do?

On the one hand, no one likes a snitch, people who complain are often seen as bitter and as lacking loyalty. And it might be a question of fit.

On the other hand, there is responsibility to future PhD students (their careers and the other damage bad environments inflict).

There are guidelines for actual scientific misconduct (like plagiarism, fabrication, falsification), but is there anything for this kind of situation?


texts: How to reference a work that I refer to on multiple occasions?

texts:
If I have taken an idea or quote from somewhere I will of course reference it properly.
However my question is every time I mention someone e.g
'Joe Bloggs said..."
 do I need to reference every time I mention that person if I have referenced him at least once?

Or if I say 'this proof is given by xyz book'
if I have ready referenced xyz book do I need to reference it every-time I mention the name of the book?


texts: Number of Papers published in area of work

texts:
I'm looking for some statistics related to the amount of papers published per year in an specific area. Some papers about Superconductivity said there was like 15000 papers published about superconductivity in high Tc iron-based superconductors. I'm interested in the area of fluid mechanics of swimming microorganism. Any idea where can I find this statistics? (like scopus, etc)
Many Thanks!


texts: PhD in the US with an MSc from another country: coursework exemption?

texts:
I'm currently studying for an MSc in theoretical particle physics in Israel. After I finish it I would like to study for a PhD abroad.

In the UK it seems that a PhD degree does not generally require taking any courses. In the US, on the other hand, all of the PhD programs I checked require at least one or two years of coursework as part of the PhD studies, and the actual research only starts after that.

My question is: do you know whether universities in the US allow students with an MSc degree, who have already done most or all of the graduate courses as part of that degree (and got good grades), to begin research immediately instead of taking the courses again? I really don't want to repeat the courses and waste two years.


texts:
I'm currently an assistant professor at a US university, three years away from coming up for tenure. Recently, a former colleague of mine who is a professor at a university in the UK approached me about joining their institution, as they were advertising a search in my area for all ranks (Lecturer-Professor).

Even though the interview didn't go particularly well in my opinion, I just got a job offer for Reader. However, their offer would effectively require me to take a 40% salary cut. When I applied, there was a form that asked me about my current salary. After asking about this, they replied that my current salary was not taken into account as it would create a "salary anomaly" with respect to what other Readers are being paid and that the salary isn't negotiable. Note that their job ad only stated a very broad salary range (for all ranks) and hence I did not anticipate this before applying.

Is this the usual experience when applying for academic jobs in the UK? Or, does this perhaps indicate that my application wasn't perceived to be particularly good after all?
They also stated that Reader is a "leadership position" in contrast to my current position and hence it would be a promotion. However, it's not exactly clear to me what this means in practice: Apart from the obvious advantage of not having to go through the tenure process, what other benefits does a Reader position provide over Assistant Professor?


texts: Is there a way to search for papers such that the data used are also published on google scholar?

texts: I am trying to search for papers such that the data used in that paper are also published. This is because sometimes I really enjoy replicating a paper and it is somehow hard to ask the author to give you the data especially if he surveyed this data. I mainly use it to see if I may able to replicate and get better in my coding skills. It is also better to know if the data are available upon request.


texts: How to approach supervisor about running a start-up along side PhD?

texts:
I have had a good opportunity to begin a start-up that would be providing SaaS to Universities. The start up is not related to my PhD topic, other than it also relies on my programming skills. As it has reached an inflection point it has started taking about 5 hours a week to manage it, but I can easily put those hours in by working a different schedule (Late or at weekends). I have a co-founder which means if a busy time hit in the PhD they could take more burden temporarily.

Institutional factors

My university is very supportive of start-ups  with several different initiatives and programmes to ensure this happens.

Early on in my PhD I asked my supervisor about how I should be spending my time during my PhD and they said I should keep side projects to my personal time and devote the working week to the PhD.

Context

1st Year PhD student in UK
Funded by UK Research Council
Had idea for project during undergraduate.

Other Questions related

Is it possible to work on extra activities (start-up project) during PhD? :
Very in favour of proceeding but advises caution if not in related field.

Responsibility/ethics of startups during graduate studies
Quite against the idea if it is not related field. Also asks about disclosure but does not answer regarding how to do this.

My dilemma

This idea has been pitched to people who are on a similar managerial level and could mention it to my supervisor.
They have thoroughly got behind the idea and want me and my co-founder to develop it.
I would rather tell my supervisor myself than them find out 2nd hand but am conflicted by the universities stance on supporting entrepreneurship versus my supervisor encouraging me to focus on the PhD for normal working time.

I'm aware that somewhere down the line the start up could take off meaning I might have to go part time, if allowed. Should I mention this?

How should I go about bringing up the start-up to my supervisor?


texts: Choosing between Bachelors's in a higher uni vs masters in less reputable uni?

texts:
I graduated with an EE degree last year and interned in two Physics labs, From September until March for experimental physics in Lab until COVID struck and lab closed and another one from Mid Summer (June) until September in computational physics (still continuing part-time I will come to that later).
Been applying for the Fall 2021 cycle to Physics Grad programs however I was told that I lacked a Physics Background [ Had only taken EM classes and maybe 1st-year basic waves and mechanics].
Recently I got in BSC honors in Physics in a reputable university [will take roughly 2 to 2.5 years] along with another offer in Masters in a less reputable university with a requirement to complete a qualifying year (consists of higher Physics undergraduate courses). I talked with the department and supervisor who has told me that funding is available for research as well as some money from being a TA. I was only able to get in due to a connection from another prof in another University who very much vouched but failed to convince the admission committee in his University (due to lack of physics background). So I would also assume that the supervisor has done the same.
Being torn I don't know what I should choose, I feel l should choose Bachelors and then apply directly for Ph.D. while masters and then Ph.D. would take the same amount of time. In  addition, my current research professor is very enthusiastic about what I have done with the detector simulation software development (he is the leader of the research group I am in which I can't specify for personal identification reasons) and he has suggested a collaboration with the university which I want to do bachelors in and wants me in future after I complete bachelors.
Financially speaking I would assume that Masters would be slightly less expensive than doing Bachelors (from approximate calculations I have done).
I am just very much torn between these options, the professors on both sides have gone out of their way to help me pursue my passion.
Additional follow up: Does it matter where you do your masters for Ph.D. (plan on pursuing an academic career)  in terms of university ranking and reputation?
Sorry for long text, and thanks for any advice, suggestions!


texts:
I published my PhD thesis three years ago.

I have just come to know that a master’s student has copied three chapters from my PhD thesis half a year later. My PhD supervisor was also the supervisor of his master’s project. Each and every word and mathematical symbol is exactly the same. That person is now a PhD student himself. I’m obviously extremely shocked, angered and hurt by this. But before I take any action I wanted to ask the community.

How serious is plagiarism in a master’s thesis? I suspect that my PhD supervisor also had a role to play in this. He either tacitly ignored this blatant plagiarism or even actively suggested it. How should I deal with this given that my relations with my PhD supervisor will become strained if I report this?


texts: Advice for somebody who considers to join a PHD program in order to go to research about the possibly negative sides

texts:
A friend of mine considers to join a PhD program in order to go to science. I think she has a very idealized view of science and the prospects there. (I personally am somebody who left science after 10y, without big damage to my life, career or psychological health). I don't want to convince this friend not to follow this path, but I like to give her a realistic list of major problematic points, psychological stress factors, negative outcomes.

I already gave her some first-hand accounts and these were similar to questions asked here very often. The problem is that I can not quantify the likeliness of the following:

psychological problems during the PhD/Postdoc
stress due to workload
stress due to uncertainity
bad supervision (supervisor incapable or unwilling or good supervision)
continued unresolved conflicts in the lab
bad leadership
nepotism of group leaders towards friends/s.o. in the group (e.g. on publication)
scientific misconduct (unintentional), e.g. bad data handling, p-value hacking etc.
scientific misconduct (intentional), e.g. faking data, plagiarism
sabotage of others experiments
thesis stopped due to discontinued interest of supervisor

The point is: I don't want to hear horror stories (seen and heard enough of them, personally and here an stackexchange), but i like to have data (e.g. statistics, studies) which actually quantify the issues in a cpmprehensive way from the viewpoint of a new PhD student. Where can i find such data?


texts:
Is it possible for a final year PhD student in theoretical high energy physics to apply for postdoctoral positions during June-July if (s)he misses the usual deadlines in Nov-Dec?

(Edited)


texts: Condensed-matter theory with career prospect in the industry

texts:
Reason for the post: I'm trying to better understand the jobs in the industry so that I can tailor my graduate studies to more closely represent the kinds of jobs I will be doing in the industry. Thus, I'm trying to figure out which field in condensed matter theory I should pursue given the details below. I know at the end of the day this will be a personal decision, but I wanted to get some insight from people who might have walked this path before.

About me: I will begin my studies towards a physics PhD this fall, and currently my interest lies within computational condensed-matter theory (CCMT). After my PhD, I hope to secure a research-oriented job in the industry. For example, working at Micron Semiconductor company in the R&D department. Another important factor for me is I prefer my job to make direct use and connections to what I have mastered in graduate school. This takes me back to my original question where I'm trying to figure out PhD in which field allows me to have a job that closely resembles what I have mastered.

My Dilemma: Within CCMT, I can specialize in hard or soft condensed matter theory. From previous exposure, I know I greatly enjoy the former option. But I also think that there aren't many jobs in the industry that directly make use of hard condensed-matter theory. So my worry is that if I pursue this specialization I would likely end up with a job that makes no use or connections to what I spent five or more years mastering.

On the other hand, if I pursue the "soft" route, I feel like the likelihood of me finding a job in the industry that resembles what I have mastered in graduate school is more likely, as soft condensed matter is readily applicable in the industry.

Additionally, I have the opportunity to do my PhD in biophysics. This would be a parallel route to that of pursuing soft condensed matter. This field seems to offer ample computational opportunities and I think there are a fair number of industry jobs in the medical/pharma sector. The huge catch here, with both routes of soft and biophysics, is that I have no idea if I'm going to like the theory involved.

Summary: I will be starting my PhD in physics soon with a focus on computational condescend matter theory. After a successful degree, I hope to get a research-oriented job in the industry. I prefer this job to be one that makes direct connections to the knowledge and toolkit I build during my PhD, so this way I don't end up feeling like I got a PhD for nothing. I'm seeking insight on which sub-field within condensed matter physics might best suit me.


texts: Starting a research with a professor as a business professional

texts:
When I graduated from college in 2012, I was quite excited about my job (although it is a small hi-tech company.) My goal has always been to either start my own business or get back to school for PhD. Ultimately, be able to live a life filled with research, and learning.

I have been working for almost two years now. And before going back to school, I really want to publish a paper and make myself a better PhD candidate. And ideally this would help me better discover my field, gain confidence, and maybe discover assistantship opportunities.

I think I've found a quite interesting topic for a paper that also leverages my work experience in transportation technologies. The paper is about accident prevention and I am targeting a public health professor.  I contacted the professor and I was not able get any response back yet. (It has been 2 days.) I am not sure about the right strategy to follow to communicate such idea and gain her interest. I wrote an email with 3 paragraphs and 350 words. And briefly tried to explain the  possible research context and my intention in starting a PhD. But maybe I was just supposed to ask for an appointment? It is a wise way to sent a follow-up email stating how valuable I think this paper would be? and ask for an appointment?


texts: What do Grad Schools think about Pass/No Pass courses?

texts: I am a physics major at UCLA with a busy schedule. I am currently taking 3 upper division physics courses every quarter while balancing 10-20 hours of research per week. I would like to learn more computer science, so I wanted to take a couple of CS classes for a Pass/No Pass grade without stressing about my GPA. Would Grad Schools frown upon the idea of taking CS classes for P/NP grades? I feel like my reason is justified, and the CS courses are not a part of my major, but they could potentially relate to it as a needed skill.


texts:
How would you cite the content of an archive file?

Inside this zipfile (141MB, if you care to download), there is a notes-file (in the split directory) which contains some useful information. It belongs to several papers, yet this information is a detail I have not found in the papers.

I previously asked at tex.stackexchange, where @Johannes_B recommended to better ask here. Google for citation archive etc. did not yield results. Or should it just be left alone and not cited?

As @earthling said

  If you are unsure, cite it to be safe.

This relates to How should I cite presentation slides?, yet unlike that question, this data is publicly available and meant to be accessed.


texts:
Most Comp Sci MS programs in the US require certain undergrad core prerequisites in order for a non-CS major undergraduate to be considered for admission (usually 4 or 5 including data structures, discrete math, computer systems, etc).
If an applicant has all but one or two of these on their transcript when they apply to MS programs (e.g. late fall 2020), but plans to take the rest of the core in the semester following the application deadline (e.g. spring 2021), will their application still be taken seriously?
Is it worth mentioning plans to take the rest of the core in the statement of purpose?


texts: Unsolicited request for a scientific collaboration

texts:
I have a research problem in an area of Mathematics. There is mathematician whose domain of expertise is very near to the subject of my problem.

I read frequently his works, he probably doesn't know me. But it is possible that he has seen some of my works. He is a senior mathematician. I am junior.

Anyway we don't know each other and because of geographical and other considerations, I don't think we have the occasion to meet each other in a conference or workshop in new future. I am scientifically isolated in my country as nobody works in my area, finding funds for participating in conferences and workshops is also very difficult. So the only possibility of a collaboration that I envisage is doing by email.

I am very optimistic that my problem interests him and if we collaborate, the result would be very fruitful. I have had some experiences to do scientific collaboration with some people that I knew by email. But the story with this mathematician is different because we don't know each other personally.

I feel that sending an email saying that  my name is X and I am interested in the question Y, I would be glad if you are interested to work on this problem  is not perhaps the best approach.

What is the best strategy to maximize the chance of starting a scientific collaboration with him?  How I can formulate my request of doing a scientific collaboration with him? Is it wise to 'reveal' my problem while I don't know if there is a chance of collaboration?


texts: Has the pandemic changed opportunities for graduate funding for on-line PhDs?

texts:
In the past, I wanted to start a part-time PhD in History, but due to my geographic location and unwillingness to move, I realized there were no funding for a student like me. Usually if students want to study a PhD on-line, it required self-funding, which means $30k out of pocket minimum. Everyone advised me that, if I wanted to get funding for my PhD, I'd have to study it on-campus in a traditional format.
Given the pandemic has shaken up higher education somewhat, is this a situation I should revisit?
Is it now very common for students to receive a research fellowship to fund one's online PhD?


texts: While applying to masters programs, how important is GPA of unrelated under-graduation?

texts:
For example: I'll soon apply for masters in Statistical Machine Learning after 4 years of relevant work experience. I've done under-graduation in Electrical Engineering from a highly reputed Indian university, obtained poor grades however.

I wanted to understand if admission committee emphasizes GPA in unrelated program when I have considerable work experience in field I'm applying to.


texts: What is the difference between a college and a university?

texts: What is the difference between an institution calling itself a "college" or a "university"? For example, take the "University College London". Is it a college? A university? Both? What does it mean?


texts: Why do conferences have such short page limits?

texts:
These days, most of the conferences I attend provide their proceedings on a USB stick, or online only. Yet at the same time they have a strict page limit, which is usually set to something between 4 and 8 pages. I'm curious about the rationale for such a small limit. This is probably something that varies between fields, although I've experienced it in more than one field myself (subfields of artificial intelligence and physics). It doesn't seem particularly limited to big conferences.

I realise that super-long papers would hard on the reviewers, who have to do a lot of work for a large conference. But on the other hand, a very short paper will have to leave out a lot of background and important information, which at best will make it difficult to read, and at worst will make it impossible to judge on its merits. It's also a lot more effort to write a four-page paper than a 10-page one, unless you happen to be presenting a single experimental result using an established methodology (which is rarely if ever the case in artificial intelligence and related fields).

Looking at conference proceedings from the 1950s through to the early 1980s, it seems that proceedings papers were generally much longer. As an extreme example, I know of one that's over 100 pages (it's quite a famous paper and the length seems worth it), but up to 20 pages doesn't seem uncommon. In the '90s the standard seems to have been 10 pages, at least in subfields of computer science. Although there's obviously selection bias involved, these old papers don't seem particularly longer than they need to be, and their length allows them to make rather deeper points than could be made in a modern 4-page paper.

I'd like to know the reasoning behind short page limits at conferences. Is there a school of thought that says these extreme limits lead to better-quality papers, and/or less work for the reviewers? Or is it just a holdover from the recent past, when big conferences were expected to provide a paper proceedings to every participant, who would then have to carry the whole thing home?


texts: Has anyone here tried this alternative peer review platform 'Peerage of Science'?

texts:
I have just learnt about the details of this platform, located below:
https://www.peerageofscience.org

I am interested in trying out but none of my colleagues has experimented this platform. I am worried whether this would delay my publication process or end up limiting my options of journals (my 1st choice journal is not in their list but I could appreciate trying out one of their options). Or even if this is seen with good eyes by my peers.

Please anyone here who has submitted a paper to this website, or followed such a submission, could you please share details of your experience?


texts: Is it polite to ask for acknowledgement of transcript received at university

texts:
I have been offered admission in one of the top Canadian University. After admission I have sent them my transcripts from India. This transcripts were supposed to reach by 23 May but I have no acknowledgement from their side. Should I ask for the acknowledgement from them?

Another important issue, although, in Letter of Acceptance they have specifically mentioned "Accepted" but they have also added the condition of receiving transcripts. Will this be an issue for obtaining study permit?


texts: Asking a colleague for his submitted paper

texts:
A colleague just told me about a paper he submitted to a conference, I'd love to have a look at his work out of curiosity.

How can I ask without him thinking I'm off to steal his ideas or something?