texts: Art Major to Physics/Applied Mathematics, Advise?

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Firstly, I'm yet unfamiliar with the query conventions specific to this stack exchange. If I've improperly tagged or placed this question, such that it need be closed or held, I apologize.

Continuing, I'll be brief (To be so, I will mostly omit the anecdotal lead. At anyone's request, however, I'm more than happy to explain.*):

I'm 21. I dropped out of art school during 2016, have graduated high school in 2015, returning in 2017, getting expelled a week later, enrolling in community college classes a few months later, dropping out some weeks later, enrolling at and attending a second art school in 2018 (spring semester), flunking out of my financial aid and scholarship.

A series of events brought me to physics and mathematics. Manic obsession mildly describes my rapture.

I have dreams, lurid, about sequent calculus. I'm a quite, quite well-practiced autodidact. I read a lot. Springer's (among many others') Graduate Texts in physics, mathematics, computer science. I have exhausted all of MIT's Open Courseware offered for physics and mathematics at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

I have realized only how little I know, how far I've still to go -- the limits of autodidactic way.

I have pre-calculus -- twice. I have never taken a physics class. (1: Understanding MIT's 'open courseware,' by some, are considered 'course', I'm using the term strictly for that of a credit granting environment).

I need to earn a PhD. I need to participate.

The dilemma: Getting in the door. I, no matter how competent or incompetent, have nothing to show for it. I'm clearly not a competitive candidate (if not an all together joke) for any undergraduate program of the formal and/or physical sciences.

The question(s): how, given these circumstances, can I (be it conventionally or unconventionally) become competitive (at the undergraduate level of the US college system)? If that is too subjective - where might I find resources, if they exist, that will best allow me to answer (successfully) the above question?

I acknowledge the difficulty, and surrender to the patience it will doubtlessly require.

Thanks much for your time.

p.s. again, autobiographic details by request


texts: Expelled from undergrad university for poor academic performance, can I go back there (years later) for Masters?

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I want to obtain a masters degree at a certain top university (in Canada).

However, I was kicked out of the department due to my bad performance. Repeated attempts at getting back in were unsuccessful.

I have since then fixed my lack of discipline, achieved top grades at a "lesser" university, graduated with a bachelor's degree, and have worked (in a relevant field) for 7 years.

I was wondering how, or if I should even consider applying to my original university.

The reason is purely for my self confidence and, I guess, my ego. I got into that top university with excellent grades, but I was not ready to become an independent adult; computer games dominated my life until my final semester when I finally couldn't hang on anymore.

Graduating with top grades at another university showed that I picked myself up, but I want to prove to my family, the university, and mostly to myself, that I have the abilities to achieve what I could not 7 years ago.

The university is the top university at the field I study, in Canada. US have a couple comparable or better ones, but I cannot afford to go to those...

I know I can apply to another university, but I really want to find a way back in to my old university, and only apply elsewhere if no other options are available...

Any advice is fully appreciated.

Update:
Clarification - I am asking this because that university has my status listed as "may not continue in Faculty"


texts: Why do universities require international students to show language proficiency?

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For example, Let's say an American person wants to attend a French university F. F explicitly states that French is the main language of instruction. Why would they require the student to take a language proficiency test for admission? Any prospective student should be aware that he or she has to know French in order to follow the lectures or when taking oral/written exams. Why don't they simply trust the student? And when he or she thinks to attend even without knowing one single French word, then it's his or her own fault. (And it doesn't even matter if it is undergraduate or graduate school)

There are 4 spoken languages in Switzerland (mainly German, French and Italian) and all Swiss students can take an exchange semester at another Swiss university. Swiss universities don't require for example a French-speaking person to show German language proficiency, if he or she wants to attend a German-speaking university. They explicitly state that it's in a student's own responsibility to know German (in this case)


texts: Am I reading enough of the scientific literature? Should I read for breadth or depth?

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Ever since starting graduate school I've tried to make scientific reading a part of my daily ritual; I track pages read using Beeminder, and the graph doesn't lie.  It keeps me honest.

I aim to closely read and summarize 5 pages per day and skim a few other abstracts besides that.  I spend about half my time looking at data and figures which doesn't contribute to my daily "page count."  When I'm reading about a new topic these five pages can take several hours, but on topics I have more background in five pages might only take an hour per day.

I guess since everybody defines "read" in a different way it's hard to get an objective answer about how much reading is enough.  How much people read seems like a bit of a sensitive topic among real-life colleagues because everyone has a bit of anxiety that they aren't reading enough.  But for those further along in their academic path, I'd like to hear how you approached the literature early in your graduate school career and what you think is a sufficient amount.

I guess this all distills down into two main topics:

When deciding what to read each day, should I focus on depth or breadth?

Is five pages of close reading per day enough?  I know it doesn't sound like much, but it takes significant mental energy to meet that goal.  And consistently reading 5 pages per day adds up to a lot over time.

Edited to add: I mostly read about petrology, volcanology, structural geology, and tectonics if that makes a difference.  By "page" I mean "page of text" so if I'm reading a structural geology paper with lots of maps and figures I discount for those and a "ten page" paper becomes a 5 page paper for my purposes.


texts: How seriously will "related" areas be considered?

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In ads about faculty positions, I often read phrases like "We are seeking candidates with interests in X, Y, and Z, but other related areas will also be considered"

In such cases, do candidates not specialized in X, Y or Z have a chance? Or how "exceptional" do they have to be in order to have a chance?


texts: What should I do if I think that my former supervisor has published our results without citation or acknowledgment?

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A few years ago I worked in a lab as a visiting researcher (something like internship). As the result, I had to write a short report which at that moment didn't look like a proper paper.
Recently I've discovered that my supervisor literally 3 months after my leave decided to present a conference paper with the results of, well, our work (at least I think that these two documents contain the same idea).

I do prefer to keep my old works and emails so that I can always check and find something. It seems that I sent a copy to my supervisor and the paper was submitted approximately one month later.

Since it's not so common, I've asked my former supervisor already and I've got a reply "What are you talking about?". Now I'm confused and feel a bit stupid because I might be wrong as well.

I've checked related questions:
Is it plagiarism for my thesis advisor to publish a paper using content from my thesis without citation?
What should I do if my master's advisor used a figure from my thesis in a publication without citation or acknowledgment?
and I need to clarify my problem a bit. The idea of the project came from my supervisor, I was needed as a person to read a lot of papers and to do a lot of routine calculations (6 months(!)).

Is there anything I can do now? It's not like I care now about a conference paper, however, at that moment I was looking for a PhD position and all professors kept asking me about my publications and results of my internship.
And I've sent that letter already.


texts: What should I reply to professor so that he will be convinced to provide me fund for international internship?

texts: Professor replied me this:"To start with the practicalities, do you have funding to support a trip to the UK, or would you need financial support?"


texts: Finishing a PhD while working at a community college

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I'm a PhD student that just finished my first year in graduate school. The University I am at will only fund me if I work as a TA.

There is a community college in the area which I have a long working relationship with. The full time instructors are paid more than I am. They also get 6 credit hours per semester of paid graduate tuition at the university.

I am considering going back to work at the college after I get my masters degree to have some more control over my life while continuing to work on my PhD.

My question is whether anyone on this site knows someone who has done this or has done this themselves? If so what were the worst and best aspects of the situation?


texts: Description of developed algorithm as part of method or result section?

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Writing my master thesis about the "Development and Assessment" of an algorithm, I'm wondering where the in-depth description of the individual modules of the algorithm and their functions belongs. Right now, the method section contains this part along with the metrics and scenarios used to evaluate its performance.

But is the developed algorithm not actually a part of the results?
Would it maybe work if I break the method section apart, as such:

Intro
Algorithm
Evaluation
Results

...


texts: Is there such thing as "paper dump conference"? If yes, what actually is it?

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A couple of weeks ago, out of the ordinary, I was in the company of a few academics from respectable universities. A graduate student mentioned that he was invited to something called "ICIT 2015" to present his Master's thesis. One of those professors said something along the line of:

  If it is your first attempt at publishing something, then go for it. However, I usually highly advise against attending such events to present your papers. They're nothing but paper dumps. Within the time frame of two days, nearly 1500 people are expected to present their papers. You're given 10-20 minutes present your work to 1-2 people and have your picture taken. These events are merely created just so you can say and put on your CV that you've spoken at a conference and published a paper. Most of the time, the review process is horrible, and the PhD-level papers can be barely accepted as Bachelor-level theses in any respectable university.

Immediately after he finished talking, two other professors agreed with him and shared a couple of anecdotes on that particular conference and another one.

I looked at the conference's website, and it seems to confirm some of what the professor had said, but I cannot find anything on the review process or the "quality" of the papers.

I spent quite a bit of time trying to find any reference to such "paper dump conferences", but I had no success. Were those people just being snobs or is there some truth to what they said?

Disclaimer: I'm very far from academia and just looking to learn more and understand this a little better, so excuse me if it seems like I have no clue what I'm talking about. Also, this "paper dump" might have another name in English as I'm providing a direct translation from another language.


texts: How to address a mistake in an old paper in a very prestigious scientific journal?

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A Nature paper published in 2000 currently has around 400 citations, but there is a mistake in the paper and surprisingly, still it gets citations. The mistake affects the result of the paper in a way that half of the arguments in the paper are invalid.

I warned the authors two years ago and they confirmed the mistake. I expected them to put some announcement that there is a mistake in the paper to avoid misleading researchers, but unfortunately they have not done so.

How should we address these situations? Should we send a comment and report it to the editor? Is it rude? Or should we simply dismiss it because it is an old paper?


texts: Summary of contributions for reference letters

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Pretty much all the profs I'm asking for a letter from I've done a fair amount of research under. However, I haven't spoken to a couple of these profs for a few of months and considering how busy they are I wouldn't be surprised if they've mostly forgotten about the specifics of what I did. So I thought it might be a good idea to attach a document summarizing my work with them when I ask for a letter, and I found a couple of other sites that suggested doing the same thing.

For this document, I was wondering if it would be a better idea to give a detailed page or so long description of everything I did or 5-6 bullet points summarizing my main contributions. The obvious benefit of the former is that I get to remind them of the details of everything I did, but it comes at the risk of them not wanting to read so much and pretty much ignoring the document.

For people who have done this in the past/planning on doing this now, what does your summary's format look like and how long/detailed is it?


texts: Can I get a PhD in artificial intelligence with a pure mathematics background?

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I am currently finishing my master in pure mathematics. I've studied mainly logic, mathematical analysis a bit of probability and I'm writing my thesis about Riemannian Geometry. I've been thinking about doing a PhD, but I am not so sure if I really want (and if I am good enough) to stay in the Academia for all my life.

Even if I don't know anything about, I find the Artificial Intelligence field really fascinating but I know that my current background is inadequate.

Do you think I could get I PhD in that area (possibly using also my mathematical background)?

And what kind of career path could I follow after? I mean, is it easy to find a job related to AI?


texts: Can I put my accepted paper on arXiv before it appears on the proceedings

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I have a paper accepted to appear in a CS conference proceedings,
Is it possible to put it on an on-line archive,
such as "arXiv" before the conference date?
Could I at least publish the pre-print?

EDIT:
The conference chair did not ask me to sign any copyrights form!


texts: When changing fields from undergrad to PhD, which department should recommendation letters come from?

texts: I am a physics undergrad who has worked with profs mostly on areas in Quantum field theory, string theory. However, my interests have changed slightly over the areas, and now I want to pursue a PhD in Pure Mathematics, perhaps in algebraic geometry or topology. Is it OK, if I apply for a math grad school with recommendation letters from physics profs, or would this diminish my chances to get selected? Should the recommendation letter be given by a prof working in the same area as that you want to apply to?


texts: Prior thesis examiners as potential future journal article referees?

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I'm in the process of preparing a manuscript submission for consideration with a particular journal.

The article is an adaption of a portion of one of my thesis chapters. My thesis has not been formerly published in any manner in accordance with my country's copyright/publication practices with doctoral theses. While I've rewritten the majority of this article to fit the theme of the journal and become 'self-contained,' the hard data and some of the analysis is the same.

For this particular article and journal, a former thesis examiner of mine would be an ideal reviewer to list on the cover letter as having specialised expertise in the topic area. It is quite a 'niched' but also interdisciplinary topic which makes it difficult to locate potential reviewers, and this particular reviewer covers all of the interdisciplinary topics with their expertise. They have also written previous articles on this topic for this same journal, and I do draw on their work heavily throughout, so an editor might think to send this out to them regardless of whether I put their name down, or might think I don't know who the experts are in the field if I don't put their name down and this could hinder my chances.

My question(s) (knowing that editors don't always go with recommended reviewers):

1. Can I/Should I still list this person as a potential reviewer even though they have previously examined something very similar in my thesis? They will undoubtedly know that it is my work they are reviewing which means it will not be a blind review.

2. Should I list them as not reviewing my work, not because they are not capable, but because they examined something similar in my thesis and it will therefore not be a blind review?

3. Should I not list them and hope for the best?

4. If 2 is preferable, what would be the appropriate way to state this? Would something like the below be appropriate:

  Blockquote *I acknowledge that ________would be an ideal reviewer, having an expertise in the intersectionality and main focus of this piece. However,________was one of my doctoral thesis examiners (of which this piece is adapted from) and would recognise the data and some of the analysis as being my work.

Any help or input would be appreciated!


texts: Is there anything a student could or should do about a professor who gives lectures so dry that less than 10% of the class turn up?

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He's clearly a very nice man, but his delivery is reasonably monotonous, and his lecture material is reams and reams of definitions and rules.

I make sure to attend every lecture, and try my best to concentrate, but do find I have had to use other sources (generally online) to be able to answer the questions he sets.

All my peers that I have asked, say they find him very boring.


texts: How to address the person being recommended in a recommendation letter?

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How should one "address" the person for whom I am writing a recommendation letter in the letter?

Scenario:

I have known John Doe for many years and am familiar with his work. We address each other on a first name basis. I've been asked to write a letter supporting John's application. When I write about him, should I write

  Dr [or Mr, in case of undergraduates] Doe's works are well-written ...

or can I get away with

  John's works are well-written ...

Personally I feel a bit strange writing Dr Doe for someone I know so well, but I wonder if it is better to err on the more formal side?

For what it is worth, the field is Mathematics. And for future reference, I do not want to limit the question to a particular level of application (for graduate school, fellowships, or for jobs); I suspect that shouldn't make a difference in the answer, but if it does, feel free to indicate.


texts: Put a forward reference in the introduction

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I'm currently writing a paper and in the introduction I have something in this vein :

  [...] Algorithms of this type have the following characteristics (we
  discuss this in Section 6). [...] The paper is structured as follows
  [...] In Section 6, we [...]

I was wondering, is it okay to put a forward reference like this, even before describing what Section 6 is about in the outline at the end of the introduction (In Section 6, we [...])? Or is it considered bad practice?


texts: Cheating tendencies for open- versus closed-book online exams

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Like many faculty, I am forced to give online exams for the first time this semester.  (See I need help adapting my academic workflow to the COVID-19/coronavirus crisis – where do I start? for some related questions, though this question seems new.)   I am being recommended to do various things like include an integrity pledge (honor code), make them timed, not use proctoring software, employ critical thinking questions, and make them open book.  I plan to do the first 4, but my question is about the latter.

Namely, I have been thinking about various possibilities for what they are allowed to use for there exam.  One could do any of the following, as well as some things in between: no resources, open book but nothing else, open book and personal notes and homeworks, open notes only, open book+notes+internet.  I personally am leaning towards open book only.  Now I can easily imagine that people would be more likely to cheat on a no resources exam versus open everything, and I imagine there are also differences compared to something like open book only.  However, I have no idea to what extent there are differences (both in percentage of cheating and types of cheating), especially assuming things like time limits and honor codes.

Question: Have there been any studies about the differences in students' tendencies to cheat on non-proctored exams based on allowed resource materials?

I am not looking for personal speculation, but scientific studies, e.g., something like in this answer about a study on honor codes and cheating.  I do not require the studies to include things like an honor code component, but it would be a plus.  Even a basic study justifying universities' guidelines to make exams open book would be of interest.


texts: Classifying talk at fellowship research conferece

texts: During my doctoral program, I won a national fellowship. A requirement of receiving the fellowship was to attend a research conference where all fellows presented their research. I'm now filling out a questionnaire for  federal research position that asks about invited talks. I don't really consider the graduate conference to be as prestigious as a true invited talk, but I'm debating whether it could technically and ethically be regarded as an invited talk.


texts: Is it better to apply to a less prestigeous PhD Program, or do research for a year and reapply?

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Should I consider applying to mid-tier schools? Or will I have better long-term success by working or doing research for a year and re-applying to top-tier schools? I don't want to be a professor, I just want to be an expert in my field and then do research in industry. How much does the institution you attend actually matter?

Details about my situation:
I am a senior at Worcester Polytechnic Institute currently applying to PhD programs in machine learning and robots. 3.98 GPA, two grad classes, a few research projects with professors, one publication as first author at a tiny workshop, and some solid internship experiences. I am planning to apply to MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Georgia Tech, and CMU. I think I am a competitive applicant, but I also know that those schools are insanely hard to get in to in my field. I'm planning for the event I don't get into one of these top schools.

Clarification:
If I end up taking a year before grad school, I would be doing research at a company (Uber) or getting a research internship at a university lab somewhere (not sure how or where).


texts: What should I do if funding announcements aren't made until after the acceptance deadline?

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I was admitted to a US PhD Math program but funding letter was nowhere to be seen. Apparently, they send out funding letter separately.

When I inquired about funding they told me that funding offers go out anytime until July, but our class starts in August so I found that a little bit weird.

I get a feeling that they do not fund all PhD students. What should I do? It would be nice to know asap if they are even going to fund me but I don't think they are in a hurry either. This is my preferred college but I don't want to go if they aren't going to fund me.

Edit: Here are many examples of accepted but not funded yet. I just don't know what my outcome will be.


texts: Does the GDPR entitle students to see their recommendation letters?

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If I am correctly informed, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) entitles any EU and EEA citizen to have right of access of any data stored about them (and non-EU/EEA citizens such access to data stored about them by organizations inside the EU/EEA). This clearly includes recommendation letters which in some form or another must be linked to their identity.

This probably changes the signaling value of recommendation letters so this should be of interest to both reference letter writers and applicants.

A side question would be whether this includes reference letters written before the GDPR went into force.


texts: How can a layman easily get the consensus view of what academia *thinks* about a subject?

texts:
I'm a total layman, but sometimes I have really random specific questions, like What does science say about the transfer of learning, or what is the distribution of different of sexual fetishes in the population, or what do we know about how English warbow training evolved, etc.

Honestly, I'm a total noob, sometimes I find interesting things in google scholar by using it kinda like google but usually, I don't. If I'm very lucky a science journalist has written something on it, but often they don't and even when they do they can totally mislead, especially the popular ones.


texts: How to visit an institute when looking for job?

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I am a lab technician (microbiology & molecular biology) and biology student, and I am currently seeking for job in some institutes in the UK. After sending my CVs to the HR departments, I usually got some replies with acknowledgement, or pointing to the institute's vacancies webpage, etc.
Now I would like to be more proactive, and I feel like it would be good to visit some labs in person, meet the group leaders and other researchers, learn more about their research, and see how I could fit in these groups with my expertise. I expect this to be more efficient than sending CVs to the HR, as team leaders could know about me, and consider more seriously to hire me in their labs.

My questions are, is this kind of visit possible at all? How much I need to organise it, can it be kind of spontaneous? I know there are some other institutes elsewhere, where it is accepted, and they are happy if somebody just pops in to the lab to meet people and learn more about their work. Might this attitude be general? I am afraid they will find me intrusive. And how I should organise a visit, should I write to HR, or to the team leaders, or just drop in, say hello, telling that I can return later if the time is not appropriate?


texts: How much does extracurricular matter for admission to PhD program in Computer Science?

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I graduated with a B.S. in "Computer & Information Sciences" from a small, insignificant liberal arts school. My overall CGPA was 3.86 and my major CGPA was 3.80. Average GPA, but I am worried about the quality of my studies, not the quantity. During my undergraduate studies I put just enough work into the CS classes to get the grade, and not any more. And I am guessing it is much harder to maintain such GPAs at state universities with more rigorous programs.

I have no extracurricular work to show: never participated in projects, and never done real research work.

Can I still apply to decent PhD programs? Will any PhD programs consider me seriously?

Thank you!


texts: My ex employer wants me to draft my own reference letter to the MSc program, is it unethical?

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I submitted my application for a MSc program and one of my referees was declined this week by the department. Because this was so sudden from the department and I had to find someone who is willing to write me a reference letter in 3 days notice, I asked my previous employer to write me one.
My employer told me to simply draft my own letter and send it back to him so he can upload it !

is it unethical? the rejection of my initial referee was sudden and none of my old professors would remotely agree to write me a letter in two days notice. I don't want to commit anything wrong that could compromise my candidancy.


texts: Pros and cons of publishing in a journal not indexed in SCI but under ESCI?

texts: A Journal is indexed in Scopus and Web of Science. But under Web of science it is under Emerging sources citation index and not under SCI or SCI expanded. What are the pros and cons of publishing in it if you are a serious researcher looking for phd admission? Its not predatory for sure and no charges for author whats so ever. Its also from a reputed publisher. The feild is applied mathematics


texts: Reviewers Conflict of interest: failing manuscript to possibly keep dominance

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A biomedical research area is led worldwide by a certain research group in a particular famous university. They are very productive and advanced, with numerous postgraduate students worldwide, with whom they keep cooperating after their PhDs are finished. They also cooperate with other important universities that have entered their research area. They were basically the pioneers in their area, and put in the public domain some data that is a reference in the field.

Anyone submitting a paper in the same research area will:

Use their vast data set (public domain).
Have reviewers assigned that belong to, or have belonged to this group.

I accuse these reviewers of systematically rejecting the manuscripts they review, in order to:

Bulldoze other groups' advances in the field, thus keeping their dominance.
Get their own postgrads working on the ideas of the papers they are reviewing, where a strategy of taking too long to review (and reject) the papers fits well.

What can I do, in order to overcome this predicament?

Of course most of the magazines allow for the authors to list a set of people they would prefer not having as reviewers, but in this case this group contains many researchers, scattered around the world, and there seems to exist a great level of cooperative work and well established alliances.


texts: Is there such a thing as too much work for a Master's Thesis?

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My thesis  (Canadian Research Based, Computer Science), collects three separate research projects (with a tenuous connecting thread).

While collating these projects into a single document, I have looked into other theses coming out of my university and others in my field, and have realized that it's looking like my thesis is going to be very large. Probably twice the average length of others in my field.

Which makes me wonder: Did I do too much work for a thesis? Should I have pushed my supervisor, cancelled the final proposed project (#3) and graduated on the strength of the first two?

I'll be graduating 6 months after my target deadline, with multiple publications, and so burnt out that my initial plan to pursue a PhD has collapsed. Can't change the past, so I'm asking here mostly out of curiosity, and for other future students.


texts: How will study as a non-degree student affect my graduate admissions chances later?

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I am considering applying to a computer science department at an esteemed US university, university A, as a non-degree seeking student. The reason is three-fold:

Determine if what I'm studying is truly what I want to do.
Do well in the classes to improve my chances of being accepted to their MS program in the near future.
Make connections with profs who might be a good academic/research advisor.

My goal is to eventually apply to a PhD program at university B.

Will the non-degree option help my chances at being accepted to university A's MS program?

Will the non-degree option hurt my chances at being accepted to university B's PhD program? Will they need to know about the non-degree if I'm eventually accepted to the degree option?


texts: How did conferences "work" before the e-mail era?

texts:
Some friends and I were discussing a certain conference that has a "rebuttal" phase, in which the authors can see the reviews and reply to them. We realized that this rebuttal phase probably couldn't happen before e-mail was common, which lead us to think on the question

  How did conferences "work" before everybody had e-mails?

I don't know about other fields, but in computer-science, some of the conferences are dated to early 60's. Back then there was no email and internet (were fax machines common enough?).

I have plenty of questions about how the process worked back then:

How did one submit a paper? (I assume one had to print the paper and mail it? Was the "deadline" determined by the post-date, or maybe there was no deadline?)
How did one get the reviews back, if at all?
Where did one send his paper? To the program chair? How did the reviewers get a copy of the paper (I assume the chair would first need to look at the abstracts and then assign to other PC members/reviewers? or maybe the entire committee would get copies of all the papers, and there was no sub-reviewing?)
How much time did the entire process take (seems like the overhead of mail adds quite a lot to the already-long process)

(maybe I'm taking it all wrong, and conferences back then were not peer-reviewed, and anyone that came could give a talk??)

Some things that I (think that I) know, and might help to complete the atmosphere of 'making science without the supporting technology':

How would the program committee make the decision? - they'd meet in some place together, and decide.. Which means that one had to travel quite a lot to be on a committee.
Proceedings were sent to print months after the conference, so they actually described what had happened during the conference.
Presentations were done using a projector and transparent slides (it's funny to think about it..)


texts: Year abroad in a country with low coursework standards: Am I sabotaging my future career?

texts:
I am an Economics student, with an interest in Statistics and Data analysis. I recently started my graduate studies, attending a M.Sc. in Economic and Social Sciences at Bocconi University (Milan). The program offers the chance to spend a year at the Graduate School of Economics of Keio University (Tokyo), obtaining a Double Degree (i.e., a Master's Degree in Economics from both universities).

Last year (at the end of my Bachelor), I attended an exchange semester in Korea and I loved the experience. I was challenged by courses that I liked (mainly in Statistics) and enjoyed the exchange student life in East-Asia, with all that comes with it. After coming back to Italy, I am dreaming of moving to Asia for a longer period of time. I am currently studying Chinese and, if I have the chance, I would love to at least spend part of my future career in this part of the world. So I decided to apply for the Double Degree mentioned above.

Now, here comes my dilemma. Talking with my classmates (including those who studied at Keio in previous years), I have heard that attending a year in Japan would not be recommended for someone who wants to pursue a Ph.D. afterwards. The reason is, in short, that Japanese classes are easy compared to the school I currently attend. Apparently, Japanese students have an easy life during their uni years, and so spending a whole year there would disadvantage me when applying for a Ph.D. program in the future.

Although I am not sure about how I want to continue my studies, I also don't want to sabotage any potential application to a good Ph.D. program. Also because, I suppose, my area of specialization (namely, Statistics and Machine Learning) would require such a program for better future career prospects. I have thought of ways in which I could "keep up" with my classmates, e.g. self-studying anything that I would "miss out on" by going to Japan (making use of the good amount of free time I would have there). But would this convince an admission board?

Finally, this choice clashes with personal life as well, since my girlfriend lives in Korea and, by staying in Japan for a year, we would be able to see each other more frequently (we have talked about this). I feel like I am required to make a choice between my personal future goals (i.e. living in Asia) and my career ambitions (i.e. keeping doors open for the future).

I would like to know the advice of more experienced people on this.


texts: How much should I worry about British spelling when submitting to a U.K. journal?

texts: I'm in the U.S. and have always written in American English. I will be submitting a paper to a U.K. journal for the first time. To conform to British spelling, I've changed the Microsoft Word dictionary to U.K. English, which has caught most of the obvious differences . Even so, I'm worried that it will miss some of the differences listed here and here.  Is this even worth worrying about? Will being lazier about spelling hurt the chances for my paper's acceptance?


texts: Which articles don't need experimental results?

texts:
I see that every paper which propose (present) something (new) (over existing methods) should possess an experimental result section and some tables and figures and numbers. Some papers may be rejected if they don't follow this format regardless what they are going to say. They may are needed for the evaluation of the method or comparison of it with the related methods.

I myself, when read some papers, based on the arguments in them, propose a new or more general techniques which covers their shortcomings. Or I may  propose a new formalism or tool which can be shown that is novel or useful.

However, providing some experimental results for them is not always easy. Some measures should be defined and samples should be gathered to get some statistics ( for something that you know works in practice). In fact some times, I don't know how can I offer such results or whether it is necessary or not.

Then, I would like to know which type of researches need those quantities and tables and diagrams?

Or in the other words, which articles don't need a results section? How can I write or put my arguments to show that it doesn't need further evaluation.

I give some examples to show my problems (first I should say my filed of study is computer science):

There are some grammar or annotation scheme to build a linguistic corpora for English, there is no such corpora for Persian, I justified a similar scheme for building such a corpora for Persian based on the language features, Should I provide (experimental) results?
I developed a software which filter a webpage and remove noise and reformat the content to enhance readability and comprehension for non native English speakers ..... I used the results of another article on reading comprehension which didn't implement a web tool for their foundings.. Should I provide (experimental) results?
There is an algorithm for converting a linguistic corpora specially designed for English language, I generalized it to cover some other languages and justified that with some arguments, should I provide results?
I proposed a formalism for extraction rules for a data extractor from webpages, I provided many examples how it works, and how it is more robust, understandable and easier to use and based on previous tools and methods and how it borrowed their features ..., should I provide (experimental) results?
......


texts: How much do graduate schools in Mathematics care about the Statement of Purpose?

texts: Can a 'bad' SOP keep you out of a program? Can a 'good' SOP help you? Can the SOP only hurt you?


texts: How can I make sure that my paper's work is unique?

texts:
I am trying to write a research papers that applies the ELK stack to visualise social media data (twitter API). How can I make sure that my work was not done by someone else before? I searched in different repositories for the two titles but did not find any paper that deals with them combined. How can I assure my work is contributing in that area?

My professor is really busy person outside the campus and I can't meet him regularly so emails is the only way that I keep him informed about the progress, once I asked this question he answered, "we'll get the answer when conference reviewers send you the feedback."

Isn't that too late? How should I proceed?


texts: How to download references to database that a paper includes and all articles that cite the paper?

texts:
I have some papers for which I want to somehow download an easily manipulated (CSV, Excel) list of references and list of papers which cited the given paper.

On Google Scholar, one can see a "Cited By" option, but there is no way to download this list in bulk. Also, there is no option to get the list of references that the paper made. Although one can look at the paper itself for this information, I'd want a way to get these as a CSV or Excel.

Is there any way to do this?


texts: Do community colleges have good math libraries?

texts: Do community colleges have good mathematics libraries (with advanced books)? I am sure that it is different from place to place. I am interested to get some feeling of the general situation.


texts: How can I find out if someone really holds a doctoral degree?

texts:
We're currently interviewing candidates at my company and I'd like to verify if some of them really have the academic degrees they claim. One in particular claims a doctoral degree from a German university.

I've contacted the university, and the dean wrote back saying that they could not provide this information without the written consent of the individual.

I found this policy rather odd; I would have thought that the granting of a doctoral degree was public information. Is this normal? Is there anything else I can do to find out?

I obtained from the library a copy of the thesis in question but it was in German. I also found through Google a spreadsheet which appears to be a list of dissertations published by that university, but it is unclear whether these are doctoral dissertations or not. The person in question and his dissertation are in that list.


texts:
I have found on Reddit and other forums discussing factors that effect one's admission and it is often stated that research along with letters of recommendation from supervisors can play a huge role; what would be the weight of internships held at top Tech and Finance companies with letters of recommendations from managers?
I am specifically asking about grad school (masters) admissions in North America in the field of Quantum Computing/Quantum System Engineering.


texts: Which is the more competitive path to grad school for mathematics?

texts:
I am an undergraduate student studying mathematics at a well regarded university in the United States and am wondering which of these two (for the sake of simplicity, I recognize it's not so simple in reality) strategies is better for getting into grad school, in the US or abroad.

Option 1: Play it relatively safe, but staying dedicated, taking a few more classes than required for the major (a grad course or two), mastering the material, getting straight A's, maybe some light "research" or directed reading, and solid letters of recommendation. Have plenty of time to study for the GRE and do very well on it.

Option 2: Dive into more challenging work, loading on an extra class here and there (taking 2 or 3 graduate level courses, and an additional one or two challenging undergrad courses compared to the first option), earning a low A/high B average on the challenging/additional work. Also trying to get as much research type experience as possible. Probably will not have much time to study for the GRE.

What option, generally speaking, would make a math student more competitive for top Math PhD programs?

Please let me know if I should make my question more clear.

Thank you all for your time.

Edit: I think this question benefits anyone considering going to math grad school. Why are people putting this on hold? There is a popular question about romance and opinions, and yet this question is the one that's flagged by these people? There is already a wonderful answer by a mathematics professor that many people will find valuable.


texts: Benefits of being a guest editor of a journal?

texts:
In recent months, I've begun receiving invitations to serve as a "guest editor" for various journals from publishers I've worked with in the past that I believe are reputable.

I recognize that there's significant workload for such an issue and very little, if any, compensation, but I'm wondering what the benefits are for tenure-track faculty to serve in such a capacity. Is it worth the investment to do so, relative to the time required?


texts: How soon do I need to submit the reference letters? (TT job)

texts:
I'm applying for tenure-track positions for the first time (STEM). One of the schools (School A) contacted me today, saying the committee would like to see my reference letters. The application deadline for School A was only ten days ago. They did not ask for the letters up front, and I did not have a phone interview with them. So this is quite unexpected.
I contacted my references only last week, told them I am applying for the TT jobs. All of my references already told me that they could write my letters by the first week of December.
Would it be too late if I submit the letters to School A in early December? It's not easy for me to ask the references to write the letters sooner.
Thanks!


texts: What can I do if my collaborator is enthusiastic, but their PhD student is not?

texts:
I am collaborating with a professor (and thus one of his PhD students). The professor likes me and my idea, but the same cannot be said about the PhD student.

The PhD student takes much longer than he normally would to do simple tasks which are essential for the project, and regularly points out flaws in the research design. Every research has its limitations, and I agree those are limitations, but I don't agree that they are nearly as severe as they are made out to be.

If interpreted generously, the PhD student is less enthusiastic about the project. If interpreted harshly, the PhD student is actually trying to sabotage the project.

Obviously I only want to complain to the professor as a last resort. What can I do to make the PhD student more enthusiastic?


texts: Why is discrimination based on citizenship allowed in PhD funding in the UK?

texts:
This question is specifically aiming at the UK PhD admission system.

Having spent roughly 6 years in the UK - 2 years A-Level and 4 years undergraduate, I am now moving forward into applying for PhD programs. To my surprise, I discovered that I would have to face a lot of difficulties regarding my eligibility for funding.

Most of the funding I applied for were strictly 'UK/EU citizens only', and it is rare to have full funding for international students. I have applied to a lot of places, and received a lot of responses in the form of "... you are a good match, but I don't have funding for overseas students...".

Having chosen the UK to study with the belief that 'as long as I am competent I should be qualified for the job', the reality has really slapped back at me.

Why such discriminations are allowed in a developed country like the UK? I made this claim knowing little to nothing about the US or other countries' systems, but lots of my friends having applied to EU PhDs received their offers without being asked whether they are 'caucasians' or not.


texts: Collaborator has shared a draft paper with a significant amount of self-plagiarism. Should I say something?

texts:
I am a theoretical physics postdoc. A while ago I began collaborating with a certain group of experimentalists on a joint project. This group has a good reputation in the field and I regarded the collaboration as a good opportunity. They work at a different institution from me and I am the only person from my institution involved in the project. My boss knows about the project but was happy to let me pursue it without being involved.

I sent my collaborators some calculations a while ago, which I believed should more or less wrap up the project and bring us to a point where we could write it up. They were a long time getting back to me - so long in fact that I began to assume they had lost interest in the project - but then out of the blue they sent me a draft paper and asked for my comments.

On first reading the draft seemed good. It gives an accurate description of both the experimental and theoretical results from the project. But then I went back and read another recent paper from the same group (which I was not involved with). I then realised that several paragraphs from the draft paper were copied verbatim from this other recent paper.

The paragraphs in question are from the introduction and methods sections of the paper. The draft paper and the recently published one are closely related in subject matter and the experimental part of the work uses a lot of the same methods, so to some extent I can understand why they may have regarded it as efficient to simply copy certain parts of the text over. On the other hand, I feel uncomfortable about this degree of self-plagiarism.

Is it worth making a fuss about this? I am very much the junior partner in this collaboration and getting this paper in collaboration with this group would be helpful on my CV, at a time when I really need to find a job. So I have incentives not to rock the boat too much. On the other hand, I know some people regard self-plagiarism very badly and if my name is on the paper I will be as much to blame for it as anyone else.


texts: When sending a CV for MSc thesis, should I omit any evidence that I am not going to end up doing a PhD?

texts:
Before long, the research interests of the faculty members at the university I am at will be expressed to us with regards to MSc dissertation ideas. (I am in the computer science department at a British university.) At this point it will be up to us students to get in touch with those who interest us the most and most likely send them our CVs. The staff will then decide which students they like the most, and invite them to join the team.

This is how it works at my university, and I think most others too.

Of course, I want to maximise two things:

How interesting I find the topic, and
How esteemed the professor is, and how good he/she is in their field, and
How good a supervisor they are.

It is likely that a topic I find most interesting will also be the favoured topic by most other students - that's just basic probability and statistics.

My issue

My CV, as it stands, makes it quite clear that my career interests lie outside of the field of computer science due to the experience that I have in this external field.

Will this make me less likely to get what I want with regards to my MSc dissertation?

The faculty members are all research staff, and would likely be interested in offering exceptional students PhD opportunities. This is probably in fact their goal.

Would they be less likely to accept me onto their team if it is clear that my career interests lie elsewhere, or if it is clear that I will not be doing a PhD afterwards?

Would you suggest that I omit experience such as this from my CV, and instead include further details of my academic experience, which is physics?


texts:
What are turnaround times like in Finance, Financial Economics, Economics / Econometrics journals?

I would be among at least a 1000 other aspirants looking to publish in quality journals. There seems to be no feedback/survey about how long the review process takes and what to expect as feedback for journals in this/these fields


texts: Why are there not fewer, better funded PhDs? (In the UK)

texts:
This may seem like a naive question, but its one I've had on my mind while working through readying my applications for a PhD in the UK. It seems bizarre to me that PhDs here are not funded by default - from my point of view, a PhD is effectively a job. It is a sort of long term graduate program for working in academia. From this point of view, it seems absurd that one could end up being in a situation where they might actually have to pay to pursue one.

One possible answer is that universities are simply admitting more students than they are capable of funding. If that is the case, then why is it the case? Surely having fewer, better funded doctoral candidates would not only improve the lot of many "students" (employees, in my view), but it would also have beneficial impacts on the employment prospects in academia for PhD students after they finish, since there will be fewer people competing for the same number of openings.

What are the incentives and cultural motivations here that keep the system as it is? How different is it in other countries? (I have heard, but been unable to decisively verify, that many European unis treat PhDs as the jobs they are).


texts: What is the point in publishing a paper in a journal rather than arXiv?

texts:
I'm undergraduate student in Physics, I wonder what is the point in publishing a paper in a journal rather than arXiv ?

As far as I know, there is a fee which must be paid for publishing in a journal (It may not be valid for all journal or fields, I guess).I'm asking because If I do some publishable work on my undergrad research, what option would be more logical and advantageous ? How would they affect my future Phd admissions ?

Or if I ask my second question more generally, How would these options affect one's carrier in academia ?


texts: As a self-learner, what to do with books providing exercises but not solutions?

texts:
Lately I've been reading lots of statistics books. Many of them have exercises after each chapter that I'm eager to solve, but I'm a beginner and can't solve most of them, and those that I think I can solve I can't check because there are no solutions and no solution manuals available.

I think the point in providing exercises without solutions is that this way the book can be used in class, where the teacher can use them as homework assignments. However, I'm self-learning and have no teacher to ask/to correct my work.

This frustrates me. I like solving stuff, but without knowing even if my solutions are correct (left alone anything beyond that) it's no fun.

What is the best way to deal with this?
Are there any resources on the internet where solutions for the more popular books could be found maybe? Should I trust that trying to solve them is the most instructional part anyway and let go of my childish craving for seeing my and the book's answer are identical?


texts: What could be the possible consequence if a professor knows about a student's review?

texts:
Suppose, a student left a negative comment about a professor in the university's confidential review page. Somehow the professor guesses who the student was.

What can the student do if the professor intentionally gives the student bad grades?

Can the student file a request for a exam paper review to the dean?

How would the whole situation work out for the student?


texts: What do potential postdoc advisers seek in research statement letters?

texts: I am putting together my application for a postdoctoral position in theoretical condensed matter physics. The position is not a fellowship and is a regular postdoc position. If you have gone through the process of applying for such positions a number of times, or, even better, if you have reviewed such research statement letters, what are the main points that are sought/you seek in such letters? Specifically, should I put more emphasize on my PhD research to demonstrate my "depth of knowledge" on projects I have worked on (past research), or dwell more on things that I want/am capable to do (future research)?


texts: Is it good style to create http links in a B.Sc. project?

texts:
We are two students in computer science doing our term project for B.Sc. in computer science.

Now I wonder if it is alright or advisable to make inline hyperlinks in the report e.g.

  We look at the specification, it should report the memory mapped
  registers (which are input/output and can affect the state of the
  UART).

Or should there be a footnote instead? Or both? If somebody prints the report on physical paper then obviously an inline http link won't work.


texts: Following up with professor after PhD rejection

texts:
I met briefly with a professor last year and showed him a poster of my work which was not good at that time (It was some sort of a presentation in which we show our work and research). Then I decided to apply for a PhD so I emailed him and he told me to apply. I knew that he will be coming to the same presentation this year so I emailed him again saying that might be an opportunity to talk in person. He never returned my email. That was two months ago. Ten days ago I was rejected from that university (I guess he made the decision). Yesterday, I presented my work in front of the whole audience which was much better than the one I presented last year (Even though I was rejected, I tried to impress him). I didn't talk to him directly then. Just now he viewed my profile on linkedin (Which he did multiple times previously awhile back).

Does it make sense to follow up now? At to least know why I was rejected and why the sudden interest just after my presentation? I know it is very difficult, but would it even be possible to flip the rejection into admission now if he decided to?


texts: How to treat dual affiliation in a journal article

texts: I am supposed to receive research funds from a Chinese university while I am working for a US university. The issue is that the Chinese university, as a part of contractual requirements, requests fund recipients to place the university name before my current university in the affiliation section of my future publications. I understand that it is common to place my current university as the first affiliation and the Chinese university as the second affiliation. Does this affiliation issue matter legally? Or is it just my choice?


texts: Can a department renege on a student's "guaranteed funding"?

texts:
I was admitted to a PhD program last year with guaranteed funding for 4 years. The funding offer was structured as a fellowship for the first year and an assistantship thereafter. I'm done with my first year now, and I will be on an assistantship from this semester onwards. I was asked to sign a contract which states "although we will be able to renew the assistantship in most cases, renewals are contingent upon the availability of funds".

Given my initial admission offer guaranteed funding, while this new contract is a bit more ambiguous, which of these contracts will hold? Is it possible that the grad school will renege on the assistantship citing a lack of funds? This is quite concerning to me, and I would appreciate any advice on this issue.


texts: Why is it extremely difficult for me to concentrate, and why do I yawn repeatedly?

texts: Whenever I'm attending a class or even watching an educational video on internet (mainly any educational activity where I'm required to focus), I keep yawning constantly and all the time (I didn't count it before but I think I might yawn once, or maybe even more, every minute), with my eyes getting teary; and I lose my focus constantly and overthinking starts to contain me, I many times not only think about an event, but even keep imagining events and stories within a particular idea; and then I suddenly pay attention to the fact that I missed what I'm there for and I'd been in a different world. I get things together and I try to focus again, but this keeps happening endlessly. Overthinking usually abuses my brain, but it gets worse whenever I'm trying to focus.


texts: Can you recommend an excellent book or article about how to critique a journal article?

texts:
I am a novice researcher.
I received an article to review, and I don't know very well how to critique such an article.
Can you recommend an excellent book (or other source of information) about how to critique a journal article?
Any recommendations are highly appreciated!


texts: How can I "time-stamp" my data without publishing it?

texts:
If I have a DB or set of data, and want to grant access to it to a limited group of experts in a field (not general access), and don't want others using it for their own publications, nor seeing the information being offered for free on the Internet.

What is the best approach to deposit the information somewhere to make sure, in a hypothetical future, that I can claim copyright over it?

Basically, I want to protect myself upfront against My research work stolen and published as his own by the co-author without my consent


texts: I am sorry if this question looks inappropriate here, but I have a question about the paper that I submitted to the highly ranked journal long time ago. After waiting for more than half a year I've made a status request, and I got a message from the journal secretary saying that the status is "report out with editors". Unfortunately, I have no idea what this means. The most positive interpretation is that the editors have already received the report/reports from the referee/referees and are in progress of making a decision for my paper. On the other hand, it is really not clear. I would really appreciate any help in this matter.


texts: Required to withdraw due to student "not benefitting from further study" - is that ever used?

texts:
At an institution in my country, the undergraduate calendar has the following language:

"Any student may be required to withdraw at any time if, in the
opinion of the Faculty Council he is unlikely to profit from further study. " (this quote is from a very old version of the calendar, hence the gender-specific language, but the modern version has nearly identical language)

This is in addition to the other withdrawal rules (like failing to maintain a given average).  It appears that this rule is basically at the discretion of the faculty.  I'm certain there are huge documentation requirements to make it enforceable without appeal, but I was wondering:

Is this a common clause at other institutions?
What does it mean to be "...unlikely to profit from further study"?  What are some examples?
Has anyone ever heard of it happening anywhere?


texts: Are communicability and verifiability the only reasons to prohibit other true results?

texts:
In order to publish a research paper in a particular domain, or the domain itself must satisfy the above two requirements: Communicable to and verifiable by other people. Isn't it?

In this context, I got a doubt that the content of research papers are limited by objectivity and results that cannot be either uncommunicable or unverifiable are considered off topic and are never encouraged in the either academic or the scientific community.

Isn't it limiting the scientific development that can reach such truths also?


texts: How should i present a theory for a contradiction arise from current result?

texts:
Currently i have almost finished my research in medical physics( Ms.c). We investigate a postulate and came with a contradiction. I have include all my result in the result and discussion section.  Duse to this contradiction i have investigated further and found some evidence.

But this new evidence and its principles were not included in the aim and the objective of the thesis. Because these new principles and finding arise from the previous findings.

Is it okey to explain the new principles and their physics in the result and discussion section?
 or do i need to go back to the start and make my own hypothesis again?

Thanks
Manoj


texts:
In a comment to their answer to the question Faculty member brought sick (feverish) child to class - is this unethical?, the user Anonymous Physicist writes:

"
@quarague It's okay to cancel class for a sick child in US academia, but some US workplaces do not grant sick days for sick children. US academics don't have sick days at all.
"

I come from a European country where the concept of "Sick Days" is different than in the US (indeed, I understand the word "sick day" only because of Workplace SE and I am still not sure I understand it correctly) -- as I understand, a sick day is day you can take when you are sick and still get paid.
My question: Is the comment true, i.e. do US academics not get sick days? Is it really true universally in the US (i.e there is some "law" or regulations that universities are not allowed to give sick days to their employees)?
Is there some other system in place or do US professors really just not get paid when they are sick? (If not, why hasn't there been some strikes/demands/movements? Surely tenured profs don't need to worry to get fired when they make demands?)

Please note that while those questions may sound silly for a US person, US and European employment laws differ a lot and the whole concept of "sick days" is really complicated to me.


texts: Can I get a scholarship from graduate school in physics if my GPA below 3?

texts: I'm fresh physics graduated student from University of Jordan -Middle East-, My GPA is below 3, so Can I get a scholarship from graduate school in physics at -US- if my GPA below 3, If yes what is the Admission Requirements for it ?!


texts: Why are there so many awards in academia in the US compared with academia in France?

texts:
I spent a bit of time in France and in the USA. I observed that there are many more awards given to students and academics in the US than there are in France. Is that observation correct, and if so what accounts for it?

Examples:

Grade awards in the US:

University of Chicago Student Marshal
Dean’s List

Student research awards in the US:

Charles W. and Jennifer C. Johnson Prize
Jin Au Kong Thesis Award
George M. Sprowls PhD thesis award
William A. Martin Memorial Master's Thesis Award

Teaching awards in the US:

MIT Inspirational Teacher Award
Everett Moore Baker Memorial Award
Gordon Y Billard Award
Graduate Student Council Teaching Awards


texts: How to do a PhD while having an industrial research job?

texts:
I got my master degree three years ago, and I used to work in research since, one year in academic, two in industry. I’m an engineer with a big passion for computing problems, math and physics (I’m not as skilled as a good mathmo/physicist would be, but I think my interest on this subjects is above the average of most of the engineers i know).

As far as I’ve seen so far, the PhD in industry is not essential at least for the applications, however sometimes I think it could be useful for career progress. When I got my master I was offered a PhD position, however, at that time I thought it was definitely more important to get practical experience; so I declined the offer. I never regret that choice by the way; I believe my current job (I do research for a private company) is very good both stimulating and challeging.

However, the idea of seriously taking a PhD for non academic reasons sometimes comes out, since I think it could be good in terms of career perspective due to my attitude to my job: I like investigation, experimenting and formalizing my results and of course when I can publish them, but I’m not interested in an academic career at all.

I wonder how I could plan to get a PhD while keeping my job and what are common techniques to do that?


texts: I have done my PhD research without learning the numerical method details. How can I defend successfully?

texts:
I used a commercial software LS Dyna in my PhD research. My mechanical engineering PhD research was completely modeling based, no experimental. I have three journal papers, which are in surface engineering journals and not computational modeling journals.

I don't know all details about the software/numerical method I am using. I am not comfortable in teaching or explaining someone how the software actually does the calculations. I always used the software as a tool and thought that a superficial knowledge about the software would be adequate. That's the reason I focused more on research rather than taking courses to fill the knowledge gaps.

Now, I am about to defend and I am feeling that I will fail as the committee might ask me mathematical questions and I will not know how to answer. I am screwed.

I am doing my PhD in top 30 universities in the world. I did not have to take coursework during my PhD. I don't know what will I do if that's the reason I fail my PhD defense. I am freaking out. Sorry for the rant. How should I tackle this problem?


texts: Returning to a different field in academia after industry

texts:
After a PhD in Particle Physics with a decent publication count and citations,
I went into industry, where I've been for the last 3 years or so.

I had several motivations for not continuing in academia at the time: some PhD burnout, being unsure of the path I wanted to follow, curiosity about the world outside academia, and other personal reasons. However, after three years in industry I feel that the intellectual freedom and challenge offered by academia is something I miss deeply, and that's ultimately worth more than the money I can make in industry. In addition, I've become more and more interested in certain topics of Pure Mathematics that I'd like to devote more time delving into.

So at the moment I am considering several (not necessarily exclusive) alternatives:

Keep studying in my spare time, and spend a year doing a MSci or similar once (if) I can afford to take a year or two off. Then consider a PhD from there.
Apply for a PhD programme in Pure Math.
Find a researcher or group that would be sympathetic to the situation and start a collaboration with them with views to apply for a postdoc.
Apply for a postdoc in my desired areas directly.
Apply for a postdoc in an area that's not as removed from my previous field (say, Mathematical Physics), and take it from there.

How feasible would these options (or others I haven't considered) are? How could I maximise my chances of success in this situation?


texts: Can a person who once supported pseudoscience or conspiracy theories ever be considered a credible source again?

texts:
All the sciences come across as merciless to me. If you make even one statement that turns out to be false, it seems you have no chance of recovering your career. I have heard of plenty of stories of accomplished scientists and academics losing their credentials after making claims that were either rejected from the start or later disproven. I have never heard one story of someone 'redeeming' themselves and gaining respect in any intellectual field. This all makes it look like even so much as a simple mistake can destroy your career forever.

So tell me, is there any route for someone who at some point in their lives supported conspiracy theories or something else obviously false can take to regain respect? I've noticed a lot of psychologists claiming that conspiracy theories are hopeless and impossible to 'cure'. Are the sciences just completely intolerant of imperfection or do they express some mercy?


texts: How do you change the author link of an article on Google scholar?

texts:
In my list of article suggestions on google scholar, I can click on the name of an author, and I am link to the page of someone having the same name as the author but on another topic. The true author with the same name also has a page on google scholar, and the article appears, with exactly the same reference.
It turns out that the author is my PhD student and so I would like to help this person to update, but I do not see how. It would be better if the link from the article goes to the right author and not to the other one. Is asking the "false author" to remove the article from the list or asking directly google scholar the only options? Is there no way to say that people are authors of articles like for researchgate?


texts:
I am a new postdoc at a lab and really worried/confused/upset.
As I am new to experimental work (I have a computational background) the principal investigator (PI) has grouped me into a weekly meeting with 2 PhD students (the lab, in the US, is large with over 20 members in total). One of the PhD students is a "star student". A star student without so far any ideas which worked out - so stealing my ideas seems to be currently her go to.
When I entered the lab the PI suggested I join these weekly meetings, because me and the 2 PhD students would be interested in similar topics. I, naively, presented the ideas I am interested in just to see that the star PhD student has taken them, implemented them (as she already has experimental experience she can do that quickly), presented them, while also presenting herself as benevolent (mentioning during her talk my name, saying that I must be surely interested in these ideas as well - um yeah, given that it these were my ideas..). She basically immediately abandoned her own ideas after she realized that the PI likes mine and is just copying 1:1 my ideas.
Worse than that, the prof, who really cares about the star student doing well and about her being happy with him, told her then how great it would be if "her" idea would work out, and then added an extension to her idea which was also mine (which he knows).
What do I do? I am new and can't get into a conflict, especially since this PhD student is the PI's favorite and well established. Ideally I would like to avoid these weekly meetings altogether, because if I go I naturally also have to share what I work on, which does not seem too good given that the star student does not mind stealing ideas and presenting them as their own. But I worry that leaving the meetings would already cause a conflict etc.
Also meetings should be a place where I can voice my ideas, safely, in particular when the PI is present, but given that he is helping to feed her my ideas I really don't know what to do. It sucks.


texts: Including "Best in show" type award for a conference paper on CV

texts:
I work in industry, but come from an academic background. We publish several papers a year in journals and conference proceedings. I'm also preparing a new CV for academic purposes. Earlier this year, a paper that I coauthored was selected for the "best paper in [technical category]" award they give at the end.

If a conference paper that you have coauthored receives this kind of "best in whatever" type award at the conference it was presented at, is it appropriate to include a mention of that on a CV? If so, how? This is geared toward proper academia, not a resume.


texts: Are postdoc salaries in the USA adjusted for cost of living?

texts:
I'm a life sciences Ph.D. student preparing over the next few months to begin applying for a postdoctoral fellowship. Several of my potential advisors are on the coasts--California, Boston, Seattle--where the cost of living is quite high. Others are in the Midwest where the cost of living is much lower. I've lived a lot of places myself, so for the sake of argument we can assume I'd be equally happy moving to any of these places.

Although I don't want money to be a factor in this decision, I do have a wife and children and (insert salary here: $45,000 for example) allows a much different standard of living in the Midwest than Boston or Long Island. For those of you who received multiple postdoc offers--is this something that they take into account when setting your salary, or can I expect more or less flat offers across the nation?


texts: Is it right to submit a conference abstract knowing that I will not attend but my advisor will give my talk instead?

texts:
My postdoc finished 9 months ago. My former supervisor has asked me to submit an abstract on my work to a conference next year.

No-one intends that I will attend the conference. My ex-supervisor has an invited talk there, and basically wants current and former group members to also submit contributed talks that  can also be presented  if the main authors don’t show up.

The supervisor essentially wants to be able to give three or four talks for the cost of one attendee.  I don’t really feel this is right. On the other hand I also want to remain on good terms with them, as they are a reference on my current job applications, and we are also still working on papers together.

Should I refuse to submit an abstract? Or just bite the bullet and write something?


texts:
When applying for a senior academic position, teaching experiences play a critical role in the application. We list the corses we used to teach but when assuming the position, we need to deliver some official documents to the human resources?

What should be this document? a letter from the last university listing the courses or a detailed set of documents for each course/semester including evaluations?
Who should issue this document/letter? VP for Academics, Dean or Department Head?
Is it needed to get similar documents of teaching experiences from previous universities? or the last university is enough?

I am asking this question for the case of a full professor coming from Asia to Europe or North America.


texts: Is there an actual, physical event associated with predatory conferences?

texts:
I occasionally receive emails inviting me to present in a predatory conference. These are usually easy to identify, given that they call me a "Dr" or a "Prof" (only a PhD student at the moment), never heard of them (6th conference on something.. What were the first 5?), weird English, bizarre locations, organised by an organisation outside the field, etc.

When you're publishing a predatory journal I guess it's not too hard to actually publish the journal eventually. Just put some PDFs on a website. What about conferences? Organising a conference is harder: you have to arrange a venue, audio/video gear, food and a bunch of other things. Let's say that I do end up submitting and paying the abstract fees. Is there an actual conference happening somewhere?

EDIT - let me focus this a bit..

Is it possible that one signs up to such a conference, arrives, and then there is nothing on site?
Are the (sometimes famous) keynote speakers aware they they are listed? Do they show up to the conference?

If there is an actual conference, and people end up attending it, what is predatory about it? Eventually, it's a meeting of people discussing science about a particular topic.


texts: What happens when a closed form solution to a research problem is not possible?

texts:
Say I discover an “interesting topic” (at least from my perspective), and I do all sort of work necessary to formulate and tackle the problem (it is an optimization problem), nearly a month of work, and now I suddenly come to realize that the close-form analytical solution to this problem is not possible (or that the solution is too complicated).

What should I do? Should I continue to solve the problem using a numerical method (using computer simulation tools from Matlab), or should I give up my topic?


texts: Should students be shown the grading rubric?

texts: I teach a practical class which is assessed by a lab report. I grade the lab reports based on a rubric. The rubric has 6 sections (abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusions) with a number of items that I generally expect to see in each section. Historically, about 95% of the lab reports can be accurately graded based on the rubric while the remaining 5% of the lab reports go in unique, often very good, directions and therefore do not tick many of the boxes on the rubric. I am considering showing the students the grading rubric in advance of writing the reports this year with the hope that this will key them into what is important so that they can better demonstrate their understanding of the key issues. Is there any research that looks at the benefits and consequences of showing students a grading rubric in advance?


texts: how to recall a request for recommendation letter from professor

texts: I asked my professor to write me a recommendation letter for graduate school, but now my plan of attending graduate school has changed. instead of going to graduate school, I will try to find a job, and get more work experiences. I know that my professor has not written my letter yet, because he said he will write it after he received request emails from graduate schools. so how should I recall the request?


texts: different online Harvard citation styles

texts:
I read some Academia questions, such as this one, but I'm still wondering about the preference of the following similar, but slightly different formats:
Option 1

Cillizza, C. (2020). The absolutely remarkable social media power of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. CNN [Online]. 24 July 2020. Available at: <https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/24/politics/aoc-ted-yoho-cspan/index.html> (Accessed: 23 October 2020).

Option 2

Cillizza, C. (2020). The absolutely remarkable social media power of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. CNN. 24 July 2020. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/24/politics/aoc-ted-yoho-cspan/index.html (Accessed: 23 October 2020).

The differences here are the [Online] and the chevrons (<>) around the URL. I understand it doesn't make much of a difference, but I'm interested in what people's preferences are. To me, option 1 looks more academic, yet option 2 much cleaner.
Also, please feel free to educate me on anything else here.


texts:
A while back, there was a question on here about plagiarism. One statement in particular struck me:

  The foundation of academia is production and dissemination of knowledge [...] Likewise, since it is such a foundational and corrosive problem, an institution can be badly damaged by tolerating it or by gaining a reputation for tolerating it

It struck me because, having been a teaching assistant in graduate school has made me develop a type of Holden Caulfield-esque outlook on academia. I understand that certain societal problems are extremely complex and multi-layered but, I've seen a lot of things that have made me uneasy. These things are: grade inflation, revision of courses so that they will have a higher success rate, teachers not giving grades for the entire semester for coursework and so on. Therefore I ask; is reputation really so important to a school that things such as this are really necessary to improve the statistics in the school's favour?

In my university, there are students who, no matter how hard a course is, will thrive and those are usually the ones who tend to become good researchers. So by permitting the aforementioned practices are we "softening" our researchers?


texts: Do you have to be invited to write a review?

texts:
I am interested in writing a review on a topic that I am very interested in and am very well informed about. I would like to ask how does one go about doing this?

I was told that you have to be invited by a journal to write a review or else you give a talk at a conference and they ask you to write a review. You can't just decide to write one and submit to a journal. If this is true, I am confused as to how one would do that, as at all of the conferences I have attended, presenters usually give an entire story with results and not just update the audience on the literature.

Any ideas or suggestion on this would be greatly appreciated.


texts: Is there a tool to check citations over time across disciplines?

texts:
I'd like to see how a given paper has impacted its own discipline and then spilled over to others.

Let's take Nash's paper on Equilibrium points in n-person games as an example. This work has eventually yielded him a Nobel prize and has +6k citations on Google Scholar.

I'm assuming it must have been first cited primarily by other mathematics papers; but over time, scholars from other disciplines would increasingly cite it.

Are you familiar with any tool/method that would provide this kind of information? It would be the most useful if it's possible to visualize the data.


texts: Is it possible to negotiate the position rank in an UK academic job offer?

texts: I received a job offer from a UK university. The post was for a senior lecturer/reader position. When the Head of School called me, he hinted that they would offer me a reader position. But two days later when I received the written offer, they actually give me a senior lecturer position with the highest point. I was a bit disappointed as I expected it was a reader position. I have no experience in UK academic system (I am currently working in the US), but I heard there is little room to negotiate in the UK system. I am wondering if I can negotiate for a higher rank (reader) without insulting them. Besides I am going to interview for a reader position with another school. If I get the 2nd offer, can I ask the 1st to match (based on the UK academic culture)? Thanks for your input in advance.


texts: Citing newspaper articles (primary vs secondary? no references)

texts:
I have come across a few infamous newspaper articles and I'd like to cite them to support some of my ideas and to take a few thoughts from them. However, I cannot seem to distinguish whether such articles are primary or secondary. What worsens things further is the fact that the authors do not cite their words and, usually, reference lists do not exist.

Do I treat a newspaper article like a primary source and cite it as such? If not, how can I track back the information given the fact that there are no references?


texts: Is it socially appropriate to ring up a professor whom you have corresponded with briefly by email?

texts:
A couple of weeks back I sent an email to a professor in a University in my home country with whom I have never known on any personal or professional level. My intention was to seek potential collaborations with him as a recent graduate with a BSc should I return home.

He did replied and to which I responded. One of his question to me was whether I am happy to collaborate without being paid to which I replied, "Yes, I am happy but I am only able to work on any project outside of standard office hours due to foreseeable industry commitment".

Since then, I have not received any replies.

Would it be appropriate for me to ring him up?


texts: I was pushed to submit a mediocre paper to a conference. To my surprise it was accepted. How to save face?

texts:
I wrote a paper under pressure from my supervisor who gives high importance for publishing. I feel that both the conference and my paper are mediocre. What is done is done. How to distance myself from this evil mistake hanging in IEEE Xplore with my name on it forever? Is there any way? I really hate my predicament.
There is no incorrect information in my paper. The finding is nothing startling. The experiments lack rigor. Any serious researcher reading it will definitely point it out. Being associated with a work of mediocre quality pains me. I feel embarrassed.
The conference has a 65% acceptance rate.  My supervisor says it is a good conference. It is not small. Neither is it specialized. It has multiple tracks. And it's definitely accepting mediocre papers.
As for the choice of supervisor. It's life. Mistakes happen. I want to make sure it does not become a blunder. No point in wasting time whining about it. When the time is ripe I will disengage from mediocrity.
Edit: Today while the publications were being discussed with another professor my paper was discussed. The professor whose ideology differs from my supervisor's clearly found the paper lacking in substance. And then my supervisor disowned me saying he had a different opinion about my results and this discussion brought new knowledge to him. This makes my wound deeper. First I hate publishing my work and then I am to be blamed when it is criticized? This is the price of working with the wrong mind. Note that the paper was read by my supervisor before sending it.


texts: How should I thank an interviewer after an interview?

texts:
I am in mathematics on the job market.

How should I thank my interviewer?

Does an e-mail suffice, a verbal thanks, or should I mail a handwritten note?

Although I do love writing handwritten notes expressing thanks to my family and friends, I don't want to come off as looking for favors.  I am also not sure what is customary in mathematics.


texts: Are postdocs in the US expected to work closely with a postdoctoral supervisor

texts: In Europe, typically postdocs are hired to work under a professor's research group. This appears to be totally different in the US and some other countries (e.g. Israel), where postdocs are hired by committees. Suppose a hiring committee has 7 members. Are postdoctoral applicants expected to make the case that they are going to work closely and share research interests with at least one of the 7 professors? Let me give a hypothetical scenario from math. Let's say that some candidate for a postdoc just got a paper accepted to the Annals, the topic being Moufang polygons. Nobody on the committee (which consists of a number theorist, a representation theorist, an algebraic geometer, a logician, an analyst, and 2 applied mathematicians) really cares about Moufang polygons. Will the prevailing opinion be, "This is a very strong applicant working in an area that nobody in this department has worked on. Let's pick him/her." Or will they think, "Gee, this person won't interact with the faculty at all since his/her research interests don't overlap." I'm trying to clarify the exact role of a postdoc in the U.S.


texts: Do npj and Nature-branded journals have the same reputation such that I can say I published "in a Nature journal" after publishing in npj?

texts:
In 2014, Nature collaborated with parters and launched npj, and they state "Nature Partner Journals adopt a modified set of Nature editorial standards". In fact, relatively high impact factors are observed in these "npj" journals but these journals are branded with "npj (Topic Name)" rather than "Nature (Field)".

What's more, the journals like npj Computational Materials (IF~9) and Nature Communications (IF~12) are slightly comparable in terms of the impact factor.

So my question is, do "npj" journals have a comparable reputation to other Nature derivative journals like Nature Materials, Nature Physics etc.? Basically can I say I published in a Nature journal after publishing in npj?


texts: Should an interdisciplinary researcher work twice as hard?

texts:
My Ph.D. research is related to both computer-science and economics. I collaborate with researchers in both these disciplines, and naturally submit papers to journals of both disciplines. Now, while looking for an academic job, I find out that departments count only the publications published in journals of their own discipline. This is true both in the acceptance decision and in the tenure decision. So, whether I go to CS or to economics department, in expectation, I have only half the number of counted publications of a one-discipline researcher. What can I do about it?

One option is to choose one of the two disciplines and only send papers to its journals. But, this means I will have a hard time collaborating with researchers from the other discipline, since they will probably want to publish in "their" journals.
Another option is to work twice as hard and publish twice as many papers.

Is this true that an two-disciplinary researcher should work twice as hard to attain the same career status as a one-discipline one?


texts: What to enter for "current situation" in PhD application if one is unemployed

texts:
I am applying for a PhD program, in one of section they ask about my Current situation (professional/academic.
I finished my master and now I do not have job and just applying for PhD and writing my paper.
what should I write that have better effect on them?
p.s :It is a mandatory part and it has a small line


texts: A text which is not a draft, but expected to be updated - upload to arXiv?

texts:
I've been working on a text which you could call a short monograph. Without going into details (which might lead to another question) - I'm considering posting/uploading/"publishing" it on arXiv.

It's not a draft - I've gone over it several times and it seems in pretty good share; but, at the same time, it is not finally done: I expect that, with feedback from others, I will need to make several additions, rephrasings, and possibly even slight correction of certain details regarding existing work.

Now, I would have liked to have received this feedback before ever publishing, but this is unlikely to happen; and I've been "sitting" on this for quite a long time already.

Is it legitimate, and is it reasonable, to upload an initial version on arXiv, expecting that an update will be necessary?


texts: How free are graduate students to choose research topics given their department?

texts: I'm sort of foggy in general about how this works. If you are, say a a computer science graduate student, what kind of freedom do you have to pick a research topic that focuses more on something like cellular biology, swarms, or string theory? Do you need to change departments? Do you need to illustrate some connection back to CS techniques? Do you just have to pursuade your advisor to issue a blessing?


texts: How should I tell my PhD advisor that I want join a PhD program at a different university abroad?

texts:
I began my PhD in October 2016 following my master's degree. I have been progressing quite well in terms of the work but I want to address and take up some other (but related) problems for my PhD. Unfortunately, the curriculum of my PhD is such that I ain't allowed to do what I want to do fully! This makes me dissatisfied at times. I have read several papers in the area of my interest and I always felt that I would be more suited to "that" kind of work instead of the one I am currently doing. Besides, another important aspect is I come from a not very sound financial background. I have to take care of my parents as well with whatever little salary I get as a PhD student (India). Besides, I also need to pay for my Bachelor's educational loan from this money itself.

So the situation right now is as follows--1. I have applied and also received a fully funded PhD offer from a prestigious research group at the University of Oslo in the field of my choice (that I always wanted to work on). This would have immediate positive impact on my personal life because I would be more stable financially (I already how much would it cost and how much I would be paid) and besides I would be happy with my work. 2. This would also mean that I have to speak to my present supervisor about it who doesn't know much details. I have spoken to him about this many times in the past. At least I guess he understands my financial constraints. He himself asked and suggested me to move into jobs (if I get any with my master's) or PhD abroad. But, I guess he never took it very seriously that I would think of leaving one day! Now, I do not know what will be his reaction. He seems to be a nice and friendly guy and quite motivated regarding my work here. However, I do not exactly share his sentiments mainly because of the above two reasons.

I wish I could have put it in a simpler form but I would appreciate if anyone can kindly suggest me what should I say to my advisor? I want to do it as early as possible.

PS- I am from a reputed research institute in India.


texts:
I am from a mathematical background yet I feel this question is more suited to Academia SA rather than MO. Even though what follows is obviously opinion-based and taste-dependent, I believe most of the organizational problems and choices in time management are common to us all.

The one-line question is in the title:

  How to manage all the different aspects of an academic life?

Let me be more precise. Once in the academic world, with one's PhD degree and some position to continue in this path, there are many different aspects we have to deal with, for instance:

research (i.e. ultimately publish papers)
community (i.e. give talks, attend conferences, reviewing, etc.)
learning (extending the grasp on the related fields, changing interests, etc.)
administration (also including applications)
teaching

None of these is unrelated to the others, and most are highly time-consuming. It is then important to be able to prioritize them in some sense, without having some of these aspects fade behind the apparent urge or importance of the others (for instance, keeping going on long-term reading/studying projects of fields quite new seem to me to be a hard task when the schedule is already full of teaching and current research projects). Is there any other axis on which to classify and choose activities depending on the time available or the mood, for instance :

short/long tasks
strong/weak focus
technical/meta type
mastered/new content

Also, many research projects and ideas can accumulate, as well as social tasks (like reviewing), so it is necessary to know when to stop and when to begin again with new project. So in a more managerial aspect, questions can be:

what is a day/week made of?
how to keep track of all these aspects
how to keep a certain balance

Of course comments and critics are welcome on the choices of points I have listed above, and could help clarify other dimensions I have not taken into account.