texts: Do measurement protocols belong anywhere in the scientific publications?

texts:
My research as a starting PhD student currently consists of reproducing and building upon the experiments carried out by other research groups 5--10 years ago. To this end, I have developed a number of measurement protocols, that is, step-by-step instructions how to clean samples, how to carry out microscopy measurements, how to troubleshoot experimental errors.

I haven't seen this kind of information published or linked in scientific publications. Even the supporting information typically has a couple of graphs, a more verbose explanation of the materials and methods part, sometimes, a dataset, but nowhere close to step-by-step instructions. However, I feel that having this kind of information available will be a good help to other researchers, maybe to new researchers, and will serve to the reproducibility of the experiments.

Do these measurement protocols belong anywhere in the realm of academic publications? I have thought of publishing them in the online supporting information for the article, or in my PhD thesis, possibly as an appendix, or in my academic blog; which of those is popular / recommended way of publishing those protocols?

Research field is Physics / Material Science, if it matters.


texts: Usage of a web application that I sold for an academic project: Copyright issues?

texts:
I am currently a master's student and really glad that I learned almost everything about plagiarism prior to my master's thesis, I really want it to be perfect.

Anyway, I have an issue that has been lurking around my mind for a while, it wasn't a big deal before but I am currently making a huge moral deal out of it to the point of not deserving my BBA!

It is regarding my senior (or BBA graduation) project, I used to be a web developer well before taking any university courses, so when the time came for the senior projects, I was like: "Hey, I have that excellent web application (I worked on its codes for a month!)  which I developed and sold 2 years before to a local organization, why not use it for the senior project?". I earned "very good" (a grade between 14 and 16 over 20) on it.

Did I infringe any copyright here since I already sold the web application to another party? Back then, I thought of this and since I wasn't a perfectionist, it was okay for me since I am ONLY using it for an academic (and not a financial) purpose. To clarify, it went like this: I developed the web application for the other party, they paid for it, I taught them how to use the web application and that's it, I never gave them the source code as I remember (this was 6 years ago). I discovered a few months later that they aren't using it anymore and went for another web application by another developer. One of the answers makes sense, I made the source code available for public (other students) when I submitted it for my graduation project, I feel guilty now that I did not think of this in this sense back then. What can I do to for making up? Does this affect, in any way, my credibility of holding this BBA?


texts: How should I ask my PhD advisor to let me work remotely...permanently?

texts:
My wife plans to graduate in a few months. I have 1-2 years left before I defend and graduate. I'd like to move away with my wife so we can stay together.

My work is entirely on a computer, so working remotely is entirely feasible. I have my own funding, so I do not need to stay in order to TA for pay.

I typically meet once every 1-2 weeks with my primary advisor and "secondary advisor" (a research scientist who also mentors me and who frequently works more closely with me than my advisor). When I first began working with my primary advisor, I mentioned that I may need to work remotely for my final year. He said he didn't like the idea in general, but that he understands that life happens, and that we'd figure it out when the time came.

The time has come, though I wouldn't move away for another two months.

How should I breach the topic with my advisor(s)?

This question is extremely relevant, but differs in that it asks this question for "extensive periods", whereas I'm asking about working remotely permanently. Several answers for that question involve staying away for progressively longer periods of time, but I'd prefer to not pay two rents.


texts: Benefits of including short and/or long-term visits abroad on my CV?

texts:
I am in my first year of a theoretical physics PhD in the UK and I'm coming to the end of a week abroad at another institution where some collaborators of mine work. The purpose of the visit is to make some quick progress on a specific project, and I applied for (and was awarded) a small grant from an EU funding body to pay for the visit.

The answers to a closely related question, "Should I include research stays in my CV?", suggest that such stays should be included on a CV.

I see my CV as essentially a record of my professional activities, and this visit therefore falls within that scope, but I wonder if, due to the short nature of the visit, it would be seen as padding. I already have a modest section of my CV devoted to grants, awards and prizes, where I also list the specific monetary amounts I received, so is it wiser simply to list the funding and not mention the visit it was used for?

Further to this, I intend to apply for more funding soon which will allow me to visit the same institution plus another in another country for much longer (possibly up to six months). If I am successful in this regard, should I include the visit, the funding or both on my CV?

Question:  What are the possible benefits/drawbacks of including a visit or/and its funding on a CV?


texts: About approval of grant of potential mentor

texts:
About three months ago I sent an email to ask a professor about postdoc position under her supervision. Her feedback on my cv was positive and she told me that she intend to apply for grant this year and consider me as a potential postdoc. She also mentioned that she keep me informed if the appîication for grant be successful.  Indeed, she told me she will inform me, but because of the fact that professors are busy people,  I do not know she remember me or not?
 I do not know whether I send another email to ask her about the status of availability of grant or not?  If so, what should be a proper context of email to ask that.


texts:
I read that a "Doctor of Science" is awarded for research well beyond a usual PhD degree awarded for a dissertation work and includes a portfolio of high quality papers in interdisciplinary fields.
Does this mean that one cannot actively pursue this degree and one can never be certain of how close one has come to a DSc? How does career planning at such a stage look like?


texts: How to avoid identifying myself in a review?

texts:
Occasionally I find myself currently reviewing a paper where I find that many of the criticisms I have are addressed in papers in which I am an author (and often as lead author).

I don't want to make my identity known to the writers of the papers—but how do I make my points clear without breaking the "anonymity" of the review. Even if I cite a bunch of papers each time, it will probably be obvious what's going on.


texts: Academic career start: Postdoctoral or AP

texts: I am a fresh PhD and I have job offer of Postdoctoral researcher in world  leading university (QS rank 6) and assistant professorship in an average university (QS rank 339). What is good for long term academic career?


texts: Is it typical for adjuncts to have a higher salary than postdocs?

texts: I've been noticing that sometimes adjunct lecturer salaries are higher than those of postdocs, in math. I was wondering if that is typical and why that is the case.


texts: Assistant professor: is it bad if I attend a class in a discipline close to mine but not exactly mine?

texts:
I just got a position as assistant professor in the USA. The university I am working at is one of the top 50, according to the U.S. News & World Report. I will be teaching and carrying out high-level research.

However I would love to attend a class in a discipline close to mine, to expand my knowledge. Surely I could read the book, but if I have a class to attend I will actually do it, while I will probably never be able to find the time to read the book. Would it be considered bad? Should I do it without mentioning it to anybody since it is in another department?


texts: By what main criteria does the mathematical community judge whether an open problem is important?

texts: By what main criteria does the mathematical community judge whether an open problem is important among many others open problems in mathematics? For example if we say that the Riemann Hypothesis is an important problem because it is related to the prime distributions, are all open problems related to prime distributions important?


texts: Goal for 20min. presentation at math conference

texts:
I've been invited to give a 20 minute talk at a mathematics conference in a couple months.  The audience members all work in my field, so they will be familiar with most of the terminology and background.  I have plenty of material to pull from a preprint I've already submitted to journals, and it seems I have two reasonable options:

Option A.  Present everything to communicate the over-arching theme of my  research.  I could provide several very minimal proof sketches along the way.

Option B.  Present one very interesting result (with its lemmas), with more detailed proofs.  I could then "sprint" through some related results at the end, or avoid them entirely.

Which will be most valuable to the audience members? Which will make me "look the best"?


texts: Mathematics application cover letter, one page or two

texts:
Every cover letter for a mathematics faculty application I have seen is only one page long (I've seen about 20 of those). On the other hand, most books or websites about the academic job cover letter say that this letter should be two pages long. I would like to hear what other mathematicians (especially if they have served in search committees) say about this.
Thank you.


texts:
As a PhD student I have been part of my fair share of projects where multiple students are competing for leadership and the first-author title of a paper. This is because project PIs often simply ask several students to go off and work on a problem, without any explicit designation of who should lead the work. Authorship is then only determined at the conclusion of the project when the paper is submitted.
While this causes stress, the advantage is that the competition can sometimes force students to push themselves and produce better work to 'outdo' other students. Additionally it can be hard to pre-assign authorship as this can cause non-first authors to be less motivated. And the pre-assigned first author may not necessarily be the most productive student.
As a graduating student who will soon be a PI of my own lab I would rather not create such competitive situations, but at the same time, there will be projects with multiple students that needs motivation. What advice do you have about defining projects in such a way to meet these requirements.


texts: How to explain why I am applying to a different PhD program without sounding rude?

texts:
I am currently in a PhD program wherein I like my advisers, but unfortunately due to the following issues I have found that I might be happier applying to another university:

The university charges a $1200 fee during the fall and spring semesters which does not come out of our paychecks, and that they charge monthly interest on. There is also 2 months of the 9 month period of our stipend that we receive half our monthly pay. Thus we are effectively expected to make 6.5 months worth of pay work for 9. I have needed to find additional ways to make ends meet which cuts into the time I could be studying and doing research.

The university does not have a method of testing out of classes without needing to take them. As a result I am forced to take classes which I am already proficient in when I could be taking classes more relevant to research.

The workload for being a GTA this semester was far more than what is reasonable, and cut into my time to do research. I have been informed that this is somewhat common here.

I am applying to other PhD programs at the moment and I am currently wondering what is a way I can both explain my situation in a manner so that people understand why I am applying out without sounding like I am badmouthing my current university? (A professor I know mentioned that the above explanation might be too specific and perceived as badmouthing them). I don't want to be too vague so that it seems like I am just making excuses to apply somewhere else because without 1-3 above I would be happy here.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


texts: How to export and cite Google Ngram Viewer result?

texts:
I am working on a paper (written in LaTeX) and want to include this result from Google Ngram Viewer, showing/comparing the frequency of word usage in published books over time:

What is the proper way to cite this result? and is there a better way of saving the image than taking a screenshot?

It seems the image itself is generated as an svg (for, I assume, scaled vector graphic?). This would be a convenient way to save it for use in LaTeX.


texts: When / how should I ask about a manuscript's status in review?

texts: I have a manuscript that has been in review for 60 days. The journal asks for reviews within four weeks. At what point is it acceptable (and not detrimental) to contact the editor for an update? How should I phrase the request?


texts: Are there any documented cases of meta-science or scientific meta-research? Does that have a name?

texts:
Research is an activity, a process to obtain knowledge, which has been greatly empowered by the scientific method.

We can collect lots of information about research, consider impact factors, etc.

There is data and information there, that data could possibly become knowledge through some analysis, hypothesis testing, and in general terms research. So what I'm talking about here is research about research, meta-research.

First of all, I'm interested to know whether this has been done in the past.

Second, if this has been done (I guess so), I would like to know by what name, so that I can search for it. It's easier to find information about fluid dynamics when you know it stands by the name of fluid dynamics.

BTW: I'm not interested in philosophy or epistemology, but science and hard verifiable facts.

There may be some lack of that, whatever that is. Related article: Scientific method: Statistical errors


texts: Advice on optimal way to learn more math

texts: I live in the US, I'm in my early 50's, worked in Wall Street for 25 years and retired from that life early this year, with no intention to go back. My dream is to dedicate the rest of my life to learn as much mathematics as I can. I have a BA in economics and an MBA. My BA involved a decent amount of math. Early this year I was admitted to an MA in Mathematics from an OK institution, their math program ranks in the middle in the US.Beauty of this MA is you can do it 100% online and I live in the countryside. So far I have taken three courses, differential equations, history of math and analysis. Straight As in all three. I know my question is very generic but any advice would be highly appreciated. Should my goal be getting a PhD? I think I'm a great math teacher because I love them so much and particularly love teaching students who don't like them or think they are too boring or too hard, but who wants a novice math teacher in their late 50s? Should I just finish my MA and go for an MSc? Thanks and all the best.


texts: How to get past being tagged as overly curious and unfocussed?

texts:
I am in a reputed PhD Programme in Computer Science. In the prior part of my PhD I was focussed on applicative research but during the course of time I developed a keen interest in the theoretical reasoning behind algorithms and methods. I would have liked to prove the correctness of my work theoretically along with the experimental results. Since I didn't have a very strong fundamental background in mathematics, I developed a habit of asking "why" behind every assumption made in any topic. For example: I had a 15 minute long discussion with my lab mate on why the sample event space for calculating probability consists of a null set and what does it mean.

Our lab has weekly presentations by various students of my lab about their research topics or something else, focussed towards people who don't know anything. My obsession to understand the fundamentals have probably led me to be able to ask questions even upon topics not remotely concerned with my field of study. And I do ask questions (I don't know about the quality of questions since I am mostly not very well versed with the topics being presented). I somehow also have a habit of being able to relate things from various fields of study, so after or during the presentations I am usually able to find the connection between my and the other person's field.

Due to this, my advisor (occasionally and in a positive manner) and other people have started tagging me as overly curious. A few students make fun of me behind me, saying why the hell I can dive into discussions with people working in String theory when I don't have to work upon it.

Though I am producing results (coding, studying and teaching the same to my co-authors) and mostly the one who brings new ideas to the table, I am mostly taunted as being unfocussed by my lab mates when I just try to discuss about some random idea during coffee or lunch break or try to know about a new project initiated in other labs. Earlier I chose to address their concerns and accepted that maybe I have a problem, but with time people even question my focus when I just express my wish to attend an advanced Algebra lecture (an hour a week). This hasn't killed my curiosity but has led me to question my abilities and is affecting my self-confidence. I am an excellent team player, but due to continuous taunting I prefer working and hanging out alone (against my nature) since I think I am negatively impacting others' work.

My questions are:

Does it make sense to attend these weekly presentations whose main aim in my view was to develop a habit of asking questions?
Is wanting to know about other people's work, even from other domains, considered as lack of focus?
Is there something called "overly curious" ?


texts: is it possible to complete a PhD in Industrial Engineering without any coursework? (US/Europe)

texts:
I completed my Masters' from Penn State University (US) last year in Industrial Engineering and I'm looking to enroll in a PhD. Here's the onion, I do not want to leave my full-time job to enroll in school full-time and complete the coursework requirment (as case with most US university), hence I was contemplating if there exists any PhD degree where coursework (or on-campus presence) is not required, either in US or Europe.

About research - I've already talked to my boss and he's quite okay with me performing research in-house (in company) for my PhD, better than that, he might even pay  for it.


texts: Timeline to start applying for faculty positions in the US

texts: I want to start applying for faculty positions for Computer science positions in the US. Still march is good time to apply? Are there is a chance to get interviews or I am late?


texts: My student published a preprint of our published paper without me as an author

texts:
One of my former students uploaded without my name a paper we just published in a top physics journal. The fraudulent paper is now appearing on the Google Scholar search results below the original paper we published in the physics journal. If people try to cite the fraudulent paper from Google Scholar, my name does not appear.  The fraudulent paper without my name is appearing in the Google Scholar profile of all the co-authors.

I wrote to Google Scholar to report this. But not sure if they will change their search results to add my name. I am a woman of color, and I feel the former student is making my work invisible and not respecting my contribution. I was the adviser and the main driver of the work.

Any thoughts on the actions I should take? The student has graduated.

Responding to questions and comments here:

The student uploaded the paper without my name onto his own repository. He then manually created an entry on Google Scholar with the article that does not have my name. I tried earlier today to create a similar article to what he did so I know the steps. You can add things manually on Google scholar.
The student left my lab because he did the same thing for another paper we had. He submitted the paper without my name. The editors contacted me because they knew I was doing that research and it seemed strange to them that I was not an author. I was also leading that research, proposed the idea, wrote almost the whole paper, and the student simply conducted the experiments with my guidance. Because of this prior I do not think it is accidental. I don't feel like asking a bully to please be nice and take down the paper from his repository. I know he is problematic and do not want to engage with him.
I mentioned that I was a woman of color because to me the actions of my student are because he does not value my work or contribution. In his mind I do not deserve to be an author. He is making my work invisible. We black women have historically had our work made invisible. Our contributions are seen as not worthy. Similarly, he likely does not see the value I bring to the work and hence is making my work invisible and removing me. In his mind I do not deserve to be an author.  I think it is helpful to contextualize that I am black because I think this is one of the reasons why he is blind to the value I bring to the research.
Good ideas on promoting the paper on the official site a lot. I will do that. I think that is the best solution and something I can control. Also good points that this is primarily annoying.


texts: How to convert an engineering project into a PhD research title?

texts:
I am curious and also want to clear my understanding about the nature of research which students undertake in a PhD program.

Take this product as an example.

What is the difference between the research behind the development of this product, and a PhD research which is able to earn a degree?
Does a 4-5 years' PhD research degree program allow developing a product like this?
Does the student need to mask his product development as a PhD thesis by selecting a cryptic title which sounds "wise", or would he be allowed to use a plain title like "A desktop sweater knitter"?


texts: With regards to undergraduate theses, what level of knowledge should one assume the reader to have?

texts:
This question is piggybacking on this old post because there doesn't seem to be a question for the undergraduate level.

Should the aim of the undergraduate thesis be different than the PhD thesis? Specifically, should it be more accessible to the average reader? At the end of the day, I share the same concerns as the PhD student from the other question:

  I don't want to look lazy by not including material, but at the same time I don't want to waffle on.


texts: Do you need to know in detail the last papers of your future PI in preparation for a postdoc interview?

texts: I have an interview for a postdoc position next week. The project was running for 9 months or so and they already have some preprints out. This specific position says that the researcher will work closely with the 3 PIs, so it broadens the area for me a little bit since each one has different research areas. Do I need to know in detail the papers that are out in this project? I'm asking this because I've noticed that people say "do your research and look at the latest publications of your future lab".


texts: What texts describe a desired behavior when a personal conflict could affect a professional decision?

texts:
In Academia, is there any legal text or chart commenting about the desired behavior when a personal conflict could affect a set of professional decision?

A rough example of such chart would be a text stating that "we, academics signing this chart, engage ourselves to avoid as much as possible to let our personal tastes to influence our professional decisions, or to delegate the decisions to others if we are not certain to be able to ignore our personal tastes.". Such a chart, published by an association of academics and adopted by some universities and/or academics, would not SOLVE all instances of such problems, but would at the very least express the collective will to discourage such instances. (In the same way that a chart signed by students that they won't copy on others nor share their solution does not solve all cheating instances, but clarifies what is considered acceptable or not.)

By "professional decision", I mean a decision that you take on behalf of an institution or group of person, for which your job is to make the best decision for this institution. By "personal taste", I mean anything which applies when taking decisions for one's personal life.
A neutral example would be a secretary having to make the "professional decision" of what food to order to department's celebration, and letting his "personal taste" influence his choice rather than his approximate knowledge of the tastes of the attendance.
Extreme examples would be of senior faculty members using their political position to punish or reward junior members according to their personal values, independently of their professional opinion.

Broader context:

It is only human to be biased against someone with whom one had some conflicts, and only civilized to try to overcome this bias in the context of professional decisions (where one represents the choices of a community, as opposed to personal choices such as with whom you share a meal). One can think of some (uncivilized?) cultures where one does not expect anyone to even attempt to fight this bias, and of some (civilized?) cultures where letting this bias affect professional decisions (e.g. community related) would be frowned upon and considered as an abuse of power or bullying.

It used to be my opinion that academia was civilized and that most academics agreed to such an unwritten rule. It is my experience in my current setting that not only do occurrences of such conflict seem more frequent than in my previous settings, they are also considered normal there, and far from frowned upon, most often considered as "business as usual" or worse, a display of intelligence and strength. I assume that such an attitude could exist in other cultures, from other third world countries to even the US. I am wondering if Academia, which forms an international culture of its own, already has or could have a chart to curb such behavior to a more productive/collaborative/civilized one.

Note that I am not asking if some people in Academia abuse the power that their responsibilities yield (there will be in most communities), nor am I asking for general opinions about specific countries, culture and research areas. Rather I am asking if there are some reference texts which describes the desired behavior in such situation.


texts: Are control theorists considered mathematicians?

texts:
Are control theorists (electrical engineering) considered mathematicians?

If so, would they receive a Fields medal if they make a breakthrough in control theory?
If not, is there a prize similar to the Field medal for control theorists?


texts: Is getting certificate at PCEP important?

texts:
I am a physics student and I almost finished my third year (I am in sixth semesters ). So I am trying to learn python. I still did not try to learn classes but other than that I know the other stuff in general. I am solving problems at CodeAbbey (currently 80) and at Project Euler (currently 83 problems in there). I am also reading "Learning Python" to improve my skills and learn more about the syntax classes etc.

Next semester I'll apply some places to do an internship. Also, I want to work as an astrophysicist in the future. And as we all know coding is an important skill in the area. Also I' ll go abroad for graduate school. (At least I 'll try)

In this case, is it important to get a PCEP Certificate to show my skills?

Or is it enough if I open a GitHub page and upload my projects/codes?


texts: Editor not responding. Should I withdraw my submission?

texts: I submitted a paper in October 2018. After 2 months, the status changed to "awaiting CE decision" and stayed it ever since. I waited a month and sent an email to CE in February 2019. I did not receive any reply. I then waited another month and sent a second email to CE and editor assistant in March 2019, still no response . I don't know what to do next? Should I email publisher? Should I send another email to CE. Since the paper has been in the review process for 6 months, should I withdraw my submission? What if CE doesn't respond to my withdrawal, can I submit the paper to another journal?


texts: How can I keep my scholarship when I am in danger of failing to meet GPA requirements?

texts:
This year, I have started a mathematics graduate programm at a top level private university in my Country. I took 3 courses: Algebra 1, Analysis 1 and Commutative Algebra. During the semester, I have faced some problems, e.g. my family, and I could not able to work on my classes regularly. So, at the end, I will end up with getting a GPA about 1.5/4. The university provides a scholarship that includes my accommodation and monthly stipends. In order to keep this scholarship, my average GPA must not be below 2.7 for 2 semesters. So even if I take 3 or 4 courses and get 4.0 in the next semester, my GPA will be below 2.7. I believe sure that I can do better in the next semester.

So, what should I do? I really need some suggestions because I am very happy with the university, classes I take and the qualified lecturers.


texts: Recommenders for grad school applications have not submitted and deadline is imminent

texts:
The application deadlines for several programs I am applying to are December 1st and two of my recommenders haven't submitted their letters yet. (Admittedly probably should've asked this question before now.) I asked both of them in October, they both said they would be happy to write the recommendation. I sent follow ups which they acknowledged two weeks before the deadline and then an additional follow up 3 days before as well as the request from the application system.
Is there anything I can do to still have a valid application?
Update the professor submitted but two days late. Fingers crossed.


texts: What to do when you want to research something your advisor does not want you to?

texts:
When entering my MS I had an advisor assigned to me because I didn't finish undergrad in the university I'm now in. I want to research graph theory but my advisor researches in computational geometry, and every problem I proposed to him he dismissed as being too difficult (without really explaining why) and proposed an optimization problem with metaheuristics instead. As I'm approaching the end of the first semester now, I need to have an advisor confirmed and a topic semi-defined, so I half-heartedly accepted one of the problems he proposed just to get on with it.

Now it is about 3 days later and I'm already regretting the decision I made: I'm 22 years old and really like researching, but the thought of dedicating 2 years of my life on something I'm "meh" about does not make me happy. I think it is clear my advisor isn't going to open his mind to new ideas but is it too late to switch advisors? Since dropping out is not an option, as I moved from a different city and just settled in here, what should I do about it? Should I give up convincing him and try to find a new advisor in a month? Is it "normal" for people to take a research topic they don't really like for a masters program?

Edit: I realised I made a bad choice of word that made me seem like I am mad or demanding something from my advisor. I edited my question.


texts: How to politely ask for recommendation letters to professors

texts: I am applying to a few different masters' programs this fall after having applied to a different program last year. In the end, I decided not to pursue that option due to financial reasons. I graduated from my university in May 2014, and I have visited many of my professors during their office hours while I was a student there. Of course, I only made recommendation letter requests to professors in courses that I did well in. Last year, when I was applying to another program, it was relatively easy to obtain recommendation letters from the professors I made requests to. However, this year is different. I explained my change of direction to the professors who wrote my recommendation letters last year. Except for one professor, the other professors don't even bother responding to my emails. In cases when I am requesting recommendation letters after graduation, do I have visit professors directly and have a conversation with them? If that is the case, I am unable to do that because I am currently outside of the US. Also, am I expected to give them a gift at the time I am making such request? I want to know what I may be doing incorrectly.


texts: I am assisting with a research paper about a single business. The business owners agreed to participate in the study on condition that their name remain anonymous. What is the proper or common way to anonymity the business? Should a fake name be used? Should readers be told that a fake name was used?


texts: Do professors have to cite references in their Powerpoints? And what if data is manipulated to make PPT more "current"?

texts:
When I was taking my gen-ed classes for nursing school (anatomy, microbiology, etc), I could go to the end of the professor's Powerpoint and click on any of the references if I wanted to find out more information about a subject.

When I got to nursing school, I discovered that their Powerpoints were a disaster. When I click on "file" in the Powerpoint, I see that the Powerpoints were originally created by another faculty member as far back as 1998. No one has updated the textbook pages referenced within the PPT to reflect the current textbook (very frustrating when you're trying to study for a test). No new drugs or conditions have been added. We're getting 1998 information.

I also  noticed that some of the "facts" listed in the Powerpoint were changed to 2016 or 2017 (example: "According to a 2016 study, 1 in 10 nurses will be subject to violence from a patient."- a completely fabricated "fact").  Bored in class, I ran a search on the "facts" and discovered that most of them were either made up, or if they were true, the date had been changed so that the Powerpoint appears to be current.  There are no sources listed at the end of any of the Powerpoints.

I complained about the textbook pages in the Powerpoint not matching the current text, and received a "disciplinary memo" in my file because my email was considered "incendiary", even though it was factually written and non-accusative.

When we write papers, we as students can be expelled for plagiarism or lose the grade if we invent facts or fail to cite sources correctly.  Shouldn't instructors be held to the same standard?


texts: University awards degree, but asks for additional (not previously disclosed) requirements in order to recommend for certification

texts:
In my state, one way to earn a certification as an administrator for elementary and secondary education is to attend an educational administration program through a university in the state,  earn a masters degree through that program, and get a "recommendation for certification from the designated official for educational administration at the college or university where the program was completed". (Source.)

I, along with 9 others, recently completed our educational administration masters degree in a local cohort at a university in this state. We were awarded the degree, but the university will not recommend us for certification even though we have done everything asked of us for program completion.

We continually asked during the program what was going to be required and were told by multiple people employed by the university that they didn’t know what the changes were and for us to just wait. Now I have been told that we need to go back and pay money and take another class just to be recommended for certification from the university. I find this a little unreasonable having just met the requirements set forth by the university and having a masters degree in hand.

We have reached out to multiple people affiliated with the university who haven’t had the courtesy to even acknowledge receipt of our request.

What options are available to students in this scenario?


texts: Can we submit our research paper for review at two IEEE conferences simultaneously?

texts: Can we send our research paper to two IEEE conference simultaneously, and then after acceptance, decide which conference proceedings to publish it in?


texts: Are academic questions (used in textbooks etc.) owned by the publisher, or is anyone able to use them in their own content?

texts: I am wondering whether mathematical and scientific questions (or any type of question to be honest) is considered to be owned by the publisher? For example, if I see a math question in a textbook, am I allowed to use that question on my website, or is that legally considered an infringement?


texts: How do I go about acknowledging my sources of funding when I am supported by 2 different grants equally?

texts:
I am a postdoctoral supported by 2 grants (say A and B) with 50/50. Those 2 grants are owned by different PIs.

I would happy to have suggestions for the followings:

When I finish a paper for grant A, am I expected to acknowledge both grant A and B, or A alone?
Am I expected to put the PI of grant B as a co-author? Contribution could be ignored here. I can always just send the paper to the PI and he/she could contribute to critically review the manuscript. So I am wondering am I expected to do that.

What is the obligation and common practices for these? Thanks.


texts: Should co-author mention you in talk-abstract

texts:
Simple question:

Suppose you have a joint work with another guy, and both of you agree that it is truly joint (i.e. both of you believe and agree there has been equally fundamental ideas for the papers from both sides, and also that there has been equal effort in realizing the project)

Now the guy does a presentation at a conference where in the abstract of the presentation he does not mention your name by the ritual ''this is joint work with...''. The organizer of the seminar is aware that it is joint and the abstract get modified after few days with your name.

Later on after few months, at another, way bigger conference, the guy does precisely the same thing (no mention to your name in the abstract), and there that is how the abstract passes.

My question: Is this considered an unethical behavior? In my position, would be the right thing to do to mail the coauthor to tell him that what he did is not acceptable?

Why do I find this puzzling: on one hand it just bothers me to see that someone who is presenting a work where I gave key ideas does not mention me at all in the abstract, since it feels wrong and pushy in a nasty sense. On the other I have the doubt that I might be over-reacting and that the etiquette does not banish such a behavior.

Fields of studies: math.

Edit: to make clearer the spirit of the question, from a comment below. In the top paragraph I mean that the two of us had a conversation and we agreed that the contribution to the paper in terms of ideas and practical effort in realizing the project is divided in equal parts. But then, asymmetrically, my name disappears when he gives talks on it. Therefore I cannot conclude that he does it because he believes that he has done more. So two options are left:
1) It is not part of the etiquette to write your co-author name in abstract of talks, so he just did not bother.
2) It is, but he did not do it because he wants to get more credit from people just looking at abstracts (is a big conference).
So a positive answer to 1) would make not necessary the conclusion 2), which would be a relief, since 2) feels really nasty.

p.p.s: observe that the option 3) that one does not know that it is etiquette is excluded by the fact that many people actually write it in the abstract, the guy is aware of it, and therefore in the doubt it would be more convenient to choose the option without negative consequences. Therefore the omission can be only justified by the knowledge that it is not etiquette, that is 1).


texts:
Suppose I want to provide "smart" (AI, meaning extraction etc.) search over many published papers (specifically, biological) to simplify researchers' live.

Now, I have access to my university library that contains text of many papers from different sources, including those with payed subscription.

Is it legal to download all papers, analyse them and provide search without disclosing full text of the paper, only small part of text or image and with proper citation?


texts: Is it appropriate to email a professor about something unrelated to class?

texts: I have a professor currently that I have previously had in a class on a different subject.  Would it be appropriate to email them with a link to an article I found that relates to the previous class' subject (but not to the current one)?  There are no longer office hours due to school moving online, but I'm unsure if an email would be considered a waste of time because it would essentially just be sharing an article that she may have already read.


texts:
I am a mostly self taught programmer. I read books and make things in my spare time. I want to go back to school soon for a CS degree and one of the ways I stay sharp is to help with stuff that's within my ability on Stack Exchange or Reddit. For example things like "How to print the reverse of a string" or whatever.

My question is that a lot of schools have policies against letting your work be used in someone else's assignment. As far as I'm concerned helping out on internet forums is just doing a public good but are there schools that see it differently? Could that come back to bite me when I'm enrolled somewhere? Should I hold off from answering questions until I'm through the educational system? Or is it a baseless concern?


texts: Will preparing for the mathematics GRE help me towards my goal of doing research in applied mathematics?

texts:
I did my graduation in electronics engineering from India, and an M.Sc. that concentrated on certain "sub-specializations" (communication, DSP and control engineering) from a UK university.

I was reading for a Ph.D. in the areas of machine learning and computer vision (also at a UK university), however due to a number of factors I was unable to complete it. These factors include health problems (addictions, hormonal imbalances, depression, etc.) and trying to work in a topic that was too mathematical for my background, in addition to having too much leeway (and consequently not enough support) in my research from my supervisors. (Evidently my supervisors thought me as sufficiently capable at the beginning of my research to let me do what I wanted, but eventually I proved them wrong! :P )

A few years have passed since I terminated my Ph.D. programme. I feel I have worked through most of my health problems now (not all the way there, but I feel better now than I remember being in a very long time).

I did develop an appreciation for "pure" mathematics during my time doing Ph.D. research (the lack of sufficient knowledge and skill notwithstanding). Nowadays I spend some time studying undergraduate-level mathematics textbooks on my own.

Basically I'm examining options that would prepare me to do research in mathematics applied to the area of machine learning, preferably in a professional or academic context (rather than just at a personal level).

Studying on one's own is all very well, but I feel I need to impose more structure and have better focus.

I recently found out about GRE subject tests. I was wondering if preparing for (and taking) the GRE mathematics test might be helpful? I'm looking at it from these angles: (a) having a study "syllabus" to help concentrate my effort, rather than jumping about subjects and topics haphazardly (b) getting an idea of where I stand compared to other students, and (c) strengthening my case in case there's a possibility of going back to university (at the postgraduate level, that is; while I might seriously consider doing an M.Sc. or M.Phil in applied mathematics in the US or the UK, I don't think it's practical to start afresh at the undergraduate level now.)

So, is preparing for the GRE mathematics test a good idea? Any other suggestions (alternatively, or alongside)? And - so as not to put the cart before the horse - how likely is it for someone from my background to be considered for admission to a postgraduate mathematics programme (at a decent university) in the first place?


texts: What's the proper response after receiving an email from an unfamiliar sender accusing an academic of my discipline of misconduct with evidence?

texts:
I have recently received an email from an unknown source where an academic (who I don't know) is accused (backed by some evidence which I haven't examined in detail) of misconduct, particularly academic plagiarism.
Since the academic is not from my university I am not sure what to make of it.
What's the proper course of action in this case?


texts: Why do I keep getting bad grades from the subjects that I'm very good at

texts:
Okay, I'm an economics student at one of the highest ranking universities in my country. I have 3.9 gpa and I'm also double majoring with mathematics, just started double majoring this semester.

After double majoring with mathematics, everything has changed pretty much. I'm taking a real analysis course in mathematics, and I have one of the top scores in real analysis course. But I can't say the same for economics courses. So here is the thing:

Economics courses is made out of mathematics pretty much, it's just the application of mathematics to the real life. I don't like economics, I actually don't want to study it, I want a career in mathematics, but that doesn't mean I don't study to economics courses.

I study them to, and topics seem too easy to me. I pretty much enter every economics exam knowing everything, I never leave a blank or anything. I solve every single question and I'm 100% sure what I'm doing. But I take incredibly bad grades, just because of the calculation mistakes I do. It's not because I didn't solve the question or anything, it's just because of the calculation.

I still don't get it though. I can't change this, I wasn't doing this previous year, It started this year, and some people relate it to the hardcore analysis course I'm taking. Some people think that's why I fail at practical economics courses, because I've started to think more "mathematically"

By the way, by bad grades I mean like 30/100 in an exam which has an average 65/100, all mistakes made because of failed calculations.

I seriously don't know what to do? These failed economics grades will let my gpa down and will make it harder to get an acceptance to a good grad school. Plus, they also let me down motivation wise, hardly.

I don't know what to do and how to overcome these kind of mistakes I do. But I know that I don't want to study economics. + It's hard to change majors here


texts:
I started my PhD three months ago in the UK. I am a biologist, but my project lies more in the synthetic chemistry field and all the experiments I have to do are completely new for me.

My problem is that at the moment, I am alone in my group because everyone else have finished their PhD/Masters/Postdoc and left, and I have no one to ask when I am stuck with something. My supervisor tells me to do experiments that I have never heard of, gives me a very general and brief description and that's it! No protocols, no one to show me at least for the first time. In the labs where I have worked in the past it was completely different - PhD students have someone to assist them (a Postdoc or a technician) and they don't feel lost searching on the internet for the right protocol or method to follow.

I want to ask you if this is normal for a PhD student? Or is it how PhDs are in the UK?  I know that we have to work with minimal supervision, but is this normal? How am I supposed to start a new protocol involving sensitive instrument usage (like HPLC) with no one to show me?

Thank you in advance for your answers!


texts: Under what circumstances could a project fail from the perspective of a government provided grant?

texts:
I'd guess that the topic only marginally differs in different geographical regions. I narrowed the question to government agencies, because privately funded projects usually have contractual obligations that may vary substantially on individual basis and that may also not be publicly visible.

Let's assume a university employed researcher (e.g. tenure-track faculty) successfully applied for a grant, i.e. an amount of money for a defined period of time intended for research on the topic stated in the grant proposal.

As time goes by, the work progresses, papers are published, students work on their theses, etc. There is no apparent evidence of any foul play. However, the PI in question embezzles a relatively small but significant amount of money for various purposes (own pockets, financing another project, lab equipment that is not related to the project, ...).

Under what circumstances would the funding agency suspect that there wasn't enough progress made / work done or a misappropriation happened with the granted funds and start investigating? What are the mechanisms for detecting such cases?

Note that I causally link lack of progress and misappropriation mainly for illustrative purposes and I'm not suggesting that one can't happen without the other or that embezzlement is the only reason for poor results (or the only illegal action for that matter). Indeed, the discussion regarding the opposite case, i.e. when embezzlement happened, but the project yielded excellent results nonetheless, would be interesting for another question. My question is primarily concerned with the when and whether a funded project can be deemed insufficient and thus lead to an investigation.


texts: Responding to reviewer comments in IEEE conference

texts: My paper was accepted into IEEE COMPSAC (a comp sci conference). As far as I can tell, it was a straight accept and not "conditional acceptance". The reviewers had some comments/questions on my paper. However, I can't find anywhere on the website about replying to comments and the notification email didn't mention the need/mechanism to respond to comments either. Do I still need to respond to reviewer comments?


texts: My referees are in their Ph.D. final year, can they recommend me for Ph.D. Admission?

texts:
Please I need orientation on this issue. All my undergraduate lecturers that know much about me are in their Ph.D. final year, but they all have been in the system since 16years ago with MSc degree. My MSc supervisor is the only professor that can say much about my research capability. All my undergraduate lecturers are now in their Ph.D. final year. Can I they recommend me for Ph.D. admission? I need three referees, my MSc supervisor and two others would come from my undergraduate degree lecturers. Is this advisable?
Thanks.


texts: Why don't mathematics professors use social media to promote their work?

texts:
I notice that many computer science professors do a great job of self-promoting; they are very active on Facebook, Twitter, Quora, and many of them have tens of thousands of followers.  They post their papers on social media, give updates regarding their research group's progress, talk about interviews they recently participated in, and some even comment about their political preferences and views on current events.  By now, it is also well-known that many of the best CS professors get poached by industry giants, e.g., Google, Facebook, Uber, which at least one professor thinks is beneficial to both academia and industry:

https://techcrunch.com/2016/04/26/it-isnt-just-uber-carnegie-mellons-computer-science-dean-on-its-poaching-problem/

However, I don't see much self-promotion going on from mathematics professors on social media.  Many that I know of - both young and old - either do not have Facebook accounts (or they are completely private on Facebook), do not have Twitter, nothing on Quora, except for maybe some conversation on mathoverflow.net.  On their school websites, math professors give relatively minimal information - office location, publications, course notes, a resume.  Sometimes they will say whether they are going to some conference to give a talk.

Main question:
Why don't mathematics professors advertise themselves more on social media?
Is it perhaps frowned upon by the math community, and that they would come off as "less serious" about academic research?  Is it some traditional, philosophical reason for not publicizing one's work for the non-math world to see?  Of course, an extreme example that comes to mind is Grigori Perelman, who turned down the Fields Medal and never gave an interview about his important work.

Secondary question: Don't they also want the chance to be poached by an industry giant and make a few million dollars for a couple years of work - and then return to academia?


texts:
A few months ago I submitted my work to a doctoral symposium. At that moment I was PhD student and the work was accepted.

Now I am just graduated and my question is if I should still attend the doctoral symposium as graduated instead of as student.
Moreover, I have checked the conference schedule and it has a slot for me.

What is the best way to handled this situation?


texts: How to effectively evaluate your instructor?

texts:
I am a graduate student and going to assess my instructor in a month, with whom I was not very much satisfied. I had been writing the teachers' evaluation in past but didn't see a scintilla of improvement even after years in any attribute of instructor or course-material. Maybe other students were quite satisfied and I was just a statistical outlier. Apart from my disbelieve, what is the most effective way to communicate with your instructor via evaluation-sheet?

Thanks for any suggestions.


texts: How do I cite an article which has been accepted pending revisions, but the revisions aren't accepted yet?

texts:
I have an article accepted in a journal, providing I make certain revisions.  I have now made the revisions and sent them off, but am awaiting the journal's confirmation that the reviewers are satisfied.  How do I reference my own paper in this limbo situation?  'Accepted'?  'In press' seems a bit ahead of myself.  But 'In prep' seems to not do it justice, as it has been accepted.  Does anyone use 'under revision'?

It is likely the case that by the time I finish the piece in which I cite myself, the situation will be clearer.  But for this point in time (and for ongoing conference presentations) it would be good to know what the style is here.


texts: What do co-supervisors get out of a PhD?

texts:
PhD supervisors usually get paid to supervise. They also have the prestige of having lots of students under their belt.

It's common to also have co-supervisor (I think it's mandatory in many fields, in Australia at least). What do these people get in return for their services? Put another way: if I'm asking someone to be my PhD supervisor, expecting them to help me out a whole lot for the next 3-4 years, what do I have to offer them?


texts:
I have yet to see this, but was wondering if others have or if it makes sense to list acknowledgments in published papers on a CV.

In some questions on this SE, it seems significant contributions to a paper can occur, yet for some reason (maybe not contributing to writing of the paper), the person is listed in acknowledgments and not co-author.  This seems like something that is of relevance/importance.

In the other case, acknowledgments can be 'thanks for the discussion' in which it may have been a brief conversation with one important realization through the talk.  This seems more like daily life.

Some people seem to list their contributions tot he academic community, such as being a reviewer for a journal.

What would you think if you saw acknowledgments on a CV, or, would it make more sense to categorize acknowledgments into other topics, such as, 'Non-co-authored project participation'.


texts: How to decide on the order of authorship for this collaboration?

texts:
I'm in collaboration with another researcher in the field of linguistics, she wants to try machine learning algorithms/analysis on her dataset. The dataset is not published before, and the contribution of this work is to use ML to better analyze linguistic theories and to support/challenge them with this new empirical evidence (ML).

So, my role here was to try appropriate ML tools based on the goal she described, and also I designed a new ML algorithm to serve the purpose. In addition, I perform the experiments, numerical evaluations, preparing the figures.

But since the main concept and the aim is fundamentally related to the linguistic field, she is in charge of writing down the main structure of the paper (Abstract, Introduction, the purpose, contribution).
But, definitely, I'd write the ML parts and where I need to provide quantitative conclusions and also explanations regarding the new algorithm I designed and ML approaches that were used, and how to interpret the results.

Well, we are aiming for a conference in the area of computational linguistics, and it is not clear for me who should be the first author of this contribution.
Also, I do not know if it is possible to claim equal authorship for such cases, and whether it'd be considered as the 1st authorship in my CV?

BTW, she is a post-doc, and I'm an almost finished Ph.D.!  ;-)

Update: Since the value of this publication (if being accepted) is important to both of us regarding our future proposals and job-search, I personally prefer an equal authorship option, if possible!
But I'm not sure if possible to show that in the CV!


texts: Is it possible to change the major from engineering to humanity (after master) for phd?

texts:
I'm a M.A.Sc (equivalent with M.Sc.) student majoring in electrical and computer engineering at a top-tier Canadian university. My undergraduate studies were, reasonably, related to computer science and engineering. Robotics and implementation of human mental (cognitive) capabilities is my main research interest within these years. So, I had to learn a lot about cognitive processes of mind, biological aspects of nervous system and psychological concepts. Right now, I'm thinking about not to pursue technical majors towards Ph.D. and switch to psychology field. In no doubt, I have no classical background in psychology in view of previous degrees, but I have some fairly-strong reasons to justify my new idea to change the major:

First of all, I was already interested in study of psychological affairs within the artificial intelligence (AI) framework, but now I'd changed my mind because I feel I am actually interested in WHAT natural aspect of psychology, not artificial HOW perspective. Furthermore, I think my contribution to psychology will be more gratifying (for myself) than AI, since the impact of the former will directly affect human-beings, whereas real imitations of AI are just like dreams, currently.
(As I stated above) However I have no official preparation in psychology, my research experiences may show that I'm not an alien in this field. I have a couple of conference and journal papers, most of which are about implementation of cognitive processes into computer procedures. Hence, I am aware of them partly.
My ideas are coherent enough to let me write a proposal to address what sort of contribution I've in mind to have. Obviously, that proposal will reflect a literature review that is by itself representative of my acquaintance with this field.

My target programs are well-known ones in US and EU, such as University of Cambridge. I've tracked some faculty members whose researches need background and mental preparation approximated by mine.

With all being said, my main concern here is whether aforesaid stuffs and justifications have any merit to help me get in such (at least in first sight!) irrelevant program compared to my background or it is impossible for me to hit this mark (I'll be carrying water in a sieve). In other words, how do universities typically analyze applications of fellows like me and what sort of credits are often important for them (which should be reflected into my application)? What are typical admission committees' assessment criteria in such situations?

PS. The probable answer might be:

  Just pursue another master degree (in psychology, this time), and then
  apply for Ph.D.

Actually, I'm an international student and humanity funded positions (at least here) are very rare, typically granted to aboriginal candidates. So, please assume that pursuing another master is not pretty feasible for someone in my situation.


texts: Underrating and overrating of student in recommendation letter for post-doc: Balancing approach

texts:
Many times in our professional career, we come across students, who had either taken our courses or were part of our research group, asking for recommendation letters for post-doc or graduate program (if the student is an undergrad).

It is also true from the point of view of human behaviour that it is practically impossible to be neutral during our assessment of the student and it also reflects when we describe their strengths and weaknesses in the recommendation letter. In most of the cases, we overrate or underrate the performance and if it is the latter, we are sometimes held accountable that we have jeopardized their opportunities. I am not sure what happens if it is the former; may be the student takes the blame as well as we, though in absentia.

Is there a way out to have a balanced approach while writing recommendations? Since I hope everybody believes that it is the not the aim to highlight only the weaknesses of the student but also strengths that can be used by the student and the host to move forward. The question is how much of these negative attributes are considered seriously and how much should we, as recommending authority, highlight them?
As a typical example, if the student is an extremely good experimentalist but is not so good, probably poor, in visualization of data, then what should be our approach if we have to address this attribute without being too harsh or too mild.


texts: How to deal with class partner who always wants to answer professor's question?

texts:
I have just started master's in math. There is a class with a very "powerful" (great researcher) professor and I'm taking it. However, there is a classmate of mine who, every time the professor asks a question, she answers it. I find this a little bit anoyying because sometimes I want also to participate in class because sometimes I also have an idea and also because it seems that in academia there is a big component on "reputation" and I'm afraid that if I don't talk in class, I'm not going to get a letter of recomendation of that professor (and I make a big effort in class!). At the same time, I don't want to start a war about who answers questions more quickly.

As in masters program, teachers don't grade exams, the only way to get a good reputation, letter of recommendation and so on, is by participating in class.

How can I deal with that situation? What is the best strategy to get noticed in class with such an anoyying student?


texts:
Choosing your research area

Relevant and adding to that.

I am planning to pursue a PhD (currently at masters) and have many research interests. Some of my interests are more attainable and my knowledge in the domain is good enough to make contributions and publish papers and get a PhD faster than usual. However I feel that those research areas have small impact as compared to other and makes me not want to dedicate a significant amount of time to something I know will probably impact a very small slice of the pie.

Other research interests I don't know as much about, or what I know is from a class settings. Some of those interests I didn't enjoy working on in the past as part of my courses but I am still considering a PhD on them. Mostly because they can have a much larger scientific impact.

My main motivation for doing a PhD is the scientific impact that my research can have and how I can help solve problems that can have some sort of application.

Research Interests Include:

AI, Reinforcement Learning, Machine Learning with specific applications in Software Engineering and/or Social Networks, Robotics, Motion

So here are my questions:

Is it acceptable to apply for a PhD program that I know not as much about but am willing to learn?
How would it reflect on a PhD program application diverse research interest topics with more than a handful faculty?
What should be my main motivation behind choosing a topic?
What questions should I be asking to narrow down my interests?


texts: How to find articles containing specific keywords such as "cosmology" in several scientific databases?

texts:
I need to check articles containing specific keywords such as "cosmology" daily. It takes long time to search one by one search engines and databases such as ScienceDirect, GoogleScholar, arxiv, and similar ones.
Is there a service or application to search in all of these websites?


texts: Am I allowed to submit to a journal, a paper that was accepted to a conference but not presented yet?

texts:
I am writing a paper in game theory. It is almost ready and I would like to submit it to an economics journal. Meanwhile, I would like to present a part of it in a computer science conference which is also interested in game theory. This will probably not be a problem from the journal's point of view, since the journal version contains much more results than the conference version. It is common to send to a journal, an extended version of a conference paper. But, I am not sure if it is allowed from the conference's point of view.   In the "multiple submission" policies of two conferences, I found a similar statement:

AAMAS:  "Authors may not submit any paper to AAMAS hat has already appeared in an archival forum. Authors must ensure that no submission to AAMAS s under review for another archival forum between the AAMAS submission and decision dates."
IJCAI:  "IJCAI will not accept any paper that, at the time of submission, is under review for or has already been published, or accepted for publication, in a journal or another venue with formally published proceedings... Authors are also required not to submit their papers to venues with formal publication during IJCAI-16 review period".

I understand that I am not allowed to submit to the journal BEFORE the submission deadline, and not allowed to submit BETWEEN the submission deadline and the acceptance/rejection decision. What I don't understand is: am I allowed to submit to a journal AFTER the decision (assuming it will be an "accept" decision) but BEFORE the conference itself?

The rules do not say explicitly that it is forbidden, but, I thought that it may be "obvious" that it is forbidden, since the conference organizers want to make sure that the paper is fresh and new when it is presented in the conference.


texts: Does the salary of a PhD student at a German university meet the financial requirement for a German Student Visa?

texts:
This is a question for Nationals from Australia, Honduras, Israel, Japan, Canada, New Zealand, Republic of South Korea, United States of America who have successfully obtained their Student Visa/Residence Permit to do their Ph.D.s in Germany.

I keep seeing the requirement of a minimum amount of €10,236/year in a German blocked bank account/Sperrkonto for the Student Visa. I have learned that international Ph.D. students in Germany are required to first get the Student Visa then the Residence Permit. However, I am unclear if Ph.D. students are exempt from depositing €10,236 for each year of their studies in a German blocked bank account or if their salary will meet that requirement. This concerns me because the Ph.D. program I applied to in Germany is three years long and I am unclear if I am expected to deposit €10,236 x 3 at once.

I also applied to a Ph.D. program in Sweden and they only require me to show proof of salary from the university I have been accepted to so I'm wondering if it's the same for Germany.

Thanks in advance for your help!


texts: Is it useful to list the exact name of a prize or grant in a resume?

texts:
Given that a lot of prizes or grants are specific to a particular university, is there any point in listing the exact name of a prize or grant on one's resume?

For example, if I say that I won "John Doe Scholarship" or "Mary Doe Thesis Award", it won't really mean anything to someone outside the university. Would it be easier just to say you won scholarships/grants and an award for your thesis?


texts: How to report on an academically required internship with a bad supervisor relationship

texts:
I am a few days from completion of an industrial internship that is required for my Masters degree.  I have had a bad experience with the supervisor of this internship, who has insulted me several times during my internship period. He is mean, he gets angry very easily, he is bad-tempered and most importantly he is ignorant: he never knew what I must do as a trainee, it is me who proposes the tasks to him. Finally, now that I have finished the main task of my internship, he says it is useless.

Completing the internship and the degree involves reporting on my internship to an academic jury.  Given this bad experience, how should I handle my report?

In particular:

I do not want to give an acknowledgement to my field supervisor in my report: is this a bad thing to do? I mean, will the jury ask me why I did not write an acknowledgement?
If the jury asks about my evaluation of the company where I did the internship, should I be honest in telling them what happened, or should I lie and tell them everything was fine?


texts: Is it illegal to share publications not in the public domain with collaborators?

texts:
Back in my university days, I got into the habit of saving papers I had to read to my hard disk. At first I did this simply to organize them more conveniently, and have quicker access to them.

However, my reasons for saving those papers to disk gradually changed as graduation approached. In the end, I saved a lot of papers, because at one point I realized that I had unrestricted, unlimited, free access to an absolutely fantastic source of richness, and that soon after graduation, I'd lose all of that.

Years later, I now frequently end up in discussions, or get asked questions, or otherwise end up at a point where a common access to one of those papers really helps to progress the discussion. I often just send that paper around without thinking twice about it, more because I believe that's how science should work than anything else.

I believe most of those papers are however not in the public domain, meaning, people not associated with a university or other institution that has access, can not access the paper without some payment to its official publisher.

So is any of this legal? If not, what are the possible repercussions for me personally, and for the people I sent it to?

I realize this is a touchy issue, and there are many initiatives to open scientific publications up for the general public. A related question would be: do these initiatives (like all of these) exist partly because of this reason?


texts: how to find highly cited articles in journals with low impact factor?

texts:
Journals with high IF get more attention, so might get "better" articles.
However I am interested in finding papers published in minor journals that have a high number of citations, say >100.

I can't seem to do this search on web of science. How is this achieved?


texts: Can I submit an extended version of a conference paper or a journal, if a better algorithm exists?

texts:
We published a paper in a theoretical CS conference last year, and were hoping to submit it to a journal when we found out that our result was improved in a followup work.

While it's clear that there are no ethical issues with submitting the extended manuscript to a journal, its results are inferior to the recent followup paper.

Would we get the same consideration as if the new paper does not exist (i.e., comparing the results to what was known before our original publication)?
Assuming that the answer is no, is there even a point in submitting it?

To be clear, we do mean to cite the newer result; my question is about how likely our paper is to get accepted under the circumstances.


texts: Was my research topic poorly motivated? And how do I now turn it into a paper?

texts:
I finished my master’s program last year. The topic of my thesis was suggested to me by one of the PIs at the faculty, who then supervised my project. The question seemed perfectly reasonable at the time. It wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but it had what seemed like a clear hypothesis that I then approached with appropriate methods, and I was excited to be working on it.
I did an okay job: my thesis received a top grade and I later presented my results at a conference poster session. The reviews I got there were also good.
Now my supervisor wants me to write it up and try submitting it to a journal. As a master’s thesis it worked fine, however, now that I’m preparing a manuscript (I have been for the last 9 months, albeit not full time as I also have a job), the “story” just doesn’t seem coherent to me anymore. I’ve rewritten it over and over again trying to meaningfully tie together the motivation for the study, the question, and the discussion, but it just doesn’t work as a coherent narrative.
The problem, in my opinion, is that the question is framed as something like, “X might be behaving weird in our observations because of Y. Let’s see what else behaves like this X given Y. let’s look at Z, because it’s kind of like X (but not really)”. So it’s not that I tested some predictions based on the possible influence of Y on X, I just checked out to see if something else behaved similarly to X when I introduce Y. The results don’t tell us anything new about Y (or Z), We don’t learn anything new whether or not we get a “positive” result.
Steps I’ve taken so far to make this work:

had a thorough discussion about the logic of this paper with my supervisor. we agreed on a structure. It seemed okay when we talked about it, but it does not work at all on paper. It does not read like a well-motivated study, so there is no “link” that would tie the narrative together.
Tried to reframe the question and discuss the motivation from a different angle. It doesn’t work however many times I’ve started my draft from scratch.

Was my research question just poorly motivated in the first place? If you agree that it was, what do I do? Can I rescue this paper without making the introduction deliberately vague about how this research topic came to be?
Or am I totally wrong and this is a reasonable type of question to ask in science?
I am stressed out and embarrassed that I still haven’t managed to turn it into something publishable. I would be even more embarrassed to contact my supervisor this far into working on it and explain that I find the study rationale flawed, and that this is why I am still working on the first draft. I would appear lazy and as though I am trying to find excuses, even though I’ve been consistently trying to make it work all this time.
If this is of any relevance: I think my supervisor’s published papers are well motivated and thought through. Somehow it’s just this study that doesn’t work imo.


texts: How to keep track of line numbers in response to reviewers?

texts:
I am working on resubmitting a paper to a journal and am working on my response to reviewers. I need to refer to a bunch of line numbers in my response to reviewers and it is frustrating because every time I make a change to my manuscript the line numbers change a bit.

For instance, say a reviewer writes: "you should use the word 'correlate' rather than 'co-occur' in line 243"
I would then reply. "'co-occur' was replaced with 'correlate' in line 245". Note the line number is now higher because I added a sentence to my paper. This is fine, but say I have a whole bunch of these lines, and then I decide to add one more sentence to the beginning of my paper. Right now, I would have to go through my response and update all of the line numbers. I feel like there must be a better way to keep track of these. Maybe with some sort of dynamic field or something in word or open office. Does anyone have a suggestion?


texts: What should I do if I end up without an adviser?

texts:
I am a 2nd year PhD student and I have passed all prelims. However, I am facing a problem: I may not be able to get an adviser.

There were several potential advisers I was trying to approach. One of them suddenly left, others are either "do not know anything about my topic", "too busy to take a student", or simply ignored me at all (It seems that they were always not in their offices, and they simply ignored my emails.)
And now I have trying my last shot on one of the faculties, but it seems that (s)he is not willing to take me and (s)he claimed that (s)he may not be a good adviser.

I talked with my friends and we got possible solutions. However, I am not sure if they are good or possible. So I would like to get some advice here:

(1) Switch field:

(I tried approaching all faculties with similar interest.) The problem is I know nothing about their fields and I didn't take any basic courses related to these fields.
So the two problems are:
(a) I know nothing, is it too late to start over now?
(b) To be honest I am not interested in these fields. However if I stay here I think I need to switch my field probably. Is it really a good idea because I may need to face something I don't like for 3 to 4 years.

(2) Staying in my school and try to get an adviser elsewhere:

Is it hard to do so given that I am not a brilliant student? Since they do not have the burden to take a student from somewhere else.
If I approach them, how should I explain my situation? Since there are some faculties working on my field.

(3) Transfer to another school:

If I am going to apply another school, how will they think of me? Will they think I have no adviser because I am dumb? Or will they think I may end up without an adviser again?

Also, in general, do I have to restart everything again? (Including the prelims.)
I know that some schools will force their student taking the prelim courses irrespective to their background, in this case, I think I will waste time on the same material.

[Added] And one more problem for (3) is I doubt I can get 3 reference letters again...[/Added]

Finally, is it good idea to reapply those school who accepted me before?

Do you have another possible solution? And how do you think about these solutions? And if it is field dependent, do you mind indicating which field you are talking about?

Sorry about my poor language and thanks a lot.


texts: How to report to journal when work published in it has already been done by some other researcher?

texts:
I came across a paper published in the Journal of Mathematical Physics in the year 2016. In the paper, the authors claimed to have developed a methodology which extends the dimension of an existing method. But this extension has already been discussed in a paper published in 2014. This seems to be a kind of cheating which the reviewers of journal failed to identify. The bibliography also appears to the suspicious as a large number of papers of a particular author has been cited without any motivation. I want to report this unscrupulous work, how can I report to the journal?

PS. This is not a case of plagiarism but a kind of unscrupulous research.


texts: How hard is it to change universities after one year in a graduate program (USA, PhD in Chemistry)?

texts: Let's assume I am going to a University for a PhD program in the  US. After attending for one year, I feel that it would be better for me to switch programs and University. How hard would it be to do that? I'm an international student not yet admitted to a graduate program.


texts: Can I publish a paper on my PhD work without informing my old supervisor?

texts: I was a PhD student and working on a paper. My adviser told me that he could not support me anymore so I left him. Now I am wondering if I could publish that paper on my own. There were 3 other coauthors on that paper but I was the first author and main idea was from me.


texts: When one does not have well-defined research interests for PhD Programs

texts:
I'll be applying to tier II PhD programs in Mathematics. I've made a switch from another field to Mathematics, and, given that my primary major was not mathematics during my undergraduate, I don't have well-defined research interests. I have some idea that I'd like to work in analysis, but I'm not sure of which field -- differential equations, functional analysis, geometric measure theory etc. I still, at the very least, need to study all these subjects in more depth to be able to make an informed decision. Moreover, I come from a background where I studied multiple subjects in college -- Economics, Physics and Mathematics -- and I consistently realized I'm more interested in the mathematics of all the subjects I have studied thus far. So, right now, I am more interested exploring more mathematics out there, so I can make informed  choices about my research interests at a later time.

So, my question is: how do students like myself sell their research interests in the personal statement addressed to graduate admissions commmittee?


texts: May I modify the code/program for my undergraduate thesis project?

texts:
I have a project for undergraduate thesis. Then, I found this Chapter VBI-6.   Hand and Finger Detection. In the Downloads section, there's code that we can download and launched. I want to use it and have to modify or tweak it to suit my project. The problem is that, I don't know whether it's allowed or not to make a modification to the code presented. Inside, I found this sentences:

  If you use this code, please mention my name, and include a link
  to the website.

By "use", may I tweak the code as long as I refer to the coder? I'm confused because I found nothing about its license inside the code, like, GNU-GPL or MIT...

I'm so sorry if my question is wrong. If so, please tell why and maybe where I can ask it.


texts: How to find research topics and publish more?

texts:
I seem to be a bit stuck here. I am reading quite a lot, but I cannot find a topic to write about, which is original and which I could then publish as a paper. I am in the Humanities, so it's basically just about reading, reading, reading (so no research in a lab or something).

Are there strategies for this? What would you recommend a young scholar does to publish more and find interesting things to write about?

PS: I know that this question will not receive an entirely objective answer, but there might still be some proven strategies or insights that could alleviate some concerns.


texts: Margin spacing on graduate school applications (PhD) in the US

texts:
I understand the standard margin spacing on personal statements is 1 inch, but I've read that 0.75 inches may be okay.

Most of the statements specify 1-2 page limits and nothing else. I'm wondering if 0.75 inch margins are okay, given that I have 3 significant research experiences to describe in my statements.

Any opinions on costs VS. benefits in my case: to lose content (it would have to be from my research experiences, as I already have the bare minimum writing that addresses other aspects of the statement, such as why I want to attend the school or long-term career objectives) or to possibly annoy one of the readers that I have 0.75 margins as opposed to 1 inch margins.

Thanks!


texts: Could I write a review paper as my B.Tech (Bachelors in Technology) final year project, rather than presenting an experiment based work?

texts:
I live in India.
Currently due to the coronavirus pandemic, all colleges have been shut down and the country has gone in lockdown. As a result, my final year project work on electrocoagulation has come to a standstill.
The apparatus and the materials took time to arrive, and when they finally did and I was beginning to do the experimental work, the colleges were shutdown.
In the light of these events, my mentor has suggested me to write a review paper instead, however I am afraid it might not be accepted as a final year project.
Therefore, for my own peace of mind, I would like to know if a review paper could work as a final year B.Tech project.


texts: Is Visa required to obtain a very short term research grant (15 days) from a US University?

texts:
I am an associate professor and I am going to the US for two weeks. I am going to visit a colleague who is arranging with her university a small grant for me to cover the basic expenses.
According to the agreements between the US and my country, I do not need to apply for a Visa to enter the US for tourism or business reasons.
However I wonder whether I will need a J-1 Visa (or any other type of visa) in order to receive the grant (I hope not, since there are only 10 days left, and my colleague has not provided me with the formal letter yet...).
Thanks!


texts: Is it correct to use citations as nouns for scientific papers, such as dissertations of articles?

texts:
Which of these two is better accepted, or preferred, for scientific papers?
THIS
The model detaches the calculation of the vertical velocity from the
equations system, and focuses on the longitudinal velocities instead, leaving the model
as a 2D equations system. [Mintgen, 2018] provides a description for the properties, characteristics and limitations of SWE in a detailed manner, some of which will be further addressed an extended for a deeper analysis in Section 2.1.
OR
The model detaches the calculation of the vertical velocity from the
equations system, and focuses on the longitudinal velocities instead, leaving the model
as a 2D equations system. In his dissertation, Florian Mintgen [Mintgen, 2018] provides a description for the properties, characteristics and limitations of SWE in a detailed manner, some of which will be further addressed an extended for a deeper analysis in Section 2.1.
Or if you have any other accepted way of doing it, please feel free. Thank you
References
[Mintgen, 2018] Mintgen, G. F. (2018). Coupling of Shallow and Non-Shallow Flow Solvers An
Open Source Framework. Dissertation, Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Muenchen.


texts: Applying for Ph.D. Program when desired adviser is on leave?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate student planning to apply for Ph.D. programs in the humanities field this admissions cycle (Fall 2016). I've been contacting a few professors I'd be interested in working with at certain programs. One of the professors at a school that is one of my top choices said that she is on leave for this academic year (Fall 2016-Spring 2017), so she will not be part of admissions, but would be taking in new grad students in the academic year after that, when I would (hopefully) be a first-year grad student. Her research interests are a really good match with my current interests, so I was hoping to have her as my adviser if I got accepted to that school.

Is it alright for an applicant to refer to a professor that they'd like to work with in the personal statement even when that professor is not on-campus for the admissions process? Should I apply anyways and assume that if I'm a strong enough candidate, they'll accept even when my desired adviser will not be on-campus for the admissions committee?


texts: Is it correct to call oneself "Doctor/Scientist/Mathemathician" simply because one has a PhD in that field?

texts:
If I use the word "Doctor" amongst laypeople, they will think I actually work as a doctor, treating people or advancing medicinal research on a daily basis.

If I use the word "Mathematician", they will think I work at a university where I spend some of my time lecturing students and some of my time doing research into complicated math problems.

If I use the word "Scientist", they will think I work in some laboratory where I am pivotal in the advancement of some cutting-edge research that will make the world a better place.

However, one can denote oneself using above terms by merely graduating and/or acquiring a PhD, even if one then left the field entirely, either out of choice or due to a failure to succeed.

My question is thus, is it wrong to call oneself a Doctor/Mathematician/Scientist if one is actually not working as one such, but merely acquired the appropiate degrees? Since clearly one is knowingly deceiving others*? If this question is too opinionated, I shall then ask: how many academics do actually use their degrees and doctorates to label themselves even if they actually are not working in those fields?

*To provide an example of such deceit, I had thought for a long time that Sam Harris, who writes many pieces on political, religious and scientific affairs, actually was a neuroscientist, as he claims. That sounded massively impressive to me the first time I heard it,  and added much merit to anything he had to say about science. I recently however found out that all he has done as a "neuroscientist" is get a PhD in it, and his thesis has been heavily criticized.


texts: Where to publish helpful, but informal papers?

texts:
I have written an informal article 9 pages long, that covers some general, lightly technical material.  I wrote it because this material is not covered elsewhere, and I am knowledgeable in the field.  The material is light in the sense that it is not highly innovative, or even highly useful, but it is "good to know".  The subject matter is information security, with respect to radio systems.

I have posted the article on my personal webpage.  Should I bother to submit it somewhere for 'proper' publication?  It is not technical or innovative enough for IEEE or ACM journals (or even letters).  Or should I just keep it on my page for people with search engine inquiries related to the subject matter to possibly stumble across?


texts: Are appendices included in the maximum page count for conference papers?

texts:
I am writing research paper following the ACM 2-column format in Latex. The conference is limiting the number of pages by only 6-8 pages. So far, my paper has a lot of figures and tables and would be impossible to fit them all in 8 pages.

So what I want to do, is to include an extra page as an Appendix at the end. will it be considered as 8 pages or 9 pages? Will it be considered that I am following the conference regulation?


texts: Does "corresponding author" carry an implied meaning?

texts:
After reading the question Mentor trying to be first author?, I got the impression that (at least in the writers' field) the "corresponding author" flag could carry an implied meaning, such as "did more work than the other authors", or "is a more senior author". Is it the case?

I am in mathematics, a field where we typically sort the authors alphabetically, and I've never given any importance to that role (apart from "this author is willing to answer a couple of extra e-mails, if needed").


texts:
The reason I'm asking this question is that I've never used Web of Science before. My apologies if it is silly or irrelevant.

I'm gathering materials for an application to a tenure-track job, and one of the things I have to submit is a list of my publications as indexed in WoS. This is an important thing for them, because they make it clear in the call for applications that those publications that are indexed in WoS are going to count more that those that don't (they do it this way because the call is division-wide, not department-specific, so they use WoS as a scholarship quality metric that doesn't require the members of the search committee to be experts in the specific fields of the candidates).

WoS behaves well in that, if I query my name and field, it returns all of my journal publications, including a couple of obscure book reviews I did in my first year of grad school. On the other hand, it also behaves badly in that it fails to return anything that is not a journal publication. This bothers me because I have a couple of book chapters with reputable presses (e.g., OUP) and proceedings of high-profile conferences that my peers and mentors acknowledge are as important (in terms of quality and contribution to the field) as any of my journal publications; but because they don't appear in WoS, the search committee will view them as second-rate publications.

The question is, is there a way I can make WoS index these publications?


texts: What is the easiest way to check for plagiarism in student essay papers?

texts:
I've had to grade quite a few essay papers in the classes I've taught, and I've suspected some may have plagiarized but I never really pursued check on them because it would be too time consuming to check their sources and pursue any/all possible sources where they may have copied from.

What's the easiest way to check for plagiarism?  Is there a search engine tool that one could use to upload a paper and check for it?  I doubt it, but other than that, I don't know of any other way to check for it than to put in more effort than I have time for.


texts: Getting into new PhD after failing comps

texts:
Last summer I failed my comps/quals of my PhD program. I did not have a chance to take a second try, as my spring semester grades were poor. The first semester (fall) was good, though.

I could not fully concentrate on my studies during the spring semester as there were some family issues in my home country.

My advisor believes in me and said I should continue my studies. I am still very much motivated to do research in my area.

There are couple of concerns, though. How will my poor performance in the spring semester (and consequently failing comps) affect my chances into getting to another program? How should I approach my personal statement?


texts: Can people refer to me as an MD in my recommendation letter if I have already passed my professional exam but my degree is still in process?

texts:
This year I am applying to an big university's summer camp this year, and I am not really aware of how US Universities handle this situation. I am a Mexican "medical intern", I call myself like that because I know no better term to describe my degree, which would be literally translated as "In-Social Service Medical Doctor". I have already taken and passed my professional exam, but my degree is still in process, and probably (very likely) won't be ready at the submission of my papers.

If it were a Mexican institution I would just use "MPSS" (Medical Intern at Social Service by Spanish acronym). However medical intern seems like I have just finished medical school and I am at my Internship year (which it not the case, I have already finished it, thanks god).

The only question I have is: would it be recommended that my teachers to refer to me as INSTERT FULL NAME HERE M.D. or Dr. INTERT FULL NAME in my recommendation letters? if it is not, how could they call me in those letters?


texts: Can I publish in a field completely unrelated to my present field? If yes, what about affiliations?

texts:
I'm a scientific researcher working in material science and have a couple of good publications in reputed journals. However, I'm also very interested in topics like philosophy, psychology and political science. I have some written material in these fields which I want to publish, but I'm not sure how to proceed. What affiliation should I mention with my name, as I'm not connected to any university/institution presently.
Should I contact some academicians working in philosophy, psychology, political science & related fields and offer them to include their name in the publication if they like my manuscript?
Moreover, I would soon be commencing my PhD in my main stream. Will the above mentioned collaborations be detrimental to my academics?


texts:
I am a graduate student considering tutoring another student in a challenging graduate level statistics course.  What is a reasonable hourly rate to charge?  This is a public university in the United States.
Thanks.


texts: Is there a formal way to aggregate the Web of Science Categories?

texts: I'm doing network analysis at the level of the author using data from Web of Science. As you might know, the column, WC has information about the Web of Science Categories, which are around 250 disciplines. I was wondering if there is a proper way to aggregate them, for instance, using the 22 disciplines from the Essential Science Indicators.


texts: Is searching in article references considered a systematic way of literature search?

texts:
Doing a systematic review, either quantitative or qualitative, requires developing a well-defined protocol as a method of conducting it. This includes defining the search methods used in the identification of eligible articles, which include two methods:

database search using search queries (a main method)
searching in the references and cited-by sections of the selected articles (which are already retrieved by the first method)

Let's assume that an author (of a large review) does their best to formulate the search queries to better represent the review question, but later they realized that considerable amount (e.g. 50% or more) of the relevant articles are found only by using the second method (searching in articles);
Is the second method less 'systematic' than the first one? Does it compromise how much 'systematic' the resulting review is?
If so, does the above scenario affect the validity of the search queries used (i.e. should they be reformulated to increase the recall of search and retrieve more of relevant articles)?
Edit: More extremely: If 90 out of selected 100 articles are found only by using the second method, how much does this affect the quality of the systematic review?