texts: Is it good to only read the high-rated journals as a starting PhD student?

texts:
I just started my PhD in computer science (first year) and I enjoy reading the high-rated journals related to my field. It is true that I find them, sometimes, complicated (in some sense) and I cannot continue the reading. The reason why I like reading such journals is that (1) there are many beautiful ideas, (2) solid works and (3) I would like to submit to these journals in the future.

I think, however, that this strategy is not quite good as a junior (student). May be I should read other conference papers and journals.

Can you please suggest some useful advice.


texts: Should I add a non-requested work to my major revision of a scientific journal paper?

texts:
I am wondering if I should follow the advice of my co-advisor or a relative of mine who is also a researcher and used to write a scientific paper in the same field (but currently with less experience then my co-advisor).

I will make it a bit more clear:

I am a Ph.D. student in CS, specifically in networking, I wrote a scientific paper that I have sent to an Elsevier journal.
Last month, the journal replied to my submitted paper and requested a major revision; so I know that I have a bunch of rework to do.
One of three reviewers was complaining about the contribution and evaluations/simulations that I have done, while the other two didn’t complain in the same manner.
Following to this and in order to make it clearer for the complaining reviewer, my co-advisor advised me to add a small simulation/evaluation to my paper to clarify the contribution and justify why we considered various scenarios in terms of scale.
In the meanwhile, I asked a relative for help, he said that it is not a good approach to add this simulation/evaluation since no reviewer asked for it, and could be harmful to my work/my chances to being published.

While I can agree with my relative about adding a non-requested work, my intuition pushes me to follow my co-advisor, since this is a little work that can clarify, justify more the need for considering various scenarios (which I have done and the reviewer didn’t understand why I did it).


texts: “Theories”/“frameworks” for how multiparadigmatic research should work (in the context of interdisciplinary research)?

texts:
Interdisciplinary research is research generated from collaboration between people from different disciplines (or one person steeped in different disciplines).

This can mean simply that the multiple disciplines have knowledge of different domains of the world, and integrate their knowledge without any “paradigmatic tension” (where paradigm is meant in the philosophy of science sense, e.g. Kuhn’s sense). For example, a biologist and a chemist may cooperate on studying the biochemistry of a bacteria. The chemist has more knowledge of the low level chemical interaction, while the biologist has more knowledge of the higher level structure. The researchers combine knowledge of different aspects of the system, but are roughly within the same paradigm.

However, for some disciplines, especially in the social sciences, different disciplines don’t merely have knowledge of different aspects of the system, but have different perspectives/frameworks for analyzing the same aspects of the system. There is some “paradigmatic tension”. For example, economists often use rational choice models, and may even apply them in contexts that would traditionally be seen as in the domain of sociology (e.g. there is a famous model of ethnic segregation using a simple mathematical toy model and rational choice). On the other hand, sociologists also study segregation but tend to use an entirely different methodology and philosophy. I think both approaches can generate meaningful insight about the phenomenon. interdisciplinary research between these two would I guess look somewhat different than that between a chemist and a biologist. The researchers not only have different knowledge about different parts of the (social) system, but also have different perspectives/approaches to analyzing a given aspect of the system. The researchers study perhaps overlapping aspects of the same system, but are doing so in different paradigms, which may have some tension between them

I am wondering: Have things been written about how to deal with this latter type of “multiparadigmatic” research? Are there  frameworks/philosophies for how to get such different types of disciplines to fruitfully work together?


texts: Why data falsification / fabrication is found after degree is awarded?

texts: I saw on the internet that many degrees are revoked due to data falsification, but the question here is: how come colleges cant identify data falsification or manipulation before the degree is awarded? Do colleges have to wait for another person to report the misconduct and waste time and money?


texts: How can I find a more recent review article in a topic I am interested in? I have found a review article on biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles published in 2015. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2015.03.015) How do I go about finding more recent work done on the same?


texts: Same citation in multiple paragraphs (undergrad paper)

texts:
What I currently have is:

paragraph 1

paragraph 2

paragraph 3 [1].

With that I want to show that I am citing all 3 paragraphs from the same source. But appearently this is not right. Is it enough that I do?

paragraph 1 [1]

paragraph 2 [1]

paragraph 3 [1].


texts: What gets a paper rejected after conditional acceptance?

texts:
In computer science conferences, the following publication timeline is somewhat common for conferences:

For those who have been involved in program committees, what gets a paper rejected after conditional acceptance? Further, does this happen often? Is there a common percentage of papers this happens with?


texts: How to present data in a paper in terms of style

texts:
I have previously been involved in a course, where we (the students) were supposed to use a specific style, when presenting our graphical data. By style I mean the size/color of legends, thickness of datapoints, layout of the figure, etc....

Does similar guidelines exist when publishing data in a peer-reviewed journal? Or is it entirely up to me to decide, how it should look?


texts: The structure of a multiple-study proposal/thesis/manuscript?

texts:
I'm going to write a proposal for my PhD thesis. I'm familiar with the outline of a proposal or thesis, but my thesis will involve two quite separate studies (like multiple-study articles). I want to know how should it be structured.  It's going to be done about successful aging. It's a mixed method study. Actually studies are as follows:

Choosing appropriate sample
A qualitative research on the sample
A quantitative research aiming to generalize the results of Study 2.

I appreciate an example outline or an actual proposal/thesis.


texts: Can a PhD student write recommendation letter for me under whom I worked?

texts:
A few years ago I did a month lab rotation in a lab. At that time I was doing my masters and I was directly supervised by the Ph.D. student (X) of that lab. He taught me all the techniques and corrected my lab report. Then I sent it to the group leader. So basically I worked closely with the Ph.D. student and also the work I did during this one month, X used them in his further test and analysis. So that year, he published the paper and acknowledged me in that article.
Now I want to apply for a Ph.D. position and I wrote to that group leader who did not reply to me. So is it ok if I ask X to write one for me? (He completed his Ph.D. that year and I think he's a postdoc somewhere). we were not connected after that lab rotation but I got no choice except to ask X or that group leader who did not reply to me yet.


texts: Do A+ grades (as an undergrad) matter at all for graduate school?

texts:
If I get A+ grades then it will raise my GPA in my undergrad institution, as well as for Columbia which is where I want to go to graduate school for statistics. Should I try hard to get A+ grades or should I be content with As? Trying for A+ grades would not cut into any of my important academic activity such as research or my other classes because I already make all As, but it might slightly affect sleep and socialization.

Edit (from answer): To be clear I am an undergraduate right now.


texts: How to answer tough questions / didn't hear the question?

texts:
I am a PhD student and I'll be giving my first talks at an international conference soon.

In the past I have had tough questions from the audience that I did not know the answer to, or did, but it didn't come to mind until after the talk.

I have also had occassions where I hadn't heard the questioner twice, after repeating, and I couldn't ask for a third time (I am a bit deaf). As a result, I responded with an answer to a question that might have been asked, which was sort of a gamble.

I am curious, how do people best deal with these situations during talks? are there any 'formulas' of how to deal with this? what methods do people use to relax during question time?


texts: May additional time in college harm my chances of going to grad school?

texts:
I'm an electrical engineering major (my home university is ranked #25 nationally). I'm about to start the fifth year(engineering takes 5 years in my country).

I also granted a national science scholarship last year, and was an exchange student at University of Colorado at Boulder. I did very well over there (3.9/4.0).

In my country, electrical engineering and electronic/computer(EECS) science are different. Electrical deals with power systems and telecomunications, while EECS deals with microelectronics, dsp, embedded systems, theory of computation and so on.

My home university doesn't have the EECS option so I had to choose electrical engineering, since I hadn't money to move to another place.

at CU Boulder, I basically only took classes in advanced math (even grad school level) that is my passion for life and computer science(another passion). Since I got back I'm not very motivated with my program, because I want to study EECS and math and not power systems.

Currently I'm attending the math summer program(summer here is January and February) at one of the leading math research institutes in my country(and even one of the best in the world) and I was invited to start the Master of Advanced Studies in March. They offered me a scholarship, so all my expenses will be covered. Since I didn't complete my undergrad studies yet, they offered to transfer my Engineering course to the school of engineering and math(ranked #1 nationally), and then after 2/2.5 years from march I'd have a bachelor's of electronic/computer science engineering, a second bachelor's degree in math and Master of Advanced studies in math. The only "problem" is that in the end, I'd have taken 7/7.5 years to complete my bachelor's of engineering program.

My question is the following: Will this "long time" for completing the engineering program harm my chances of being accepted by grad school, in math or computer science in a top graduate school?

May I argue in the applicant's form that I took 7.5 years because I moved on, I wasn't happy with my course/university, and when I chance to study my passions at the best schools in the country so I went forward ? (that would in fact be true)

In the whole thing I'd have 3 degrees(by # 1 institutes) in a total time of 7.5 years and a really good education, but I'm a little concerned about this "time to complete" thing, I really don't know how it works, specially in US

Can someone help?

Thank you everybody,

Dmitri


texts: If I want to become a professor, do universities care what field my PhD. is in or just that I have a PhD?

texts:
I'm a self taught developer who was worked in the IT management field for a while. My academic background is an MBA and I currently teach classes on database development at a community college.

I want to be a Professor one day, and had been considering what to do for my PhD. Ideally, I'd like to teach either in the CS field or the business field as that's where the cross-section of my work is.

I've applied to jobs to teach at local Universities and Colleges in my state recently and I've had the feedback that I need a PhD preferably in field X.

Due to life commitments the only options to me that are realistic would be to do a part-time online doctorate in education (EdD) since they are cheap. I can then go publish research in my field or even get a post-graduate certificate in CS or Business to validate my knowledge.

My question is, is this even worth-while? While it may be a harder path for me to get my foot in the door, do Universities require me to have a PhD in my field or do they just need me to have a Doctorate of some variety and then validate my knowledge in that field (either via publications, post-grad certs, or even teaching classes in that field etc)

I already read through a similar question: Is it possible to become a professor in a field where you don't have a PhD degree? but it was very much focused on overlapping fields (e.g. finance and math)


texts: How do journals improve their impact factor?

texts: I would like to know how journals improve their impact score? It seems that great journals have almost always been great and second tier journals have always been second tier. How does a journal go from obscurity to highly respected?


texts: Can research papers postulate a theory without proof or assurance of correctness?

texts:
What I mean is, can research papers be written on a problem for which there is a solution postulated but without any actual proof or working model to show that it does work?

To give context, the problem is in the context of Computer Software, and the solution provided is not backed up with a proof of concept.


texts: What can I do if I wrote a grant proposal with a professor, and now that it is funded he refuses to hire me?

texts:
I discussed my ideas with a professor at a university here in China, where I live. He said that I should write a grant proposal and he will submit it, and if he gets a grant he will hire me (as a postdoc). So I did write a proposal and finally he got a grant, which will start in September-October. The funds seem to come from this Chinese university.

I do have some written communications in which he stated (or suggested) that he would "hire" me if the grant got funded.
But now he does not want to hire me!

What are my options?

I declined a position because he promised to hire me. Now I have 3 months left in my current position and then I will be unemployed.

He will get the money from this grant with me or without. I just wrote a proposal statement. I am listed in a budget section as a Postdoc fellow and the proposed salary is also listed. My salary is the main part of the budget. It seems to be a good idea for a Prof to kick me from this budget and get a big piece of a pie. (Fortunately, this Prof is not able to get any results from my proposal because he has no idea what I am doing.)

Yesterday, when he said this news, I said that I do not want any explanations. A few hours later I sent him an e-mail where I asked to give me explanations. I have got no answer yet.


texts: Math PhD Applications: Is it better to show just my good GRE score, or should I also send my low initial score?

texts:
I am applying for mathematics PhD programs in the United States.

I did not major in mathematics as an undergrad and I did not do so well the first time around on the GRE Math subject test (about 60th percentile). I have since completed a Master's in mathematics and my score has improved to about 90th percentile.

I think it could benefit me to send both scores since it shows my progress. Will admissions committees in general view this in a positive light? Or should I just send my most recent good score.


texts: Conflicting views with my supervisor on how a thesis should be written

texts:
My supervisor gave a lot of feedback (in actuality they are mostly complaints) about a part of my thesis (while I have let others read my work and they were more understanding of what I wrote). There are a few helpful things but overall I found lots of her comments are related to not having a deep understanding about the science and the "end goal" of such experiment i.e. how the data can be used to best contribute the world (She is not a big expert in this area of research albeit having some experience).

She seems to dwell excessively on the "writing side" i.e. simply write a publishable "technical report" following what others have reported in similar experiments (which there are tonnes of things I dont like and I am not alone, there are numerous critique papers in this field of research that criticizes how things are unreliable. She attributed it as I have not read others' works because my format and content seem to deviate from others, but in fact I have read tonnes of them but I just found too many flaws).

I am more on writing for a full account and for the sake of science and advances (I know it may sound naive, but I really gave a lot of thoughts before I decide how my data should be used and interpreted but she thought they are excessive and didnt understand why I need to write them). While her comments may be useful in the sense of publishing a manuscript in a certain journal, however, I am under the impression that a thesis should be more free and more of a full account of what I can make the most out of my research, rather than straight up a manuscript catering to a certain journal.

However, there is no way I can pass my thesis without passing my supervisor, so how should I approach it?


texts: Information on Planetary Science PhD programs?

texts:
APS has a catalog available with information on graduate school programs in physics. I was wondering if anything similar exists for planetary science?

So far I have been going through individual university websites and professor pages to find information which is time-consuming.


texts:
In any business CV/resume, the section of skills is a great deal with full descriptions such as

Communication skills: a few sentences of description of relevant
experience
Project management: separate description

However, I have not seen such emphasis in an academic CV. If any, it was a list of software skills at the end with the same weight as the hobbies.

Is it appropriate/useful to put such emphasis on the skills? Or such descriptions are too subjective for an academic CV and should be presented in the cover letter (in a faculty application)?


texts:
I am in the middle of my PhD and have some strategic decisions to make. I have the opportunity to finish my PhD more rapid, although it would compromise some perspectives/research, it will still (probably) be accepted.

Alternatively, I can use my last year of PhD to research more to deliver a better overall PhD package, but then I would have to delay postdoc (and better pay).

My supervisor's concern is that my PhD delivery is important for future references, so it would be in my(ours) benefit to make it as strong as possible.

Is his suggestion valid? Would a stronger PhD delivery potentially be better on a "CV" than one year of postdoctoral research?


texts:
I have researched a few Swedish universities such as Uppsala, Lund, and Stockholm, and the Ph.D. admission deadlines vary a lot. When I go to ScholarshipDb.net and search for positions each has different deadlines too.

I have finished my MSc. in Geography and want to apply for Geography Ph.D. programs. I have a time shortage because in our country six months after graduation the student will face two years of mandatory military service. I am confused right now because there are lots of different deadlines and admission dates.

Are Swedish programs deadlines have a typical norm and are on fixed dates such as U.S. (Nov, Jan, Feb) or they're based on the advertising dates and are somehow unique?


texts: 4 Years in PhD. No publications and adviser keep changing my research

texts:
First of all, I need to apologize for writing a really long description.

I started my PhD in Mechanical Engineering 4 years ago and working with a professor, who has no idea on what we are doing and keep changing research area based on the funding possibilities irrespective of our capabilities. He is holding an administrative position as an associate dean and he has no idea on latest methods. He always refer to the methods published in 1980's.

First, I worked on an experimental research and had to stop after 1.5 years due to lack of funding to continue that. Then, I moved to a numerical research and used an open source software as my adviser didn't have money to buy a commercial software. Even though I had some experience in numerical work it took sometime to learn an opensource software.

After spending so much time, I finally managed to develop a new solver to simulate my problem.

I didn't get any input from my adviser as he didn't even want to listen to my research issues. The only thing he ask whenever I met him is do you have results to publish and when you are going to write a paper. Whenever I explain a technical issue he get furious and blame me. Then he doesn't talk to me for at least a month and he forgets what happened. Most of the time, I have to explain what's the problem I'm working on.

Last year he asked me to change my research, as my problem takes at least 2 days to run one simulation, which is normal in similar simulations. He told me that my solver is useless and there is no point of having a such code if it takes more than 4 hours. I was explaining why it takes long time and it's normal in such simulations even with a commercial software. But he got really angry and scolded me. Finally, I had no option other than changing my research because, I'm funded from his TA position (though the funding coming from the department).

Now, I have worked on this research for 6 months and he is still complaining about the simulation time. Now he wants me to abandon my work again as one of his friends found a paper (which is published in 1975) on a different method that claims it can solve similar problems faster. However, that method is based on many assumptions and no one has used that method after 1985 due to its limitations.

And my problem has completely different physics and cannot be used at all. I showed him some of the review papers which explain why that method is wrong and why no one uses it. But, he doesn't believe it and told me don't trust all the papers you read because most of the review papers are wrong as different authors interpret things in different ways. And he scold me saying there is no error in that method and it's me who try to find excuses not to change it.

I have tried to change my PI several times, but no other professor wants to take me as they don't want to make any problem with associate dean. I tried to apply other universities and they are expecting a recommendation from my adviser. I know clearly that my professor will never give me a recommendation to leave the group. He once told me and our lab mates, it won't be easy to leave this group even if you want.

No one in this university will dare to take my student. and he once told me that he cannot see me graduating at least in 2020. I don't really know what I should do.

I'm an international student and my I-20 will expire in 2 months and I need his authorization to extend it. I'm 29 years old and I'm actually not in a position to take a risk.


texts: Can I include my published paper in the mail?

texts: I have written a professor from the USA about a Ph.D. position with my CV. He replied saying its excellent and I should apply in the next fall. Now I have some queries which I will ask him in my next mail and one of my paper has been published today in a very good journal (which I wrote 'submitted' in my CV). Should I include my paper in my next mail saying you can have a look? Will it add extra value or a good impression?


texts: I wrote a thesis for my undergraduate degree - it was published but not in a journal. Is it still relevant to cite?

texts:
I wrote a thesis involving not-quite-graduate-level research prior to graduating with my undergraduate degree. It was presented at a conference [by another researcher from our lab], and not published in a journal or peer-reviewed publication. I have cited it for several years as part of my resume - at what point is it no longer relevant to include?

Note for clarification: I have had only one other publication in the [approximately ten] years since completion of my undergrad work.


texts: Can I trust new articles in a high-impact journal with abnormal number of corrections for older ones?

texts:
Currently I survey new literature by subscribing to the RSS feed of high-impact journals. Especially for the journal nature communications (IP > 12) I see much much higher number of  correction articles than in any other journal, also other journals of the nature publishing group.
How should I judge this? Especially when mostly author corrections? Or can this be explained by factors like:

pure online journal, corrections in printed journals are less common or editing more thorough
many submissions and articles published im comparison to average journal
open access

So, in other high impact journals from science, APS, AIP, ACS this doesn't seem to happen.
As the reviewers of all journals are likely and mostly voluntary academics, I'm really wondering what is so special/the problem with this high-impact journal.


texts: How to write papers efficiently when English isn't my first language?

texts: I am a PhD student from China. I can read papers relatively fast and get the main point. The problem is that I cannot write efficiently. I don't know how to express myself or I forget the appropriate phrases when writing. Can any other researcher help me solve this problem?


texts: Answering form letter graduate school application emails

texts:
As a professor in a North American university, I receive a number of what I consider to be form letter graduate school application emails from outside the country. These emails generally feature some statement about being familiar with my research or offering generic praise for my research, followed by a description of the applicant's background and skills that have absolutely nothing to do with my research (but fall into the broader field of my department).

I tend to quickly delete these emails, but I'm concerned that not responding may be ambiguous and may further contribute to the practice of these students sending out mass form letter emails. I'm considering drafting a form letter response acknowledging that I received the email and specifying the background/skills I am currently looking for, with an invitation to send another email if the student can demonstrate how their experience aligns with my interests.

Does this seem productive? Are there better ways to respond to such emails?


texts: By mistake, unwanted references are present in my accepted manuscript and I want to remove them from my author proof copy. Will the manuscript go to the editor once again or not?


texts: Are there general guidelines for including code in a research paper?

texts:
I'm a beginning researcher trying to write a research paper , so please bear with some of the really basic questions I might have. I've already looked around for some help online, but the websites I found were vague.

My program is written in perl. Should I include my code in the paper? If so, is there a maximum number of lines? Will people expect me to include all of it in the paper (either in the appendix or in the body) or can I just write out in text the general idea of what it does?


texts: What should I do in the yearly group event?

texts:
I am a first year PhD student. In our group there is this tradition of going to a small village town during an extended weekend and giving presentations.

Being a rookie in the group I have never participated in such an event. I have no idea what it is about. Is it about science, is it about fun, or else?

I asked other senior members of the group, they said it is a mix of both.

Obviously, I have to present something in this event and looking back at my work so far, I feel horrible when I compare it to the other PhD candidates. Yes they are seniors and have done more, but still...

Is it worth including these topics in my presentation:

the topic of my research (should I explain in detail what it is, and how it works?!?)
the project I work for
the students I supervise
misc...

Has anyone else participated in such an event? What is its purpose? How to appear good although I am the rookie in the group? What is the tone of the presentations in such an event?


texts: How to cite when I want to use a direct quote in the same sentence as an in-text citation with no parenthesis in APA?

texts:
For example, I want to describe a paper with a direct quote from it. Would this be OK:

Pieters and Wedel (2007) “revealed goal  control of attention even during a few seconds of self-paced ad exposure with an eye-tracking experiment” (Pieters & Wedel, 2007, p 224)

I use APA 6th edition as the guideline.


texts: How to publish thesis as a book after getting most of the thesis published as research articles in SCI journals. Do I need to get permission from the journals for copyright transfer before publishing the thesis as a book?


texts: I am applying to a Philosophy Master degree which I have little experience on, what should I do with my CV and cover letter?

texts:
I did Economics for my Undergrad but I switched to Philosophy for my Taught master degree. I absolutely love Philosophy but I only have a Merit for it, so I didn't think I would be competent enough for a PhD so I have been working in banking for about 1.5 yr instead.

But now I want to apply to another Taught Master degree which focuses on Logic, with the goal of applying to a PhD eventually, since I feel that I need a Master to boost up my knowledge/exposure in Philosophy and Logic before jumping to PhD.

The problem is I have very little I can talk about in my cover letter and CV...

When I look at the others' CV I see a long list of awards, publications...etc. In contrast, I have hardly any exposure to Philosophy from my Undergrad except a course in ethics, and one in intro to logic.

From my Master I have 5 paper assignments + 1 dissertation with no in-depth research to talk about (since my dissertation really just explained two opposing theories in my own words without much original input from my own, I simply did not have enough ideas about Philosophy back then to develop my own ideas).

I have indeed been self-studying logic/discrete maths on my own while I have a 9-6, sometimes 9-7 job. This is perhaps my biggest pros since I think it does take determination, but it seems cheeky to elaborate on it and also difficult to develop as a point. I also haven't been making a good progress on it since I can only do about 1 hr of studying every night...

All in all I don't think my CV would last more than 1 page, so I am desperate for any idea to expand on it. Could anyone please help? Thank you so much!


texts: Is it okay to publish my personal notes from a lecture?

texts:
Would it be considered ethical to publish my own personal notes from class? In addition, is there a change when the class transitions from in session to being complete (at the end of the semester)?

For example when this may be relevant, there are courses where the Professor publishes his slides onto a class portal, but excludes certain material that is only covered in class. This is to incentivize students to show up, rather than only study from the from published slides.


texts: Is finding an interest in Mathematics in late teens not a good sign for amazing research capability?

texts:
I am 19 years old.  I was average in high school in Mathematics. I never participated in IMO or related competitions.  As a result I didn't  join a prestigious undergraduate school. However during 2nd year in abstract algebra courses I developed an obsession for the subject. My advisor told me to look over some graduate level abstract algebra textbooks which I certainly will.

My school can offer me some grad level courses in my fourth year like Class Field Theory and Modular Forms. Nonetheless, not being able to attend a prestigious undergraduate still haunts me. I know it will certainly affect my graduate school admissions.

In the long term, do late bloomers in Mathematics have a chance to pursue good research careers in Mathematics?


texts: Difference between "faculty member" and "faculty person"

texts:
I've occasionally heard the phrase "faculty person" used, apparently as an alternative to "faculty member".
Are these exactly equivalent, or are there any subtle differences in meaning, connotation, or usage?  Is there any reason to prefer one to the other in any particular setting?


texts:
About a year ago, I finished my Master's thesis, which was supervised by one professor from my university, and two people from a different university. One of the two is a professor, but he was not involved much in the daily supervision. When finishing up my thesis and presentation, times were quite hectic, and only now I realised I may have never thanked the professor from the other university as he was not present at my presentation. I did approach him for a reference letter later, and thanked him for that when letting him know I got the job.

Now I feel quite rude, but I am not sure if I should do anything. Mostly, I am afraid of it being awkward if I bring this up after a year. Am I overreacting? What would you recommend?


texts: Is it inappropriate for an author to copy and paste from his/her original paper in an extension paper?

texts:
I am currently a referee for a paper.
One of the authors of the paper had written an earlier paper,
which I will refer to as the "original paper,"
and the paper which I am now refereeing is an extension of the original paper,
which I will refer to as the "extension paper."

I have found that large portions of the extension paper
are copied from his original paper.
In particular,
a whole section of definitions is copied from his original paper;
and some paragraphs in the introduction and literature review
are copied wholesale or with slight modifications from the original paper.

Is it acceptable for an academic paper to copy paragraphs and even a section from an earlier paper by the same author?

My intuition suggests that it is acceptable to copy the definition section,
with an acknowledgement that it came from the original paper,
since definitions are standard.
But it seems strange to me for the introduction and literature review
to be too similar to the original paper.


texts: Become not interested in my research topic after two years of my PhD?

texts:
I am supposed to finish my PhD in four years. But after two years of working on a topic, I become not interested in the topic any more. I found out that the topic is boring. What should I do? Should I continue forcing myself to work on the topic, or should I change to something more interesting? I do not want to extend my PhD since my funding only allows me to pursue the degree for four years.

EDIT:
The research topic is quite old, and I think it does not have too much potential in future development. There are already many methods to solve the problem I am working on, and doing a PhD is not using the existing methods, but inventing new ones; this is rather difficult and depressing.


texts: How to deal with student's feedback about tutor

texts:
I'm a professor's assistant and design the exercises for his class. Each week the students are assigned some homework, which will be corrected by a tutor. I got an email from a student, who "complains" about his tutor.
In essence, he does not understand the grading of his tutor. While the tutor answers his questions during the weekly exercise about his grading, he does not honor the request to be more transparent in advance.
The student makes it clear, that he has no bad intentions, he would be satisfied if this is just the way it is (and he is just used to more clear grading from other classes). He didn't contact the tutor directly, because he doesn't have his email address and he wanted to raise awareness to this issue.
Now, I'm unsure how to proceed. We have a weekly meeting with all three tutors  and the professor where we talk about stuff related to the class, but I don't want to paint him in a bad light in front of the others.
Specific questions:

Should I refer to the student by name or leave him anonymous?
Should I mention this to the professor?
Should I speak with the tutor 1on1 or bring this up as a generic mention to all tutors?


texts: How to explain in PhD interview about leaving current PhD due to lack of funding?

texts:
I am invited to interview for a PhD position.  I am very afraid about the questions which will be asked. However I have a big fear, and it is that I am currently PhD student, started 1.5 year ago. I was the only PhD student in the group who was not paid, so I needed to work extra for an international research project to finance myself. Some months ago I again spoke with my supervisor and he told me he has no budget and I am free to leave the group whenever I like!

Due to all this, I decided to change my group. Now I am invited to interview for a competitive PhD position ( in another university but the same city). I would like to get this fully paid position which also fits well to my experiences, however I do not know how to tell the new professor about my current PhD?

I did not mention my current PhD in CV, and just wrote about my working experience in the last 1.5 year.

How shall I explain this issue to new professor?  Can this issue be a reason that he does not accept me?


texts: Who( editor or reviewer) reviews a revised manuscript?

texts:
I sent an article to a top journal. It was reviewed by 2 reviewers. The decision made was 'revision'. I revised the manuscript and sent a detailed point by point response to reviewer comments. During revision the status changed directly from 'with editor' to 'decision in process' within a span of 4 days. I was under the impression that the reviewers would go through the paper again and based on their comments a decision would be made by the editor. But it seems that the editor is making the decision himself. Is this correct?
. The result is yet to be received, so fingers crossed ;)


texts: To what extent can I refer to closed-access reviewer comments in my public task management workflow?

texts:
I have written and submitted a manuscript to a journal owned by Oxford University Press. This manuscript describes the associated source code, which is stored in a public GitHub repository. The journal has sent this manuscript to reviewers, and they have responded with some suggestions on how to improve the code. I would like to implement these suggestions in my code.
To what extent can I refer to these suggestions in my public task management workflow (ie GitHub)? I'm not even sure who owns the IP to the peer reviews themselves, but I assume that, since it's a closed review system, I am not allowed to reproduce the comments. In that case, can I paraphrase these suggestions when I write my GitHub issues? Each GitHub issue is a public thread for tracking information about tasks, their scope and their progress. If yes, can I explicitly tag these issues as being derived from peer review? Or will this leak too much of associated IP? More broadly, how can I balance my desire for open and transparent software development, with a closed review process?


texts: What leverage do universities have over sexual violence in fraternities?

texts:
IMPORTANT: The allegation of gang-rape in the Rolling Stone article that formed the basis for this question has been retracted; later evidence on the matter shows that the allegation that gang-rape occurred at the fraternity was false.  Other similar events have since been alleged at other universities: Baylor, Yale and Wisconsin

Rolling Stone recently reported a horrific preplanned gang rape at a Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house at the University of Virginia, with the victim's "friends" telling her afterward not to report the crime, on the theory that "She's gonna be the girl who cried 'rape,' and we'll never be allowed into any frat party again."

Under pressure, the university has belatedly decided to suspend fraternity events until January. This seems pathetically inadequate to me, but what can a university actually do in this situation that will have a significant and lasting effect on a firmly entrenched rape culture? Are there cases where other schools have done something more effectual? Supposing for the sake of argument that they were willing to completely disassociate themselves from one frat, or from the frat system as a whole, would it do any good? I assume that the frats own their houses, and the schools can't actually shut them down.


texts: Part time MPH degree while doing full time PhD

texts:
I will be joining a full-time PhD program in North America in August (physical and biological sciences). While my PhD topic is my principal interest, I'm also interested in public health and health policy related challenges, and this will help me in my planned future career. I have observed that there are a number of online (part-time) MSc / MPH degrees in public health being offered by well-respected universities.

My question is:

a) Is it generally speaking permissible to enrol in another part-time program while you are pursuing a full time PhD?

b) Based on my own previous research experience, chat with my future supervisor and the members of the research group, my schedule is likely to be anywhere between 7-9 hours a day (weekends free). In principle, 20 hours of work (per week) on a part-time degree is something I should be able to do, however is this practical?

If it helps, PhD will be in experimental science (laboratory work)

Look forward to perspectives


texts:
A journal asked me to add the "series volume no" of a book in my list of references:
[10] P. Buser,Geometry and Spectra of Compact Riemann Surfaces, Modern Birkhäuser Classics,Q11Reprint of the 1992 edition (Birkhäuser, Boston, 2010).
From  "mathscinet" i get this,
@book {MR2742784,
    AUTHOR = {Buser, Peter},
     TITLE = {Geometry and spectra of compact {R}iemann surfaces},
    SERIES = {Modern Birkh\"{a}user Classics},
      NOTE = {Reprint of the 1992 edition},
 PUBLISHER = {Birkh\"{a}user Boston, Ltd., Boston, MA},
      YEAR = {2010},
     PAGES = {xvi+454},
      ISBN = {978-0-8176-4991-3},
   MRCLASS = {58J50 (30F10 32G15 58J53)},
  MRNUMBER = {2742784},
       DOI = {10.1007/978-0-8176-4992-0},
       URL = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-8176-4992-0},

but i don't know where is the "series volume no".
Tanks for any discussion or answer
}


texts: What is a good ratio of "What I want to research" vs. "My experience that shows I can research" in a Statement of purpose?

texts: I am composing my statement of purpose for U.S. Graduate schools in Mathematics and am struggling to determine the proper balance of what my research plans are, and giving background in terms of independent studies, seminars, circumstances, etc. Currently, I have three paragraphs of background not available elsewhere in my application, and one explaining my plans for the future. Is this a good ratio? Should I focus more on expanding my research goals? Or do I need to have less background (One paragraph is explaining a major change)?


texts: Asking a professor to be my advisor (math)

texts: I'm applying to graduate school and there is a professor at my home university I am interested in working with.  As a bit of background, I have been doing undergraduate research with this professor for about a year now and he seems to like me (though maybe he's nice to everyone.  I can't be certain).  My research under him has been going well as hes told me I've been doing good work.  In fact, he uses exclamation marks sometimes, which I find to be odd.  Fast forwarding a bit, I've recently wrapped up the project.  Given my academic history with him, if he was interested in working with me, would he ask me to be his student (sorry if this comes off as having an inflated ego, I don't have one.) All in all, I'm not sure how to proceed in asking him.


texts: Test answer rejected for saying more than asked for

texts:
this is about a phenomenon often seen, but I came across a probably more prominent example recently, so I thought I'd ask for the community's opinion.

Here's the situation:
In the past semester's exams there was a question in computer architecture asking for X, and I, and many other students, answered Y, which contains X and is mostly revolving around X, thus successfully answering the question (in our opinion at least). The professor rejected the entire question (20% of the grade) and at any attempt to talk to him he directed us to the sample answer, stating that we "are wrong", we "answered another question, not the one asked", and so on. The question wasn't even given partial credit, and that happens systematically in his tests.

Another similar issue on the same test, was when a very few of us optimized a small bit of code in a way that would, industrially, be significant, and that part was rejected similarly, without any explanations, as "being entirely different". Explanations were also written on the test, so he cannot claim we did it without explaining.

This seems to be a general policy of the professor, as numerical errors are similarly crippling to grades, and in the sequel lesson, of an amphitheater of about or more than 80 people (and of course a lot more don't even attend classes as they are not obligatory, but I don't know if they're better or worse than those who attend), only 11 had succeeded the exam.

I would finally like to note that some of the stuff he rejects, he himself does in class, the most obvious being a computational error, and frustratingly he also did the optimization he rejected in the test.

So finally, the question:

I understand that professors have the right to grade based on their own criteria, but

Is it justifiable to reject an entire answer because more was said, without even partial credit?

Is it justifiable to reject an answer that gives something better than what is required, perfectly equivalent, even if relying on the student's intervention? (in this case, it would be a compiler optimization, thus not an entirely direct interpretation, but an elegant and industrially valuable workaround)

Is it acceptable to direct students to example answers and not allow them to explain why they think their answer is correct?

I'm also itching to see how we could deal with this, but that's not the main question so I leave that to your own discretion and benevolence to answer.


texts: Are there some fields where having skills in a language other than English is necessary to perform research at an international level?

texts:
When I went to college, an old-schooled teacher of mine insisted that, because I was interested in chemistry, I needed to work on my German as it was the lingua franca of that trade. It turns out, there is absolutely no need to speak German anymore to be a successful researcher in chemistry.

I somewhat thought that, since at least two decades, English was the only language required to be a researcher in any field (excepting, maybe, literature). However, seeing this question made it apparent that some graduate programs still have requirements for other languages. How useful are they?

In a word: are there some fields where reading/writing/speaking a language other than English is necessary to perform research at an international level?

(Let's exclude fields related to literature and linguistics. Let's also forget about teaching, and focus the question on research.)


texts: Do I have any obligations to my PhD supervisor's requests after I have graduated?

texts:
I graduated with a biology PhD last year. My supervisor named X was pretty hands-off (which was great) and most of my project, from conceptualization to data analysis, was done by me generally without much input from X partly because it wasn't X's area of expertise. I now have a full-time job doing math. X insists I meet with X to discuss how to turn a manuscript (rejected last year as I was writing my thesis because it required significant revisions and additional experiments) into publishable form for resubmission for grant money purposes, and then work on that on my own time.

So I was just wondering whether I have any obligation, professional/moral/official/other, to comply with X's request (other than my personal responsibility to publish stuff I've done and not waste time/resources I've used), because X is not going to be paying me to spend my free time working on this manuscript and this manuscript isn't going to help me with my career.

Approximate time to get this into publishable form is: 2-3 months working weekends by me to do additional analysis from existing data, and 6-12 months for additional experiments done by a person in X's lab who will require training from me.

To clarify,

My new job is not in academia, but I do regularly write academic math/stats papers as a part of my job.
I am thoroughly disillusioned with academia and never intend to return.
The intent is to publish a paper that X can cite in grant proposals to show productivity etc.


texts: Are there any new(er) models of publishing/reviewing and if so how will they address the problems that we have today?

texts:
I was reading this article on The Guardian about scientific publishing and peer-review process. The author raises a fair number of concerns with the existing model, most of which I agree with. The article ends with the following statement:

  ... but the need for reform is profound.

I ended up thinking about this idea, a reform in the way we do science. By doing science I mean the whole process of writing, submitting, reviewing, publishing and measuring the results of our work (and not the actual work itself).

While I agree with the author about the current system being faulty, sick, or corrupt (depending on the shade of glasses you look at it), I cannot really come up with a system that would magically solve the existing problems just like that.

The Arxiv idea is named in the article and from what I understand people in physics and math quite enjoy the benefits of that site (whatever it is) however with the amount of money and prestige involved, I cannot imagine how it would be implemented in fields like biology, chemistry and medicine.

To sum things up, my question is whether or not there are/have been alternative models to the existing one: blind, peer-review, hundred of journals, and metrics of "quality" flying left and right. If so which shortcomings of the existing model were amended?


texts: If I get an article published in a journal as an undergrad, but the research is low-quality, can it hurt my chances for admission to a PhD?

texts: I'm an undergraduate psychology major with an opportunity to publish in a peer-reviewed journal as a second author. However, the research is fairly low-quality (it was previously submitted to a journal and rejected with very critical reviews). Would having this research published with my name on help or hurt my chances of getting into a PhD program?


texts: Should I send an email to the address of my former professor that wasn't explicitly given, but google out myself?

texts: I'm applying to PhD programs and want to ask for a reference letter from my former supervisor, who has since moved to a new university, so that his old work email is not working anymore. I've been asking him through his personal email; however, as he rarely checks it, sometime it takes more than a month for him to reply to me. One of the universities to which I'm applying has a deadline coming up in less than a month and I haven't heard from my former supervisor for a while. While panicking, I searched on Google and found his new email address. I wonder if it's reasonable to send email to that address and remind him as he never gave me the address.


texts: A booknote of mine was just accepted for publication. I've been in contact with the editor throughout the process, and want write an email thanking him, and also indicating that I'd be happy to be considered as a potential reviewer in the future. What would be an appropriate way to phrase this email?


texts: MLA multiple parenthetical citation essay without page numbers

texts:
I have an older source that has no pagination. My question concerns the correct mode of multiple parenthetical in-text reference to the source according to MLA style.

In the works cited section:

Smith, Alexander. "The Problems of Writing." New Inquiry (1940): n. pag.

In text (version 1):

Smith argues that writing is "a problem of its own" (1940). He goes on to refer to the "complicated process of writing a text." He explains it in ...

Question: How do I back up the second, third, etc. reference to the unpaginated source in my own text? Is the text above right or do I need to have the year in brackets every time I quote from the text? Something like:

version 2: Smith argues that writing is "a problem of its own" (1940). He goes on to refer to the "complicated process of writing a text" (1940). He explains...

Or do I reference "n.pag." in the text:

version 3: Smith argues that writing is "a problem of its own" (1940 n. pag.). He goes on to refer to the "complicated process of writing a text" (n. pag.). He explains...

Thank you very much!


texts: Should references in the supplementary information be included in the main text?

texts:
I have been cutting some sections out of my article and moving them into the supplementary information section so my paper will fit within the journal's length requirements.  However, some of the information (particularly the methods section) has citations.

Should these citations only be referenced in the supplementary information section or in the main part of the article as well?  And how would the numbering work for that?


texts: I got the same referee report from two different journals

texts:
My coauthor and I submitted our article for publication to one of the best journals in our field. After a long time of review, we got a rejection decision by the editor based on the referee report which we received. After that we wrote to the editor and explained to him/her that the referee arguments to reject our paper are wrong and provided point by point evidence to support our conclusions.

However, the editor did not accept our arguments so we then sent our paper to another journal which is also among the best in our field. After waiting for considerable time, we got a rejection decision from the second journal and the same referee report as the first journal. I repeat the two reports which we received from two journals are completely identical! We have asked the editor of the second journal for explanations why we got the same report and so far we have not heard any reply.

Based on these facts, we believe that our paper is being rejected for some unknown personal reasons not clear to us rather than objective reasons connected with our work.  In between the two submissions, we have revised our paper based on the first journal referee report.

Have your ever experienced such a situation?

How should we behave in this case?

UPDATE:

Based on some comments below about this post, I want to express my opinion in more details about this issue. I am an expert in my working field and have reviewed several papers too. However, if somebody is asked to review the same paper more than once from two different journals, it is ethical that the referee rejects to review the paper and gives the possibility to another referee to do it. The referee can have an option to explain to the second journal editor the reasons why he/she rejected the paper initially and also point out the comments which he/she received back from the authors through the first journal (as in our case) that his/her conclusions might be wrong.


texts: To cite an organisation correctly in IEEE style

texts:
My tex based on Espanta's answer

@techreport{AAMI,
    title = {Recommended Practice for Testing and Reporting Performance Results of Ventricular Arrhythmia Detection Algorithms},
    institution = {{Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation}},
    year = {1987},
    address = {Arlington, VA, USA}
}

which is shown correctly now after Espanta's answer in Bibliography.
However, the thing is shown in my text similarly as before :

where AAM (1987) is shown.
I do not know what I should have in the text body for this citation, since the citation does not have author but institution.
I think AAMI (1987) is good.

What is the correct way of citing this organisation in IEEE style?


texts: How to justify not using a certain program or API or framework because it is not free

texts:
I am trying to write a justification as to why some tools were discarded in my project. My reasoning is that if I have 10-20 tools that more or less solve the same problem, and I have no clear insight on which one may perform better or any other characteristic like that, some kind of explanation as to why choosing one over the others is the right approach: some are simply not compatible to my particular project and others require payments. I talked with my tutor and I was told to evaluate the options, present them, and then pick one that would better fit the project.

But money was, and still is, a limitation, since there is no financing for the project, not for 10$ nor for 1000$, since we don't really know how they'll behave beforehand, one limitation in order to pick a tool was money.

What I am doing is write a state of the art of the different options, explaining different characteristics about them: how they work, what they require, and also how they are sepparated in terms of monetization. There is open source, there is what I would call, for lack of enough vocabulary, rental of the tool, you pay per minute used, and there is contracting of services which is a model that does not even offer a price, they offer you to get in contact with them and get to an agreement.

Is this a valid explanation? Am I looking wrong at the problem? Thanks in advance for the input.


texts: Research plan for a first-time faculty application

texts:
I'm in my 3rd year of postdocs and started to apply for Lecturer positions in Computer Science the UK (the entry level permanent faculty positions). As part of my interview process, I am required to give a 15 minute presentation about my current research and my three year research plan, and am looking for some advice on how to do the latter. The focus of the research plan presentation is not only on the ideas you propose, but in major part about how you plan to obtain funding for it and how many research staff you can bring in from that funding to support your research.
I've looked through some other questions regarding UK faculty applications, research plan writing and content, which offer some good advice. However, I am looking for advice specifically targeting early-career researchers applying for their first faculty position.
The two specific aspects I am concerned about is the transition from postdoctoral positions where shorter-term career plans are the norm, as well as my relative inexperience with grant writing (I've recently been included in the late stages of grant writing by my advisor, but that's it).
Of course I am not planning to take the answers I get here my only source of information; I have an advisor happy to discuss this with me and give me specific tips, and have been looking up information about funding for new faculty members online as well as through chatting with fresh hires in my department (with some hinting they rely on the informal support and sharing of more junior research staff from within their team while applying for initial external funding).
So, considering that I've never held a faculty position, have limited experience with grant applications (but an understanding that it is an acquired skill as well as very competitive and thus uncertain), never independently proposed a research project (tho I am always active in proposing and typically independent in choosing which approaches I want to apply to problems), and never formally worked with a PhD or a postdoctoral researcher for full the duration of a project, the questions I have are:

How "confidently" am I supposed to write the research plan? Should I write it assuming I will have a student / research postdoc available to work with, or should I also present a plan for the situation where I do not have "my own staff" for a while?
One major consideration is that UK faculty typically has about 40% of their time dedicated to research (rest is teaching and admin), as opposed to research staff (PhD students and postdocs) with 90+% of their time dedicated to research. Therefore the amount of research that one realistically can conduct would depend substantially on how much funding one manages to secure.

How many backup grant options do I need to include? I understand there is some grant options specifically targeting fresh faculty in the UK, so should I demonstrate that I plan to ask the appropriate parties for funding, or also try to cover the case of no applications being successful?

To summarize: I am concerned and would like advice about the level of confidence in the tone of a 3-year research plan for a fresh faculty member.
I worry that, on the one hand, including many backup options could be seen as "setting myself up to fail", while, on the other hand, too confident a tone would make me come across as somebody not understanding the competitiveness and difficulties in obtaining funding due to my lack of experience.

The level of detail is clear from the format: it's a 15 minute presentation with some time for questions, so I won't have time to talk in much detail, but I might be asked to elaborate on any aspect of it. All in all, I am a fair deal nervous, and I'm not even sure I'm asking the right questions here; any advice from the perspective of applying for a first-time faculty position would be great.


texts: Sending pre-application e-mail to two professors who are close friends but at different universities

texts:
I am planning to apply to PhD courses at 2 different universities.
Professor A is at the first school, and professor B is at the second school.

I already communicated with the professor A. I am also thinking of writing a contact e-mail to professor B.

Professor A and Professor B are quite close (academically), as they are working on the upcoming project as co-authors.

Would it be inappropriate if I contact professor B to show my academic interest?

I'm just worried that they might find it unethical to talk about my interest to them simultaneously.


texts: Can I do Part III of the Mathematics tripos as a part of my PhD in Cambridge University?

texts:
I am physics master's student in India. I wish to do my PhD in theoretical physics in the Applied Maths department at Cambridge (DAMTP). Can I apply for a PhD and do Part III as a part of it (akin to 1 year of coursework before PhD in India or Master's + PhD in US) or should I do Part III and apply for a PhD in DAMTP separately by the end of it?

Even though I have good grades in all my courses, I am not confident with my skills. My institute is one of the very best in India, however I am not satisfied with my understanding of most of the subjects (and mathematical rigour in general) and there are a few topics, e.g. Advanced QFT, Advanced GR/Cosmology, which are not offered here. I believe Part III would help me in fixing these holes and I want do this before my PhD (in Cambridge or elsewhere).

From the Cambridge website: "Part III is a 9 month taught masters course in mathematics.  It is an excellent preparation for mathematical research and it is also a valuable course in mathematics and in its applications for those who want further training before taking posts in industry, teaching, or research establishments."

See also the Cambridge website and Wikipedia.


texts: Is it legal to use tourist visa waiver for academic visits?

texts:
All countries have visa waiver for certain nationals, but it is only for touristic purpose. People use this scheme for attending scientific meetings (isn't it some kind of business trip?).

Anyway, academic visits, in which the guest is paid, is definitely a business trip. For example, when an academic organize a paid two-week course in the host university, or when visiting for a join project in which he is paid.

For example, a German academic traveling to the United States for two weeks for working on a NSF-funded project in which he is paid.

Is it theoretically illegal to travel without Business Visa for such academic visits?
If yes, how often it happens in practice?


texts: crossroads between continue working or going to a PhD

texts:
Here is my situation, I got a MSc from a renowned university in Europe and I have been working as a lecturer in a non-EU country until now. I am in my mid thirties (upper part =)) and I have came to an important decision to make:

I have been offered to work as a full time lecturer with all my benefits in a local renowned university in the country that I am staying
At the same time I have an offer to follow PhD studies in a ZA university, but I am not very keen about it, mainly because the problems with the crime rates and low salary per month

I have seen that there are a lot of possibilities for getting funded PhD positions worldwide, but I am afraid of the following:

That after my studies and if I do not get an academic position in the place that I did my PhD studies, to not be able to get another academic position as the one that they are currently offering me (I will be ending my PhD at 42 years old approximately)

I have a high interest for academia, unfortunately the universities in the country that I am working are not so much oriented to research, but only to lecturing. That is why I feel like bored and stressed to do the same task everyday, to do research is very hard because I must occupy my little free time and most of my ideas get stuck after a while (mainly because there are not other academics to talk about problems encountered along my projects)

I would not really like just to end with the MSc and I feel that is something missing in my life, this has lead me to a problem of anxiety and depression.

Any advice?

Thanks


texts: How much depth should I have into a topic before I can claim it to be one of my research interests?

texts:
I have been applying to Ph.D. programs in bioinformatics and have already gotten interview invitations from a few of them. My background is mainly on the computational side but I am interested in applying that knowledge to biological problems.

In my application I mention that one of my research interests is modelling physiological systems (e.g. the cardiovascular system). However, I have not done substantial reading on the topic other than from a few websites and Wikipedia (mainly because of the little free time that I currently have as an undergraduate). From what I have read, I find the field to be very appealing and something that I would like to do research on. Nevertheless, my knowledge is basic at best and I am wondering if I can claim it to be one of my research interests.


texts:
I'm working in a university IT project as a researcher. I'm not pursuing a Ph.D. but rather working as a software developer there, designing and implementing software for the project. I learn a lot and am able to evaluate new technologies what I really enjoy. My work however is considered irrelevant compared to writing papers and project proposals.

When presenting in front of project partners and potential new project partners my work is always shown as it is the only tangible result of the project (there hasn't even been a paper in over a year by other colleagues). Sometimes my work is presented without me and I'm unclear in which context that happens and whether my name is mentioned or not.

Recently most colleagues of the project announced that they will jump ship and switch to a new project which is seen as the successor. I wasn't considered for the project and also not involved in the planning process. I'm staying in the old project which ends in about five months without having a new one, but was asked to present my work in front of an important company that is a potential sponsor of the successor project next week. I think I was asked to present because the company is comming to the same office where I'm working and they wouldn't get away presenting my work whithout me noticing.

I'm unsure how to handle the situation. It could be a chance for me to get important contacts for a potential new project. On the other hand I feel used and left behind. Is it normal to present someone else's work without permission? How to protect against this behaviour? Legally the software belongs to the university.


texts: Is the Cambridge Certificate of English accepted in US?

texts: According to CEF, CAE and CPE are the highest level possible. If I apply to some top US university/college, will they accept a certificate from Cambridge instead of TOEFL?


texts: Moving from a R2 university to a R1 university

texts: I am currently negotiating a TT position with a R2 university. This is my first faculty job offer after 4 years of postdoc experience in ecology and biogeochemistry related area. My long-term goal is to land a TT position in a tier 1 and/or R1 university. To that end, is there any pros or con that I should know before signing the contract with a R2 university. Does this count against you if you are trying to apply for a R1 university after you served as a TT faculty in a R2 university?


texts: Want to go to grad school but I lack expected coursework

texts:
I am, or was, a math major in a big state university, and just graduated this year and I am taking a gap year. I finished my undergrad in three years and took some extra math courses. I also have one-year independent research experience with an Honors Thesis and a research award by the math department. The upper division courses that I have are :  Linear Algebra, Analysis I&II, Adv Applied, ODE, PDE, Prob, Stats, Stochastics (All A's). some of them are in grad level. I also have an independent study on Fourier Analysis with Stien's book. As for the Application, I will have two very strong letters. Just haven't taken the GRE yet.

I understand that relatively good grad schools take the courses that students took seriously. And my problem is mainly about this.

However, every school's webpage that I looked at prefers students who also took Algebra and Topology, which I did not take for some reasons. But I am trying to learn Algebra with Artin's book and some more analysis with Stien's books myself in the gap year. Can someone please tell me just how much disadvantages would this bring me, and would what I am doing help with the admission process.

I am getting mixed messages about this. Some people say that I am pretty much locked out of top 50 schools, my professors could not really answer this, and my friends said it is not a big deal. I am very confused now. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks a lot.


texts:
As a master's student, I've recently attended my first summer school. I waited for it eagerly since there would be learning about my research topic, interacting with other students and travelling. But it turned out to me that it combines pretty bad.

Every day consisted of multiple lectures each of 90 minutes. It's hard to keep attention for a new, quite technical material for such a long time. Sometimes you realize that you cannot ask the lecturer for an explanation since you even cannot formulate the question. Also, I've made sure (as I've long suspected) that I'm a book kind of student - I study much better with lecture notes or video records, not with live talks. As a result, I think I got (even incompletely) less than 25% of talks.

The travel part was also not so good since the school was being held in regular working hours of museums and all. I had walked a lot at evenings and enjoyed it, but compared to my regular travelling experience it wasn't enough.

The social part was good though, I think I was pretty good at networking.

Concluding, it seems that I've spent my time very inefficiently. I'm sure that I'm not alone in such experience. But AFAIK schools, conferences and workshops are all conducted in this way. And I will be expected to attend them.

How can I make myself more productive in such events? Currently the only way I see is to attend only lectures I'm sure to understand and just skip others, trying to read papers and slides by myself or just hanging around the city.


texts: Is it acceptable for a referee to suggest changing "theorem" into "proposition"?

texts:
In mathematics, it is usual to call terminal results "theorems" and intermediate results "propositions" or even "lemmas" depending on importance and place in the overarching proof. Suppose that one is refereeing a paper where the authors have decided to call almost all their results "theorems", making a paper with a large number of "theorems" that even emeritus professors don't usually reach by the end of their career. (Such theorems include computation that could conceivably given to as end of year exams to master students. Not to diminish the importance of the paper, the actual theorems are good, but the 20 others are not theorems. There are more theorems than pages.)

Would it be acceptable and well-received to suggest toning it down? Or would it be overstepping and rude? This is not just a philosophical question: I truly believe that it makes the paper harder to reader, because it is difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to say. A reader does not know what is important and what is not.


texts: Is it appropriate to ask professors to give you a mock interview?

texts:
Suppose that an undergraduate student is preparing for interviews for Ph.D. positions in natural sciences. Is it common/acceptable to ask a professor with relevant expertise and familiarity with the student's educational background and research ability to conduct a mock interview with the student as a way to ascertain problems in the student's preparation? Or will such requests be viewed as unnecessary or "asking for too much"?

I'm primarily interested in the acceptability of such requests in US colleges.


texts: How can I convince my supervisor that I have enough data to support my findings?

texts:
I am a final-year Ph.D. candidate in a physics-oriented field. Over the course of my program, I have developed a postulate which leads to some contradictions with some of the tenets of my field, and I have obtained what I would consider a suitable amount of data which both supports my postulate, and conflicts with the (pre-)existing conclusions.
I am in the process of writing a paper on the matter with my supervisor. While initially supportive of my ideas/work, he has unfortunately seemed to change his mind recently, for a number of reasons which I find questionable. Of note, he has repeatedly stated in writing that the work is unsuitable, because I have failed to "either prove that the postulate is correct, or disprove the existing work" (according to further discussions, he believes that having conflicting data is not proof that the existing work is incorrect).
However, in my understanding of the scientific method, it is not possible to prove that my postulate is correct, or that the existing work is strictly incorrect. As I understand it, all I can do is provide data which agrees with what I am trying to say, and which contradicts with what other work has concluded. While I believe that I have done a sufficient amount of work necessary to support my thesis, he is of the opinion that I haven't, and is threatening to withhold granting my degree if I don't meet his expectations.
Perhaps related: he is an engineering professor and as far as I can tell has not published on a postulate before. However, to be fair, neither have I!
My questions are then:

Assuming I obtained the data in the best possible manner, is my supervisor correct in that I have not reached the required threshold for my work to have suitable academic merit necessary to receive a doctoral degree? (Generally speaking - I am aware that practices may vary depending on location).
If not, what must I do in order to reach this threshold?
If so, what can I tell/show him in order to convince his that my work is indeed suitable?


texts: How to deal with inactive students in a testing session?

texts:
In testing sessions that I proctor now, there are frequently one or more students who are not actually working on the test for extended periods of time. Perhaps they are just staring into space, or out the window, for most of the period. Or they may be holding the test paper up in the air and apparently scrutinizing it for a long period of time. Or a student may lean back in their chair and go soundly to sleep.

Excepting this last case, the student likely only has to adjust their eyes a few degrees to be looking at another student's paper. It gives all appearances that they are watching for me to turn away so that they can cheat. I feel compelled to watch them constantly for the entire period, which is tiring and stressful, and doesn't let me watch other students or answer questions. Frequently, the paper I get back is mostly blank after this hour-long staring match, but I can't know that in advance.

What is the best way to deal with inactive students in the testing session? Is it appropriate to demand that they leave the testing area if they're not actively working? (Students are already told in advance that they can turn in their paper and leave as soon as they're done with it.)

I'm teaching mostly lower-level mathematics at a large urban community college in the U.S.

Added: This is in a moderate-sized course with around 25 students in the classroom, taking the exam. The students are known to me and registered for the course which I am teaching. I made the exam and distributed a practice version, with identical directions for each question, in advance of the exam.


texts:
A tax proposal in the US is reported to make "tuition waivers that many graduate students receive when they work as teaching assistants or researchers" taxable.

I am currently a PhD student at a US institution.  All regularly enrolled PhD students at my institution have tuition 100% covered, whether through an external grant working for an advisor as an RA, as a TA, or through a university or external fellowship.  Tuition is not formally waived; money is actually moving between accounts, even if (in the case of TA's and university fellows) the money is moving from one university account to another.  There is a paper record as a part of my paycheck (I also get a stipend) that shows the tuition support that is being paid out.  Currently no student, to my knowledge, pays taxes on the tuition support that is paid on their behalf.

I am wondering, in the context of the proposed legislation, what are the "tuition waivers" that would be taxed?  Is it all tuition money paid on a student's behalf, as I've described above, or is it some subset of that, or is it something else?


texts: What is it called when authors trade citations?

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Citation is one metric of researchers. That is why some of them lend citation to one another. For example, A writes a paper and cites B's work in it, and then B does the same for A, without the citations being relevant to the works.

Is there any word for such academic misconduct? I can think of "citation exchange", but I couldn't find any reference about it.


texts: Quitting after 5 years - miserable and depressed

texts:
I'm a fifth year graduate student in the life sciences. To cut to the chase, I hate this PhD, I hate research and I hate academia. It didn't used to be this way.

I have been juggling three different projects and none of them are at the stage where something can be published. One of them was a pilot project, something that my lab or even my advisor has no expertise or basic knowledge for that matter. I have pretty much figured things on my own until we got a collaborator who really helped train me and has gotten this project off the ground. But now my advisor has decided to give this project that now has all the resources, grants etc to a new student.

I'm left with two other projects that are about 3/4th complete but there are quite a bit of holes to fill in.
I could probably finish it in the next one year or so and that's what I thought i will do.

But my advisor is not an advisor at all. She thinks I have wasted my time and now I'm left with a lot of work to do. She has told me that several times - that I'm not a hard worker and I am not like X or Y in the lab who pretty much live in the lab and have no life outside. I work 10-6 pm everyday and I know that's not a lot in the PhD world, but I feel like I am not productive beyond that. I also work on most weekends. In the past year, I have really tried to motivate myself and get as much work done as possible. Everyone around me says I'm so close and I should just stick it out for another year.

But my advisor keeps telling me that I will never graduate if I don't pick up my pace. No matter how much data I give her, she says this is not fast enough. Also she makes me re-do a lot of it if the data suggests something she doesn't agree with. She has a very narrow mindset and hates being wrong. She always chooses, seminars or committee meetings to tell me that my data is shit and my interpretations are meaningless. And of course, that I am a slacker and I'm useless.

My self-confidence is at an all-time low. I'm depressed and anxious all the time. The thought of lab or my advisor makes me want to run away from all this. To make things worse, my husband just got a job across the country and I see him once a month at the most. Ours has always been a long distance marriage so I'm not a rookie but I think I'm at a point where I really need a support system outside of lab. I have no family around as I'm an international student.

I'm so miserable all the time and I just want this agony to end. I finally gathered the courage to tell my advisor I want to quit with a masters. She is furious - she told me she is disappointed in me (no surprise there) and she has spent a lot of grant money on my stipend and I owe it to her to publish. My department requires advisors to pay a stipend to every student. And it's not like I have not worked at all. She has added guilt and shame to the wide range of negative emotions I'm already feeling. She says I have wasted her money and done no work.

Anyway, I'm trying to negotiate a masters so I can get out and try to find a job. I need to do something that makes me happy and regain my confidence. I don't even care what I do anymore, I just don't want to feel this way anymore. She is making it hard for me to leave. There is no one in the department that I trust will really help me out. My advisor is powerful and i don't know if anyone can change her mind.

I can't take a break, that is not an option. What do I do? I just want to be told it's okay to leave. People leave jobs all the time but there is so much shame associated with leaving a phd. I also want to know if I can still find jobs in the industry. Please help.
Thanks


texts: Is there added value in having your own presentation layout and using it consistently?

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From the perspective of a Ph.D. student, how much of an added value is it to have your own presentation slides layout, that is used consistently throughout your Ph.D. conference presentations and other talks (and possibly throughout your academic career afterwards)?

Here is one such example from the Computer Science community.

This as as opposed to using existing Beamer templates with LaTeX, or built-in PowerPoint templates, or simply preparing each presentation on its own (without a specific layout).

A couple of axes I can think along:

Creating a signature layout that distinguishes one in their community
Ease of preparation of presentations (especially over time), maybe overcoming constraints with existing templates.

Note that I am not concerned with the question of content, but just design and layout.


texts: They shared the code, but then, I found key errors in their work. How do I criticize this in my research paper?

texts:
Associate Prof. X is committed to reproducible research and makes his code available. He authors a paper with Dr. Y and others.

Dr. Y is the first author of the paper and the code is shared on Ass. Prof. X's website. It is clearly stated in the paper that the code produces the graphs in the paper.

I downloaded the code, ran the code and found it works well i.e produces the same graphs in the paper. However, the code was not descriptive and easy to understand (Apparently, the variables which makes it easy to read has been changed to something difficult to understand except with much effort and time). Anyway, I studied the code and was able to clearly understand the meanings of various parts of the code. I gave the variables their proper definitions while generating the same graphs

Now, I find the graphs for some figures are not provided, then mailed Ass Prof. X, who after a while informed me that first author Dr. Y will send the code. The code was sent and I was able to understand this paper.

Currently, I am about making an extension to this work. However, I observe there are some errors in several equations in the paper which adversely affects the behavior of some graphs! Furthermore, on a deeper investigation into the paper, some inferences and propositions were made based on some of the mistakes within the paper! At a time I tried contacting Dr. Y about something I wanted to know better about the paper but I didn't get a response.

The challenge I have now is, I want to present my own paper and as well make corrections to these mistakes since it directly extends this work. How do I handle this? Do I say for example: "We corrected equation (y) in [ref] and thus, the graphs behave like this?". Also, I am thinking that since I got the code for some of the graphs (via email), I should thank the authors for sharing the code (for those graphs). However, I am not sure this is appropriate as the public gets to know implicitly that the code for some of the graphs are not provided in the paper.

Note that, I appreciate and consider it as an obligation to be straightforward in my research!


texts: Still waiting for comments on my draft - what to do?

texts:
Some weeks ago I completed the first draft a paper. I then decided to approach one of the experts in the field, who is working at the same school as I. She seemed interested and were willing to read the draft.  However I sent her the draft ~ 5 weeks ago, and I have not heard from her since then.

I am now wondering if this is normal? Can I send her an e-mail and ask if she has looked at it yet (or is that considered inappropriate?).

I am getting quite stressed about this, the reason being that my advisor expects a draft of a new paper soon, and it would be valuable to have her comments before I talk to my own supervisor (who knows less about the subject I am writing my paper about).


texts: Get in touch with potential advisors, although I have no clue what my topic might be?

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I am in the Humanities, and I have a rough idea about the general field I want to work in. I have identified several professors who also work in this field. However, I am not sure how I can now find a topic for my dissertation. I am reading and reading, but as of now, I do not have a great idea.

I was thinking of getting in touch with the professors who might be potential advisors, but I am not sure whether that's a good idea considering I do not know my topic at all. I do not want to come across as naive - esp. since they are all at prestigious institutions.

If you think it is a good idea to get in touch, then I am still clueless about how to go about this, and what to write. I want to be honest but would like to avoid looking like a fool.

PS: I am in the Humanities, I think it's important for this question.


texts: Are 'Dr' for medical doctor used in the same sense as a PhD?

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My dentist is Dr. Wang and my physician is Dr. O'Connor but I also refer to my professor as Dr.

Are these the same titles? Did they all achieve what it took to get a Dr. title?


texts:
I submitted a paper to a special issue of a Springer journal.

The notification was supposed to be few days ago.
On that day, the current status became "review completed" and "Submissions with Production Completed (1)".

However, today the status changed to "Reviewer Assignment Pending" but there is still "Submissions with Production Completed (1)".
Does it mean that the paper is gonna reviewed again? (even though it has already been reviewed) or does it mean that an editor is going to make the final decision ?


texts: How does one reference work in Oxford Style for a Website without an Author or a Date of Publication?

texts: How do you reference work, Oxford Style, for a Website without an Author or a Date of Publication?


texts: I need certain courses not covered in my undergraduate studies, can I take them at another institution?

texts:
I recently got accepted into a graduate CS program (provisionally), but I need to take two classes that my undergraduate studies didn't cover. Now, where I got accepted those courses aren't offered until the fall which poses a problem for me. I would only be able to take one of the graduate courses without those missing courses in the fall.
Question:

Could I take those classes at another institution I'm not enrolled in?
If so, is there a database I could search comparable CS classes?

I know the standard procedure would be to contact the graduate school's admissions director and see what they recommend, however I feel like I've already annoyed them when I had to defer my summer acceptance. So, I would like them to have all the information needed in order to make that discourse easier for us both.


texts: Are there guidelines for choosing colors in figures?

texts: Are there guidelines how to choose colors for figures in papers? I know that about 5-10% of the population see colors differently. How do I create a figure that has to have at least 4-5 different colors in it and make sure everyone will be able to see it and distinguish between the components.


texts: What is the meaning of Immigrant Background in a job application?

texts:
I am in the process of application for a job. One of the questions is about immigrant background as follows:

Applicants who state that they have immigrant background will be
assessed in accordance with the requirements of summoning at least one
qualified applicant with immigrant background to the interview
process. Immigrant background implies that you are born in another
country than Norway or have immigrated from another country or that
both your parents are born in another country.

Could you please help me understand what this is? Is this question for those who already live in Norway and want to apply for that job? I live outside EU.


texts: Stuck completing master's thesis, how to overcome poor choice of topic and supervisor at this stage?

texts: I'm in the second year of a master's program, working on a thesis. I am not getting enough help from my supervisor because he has a different methodological background from me. I am also not finding enough evidence to complete the thesis, and the topic has been very difficult to research because almost nothing is written about it. I am dreading completing this degree. What are some constructive ways I can deal with this issue and complete the degree? Is it possible at this point to make it through the degree and succeed despite my poor choice of topic and supervisor?


texts:
What is the correct way for a new PhD student to approach an interested faculty member to discuss becoming their student?

Is it better to come with a few thesis project ideas prepared to pitch? Or is it better to come in expecting to have the faculty member to pitch them to the student?

Typically, the student has a year or two after joining a group to formulate an actual research proposal - but at the beginning of the program, when approaching potential advisers, there is only limited time, and limited knowledge of the lab's current focus and planned future projects.

Of course, the answer depends very much on the actual faculty member in question. But in what ways does it depend? Are there any aspects to the decision that remain invariant?

I am in the physical sciences (biology) but to make the question useful to more users, perhaps it may be better if we could have answers covering the peculiarities and commonalities of this question for different fields.


texts: Chosing a suitable Ph.D. program in Mathematics

texts:
I am new to this webboard so I am not sure if I can ask this questions here (I am sorry if it is not suitable).

I am currently pursuing a MS degree in Pure Mathematics in a university in America. In a half year time, I will earn the MS degree, and I would like to continue to Ph.D. program. The thing is, for almost two years I spent time at this university, I had a really hard time. I believe that the math program here is quite strong, and I feel that my academic background is not suitable to stay here any longer. So I am trying to find another university to attend Ph.D. program.

To be more precise, I think that I am interested in Number Theory (might be either algebraic or analytic) and Analysis (Real analysis). I also can do relatively good in Algebra. So what I am looking for is a suitable university with relatively decent program in number thoery or analysis (or algebra).

The suitability here I suppose that I mean the program is not too intensive. I do not want to go to the best 50 math graduate school since I know that my academic insight does not that good. I am looking for a university with acceptable Ph.D. math program with relatively easier qualification requirements. I am not sure how to select universities which match my requirement. It is also hard to ask for suggestion for choosing a less intensive Ph.D. program to my advisor. (Most of the time, people are looking for a good best-25-math-grad school. So there is almost no information about a decent or relatively lower math Ph.d. program. That why I decide to ask it here)

If anyone experienced my situation or can suggest what I should do, please leave the advice below.

If you need more specific information in order to give more helpful advice, please mention it.


texts: What to include in Abbreviations and symbols?

texts:
My supervisor asked me to make an Abbreviations and Symbols part to my thesis, as I use a lot of mathematical equations and variables. Now, obviously I won't put every variable (and abbreviation) into this list. What should the criteria be for putting an entry to the list? I also have tried to explain the variables where I'm using them, is this now redundant when done in conjunction with the list?

Additionally, should the symbols and abbreviations appear in the list in alphabetical or appearance order?


texts: Should I send reminder to a professor in a school I applied to, for an introduction email I sent two weeks ago?

texts:
I have applied to 4 PhD applications in Computer Science and I have sent an introduction email to a professor in each of the schools I have applied to. In this email I first introduced myself and then mentioned one of their papers I'm interested in, and at the end asked them for any time they can give me to meet them in person and talk to them about my future plans.

But, I just heard from one professor and the rest have not replied my email after two weeks. How could I write an email to remind them about my old email I sent them?

I googled and did not find a concise answer. Any help is appreciated.


texts: How can I tactfully ask a professor to bring requests to me earlier?

texts:
I'm a PhD student. A professor that I collaborate with (not from my university) asked me on two separate occasions to help with grants that were due in a week. In both cases I managed to squeeze out 20 hours to help him, and he paid me out of his own pocket (not using grant funds).

How can I tactfully ask the professor to bring requests to me earlier in the future? I guess one way is to simply decline future requests that I cannot handle. But I want to preserve goodwill when possible - I could quote him an insane hourly rate if he again approaches me at the last minute, but some people might view that as me taking advantage of the situation, even though it's not my fault that he approached me so late. (The rumor mill can always turn white into black.) The best solution, in my opinion, is to successfully persuade him to approach me early.


texts:
I've found myself in a paradoxical situation. I have failed modules over and over, many modules, some modules more than once. One of the failed modules was introduction to computing. After passing it I felt an urge to write lecture notes because I though that the "official" lecture notes made by two teachers of the computer science department were too shallow and unappealing. I took some time to write it and publish in a free webhosting service.

Now I'm feeling like continuing that type of work, expanding it to more modules, such as physics and calculus. It seems that explaning things with plain english, doing comparisons and following a straight path is kinda easy for me. Although I did fail so many modules so many times.

Is the correlation between learning a subject and having high grades strong?

Conversely, is the correlation between not properly learning a subject and having really bad grades strong?


texts: My undergraduate thesis project is a failure and I don't know what to do

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So I'm writing my undergraduate thesis and I have written around 80% of it. My project was to develop a device to use in the lab, but my first prototype doesn't work at all and I don't know if I should just write that it didn't work. I don't have time to make another one. I have to finish this as soon as possible because I'm starting grad school at a really good university :(. I haven't told about it to my supervisor. My question is how bad is it to present a failed attempt at something like the development of a device.
I hope someone can help me.