texts: Is there a correlation between being a good teacher and being a good researcher?

texts:
I have been told that there is a correlation between being a good teacher and being a good researcher (like this paper, in page 15, point 3.6), but i have not found any references or studies about it.

Does any know if there is really such correlation, or have studies to confirm or deny it?


texts: Is there a service that can store and mail recommendation letters to schools?

texts:
I am currently applying to graduate schools, all of which request 3 letters of recommendation.

Schools currently accept letters submitted by a recommender on an online service, or sent through postal mail.

Since the recommendation letters that are submitted on my behalf are similar for each school, my recommenders have to go through a sisyphic process:

Get the email from the school
Click the link
Find the recommendation letter file
Upload the file
Submit
Rinse and repeat for each school

tl;dr

What I hope to discover is a service where my recommenders can upload their letter ONCE, and then have that service dispense the letters to all the schools, instead of having the recommenders themselves do it for each school separately.

Does such a thing exist?


texts: Can books be included in literature reviews?

texts:
I am still not sure what should be considered as "literature" for inclusion in a literature review and what are not when writing a research proposal. For instance:

  A research proposal: 500-1000 words outlining your plans for your PhD
  Please include a 'literature review’ of works you’ve consulted and
  where your ‘contribution to new knowledge’ may
  potentially be made.

Can books be considered as "literature" for inclusion in literature reviews? For instance:

Michio Kaku. (2011) Physics of the Future: The Inventions That Will -Transform Our Lives. Reprint, Penguin, 2012.
Carl Sagan. (1995) The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Reprint, New York: Ballantine Books, 2000.

I googled and found this and it says:

  "The Literature" refers to the collection of scholarly writings on a
  topic. This includes peer-reviewed articles, books, dissertations and
  conference papers.

It mentions books but does The Literature above mean literature review?

Also, what about online sources/ articles? Are they "literature" for literature reviews? For example:

https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/03/baloney-detection-kit-carl-sagan/
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/jul/05/can-artists-save-the-world
http://www.theoryculturesociety.org/elinor-carmi-cookies-meets-eye/


texts:
I doing a PhD in a research group where there are 4-5 PhD student and 1-2 Postdocs. Given the nature of the research projects, more than one person ends up working on one project and sometimes people work on multiple projects simultaneously.

I am assigned to work on a project where a postdoc is supposed to help me. Recently, a deadline arose and we had to submit a project in two weeks which was extremely tight. I am the principle person working on the design, but given the tight deadline, my advisor asked the postdoc to help complete the design. The design consisted of two parts which were simulations and drawing. I was working on the simulations which were time-consuming. I asked the postdoc to learn how to use the tool needed to draw the design and then teach it to me quickly at before the time of submission so that I do not have to go through the user guide as time was tight. He refused just after the meeting where my advisor asked him to help me saying that he will not draw anything. In the meeting, he seemed fine with helping me.

Given that I was very eager for this project to succeed, I pushed myself and completed everything on my own with no help. I submitted the design successfully.

Now I am considering telling my advisor what happened. This person is blatantly avoiding work and try to dump everything on me. This pattern of behavior has occurred more than once before. We are understaffed in this project and I cannot carry it on my own. At least three students are needed and now it seems that I am on my own.

My question is: What would be the best way to tell my advisor about this postdoc? I do not want him to get the impression that I am whiny, but I believe this is an issue needs to be addressed and that a more professional behavior is expected from the postdoc. What things should I avoid in explaining this problem? Is telling him about the issue going to help with anything?


texts: Emailing a potential PI about applying to a Master's program at their school

texts:
Is it okay to email professors/PI's to show interest working in their lab when you're applying to the school's Master's program? I saw on another question that unless it is explicitly said, you shouldn't contact the professor directly and should email the admission staff instead. There is a section on PI's webpage with his contact information, but in the Positions section, there are none available currently. Should I not try contacting this person at all?

In terms of the content of the message, I wanted to discuss my interest in a specific field and how working in his lab would help in achieving my goal. Furthermore I wanted to ask for any type of advice which may help when entering graduate school in the field.


texts: Referees ask for more content but this lengthens the paper dramatically

texts:
So, my situation is as follows: I submitted a paper to a journal and continued to work on that line of research, specifically on the open problems I mentioned in the submitted paper.

Now, in the received reviews the referees call for more content in the form of addressing one of the before mentioned open problems in particular. I am fine with adding more content, especially since I have already done the work.

However, the solution to the problem fills an additional 25+ pages, an amount which would pad the paper to a very long length. I am not sure of how to proceed as I am quite convinced that merging the two projects would be too long for the journal.

I don’t know if I should

merge the projects and hope for it not being too long,
disagree with the referees opinion in my revision and state the situation,
contact someone and get information before conducting the revisions?

Maybe as a more general question, how is it in general perceived to get a large lengthening in return to a call for more content?


texts: How does a book chapter in an edited volume compare to a peer reviewed paper?

texts:
I have been invited to write a book chapter in an edited volume, relating to my field of work. I have a paper ready that I have not published and was planning to submit it soon. So, I am wondering is it worth to use that article for the book chapter, as both are on the same topic, or is it in a sense a waste of a journal paper, as book chapters might not be seen to have the same academic value? What should I do? Should I, instead, send the ready paper to a journal for a review and write a book chapter, based on a couple papers I have published, for instance?

Generally speaking, where does a book chapter stand? Is it something between a conference paper and a full-fledged journal article? Or, does does it have the same value as either of the above-mentioned publication types, in your opinion?


texts: Should I publish in a second rate journal published by a maybe disreputable publisher?

texts:
I've been invited to write an article for a special issue of an open access journal. According to the prospective guest editor, the editors say that “All papers invited by the guest editor will be published free of charge.”
The journal is published by a publisher that was included on Jeffrey Beall's list (https://beallslist.net/) of predatory open access publishing companies in 2014 but was removed in 2015 following a successful appeal. Nonetheless, criticism of the publisher continues.
I read the Wikipedia article on the publisher and it appears that this publisher maintains a minimum of respectability, even if criticisms continue. But I'm worried about associating myself with a disreputable publisher. On the other hand, I am an early career academic with only two peer-reviewed publications and would like to add more. Should I do it?


texts: What happens to a research group when a principal investigator (P.I.) dies? Is it common to have existing contingency plans?

texts:
Principal investigators (P.I.s) are not immune to things like traffic accidents, fatal diseases, or acts of terrorism.

Is it common to have contingency plans as to what will happen with funding, experiments, PhD supervision, and everything else that a P.I. is supposed to be responsible for? And if so, what do these plans look like?

[Full disclosure: I'm asking this because I personally have had a close encounter with death in the middle of a project I'm a co-P.I. of.]


texts: How long to wait before contacting another arm's length referee?

texts:
Good afternoon,
I am trying to find an external referee to review and evaluate an application package for a postdoctoral fellowship. This assessment, which is a required element of the application, is due August 13. I e-mailed a first potential referee a couple days ago (so certainly not very long at all). I introduced myself, identified why she might be well-placed to serve as a referee, and identified the deadline. Rather than following-up, it is likely that I would reach out to another potential referee if I don't hear back from her. At what point do you think I should reach out to another potential referee?
My initial thoughts are after seven or eight business days. I realize this may not be considered a long time for these sorts of applications, but I fear that the likelihood of a positive response will be severely reduced at that point and I don't want to put anyone who does agree to take on the assessment in a position where they feel rushed.
Would value your thoughts!


texts:
So I'm a first year PhD student in the UK working on an applied mathematics project. Excluding weekends I put in about 37/40 hours a week of work which leaves me pretty tired to say the least.
Normally I'll also work on weekends to keep the momentum going but lately I've been feeling really burnt out and despite the breaks making me feel more refreshed, I still feel guilty for "missing" out on work I should be doing. How do I combat this feeling and am I alone by feeling this way? I rarely take breaks.


texts: What should I be asking when publishing my materials with for-profit websites?

texts: I am a published academic, and I have a commercial for-profit website asking me to volunteer my some original work (that has not been published anywhere) for publishing with them on their site. They have stated that they will ensure that I am given credit for my work with my name and credentials after my articles.   I am concerned that I am being taken advantage of. Are there questions that I should be asking?


texts: Can I use an Encyclopedia as a reference in an essay?

texts: I am writing a paper that is about another culture. I need to include references about the culture in my paper. Is an encyclopedia an acceptable source for general information about the  culture (communication, nutrition, holidays, religion?)


texts: Is it good to leave hyperref activated on a conference paper?

texts:
It is recommended to send a copy to an IEEE conference with the hyper-references activated?
This includes hyperlinks to sections, equations, tables, references, etc. The paper was written using LaTeX.


texts: Do universities in the United States require GREs for postdocs in engineering?


texts: What are the implications of distributing a faculty annual salary over 9 or 12 months?

texts: It has been mentioned couple of times in this site that faculty could be able to distribute their salary over 9 or 12 months. What are advantages and disadvantages of each? And can faculty who distribute their salary over 12 months work during the summer? Do they get 1 month vacation and sick leave? Any effect on taxes, health insurance, and deduction for benefits? Does it affect the amount of summer salary from the university or a funding agency?


texts:
my PhD thesis is very comprehensive and contains a lot of data.
My advisor says that we need to publish this thesis in 2 parts. (two interconnected articles, different findings but the same material).
In this case, would it be a problem to publish it as 2 different papers? There will be different findings in both but there is the same material as it is produced from the same thesis.
Would it be more advantageous to send both articles to the same journal or to different journals?


texts: How bad is it to decline the NSF graduate fellowship?

texts:
Though NSF results aren't out yet for this year, this question's been wracking my brain since I'm heavily considering taking a gap year before grad school. I also haven't been able to find this particular question asked/answered anywhere online and I feel like there are surely others that might find themselves in this same situation, so I'm asking here.

Basically, I completed my NSF application in the fall with confidence, and then around a month later found out that my subject GRE scores were abysmal. Coupled with a fairly "low" GPA, I ended up not getting into any grad schools except my least-ranked backup school and a waitlist to another backup. I've talked over with my advisor and we agreed that taking a year off to reapply would be good for me. For one, I can retake the exam and possibly get into a wider range of schools, which means more opportunities to choose from. A second consideration is that part of the reason I didn't do well in school, which I only realized recently, is that I had been ignoring my mental health for years (I didn't believe "mental health" was a real thing, oops) and taking a gap year would help me put a year's worth of space between being thrown into grad classes while I heal. I've also already got plans for the year in place--I would be doing full-time research work for both my advisor and as part of a program I was accepted to. I feel like this is the healthiest, best route for me and is the one I'm most comfortable with.

However, there's still a chance I could win the NSF (which is exceedingly rare and a crapshoot for anyone, I know, but anyone who doesn't withdraw is technically still in the running!), which means I would have to go to grad school next year to accept the award. They removed the option to defer years ago unless you're active in the military or have a medical issue (I assume this means hospitalization, not going through something like CBT). Because it's such a competitive fellowship, I always had the notion that it would be just plain "stupid" to turn it down (unless, of course, you got some sort of better award). However, because of the reasons I stated in the paragraph above, I'm definitely less comfortable with this path.

In this scenario, which should take priority? Accepting a competitive fellowship at a backup school I'm unsure about, or taking a year off to reapply and have more options (especially at top choice, selective institutions), albeit without the NSF or possibly any sort of external fellowship? Has anyone gone through either route and regretted it? Also, how does listing a declined award (NOT in the context of winning other awards and having to choose only one) look on a CV? For context, I'm interested in attempting a career as tenured faculty in academia (which is also exceedingly unlikely, I know).


texts: Assigning presenters the role of a session chair without prior notice

texts:
I am going to present my research on a conference in the near future. This conference is in the field of engineering and CS. It has several sessions in parallel and a total of more than 100 papers.

When I had a look at the program, I noticed that I (and another person) have been assigned the role of the session chair of the session where I am also presenting.
However, nobody has informed me of this, yet, neither have I been asked if a want to take this over.
I had a look at the other sessions, it's similar there: Two presenters in each session have been selected to be session chairs.

So far, I have never experienced something like that.
All in all I am not complaining at all (to be honest, I am looking forward to taking over this task!), however, I am still a bit surprised.
Is it common in other fields or other conferences that presenters are managing their own sessions and are not asked whether they are willing to do so?

UPDATE: I was at the conference and some other chairs and attendees told me that this is indeed common there: They just assign the session chair role to people and sometimes miss to tell them beforehand. Nevertheless, everything went well and as expected this was an interesting experience.


texts: How can I improve my paper with mostly original contents and only two references?

texts:
I'm collaborating with another person on a public-key cryptosystem that we intend to publish. I could only think of two references (one to the 1976 Diffie-Hellman paper, and one to SHA-3 FIPS-202), even though most of the contents are completely original.
I put my content onto Grammarly Premium and it only found 2% of so-called plagiarism - so called because the source of plagiarism is actually a low-quality prank question on a Q&A site that contains a series of digits 9 and asks its sum, that happen to collide with our experiment data.
What can I do to improve our paper?


texts: Practical aspects -- how to change subfields between PhD and postdoc?

texts:
For the context of the question, I'm interested in switching between different areas of a field -- e.g. I did my PhD in biological physics mainly involving simulations on a specific biological system, and I am now interested in pursuing more theoretical work (e.g. applied mathematics) still in biological physics but potentially on a different system.

So theoretically I know there should be no problem and my PhD should have prepared me for any new learning I need to do to catch up, but practically I'm wondering if there are 'better' ways of addressing some issues:

Background knowledge: I have some theoretical background, but not the familiarity of having done theoretical work daily in the past years. I would also have some catching up to do (probably several books to get through before I would be comfortable). When would be the best time to do this catching up? If I do it after beginning a postdoc, my postdoc work will be delayed during this (probably months) of catch-up time. Should I take time off between my PhD and postdoc? However then I have to explain an awkward unemployed period on my CV, and additionally not having an institution affiliation would take away my access to journals/libraries.
Competitiveness as a candidate: If I were a PI, I would favour candidates who had demonstrated a capability in the field already. How can I demonstrate an ability to do theoretical work if it was not a large component of my PhD? One thought I had was to look within my own institution for a postdoc advisor since it might be easier to convince them, but I'm also aware that staying in the same institution for my postdoc could be a red flag later in my career.

Also welcome tips on how to prepare for such an anticipated switch, if I still have a few years left of my PhD.


texts: I've worked as a waitress. Should I indicate this in my PhD application? How will that affect my application?


texts: How to make a list of potential graduate school?

texts:
I will be applying to graduate schools the upcoming fall and I have a list of schools that I like based on professors, research work, etc. But, how can I realistically narrow my list to schools I can actually get into? I am a top student at a good public school, but it is certainly not an MIT or Ivy.

I have around a 3.9 and will have taken 4-5 grad courses by the time I graduate, with research with 3 different professors and a minimum of 1 paper co-authored.

I feel like getting into schools such as Berkeley or CMU is out of my reach, but I love their programs.

Can anyone suggest me a strategy which makes it much easier for me to make choices?
(Lesser the number of available options, quicker and better will be the decision.)


texts: What to do when manuscript is in latex but journal requires submission in MS Word

texts:
I wrote an article containing quite a lot of maths using latex. I want to submit this paper to a given journal. However,  submission guideline explicitly states that
all submissions must be done in word format. I am a bit confused about such a specification and really feel unconfortable to reedit everything in word. Some companies seem to offer convertor or online conversion. Maybe some of you have already experienced some of them and can give me some feedback and advices.


texts: Career advice: Post-doc away from my primary interest, or not

texts:
I'm in a need of a career advice, and I can't really think up any better to ask than all of you.

There is a post-doc position within upgrading biofuel that I am almost certain to be offered. There is some catalysis involved, but it is somewhat away from my primary interests: Organic synthesis and polymers. Similar positions within these topics are scarce, but at my alma mater they would hire me immediately if they get the funds nescessary.

What should I do? Accept being away from home ground for two years, working on getting funding for the Chemistry department, or sit tight and hope that a better fitting position comes along?

Cheers,

EDIT:
I would like to precise, that I am going to apply for funding for an industrial post-doc together with a company. They are highly interested in me, but lack the funding. The job would be way more aligned with synthesis and polymer chemistry - but I will have to take a calculated risk: There is a 60% success rate for the applications, but I'll have be without job (2 months) until we get a (hopefully) positive answer.
Is the post-doc really that career-determining?


texts: What does Level 7 of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) - RNCP 34262 Level 7 certified mean?

texts:
I am looking to get a more formal education in data engineering. I found the following "masters degree" at Data Science TechInsitute. The content does look great, also the fact that the 6month internship can be at the company that I already work for (which makes funding the whole thing considerably easier).
I am trying to understand what that degree really is though. Is this a "proper" master's degree? Compared to one from a "university"? Compared to an online 1yr program in the US (for example this one)? My main concern is that employers outside of France would not recognize it.
On the website it says:

Level 7 of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) - RNCP 34262 Level 7 certified

which seems to relate to this classification of the EU. But does that mean the master's degree would be recognized as such in, e.g., Germany?


texts: Does undergraduate school matter for PhD admissions (international student)?

texts:
TL;DR: does undergrad school's name recognition matter for an international student aiming for top social sciences PhD programs in the US?

Hello. I've been struggling with this decision for quite a while now and thus would totally love to hear some advice.

I'm from Russia and am currently deciding on where to do my undergrad studies. I'm really into the idea of doing a PhD in some social science (economic sociology, or possibly some business-oriented applications of it, like  marketing) right  after that, aiming for a bunch of good US programs. All the depts that are a perfect fit for my current research interests would be really hard to get into, think 3-5% acceptance rates.

So, I have two options:

A. A well-ranked school. It sends quite a handful of its undergrad alumni to great grad programs all over the world, including some American ones, every year. I'd have lots of research opportunities here, maybe managing to eventually publish something. The problem is, I heavily dislike this school for personal reasons, and the offered courses aren't really my cup of tea. Overall, I'd spend quite miserable 4 years here, but could handle this in case of it having any noticeable impact on the grad admissions.

B. A significantly weaker school in terms of name recognition. The courses offered here align with my academic interests way better. I'd still work on my own, do my best at attempting to get something published, and maybe contact some research centers & labs offering to volunteer, but I'm afraid of the 'no name university' stuff hindering my chances. It's basically the only problem I have here and the only thing stopping me from picking it.

The A school is in top-100 in the world for sociology, my undergrad major, and has lots of experience with sending students to top PhD programs. The B one isn't on any rankings at all. Both are in the same city.

So, the question asked in the title arises.


texts: What is the IEEE style for a translated quotation?

texts:
I am writing my thesis in french but most of the references I have are in english.

Sometimes, I would like to  incorporate a direct quotation into a sentence but since my text is in another language, I usually do a literal translation (because I don't want to change the author's words). In this case, what IEEE's style should I use?


texts: Where to draw the line for authorship for a software-announcement paper?

texts:
I am currently working on a scientific software, for which I want to publish a software-announcement paper in a pertaining journal. While I am doing and probably will continue to do the vast majority of the work, it may be that others will contribute in a manner that brings up the question on their authorship on the paper. To avoid disagreements and subsequent issues, I would discuss authorship as early as possible if such a contribution seems plausible.

In a regular paper, the central criterion for authorship is intellectual contributions, while technical contributions such as a straightforward software implementation of some existing algorithm do not qualify. Moreover (at least in my field), it is rather untypical that somebody contributes only a small piece to a paper such the grey zone of authorship is rarely an issue.

In a software-announcement paper, however, I can think of several aspects that could be considered essential and contributors to which could be considered eligible for authorship:

Developing new algorithms and approaches. While this is clearly an intellectual contribution and could even justify a paper on its own, not all new scientific software features such a thing. Therefore it cannot be the only aspect qualifying for authorship.
Choosing the algorithms and methods to implement.
Devising the interface, usually targetting some particular scientific application.
Actually writing the software.
Testing the software. Given the application, finding proper test cases with a known behaviour can be a challenge on its own.
Writing the actual paper.

Moreover, it is much more likely that somebody makes a small, grey-zone contribution such as a bug fix, providing an example for the documentation or testing, suggesting a feature, or similar. This applies in particular if development versions of the software are published.

My target journal does not provide any guidance on this matter and neither could I find any general rules on the Internet. Hence I am asking whether there are any good (preferably established) guidelines on deciding authorship of such a paper, in particular as to which type of contributions can qualify for authorship at all and where to draw the line.


texts: How deal with an innovation from outside academia

texts:
I am self-educated software developer, and I believe I stumbled across something that is both novel and useful. I'm not talking anything large or groundbreaking, but still novel and potentially useful to others. I believe it may be suitable for publication.

The find in itself is related to a publication from 1997, which continues to be somewhat frequently cited (about 30 times per year).

I have found a journal I believe is a very good fit for the material.

I have no access to anyone who has experience in publishing papers or academia in the field. That leaves me with the following stumbling blocks I have to find out on my own:

I lack the overview of the current research in the field. It's nice and good an outsider thinks they have an innovation, but the work may be not novel at all.
Even if it is novel, what I regard as a small but nevertheless interesting and useful find may be regarded as trivial and not publishable by academia.
Even if it wouldn't be, and would be suitable for a paper, without any experience in writing papers, I will likely make all beginners errors, and have nobody to proofread the paper.

What, if anything, can I do to overcome these hurdles?


texts: Can a supervisor extend the paper and change the order of authors?

texts:
Background: In my area, people extend their conference paper to a journal version by adding only 30% contribution. This means that you get a second paper, with the same content (introduction, related works, motivation, etc). Secondly, the order of authors matter in my area.

Story: I published a conference paper, which is one of major contributions to my PhD, and I planned to prepare an extension of that paper to be submitted to a journal. However, I postpone the extension, as I was busy with my other projects (also related to my PhD). Recently, my supervisor has secretly given the (almost) extended paper to another person to do the extension and has submitted it with a different order of names.

My supervisor and the person who extended the paper did not tell me anything about it and kept everything secret, until the last minute of submission. Although my supervisor knew that I had planned to do the extension, he ignored all my previous efforts. He even sent my already extended version to this person. However, I should acknowledge that both of them had minor contributions to the initial paper, but I am not sure if that gives them the right to extend it.

The question is whether my supervisor had the right to do so? He knew that I have planned to do the extension (as I had already extended some parts of it --I added 4-5 pages of a proof of a theorem and extended experiments).


texts: Should you cite somebody's Transfer Report? (Confirmation Report)

texts:
Context: At UK universities at least, before progressing from the first year of your PhD  (or transferring from an MPhil to a PhD), it is required to write a fairly substantial report detailing the research done so far and the outline the research direction over the remainder of the PhD. It's usually known as the Transfer/Confirmation/Upgrade Report.

Is it appropriate to reference these kinds of reports when writing: a) Your own Transfer Report, and b) Published research articles? I have never come across one referenced in a paper before, whereas I have seen references to PhD theses, Masters, and undergraduate dissertations.


texts: Asking professor about certainty of a new opportunity

texts:
Recently I had an interview for a PhD position in Germany. After couple of days, I received a congrats email stating that I'm ranked 3rd candidate. Originally there was only single opening in the advert. So I am confused - actually I'm not selected - then why am I being congratulated? Is it something like if first two candidates do not accept the offer then I'll stand a chance? Should I ask this question directly? How to ask this with politeness?

Also, in the mail, it is mentioned that the group will have new opportunities and I should contact the respective person in a particular month. This sounds like a very promising statement, also from the internet research of the group, it is evident that they have few plans for near future.

I want to ask the question: How certain is this? I would want to listen a direct answer for e.g. 0.7% probability. Also, even though opportunity arises, will I be considered directly? Or will there be a formal evaluation process again? Because if yes, it is too time consuming and I might consider few other options rather than waiting for something in which prob of getting through is low.

This is a very good group and if I get an opportunity I would definitely work with them. So at any cost, I do not want to sound rude and/or idiot. So are these valid questions to ask? If yes, how to phrase them politely?


texts: Can I suggest the authors to hire professional writer for scientific paper as a reviewer during second review?

texts:
I have reviewed a scientific paper and suggested a major revision. They corrected it but still, I think the language quality is not standard. In this case, can I ask the authors to hire a professional writer? Is it ok if I ask them now because this is the 2nd review?
Or I just ask the editor if he can suggest the authors hire a professional writer?


texts: Different results when experiment repeated

texts: Have you all ever had different results when repeating your own experiment? I did some work for my dissertation and am now redoing it for better images and hopefully for publication. The results are not replicating at all which leads me to think either an error was made before or is being made now. Would you think to repeat with more replicates and document those results instead of the initial results? It's just so draining, but I don't want to publish inaccuracies.


texts: How can I quickly sort what is peer-reviewed and what isn't in a wide body of literature?

texts:
I have long list of literature to review that I have inserted in Excel (title, authors, year, journal, etc.). I would like to quickly sort out which journals are peer-reviewed and which aren't.

I know I can check through each individual journal's site to see if they involve peer review, but is there a more efficient tool to do this? A search engine of some kind that would quickly show if a specific journal is reviewed or not?


texts: Is it unethical for someone to proofread/edit your cover letter or CV?

texts:
Is it unethical for someone to proofread/edit your cover letter?

Because then it's not fully your work anymore. It could be helpful, but I am asking if it is ethical towards the hiring professional? You wouldn't state that someone improved your work, but you are acting as if it is all yours.


texts: Introduction to Programming with Pseudocode

texts:
In the University in which I will start teaching the course sequence for Programming goes in this way:

Algorithms and Data Structures
Structured Programming Languages
Object-Oriented Programming Languages

So as you see, the first contact of the students with Programming is the "Algorithms and Data Structures" course in which several programming fundamentals topics are covered (variables, data types, if/else, loops) and also some data structures and basic algorithms. The weird part -at least for me- is that in this first course there no actual programming: all the topics are covered with Pseudocode and Flowcharts written in the Blackboard.

This seems kind of strange for me, and as a new teacher I have little power to change this (Senior teachers said that coding is for latter courses). So, I want to know if any of you is familiar with that teaching approach and if you can suggest me some textbooks that are using that teaching methodology.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


texts: Can you present at a conference without original data and results? (First year PhD Student)

texts:
I was invited to speak at a national conference. The theme is exactly related on my doctoral work, and they really insisted on wanting my expertise because not many people are working specifically on this topic. I said yes, I could not say no to this opportunity.

The thing is that I don't have original data yet (I am a first-year Ph.D. student), and am wondering what I will be able to present. I have already presented my master's thesis at local, national and international conferences and I can't present it anymore in my opinion.

My advisor suggested that I could talk about the context/background for my PhD research. I'm hesitant to jump into the methodology part because I don't want this idea to get scooped since I am such in the early stages of my doctoral program.

Anyone have tips or advice?


texts: Should getting no response in this timespan be understood as a no? What should I do in this situation?

texts:
I am starting my Ph.D. and am interested in a specific field of research which seems quite promising for the next years. Now, my masters supervisor does not work in this field, nor anyone in the department, and it seems in the country.

Nonetheless, he is interested and suggested me to find an expert in the field from another country to collaborate and said he would sign a recommendation letter1. In the better scenario this would be a formal co-supervision, but not a requirement.

So, I sent an email to such an expert (in fact it seems one of the researches who started the field) with my masters thesis attached as well as the recommendation letter. After a week unfortunately I didn't get any response.

I asked my masters supervisor and he suggested me to reply the email resending it, because he said that usually there is an answer. He also told me to add one line asking if someone else could be suggested.

I've sent the message last week and no answer as well up to now.

To be honest I'm confused. I mean, the thesis has been quite complimented by a very famous researcher in my country who integrated the examination board. The recommendation letter speaks quite well about my work. Finally my university seems to be respected internationally. With all this, I thought at least a no as answer I would get.

Perhaps the only point is that I have not worked in that field in my masters, but that was because no one in the country knew it.

Now, is this lack of response, in the timespan I told about, effectively a no, totally dismissing the possibility, and so should I already disconsider it? Or a no would be really be said explicitly? Should I wait more before looking for some other possibility?

Edit: In trying to make the question more concise and to the point (whether or not one could expect an answer in the timespan of more or less 10 days) I left out a detail. The email was focused on asking for a collaboration. Of course, formal co-supervision would be better, but it is not required, and we briefly mentioned it. So the email was entirely focused on collaboration. The scholarship pays for just a collaboration also, where the PhD student spends one year working on the group of another researcher.

1. I don't know how things are done in other places, but here it is possible to establish a collaboration with a researcher from anywhere, including other country, and have it all paid by the scholarship if you need to stay a certain time working there with him. This may or may not be a formal co-supervision, so that the researcher has the option to not sign if he cannot.


texts: Refworks Bibliography Output Style Choice, for Springer?

texts:
Refworks.com can output a bibliography, based on an output style list, which includes several hundred different output style choices.  Refworks Output Style List

However, the list does specifically include "Springer": see i.e.  Springer Bibliography Requirements

What is a similar Refworks output style choice/item, which is similar to the Springer requirements?


texts:
I really need some opinions/advice on my situation.

My background

I'm studying for my master degree in mathematics. I have always (since I was 14) wanted to do my own research one day. As I grew older, I knew that mathematics was what I wanted to do. So I went to the university to study mathematics. After having encountered a course in group theory I knew that I belonged to the algebraic part of mathematics. I did my bachelor project in group theory and when I became a graduate student (September 2013), I took courses and made a project supporting my interest in algebra.

Along the way I created the vision that I would finish my master degree as a dedicated student in algebra. In order to realize this vision my plan was to study abroad for one semester taking new algebraic courses.

The situation

My situation today is that my study abroad semester begins tomorrow. As mentioned my dream is to do my own research, but more generally/important: I want to develop new ideas and be dedicated to something and I would love to follow/explore my passion.

My first thought (as many other students): I should get a PhD. So I did some research and figured out that there was an available position at the university I'm currently studying at in geometric group theory.

I don't know much about geometric group theory, but I do know that I love group theory. So I would really like to know if this is an opportunity or if I should just forget it.

I don't want to pursue a PhD for anything in this world. I just want to stay focus on creating a meaningful work life around my passion.

Any advice?

Further remarks

I'm a student from Denmark and I'm studying abroad in Austria for one semester. After my study abroad semester I still have to study one year for my master degree in Denmark. However this year consists of a half year with elective courses and a half year where I'm making my master's thesis.

I don’t know much about the PhD position. I found it from a Google search (: “PhD position group theory”). There is only given a starting date and an e-mail address for contact. I’m going to attend a course held by the supervisor of the project, so the whole thing is a coincidence.

I have investigated my opportunities for a position at my home university. One of my supervisors, a professor in group theory, told me that he couldn't offer me a position, since it was a question about money, but would like to recommend me. I don't think the university accepts PhD students without a master degree and the positions are without project descriptions.

However there is also another university (in Denmark) with a talent program where it is possible to get a PhD position without having a master degree. I contacted them and they told me I should apply after my study abroad semester (because I would have a stronger profile). But I don't know my chances.


texts: Are there any academic data sets that force users to release any source code written to analyse them?

texts: I am curious to know whether there exists any data set that forces users to publicly release any source code written to analyse it.


texts: If a student's work has been substantially (>80%) revised, is s/he still qualified as the first author?

texts:
The issue of authorship is often a thorny issue in academia, so I’d like to ask for your insight into the authorship in the following situation:

My advisee’s MA thesis is mainly and originally based on a new idea from me. We worked together to refine the idea and turned it into a thesis. I worked closely with him, spending 6 hours per week meeting with him to examine the collected data (he spent about 4 hours per week for data collection). Finally, he completed his thesis with a lot of work and graduated. After his graduation, I approached the student and asked him if he would be interested in publishing the study. He declined this offer mainly due to his availability and due to his work but appreciated this possibilities. Seeing the potential of the collected data, I decided to do this alone.

To make the study publishable, I substantially revised more than 80 % of the student's work, using a different analysis method to recode the data and revamping the introduction, literature review, discussion, and conclusion sections. In other words, the revised paper, albeit being based on the student’s raw data set, is already substantially different from the student’s original work; the rationale is different and the focus is also different (just to appeal to the scope of the journal of our interest and the readership of the journal).

The revised work was then submitted to a respected journal. I took care of all of the responses and revisions (three rounds of major revision + two rounds of minor revision), and the paper finally got accepted. Of course, I asked the student to read the paper and he liked/approved the paper.

I listed my student as the first author and myself as the corresponding author. But given my student’s contribution to this publication, is he qualified as the first author? Or should he be listed as the second author and myself as first author? What should I do so that I can strike a balance between the ethical code and the effort I have put to this paper?


texts: Is it ethically problematic for an internal candidate to attend the job talk of a candidate for the same job?

texts:
I noticed that my university has been considering "internal" candidates more strongly for permanent faculty positions. These are candidates who have received their masters degree and/or a PhD at the same university.

So when candidates are interviewed, the top contenders are invited for an "on-campus" interview/presentation.

Are there any ethics involved with one internal candidate attending the other internal candidate's "faculty interview presentation"? Wouldn't there be bias established in that manner for or against both candidates since one candidate would receive "pointers" (in)advertently?

Would it be a different situation if the competition for the internal candidate was to be an external candidate?


texts:
I have a doctorate already and have circled back to complete an MBA. My doctorate is in another discipline.

My MBA program just told me that, rather than using the proposed course numbers for an analytics track, they will be using the repeatable "Special Topics" 5000 number.

For example:

MBA 5510 Data Warehouses will now be MBA 5000 Data Warehouses
MBA 5520 Advanced Queries will now be MBA 5000 Advanced Queries
MBA 5530 Advanced Data Mining will now be MBA 5000 Adv Data Mining

Our course catalog lists MBA 5000 as "Special Topics" and it is shown as repeatable. I am not sure whether my transcript would reflect special topics or the original course title, but I will end up with four instances of the MBA 5000 course number on my transcript.

As someone involved in an academic career, should I be wary of this change? Will other institutions scrutinize the use of this repeatable "Special Topics" course number and/or name?


texts: Should I have undergraduate class papers on ResearchGate?

texts:
I just finished undergraduate and I am now in my first year of grad school and I am working on some real research projects now. I have one paper that I am already submitting to a peer-reviewed journal.

I uploaded a few papers written for undergraduate capstone projects and final reports to my RG. They are never going to be published but I thought they were interesting reads anyways, they were all typical secondary student research papers.

If I went back and wrote them again, I would probably change a few things here and there, there aren't any glaring inaccuracies but none of the papers are journal quality.
I noted the fact that they were for classes in the descriptions.

I thought that was a good idea until one of them started to get more than 100 reads, now I am second guessing the decision.

Is it acceptable to have undergraduate class papers on ResearchGate?
Could it harm my career if the papers are of undergraduate quality? Or is it a good thing to show your interest in different research topics at an early stage in academia?


texts:
My project work which i was planning to publish somebody else published just 1 month before. what should i do? Is my total research work of 8 months going to be a waste?
I was working for a novel phytochemical and planned to publish my paper. When i submitted the journal manuscript in December, the editor replied in the month of January that some other Chinese group published paper for the same product in January. Is my whole research of 8 months going to be a wastage. What other options do i have? Please suggests.


texts: Should I include derivations elaborated in other's paper in my paper's appendix?

texts:
I used results from derivations of a theoretical physics paper in my paper. Is is appropriate for me to include the derivations with a few adaption specific to my work with citations like: 'most of the derivations can be found in paper XX' or should I just cite the final result of their derivations, without writing an appendix section elaborating the derivations?

a little more to ask : is it considered plagiarism if I write down all the derivations with most of them from their paper and a few adaptions even with proper citations?


texts: European student trying to get a clear picture of US PhD system

texts:
I am born and educated in a northern European country.

After I graduate I want to continue doing research within the topics I am passionate about. Much of the research I am interested in happens in the States. So, I am trying to get a clear picture of the PhD programs in the US.

I have tried to find answers on my question online, but the university webpages something leaves me confused.  I would be very grateful if any of you can answer my questions or provide me with useful references.

Questions:

How does the application process work?
Do I apply directly to the university and the later if accepted look for a professor?
Do I have to take courses before I can start doing research despite having a master and highly relevant skills for the topic in question? And if so usually how long?
How does research funding and salary work?


texts:
I read several documents about student/staff exchange of European Union, Erasmus, but I do not fully understand how it is in practice.

When an undergraduate student go from his university to a host university, who pays the fee? Home university or host university or European Commission?

How the limits are set? Many students are interested to go to Oxford or Cambridge (generally famous university), but a few wants to go to small universities.


texts: "But in the other course this was different!" - How to react on this if the other professor did not follow the rules?

texts:
The situation

I'm a PhD student and serve as an assistant to several courses. Now, the students were complaining that some rules of our course are not good for them - there are some restriction what has to be achieved in order to participate in the final exam, e.g.

they need a certain amount of credits in their homework,
everybody who has failed that course in the years before, have the get the credits for their homework again.

You have freedom in chosing the threshold, but the rules are written in the examination regulations (I'm also a member of the that examination committee) that is not the problem.

There are some professors in my department who don't follow that rules; or (even) worse come up with some funny new rules contradicting the rules (like (you don't have to read this to answer the question)  If you have 50% of the credits until the third to last week of the semester, you are able to participate in the final exam. If you pass, you pass. If you fail, you are only allowed to participate in the repetition of the final exam if you have 50% of your credits in the last week of the semester).

The problem

Apart from them violating the rules, the problem is now that students come to my course and say: "Hey, professor XX did not have the rules last year. Why do you have them? That is so unfair! And you can have it, too! Because, nobody complained last year! Cmon, we will not tell anyone!".

As soon as I hear something like that, I complain. The problem is then: No student would tell someone things like that (exept in the mentioned case when they try to convince me to do it that way, too); the professors are sometimes not informed, but also sometimes aware of that und don't write anything on their course homepage. So nobody can find out. If you find out (probably at the end of the semester), it is too late and if you want to declare that course as not following the rules, you are only damaging the students of that course.

I was talking to the responsible persons in my department; they see the problem, but they don't want to have fights within the department and they don't to establish automatic announcements from the professors what the rules for their course are.

The question

What can I do against it? The atmosphere in my course was very bad because of that. I could go to the head of the faculty or the university who will end all that, but then I fair to be an abandoned person in my department. Also, I want not to damage students and declare their passed exams as illegal.


texts: Whether and how to thank a girlfriend or boyfriend in the acknowledgements of thesis?

texts:
How is it received by the academia if someone thanks to his/her girlfriend/boyfriend in the acknowledgements of the thesis?

I have seen writers including his/her fiancee in the acknowledgements, however I don't know if including an informal relationship in the thesis will be received well.

If it is acceptable, how should I refer to my girlfriend?


texts: What does it mean a "writing sample of recent scholarship"?

texts:
I am applying for an assistant professor position in Europe and they ask for "two writing samples of recent scholarship".
I also searched the term on Google but did not find anything useful. What does it really mean?


texts: Does it look bad to cite a single review paper repeatedly for many different things?

texts:
I am limited to a set number of pages for a research paper I am writing. One trick that I thought of was to find large 'review' papers that talk about a lot of things.

For instance:

Bubble sort [1] is a great tool for sorting.
So is merge sort [1] and also quick sort [1].
Make sure to understand the type of data you
have, because certain algorithms can take
advantage of that [1].

[1] Comparing different sorting algorithms - Peter

This is a bit of an exaggeration but - would my paper be negatively reviewed if I cited a single paper too many times? Again, I am really pressed for space.

Note: I am new to writing btw


texts: Advisor accused of personal misconduct -- what should I do?

texts:
My advisor was recently accused of personal misconduct. He says he is innocent.

I am posting here to ask what I should do. I am heavily reliant on his letter of recommendation. I will always be grateful for his support. However my fellow colleagues said that I should distance myself, as continuing to be associated with him will harm me professionally.

The university has already found him responsible for the misconduct.


texts: Master’s in computer science or free online classes?

texts:
I am currently deciding my next step in life and am pretty confused about my options. I am an English language teacher with an MSEd in TESOL and have a growing interest in both computer science and linguistics. I have been considering getting my PhD in linguistics, possibly with a focus on computational linguistics, but I also am really interested in beginning to develop applications, especially ones related to language and education (i.e. Android apps, python-based language tools, etc.).
I have little math experience, but do have some client-side programming skills (HTML, JavaScript, PHP).

So lately, I have been considering getting an MSCS (online) in order to build the requisite skills and also enhance my job prospects (a language teacher doesn't make much).
I've been looking at online programs that offer courses in AI, MT, NLP, and human-machine interaction. But, I've also been considering skipping the MSCS and doing Coursera, CodeAcademy, and other free tutorials to learn the development skills, then making some GitHub or publishable projects. I have done CodeAcademy for Python and picked it up pretty quickly. The problem with these free education sources, however, is that I lose motivation quickly. However, If I had paid for them, my motivation would be sustained because I spent the money and want to get my money's worth.

So, my vague question is: Do I do a MSCS or focus on what’s freely available, build my skills, and hope I get good enough to not need a real credential?

  Moderator’s notice: Please do not take this as a shopping question and suggest specific courses.


texts: How to find and check providers of fake Digital Object Identifier (DOI) numbers? What are the consequences of using fake DOI numbers? How can I know is DOI number actually fake?


texts: How much do you agree with Elon Musk statement that non one is going to read your publications?

texts:
I have seen a public video on youtube where Elon Musk gave his opinion about academic publications: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA_2v0d9Gzs
He stated that most academic publications are pretty much useless and no one ever reads them.
I personally relate to his point of view and understand that he was not generalizing to all research produced, but at the same time he has a valid good point.
Is Musk correct in his assessment?
Do you feel that your research is having/will have some impact in the world?
If according to some metric (to be defined) most of academic papers are useless and that nobody will ever care of your published work, then what is the point of wasting the best time of your life by pursuing an academic career where the chances of getting a permanent position are very slim?


texts: Can One Poorly Written Research Paper Derail Your Academic Future?

texts:
As mentioned in prior posts, I experienced a lot of stress and an episode of depression during my last undergraduate semester. The stress was caused by constant moving and housing insecurity for half the semester (giving me a late start on the paper) and the depression by learning of my professor being in the process of retirement/declining to be my graduate advisor. (I don't have clinical depression.)

I received an A- on a research paper in this class, but it was slipshod work, and (embarrassingly) probably one of the worst undergraduate papers ever written (written in a graduate level course no less). The worst part is that this happened with a professor I admired/loved, but from a practical standpoint, can this ruin my chances of graduate school? I've already graduated and can't afford to take more undergrad. courses. Even if I could, however, how would I get another professor to supervise my research when I've already produced poor work?

Has anyone been admitted to graduate school/succeeded in academia despite a poor research paper? For what it's worth, I'm finally rewriting it, but second chances seem rare in academia.

*I also experienced interpersonal conflict in the department, but my question is purely from an academic standpoint.

Edit- To get a better idea of the quality, here's the feedback I received on it: "Gemini, Your final paper has a clear thesis, includes and utilizes a variety of primary and secondary sources, and is organized coherently. Given that this is your first attempt at using ____ Style  formatting, I attach a short summary of how to cite footnotes and create a bibliography. If you decide to do more with this paper in the future, you also would want to provide complete citation information for every note; correct numerous misspellings; and fix other common errors throughout." She also said that I received 28/30 points--a very good result. I interpreted this latter part "a very good result" as indicating that she was lenient with the grade (which I appreciated, but I wanted to impress her).

I know how neurotic/psychotic it must sound describing an A- as one of the worst papers ever written, but this really was horrible work, especially compared to the award-winning dissertation that one of her grad. students wrote.  Although it was written during a nervous breakdown (and in around a week's time frame), the circumstances, I worry, mattered less than the results. (Everyone has a reason why their work turns out poorly, but in the end, poor work is poor work.)

*This course was in the specific sub-field/research area that I want to study in grad. school. Normally students perform their best in the favorite classes, but I didn't take the news of her retirement/absence from my life well.

I want to add that if it's unethical to share her feedback, I'll delete it. I only wanted to provide an honest assessment of the quality, and without sharing the entire paper, I wasn't sure how else to do that.

Edit- this isn't a duplicate of How does the admissions process work for Ph.D. programs in the US, particularly for weak or borderline students? because that question doesn't address research. My question was more about getting second chances after mistakes/screw ups than the admission process itself. As such, I'm asking for my post to be reopened.


texts: I submitted my own code on someone elses account

texts:
I was flagged for plagiarism on a programming assignment. We get 3 submissions a day for the ~3 weeks that the project is open. I finished my project in about 1 week, but on one of those days I used my friend's computer to submit my assignment to the autograder (so I really got 4 submissions in one day). The undergraduate Honor Council at my college found me guilty of cheating on the assignment, and I'll have to report to another Honor Council with 5 professors evaluating my case and asking me questions to determine my ultimate punishment.

In all honestly, I just submitted on my friend's account to see if it would work (I was curious if they checked on submitting on peoples' accounts who weren't in the class). I still had ~2 weeks worth of submissions when I submitted my project for the final time, so I don't really think I had an unfair advantage over my peers.

Is this really a serious offense? The undergraduate council recommended to the official council that I get a 0 on the project (I actually got 100 on it), which would put me at a <= C- in the class (which is failing) given how heavily weighted this assignment was, but this seems rather ridiculous given it was all my code.


texts: How to increase your academic network through email

texts:
I'm wanting to increase my academic network, particularly people who know me and my research. This is probably the goal of all researchers. Specifically I'm looking for ideas to do so through email.

I realize that face-to-face interactions are probably the best way to meet and network with other researchers. But conferences and symposiums are few and far between. I also realize that there are other ways, such as twitter, blogs, etc., but I've found for my field the academics tend to be on the conservative side on technology and email is the norm for communication.

A common technique is to email others when you publish, but I've found that receiving cold emails or emails on research not directly to my own to be like receiving academic spam. There must be simple ways to make introductions through email and connect on the research front without being intrusive.

Ideas?


texts: How should I approach the scholarship committee for reconsideration if they have rejected my application?

texts: I applied for a scholarship at Ecole Polytechnique in France and received a rejection early this morning. I want the committee to reconsider my application but I can't find a good enough reason apart from saying that I will not be able to attend the institution without financial support. I have been admitted to another university (HKU) with a handsome scholarship and I was wondering if informing them about this might work. Any advice about this issue would be much appreciated.


texts: What are the economic incentives for professors to hire and train graduate students?

texts:
I am a current graduate student at a research-oriented university. Nonetheless, for me, it is a big mystery why and how the professors are incentivised to recruit and train the graduate students.
In an experiment-oriented research group, graduate students are the work-force of the principal investigator, so the professors train the graduate students to conduct experiments and research so that they contribute to the research group. However, in theory-oriented research areas such as pure mathematics, theoretical computer science, and theoretical physics, in many situations, graduate students do not contribute to the professor's research. They receive training and guidance for their research career unilaterally.
It should depend on the system for each nation, but what are the designed incentives for the professors in such areas to hire and train graduate students other than volunteer service spirit? In addition, I have heard that there exists an incentive system to push the professor to let their graduate students graduate within a reasonable time. What is such a system?


texts: Mechanical Engineering undergrad aspiring to publish

texts:
I'm an undergraduate student of Mechanical Engineering, now closing my third year of studies. Throughout the years however, I've always went a bit off coursework to study and research the area. By now I have some material that I believe it could be publishable, and I would like to work towards that goal.

Although my entire research is a bit spread, I have something specific in mind that I would like to try and publish and that is a study on optimal beam profiles. My question is, which would be the best journal to submit? I researched some on Elsevier but they seemed too professional to me.

In total, what would be the best journal to try and submit work that is analytical in nature, but related to mechanical engineering?


texts: Advancement to Candidacy, PhD in Computer Science

texts:
As a PhD student in CS I will have advancement to candidacy soon.
I am looking for information which helps me on the advancement exam.
Particularly:

What does a committee expecting to hear from me?
What should I focus on during me presentation: should I tell them about work I have done or what I am planning to do?
If I need tell them what I am planning to do, then how to do that? I mean, research is vague, there is no clear guidance, and you don't know what will be in the end.

Any comments that help better understand what to expect and how to prepare are very welcome!


texts: Is there a quick way to search for a given researcher's past collaborators/co-authors?

texts:
Is there a website or software for one to search for all the past co-authors/collaborators of a given researcher?

I can of course go through the researcher's publication and get the names one by one, but just wonder if there is a shortcut way of doing this.


texts: How to make clear tasks for students about resolving paradoxes?

texts:
Question

When creating questions for coursework, exams, and similar, I sometimes want to task students with explaining counter-intuitive results or dissolving paradoxes, as I consider this is a good opportunity for them to train or showcase their understanding of the bigger picture or their skills to make an argument.

Now, a problem with just asking “Why is our intuition wrong here?” or “Solve this paradox.” is that it requires that everybody agrees upon what is intuitive or paradoxical here. A student may (quite rightfully) consider the correct result intuitive or just be happy with calculating the correct result and noticing that it is different from what intuition assumes.

Therefore I loathed such questions as a student since they strongly depend on interpretation. Can I somehow avoid this problem without dropping the respective task altogether?

Example: The Birthday Paradox

The birthday paradox is that n = 23 is the smallest number such that for a group of n people, it is more likely that two birthdays coincide than not. The number n is much lower than what most people would expect intuitively. I am seeking to ask a question that has an answer along the lines of:

  While the probability that a given member’s birthday coincides with another only grows slowly (linearly) when the group size is increased, birthdays can also coincide between newly added group members. The number of such pairings grows faster (quadratically).

Now if I ask the students: “Why is n so low?”, they could ask: “In relation to what?”. Also, they might ‘simply’ calculate n, and I could not rightfully complain that this is not what the question asked for. (Of course, correctly calculating n in this case requires including pairings between newly added nodes and hopefully grants the students the kind of insight I am aiming at. However, some may still apply some formulas blindly and this is not so obvious in more complicated examples.)


texts: Are (computer science) workshops less prestigious than conferences in general?

texts:
I am a PhD student in computer science and I have noticed that my advisor tries to avoid having me submit to workshops in my field when I bring workshops to his attention that we could submit to. He, instead, prefers to publish in a conference, journal, or IEEE/ACM magazine instead. I almost feel like he treats workshops as not prestigious enough.

The workshops I bring to his attention are all good workshops in my opinion. These workshops are IEEE and ACM workshops demanding original research papers that are about 6 pages long (conference papers in my field are usually 8 to 10 pages long). The program committees for these workshop are known people in my field and previous year's workshop papers have a 5 or 6 citations (for example), so they do get attention (but I don't know how this compares to the attention that this same paper could have gotten if it was published at a conference).

My questions are: are workshops viewed as less prestigious in general than conferences? Is there an unspoken understanding that only new, inexperienced students present their papers at workshops? Would having workshop papers in my resume somehow lower the credibility of my work?

(Apologies if the questions sound naive. I have always been unable to understand the 'prestige' of a 'co-located' workshop when juxtaposed against the conference.)


texts: Whether to add co-author who helped in modifying a journal paper based on a peer-review feedback?

texts: Should I include as co-author someone who helped me in modifying a journal paper based on a peer-review I have received?


texts: Asked to leave PhD program, is there any point in fighting to stay?

texts:
My friend (who spent 3-4 years in a PhD program, discipline in social sciences) is encountering a serious situation with his committee/advisor. They are asking him to leave the program because the committee did not approve of the dissertation proposal. Earlier last summer, my friend had re-written the topic of the proposal.

Is this common? What can he do? He's a bit reticent to inform me but it seems he's not getting the support of his adviser. Can he talk to the graduate director to request to change advisors at this point? Or should he beg the committee to let him stay and try to somehow reach a compromise with his advisor on the type of dissertation he can produce. Or should he quietly leave and not put a fight? I suspect they might make things difficult for him if he persists to stay. Or should he talk to the graduate school?


texts: How can lab equipment be transfered when the PI changes universities?

texts:
I've seen these answers:
Does equipment purchased with grants stay with the PI?
What happens to equipment purchased using a startup package after an academic leaves the university?

However, I want a little more detail on a legend that I've heard that if the new university is offering you start-up funds, then you can buy back your old stuff using the start-up funds at fair prices for used equipment. How does this get negotiated? Does this ever actually happen in practice, or is it a myth?

My lab has a lot off stuff that I've acquired over several years. Some of it I bought with start-up, some I bought with external grant funds, and some I bought with (eek!) my personal money. There are numerous things that I scavenged from other labs. Some of the stuff in my lab is old and somewhat broken (a laptop with a glitchy screen). If I were to get a position at another university, how does this stuff get sorted out?

I'm working at a US university and the new university would be in the US or Canada.


texts: Is there a service that can store and mail official transcripts from any school?

texts: I have studied at a number of schools. Most graduate programs require "transcripts from all previous schools". The last time I applied for a program, I spent a full day applying for transcript requests, as each school has different forms, Web systems, payment methods, etc. Is there a service that can hold all student transcripts and mail out official copies when one applies to a new program?


texts: Why do some universities charge an application fee?

texts:
In the high competition of admission in top universities, it is common that every applicant must send lots of applications to different universities/programs to get approval for a PhD program.

Some universities charge an application fee. Why? This hinders many potential applicants.

For a research position (research associate, postdoc, etc.), the job advertisement system encourage as many as possible applicants to send applications. This gives more flexibility to select the best candidate.

Why do universities stop potential applicants for PhD applications with an application fee?

If the application fee is US$100, charging US$10,000 for 100 applicants is nothing for a university, but sending 10 applications ($1,000) is something for a student (particularly if coming from developing countries).

WHY do Western universities charge a small application fee, which is probably one month salary of a candidate from developing countries?


texts: Can I list tentative invited talks on my CV?

texts:
I am a graduate student in mathematics currently applying for jobs in the US, mostly at small liberal arts institutions.

I have accepted an invite to give a talk at a school in mid-November.  May I list this talk on my current CV and expect people to realize that as it's dated "November 2016," it is scheduled but has yet to happen?  Do I need to mark it as tentative?  Or should I simply leave it off?


texts: Do Chinese universities accept NIOS certificate

texts:
I am a former IT (Information Technology) professional from India. I have 5 years of experience in IT.

I am planning to join an MBBS course in China or Russia. I cannot pursue this in India because it very expensive and also there an age limit (candidate has to be less than 25 years).

My main problem is - While studying PUC (Equivalent to A-levels in UK and High School diploma in US) I opted out of Biology. Since I don't have biology in PUC, I cannot pursue MBBS.

I can remedy this situation by pursuing a distance education course in Biology from NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling).

But I am afraid that Chinese/Russian universities might not accept a distance education course.

Can anyone please let me know if Chinese/Russian universities accept distance education courses for admission.

Thanks in advance.


texts: I have two very good PhD offers. Is it worth to pay 30 USD to see US N&WR rankings?

texts: I have two very good admission offers from good universities in the US, and I am having a hard time choosing between them. So much that I am starting to consider less relevant factors, such as the position of the department in the different rankings. I believe that the ranking from the US News and World Report is the most prestigious one. However, they only show the top-10 departments on my field. I would need to pay 30 USD to see the full ranking. Is it worth it?


texts: Fastest way to browse journal papers (from Web of Science)?

texts:
The search engine which I typically use to browse journal papers is WebofScience. It allows me to sort by times cited, and check out who cited what.

The problem is that to get to the actual article once I have found one I am interested in takes many clicks and loading time: 1. Click FindIt button, 2. Click a link from my library access, 3. Click view full text. 4. Maybe save the article too, and import it into my reference manager.

i.e.

Step 1)

Step 2)

Step 3)

Other options...

Previously, my fastest process was to import the a list of selected references from WebofScience that I want to check out into EndNote by clicking the 'send to EndNote button', and then clicking find full text in EndNote to batch find the texts (works about 90% of the time, otherwise I had to manually click view PDF, save to my PC and then import).

Now I have discovered that Zotero can download a reference and the PDF with a single click from my browser, but only when I am searching on Elsevier or Scitation websites directly (but cannot select multiple articles for import at once, and means that I will usually have WebofScience open in a separate window to do the searching and then ctrl-c/v the article names across).

Is there an even faster way?


texts:
I have a big decision to make in my life right now, and there seem to be three likely paths I can take.
(1) PhD in Mathematics Education
(2) PhD in Mathematics, with an Education Option
(3) PhD in Mathematics, and just taking graduate education courses as time allows.

For those who are not familiar with things like (2) describes, here are a few examples:
http://www.mathed.soe.vt.edu/Programs/MathPHD_Educationoption.html
https://www.cmich.edu/colleges/cst/math/Pages/Program-Requirements-for-Ph.D.-in-Mathematical-Sciences.aspx (II.2)
https://wmich.edu/math/academics/doctorate

I'm very much interested in both math and math education. Specifically, in math I really enjoy problems in graph theory and discrete/computational geometry. I'm finishing a master's in math this semester.
In math education, while I have completed only two graduate courses, I am completely fascinated by writing cognitively-demanding tasks, interviewing students to observe mathematical problem solving strategies and thought processes, thinking about ways of assessing mathematical understanding, and most recently preservice elementary teacher education.

But which of the three options above would be best? In the long run, I would like to be employable in a mathematics department, with the freedom to do research in math education. Further, I really need a program that is funded and includes a moderate stipend. While many math PhD programs include this financial support package, I have not seen many math education PhD programs that offer similar packages.

Please share your thoughts. Thank you in advance.


texts: Author states that he is owner of his photographs but they have been published in various journals

texts:
I'm editing a volume and I am responsible to obtain permissions for figures and photographs the authors wish to use in their respective chapters.

Now I have an author A who included several of his own photographs within his chapter which is great. My problem is that most of them have been previously published - in several different journals under several different authors (A is always among the authors). The author stated explicitly that these are his photographs but I'm not so sure. Do journals not normally claim figures along with the text and require even the authors to ask for permission to reuse "their" own content?

Does this apply only to figures or also to photographs? I checked the image caption in several of the publications and it never explicitly states "Photograph taken by A".

Do I need to obtain a permission from the copyright holder/owner of the journal? Should I just create a statement along the lines of 'Photo taken by A, previously published in A et al. 2010'? Should I make A sign a document stating that he always retained the copyright and can therefore license it for use in the present chapter? Should I contact our publisher instead of asking this on StackExchange? Probably, but you guys are much faster ;)

Context: The edited volume will be published in the U.S.A. by a STM-signatory.


texts: Is it OK to ask the graduate chair if my background is competitive?

texts: I'm planning to apply for a M.S. in some Universities at the US, and at one of those, I tried 2 times and failed (bad GRE scores). Now I reapplied, and got better results (Q:159, V:154, A:3.5), but not sure if it will put be in better shape than before. One thing I think it can be a differential is the fact I had an exchange program back at that university. Is it ok to send my grades to the graduate chair and ask if my application is competitive enough?


texts: What are the pros and cons of dealing with a very large dataset in qualitative research?

texts:
What are the pros and cons of dealing with a very large amount of qualitative data as a sole researcher?

Obviously, required time and resources come to mind, but what else?


texts: Balancing location with school/department for PhD study

texts:
I am due to start a PhD in January in a school that has a very good department for my chosen area, but unfortunately is close to my home (2 hours commute by train) and to my previous university (also 2 hours by train).
Unfortunately, I am starting to be incredibly exasperated with living in this country (UK incidentally) and in cities. It feels very incompatible with me (I like mountain climbing, forest hiking and forest wildlife, and skiing and feel I would like these to be a much bigger component of my life, rather than relegated to the occasional 2 week holiday). I also really would like to learn another language and experience different cultures.
I feel like it is taboo at this stage to say that these things are important to me, and I don't know whether I should 'suck it up' and stay with the position I have been offered, or look for PhDs where, outside of PhD work, I would get the kind of cultural and personal enrichment that is important to me.
So my question is: to what extent (and specifically at the PhD stage) should someone choose where they do their PhD based on factors like being able to experience new cultures, spend weekends hiking/in the mountains/forest/[insert your preferred environment here], learning a new language etc, rather than just look at the department and academic resources it offers.
While trying to decide what to do in my personal situation, I found myself with very conflicting messages. Some sources were advising that undergraduate is the stage at which you can go abroad for cultural enrichment, but at PhD level it shouldn't really be much of a consideration. Others suggesting that it is a high priority to go where you would feel happy, because a PhD is psychologically draining.
I guess I ask this because there are convincing arguments in either direction, and I no longer know what is valid justification (to me or anyone else) were I to choose to re-apply to different PhD programs.


texts: What is "Web of Science Author Connect" and what are the benefits of opting-in?

texts:
I am always skeptical of unsolicited emails, and I have never heard of this service.

I have received an email from the Web of Science Group offering the following because I have published an article:

Call for Papers requests from scholarly publishers
News related to your field of research
Information about journals and books in your areas of interest
New scientific applications relevant to your field of research

Has anybody used this service? It seems like a newsletter to me for than anything useful for my research, maybe the first point might be useful.


texts: Where would I report missing metadata in Crossref / Science?

texts:
I hope this isn't the wrong part of the StackExchange network to ask this; if so, please point me in the right direction :-)

I just stumbled across missing metadata in Crossref, where the initial experimental publication on Graphene (DOI link) shows only the first author (Novoselov) in Crossref's metadata, rather than the eight authors on the actual publication.

As I couldn't quickly find something like a "report error" link - does anyone know where one would generally report such an omission? Should one rather address Crossref or the "data provider" (in this case: Science)?

Update, after Anyon pointed me in the right direction :

As it turns out, there is a list of all depositors (which takes forever to load), from where one can get details for all publications controlled by a specific depositor; turns out that URL scheme includes the prefix of the DOI:

https://apps.crossref.org/myCrossref/?report=missingmetadata&datatype=j&prefix=10.1126<— right here

which makes it easer to go directly to the "Missing Metadata Report" page. This then seems to indicate that 62,901 out of 265,942 articles (i.e. nearly 25%!) from Science are apparently missing author information (if I'm reading this correct), so no big deal, I guess??


texts: What to do with seemingly fabricated data when researching a paper's citations

texts:
One particular paper (Initial) cited a website with a basic pie chart of some data (Chart), while interesting, did not contain any of the original data, only a reference, so I dug into the original paper to get more details (Paper).
Then I found out that the original Paper had no such data at all. I'm not even sure how the numbers came about. It seems like the Chart author was interpreting the Paper's research, and basically created a new chart while citing the Paper as the "source", but that actual chart nor data exists on Paper at all.
The Chart is useful, but it seems to be, at minimum, interpreted, if not outright fabricated. I've decided that particular chart, although had useful information, is not true and I should not use it in my paper.
However, what exactly do I do with the knowledge that the chart seems to be fabricated? And what about the Initial paper that cites this chart?


texts: Loss of motivation to do either academia or industry. Wasting days and feeling lost. Any advice?

texts:
I have submitted my STEM PhD thesis to the committee. If everything goes well, my defense will be done by the end of the year. I published 2 papers during my 5 years of PhD, few more to be submitted.

I had applied to few industrial positions a while back, got rejections.
I am feeling unmotivated and lost now. I don't feel like searching for postdoc or industrial positions. I am 31 years old.

I have few pending projects that I should be doing, but I am feeling hopeless and dumb. I am taking this time to study and revise the theoretical concepts from my masters and undergraduate. I should be honing my programming skills. But the more I study, more I am feeling incompetent and lost.

I am literally wasting my time. It's already been over a month since I have not worked. I have just edited my manuscripts, watched some MOOCs. I watch movies or just sleep most of the day. I feel uncertain and uncomfortable about my future. Any advice for me?


texts: How does the statement of purpose of students help professors to write letters of recommendation for graduate school application in U.S.?

texts:
Usually, professors need to see students' statement of purpose before they write letters of recommendation for them. However,

(1) The most important part of LoRs is the comparison of the applicant with their classmates/peer, which is normally not shown in the statement of purpose.

(2) Professors often talk about students' strengths in LoRs, but they are not supposed to use the strengths mentioned(or boasted of) in the students' statement of purpose when the strengths are unknown to professors before they see the statement of purpose.

(3) Professors may want to know students' experiences, interests and plans for future. But such things are already mentioned in students' statement of purpose and they don't have to repeat them again in the letters of recommendation(professors are not supposed to know students experiences, interests and plans for future better than students themselves, right?).

So my question is, given (1), (2) and (3), why do professors need to look at students' statement of purpose at all when they write LoRs for them? How does the statement of purpose help professors to write letters of recommendation?


texts: Should I include all relative publications in my manuscript?

texts:
I am a PhD candidate and when i'm writing a manuscript for a conference or journal i have the same question. Let's say my manuscript is about a topic A.
When i'm doing my bibliographic research i find lets say 30 papers (or more) relative to the topic A. Should i do exhaustive reference of all of them in my manuscript or i am OK if i mentioned the most important of them or the most representative that proves my point? I have a feel i should include everything but maybe its a thing of my OCDish personality, because it doesn't seem every paper add something so different from another (at least from my manuscript point of view).


texts: Should I explain how I identified a relevant supervisor in my SOP?

texts:
I spent time reading a professor's papers, and I developed an idea about how to expand the professor's work. I told the professor this and got the professor's approval. Now the next job is to persuade the admission committee (adcom).
Should I tell the adcom about how I found the professor while writing my SOP (statement of purpose)? I don't see a problem with it. I would be happy if a stranger told me how they found me. So I wrote about it the first time I contacted the professor. However, the adcom is not the professor, and I'm not sure if they care or not. I think that they only care about the benefit that I will bring to the department, as well as the approval of the professor. How I reach them is not important.
But I don't have any reason to remove that part, right? At best, it will show how hard I worked to reach them. At worst, there will be nothing to lose.
My draft is as follows:

I have read some of the most recent and commonly cited papers of Professor X, starting with Paper 1 written in 2014. Among the introduced methods, I found the Method the most interesting prompting further study. I then focused on Paper 2, written with Y. Its introduction on Quanta Magazine gave me a great insight into the Method. However, there are known limitations that Prof X is keen to discern. For example, when the system undergoes rapid changes the method breaks down, the reason for this remains unclear.
My hypothesis is that the changing of the system might suggest that... (this paragraph is for showing my idea to expand the work)

A minor question: should I include this in the email to professors too? Why or why not?


texts: What to expect as a supervisor's first PhD student?

texts:
Very much as the title states; what should I expect being my supervisor's first PhD student?

I understand that there are likely both pros and cons to this - however I'm looking to hear the experience of others, and how this compares to experience of those who have had a supervisor with previous students.


texts: Do US universities validate your degree before making an offer?

texts:
I have received a verbal offer for a faculty position in the US. This was 3 weeks ago when the chair of the search committee called me to tell me the good news in addition to offered salary, etc.

As of today I'm still waiting to receive anything in writing and, upon asking, I was told that they cannot send me the written offer until they have validated my degree, which they said might take an unknown amount of time. (Note that I've obtained my doctorate from a French University that has been around for 500 years and is accredited on all continents.)

I noticed on the department's website that there are still seminars being scheduled that may or may not be talks by faculty candidates. Meanwhile I have turned down another offer and I'm beginning to get a little stressed about the uncertainty.

Thus my questions:

1. Is the above the normal process for hiring people with non-US degrees?

2. Is there anything I can do to reduce the uncertainty?


texts: Professor won't give full credit for correct homework question

texts:
After a completed homework assignment, I was surprised to see that a question that I was certain that I answered correctly was marked as incorrect. When reviewing the question, I explained why my answer should be correct, and the professor hesitantly agreed to give students who answered the same (multiple choice) credit for the problem.

I sent him a reminder email to give credit for the problem, but he emailed be back saying that he only gave 50% credit for that particular answer to that question, and 50% for a similar answer to a separate question that depended on the same logic.

I am of the opinion that my answer deserves full credit. Is it worth bringing up to him again over a small amount of points?


texts: Number of Funded PhD Positions available to applicants

texts:
How can one find out how many funded PhD openings there are at a particular university in a particular discipline?

For example, MIT might have openings for 2,000 PhD students in all disciplines.  1,000 of these positions might be in the field of engineering.  But only 5 of positions might involve bioengineering.  And of these 5 positions, 4 might already be filled by PhD candidates in their second year of study; meaning only 1 position is available to applicants.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.


texts: A journal published my paper without finalizing the proofs -- is this normal?

texts:
The title says it all.  The journal published my paper without sending me the final proofs beforehand.  I didn't even find out that the paper had been finally published from the journal; I found out from an ORCID update.  With other journals, I always got a final look to make sure the edits were done correctly, but that step was missing here.

Is this normal?  I'm quite perturbed, because the copy-editors had made lots of inappropriate edits, and I wanted to double check that they had fixed everything before the paper went live.

The publisher is Wiley (which I don't have experience with).


texts: Must I credit others' published research when using it in a proprietary product, if doing so would be bad for business?

texts:
If a company was building a product that uses methods designed and outlined in a published research paper, should credit be given? If crediting them would be a bad business decision, is it OK not to?

I am building a product that builds on research published by a university research group. The research outlines a quicker, cheaper and more efficient method of doing something that usually can cost much more. So it is basically just a small part of my overall project, although it allows me to cut costs drastically. The method is not patented, and the group most likely does not plan on getting a patent as they make it clear that their research is in no way related to any company or products.

I do believe in giving credit where due, but publicly disclosing the research method that is allowing me to cut costs and release an existing product a lot cheaper than competitors would be shooting myself in the foot.

My original idea was to make the hardware opensource, and then just sell prebuilt versions for a good price, although after seeing what is going on in the 3D printing industry - like MakerBot filing patents on their 3D printer and scanning - I am not sure if it is a good idea.

So without opensourcing the hardware, it puts me in a difficult situation. I would like to credit the researchers, but doing so would be a bad business decision. Would it be considered acceptable practice to use their method without crediting them?


texts: How effective is it to fund a researcher as opposed to a research idea?

texts:
As I understand the funding model, it's generally the funder solicits research proposals, then choose those they find the most interesting/promising. The researcher who wrote the funding application then goes and does the research with the money. In other words, the funder mostly assesses the research idea, not so much the researcher.

Can the funder use a different model where they assess the researcher (not the researcher's ideas), give those they find the most qualified/promising a large sum of money, and let them do whatever they want? How effective would this be relative to the traditional model?


texts: Minor contribution to software publication: To coauthor or not to coauthor?

texts:
I've been invited to be a coauthor on a software publication for an open source program where I contributed a minor bugfix.

My contribution was small, and I certainly wouldn't have been offended if I hadn't been included in the author list. But they've chosen to invite all contributors, and I'm trying to figure out whether I should accept.

On one hand, I could do with a bump to my paper count (post-doc looking for TT), and this is a project I'm proud to have contributed to. (I've joked that in code-multiplied-by-computers, my 2-line contribution to this takes more drive space in the world than my 10000-line domain-specific program).

On the other hand, I wouldn't have invited me as a coauthor. Also, I feel weird that a paper with such a minor contribution may end up near the top of my most-cited, and I'm not sure how that will appear to the job market.

Is there a downside to joining the author list for such a minor contribution?

Is it unethical to benefit from someone else's bar for coauthorship being much lower than mine?

(Looking at other invited coauthors, I see some people with similar contributions going either way; yes or no.)


texts: How enforceable is a payment penalty when a professor chooses to leave a university early?

texts: My current university has a clause in our contracts that states that we have to pay a percentage of our annual salary if we terminate the contract early.  The percentage is quite large and I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this or knows how enforceable that payment is.  Could it be paid in installments?


texts: IEEE and ACM gives very different results

texts:
Me and my colleague are conducting a literature search that will be used to argue about an experiment. We've just started our SLR and noticed that ACM and IEEE gives very different results.

When searching for "java AND jax+rs", ACM gives 26 hits while IEEE gives 18577 hits when searching for "java AND jax+rs". The term "java AND jersey" gives 25 hits at ACM and 701 hits at IEEE. In other searches, such as "auth AND oauth*", ACM gives 62 hits while IEEE gives 65 hits.

We are using the same filters in both searches (limit to journals and proceedings, all years, metadata only). When searching at ACM we limit the publisher to ACM only, and at IEEE we limit publisher to IEEE.

Are these types of results usual? I understand that they are different publishers and thus publishes different papers but these results seem off.