texts: Conducting exams in which a computer (but no internet) is available

texts:
In my institution, we have various lab exams in which part of the exam is completing a programming task, and a computer is available to each student for this purpose.

There are there various ways to submit the exercise then: for instance, files can be submitted through a dedicated web service (elegant and easy to use, but it needs to be coded by hand and the grading is more complicated if there is also a pen-and-paper part to match), or the student is asked to copy the program/function on paper (tedious, but simple to implement).

Clearly, in this exam format it would be desirable to limit access to the internet, to reduce the possibilities to cheat and (in exams where this is forbidden) look up external information. This task seems complicated because

some network access is necessary for the computer infrastructure to work (for instance, network logon)
some programs may require additional network access: for instance, Matlab campus installations usually require access to a "license server" installed on a university-controlled machine
the exam itself may also require the network somehow: for instance, to download test files, or for the interface to submit exercises mentioned above.

My experience is that IT administrators are reluctant to provide something like this, and that the result is quite error-prone: limiting the network access is tricky to do, it often fails and usually it leaves room for loopholes (for instance, the students can still chat to each other with netcat). Ideally, a fully locked-down "exam mode" would also have some more features, like forbidding access to USB sticks, but this also must be implemented by hand.

With this premise, my questions are:

Is this way of conducting exams common also in other institutions/university systems/nations? Is it inherently bad, or does it have some pitfalls that I have overlooked?
Is there an easy way to implement a "locked-down exam mode" on a computer (with either of Windows, Mac, and Linux, or rather, possibly, all of them) by using standard products? Are they effective, or are they easy to circumvent? Or does everyone roll their own hand-crafted solution? Some operating systems ofter "guest modes", which are a good starting point, but some more configuration is needed.
Is it normal for us teachers to ask the IT service to hack together something to implement this mode? Are there any technology suggestions that we can give them to make it more effective?
Should I (as an instructor) expect this "locked down exam mode", once implemented, to work seamlessly out-of-the-box, or is it something that is inherently clunky and error-prone?


texts:
I've recently been the subject of bullying by a group of students. I taught a difficult module alongside another module, which was taught by somebody else. The other module was much easier and offered huge amounts of support. Students described having their hands held in this module. One student told me that this module felt like students were being treated as newbies, whereas my module felt like they were being treated as second year students at a Russell Group university. The university where I work is more teaching focused.

Having heard feedback from students, I think that the tasks I set them were quite challenging, and I don't think they were used to it. I'm still adjusting to the level that the students are operating at in this university, and were I to I teach in the module again, I would adjust the level.

However, the main issue is that students posted rude, personal and abusive feedback in the module evaluations and also posted nasty comments on the module forum. I also got nasty emails from some students, and although I passed this up to management, nothing was done and I was left to deal with this alone.

It has affected my self esteem and my confidence as a lecturer. I've always had plenty of good feedback before and I've always felt competent in my role. I don't know if I have any rights in terms of being bullied by students, but one student has just told me that there is a Facebook group where I was being slated and there were really personal comments. The student I spoke to today described it as a bit of a hate group, directed at me. One student even copied an email that I had sent her (a photograph of it) and posted it on a Facebook group. I'm not sure if this contravenes any confidentiality regulations.

Anyway, I just wondered if anyone else had experienced this and if anyone had any advice. I've been teaching for 10 years and I was on the verge of quitting my job, and I don't feel like I can easily face teaching these students again. On a personal level, I see it as an opportunity to develop greater resilience, but I can't help the fact that it really feels undermining and threatening to be in this situation.

Any advice or support would be appreciated.


texts: Unresponsive supervisor blocks submission to conference

texts:
For context, I'm a software development professional, with 17 years in the trade. I studied towards a bachelor between until 2000, but never submitted my bachelor's thesis, as I was hired by a company and, ... reasons. If you are old enough to remember the rush around the turn of the millennium, you will know.

Anyway, I have now made a bachelor's thesis and got it approved. To my surprise, I found that the study I made hasn't been made before, and as a consequence, the results are not trivial, and may have a bearing on a current debate in my field. (In my professional field, that is, not in academia.)

The bachelor's thesis is my own work, meaning that I formulated the problem, I designed and conducted the experiments, I collected all the data, and I made all of the analysis. My supervisor approved my plan, and proofread the thesis, but did not make any scientific contribution to it.

I've rewritten my bachelor's thesis to an article or a conference submission, taking out the most relevant parts. As I understand it, my supervisor should be considered a co-author here - is that correct?

The thing is, I sent it to my supervisor for comments, and he promised to look at it, but then I haven't heard from him in several months, and he does not reply to my attempts to contact him.

I realize this site can't answer questions about how to approach a specific person. What I would like to know is what my options are.

Can I remove him as a co-author from the article, even though he supervised the bachelor's thesis?
If not - how much do I have to change to be able to do that? Do I have to make a new study?
Can I submit it, with him as co-author, without his expressed approval?
Is there anything else I can do to raise the awareness of my study without his prior expressed approval?


texts: How to prepare for being a TA (Teaching Assistant)?

texts:
I start my graduate program next week, which includes spending some of my time as a Teaching Assistant. It is my least favorite part of job, and I do not want to teach in my career after that. I don't want to become professor but get a job in a company.

Nobody told me how to teach and I don't even know what classes I have. I have little time to prepare, and probably don't know the professor (professors?) well. So what can I do to prepare, until I know what courses I have and can go over the material? I'm quite scared right now.


texts: How to write a reference request for a candidate that I see unfit for the application?

texts:
This question is a bit different from this question: What to do if asked to write a letter of recommendation for a weak candidate?

Instead of not knowing the student well enough, I know the student too well that I think he is not a suitable candidate. I have a good relationship with the student, it is just that I know I cannot comment highly on this application as he lack one skill that is particularly important for that post... I have suggested to him to try something else but he seems to be very keen in applying for the post. I cannot turn down his request because he said he could not find anyone else (He need 3 references) I never read a poor reference before; how honest usually are people in writing them?

(He is not a bad student, and I have written him a good reference on another application before, so I do not want to write him a poor reference...)


texts: I am a PhD student at the final year and I received a request from a well known journal (impact factor 1.6). I have published only conference papers. Is it normal to receive such a request? Or am I lucky?


texts: Normalizing other people's data on number of significant figures

texts:
I am presenting a table in my paper which summarizes and compares data from other papers. I'd like the data to be presented uniformly, with the same number of significant figures for all data. However, some of the cited papers have more significant figures in their data than others.

Here's an example: instead of presenting the table below:

    | Smith, J.    | Doe, J.    | Anon, Y.       | My data    |
|---|--------------|------------|----------------|------------|
| X | 1.42+- 0.31  | 1.3 +- 0.1 | 1.314 +- 0.287 | 1.4 +- 0.2 |
| Y | 1.43 +- 0.10 | 1.4 +- 0.2 | 1.421 +- 0.234 | 1.5 +- 0.3 |

I'd like to normalize the number of significant figures to make it easier to compare them:

    | Smith, J.  | Doe, J.    | Anon, Y.   | My data    |
|---|------------|------------|------------|------------|
| X | 1.4 +- 0.3 | 1.3 +- 0.1 | 1.3 +- 0.3 | 1.4 +- 0.2 |
| Y | 1.4 +- 0.1 | 1.4 +- 0.2 | 1.4 +- 0.2 | 1.5 +- 0.3 |

Can I (or should I) remove significant figures from their data, for consistency purposes? If so, can I still use the expression reproduced from Smith, J., or should I use something as adapted from Smith, J.?


texts: Workshop submission by a first year student, does it count?

texts:
I have asked earlier this question in that post Submitting Workshop Proposal by A first Year PhD student

I asked my supervisor and he is okay, but I was astonished that he told me that I have to take permission from the head of the department, in general, he didn't give me a bit of useful advice.

To have a paper it requires time since I am working with collaborative groups, I cannot publish yet and I want to be engaged more in scientific activities.

My question now: Does it count to a first-year Ph.D. student to submit a workshop proposal ( I am going to have other professors, however, I will be in charge of all the logistics)

I don't know whether it could be wise to invest time in submitting a workshop proposal.


texts: Is it wise to choose a better journal with lesser number of similar papers?

texts:
I need to choose between two journals for my article. Both candidates are, in principle, suitable for the topic. One of them has a (considerably) larger number of articles similar to mine but the other one is a better journal in my opinion. The first one is a journal of both research articles and educational articles. Whereas the second one is a journal of purely new research.

My article is about the re-derivation of a very well-known result using fewer axioms. Thus, it is new research but might be more appreciated by a community engaged in both research and education. So, I am confused as to which one to choose. Personally, if both the journals were ready to accept my article, then I would choose the second one (the one with only research articles) for its more serious tone and thus, for the possibility of my article getting more serious attention.

But I think I need to make a choice incorporating the chances of acceptance as well.


texts: Working in two research lab at the same time – unethical?

texts:
Is it unethical to work for two professors (two seperate research lab in two non-related fields) at the same time? I am an undergrad student currently working for professor A in a full-time research assistant co-op job. On the other hand, I volunteer using my spare time working for another research lab in an almost unrelated field. Professor A doesn’t know about this.

So my question is, is it unehtical for me to do this?

I ask because my friends warned me not to do this. On the other hand, I don’t think it is too much of issue since I am not stealling data or anything from anyone and, more importantly, they are in two different unrelated fields.

Similiar question is asked here, but I am asking from an ethical perspective.


texts: How to express appreciation for an offer of science research funding

texts:
What is an acceptable way to state that you are very happy to have been offered funding for a research proposal?

"I am honored to have this offer of funding for my research"
"I am grateful for this offer..."
etc

Neither of those sound right to me -- research funding is about having a sound and interesting proposal, so feeling honored or grateful doesn't ring true to me.  I've been wondering this for a while but I now have a research fellowship offer I need to decline (already took an earlier offer) so I want to make sure my declination does not sound unappreciative.

I know this issue may seem simple or pedestrian to some, but I'd like to know how most would reply to know I'm meeting the expectations of program officers, etc.

Thanks!


texts: How long does it typically take for Chinese universities to accept or reject applicants?

texts:
How many days does it normally take to receive an admission letter after applying to a university in China?

I am a student from Bangladesh.


texts: What are the pros and cons of laptops in a classroom?

texts:
I simply could not pay attention in a lecture if I brought in a laptop. I always take notes by hand, especially since that's supposed to be better for learning.

A professor of mine stated that laptops are distracting to other students and moved them all to the left part of the lecture hall.

I'm curious, what are the pros and cons of using laptops in a lecture, from both a note taking and teaching perspective?

I would like to teach someday and I can see myself banning laptops (I also hate the typing noise but that's just me).


texts: Should an undergraduate summer research project be put under "employment history"?

texts:
I am currently filling out an application for gradute study, which includes a section on employment history.

During my time as an undergraduate, I carried out two summer research projects in pure maths. One of them was based at my home institution, for which I obtained a monthly stipend from an outside organisation (a research bursary). For the second project, I was on the payroll of the university at which the project was based.

The application asks for details of "work experience, internships or volunteer work". Do either of these count?


texts: If I won 3rd place or an honorable mention for Award X. Is it reasonable to simply state the name of the award without stating what place I got?


texts: What are the benefits of taking textbook notes?

texts: Taking notes based on the textbook obviously helps to organize and summarize info in the textbook. But if I highlighted the most important areas of the textbook, and while revising I only look at these parts, won't it have the same effect as taking textbook notes (as far as summarizing goes)? Ultimately my question is, for students who have achieved good grades by taking textbook notes, what are the benefits of doing it and why is it better than just reading the important parts of the textbook?


texts: Does it make sense to "pause" an academic career so that I can pursue financial independence and self-fund my research?

texts:
I graduated with a bachelor’s in the humanities last year. I would have preferred to continue studying, but I don’t have the money, and I have found very few opportunities for full funding where I live (in the EU). I’m originally from the States.
I work in IT, and given how the wages are at present, if I buckle down and exclusively focus on work, I could probably save up enough in 5-6 years that I could live completely off of conservative investments (index funds). I would work at a US company (where wages are high) and live in central Europe (where costs are low).
My question is: from an academic point of view, does it seem reasonable that the benefits of self-funding my research would outweigh the disadvantages of delaying my career by at least 5 years?
For the purposes of this question, please assume that my financial assumptions are realistic. I realize I will need to do my due diligence there.
More details / clarifications:

The plan would be to attend graduate school in Europe after achieving financial independence, and then self-fund independent research after that. By "self-fund," I mostly mean paying my living expenses; my field does not require expensive equipment, travel, etc.
My concern is that at 30, my motivation and ability to re-enter academia will be much less than it is now, both because I’ll be older and because I will have spent all of my youthful energy on non-academic work. Obviously, 30 is young, but still, I’ve been warned that motivation and capacity to learn really decreases from one’s 20s.
I think one advantage of this idea is independence. I am in the humanities and have a far-left persuasion. I've heard that junior faculty have to research what their seniors want to see, rather than what they’re interested in. I recognize the need to consult senior colleagues., but having to censor myself would defeat the purpose of doing research in the first place, for me.
It seems to me that academics have to waste time and give up autonomy in order to get grants. I could avoid all of this by self-funding.
It's unfortunate that my IT work (which requires study and effort) has no overlap with my research interests. So, I would have to put research completely on hold until saving enough money, and then would never use my IT knowledge again.


texts: Etiquette for undergraduate research and job search

texts:
I am an undergraduate currently conducting research in a physics research group at my university. I really enjoy the group and am planning to stay with them during my next few years here.

However, as an undergrad, I would like to explore many possible career paths. This summer, I'm looking to apply to a few industry positions that would have me performing very similar research (as an intern).

My question: Is this "proper etiquette" in academia? Is it okay to apply to other similar research positions that are possibly competing with the group, as an undergrad?

I honestly am not sure. I know outside of academia it would be perfectly okay for an undergrad to apply to other jobs, as we are expected to figure out what we want to do for a career. But in research, what's the right thing to do?


texts:
I am currently filling out an application for a lecturer position in the UK, which includes a section on employment history.

Previously I was employed at a Russian university where my official job title was an engineer. However, the work that I did correspond more to a research assistant. The problem is that in Russia you need to be a PhD and go through an official selection procedure (that means for an organisation to open position, to select a pool of candidates, etc.) to get a research assistant position. So usually if your professor gets a grant, he/she usually tries to hire you on a less "complex" position from a bureaucratic point of view (especially if you are not a PhD).

Obviously, I don't want to describe all this country-specific stuff in my application. How do you think, is it OK to put a job title "research assistant" in the application? Are the universities likely to verify this information?


texts: How to get the PDF of a hard-to-find paper?

texts:
I'm finding this paper: Adobe Camera Model.

It's the second result in Google Scholar:
the result of Google Scholar

That's it, without any linkings.

And I searched Tech. rep., Adobe, Adobe Technical Reports in Google, but get nothing useful.

I also tried the names of the authors.

What are the common methods to find the PDFs of such papers?


texts: Are professors allowed to accuse someone of cheating based on a general increase in test scores?

texts:
Let’s say a professor has seen that the average score for the midterm exam was a grade and a half higher than it was in previous years. Because of this he gained a reasonable suspicion of cheating (he has been teaching the course for several years in the same way and this is the first time he has received such high scores). He looked at the score distributions and found it to be bimodal:

He went on to assume that, since this distribution wasn’t like his normal distribution he had received on his test scores in previous years, one third of all his students cheated on the mid-term.

Now here comes the question, is it ethical and reasonable to assume that one third of the people in his class were cheating? Maybe the distributions were different and bimodial because some students studied harder (causing peak at better scores), while others didn’t (peak at lower scores). Are professors allowed to make everyone retake the test because of this data (even the ones who took it honestly). This punishment seems like he is punishing the supposed two thirds of the class that took it honestly.

The professor goes on to claim that those students who had significantly higher scores than in their previous test must have cheated! Are professors allowed to that? What if they got a bad score on the previous test because they didn’t study and they got a good score on the mid-term because they did study? Also what if a student has a good score on the previous test and the mid-term because he cheated on both? Or what if the student was honest and received a good score on both test because he is a hard working student? So my question, Is it normal practice and ethical for professors to accuse someone of cheating just by looking at the student’s test scores?

PS: This didn't happen to me. I just heard about it from a friend.


texts: Summer research opportunities for undergraduates

texts:
I am an American citizen but I am doing my undegraduate studies in math/physics in France. I am looking for a way to get some research experience this summer. My ultimate goal is to return to the US for graduate studies in physics, and it appears that research experience is a de facto requirement for admission to top programs.

It seems that in Europe summer research programs are not as popular as in the US, where the NSF funds the well-known REU program.

Unfortunately, the acadameic year at my school ends well after most REU programs begin. My school also does not offer research opportunites until the 3rd year, after the grad school application deadlines.

Are there any other options someone in my position might explore?


texts: Online courses in standard university curriculums

texts: Does anyone know examples where online courses (or other similar eLearning methods) are currently used effectively in the curriculum of a university?


texts: What to do when professor agrees to send a recommendation letter but does not send it and does not answer emails?

texts:
I asked my professor to give me recommendation letter and he agreed to that.
However, he has not sent it for my application yet. He is not even answering my emails since 3 months.(I am sure he is alive!)
I paid the application fee of the destination university and they always send me emails asking about completing my application.

what's going on?
What should I do ?


texts: Should an assistant professor negotiate for a larger yearly raise before receiving tenure?

texts:
At my university, we are informed of our yearly raise with a letter mid-summer. There is no scheduled meetings with the chair or anyone else to discuss performance or the raise -- as far as I can tell, we just wait and see what it is. It tends to be a small cost-of-living raise in the range of 3%.

Should a pre-tenure assistant professor actively seek to meet with the chair and ask/negotiate for a larger raise, or is this not done in academia?


texts: What motivates researchers in industry to publish their results?

texts:
Are there any references which discuss why researchers in industry publish their findings? For example, they might be motivated/required to publish as condition of some grants, to promote some product/firm, or to contribute to public knowledge.

I am mostly interested in the field of computer science > machine learning / NLP / data mining, in English-speaking venues and in the USA.

It would be ideal if there were any studies that looked at those reasons directly, but I am also interested in answers supported by experience. I am especially interested in trying to rank those reasons (e.g. 30% of papers were published due to grant conditions, 50% for lab/researcher's credibility, 40% for the firm's visibility, etc.) or at least have a sense of what the main motivations are, and which potential motivations play only a minor role in the publication intent.


texts: How to reference a summary instead of the original sources?

texts:
I always get confused about this when referencing.

Example:

I am writing the Literature Review of my research on AI. I started with the history of AI.

I am reading a paper submitted by a university student online. The paper talks about Dr Turing's role and the Turing Test.

It also summarizes findings collected from different sources into one sentence. I would like to talk about that summary, rather than having to go back to 3 different sources for the original text. What is the right way to reference this? Is it the student's paper or the three original works?

Thank you,


texts:
I was recently assigned a research mentor in my Master's program who also happens to be my professor (in a quantitative economics course). We've had a  brief meeting to introduce ourselves, and I made it clear that I'm very interested in his research subject; needless to say, I want to impress this professor.

I just took the exam for his course which accounts for roughly my entire grade, and I did terribly. I studied a ton, but apparently focused on the wrong topics. At this point, I am wondering if I should somehow reach out to the professor basically telling him my thoughts of the exam, or if I should simply wait to hear from him, and if I don't hear from him, simply not say anything. He'll be my research mentor for the next year on this subject, so it almost feels like there is now an elephant in the room.
Would you recommend reaching out to the professor preemptively?


texts: I would like to continue with my academic path but, the last year, I've been conducting mainly research activity with no teaching assignments. I would like to build up my portfolio to gain some teaching experience eventually thinking for a Lecturer/Assistant Professor position but, on the other hand, I would not like to hamper my outward mobility and compromise my research output. What would you suggest?


texts: How to complain about an abusive editor?

texts:
It is well known in my field that a particular good journal has an editor-in-chief that frequently asks authors to cite a particular (largely unrelated) paper whenever he has the chance.

Looking at google scholars citations of this particular paper, you can notice that it has a large amount of citations from this particular journal. Reading the papers you can almost see the struggle of the authors trying to cite an unrelated paper.

This has been going on for years.

What can I do to try to stop this? I frequently avoid submitting to this journal due to this issue.


texts: Is there a citation network crawler [tool] for building a bibliography?

texts:
Is there a service/software where I can feed a bibliography, say in BibTex format, and I get all “Cited By” references as a response? In other words, is there an automated “Cited By” crawler?

Background:

I'm currently hunting down case reports about a rare disease, because I need more cases for a dataset (yes, about medicine).

At the moment, I am filling up my Zotero Library by manually walking through Google Scholar's "Cited By" feature. The first day of doing so was expectedly productive. Within a few hours, the article count went up very fast. But right now, each "Cited By" page yields one or two new articles and I have about 114 articles to go. That, in itself is great, because it tells me that I might have visited most articles within the citation network. However, towards this end, I need double-check for duplicates all the time and it's very time consuming. I find myself scrolling through entries, or searching, checking whether I might already have added a paper, or not.

This is so tedious.

The very reason to continue simply is the occasional discovery of a new cluster of case reports that were not referenced by the previous one—and I really need a larger number of cases for the analysis.

I wonder whether I should stop here and look at — Mendeley — PubMed etc.

but I'm not sure whether this would cut time or assure the coverage of most of the citation networks.

Suggestions, very welcomed.


texts: Publishing a second paper which is an extension of the first paper- same methodology, problem formulation and literature review

texts:
I have submitted a manuscript to a journal and it is currently under review. I have also written a second manuscript which is essentially an extension of the first manuscript. The first manuscript mainly deals with establishing baseline behavior while the second manuscript deals with expanding the results of the first paper by considering additional conditions. The problem formulation, literature review and solution methodology are the same with only minor changes.

In such a situation, should one rewrite these sections or paraphrase from the first paper? The results and discussion stand on their own. Since I am working full time in the industry now, I am not aware of how I should deal with this. My advisor from my Master's degree is not helpful. Is there any advantage to submitting the second manuscript to the same journal?

For reference, the manuscripts related to deals with numerical simulations.


texts:
I have been asked for an selection interview by a Professor in Australia for Ph.D. position (cancer research group). This position is really important for me so I want to give my best. Can anyone suggest some tips or share his experience of success or failure so that I can get an idea how to prepare myself.
Thanks a lot.


texts:
I am an undergraduate student currently working in a co-op position at a company in my field. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to be the lead author on a paper based on the research I performed here, and I have a couple of questions regarding what I can do with this information.

I would like to publish it while also making it as visible as possible (partly because I consider myself a proponent of open sharing of information, but also because I'd like to refer future potential employers to it and it would be easier if it were not behind a paywall). I understand that some journals have open access options, but these tend to be quite expensive. What options do I have for publishing in an open way without expensive costs (ideally no cost, since my company has made it clear that they will not financially support publication)?

I understand that one solution to this could be putting it on ArXiv. However, since ArXiv is not a journal, would it be considered incorrect or misleading to call my paper a publication if I were to post it there?

My last question is with regards to contact information in papers. Since I will be leaving the company in a few months, I would like to be able to put an email address in the contact information for the paper that will still be active for a long time. Is it frowned upon or does it look bad if I use my personal Gmail account for contact information?

Thank you for all your help!


texts: Should one stick to their expertise/experience area post PhD?

texts:
I am currently writing my Mechanical engineering PhD thesis. My research was based on modeling a 3D printing process. The work was interesting but I feel that there's not much rigoresness in the modeling aspect of the work. I tried to think differently from existing published works by other researchers, but still the inherent problems with the actual process makes it hard to develop an accurate model using current theories and modeling techniques.

Thus, I want to explore different topics post PhD. However, on discussing my future career with her, she advised that I should stick with my area of expertise/experience and should also pursue similar endeavours during post doctoral research. According to her, that would make you stand out as an expert in the modeling aspect of the field.

I don't know what should I do? Should I deviate from the PhD research area post graduation or should I listen to my advisor and stick to my 'less rigorous' area of expertise? I would eventually like to stay in academia.


texts: How bad is it to put the wrong details in a cover letter?

texts:
When applying for academic jobs, it is common to apply to multiple positions and use essentially the same cover letter for all the applications. The danger is that you might forget to change some of the details from one cover letter to the next. I realized that I have done this recently. How bad is it? Specifically, I applied to a call in area X by saying I'm applying to area Y. (Thankfully, I got the name of the university right. And X and Y are not very different.)

Perhaps someone who has experience on hiring committees can tell me how much of a detriment it is to an application to have the wrong details in a cover letter. I assume this is a reasonably common mistake that is largely overlooked, but it gives the wrong first impression.


texts: How to encourage administration to handle plagiarism?

texts:
I obtained my PhD about five years ago and immediately took up a postdoctoral position at a national lab in Japan to continue my research in computer engineering.

Over those five years I worked with the person who is now my supervisor, and trusted him in the same way I would trust any ordinary person, only to learn (too late!) that my trust was misplaced.

After working on a large project of his for about two full-time years, he forced
me to "leave the project". Now that the large project is nearing completion, I have since discovered that he has started to present my ideas and my work as his own.

The administration vacillates between feigning ignorance and admitting there is a problem but then claiming that they are powerless to do anything about it.

What can I do? What should I do - and why?


texts:
Everyone grows old, grow less dexterous and energetic, lose cognitive ability, and so on. In most jobs these don't matter that much since one doesn't need to be the best, and "good enough" is good enough. However, academia is unique because it lives and dies on ideas. Without ideas, there is no funding proposal, and with no funding proposal, there is no money, no students, and no job.

This sounds like a very difficult situation for academics: they grow less and less able to come up with good ideas, but still have to compete with the legion of younger researchers at the peak of their mental capabilities all coming up with ideas. Furthermore, younger researchers are also in better shape physically, and can put more energy into their work.

How do academics deal with growing old in a job where growing old directly impacts one's ability to perform?


texts: Re-analyzed my dissertation work, how should I explain this in a cover letter to a journal editor?

texts:
I graduated recently, and I am trying to get some journal publications out of my dissertation.
Unfortunately, I just found out that changing inclusion/exclusion criteria and statistical analysis would improve the quality of my study. So I re-analyzed the data with the revised methods and statistical analysis.

The number of included subjects decreased a bit. The results did not change dramatically, and qualitatively the same.

My question is...now how should I explain this to a journal editor in a cover letter?  The numbers in the results won't be the same as the ones in my dissertation.  The methods and statistical analyses are not exactly the same, but overall pretty similar between before and after making the change.

I am still considering that, in the cover letter, maybe I should mention that the work is based on my dissertation, but I made improvements upon the submitted dissertation.  Would this be acceptable to a journal editor?  If not, how should I handle this situation?

Everyone's advice would be appreciated.


texts:
As I already shared in this question, I have submitted a paper in January
of the last year to a high-rank journal and they decided on my paper with reject and resubmit. I worked very very hard and prepared a revised version of the manuscript which significantly improved the paper with a near 50 pages response letter to reviewers.

Unfortunately, in this university which I am getting my Ph.D., they have an obligation that advisor, must be the corresponding author. Two students of my advisor, which I don't know personally, submitted a paper to the same journal a short time after the decision of my manuscript. After less than a week, journal sent a letter to my advisor which is also the corresponding author of their manuscript that their paper didn't pass the plagiarism check. By my investigation, I found out that they copy-pasted some parts of their introductory paragraphs from other papers. My advisor sent a letter to EIC telling him that this problem was due to not having plagiarism checker software. He is the second author in my paper and third author in the other paper and corresponding author for both of the papers.

I have now waited a long time for the decision of my manuscript. One of the professors in this university, yesterday told me that they may not have sent the paper to the reviewers and make you wait for a long long time. Then if you mail them, they will reject your paper. It is a punishment for your advisor. Otherwise, they will make you wait for 12 to 15 month just for punishment and then without review reject it.

It was a nightmare for me as I am under immense pressure for my job and my graduation. I agree that my advisor is an irresponsible and ignorant person. But I didn't do anything wrong. Just honest very very hard work.

May they delay for a long time the decision of a submitted manuscript of someone that already sent a paper which didn't pass plagiarism check?
Is there any such policies or behavior in journals?
What should I do?


texts: Writer's contact information in recommendation letter

texts: Should a recommendation letter for graduate school contain the writer's contact information?


texts: What does publishing a paper in a journal mean?

texts:
Many times I have heard of paper publishing from some PhD students. But I  don't understand what that means.
I want to know some of the basics of it, i.e, how and why is it done? And what do the words like academic journals, reviewed papers, etc. mean?
If one has a proof of some mathematical mystery, how and where should he publish?


texts: Quoting or paraphrasing in a review article

texts: While writing a review article as an undergraduate student, can I directly copy some information from another article or book? Or should I summarize it in my own words to illustrate a topic?


texts: How do I effectively use tags to organize my bibliography?

texts:
I use the online tool citeulike to manage my bibliography. The main tool to organize the library is tags (functionally equivalent to tags here on this site). One problem I seem to be having is I do a very poor job of initially choosing tags, so I need to continually re-tag my library to keep it organized.

Is there any advice on choosing an intitial set of tags? Or will it be necessary for me to continually maintain my library to keep it organized/updated as much as I would like?


texts: Is SPIE proceedings publication a real scientific publication?

texts: I have some SPIE proceedings publications. However, in a scientific context does proceedings publication count as a publication?


texts: Which is easier-publication in an online free of charge journal or the standart pay-per-view one?

texts:
I know this question may be seen as off-topic here or too trivial but nonetheless I would really like to know the answer. I am in an unique position-unlike most researchers I practically don't care about the impact factor I just want to get my work publish as easy as possible and available for as many people as possible but want it to go through the peer-review process. So what will be better, to go through the "standard"(pay-per-view journals)or the online free of charge(for both parties)ones?

If impact factor isn't the key which is better(and/or faster)-going through the big publishing houses who have a "well-oiled machine" and can handle my request with routine and speed or risking in the online-only free-of-charge community?

I know may be I will have problems for that but I think nevertheless I need to tell it. My topic is something quite out of "the mainstream" but I have been working on it for years and I have diverted a lot of from what is "standard" for this community so I am pretty much a lonely wolf and expect enormous troubles going through the peer-review(radical ideas). So what will be easy for me-the pay-per-view or free-of-charge online journals? Can you reflect on that?


texts: Effect of project coordination task on academic profile

texts:
I'm soon handing in my PhD thesis, and have funding for at least a one year Post Doc position at the same institute. In my post doc I'll be working on research related, but not directly associated, with my PhD field of work.

My phd has been funded by a huge 'umbrella' project involving both academic and industry institutions, and domain specific partners. My Phd supervisor is also the project leader on this big project. The project has quite a distinct profile and has attracted a fair amount of public attention.

So...moving on to my dilemma.

Yesterday my supervisor phoned me up, and asked me if I was interested in taking over a part time position as project coordinator for this big project as the current coordinator is moving on to another job. According to him, some of the administrative tasks would be transferred to other project members, but I was offered to manage a lot of the collaboration with project partners and, I'm guessing, play an important role in the final reporting when the project finishes.

I'm uncertain to what extent taking on such a role would affect a potential academic career. Would it be beneficial in the long run to acquire experience in managing projects, or would it look more like I was 'degraded' to a secretary-'like' role?

As far as I understand, both my supervisor, and our institute director, would like me to assume the role. I guess this both gives me some leverage...but also puts me in a potential pinned down situation if I decline.

Their estimate is that the project coordination tasks would take up roughly 25% of my time. So there would still be time to do research.


texts: Is there any reason not to use a shortDOI in an APA References section?

texts:
In the recently published seventh edition of the Publication Manual of the APA, a change was made to the citation style guidelines to allow authors to use shortened URLs in the References section, including shortDOIs. The change is discussed here with regard to shortened URLs, but shortDOIs are mentioned with only an explanation of what they are, not with guidelines on how to use them. The article does mention, however, that some journals may restrict use of shortened URLs.

Using a shortDOI seems like the best option in any case, since it occupies a fraction of the space of a full DOI. For example, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.03.032 becomes https://doi.org/ggcgpd. It's also far easier to enter the shortDOI into a web browser than the full DOI.

Is there any reason not to use the shortDOI service when creating a references list, either for a student paper or a manuscript for submission to a journal? Are there journals that give guidelines on when to use a shortDOI, since the APA manual simply states that it is optional when a DOI is "long or complex?" Are there other ways in which using a shortDOI might be problematic?


texts: Can my degree be revoked if my relationship with my advisor sours post-defense?

texts: I defended my thesis last year and was granted MS degree. After that my advisor pressurized me to work more with him and write papers. I refused after some time and my relationship with him became sour. Can this cause any problem in the future such as thesis being taken away. Note that there is no dishonesty in my thesis at all, but there are some weak areas.


texts:
So, I am trying to cite a book in the References section of my paper, and the publication information on the book cover is really confusing, which is as follows:

AN INTRODUCTION TO WITTGENSTEIN'S TRACTATUS
Copyright(c) G.E.M. Anscombe 1959
Printed in the United States of America
This book was originally published in 1959 in the Philosophy division, edited by Professor H. J. Paton, of the Hutchinson University Library, with a second edition, revised, in 1963. It is here reprinted by arrangement.
First Harper Torchbook edition published 1965 by
Harper & Row, Publishers, Incorporated
49 East 33rd Street
New York, N.Y. 10016

How should I cite this book? (say, in Harvard style).


texts: University knowledge of student and/or staff viewing free online journal article databases

texts:
Is there evidence that Universities network administrators are aware of, or actively tracking student and/or staff usage of free online journal article databases such as Sci-Hub or LibGen?

My question is not meant to address any legal issues. I am merely asking about knowledge of student and staff usage by network administrators and by extension the University.

Unless faculty and students are using Tor a VPN or some other sort of anonymity network, University network administrators can easily track what web pages are being accessed over the University network.

University network administrators commonly track access to social media, gambling, pornography, plagiarism related sites and more. Are Universities also tracking faculty and staff usage of sites like Sci-Hub and LibGen?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Hub

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_Genesis


texts: Why does my advisor / professor discourage all collaboration?

texts:
So I have had this advisor for about 8 months now. Literally all students in my department talk very highly of him: his previous graduate students (master's) have gone on to have successful careers in PhD programs or are top data scientists who earn six figures.
I just took his class this fall. He prohibited all collaboration for homework, and we were not allowed to ask him questions either, unless we thought there was a typo on the problem or similar. Also, we were not allowed to discuss the material with others i.e. we cannot study for exams together or even talk about the book we were using. Or any of the topics. According to him, "collaboration is for undergraduates who struggle". So yeah.
Well, moving forward with his research. He refuses to read anything I write if it has a typo or I've made a mistake with citation. He won't read anything I've done, if he sees an imperfection. He also has strictly told me not to discuss my research with others / seek help elsewhere. Him I can ask questions, but only on papers / reading that I should do. Nothing about how to learn to program something or if I have a difficulty understanding a theorem. He always tells me "you're a master's student, you should do this on your own, you're not an undergraduate anymore".
Also, he has questioned the legitimacy of my undergraduate degree a few times due to me not being able to prove something he finds "trivial".
Now he wants me to learn programming in C, which we never discussed when I began my research. He compares me to his previous students, claiming how so and so worked 95+ hours per week on their master's thesis for 12 months after finishing all their classes. He idealizes cultures where studying is prioritized over everything, even one's mental health.
I am frankly getting tired of this, and contemplating on switching advisors. Am I just going crazy, or are his remarks completely out of line as an advisor? Is collaboration and similar stuff really that bad and makes you lazy and incapable of doing stuff on your own?


texts: The fine line between academic research and applied industry research?

texts:
I am working with a university on a research project. This project is a collaboration between industry and academia with the industry being the leaders. It is a computer science project working on an industry's product. The length of the project is one year, and this one year includes time to better formulate the expectations and requirements of the project.

For some background, the industry wanted to adopt some new software engineering patterns for Cloud computing (Kubernetes, Docker, microservices... yada yada) and couldn't find their way around applying these into their product. They were having some serious performance issues and looked to academia for a solution. The academics could find that it is not clear what is going on, but wanted to collaborate and understand as things develop.

Working on this project, I am finding that my greatest contributions on the project focused on identification and correction of a handful of bugs, or why 2-3 configurations could be far better. Many things look like just slight oversights and very trivial items regarding inexperience of using a library. With a constantly changing tech stack and a large software base, I can understand why these things would happen and can understand why nowadays, this would be one of the most relevant software engineering concerns and it should not be a surprise that an industry project ends up, to some degree, in this direction. At the same time, there is not much regarding novel algorithms or novel techniques...

I feel a bit confused because it feels like I'm at the fine line between computer science research and consultancy work. How would one go about presenting such work as research work e.g. to funding bodies? So I was wondering about, and hoping to start a discussion on the validity of such work and its presentation.


texts: On writing a review (i.e. summary) for a problematic (published) paper

texts:
I am trying to write a review on a published paper for Mathematical Reviews. The paper proposes a generalization of K-theory. Its main definition is fundamentally problematic. So the rest of the results are worthless. Therefore, I cannot write a brief summary of their results, because it means that I did not understand the mistake. On the other hand, the abstract of the paper is very concise and misleading, so I cannot recommend it as the review to MR either. Besides, I do not want to spend too much time to explain all the mistakes and errors in the paper (it is not my duty as a reviewer!). Therefore I was thinking to write to Mathematical Reviews and let them know about the situation and deny writing any review for this paper. But before doing that, I was wondering if there is a better solution for this problem?

P.S. For those who are not familiar with Mathematical Reviews, I should add that MR asks mathematicians to write brief reviews on papers (book, etc) that are already published and these reviews are available at mathscinet. So, these reviews are different than referee reports.


texts: How do I address false propositions defended by the lecturer?

texts:
Since I began my master studies (graduate school) in economics I have encountered too many false mathematical propositions. When I encounter a mathematical proposition which I think is false, I write down an argument (usually a counterexample or a refutation of a premise) explaining why the proposition is indeed false. Since I hold an MSc in mathematics, I am almost always able to do this.

Afterward, I present my argument to the lecturer (who may be a professor) who presented, defended and/or used the proposition. If it is my first time talking with him or her (sometimes I send an email), he or she will usually assume that I am wrong even though he or she did not understand my argument. The teacher will defend the proposition again and I will again explain why I think it is false. After a while, he or she will either ignore me, reject that I have something valuable to say, accept my argument, or tell me that I should read a certain book or certain research articles. If I am a bit unsure after I have talked with the lecturer, I almost always read the book (the relevant chapters) or the research articles. As of now, my readings have just cemented my beliefs in my original arguments.

So, during the course of my studies, I have encountered false propositions and my lecturers do not seem to respond to critique. In fact, I question their competency when it comes to discussing mathematics. In addition to this, they seldom trust my knowledge. Thus, I have the following questions.

How am I to pursue my mission to convince the teacher that what he or she is defending is false?
How can I approach the teacher with respect (I am more like an activist than a politician) and send a message that my knowledge is important and that I am of the opinion that I know something to be false which the teacher think is true?

After reading Paul Romer's article on "mathiness" among economic theorists, I feel that this problem may be larger than I thought.

EDIT: Since this is not a forum about mathematics, I thought I would not comment on the false propositions made. But for those who understand mathematics and mathematical statistics, this is not about propositions which are invalid only if a certain variable is negative or different from zero; because the chain rule was falsely applied; because the hazard function was wrongly characterized; because a limit computation was false; because the conditions for when a matrix is invertible is not satisfied; because the lecturer did not check the second order conditions in an optimization problem; because economists considers infinitesimals etc. These cases have all occurred. But other and more significant false propositions have occurred in my program, which has to do with e.g. the difference between applying ordinary least squares (OLS) and applying generalized least squares (GLS) when estimating certain parameters; the consequences of omitted variables in econometrics and under which conditions we can get unbiased estimates by controlling for the correct control variables; the properties of the Nash product; how different assumptions of an error term affects macroeconomic conclusions; the difference between homogeneity and homotheticity of a production function and the consequences this has for certain relevant propositions in mathematical economics etc.


texts: Time waiting for submission to student section of law journals

texts:
I have submitted a small piece in two legal Journals, one for the Journal's blog and one for an on-line version of it but haven't heard from them for quite a while. These sections are the only ones where they publish student submissions. I submitted to the first one on 12 May, didn't get any response and I e-mailed them on 27 May just to make sure they received it and I finally got a response on May 31 asking for extended cuts. I expanded the article to meet the second journal's standards and I submitted it on 25 June. Meanwhile I submitted the cut version to the first journal on 3 August. On August 18 I tried to send an e-mail to confirm that the second journal had received my piece and the e-mail that I sent to the original submission address failed to deliver (I received a relative notification). Anyway, I e-mailed the general submissions address of the second journal to let them know of the problem and ask if I need to re-submit and have received no response until today.

I know that it may seem that it is not a long time but the short version of the paper is 4 pages and the long one 7, so it shouldn't take much time for the editors to finish reviewing it (another journal responded within two weeks). Also I need to increase the number of my publications to apply for some positions asap. Should I try to re-contact any journal or should I just keep waiting?


texts: Do I always have to discuss conference attendance with advisor?

texts:
As a PhD student (in the US), should I always discuss whether I should go to a conference or summer school with my advisor before I apply? Even if

The conference is providing full financial support, and
I am not currently employed as a research assistant (rather teaching assistant) and the conference wouldn't affect that.

I realise it is common courtesy to do so anyway, but is it still OK if I don't?

Please don't answer to tell me what the "rules" are, or with "why don't you want to tell your advisor about it". I'm rather looking for a practical answer.


texts: Does saying ''I don't know" often decrease my authority as teaching assistant?

texts:
I worked as a TA for several courses. Some courses fall into the domain in which my research also happens. But some other courses are not at all familiar to me.

My Institute conducts tutorial classes with an objective of addressing students doubts in that course. Only TAs attend to this class. It is of the duration atleast couple of hours.

Students start asking the questions, that are difficult for whole class (because of the reason that they communicate among themselves the solutions of questions).

For the courses that are not familiar to me, it becomes difficult to answer the questions asked by them. Students expect the answer instantly on the board and it is a norm also.

In-order to face the situation honestly, I need to tell I don't know for the questions they ask. I feel it is okay to tell my ignorance for some questions since I am not a professor or expert in that course.

If I start saying it honestly for all questions that are difficult for me, then I feel that there will be an increased disrespect on me among students circle.

Is it true that the respect for the TA decreases the more often frequency they reply "I don't know"?

Note:  Attending the professor classes as TA or spending more time on the course is not solving my issue since students are asking questions that are very difficult as they collect questions from several online materials that demands more in-depth knowledge. And professor asks to conduct the classes properly. Some TAs intentionally avoid tutorials to avoid this issue. So please refrain from the answers that provide solutions to the question of: how to handle this


texts: Can I have my past Exams reviewed for Errors currently found in Online Testing platform?

texts:
My class noticed multiple errors when testing on a platform (TOPHAT) used by my school for remote Learning.It has been brought to my professors attention that Every single Quiz or exam taken thus far (5 in total) has been full of technical errors. These errors caused the professor to go back and fix our grades, each time my grade increasing by 5 or more points after adjustments. Errors include= marking correct answers wrong, erasing selected answers causing them to be submitted as unanswered, Select all that apply questions not allowing students to select more than one answer....
My school introduced the new platform last year, 4 major final exams were taken on this system. We were told ( although not written in school policies, student handbook or syllabus) That final exams were not to be reviewed, we couldn't even see what we got wrong, just our grades. This had me worried, what if there were errors also apart of those final exams? We were never allowed to review. The only time we have caught errors, is when we are able to review. My concern is that I am currently retaking this course after falling by less than 1% point (79.6%) 80% was the mark. Is there any legal way I could be able to have access to my previous tests and ask for an overview for similar errors? Based on what has been happening with this platform, full of testing errors, It is most likely that I may have made an 80% or above last year.


texts: Publishing on arXiv in preparation for WWW conference

texts:
There's a framework I've been working on and I'm interested to release it to the open source and research community but I'd also really like to publish it at the upcoming WWW conference.

Is it against the rules of that conference to pre-publish a paper I later submit there, or at least the crux of such a paper, on a site like arXiv?


texts: Can you get into a phd program in engineering with a failed semester

texts: I really want to get my PhD in mechanical engineering. I have a good amount of research done but my GPA is only a 3.0. My first semester of my junior year my husband suddenly deployed right after we closed on our first home, I started a new job, and got a dog. I got a D and an F that semester and my GPA dropped to a 2.0. The following semester I retook the classes and got all A's and a B. I made the deans list and brought my GPA up to a 3.0. Did that one semester kill my chances of getting into a PhD program for mechanical engineering?


texts: Can you resubmit a rejected manuscript to the same journal if you have made many changes to improve the manuscript?

texts:
Last year one of my papers was rejected. The editor provided the comments of referees so I have continued to work on this paper following their suggestion. I have done a great deal of work and I think that now the paper is really worth a publication.
I was considering to resubmit it to the same journal: can I do this or is it frowned upon?


texts: As a PhD student, can my name be included in a research grant to protect my ideas?

texts:
My ex-colleague (let's call her C) in the Lab is now a faculty member at a university. We have collaborated before in our work. Our works are similar in the methodology but different in the topic. In other words, in her dissertation, she used method X to solve a problem in topic Y. In my work, I will use a variation of X to solve topic Z.

C is now planning to write a research grant proposal about my topic and she asked me to help her in preparing for the proposal. C and my advisor (her ex-advisor) will be the PIs in the proposal. I asked C to include my name (as PI or any other way) because this is my work and I have already a published paper about it but C said that only faculty members can be included. But I feel that if I'm not included in the proposal in any way, my work will be stolen because C tries to get her students in her university to work on my idea.

If the funding is approved, I am afraid that they might hire someone else to work on my idea and then probably I won't be the first author anymore or maybe not included in the publication at all because both of them know my idea very well.

I'm new to the funding stuff so please help me. I might be overthinking about it.


texts: How common is reference/citation padding?

texts:
I recently discovered a paper of mine (pure mathematics) has been cited by a paper in a very different field (an area of applied mathematics) that I have nothing to do with.  The reference to my paper is used (along with another reference) to justify some statement in the introduction, but I have never studied anything like this (I don't even understand the statement).  It's clear that this citation is wrong, and while it's possible it was an honest mistake and the author was just careless, because the topics of the papers are so different (the titles are completely unrelated) and the journal and publisher are ones I've never heard of, it occurred to me this could be a case of dishonest "citation padding" (randomly adding superfluous citations).

Here are some possible reasons for citation padding:

Trying to legitimize one's work by adding references to reputable papers.
Either directly as part of a citation cartel to say increase impact factors, or as some indirect padding to help prevent a citation cartel from getting caught.  (I don't know if the latter happens, but this is part of my question.)
"Collecting dead souls" (i.e. some other nefarious scheme I haven't thought of)

Question: While I know citation cartels a real issue, is there any evidence that citation padding, outside of superfluous self-citations/citations within a citation cartel/ring, happens in more than just a few isolated cases?  For instance, are there stories of shady journals encouraging this or authors doing this systematically, like there are about citation cartels?

Note: I am not asking for a diagnosis of my specific case, or what I should do, which is discussed in these related questions:

How to react to your work being cited incorrectly or in a misleading way?
Should I do anything if I am cited for something that wasn't in my paper?


texts: Whom do I have to thank in the Acknowledgements section of a Bachelor thesis

texts:
I will soon finish writing my Bachlor thesis in physics and I don't know whom I "have to" put in the acknowledgements.

There are two professors who will grade the thesis, one the head of the work group I'm writing the thesis at and the other one from another work group. I didn't have much personal contact with any of the two other than getting their signatures for some paperwork and talking about half an hour about the subject. They appear on the thesis as advisors.

The actual advisor is a PhD student from the work group; a practice fairly common, at least at the physics department. He has been really involved and helped me a lot.

So I was thinking to thank the head of the work group for the possibiliy to write the thesis there and one or two sentences for the actual advisor.

But most of my fellow students seem to mention a lot more people like the second  advisor (Professor), friends, boy-, girlfriend, family...

My problem with that is that the second advisor is not involved at all in the process (he works in a related field, but the workgroups don't really collaborate), but I am concerned that it might be seen as an insult. I can see why one thanks close friends and family in a PhD thesis where one works on for years but I think it is a little melodramatic in a Bachelor thesis (which takes four months, not full time). But I'm afraid this might come off as ungrateful or heartless.

Is it expected or recommended to put second advisor, friends and family in the acknowledgements?


texts: When should an author disclaim historical knowledge?

texts:
Gilbert Sheldon was born at Ashbourne in Derbyshire on July 19, 1598. Very little is known of his family background.

It drives me crazy to read about some historical figure that "not much is known of her early life," or "no-one knows why she made the decision." These seem to be a stock way to deflect anticipated criticism over a lack of detail.

Of course, the absence of information is impossible to cite or verify, unless it has itself been studied and reported on. The claims also leave unclear whether the author is reflecting the consensus of a group of scholars that the information does not exist, or in fact oblivious to information that does exist.

Is a disclaimer for missing historical background ever useful and appropriate?


texts: How to work in a group where the group members need to be taught everything?

texts:
Edit: I met with the prof and she agreed that it wasn't my responsibility or place to teach my group mates the foundations they were supposed to have learned.  A direct quote was that "everyone has to fend for themselves."

There are several similar (and very helpful) questions which address some points of this question, but I feel this question is a bit different and thus merits being asked.

(1) How to handle team member who is unable/unwilling to collaborate

(2) How to handle a colleague who hasn't pulled their weight

(3) How to make group work work?

The first two questions do not apply because each of the collaborators wishes to contribute and not just ride the wave so-to-speak.  I attempted to follow some of the suggestions of the third question, but the group thought it was insulting.

  add more structure to the group project. This increases the workload
  on your end but it mitigates the most common issues you'll see in
  groups during group projects.

  Use and quality based hierarchy, assign the hard-working students as
  group leads.

I am in a group to complete an assignment.  The teammates are very willing to collaborate and work, but the problem is that they did not actually learn the course material when they were supposed to.  Therefore, they cannot actually help out without a significant amount of learning.

The group expects me to sit down with them for many hours (whole days) to teach them and collectively complete the assignment together.  I feel that this is far too much responsibility, effort, and time required on my part, since my teammates lack the skills to contribute because they were unsuccessful in keeping up with the course material.

How should I proceed?


texts: How is disclosure of previously undiagnosed long term health condition likely to be viewed when evaluating academic track record?

texts:
Considering situations where an individual academic track record is to be evaluated - whether by grant panel, job interview panel, promotion panel etc.
If the individual were to make a statement along the lines of

Prior to [date] I was suffering from an undiagnosed long
term health condition which did not result in absence from work, but limited my
output. This was both diagnosed and treated from [date] after which
my productivity increased substantially, as can be demonstrated by
XYZ.

Is this likely to be viewed favorably in evaluating the applicant's potential to deliver on the future grant/job/etc? Or is there a risk it could be viewed with suspicion given the applicant was still employed between those dates and the employer unaware of the situation?
Suppose it were a mental health disorder, would it be better to say so, or keep with the more generic description above?
Would the answer differ depending on which of the situations (job application, grant application) we're talking about?


texts: How does semantic scholar extract topics?

texts:
I am looking for detailed information about how S2 extracts topics from documents. The only information I have found is this, from the FAQ page:
"We use machine language techniques to analyze publications and extract topic keywords that balance diversity, relevance and coverage relative to our corpus."
This sounds similar to TF-IDF, but I would like to know the specifics of their extraction procedure.
Another question I have is how S2 relates the topics. When you click on a topic there is a sidebar showing related topics and also narrower and broader topics. Is there any information on how these relations were discovered, and is it possible to retrieve them?
Thank you in advance.
Kind regards,
Carlos


texts: Which one is more beneficial, working independently or collaborating with other researchers?

texts: Some people claim that working as an independent researcher is more useful than collaborating with others, since you will be the star in that field and maybe get more funds. Others disagree, and think that collaborating and publishing more is more useful. What are the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches and which one is more beneficial?


texts: Teacher takes pictures of students during exams and posts them on social media

texts:
There's this teacher who takes pictures of his students during exams, and posts them on social media, with the knowledge of the students. A lot of people enjoy these pictures (including the students), but I'm not sure how I should feel about this.

This also includes editing pictures to make them into memes of some kind. There is no foul play involved, just for fun.

Is this behavior alright? Should it be tolerated?

Addition :

The students were not asked for their consent. There have been no verbal objections, so far.


texts:
Currently applying for master programs in US and UK, in the track of media and communications / marketing. I don’t have many connections with Professors and here and my options:

The project coordinator, who is a graduate student in my lab. The lab is huge with 50+ people so I didn’t interact with the PI. But I have worked with this coordinator for 4 semesters.
The PI of the lab mentioned above - I also took her seminar class and was doing well, participating a lot. I’m thinking to have both 1 and 2 write my letters, the former detailing work ethic and latter detailing academic performance.
A part-time lecturer, who’s not a PhD, that taught a summer design class. Her class was very hands-on, project-based, and I really loved her class and went to a lot of office hours. A lot of group work and communication skills were involved in the class. I’m just not sure how her titles might impact the letter.
A professor who taught an exam-based class, no projects whatsoever. I sat in her front rows for the entire semester but didn’t go to her office hour or interact with her. I got an A+ in the class.

Basically I need three letters and was thinking to ask #1,#2,#3 but some people suggested that #3 might not be a good option. I’m wondering if I should go with #4 instead.


texts: Is it ethical to share names and emails of survey participants?

texts: My friend has conducted a small pilot survey as part of research proposal and used anonymized results to present his case. Now adviser insists that my friend discloses names and emails of all the participants. Would it be ethical do disclose this information? Since it was a pilot study, my friend didn't bother with consent forms, and I feel like it would be incorrect to disclose this information. I understand that adviser wants to be sure that the study was real. Is there any way my friend can prove that study was real, without disclosing private information of participants?


texts: Postdoc interview presentation doesn't explcitly mention a research plan, should I include one?

texts:
I was invited for a postdoc presentation of 10 minutes. The title of the presentation is "Challenges and Opportunities in problem Z". The email didn't give any other information whether I should give a research plan or my future ambitions during the position. Is a bad idea if include a specific research plan?
Context behind my question:
From my understanding, challenges and opportunities in problem Z means I should talk about the different (perhaps potential) research directions in studying problem Z. This could mean I can stay general without proposing a research plan to work on a specific area.
In another postdoc interview, the panel told me that they were hoping for a general research plan and not something specific.


texts: I always thought PhD as being the main post grad research path if you wanted to get funded and that Msc was the way to get yourself ready for a PhD. I recently became aware that not all master courses are taught and some are research based, so I am wondering whether it's normal to do a research Msc (as opposed to a taught one) and if so, are there any advantages to this over just going for a PhD?


texts: Is it normal for master's students to be sidelined, compared to PhD students?

texts:
I'm a MS student who just finished his second semester. The lab that I'm in is fairly large (around 30 people) and there are a variety of students working on different topics.
Here in my country (Korea), people usually enroll as MS/PhD integrated students (i.e., enlist with a bachelor's and exit with a PhD, with an option to exit after getting a master's). I had signed up for this integrated program, but recently decided to exit once I get my master's.
The problem is that since I've decided to leave after  getting my master's, I find myself being ignored. One senior lab member questioned whether I "wanted to be part of the group" (I thought I already was). Further, no one even approaches me about research anymore unless they need help with something (e.g., English writing - I'm the only English native speaker there).
I feel like this is a toxic environment. I mean, I enrolled as a graduate student to study more and learn how to be a researcher, and I still want to do that. But maybe I'm being naive. So, is this kind of behavior
normal? Is it a known issue in my country? What's the best way to proceed?


texts: Is it common for a managing editor of a University Press to solicit book proposals from PhD students at a conference?

texts:
I am a PhD candidate in the very early process of writing my dissertation, and I'm presenting my first chapter at an international humanities conference soon. I received an email from the managing editor of a well known University Press that was impressed by my topic and wants to meet to discuss possibilities. How common is this?

Is it quite common for University Presses to solicit meetings with PhD students? Or is this a rare opportunity? His interest was so unexpected (because I always assumed you approached editors if you wanted to publish) that I'm not sure if this is a promising opportunity.

So how often do managing editors of University Presses solicit authors that are ABD?


texts: No Letterhead or official email id for Letter of recommendation

texts: I worked with a professor on my final year project who has now left the college to finish his Ph.D. He is currently working as an assistant professor at some other college. As I worked closely with that professor, I thought of asking LOR from him. But, as he left my college, his official email ID is of the other college. I will not be able to ask for a letterhead from my college for the LOR written by the professor from another college. Does a LOR taken from such a professor affect my admission process?


texts: Invitation for campus visit for post doc position - salary negotiatons?

texts:
I have had a video conference with a university research center in the U.S. The interview lasted for about an hour and the professor told me that they would like me to come to campus to visit their center. I was told about the salary and it is lower than the average post doc salary that is followed by the NIH. However, he mentioned that there is additional 20 thousands dollars (I think he said for conferences but I am not sure).

The big advantage in this position is that it will allow me to focus on research without being bothered with heavy load of teaching. At the same time, I have been on campus interview for a tenure track faculty position and I am waiting to hear from them. The tenure track is for a position that focuses on teaching but provides me the opportunity to do my own research as much as I wish.

If I am inviting for a campus interview for the post doc position, is it acceptable to inquire about the salary again. Can the salary of a post doc be negotiable?


texts: How will failing a PhD qualifying exam affect admission to other PhD programs in the future?

texts:
My son, 25, just got notified that he didn't pass his qualifier the second time around so he's been dropped from his PhD program.

As a parent, I only want my child to be successfully happy, both in his personal and social life.  It's disheartening and heartbreaking to know that all his hard work and countless hours of studying and burying deep in papers can all fall apart just like that because a committee wills him not good enough for them.  He wasn't even pursuing a PhD.  He was working on his MS in EE and one of his professors saw potential in him so she encouraged him to pursue a PhD with full funding.  He will leave the program with a terminal MS (which he had already earned before entering the PhD program).

On the exterior, he says he's fine with the outcome and can't wait to get into the real workforce.  However, internally, I can sense he is battling with disappointment and alienation from his advisors and department, preferably the people he works with.  I can only advise him to rethink his future 5 years from now where he'll be an accomplished Engineer with loads of work experience under his belt or a recent PhD graduate looking for a job.  On the phone, I assured him, "you didn't fail, they failed you."

My son will remain with his department until the end of the academic school year.  However, how will being dropped from his program affect his transcripts if he should want to reapply at another university?


texts: How to improve chances of admission to Ph.D. program for international student?

texts:
Question synopsis:

  I have a postgrad degree, a couple failed classes on transcript but
  did well in others; tried applying to PhD programs in different
  countries, but did not get accepted and had poor luck hearing back
  from professors, nobody seems to care. What to do?

Note: There was a question similar to the one below that was deleted as I was finishing writing the answer. So the answer did not get posted but I was able to save it. I figured it might be helpful to keep it in the system in case it might help someone in a similar situation. Below is my take.


texts: PhD application SOP - include several research ideas or just one?

texts:
I'm an older PhD applicant (Business-Marketing) with 20+ years of industry experience. In my SOP, should I include the several research projects I have already started, or should I focus on just one idea?
Or should I reach out to a faculty member who might be interested in discussing my ideas first? I have no geographical ties, so I can go anywhere.


texts: Can I upload my open access publications on researchgate.net or academia.edu?

texts:
Maybe my question is naive, but:

If my paper was publish as open access (for example in Springer - http://www.springer.com/gp/open-access), could I upload the paper in researchgate.net and similar sites?


texts: How do professors usually discover "new" research interests?

texts:
Usually, a person starts out with a single primary research interest as a PhD student (closely related to that of their adviser). But then as they move on through the assistant professor stage, they discover new research interests. Do they usually discover new research interests through collaborations/discussions with professors at their university or through conferences? Or do they discover new research interests through what can earn them funding (through the NSF and other agencies?) Especially since any topic could theoretically be interesting to them? (even though they might find some topics more interesting than other topics).

Is it more often that they do what they're most interested in, or that they do what they obtain funding for (and find what they get funding for interesting enough)? And can they sometimes even discover new interests through their PhD students?


texts: How many PhD students does a typical STEM professor graduate during their entire career?

texts:
The discussion on this infogram made me wonder about the number of PhD students that a full research professor successfully graduates in their entire career.  By professor, I mean a full professor, not an associate or exclusively teaching professor or other positions referred to as professor depending on field and location.  Of course, the answer is not a single number, but rather a probability density function that is a function of field, place, time, university, and probably other factors.  To narrow the scope, I formulate the question as:

For selected fields and countries, what are recent figures on the mean and standard deviation (alternatively median and median absolute deviation, in case the distribution is non-Gaussian) for the number of PhD students successfully graduated per professor throughout their entire career?


texts: What is the procedure for hiring a professor?

texts:
When a department head needs a faculty member, how is the process of hiring one started and conducted (at least in US and UK universities)?

Of particular interest is the following;

Finance: Department head should ask the Dean for financing the salary? Who is the final decision maker?
Selection: Is the department head responsible for forming the search committee? and is he responsible for approving the qualifications? Can higher officials (e.g. Dean) interfere in the selection?
After the selection, how are the official matters handled? Who signs the contract? and who can terminate it (if not tenured)?
What is the role of human resources in this process?


texts: Should the introduction of a thesis have figures/pictures?

texts:
I'm writing my master thesis in network formation theory. I believe that a picture with network nodes in the introduction will help the readers understand what my model is and what I am trying to prove. I doubt most readers would read past the introduction anyway so if they do not understand the introduction then that would be a big problem for me.
Is that advisable or not? What if I am using the introduction as the writing sample for my PhD application?


texts: Is it possible to share an arXiv article before it is announced?

texts: Once I submit an article to arXiv, it takes some time to be announced. Is there a way to share the article link before it is announced?  I would like to share it with my friends/guide, so they may point out mistakes, if any, before the article is announced.


texts: I have registered for a conference, but there is additional registration fee for a conference dinner. Since I am from developing country and I haven't got a refund source, I find it expensive. Can I go to the restaurant and order something cheaper for myself?


texts: Do the Publication Retraction impact on Co-authors

texts: I am a co-author of a retracted paper. It is very unfortunate for me. I just provided technical assistance in the experiment but the 1st author did some scientific misconduct and as a result, the article has been withdrawn by the corresponding author. I want to know how it is going to impact my career. I just helped with the experiment designing and completely unaware of the scientific misconduct by the 1st author and now I am suffering. Please suggest what to do. I want to stay in the same field of research. Hence, is it possible that my abilities will be judged by this retracted article?


texts: How to evaluate potential advisers on grounds other than their research/publications?

texts:
While accepting an offer to grad school, one is basically entering into a lasting relationship with one's adviser - most likely, someone whom the applicant has never met before, and the only exposure has been through the potential adviser's website/publications. It is in the interest of both parties to ensure (to the greatest possible extent) that there are no personal/professional traits of either that hamper the formation of a pleasant working relationship - no-one would want to go through the ordeal of having to change advisers midway!

While the faculty has a chance to have a good look at the applicant's profile as well as his motivations (through his grades and SOP), the applicant doesn't have a similar opportunity. So, I'm interested to know what parameters can be used to gauge a potential fit. I've thought of the following:

Past students:

Did anyone ever drop out/change advisers midway, and if so, for what reasons? These would be a bit hard to find though, as I don't expect the faculty concerned would list them on their website. It would be great if anyone could let me know how to find out the list of incoming students to a department for any year.
Publication rate, taking into account the venues where they were accepted.
Time taken to graduate - though I accept this is more dependent on the student, a median figure should be telling ...
What they did post Ph.D. - did anyone get tenure if they went into academia, or is almost everyone unable to break out of being a post-doc?

Tenure status: I'm a bit unsure about this, so wanted the community's opinions about it. Just so that I'm clear, I'm only trying to calibrate the applicant's expectations about the working style of his potential adviser - and hence need to know to what extent are the following "typical" assumptions valid.

Tenured professor

A full professor is more likely to get grant funding, hence less time spent on TAship - but could also mean less time/effort spent on interactions with students (either being busy with other projects/talks, or due to more commitments to family at that age).

Tenure-track faculty (Assistant profs)

More likely to be young and energetic, and could translate to more time spent on one-to-one discussions with grad students - but funding may prove to be an issue, and may have to be on TA for a longer period.

What other factors would be relevant in this matter, and to what extent am I correct/incorrect in either the factors considered, or for undertaking this exercise at all?


texts: How to encourage students to attend and participate in class?

texts:
I have seen a shrinking trend in the number of students coming to my classes and suspect that it's due to the large number of digital tools that are available to students.

What techniques can I employ to encourage students to attend class and stay engaged through a class or lecture?


texts: How to compose a great recommendation letter?

texts:
I was asked to compose a recommendation/reference letter for a Computer Engineer that works as a Researcher in the Research Center I am supervisor. I don't know if Academia is the right site to post , but since the nature of the job is Research and people involved "Research Engineers", I believe is the right place.

So, I need to write a great recommendation/reference letter, but the problem is I have never written a letter of this kind before. I've seen many of them, and even more on the web but the problem is that they all look "copy-pasted" and not written in a way that would make me believe that the author of this letter really spent time on it, believing in the skills of his employee and really wanted to recommend them.

I've already written the letter, the best I could and I will like to ask about some parts of it, how they sound and if they could be any better.

As a first paragraph, I wrote who I am, the position I have in the Research Center and what is the purpose of this letter:

  My name is... I am a ...
  The purpose of this letter, is to serve as a reference to my cooperation with Mr ...

In the second paragraph I wrote about the position of the person (Research Engineer) and for how long he worked with us:

  Mr. X  joined our team in the X Research Center as a full-time Research Engineer under an ongoing X month contract...

At this point I don't know how I could point out better the fact the the person was under a normal full-paid contract and not just given a "European Grant" to work with us. I wrote they were full-time, but still there are many people that join programs after studies that work for a few months as Engineers in Research Centers. In this case, I want to stress that they were working as a normal Research Engineer, especially chosen for skills and paid a normal salary for the position as Engineer. Maybe add something like "full paid contract"
In the 3rd paragraph I wrote under what framework the person worked (European project) and a few words where and how they were involved. I didn't want to go into great details here as I believe this stuff could be easily read from their great CV. Is it wise to describe exactly what he did (Names of real-life applications that was part of developing etc). I pointed out that they deeply involved in what they did, how well they integrated with the rest of the people and how motivated they were and that they actively contributed in the project. Anything else I could add here?
As a last line I would like to show that I can't recommend them enough, but without getting "too excited". I want it to be serious, I want it to leave no doubts. Also since the person is young and is interested in continuing with post graduate studies, or working as a Researcher or even getting a computer engineer position in a private company. Is it okay if I mention all of them? Usually we recommend someone for one type of position. But this position, working as computer engineer doing research (aka Research Engineer), leaves no doubt that he would be great as a PhD student, as a researcher or as a software engineer. So I wrote:

  For all the aforementioned reasons I would like to highly recommend X, as a strong candidate for future postgraduate studies, research and employment offers.

What do you think about it? How could I make it better and is there something I should change? If you don't like some part and you give me an alternative please point out why you don't like the part, as some times its a bit of personal taste and not that something is wrong. Would be great, if you could post some examples of letters you composed or parts of them, or an example from the web that you consider great.


texts:
I recently discovered, to my delighted surprise, that my bachelor thesis had been cited in another bachelor thesis - however...

my bachelor thesis has been entered in the reference list as an PhD thesis, which it clearly isn't, and
I have been attributed a conclusion that I didn't draw, that is indeed counter-indicated by the data I've collected.

Should I care about this? Is there a course of action I should take?


texts: Do authors usually receive a copy of the whole journal issue when they publish a paper?

texts:
I've recently published my first paper.
Do journals usually send authors a copy of the issue in which their paper was published? Does Science magazine do that?


texts:
I am applying tenure-track positions now, however I am about 10 years older than the average applicant (I worked many years in industry before PhD).

I talked to 2 experienced people whom I trust. Both said  ageism is an unfortunate reality of recruitment (especially in my technical field). One of them even told me it is OK to prepare a CV that doesn't reveal age. Although I don't know how that is possible since CV contains my B.Sc. degree date.

If two applications are about same then being 10 years young might be a plus. I am OK with that, but is that all? How strong is ageism in tenure-track recruitment process ? especially in technical fields such as physics, engineering, math, statistics etc...
Should I hide my B.Sc. degree date ? Doesn't it look weird ?

I wonder what people with TT committee experiences think about it.
thanks.


texts: What is the purpose of peer-review in journals?

texts:
I am interested in what is the role of peer review in journals. I have read the wikipedia page which discuss much about style and criticism but few to purpose. I don't know if initially it already came with comments to improve articles (more in favor of peer review for increase the quality of articles) or where simple recommendations to editors to not printing an article (in favor of filtering articles).

I am curious because my first contact with peer review history is the anecdote of an Einstein article beeing peer reviewed and Einstein refusing the review around 1905.

There were three main factors of adopting peer review as listed on a post:

The increasing specialization of science
The enormous increase in the number of scientific papers being published
There are technologies for copying papers

It seems that increasing the number of journals (and having less/no general journals) could have solved those problems. (which may indeed happened)

However it is unclear to me the purpose of the peer review. Is peer review (or/and was) used to increase quality of articles published in journals? Or "simply" to filter out articles to keep few (and more important) articles per issue of the more specialized journals?
Of course peer review might be doing both effects and having both purposes.


texts: Are one journal editor able to see decision of other journal editor in same publisher?

texts: My manuscript rejected by the editor of Journal A (MDPI publisher). Then I submit my manuscript to Journal B (MDPI publisher), it rejected again by the editor of Journal B. My question is editor of Journal B is able to see Journal A editor`s decision? Simply different journal editors in the same publisher are able to see each other`s decision?


texts: Is it okay to give link of my recent paper in the cover letter for a postdoc application?

texts:
So I am applying for a postdoc position and I happen to be working on a problem that is quite closely related to PI's interests. I don't just mean that we share the same field/subfield (which we do anyway) but rather the problem that I worked out is an advancement of what he (and some other people) is doing. This makes my case particularly strong since he wants to work on related questions.

Now, I recently uploaded a preprint of my this work and I was thinking that if I highlight this paper in the cover letter for the application, my application would stand out. Including a direct link to the preprint sounds like an option to me. However, I have never seen a cover letter with links to papers. Is this possible and acceptable?