texts: When should an author retract their paper as a result of misinterpreted results?

texts:
I'm curious when should an author make a call on retracting their paper vs. sending an errata or a correction. Many say it is when an error is involved that influences the interpretation of the paper.

I'm finding it hard to understand when a paper should or shouldn't be retracted, since there are plenty of papers out there with errors at every step of the process but they are still available. There are also several papers that have been outright wrong but they are still available. There are several papers that have been performed incorrectly, interpreted incorrectly, and still published in a high profile journal that haven't been retracted.

This is distinct from retractions due to fraud or other ethical issues.


texts:
I have interned in two companies while I was conducting my undergraduate studies, one of the internships was unpaid and the other covered transportation expenses.

My question should I mention in my CV that these internships were unpaid or voluntary?
And does this issue make a difference in the eyes of the graduate admissions committee?

The nature of the internships is related to my undergraduate studies (general computer skills), but not very related to my research topic I want to peruse.


texts: What positions in industry should I apply for after a phd and postdoc in software engineering?

texts:
This could also be not the most appropriate place where to post, but I'll try anyway.

Some background info: I am about to finish a 2-years postdoc in software engineering, and I am evaluating a number of options, including moving to industry. I graduated at 22 (bachelors), 24 (masters), 27 (phd), and now I am 29. In summary, I have a quite strong academic record (top grades from respectable universities, ~20 publications in acknowledged conferences and journals), but never had a position in industry. However, the type of research I conducted in my phd and postdoc has been in close collaboration with industrial partners on concrete software engineering challenges, so I'd say I have way more than just an idea on how the software process works in industry. Over the years, I also had the opportunity to grapple with management-like tasks in research: write reports/proposals (including some form budgeting), coordinate the delivering process of (guess what?) deliverables, co-supervise and advise students, peer-review.

As for what I would like to do, I see myself as performing best working as a software process improver. Given my background, this means design solutions for (ideally) smarter testing, reducing effort in the maintenance of software products. Of course I can also implement these solutions and know-how in a kind of "internal" tools (when needed), but the biggest contribution I would give is an answer to "what should we do to reduce costs in testing", rather than implementing some code that does it. I envision that I can relatively easily do so in other phases in the software lifecycle (for sure requirements/change management, where I also have a kind of background, maybe a bit less analysis and design).

I am a bit unsure on what kind of positions I should look for with my background. On one hand, I never ever have been keen on programming/developing/coding. Of course I am perfectly able to do this, but I have to admit I choose to study for 10 years to develop critical thinking skills and high-level principles, rather than focusing on the flavor-of-the-year technology.

On the other hand, most job postings for things different than "write code" (in any of its sugar-coated variations such as "work under the hood", "get the job done and not just talk about it", "be a doer", "power-drive through technology", etc) are so cryptic that the few ones you actually understand are those for which you know you are not relevant. Expert in TV decoders firmware and signals? Good! I am not your guy.

On the third tentacle, "higher level" (senior or not entry-level) job postings require 3/5+ years of experience in "insert something non-academic related here". Well, I have 3/5+ years of experience with "working in collaboration with industry", which can be easily extended to include whatever buzzwords are fashionable this days: DevOps? Sure, everybody is agile today. IT Operations? Well, I didn't do research locked in a basement. Service delivery? Everything is a service, and yes, I delivered quite a bit of things. People management and decision-making skills? Of course, the experience in research I had was that for some tasks you are the principal investigator and direct others on directions to explore, gather results, and decide where to progress. You might not be the boss behind the desk barking orders at his minions, but you have to take the lead in research. I am just not sure whether all of this counts, or better, can be stated in such a form on a resume to be relevant.

Some enlightenment? Be cruel and evil, don't be afraid to say that I should "just" look at entry-level positions as if I was fresh graduate :)


texts: Can a person who doesn't like to talk much still become a good lecturer?

texts: Can a person who doesn't like to talk much still become a good lecturer/academician? Do you have any experience like this or know anyone like this?


texts: CV for Ph.D. Applications: how long is too long?

texts:
I am currently tailoring my CV for Ph.D. applications (STEM). I am applying to various schools in USA and Europe, and most of them are competitive.

Given that I will have a Master's as well as >5 years of research experience in my field, I would like to list most of what I have done/been awarded -- all of which is academically relevant, including roughly a dozen publications -- and am trying to fit everything into my CV/application profile.

Some schools specifically recommend that the CV be around 2 pages long, others make no mention. Some schools have specific fields for listing awards/publications/etc, others don't. However, the shortest I've managed is 4-5 a pages long without crowding the pages with information. Should I keep trying to make it 2 pages long? How long is too long?


texts: If authors leave out diacritics, should I correct them or leave it as written?

texts:
While preparing a bibliography, I have noticed that some authors' journal titles have not used diacritics correctly. For example, some authors have written "Miguel Angel Asturias" in their titles rather than Miguel Ángel Asturias.

Should I be referencing these titles exactly as they have written it, or should I correct them?


texts: Is it a bad idea to say in my statement of purpose that I want to pursue a PhD in applied mathematics primarily to work in industry?

texts:
I am seeking some general advice from applied mathematicians at American universities. In my statement of purpose, would my stating that I want to pursue a PhD in applied mathematics primarily for the purpose of working in industry be a bad idea, in general?

This would be sort of "keeping it real" and being honest, when knowing that the vast majority of phds will end up in industry and not in academia, where jobs are extremely scarce.

Or is it still better to tell them what they want to hear?  I am assuming that what they want to hear is that I want to be an academic and make contributions to teaching and publish in academic journals, etc.


texts: Review paper authored by a current collaborator

texts:
I have a simple question about a math paper, since I don't have a lot of experience in reviewing papers. I have currently received a request for reviewing a paper for publication. I would normally have no problem in doing so.

The thing is that I am currently about to start a collaboration with one of the authors of this paper. This collaboration even appears mentioned at some point in the paper that I was asked to review (in the lines of "the author ... and ... are planning to ...", where one of the ... is me).

I wonder whether there is an ethical dilemma. Perhaps it's completely normal and standard and I'm just making a big deal out of it. I'm sure it depends on the discipline, so I wanted to hear about this from people in the math world. Thanks!


texts: Paper in revision stage but a similar paper was just published

texts:
We have submitted a paper to a journal and got a major revision request. We were planning to resubmit our revised manuscript very soon, however, we noticed recently that a paper was published that basically studied the exact same thing with the similar conclusions.
How likely would our paper be rejected due to this rather than the fault of our studies? Or if rephrased, would it be ethical of a journal to suddenly reject a paper if a similar study was just published, even if all the revision queries are answered and there was no link between them?


texts:
I am a math grad student, who was recently accused of mansplaining by a female grad student. As I tend to be left leaning, this caught me by surprise. This question is an attempt to perhaps learn more about the term.

I was in a group of two men and two women at an ice cream parlor. Three of us were math grad students, and the fourth was not. We'll name them Man A, Man B (me), Woman A (the one who accused me of mansplaining) and Woman B (the non math grad student). Woman B asked a question about why math is useful. Man A (not me) started explaining about the uses of number theory in cryptography. I interrupted him at one point, and continued the explanation. Woman A laughed, and said that all that we had said was incorrect, and that it really has to do with elliptic curves, etc. I said that I could be wrong, but I had gotten my explanation from a youtube video. She smiled and ignored us.

I then invited Woman A to explain about elliptic curves. She did not respond, and kept smiling at her phone. Later, she accused me of mansplaining. Something to remember: Woman A is doing her PhD in number theory. Man A and I were not. We taken some courses though, and perhaps held an amateurish interest in it.

I did not exactly know what mansplaining was, so I looked it up. Google said that it was the act of explaining something to a woman in a condescending fashion. I messaged her, saying that as I was not explaining anything to her, how could I be mansplaining. She said that I was mansplaining, as I did not invite her to explain about number theory, as she was the expert in it, and I was not.

My view:

I had not started the explanation about number theory. Man A had. It was perhaps his prerogative to invite her to explain about number theory. However, it seemed that he got almost none of the heat. The accusations seemed directed at me, and she said "yes he was mansplaining too" only when I reminded her of his role. We have had strained relations in the past, but it would perhaps be futile to hypothesize whether that contributed to this accusation.
I did invite her to explain about elliptic curves when she disagreed with us, but she did not.
We started arguing about whether I was indeed mansplaining. Woman B (the non math mathematician) also said she didn't think it was mansplaining. But Woman A said that it didn't matter what she or I thought, the "classy" move would have been for me to apologize right away.

My questions are:

Was I mansplaining?
As a man, is it wrong of me to argue if a woman accuses me of mansplaining?


texts: Is it possible to get into an elite physcis grad school for theory without having already taken graduate level courses?

texts:
I'm about to embark on improving my PGRE score for the fall test (didn't do so hot the first time) and I'm wondering if it will even be worth the year-long effort. Also, I'm taking a couple years off to get research experience/pay off my student debts.

I come from a small/medium school with no physics graduate program (wasn't interested in physics when I started, so I went with the place that gave me the most money), so I didn't have the chance to take any grad classes. I've also only had one semester of junior/senior level E&M, QM, and mechanics (all that was offered).

I've been reading different GRE forums and it always seems like the people who apply to (condensed matter) theory at elite schools like UChicago and get rejected still have a >90% PGRE and a number of graduate classes that they did well in.

I got all A's in the classes I did have and there is a decent chance I'll have 3 publications (one or two as first author) from national labs, but frankly, after reading about others' failures, I think there is a serious possibility that all of this effort will be in vain.


texts: Why would a prospective advisor ask if I'm meeting other advisors?

texts: I am currently in the process of changing my advisor and hence looking for new prospective advisors at my university.  I got interviewed by one and she asked If I was in touch with any other advisors. I told her what the truth was but what exactly is the reason for asking this question?  What does the potential advisor want to know?


texts: Professor expressed interest in collaboration, but remains unresponsive and unreliable. How to proceed?

texts: About 6 months ago, when I was searching for postdoc positions, one of the professors whom I contacted encouraged me to write a joint paper to make a possibility of my invitation to his group. I tried to prepare a manuscript during this time, but as a joint work, he has not contributed yet. For instance, he has told me that he send some useful references or put some materials into the work, but never did that. I think he is no longer interested in that. What Should I do? The last time which I sent an email, he replied that he will write something about that to me "tomorrow". Today is almost 10 days after that "tomorrow".


texts: Is the original PhD certificate required for a post-doctoral position in Germany?

texts:
I am online applying for a postdoctoral position in Germany. I have the electrical copy of my PhD certificate, and that is sufficient for my application. But the original copy of the certificate is in my home country, and I am sure I cannot travel to my home country for some years. If my application was successful, would they ask for the original copy of my certificate?

I asked them by Email and I haven't received an answer yet. But the deadline is close.


texts: How should I thank mentors that I connect with via the Internet?

texts:
I am an incoming undergraduate student, and I have reached out to people who are currently pursuing/once pursued the field that I'm interested in (it's physics if it matters), via the Internet. Most of them are willing to help me and have given me a lot of good advice. Thus, I really want to thank them for doing that while potentially improving their impressions of me. However, since I have never met most of them in person (even if we did, most of our communications still happen online), I have a hard time thinking of a way to express my gratitude. Here are some details of my situation:

I know very little about them as a person (their hobbies, preferences etc.). The conversations we had focused almost exclusively on their chosen fields - most of the time, they answer my questions and provide guidance.
People who have helped me are in various stages in their study/career right now. Specifically, undergraduate, Master's, PhD and postdoc. Thus, I think that they may prefer different types of gifts.
I've heard of people writing thank you letters to their mentors. However, I feel that doesn't apply to my situation since my relationship with my mentors doesn't have an explicit end. For example, the length of our relationship isn't defined by the length of a course or a program. Thus, I feel that writing them a letter that talks about our past interactions would be perceived as a signal that I no longer want to continue our relationships.
I tried to treat those who invited me to talk in person with drinks or meals (if they let me). I would like to hear your thoughts on whether or not it is a good way to express gratitude as food doesn't last very long. Should I keep doing that or even go out of my way to invite them when I travel to places where they live?
Alternatively, I am thinking of mailing them tangible gifts. But again, I am unsure about what to purchase yet.


texts: Till what point do you do exercises while studying?

texts:
I will try to make this as less subjective:
Till what point do you continue doing exercises at end of the chapter to learn something:
I do it in Grad school and that's where I really learn. Do professors/post docs learning about new fields do it too?


texts:
I am currently an undergraduate student, and looking to apply to grad schools in the future. In response to COVID-19, my school is offering the ability between choosing the letter grade earned to appear on the transcript, or a pass if you earned over a C, for each individual class.

I'm wondering if choosing the pass option for one of my classes would reflect poorly on grad school applications. The class in question is a not a major or graduation requirement, and it is 4 credits, so taking a B or lower would hurt my GPA.

Thank you!


texts: How to start an official email to a professor

texts:
I want to send an email to a professor to inform him that I want to accept the offer of PhD admission and Research assistantship. But I do not know how to start email. Is the following good? if not, would you please recommend better phrase.

  Dear Professor,

  I hope you are keeping well ....


texts: Can I submit an abstract with a dual affiliation even if one of the two institutions has not contributed to the research submitted?

texts:
I need to submit two abstracts in a conference on behalf of two different institutions. The profile information of the abstract submission system provides only one institution as the primary one. During abstract submission, I am able to report a second affiliation.
How should I deal with this situation. I thought to create two login accounts, but then I am afraid if both abstracts accepted, I will need to register twice.
Alternatively, I thought to include both affiliations in the abstracts and have as the first one my current affiliation. What is the common practice in this case?


texts: references: Square brackets or superscripts for Scientific Reports submission

texts:
In
https://www.nature.com/srep/author-instructions/submission-guidelines#manuscript
Nature states:

References
We don’t copy edit your references. Therefore, it’s essential you
format them correctly, as they will be linked electronically to
external databases where possible. At Scientific Reports, we use the
standard Nature referencing style. So, when formatting your
references, make sure they:
Run sequentially (and are always numerical).
Sit within square brackets.

...
But then in the published Scientific Reports articles they use superscripts for references.
My question is: which should be used in a manuscript submission?


texts: How should I respond to a professor's email following up on an offer of admission?

texts:
I am a final year undergrad and applied for graduate programs in various universities for Fall'16 admission. I recently got an admission offer from one of the programs. The admissions chair cc'd the offer email to potential supervisors I mentioned in my application. Here's the email from one of these potential supervisors.

  Dear xxx,

  just to follow on Dr. xxx's invitation to xxx University: I was very
  impressed with your record and ambition, and would be very interested
  in having you join my group. I am looking for very motivated and
  strong students at the moment. I have been working on various aspects
  of xxx, with my students and postdocs at xxx University, and in
  collaboration with colleagues in xxx University and xxx University.

  You can read about my recent research at my webpage: xxx or check some
  of my papers on the google scholar: xxx

  Please let me know if you have any questions about living and studying
  here in xxx. I think we have a very lively and a friendly department,
  in spectacular surroundings.

  Very best from xxx.

This is my first admission offer, so I'm waiting for offers or rejections from other places. So, I'm not really sure how to respond. And even if I did want to work under his supervision, what questions do I ask to begin with? I'm totally lost.


texts: In a camera ready paper (has been accepted), how to cite my own paper that is still under blind review?

texts:
Please Note I am asking how to cite a paper under blind-reviewed in an accepted paper, NOT a new paper to be submitted.

Chronologically,

First, I submitted paper A that requires double-blind review.
Then, I cite it in another paper B. (In paper B, I explained that paper A is not available since it is under a double-blind review process)
Paper B is accepted while paper A is still under review.
Now I have to submit the camera ready version of Paper B before the notification of Paper A.

Solution I

Put my blind review article into a pre-print archive (e.g. arXiv) so that it can be available for citing. But, would it "spoil" the blind review process?

Solution II

place an anonymized version of paper A in a dropbox folder and cite it with a link to that dropbox file in the reference.
(Inspired by dsfgsho's answer to Double-blind review: submit a follow-up paper in a very short time)

What's the better solution? Is there any other solutions?

Related Questions:

Citing an article under a double-blind review process (for a new paper)
Is it legal to upload a paper to arXiv when it is under double blind review for one of the IEEE journals?


texts: Plagiarism checker for mathematics paper

texts:
I recently accepted to referee a mathematics paper. This is my first referring assignment and was wondering if there are free plagiarism checkers more suitable for math papers.
side note: Several years ago I saw a paper stating a theorem which sounded so familiar to me. I happened to have a reference book in that topic. Long story short, "their theorem" in that paper was verbatim from the book without referencing it. Unfortunately, I did not contact the publisher that was surprisingly the mathematical society of country X (I should have).


texts: Postdoc supervisor's impact when applying for a follow-up job

texts: I'm currently a postdoc and I'm planning to apply for faculty positions soon. However, I'm pretty sure that my current supervisor wants me to stay on for another year. When applying for a job, I'm usually required to state 3 referees. Am I expected to state my current supervisor as one of the referees? Is it going to weaken my application if he's not among the 3? Due to the mentioned conflict of interest, I would rather state other people I've been working with...


texts: How long should you wait after submitting a revise and resubmit before you should contact the journal?

texts:
It's been six weeks since I have sent paper for a second review after I received revise&resubmit decision from the first round. Is this a typical time period or should I send a query to the journal?

Currently the paper is under the status "with editor" for a couple of days after it has been "under review". The journal is in the field of telecommunications.


texts:
I am doing a term paper on the subject of minimum spanning trees algorithms,
I need to cite "Shortest connection networks and some generalization" paper for the prim's algorithm made by Prim, after searching I found a manuscript of the paper.
My question is, can I cite the paper? is this allowed in the citing formats?


texts: Referencing Android, using the word 'Android' in a paper

texts: I want/need to use the word 'Android' referring to the Android-System/Software in a paper/thesis. I found these guidelines. Do I have to use both, the TM-symbol AND a footnote? Like AndroidTM - It looks strange...


texts: Is there any way to avoid wasting a long time in review process for mathematics journals?

texts:
I sent two different articles to two different mathematics journal. The fist one review process is 6 months(accepted). The second one is still under review(14 months ago) and it may be rejected. A third one took 9 months and editor said
"... the topic/content of your study is outside our journal's area of interest, we regret to inform you that we are unable to consider your manuscript for publication"
My questions

Is there any way to avoid time wasting in review process?
Are there journals with fast reviewing process?


texts:
I am interested in going back for my masters.  While I have been accepted by a masters program (quite a while ago) previously, I am looking at another university and require a fresh set of references.  I have lost track of my previous advisors and am unable to get work references.

So I need to prove myself at this point to somebody.  There are some optional courses in the undergrad that I am interested in, but to be honest I could just read the textbook and save some money.

So:
Is it ethical/acceptable to take courses for the sole purpose of getting a reference letter?

and

Should I inform the prof before taking the class of my intent if this is a gray area?

Note:  I know that it is still the prof's choice if I get a letter and this method is nowhere near ideal.  Just the best I could come up with.


texts: Would this kind of paraphrasing be called "plagiarism"?

texts:
Original Text:

The questionnaire was designed by the researcher to gather data on the
perceptions of students based on their experiences in the blended
environment. It consisted of Likert-type items and open-ended
questions. The content of the questionnaire was derived from a
literature review on blended learning and authenticity of learning,
from conversations with teaching staff, and from the researcher‟s
previous experiences in the use of blended format in teaching and
learning. Experts from Doctoral Committee were asked their opinions in
order to ensure content validity.

My Text
This part will be readded after finalizing my thesis.


texts: In case of in-lecture quizzes, is it unreasonable to fail students who are late or absent?

texts:
I am teaching a large undergraduate class this semester. One day a week (same day every week) we have a quiz. The syllabus doesn't specify at what moment of the class period the quiz will be given. It does say though that students who missed the quiz aren't allowed to make it up. So, I've had the following situation since the semester started. First and second week I gave the quiz at the end of the class. During week 3 I already had a few students coming more than 20 minutes late, but early enough not to miss the 15 min quiz, which I gave again at the end. So, this week (week 4) I gave the quiz 10 minutes after the start of the class. The actual time of the quiz wasn't announced in advance. And yes, I've had many students coming late and some came when the quiz was already over. These students couldn't have 15 minutes like others if any time at all. Now these students are claiming that I needed to tell them in advance at what time the quiz was supposed to be or emphasize that it can be at any time, or otherwise they follow the pattern.

All students who came in late were the ones who were late the previous week except one student.

I repeat that it's a big lecture hall, and I don't want to take notes when a specific student actually started his or her quiz and add 15 minutes to that time. Also, after quiz I want all of them to concentrate on the class material. And I don't want to give it at the end all the time as some students will come in late, and that disrupts the flow of a lecture, distracts other students and generally erodes class morale.

I drop quite a lot of lowest quiz grades at the end of the semester to meet those cases when students do have to be absent. So, a good student's grade won't be affected if he or she will miss a couple of quizzes.

I am currently facing lots of negative emails from students who were late and didn't get the grade they would get if they had the same time as everybody else. Do you think it's me being unreasonable? Their main argument is that it should be clearly stated when a quiz is given or emphasized that it can be given at any time, which I find unnecessary.


texts: Alphabetical author list in non-alphabetical journal

texts:
(A followup for this question)

Say your field's convention is to have alphabetical-ordered author list. What should you do when your work is accepted to a (multidisciplinary) journal in which the convention is to order the author by contribution (e.g. Nature)?


texts: Is it OK to use abbreviations of the same university I am applying to?

texts: Most of the universities in the US use abbreviations on their websites. Can it be considered a good practice to use abbreviation of the same university I am applying to?


texts: Are books and professional society memberships allowable expenses under US federal grants?

texts:
Can you include books and/or professional society memberships in expenses under grants from agencies like NSF and NIH?

I've purchased lots of books under grants from DOE and the Air Force in the past, but I'm wondering if they're generally considered allowable.  My quick searching uncovered the following:

NIH seems to explicitly allow books at least
NSF: I'm guessing books are allowed under "materials and supplies"

I haven't found anything about allowability of professional society memberships.


texts: Using ORCID to obtain bibliographic data for coauthor network analysis

texts:
I'm trying to use ORCID to generate a full list of publications for a set of approximately 500 individuals, along with whatever associated metadata is available in that database. I'm trying to use ORCID because of difficulties with entity resolution when using other databases (some individuals are referred to with multiple different names, and some individuals share the same name).
I currently have a list of the faculty, along with their ORCID numbers.
I'm hoping to put together a csv or xls spreadsheet, with records/works as rows, and the associated metadata for each work. The most important metadata are the author names (ideally separated or easily separated into different cells), the journal names, and publication dates. The broader aim is to put together a network map of these researchers for further analysis.
Browsing the ORCID website however, there doesn't seem to be a way to aggregate information from multiple authors. Even on a single author's webpage, the only export feature seems to be a basic html-format list of works, and definitely does not list co-authors. Looking through the API documentation does not seem to provide a solution either. Even if I were to manually access each DOI and look at which authors are listed, the names of coauthors in each publisher are not really standardized, and do not seem to be matched to their ORCID profile, so I'd face the same entity resolution problem. Also it's a massive undertaking with possibly several tens of thousands of publications.
Hoping someone can give advice!


texts: Several questions regarding the writing of SoP

texts:
I have several questions regarding the writing of SoP (for math Ph.D. admission to some US universities), which are written down sequentially. There may be some vague questions. I will be helpful in any comments. Thanks in advance.

One of the US university ask only SoP describing background and interests, no CV at all. Should I write all necessary details like my past achievements, which course I have attended(sort intro to the key topics of these syllabi), my CGPA, or percentage of marks in my SoP?
Should I include any professor's(of the university where I am going to apply) name and his work(some articles and books) that I used in my past study?
Is there any rule of decorating the SoP, I mean use of margin, font size, space between paragraphs. I asked this question because, in some lines, I have to write some mathematical notation(contained in the name of a topic), and in this case, I have to use Latex. So is there any problem If I submit it as a .pdf file made by latex language?
Should I include any sentence like, "I have plan to take some courses on..... in the upcoming semester''? Here upcoming means, if a grad school selects me, then the gap between the joining and current semester.
If some grad school offers an independent study program, should I write a sentence like " the independent study program of your university is also a flexible way of enhancing my knowledge required for research"? I know that I am intended to join as a research student, but still, not all requirements can not be completed just after passing the MS degree, at least in case myself.
After completing the MS program, I have joined some university in the home country as a regular Ph.D. student. So there is a one year gap between passing MS degree and applying for US university. So should I write what I have done in this gap year of that particular university? I have done some credit courses (in this gap year) that are helpful for research in my domain.


texts: Manuscript revision deadline: how strict are these [at Scientific Reports]

texts:
I am a Ph.D. student and presently dealing with my first paper that I had submitted to Scientific Reports.

I received back the reviewer comments together with a note from the editor asking me (as the first author) to revise and resubmit within 4 weeks (exact wording below*). However, my coauthors and I will likely not be able to finish the revision in time (there are only a few days left), and I am wondering how strictly editors stick to these deadlines, and if they are typically likely to close the submission altogether, or rather happy to accept the revision even sometime later. The editor him/herself would obviously be the best person to ask, however, I am not getting a reply to my request for an extension, and I would need to know soon whether to drop everything and just work crazy hours to get the revision to them in time.

  We hope to receive your revised paper within four weeks. If you cannot send it within this time, please let us know so that we can close your file. In this event, we will still be happy to reconsider your paper at a later date as long as you haven’t submitted similar or related work elsewhere in the meantime.


texts: How to approach a professor for research?

texts:
There is a similar question posted here, but the answers don't exactly fulfill my needs, as will become obvious in this post.

I just graduated from an undergraduate program in engineering and in September will be beginning my Masters program at the same university. The Masters program is advertised as coursework-only, with the official website saying that students can "contact professors for research opportunities to augment coursework."

That's all well and good, but I'm not sure how exactly to contact a professor. I had a high undergraduate GPA, completed internships in industry, not academia, and took one course each with the professors I'm interested in - I did well in their courses, but they probably don't remember me since I didn't often attend office hours (other commitments).

There are certain topics I'm interested in researching, and I've casually read some PhD theses produced by students of the labs I'm interested in, but I've clearly never done formal research work.

So, the general question is, how should I contact a professor about joining his/her lab? It's currently the summer, so should I email him/her? Should I wait until September to talk to him/her in-person? Do professors generally just look at resumes, or do they expect prior research experience? Should I indicate the topics I'm interested in, even though my knowledge is gated by the courses I've taken and papers I've read?

I haven't decided about whether I'd like to do a PhD, so does my indecision make it harder for me to get a position at a lab for the 1-2 years it'll take for my Masters program?


texts: Do applicants have to pay separate fees to apply to two PhD programs at the same school?

texts:
I initially thought yes, but it seems after some research that this is not true!

It seems the fee goes to the overall graduate school, not one specific department.

Can someone in the grad world back this up for me?

I would rather not send an email asking, may seem ungenerous.


texts: In publications the wording often resembles the following: "We found that our results followed what we found in our previous research."  I am now writing a publication alone, with no co-authors.  Is it bad form to use "my" in place of "our" in such cases?


texts: Can my university revoke my degree after it was granted due to (corporate) data having changed?

texts:
I did my thesis using corporate data (I used to work there, they don't give their information freely or sell it), data is from 2009 to 2018.

I collect the data, analyze it, everything normal. However, after my thesis was approved and submitted, I saw that the company has modified some of their data from 2009 to 2018, historical data from the past was changed (they have valid reasons) but I am worried that if someone tries to verify the source of my information, they will find different data and think that I commit fraud or data manipulation.

My supervisor and many people told me that nothing wrong will happen because my research was in a specified period of time when data was presented like that, they also told me that after a thesis approval, no one verifies data source. They also told me that the verification of data source is done before thesis approval.

However I am still worried, because it is not common for a company to modify data from the past.

My thesis wont be published because the used data is privated, so they are allowing me to not publish it.

Any ideas of what should I do?


texts: References of an updated version arXiv paper not added in Google Scholar

texts:
I first uploaded a paper to arXiv and it was correctly added to my Google Scholar profile.
After a few months, I made some modifications to the article, uploading a second version to arXiv (this revised version included some new references too).

However Google Scholar, despite correctly pointing to the (revised) second version of the arXiv paper, did not recognize the new references and so it did not incremented the "citation counter" of the respective papers.

How can I solve this issue?


texts: How can we effect institutional change to make academia climate-compatible?

texts:
How can we create an environment in which academic institutions are responsible for the carbon footprint of the research carried out under their auspices?

For context, I am a postdoc working several thousand miles from home.  I try to mitigate my carbon footprint, but there is absolutely no incentive not to travel, other than personal conscience.  In fact, one actively harms one's career prospects by not travelling to academic conferences, for research visits, etc.  Currently I am using my own money to carbon offset every flight I take, but I cannot avoid flying if I want to retain my job.  I am certain that I am not the only academic unable to reconcile my love of my research with the entirely unnecessary environmental damage which it is causing.

The individualism of academia means that my university appears to take no interest in mitigating the climate impact of the research going on within it, and seems to consider any action on the matter to be my personal responsibility, rather than their responsibility as my employer.  This should not be a matter of personal conscience (or financial resources) for junior members of staff on precarious contracts.

I am aware of initiatives such as Flying Less, but these largely rely on individuals to risk their career progression by participating. It clearly is not enough to tell academic staff not to attend conferences or to travel to perform research that will further their careers.  How can institutional change be effected?

Some thoughts, which would likely need support from national-level funding bodies to implement:

Could carbon offsetting costs be factored into research grants?
Could carbon trading schemes be instituted?
Could universities cap the maximum air miles of their staff?
Could remote participation in conferences be incentivised?
Could conference funding be made contingent on climate mitigation measures being implemented?
How can we push institutions to create the systemic changes to our profession which are clearly required?

I am of course aware of the arguments that, e.g., academic travel is a negligible fraction of total air travel; air travel is by no means the largest part of the problem; we need more research in order to combat climate change, not less, etc.  However, it is my opinion that academia needs to be an exemplar of adapting to become sustainable.  If we as scientists cannot alter our own behaviour in the face of overwhelming evidence that it is actively harmful, how can we expect others to moderate theirs?


texts: How to get three recommendation letters while I only worked with my supervisor?

texts:
I am a Ph.D. student who will get a Ph.D. degree in less than 8 months in biophysics. While I am looking for postdoc positions many of them require three recommendation letters. One of these letters will be provided by my supervisor, however, what can I do about the other two?

I collaborated with other researchers on my projects, however, the collaboration was kind of at a distance while the collaborators were in another country.

Is it possible to ask these collaborators for a recommendation letter? How could they evaluate me while they never worked with me directly or in person? They usually provided samples or commented on the draft I wrote, however, I did not interact with them the way I discussed the project with my supervisor.


texts: Finishing with only 2 papers (both co-authorship)

texts:
So, I am about to gain my PhD degree in Biochemistry (Cancer biochemistry) in december.
But I'll have finished it only with 2 papers (3rd one, which is the one totally about my thesis project is due but i don't know when it will be published exactly, not before couple of months for sure. But neither in this paper I'm the first author)

The reason for that, I've been doing my PhD in a foreign european country (english is not really well-spoken here, neither by my thesis advisor nor laboratory colleagues, i even had to learn their language to be able to communicate the people better during my years here) and I had started with a professor who had offered me a fellowship grant & scholarship. But since it was his last year prior to obligatory retirement due to his age, he was unfortunately too busy with extending his period in the department, and therefore in the first year we had no positive results with his not well-studied project.

For the second year he sent me to one of his collaborator's laboratory from another department of our university, new project was really good and I obtained good results, I highly contributed to the upcoming paper, but the problem is in that laboratory they had already started to that project and the first authorships were already assigned to 2 researchers, the post-doc and another phd student from that lab. So obviously (unfortunately) they didn't even consider giving me the 3rd first authorship of the paper, because they kind of acted as I was even blessed to be included in the project and that was enough. I was the only foreigner phd in that lab as well, as I know they never had one before neither. It has even been quite sad that being the only foreigner researcher in the lab with the best english language level, i couldn't even get a first author title because of "political" reasons.

So the thing is, I know that I'm capable and learned lots of techniques through my phd and had a good phd thesis, but unfortunately when you don't have a first authorship title, in academia it is almost impossible to find a post-doctoral position..

What would you suggest me for such situation? I'm so keen on continuing in academia, I don't want that unlucky situation -which was out of my control- to steal my future. Do you think it's a good idea if I apply for post-doc positions abroad (this time for sure US, i want only an English-spoken country) in any case and mention about the reasons why I couldn't get a first-author paper? Or it won't be even taken into consideration?

I will highly appreciate any kind of suggestion, thanks in advance.


texts: How should staff address non-doctorate professors?

texts:
Background:

I am in an administrative staff position, in a research compliance role, and frequently have to "cold" email professors I have never met or otherwise previously interacted with.  In my institution almost all professors have MD degrees, so I typically address them as "Dr. X."  However there are a small number of professors with master's degrees in areas of specialty that don't offer doctorate-level degrees, and I am uncertain how to appropriately address these individuals.

My gut reaction is to address these individuals by their first name (as our institution's culture considers first name acceptable for staff above you in the reporting chain), but to me this feels disrespectful when applied to faculty, especially considering the content of my messages are often directing them to do things (or stop doing things) they'd rather not.  Conversely, calling them "professor" seems unusual to me since I am not enrolled at the institution.  Finally, my school is very progressive, and I worry about (mis-)using gendered pronouns.

Question:

Am I worried about this unnecessarily?  How should I address these professors when I can't open by asking how they would like to be addressed?


texts: Are there any special provisions provided for students who have schizophrenia (for example)? Is there an "adjustment" to grading? Or perhaps there is no adjustment to the grading process per se, but only to the due dates? Is there anyone here who has been in this type of situation?


texts: How are bad first year marks (i.e., ranked around average among my peers) but outstanding 2nd-4th year marks (i.e., top 2%) perceived by PhD admissions committees in the U.S.? What emphasis is placed onto first year marks?


texts: Is there any evidence that graphical abstracts are beneficial?

texts:
I've seen some journals now require (or at least suggest) including a graphical abstract for publication. In particular, Elsevier/Cell seems to advocate strongly for graphical abstracts as they can draw attention and attract readers.

There seems to be anecdotal evidence that this is the case. But, is there any study that supports this assumption? Does a graphical abstract lead to more readers, more citations, more media exposure, or improvement in any other metric of "impact"?

The only study I've found that tackles this question actually finds no evidence of this being the case when analysing papers published between 2014-2015 in the journal Molecules.


texts: Some bad grades but many (good) publications; applying for a PhD

texts:
I'm considering to apply for a PhD. My situation is roughly this:

GPA in my BSc is about 2/4.
GPA in my MSc will be about 3.6/4

I have two peer-reviewed conference papers with proceedings and two peer-reviewed journal publications. I'm a first author in two of them. I could probably have two good recommendation letters. Third would be related to teaching, not research.

Would I have any chance to get admitted to top universities? I feel that the BSc GPA is a problem. And I'm now in a small university no one has never heard of. On the other hand, my MSc grades are good, and as different from my BSc grades as "night and day." Will schools likely give more weight to my MSc or BSc grades?


texts: It is worth the time to revise and resubmit if the referee recommends final rejection?

texts:
Recently, I have submitted a paper to a high rank journal where I have considered a physical system, and applied a mathematical technique. In order to perform this technique, I have considered some approximations, and the results obtained extended previous results. However, the approximations used in the paper are valid among different approaches in the field, being used in different papers. From this perspective, I know how to response to the referee critics, with evidence from the scientific literature. The question would be if it is appropriate to respond to the referee critics and to motivate in the article the mentioned limitations, or to submit to a new journal. I mention that in the previous published papers by our group the referees didn't used the word rejection, and have pointed to a major/minor revision. Note that the reviewer report does not says anything about the invalidity of the results, only that they are limited by the approximations used in order to treat the system mathematically and not numerically.

Update: the paper was finally rejected. The reviewer's comment from the second round were not so negative, recommended a major revision, but the editor decided to reject the paper.

New update: the referee comments from the second journal have arrived, the paper has a high chance of being accepted after a major revision. Eventually the paper was accepted.


texts: How to get into position to teach college Arabic?

texts:
I am interested in teaching at the university-level in Arabic.  Would teaching arabic in a high-school first(as I have no university-level  teaching experience) help me? I currently teach science to 6th graders, and am considering quitting after 4 years there.

I have an MS in Arabic from UCLA, also an MS in Educ. Bachelors in Arabic also.
Thanks


texts: How does failing in a course during Master's studies in Germany affect job prospects?

texts:
What are the implications of failing an exam of a particular course during Master's studies in Germany? Is it considered bad in terms of future job prospects in that field? Does that disqualify you from pursuing a job in that specific field?
For example: If a student fails in the exam of a compulsory course "A" once or twice and he/she passes the exam in the second or third attempt. But his/her field of interest is very relevant to the course "A". So will he/she find it difficult to get a job in that field because he/she failed in that compulsory course "A" once or twice?


texts: Is it better to pull out of exams or fail them?

texts:
This year I have been pursuing my second Master's degree in pure mathematics. It is a one-year program in which the final score is determined 100% by the final exams. I have excellent scores at my previous degrees, but this year I faced a health issue which resulted in me making very little progress, to the point that I'm pretty certain I will fail my upcoming exams. Assuming that I will be able to overcome my health issue and apply for a PhD* in the future:

Would it look better in a PhD application if I pulled out of my upcoming exams completely or if I took them and failed them?
What would I write in my CV in each case?

The second scenario sounds a bit worse to me because there will be a transcript with extremely poor grades which I will have to attach to any future PhD application. But maybe I'm missing something. Any advice is welcome.

*: I haven't decided whether I will be pursuing a PhD or not, so I'm posting the analogous question at workplace.SE as well. I don't think this is cross-posting since the option that is best for pursuing a PhD might not be best for job hunting (for example I'm not sure whether you are supposed to attach your academic transcripts in a job application).


texts: Keeping email records when moving between posts

texts:
This question is about maintaining email records when changing institutions. I’m writing it here because it seems to be a problem quite specific to the academic context of managing long-term relationships within the context of a series of short-term posts which seems to typify post-doc life.

Now I’m in a new post-doc position, my student email has about 6 months left to run before everything is deleted when the account is closed, and which probably contains several thousand carefully filed emails (academic collaborations and correspondence, supervision and PhD project, university milestones, passwords, agreements...). Probably about only 30-40 of them will be crucial to me over the next couple of years, but it’s difficult to know which ones. I’d like to keep a fairly complete paper trail. I am also preparing to encounter this problem again when my post-doc post finishes in 18 months' time.

A colleague who was in a similar fix ended up mailing hundreds of emails to her new account, which is clearly less than ideal. Another colleague just prints everything and stores it in paper files. If I wasn’t in academia I would switch emails to a more permanent one, but it is essential to use the proper address for work correspondence, so this doesn’t appear to be an option, unless if anyone has any ideas.

(Technical bit: The previous system used Outlook and exchange on the web; the current system uses Outlook and outlook.com; the next system could use anything. To complicate things, Outlook has been auto-archiving files which means there are multiple .pst files, so this option looks a little nightmarish. I'm a mere social scientist, so eager to avoid a very technical solution.)

Has anybody found a reasonable system for handling this sort of problem, whether manual or automated, other than finding a permanent academic post?


texts: Line Graph of a Solution containing three different components?

texts:
I am not sure if I am posting this query in the correct forum, so please forgive me if I've got this wrong.
I am doing a research paper into the effect of different macronutrient ratios on sleep (duration efficiency etc)
My IV is Marcos distribution and so obviously I have three components eg. 50% carb 30%protein 20%
So, by eating these different diets, what is the effect on a person's diet is effectively what I am testing?
I have 5-6 different diets to test. I know I can do a bar chart of all these diets but I also need to show some sort of correlation as my IV progressively changes
I am therefore a bit unsure how to make a line graph accurately after recording the results of this experiment.
All help will be much appreciated! Any further clarification, I am happy to give more details. Just ask.
I realise I may not have been terribly clear!
Very best wishes and thanks in advance,
CK


texts: When during the application process should a candidate mention that their spouse is also looking for a job

texts:
When during the application process should a candidate say that their spouse is also looking for a job?

The issue of academic spouses who want to find employment close enough to live together is colloquially called the "two body problem", and it is a perpetual challenge for job applicants.

The italicized question came up in a recent comment thread on this site, and I realized there is no post on Academia.SE about it. So I am making one.

I have seen many answers to the question, which usually fall between two extremes:

Don't mention your spouse in any way until you have a job offer, then bring up the question of a job for your spouse. Sometimes the advice even recommends taking off wedding rings during interviews.
Mention the spouse immediately in your application cover letter.

Each has its advantages and disadvantages, certainly, depending on the specific circumstances of the applicant and school being applied to.

Because many people, like me, have a perspective limited by their own life experience and the schools they have worked at, I expect that there should be many different answers to the question, expressing different perspectives. I think that collection of answers would provide an extremely useful resource for job applicants.

In the thread I linked, another user left a comment:

  ... I'd particularly be interested in seeing answers supported by data, as there seem to be a wide range of opinions, each supported by apparently convincing logical reasons and/or anecdotes.

I don't want to limit answers here to ones based on data, but answers that do include broad data would be particularly welcome.

This kind of question has also been asked on MathOverflow.


texts: Why do textbooks often include the solutions to odd or even numbered problems but not both?

texts:
I've just gotten a textbook (physics) for next year and I noticed that, like many other textbooks I've had, it contains solutions to only odd-numbered questions.

From my experience, this is typical, at least for texts at the undergraduate level.

If anyone is wondering, the text is "Fundamentals of Physics" by Halliday & Resnick 10th edition.

My question is, why do textbooks often include the solutions to odd or even numbered problems but not both? In my case, I don't think space is the answer because the answers section only takes up 7 pages.


texts: PhD student funding from another professor?

texts:
I'm a PhD student in the (probably) final third of my work, and I'm in the comfortable position that I have two options to continue my doctoral efforts for the next two years.

The problem is: the job offered by my supervisor is probably related to project work that has nothing to do with my dissertation. The other position is in another department of the university with another professor but fits very well thematically to my doctoral thesis.

What option could I choose here so that
  my supervisor is not embarrassed if I refuse his offer and
  my doctoral thesis is finished successfully and in time?


texts:
When repeating a course, why are the grades averaged for GPA?

For example, a student takes course X and receives a C (2.0) and then retakes the course and receives an A (4.0), my university (and I believe most universities in the US at least) will end up with a "B" (3.0) impact on their GPA.

The student has exhibited an "A" level of "knowledge" so why penalize them. If the student attempted to learn on their own and did not attain "requisite" understanding prior to attending the course but ended doing very well in the course they would not be penalized.

Or perhaps offer two measure's of GPA, one as a summation of everything and one that only includes the students best performance for each course taken?


texts: As a referee, is it appropiate to ask for further details on a model extracted from another work?

texts:
I'm reviewing a work in applied mathematics, and on it, the authors work on an equation that is derived from a previous work.

There is a parameter that has been chosen in a way I would like to be justified. Looking into the reference where they extracted the equation, the original authors also don't give any explanation for it.

Therefore, should I ask for further details on this parameter? or is it enough for them to point out the seminal work?


texts: Permission on reproduction of data extracted from a figure

texts:
I have been studying a recent paper, and wanted to extract the some data from it, in an effort to reproduce it. I wrote to the authors, and got no response, so I got the raw data by digitalizing a figure in the paper where the data is plotted.

Then I made another plot, where I plot  the raw data together with mine on top of each other, to compare them. If I publish this plot and properly cite their paper, do I need to ask them for permission?

It looks like I don't, because this is not like copying and pasting a figure of theirs, but I am not 100% sure.

Please find enclosed the webpage of the publishing company where I plan to publish, which contains information on their policy on the matter. The  chapter relevant to my case seems to be this one.


texts: How to deal with my academic advisor who offered me a postdoc position and try to prevent me getting other offers?

texts:
I recently graduated and my co-chair offered me a postdoc position which I haven't started yet. I first thought he was trying to help me. Now I am getting other good offers from others.

I received a very good postdoc offer and was in a very good lab. I told my co-chair, that I will leave if I get that one. After the interview, the main PI told me that he will contact my references and will get back to me within one week. Later, he sent me an email saying he offered the job for someone else. Before the interview, he was writing me and even shared some confidential information even before they released them through the HR.

The way he handled my application gave me very high hopes on getting the job. Now I suspect that my co-chair who was known to my future PI changed the post-doc hiring committees view of me. He has given me very good reference letters in the past for other academic positions that I can start in several months if I was selected. I am now confused, and not sure how to handle this supervisor. Any help/advice greatly appreciated!


texts: what is the impact factor of "npj Precision Oncology"

texts:
How can I know the most recent impact factor of "npj Precision Oncology" journal, as I do not seem to be able to find it online.

Other related questions on StackExchange do not answer my question.


texts: Do other countries have a oral exam system similar to French “colles”?

texts:
The French classes prépas system includes, during the first two years of undergraduate (post-baccalaureate) education, a series of regular oral exams, known as colles. Basically: every week during your first two years, you have two oral exams, each lasting one hour, with one teacher examining two or three students, each using a blackboard. A science student would typically have math and chemistry on week A, then physics and another topic (engineering, foreign language, …) on week B. This system prepares students for national competitive exams after their second year, which includes both written and oral components.

Now, whenever I have to explain that system to a foreign colleague, I have to do it from the start (as above) because I do not know any other similar system they might know (especially, I don't know of any equivalent or similar system in the US). Is there one?


texts: Can a cat be a co-author in academic paper?

texts:
One of the most famous cat physicians must be F. D. Willard, who co-authored many physical papers.

My question is simple:

Is it academically correct to have a cat/dog as a co-author of a paper, in principle?
Does it correspond to the academic code of ethics?
Does the author has to be a natural human?


texts: How to tell supervisor that you first want to do something else before accepting his offer?

texts:
My supervisor (in a big German company) has offered me a master's thesis and a PhD position in his company.
Before I would like to start the PhD there, I would like to do some other internships to get more experience in different fields and write my master's thesis somewhere else. It's not that I do not like the topics in the company, but I want to find out what it's like to work in different companies and fields. How can I tell him about this without giving him the feeling that I do not like the work and would like to come back probably?


texts: Two co-first author publications vs. one second author + one first author publication

texts:
Hypothetically, which of these authorship scenarios would look better to the eyes of a potential employer in the academic world of biology/bioengineering from the perspective of author A:

Work 1: author B*, author A*, author C - moderate potential for impact

Work 2: author A*, author B*, author C - moderate to high potential for impact

*these authors contributed equally

OR

Work 1: author B, author A, author C - moderate potential for impact

Work 2: author A, author B, author C - moderate to high potential for impact

My colleague and I have a theorist/experimentalist relationship with a work that has since fractured into two separate works. The second work is more theory focused while the first is more experiment focused. We believe the second work has a more broad ranged application and has potential to be heavily cited.

Pragmatically, author A is close to finishing his PhD and, besides these two works, he has one first author paper.


texts:
I'm an undergrad student and I got together with 2 people to write a research article (lit review) for publication. We divided the project in 3 sections and each did our part. When it was time to submit it, I noticed they completely edited my sections and removed/added new things to it. They said what i wrote wasn't good and my writing had plagiarism, therefore I am not considered a first author (along with them) anymore. They didn't even tell me they were not satisfied with my writing before they edited it.

After days of arguing, the journal we were planning to submit it to emailed us and told us that if we don't come to an agreement soon, they won't even publish our paper. My "teammates" agreed to have me as first author, but without including any of my edits.

My question is, is it unethical for me to accept first authorship now that a lot of my original content is deleted from the paper?


texts: How to point out a typo in an equation in an article?

texts: In an article (from 2015) I came across a wrong equation with a sign error in one term. In the publicly available code, the correct sign is used, so the results of this particular paper are correct. However, several other papers have since copied and used this equation, and therefore likely have wrong results because of it. It won't change any conclusions I think, some results would change by a factor ~1.5. Should I just email the authors, or the journal? And what about the other papers that used the wrong equation?


texts: Should I ask for a recommendation letter from a professor who I know from an industry training program?

texts:
I joined a company after graduation. And our company often offers funding for professors in academia. In exchange, these professors usually would attend our training programs to teach some lessons related to their fields.
Recently, I decided to apply for a Ph.D. position. Shall I ask for a recommendation letter from one of the professors who happen to be in the research field I want to do?


texts: Is it okay to work on colleagues' ideas after they leave academia?

texts:
I've just discovered that a former colleague is now working on some research ideas that I developed and laid the groundwork for now that I have left academia following failure to obtain funding. I'm happy that the work is being done, but feel that it would have been courteous to let me know that they were doing so. Are either of us in the wrong here?

History:
I did my PhD and a 3-year postdoc in a UK lab where we were expected to act very independently. As such I developed my own line of research during my PhD but didn't have time to publish the results until after I'd completed. I wanted to keep working on that line of work, so wrote a grant proposal with my supervisor, who acted as PI (I was named postdoc) which we were awarded.

During the postdoc, for complicated reasons, I developed another strand of independent research, with some guidance from a research fellow in the lab.

This strand then formed the basis of a large fellowship proposal that I was nearly awarded, but ultimately was unsuccessful. The fellow in the lab (who had a proleptic lectureship) acted as the academic host for the proposal.

Following a number of unsuccessful fellowship proposals, I undertook another postdoc for a year, then decided to take a different job and am now a software engineer at another UK university.

Situation: I've recently seen on twitter that the fellow who I had been working with (now lecturer) is now working on the project that I had proposed for my unsuccessful fellowship bid. We've had little contact in the intervening time and they've made no attempt to discuss this with me.

I know that it's kind of clear that I'm following a different path, and I'm happy to be doing so. But I'm a little upset that they wouldn't even send me an email to say "Hey, remember the stuff you came up with, well we got some money to do it etc.."

Am I wrong to be upset by this?

It's a small field, and my experience of my 7 or so years working in the area was that we all tried to be collegiate and courteous and not step on each others' toes. So this seems a little out of sorts.

I don't think there's anything to be done about this, but it has got under my skin for someone I trusted to have no qualms about using ideas I worked to develop whilst I had to leave the field to find work.


texts: Filling in a form before going out of town

texts:
One has a tenure track position. Before leaving out of town for a conference or a seminar talk one has to fill in a form a month in advance (at least in some departments) even if one does not apply for any financial support, and there is no problem with teaching.

Question. What are the goals of this procedure?

I am mostly asking about the US, but other answers are also welcome.


texts: Should request payment details for a project I am to do?

texts: I am a Master's student. Recently, my professor offered me a project mentioning that funding has been granted for the project and that I will be getting paid for my work. I would like to know if I can ask him the exact amount and if yes, what will be the polite way to ask?


texts: Can an online degree through an accredited institution affect admissions into masters programs abroad?

texts: I'm currently attending an accredited university which provides an online BSc CIS program.  Is an online degree considered lowly in compared to a traditional education, and can it affect admissions into masters programs offered abroad?


texts: Is it better for me to audit or enroll in a class for independent research?

texts: I plan to conduct independent research on different forms of early childhood education. I have a B.A. in Early Childhood Education but no formal education in research methods or statistics. I was hoping to enroll in a statistics class at a community college (I specifically chose this one because the professor is by far the highest rated and helpful in showing us how to actually conduct research) but the waitlist is full and I probably won't get in if I hope for someone to drop the class. Since I'm not working towards a major (currently, though I do eventually plan on doing a Master's in psychology), would it be best to audit instead? I'm not in a rush so I can wait to regularly enroll next year, though I'd prefer to audit now if it won't make a huge difference in terms of how it'll look to have an audit instead of a grade when I eventually apply for Master's programs.


texts: Will having a recommendation letter from someone in a different subfield hurt my chances of admission to PhD programs?

texts: I am applying to the graduate program in astronomy in US universities. In support of my application I have provided three recommendation letters.  Two are from my thesis advisors, while the remaining one is from my course instructor who works in condensed matter physics. He is well known in his field, but perhaps not in astronomy. I did very well in his course and he agreed to write a good (but not detailed) letter for me. Will this hurt my chances of admission?


texts: How to approach research advisor after failing first semester of master's program?

texts:
So, I started grad school during the Sep 2020 session in lockdown. Within a month or two, I was struggling to reach deadlines for assignments of all the courses. I found the online mode of classes very tedious and just could not perform to my best. The monotonous lifestyle and the pressure of graduate work became too much for me. In the end, I was feeling so demoralized and anxious that basically, I didn't attend the last month of classes. So I got an 'F' in 3 of the 5 courses as I missed the assignments, presentations, exams, etc.
Now I have to face my research advisor about everything that happened. I don't know how to approach him regarding this. I know it reflects poorly on my performance and I feel awful. But I can't change what has happened.
I really do want to turn my situation around and successfully complete my grad school. Please let me know any suggestions for how to proceed.


texts:
Most students encounter a life-changing decision during their undergraduate years. That is either to choose a high-paying career, yet such that they might not be passionate about or a career they like but is unlikely to be high-paying.

It is not unusual to find career advice popping in various internet circles that fixate on the importance of passion. The general rhetoric is "If you have a "sufficient" passion for X, you are guaranteed a "good" career in X and hence a good life."
Now, on some levels, the advice makes sense. Students are usually willing to sacrifice guaranteed-to-pay-well professions in hopes to excel in their own professions fueled by passion.
Now my question is, What is the sufficiency precisely in this context?

To be more precise, say I think I feel passionate for mathematics. Maybe because I am good at it. Maybe because I contemplate on it in my free time. Now when it comes to the actual profession, the "apparent" passion fades away and I am left regretting pursuing the field (something that is not unusual to see with Ph.D. students).
Or say, I feel I like physics and mathematics but I also get easily swayed away by high paying professions like data science.

How can I come to "know" whether I truly have a passion for mathematics or whether I was merely deluded into thinking that because I was made to feel that I am good at mathematics by the relevant education system?


texts: APA citation: book versus electronic book

texts: I obtain many of my reading sources from online, instead of form a hardcopy in the library, even for books or book sections. The APA citation requirements for citing printed books and citing e-books are different. If my source IS indeed an e-book, I wonder whether I should really cite e-books according to the e-book citation requirement, which includes URL and all kinds of extra information than citing a printed book. Can I just cite it as if it is from a printed book?


texts: Are Non-US bachelor's degrees equatable with US bachelor's degrees when applying to law schools in the US?

texts:
Most law schools in the US require applicants to have bachelor's degrees (used here and throughout the question to refer to a typically 4 year college degree) - usually on topics related to law such as English, Political Science, or Philosophy. I'm a US citizen who has attended some US college part-time. I'm considering pursuing a bachelor's degree in law in Spain - a 4/5 year program that provides basic legal training for those hoping to become lawyers in Spain (further specialization is typically required before becoming an attorney). If I obtain a bachelor's in law in Spain, will that be equitable with a bachelor's from a US institution for meeting the requirements of law schools in the United States? In two parts:

Will a foreign bachelor's meet the hard requirement?
Will a foreign bachelor's be "looked down upon" or considered "less than" a US degree?

Let me know if the Law Stack Exchange is more appropriate for this question, I wasn't sure.


texts: My colleague is monetizing our contributions and not compensating us

texts:
A few years back, my advisor began a project (received funding for, etc.). My advisor funded a student (we'll call them "CEO") on this project, who's now working on a startup in this area and is nearing graduation. Eventually, a more junior student "B" comes along, and works on the project.

Recent Timeline:

So I agreed to work with B and "CEO" on this project, as I've had a specific idea to improve the work in mind. I prototype and evaluate the algorithm, it seems to work, people get more excited. "B" helps me write up the theory and present it to our advisor.
Authorship is discussed and the order filters out to ["B", Me, "CEO", Advisor], with both "CEO" and Advisor as tentative authors, given their other commitments. I'm happy for "B" to go first, even though the core idea was mine, because this paper supports their thesis work, and they've been at least an equal partner in contributions.
My idea works even better: "CEO" suggests we change metrics for evaluation, and our performance is more clearly better. [They are not without contribution on the paper]
"CEO" suddenly gets their startup funded by our university to do prototype development and to market research.
I explain to "CEO" that they should offer my advisor equity (as my advisor was the first to identify this hot area), because this never occurred to them.

Here's the problem.

Technically my contribution doesn't belong to me (University owns everything), and the University is okay licensing its discoveries to this startup.
But, I strongly feel that the startup is not realistic or viable without my recent algorithmic contribution, and while "CEO" is technically an author on the paper, they explicitly tried to talk me out of trying my approach "too simple", "no way it will work", etc, before I came up with numbers.

Even if I don't agree to be CTO (and I don't want to), the sheer amount of money I've saved this fledgling startup (with my more efficient approach) is more than their net-worth in server costs.

How do I communicate my value to the startup owner without "burning bridges"? and without actually owning the insight that just saved them an incredible amount of money. At least part of the reason I don't want to be CTO is that I don't want to get "in bed" with someone who doesn't already value my contributions.
Their previous approach isn't feasible to demonstrate to investors (too slow). I've thought I could pitch a "contracting fee" to implement the algorithm to the CEO, giving them a demo based on my new tech, and get compensated in this roundabout way. CEO brought up a "conflict of interest" complaint - claiming it would be more legitimate to "just give me equity" and make me CTO instead. I find their reluctance to pay me alarming, considering the actually have money now. Do they have any merit to saying that they can't pay me as a contractor because I'm also a University employee and that would be too conflict-of-interest-y?
Should I just stop working on this "hot" problem at all? Or do I have to accept that anything I come up with will make someone else money who has historically forgotten to credit others in the past?

I haven't yet discussed my concerns with my advisor. I plan to, but admittedly don't understand all the issues involved. I realize with anonymity, particular laws, etc, this can be hard.

We're in the US, "B" is an international student and probably can't be a contractor (VISAs are hard), but I would like to protect their research, somehow too.


texts: How to properly assess a student's knowledge of a subject

texts:
Good afternoon,

Often times (in my experiences) tests questions are based upon irrelevant specific details that do not necessarily reflect a student's knowledge of the subject matter. For instance, I was once faced with a test on "The Once and Future King" that asked, "What was the name of the cow?"... I believe asking questions such as this does not accurately reflect a student's mastery of the subject.

In this light, are there any established best practices for formulating examinations that properly assess how well a student has grasped the concept of a subject?

P.S. - If you down-vote, please leave a reason so that I ask better questions in the future.

P.P.S. - I don't believe this question (singular) about examinations (specific) is too broad, since it has two very helpful (definitely adequate) answers with additional resources, which have been developed by Universities as best practices. These three qualities are what the 'too broad' hold explicitly asks the questioner to address. If, after these edits, Mods still think the question is too broad, please leave more feedback so that a better question can be formulated, or simply go ahead and close the thread. I think the two answers already given are adequate for anyone seeking an answer to this question.


texts: Does university have any cultural mission?

texts:
I am asking this question, as my previous question was closed because of being opinion-based. This made me wonder if there is a conceptual mission for higher education or not?

In most European countries, public universities receive the majority of their budget from the government, as higher education is somehow a public service, and responsibility of the government.

Imagine that all universities in Germany or Sweden decide to abandon any social activities of students. Sell all big campuses and buy modern buildings and only run the educational classes. Then, do the government, parliament, tax payers accept this policy? Is it the university's decision to make or universities have social and cultural responsibility for the society.

It was an exaggerated example, but my point is that:

Are universities simply business entities (even not for profit) to provide a service (which is educational courses) against the money they receive (from tuition or aid).

OR

They have social responsibility to make better citizens beside the professional training.

NOTE: I understand that an urban university may only offer education for a specific range of audience (for example students busy with jobs), but is it acceptable from the fundamental concepts of higher education that a university totally eliminate social activities by assuming that the main responsibility of a university is just providing high quality education.


texts: Does the order in which you list committee members in a dissertation matter?

texts: I am currently writing my PhD dissertation and was wondering in what order I should list committee members in my dissertation? What is a good order that does not offend anyone? I know the advisor has to be listed first. For the rest of the members, some of the options I considered were: (a) listing by decreasing order of seniority, (b) alphabetical, (c) list external last. The problem with (a) is that the senior most professor is an external (from a different university) and comes up before Profs from my own department. The problem with (b) and (c) are that the senior most person, who is also quite famous, now comes last. Am I overthinking this?


texts: Why do some PhD programs recruit only a handful of students and other recruit more than 100?

texts:
See this. This university recruits only 5 students in the Faculty of Education.
Now, see this link. They admit 110 Ph.D. students per year. They have 79 faculty members.
Why do some Ph.D. programs recruit only a handful of students and others recruit more than 100?
Is the recruitment size only dependent on the number of research-faculty or some other factors that are also involved?


texts: How to ask graduate program coordinator, if i got funding?

texts:
I got accepted for graduate school(MS program) at my top choice (got accepted in few other as well). I have not visited the campus yet (its top 3 program in US, so i just applied). The school will be out of state for me so it will be expensive.

During the application it said that if i applied before a certain date, i would be considered for funding (i did apply before the date). But i have read the acceptance letter and even browsed around and it states nothing about any assistance offered.
So, i want to email the coordinator (who emailed me my acceptance letter), asking him if i got any funding. Is it ok to ask for this and any tips on not to come off as arrogant/rude?
Essentially, what i want to achieve from the email is:

Thank you for considering me for application.
Have i qualified for any fellowship/assitanship
I would like to visit the campus so i can meet staff and see if i will fit in. I have checked the website and cannot find any event, that is why i am asking this in email. Currently, I am working and can afford to go there and stay in a hotel but it would be nice if they reimburse something.

How to ask for the last two parts and is it common?


texts: Why do so many researchers in CS fail to clarify their symbols and notations in research papers?

texts:
I am exploring some new research fields in CS from my unrelated field in math.

Many papers I have stumped upon during research seem to completely ignore the fact that notation and symbols have meanings. Coming from math, this is a bit unsettling to me.

I hate to provide example, but here is one. In equation 1, some magical capital letters are used as functions, but never defined. No references are provided either. Here is another one. Virtually all the symbols which are supposed to mean something in math are not provided with any definition.

I've encountered a whole string (dozens) of these papers in a row.

Is this a common practice in CS? Or perhaps due to page limit? Can anyone explain what I am seeing?


texts: My research group "fishes data" is there anything I could do?

texts: I am a PhD student, and my supervisors have a "different approach" for doing research.  They do not dig into the literature to find a gap and then do research on that. Instead, they just do some surveys and then hand the data over to their students, who go through it in order to find an interesting research question to address. Is this fishing for data? Is there a body in which this could be anonymously reported? Or is just one of the bad practices that one can sadly find in academia, and unfortunately in this case on my PhD research?


texts: How can I know if I’m working through my PhD correctly?

texts:
I’m a math PhD student in a university in Europe, working in a highly abstract field. I’m halfway through the intended three years. But I have the feeling I’m not doing it right.

When I look back, two years ago I knew almost anything of the theory I’m working in. So from that point of view, it’s reassuring. But I am still learning. My supervisor has given me a problem which is not very definite or well-defined: I have to abstract some structure from some old, classical scenario and try to update it to some more modern objects, in hopes of gaining insight and computability.

This has proven a bit formidable to me, even if he said it shouldn't "take me more than some weeks". After trying the “hands-on” approach my supervisor had some months ago, I got to realize that it wouldn't work, at least not naively. So I started thinking of an easier case, and then the problem started to divert and I feel like I’m on very loose ground now.

The situation is the following: my supervisor has a very computational approach to math, whereas I err on the conceptual, abstract side. So when I started getting farther away from his line of thought, he progressively stopped being helpful to me, to the point where in our meetings I usually tell him what I have thought of or learnt, he nods, sometimes gives me an idea, but most of the times he just doesn’t help me. And the main problem is, I think, he doesn’t think about my problems at all outside of our short meetings (even when our meetings end up with a very well-defined, specific question from me). So it’s all up to me and I feel inept and insecure, especially because I try to apply stuff I learn on my own, stuff my supervisor doesn't really know, many times.

I also think that I’m thinking -too- conceptually, I think much more by analogy than by computation, but since I’m a beginner I don’t know if I’m really thinking about the objects like I should, but my supervisor doesn’t speak to me much so I’m confronting articles, books, monographs by myself. I have learned much more by myself than from him. It's been a long while since he's tried to transfer some knowledge to me (as I said, our meetings consist mostly of me showing my current problems). Honestly, I feel like I'm doing my PhD unsupervised, and I'm scared to be leading my mathematical thoughts into unfertile regions.

My question is: how can I know that I’m working through my PhD correctly? I feel aimless, and moreover for the moment I feel like I’m just juggling with other people’s knowledge. I keep incorporating knowledge that I try to juggle. To put it differently, I feel like I’m collecting by myself pieces of a puzzle, and I’m just putting them together, without creating any pieces. I’m just picking up other people’s fruits. I feel like whatever result I might end up converging to will be just a trivial consequence of some stuff done by others. When I read articles, I many times skip the proofs, and I feel like I know many things at a “moral” level. I really don’t have the time to go through the technicalities, and at the same time, they look so daunting! I always skip the hardest parts, stacking them into “black boxes”.

I have read other posts about the “impostor’s syndrome”. I certainly suffer from this and other related issues, but this question is not about coping with the issue “how not to feel worthless”, but rather “how can I be sure that I’m doing this right?”. I feel like this will just go on and it just doesn’t feel like anything will come out of my struggling. Am I wrong?

I am a hard worker and I have had good results getting here (as in, grades, scholarships, etc.). I have managed to learn a lot of different math successfully. I have a very good memory and an uncanny ability to find references, which is what my impostor’s syndrome tells me it’s what has been saving me; I feel like I am a good bibliothecologist, a good organizer, a good cleaner, but that doesn’t imply I’m a good creator; I have given no signs of being able to -create- anything. How should I cope with this?


texts: How should I interpret "English is poor" review when I used a language check service before submission?

texts:
Recently I submitted a manuscript to an international journal. It was accepted with a minor revision, but I am worried about the reviewers’ comments. The first reviewer commented that the paper is well written but it still needs some English improvements. The second reviewer also commented that English improvements are required.

I have gotten similar comments regarding English in my earlier publications, but in those times I used to submit manuscripts without making an English native check. (However, I always do an English native check after getting comments about English.)

This time, I submitted my manuscript after making an English native check by a reputed company (who had worked for my earlier publications). The only modifications I made after this check were those suggested by the language check service: for example, where they said to add a "the" in a sentence. I added a "the". I didn't make any modifications other than those I was directed to make by the language check service.

Still, I got a similar suggestion to improve the English.

So what should I think about the reviews? Is it a frequent feedback that all reviewers give?


texts:
I will be completing high school at the end of this academic year. I have a strong love for Maths, and I am considering becoming a pure mathematician or pure mathematics researcher when I'm older. I have a few questions about the academic world of Maths in general:

I have discovered some formulae, or theorems if you prefer, about a quite specific topic in maths with apparently limited, if any, applications to any other areas of maths. I would like to write a paper about it and try to publish it in a journal, but I'm unsure if it's been discovered before, as it hasn't come up on any Internet searches I've conducted. I've also searched arXiv for it. My question is, is there some sort of archive or database that I could use to quickly check if something I'm investigating has been discovered before?

What exactly do research mathematicians do? Do they simply think all day and write/type their thoughts and results and progress as their job?

If I don't discover anything new as a maths researcher, would I still be employed or would I no longer be payed, ie is it a safe and steady job?

I would really enjoy being a pure mathematician/pure mathematics researcher, but is it a good job in terms of salary? I don't think job satisfaction would be an issue.

To be a research mathematician do I need to very good at maths or be spectacular at it?

Thank you for your advice, it is really appreciated.


texts: Can I publish a source code containing potential copyright violations that someone gave me at a university (updated)?

texts:
During my Ph.D. work at a university, I followed up on someone else's doctoral work (I am no longer associated with that university). This person provided me with the source code for his work. I subsequently discovered that this source code is a slightly modified copy of some publicly available sources, which have a GPL license. The modifications are mostly some instruction toggling/rebracketing and variable renaming. Just a few instructions contain slight modifications (that I personally do not find any more justifiable than the variable renaming). Moreover, in the versions that this person gave me, the authorship headers of the original authors are replaced by his own and the copyright mentions of the university in question are also added. The GPL license notice, which is present in the original sources, is removed from all but one package.
I had reported these observations to my supervisors (who also supervised the work of the person in question), but they sought to suppress the matter and warned me of legal actions if I reported this matter any further (hence I am not reporting it directly to the university, which by the way does not seem to have an ethics committee). I'll note that these observations in the source code are part of several issues that I observed in this person's work (that involves several publications and his doctoral dissertation; I'll probably ask for advice regarding that in separate questions).
Is it legally safe if I publicly share the source code provided by this person along with the links to the online available original sources? The code was transferred to me by this person through a sharing link that is no longer available. I can only prove that I reported my observations to my supervisors as well as to this person (he responded by reaffirming that the source code was developed at the university in question and refused any further communication). I'll note that an engineer at the university trans-coded some of the source code in question for use in a commercial product for which the university had a collaboration with a private firm.
Update:
I am also a co-author of this person in a couple of publications. This collaboration was supposed to be a sort of transition/continuation, at the beginning of my doctoral program and the end of his, of his reportedly high-functioning work. When I discovered several anomalies, I requested my supervisors to get these publications retracted. My detailed response is at the  PubPeer page of one of these publications. In my response, I have also shared some of my email exchanges with my co-authors. These exchanges lend support for raising the issue about the source code, without actually sharing it.
I was quite shocked when this person suggested that he not only did not have to acknowledge the use of the existing ideas/solutions but also considered their mere mention to be optional (his exact words: "You do not have to acknowledge but you can cite them"). Concerns about the acknowledgment of the sources, the soundness of ideas, and various peculiarities in results are raised on the PubPeer pages of his several publications.
Considering my question about the legal aspect, the comments about this being a legal question are right. However, I would also like to know if publishing this source code would be objectively helpful (a part of it was given to me with the GPL notice intact). Some comments on the above-mentioned PubPeer pages compare long extracts and a large number of equations from the publications to point out something that can be noticed in a glance by comparing the source codes.
Thanks for the discussion in response to my query! Depending on the input in the comments, I might post this part as a separate question.


texts: Using public profile data from website for research

texts:
A member of our department plans to download millions of profiles from a public website. The data is freely accessible after you have logged in, though there is a company behind the website that does have commercial interests and sells premium memberships. The website’s terms and conditions don’t explicitly prohibit mass downloading of information and he claims that his software would simulate normal user behavior, thus not interfering with the normal operations of the site.

A preliminary evaluation from our ethics committee suggests that – from an ethical standpoint – everything would be fine as long as he doesn’t publish the dataset (which he doesn’t plan to do) and the data is anonymized. Also, he will aggregate the data, so no information pertaining to individuals will be intelligible.

Still, I am not completely convinced that this study should be done and the final vote is still pending. Are there any other things to consider? Could the company operating the website possibly sue the university (or him) for using the data or would that be condoned by an act protecting the freedom of press or anything similar? We are in Germany, so German and EU law applies.


texts: If I reworked an idea published by a paper which has a fatal error, could I publish a paper on my work?

texts:
While doing my M.Sc research in Engineering, I encountered a nice idea published by almost an unknown journal. However, while studying that paper I found a fatal assumption which is made at the beginning of the paper, yielding the whole work to a ruin.

So I restudied the idea from the beginning, and I developed a whole mathematical form yielding to the final correct equations. And that's took me for about three months.

So my questions are:

Is it appropriate to publish a paper in this work.
And if yes, then should I cite the "wrong" paper, telling that it has a wrong assumption which I am avoiding in my work for example.

Kindly advise.


texts: What is the basic difference between a researcher in a corporation, and a university?

texts:
What is the basic difference between being a researcher in a corporation, and being a researcher in a university?
Is there really any difference apart from giving lectures and grading student's exam papers?