texts: Is it possible to get a job in a philosophy department with a non-philosophy PhD?

texts:
As an undergraduate, I studied philosophy and the field in which I'm pursuing a PhD right now. Though I had passion for both fields, I chose this field because I did better in this field than I did in philosophy, and the job market situation seemed slightly better here.

But I figured I still want to be in touch with philosophy, so I've been taking graduate philosophy courses for credit. The problem is, I've found these courses more interesting than the field I'm currently in. It's not that I'm entirely disinterested in my own field, but I prefer the method or approach taken in the philosophy department to those in my own field. Good news is that there's a philosophy professor who's interested in my project and I'm planning to work with her (she's officially affiliated with my dept). I'm also trying to have another philosophy professor join my committee so that a half of my committee will be from the philosophy department. And, of course, my dissertation will encompass both fields.

That said, in the future, I want to apply for jobs in both departments. But I don't know how realistic this hope is. I'm not talking about how hard it is to get a TT job, as I've heard nightmare stories numerous times since when I was an undergraduate student. Rather, I wonder if not having a degree from the phil dept will become a massive hurdle even if I work closely with the philosophy department. If I have to choose either, I honestly would prefer a philosophy department, but I guess I realized it too late.

Thanks in advance!

K


texts: Is it worth delaying a PhD thesis submission to gain more publications?

texts:
I'm currently my fourth year into a PhD in computer science. The PhD hasn't gone nearly as smoothly as I would have liked. There was a lot of changing the scope, and trying to re-identify a good research contribution. There was also a substantial prototype project involved that inevitably had bugs that took far too many hours to solve. I started trying to submit papers for conference by the end of my second year... but I have not met much success. There are only two major conferences that I am aware of that my research is directly applicable to, as well as a couple more general conferences. Since you can't submit the same paper to more than one venue at a time, and because a lot of the submission dates overlap, each year I've been making 2 or 3 submissions.

Each rejection I try to take the criticism on the chin, and use their recommendations for improving the next submission but it's still pretty disheartening. The most recent submission had 2 accepts and 1 reject on the peer review, and the paper was ultimately rejected for publication.  As it stands I have a single paper from a PhD symposium giving some early results, and I have a conference publication from my Masters on a separate topic. Unfortunately, no one else in my department is working on the same material, and my supervisor has very little experience in the area, so I don't have any real opportunity to collaborate and bump up my publication count as a co-author.

I'm certain there is a real research contribution there and that if I keep revising and submitting the paper that it will eventually pass the reviewer-lottery and it will get published. I had wanted to become an academic, but with my lack of publication success I do wonder if that's still a viable career path.

So my question is- is getting published important enough that I should actually delay thesis submission until I finally get the main paper published?


texts: Is it plagiarism to submit the same work in a course after withdrawing from the course on a previous occasion?

texts: I took a course a couple years ago and was doing well until I could not attend any longer and abruptly had to stop. I am currently retaking the course and wanted to hand in the work I submitted years ago since I worked hard on it and did well. Is this plagiarism or against some academic code?


texts: I've reproduced a paper: where shall I share the code and findings?

texts:
The majority of papers don't share their code. However, I sometimes want to reproduce the results, and therefore re-code the experiments to try to reproduce the papers.

Where shall I share the code, findings, comments, and potentially some data sets, put aside from GitHub? Ideally I am looking for a common place where people share the work they have done when reproducing papers.

I am mostly interested in computer science papers.


texts: Where can I find statistics about international movement of students/academics?

texts:
I am wondering where I could find global statistics on the flow of students between countries. This would include numbers such as "how many students with US bachelor went to UK for a master" and "how many Spanish master students went to US for a PhD"

They always say that the academic world outside US suffers from brain drain towards the US, i want to find way to quantify this


texts: Why would a grad school reduce fees to a trivial amount rather than reduce stipend?

texts:
When I applied to grad schools I was accepted with full tuition wavers and stipends to all but one. That one gave me a good stipend and reduced tuition to a trivial fee ($300). They say you can even defer the fee until payday.

In general, why might a university not reduce stipend amount by the fees rather than charge the trivial fee?

It seems bureaucractically harder to have a fee.


texts: How to get authoritative bibliographic information about journals

texts:
When I collect bibliographic material, I seem to get grossly inconsistent information.
Papers from the same journal are often linked to different publishers, the same journal or publisher is often stylized differently (e.g. Wiley, Wiley-Liss, Wiley & Sons), location information about the same publisher is different (see What address to put in bibliography for Springer (and others)?).

Maybe I'm a bit obsessive, but I would like to be consistent when citing papers from the same journal/publisher, especially in my thesis.

Is there any source for authoritative information about journals and publishers?
Also: Is there a good guide for the semantics of the different fields in a bib entry?  If I knew, for example, that what goes into the publisher field should be the registered trademark or the trade name, I could work out some of these on my own.

(BTW: I'm using Citeulike's mechanism for getting bibliographic info for most of the papers I cite.)


texts: Can a professor use his/her student's work as his own work?

texts:
I'm studying in a college in India. I have a course with a professor who is insisting that we submit our presentations in ppt format so that he can use them as his own ppts for his later batches.

Is the professor allowed to do this?


texts: How do selection committees ensure that they won't steal an applicant's ideas as presented in his/her research statement?

texts:
Academic job applications usually require the submission of a research statement, which describes not only the applicant's research experience, but also future direction of their work. As such, it may contain some novel ideas.

Considering that a research statement is not a publication, and therefore, can't be cited, how does a selection committee ensure that nothing in an applicant's research statement (especially those of unsuccessful applicants) will be stolen by anyone in the selection committee who reads it?

I mean, since the applicant's submitted documents are probably only known to the selection committee and the applicant him/herself, isn't it easy for anyone in the committee to copy those ideas without being found out?

A related question, if a member in the committee identifies an interesting and promising idea of an unsuccessful applicant, and is keen to pursue the idea, what should the committee member do? How do you give credit to the unsuccessful applicant when the research statement is the only document where the idea is described?

To be clear, my concern is more on the committee, not how I can prevent the committee from stealing my idea. One day I might be sitting as a selection committee member myself, and I'd like to know what I should do in this situation.

This question is related to Research statement ideas got used by interviewing committee, but looking from the perspective of the committee.


texts: Faculty job application - search committee chair, dept head, and follow up emails

texts:
I recently interviewed for a tenure track position in a public R1 University. There were 4 candidates. The last one interviewed at the beginning of April. Two weeks ago, I have been told by the chair of the search committee that they have submitted the summary to the dept head and now the choice is in her hand. Currently, I am still waiting.
The emails from the chair and the dept head have always been very matter-of-fact and straight-to-the-point. Particularly, when I sent thank you emails to all the people I met during the interview, the chair is one of the few who did not reply back (overall reply rate ~75%). Does it mean anything? Should I be worried about it? Or am I overthinking? Did you have a similar experience to mine but got the offer anyway?


texts: How to make use of spare research budget?

texts:
I have a £1000 of funding that I can use for my research or teaching. I have bought a few books with it, but I have no other immediate necessity (conference trips etc). I do not like the budget to lapse (by the end of this July) and I am afraid I may have looked past some potential benefits I could have gained using the budget.

What are some possible ways for me to make use of this sum in this limited time?


texts: Can I omit my undergraduate school from my CV?

texts:
I noticed some prominent academics omit where they got their undergraduate degrees from in a CV (I am sure it's not a case where they never earned an undergraduate degree at all; those people also exist).

My question: After earning a PhD degree, is it bad form to remove from your CV that you have also earned an undergraduate degree (possibly from a lower ranked place)?


texts: Reviewers comments refer to last (senior) author

texts:
I have recently received my first manuscript back for major revisions and found one of the reviewers comments strange. Within the comments the reviewer refers to the paper as "Author D et al's paper". As first Author (Author A), I am a bit confronted by this and concerned that there is a general perception that the corresponding and most senior author has done most of the work, as he is more recognised within the field.
This is aside from the fact that out of the 4 authors on the paper, I am the only one to have written and researched the literature review, with edits from Author D.
My question therefore is: Is this common? Is there any reason for concern of being undermined?
I'd appreciate some insight why reviewers would do this.


texts: How can I use parentheses in google scholar?

texts:
I want to search for papers with this criteria : the title contains preeclampsia OR the title contains toxemia and the text contains pregnan*.

I used this:

intitle:preeclampsia  OR (intitle:toxemia AND intext:pregnan*)  489 hits

But google scholar didn't understand the parenthesis and gave the same results as this:

intitle:preeclampsia  OR intitle:toxemia AND intext:pregnan*   489 hits

What's wrong?


texts: APA: Citing an annual report over multiple years

texts:
I have looked everywhere for an answer to this question. I don't often use APA format. In Chicago, when referencing in-text an annual report over a span of years, one simply types: (Smith, multiple years). I'm referencing an economic report, published annually, to analyse performance over a span of six years. Must I create a separate reference for each year, or may I do the same as in Chicago?
Best guess is the reference will look like:
Smith, J. (2002-2016) Annual Report
OR
Smith, J. (Multiple years) Annual Report


texts: How does my TOEFL score affect my odds of being granted a TA in US Universities? I'm an international student BTW.


texts: Is it a good idea to get involved with journals as an associate editor prior to getting tenure?

texts:
Is it a good idea to get involved with a relatively good journal (yes subjective -lets assume an impact factor +2 and good editors) as an associate editor prior to getting tenure?

Does it have a net positive effect on one's trajectory given the time lost due to extra work (administrative and else)? Or should one stick to minimum administrative work in faculty and outside and not think about these luxuries prior to getting the tenure. I have been given broad advise as to minimise my luxurious endeavours prior to tenure. I also remember reading similar advice in regards to writing books in technical fields (only do it after tenure, just stick to good publications before and try to minimise administrative work).


texts: For Ph.D application, which admission system used in Australia? Is it the same as US/Canada, UK, or EU?

texts: Some questions before said that in US/Canada, we should apply first then select the professor and it's different from the system in UK or EU. So, what about Australia or New Zealand?


texts: Are scientific contributions of the article listed in the abstract?

texts:
As the title says. To put the contributions (explicitly) on the abstract:

Is considered good practice
Irrelevant as long as you correctly describe your paper? Source Research Guides
No, explicitly mentioning the contributions is not considered good practice and should be avoided.
Other?

Here is an example of a paper I published on ArXiv. Would you say that the abstract is Ok? Please see I put the main emphasis on the contribution (I use the contribution as an excuse to then explain all the work done).
NOTE: Please don't confuse with the contribution of each author to the article! An article should have something new, therefore we can say a contribution to science.
Some article's have a specific section for that reference. Others just mention it reference but my question goes if it is good to mention it in the abstract or not.

As this question is somewhat subjective and there might not be a CORRECT response. If after some time I consider fit there is not a precise justification (some indisputable reference for example) I will mark as a solution the response that had more upvotes, supposing the upvotes reflect what the community thinks.


texts:
I am planning to publish a research paper based on my internship and don't know in what order I must include the author names or whom to include in the paper. Professor A was the primary reason for me to join the internship, while Professor B is just my guide who initially didn't approve of me doing the internship but later started to motivate me. Intern C had helped me a lot to complete the project whose help has been crucial to me. All 3 actually told me to publish the paper and Professor B guided me with the websites and reviewing my papers. But Professor A also initially guided me with the paper. How am I to rank these people for the authors in the paper?

Prof A- Initial guidance with some ideas to improve my presentation and strong support without which I wouldn't even have taken up the internship

Prof B- Support only at the later stage to publish paper and reviewed the papers

Intern C-Can't imagine myself to have completed the project (based on which the research paper is constructed) without her.

Thanks in advance!


texts:
I am an undergraduate student with math and physics majors and I plan to go to graduate school. I am interested in both math and physics, but I want the stuff I work on to have some practical / tangible side. If I go for math graduate school, what are some potential topics should I study. As I stated before, I want to work on something that is a blend of pure and applied mathematics (perhaps with some applications in theortical physics). What are some fields in math that I should look into?
Similarly, if I go to physics graduate school, what are some specific and general topics I should look into?


texts: Relative Advantages/Disadvantages of Interdisciplinary Degree vs Discipline-Specific Degree

texts:
I am applying for a PhD and when I was speaking to my potential advisor they discussed the possibility of me applying for an interdisciplinary degree that is offered by the institution as an option instead of the discipline specific degree in applied mathematics. The supervisors field is in mathematical biology and my dissertation work would be as well, and working under the assumption that they will take me on as a student, I am wondering what the advantages and disadvantages of the interdisciplinary degree might be relative to a degree that focuses on a specific discipline.
For example, how would a PhD in an interdisciplinary field affect paths forward for a PostDoc position? There are probably some particular advantages and disadvantages that are not obvious to me, so I am putting this out to the community.


texts: Improve letter of recommendation after graduation?

texts:
I have been not the most vocal student and wasn't talking to the professors much after class. Much of this was because I was quite shy at the time. I have now graduated and would like to ask for an academic reference. My final grade was quite good, so my position is not that bad. I just wasn't so active in class.

Question : I am asking myself whether there are ways to improve a potential recommendation after having graduated. Like, for example, through email correspondence, or sending the professor a paper I wrote, etc.? Or should this ideally not influence the professor anymore?

What could I do? Or this generally a bad idea?

PS: Note that I am not asking to build a recommendation entirely after graduation, but to improve it somewhat.


texts: Can I make an exam question for graduate & undergraduate students to find an idea in making a breakthrough in my research?

texts:
This question comes in two parts.

If I am a lecturer in a field (say, Data Mining) and quite stuck in my research, am I allowed to make exam questions (for undergraduate & graduate students) related to my research hoping that some answers may give me ideas?
If I am allowed to do that and supposing that I did, what could I do if a student actually answers my question with a method (s)he is currently working on in his/her own research but has not published yet (which I don't have the means to know of)?

Should I give an announcement or some kind of encouragement to the students who actually give such an answer to finish their research as fast as they can so that I can cite their papers to avoid potential copyright infringements and plagiarism?


texts: How to start research as an undergraduate CS student

texts:
I am an undergraduate CS student, and I would like to start doing research, because I want to boost my chances of entering a graduate school, and research is something that sounds interesting to me. Currently I am in second year and in the top of my class. I live in Southeastern Europe.

Should I come up with a research idea myself and then approach the faculty staff, or should I just tell them that I am interested in research and see where it goes?


texts: How to present the motivation for a book on mathematical research?

texts:
My book was rejected by a publisher saying that my research is "unmotivated". To motivate it, should I solve some long standing open problem? Or are there other ways to motivate publishers?

This is despite I have some short sections in my book which describes my idea of motivation: "1.4 Our topic and rationale" and "1.5 Earlier works".

What motivation (except of solving long standing open problems) are?

Any text online on the topic of motivation in math research?


texts: Lectureship application teaching reference?

texts:
I am applying for a lectureship in Engineering at a research intensive Russell Group university. The position involves both research and teaching, roughly 40% research, 40% teaching, 20% admin.

I need to provide three references. I have references which are very familiar with my research work but know very little about my teaching experience. I also have a reference who is the opposite (knows my teaching experience but not research).

I could provide 3 research references, or 2 research and 1 teaching reference.

Should my references focus solely on research, or is there value in including a teaching only reference?


texts: Is it common for a mathematics Master's student to have no publications?

texts: As the title suggests, I am a Master's student with no publications. I will apply for a PhD in the USA next year so I am a bit worried that most applicants with a Master's degree have a publication. Is this (no publications in Master's) common within mathematics?


texts: Can one publish papers which give an improved presentation of old results?

texts:
A colleague of mine (I'm in mathematics) has shown me a splendid note. He took some of the results from a confusing, hard to read, and important paper from the 1970's, which have not yet appeared in book form, and gave them much cleaner and simpler proofs, and explained them in a very clear way.

I urged him to publish his writeup, and to submit it to a very good journal. But he feels that, because the results are not (strictly speaking) new, the paper would be unlikely to be accepted.

Certainly I feel that work such as his is extremely valuable, and I think the mathematical community ought to encourage more of it. Was I right to encourage him to publish? Or was his pessimism more on target?


texts: How to begin proper research at undergraduate level?

texts: I am currently an undergraduate medical student studying in South Africa. In future I would like to do academic research but I'm not sure in what field. But I would like to get a head start now as an undergraduate. My exposure to research is very limited in the current curriculum. The most we do are research reports but that just entails compiling information from existing literature, we do not come up with our own ideas. As an undergraduate, I don't have a lot of technical or in-depth clinical knowledge so that limits me at this stage in what I can pursue. My university does not have any active undergraduate research programs. How can I start to pursue research and what fields are within my scope? I have heard of research assistants but am unsure of who to approach and what skills they need from me.


texts: Is paying participants below min. wage ethical?

texts:
I am currently doing my PhD, finished all my modules and doing research right now.
My supervisor and I had a good idea for a research paper and I conducted a survey through a crowdsourcing website (e.g. Mturk). The decision was made to pay every participants 0.50 $ and the survey took about 9 minutes.

Our results are pretty good and I am currently writing the "Sample Collection" section of the paper. However, I am worried: should I include the compensation? Right now it came to my mind that we did pay way below the minimum wage. Was this unethical? Should I include the amount of payment in my paper or just state that we bought some data?


texts: Disappointed about workshop, are all like that?

texts:
I submitted an article for an IEEE congress in the field of Software Engineering, the congress was categorized as a type B congress according to the Australian ranking (I do not remember the exact name).
I went to the workshop sessions because my article was accepted for one of those, but not the main conference, and it was pretty lame. The reasons were the following:

some people were given a presentation of topics not already finished it up, with a lot of holes in their respective research
some people were introducing their doctoral research proposals, which were in a a very initial developing point; I have been also a conference review and I would rejected those works straight ahead
people attending were no caring of what has being said there, also some of the people in charge were almost sleeping during some points of the presentations

I suppose that a workshop was for sharing ideas between the academic community, and not just for the sake of accepting some bad made papers to get money while other researchers want to do the things right.

Also I forget to mention that in one session, the chair of the workshop was the lecturer in charge of one of the lame papers; I do not want to think bad, but it seems like he influence the acceptance of that paper.

In any case I am really disappointed about this type of congresses, I cannot imagine how lame it could be a type C conference.

It is always like that?


texts: How do I mitigate my group project members plagiarizing off me and taking advantage of me?

texts:
In a Statistics related class, Whenever I do a group project, my group members don't know how to do anything as much as I do, and if it's a big group such a 5 person group, one person may help me write. The other person doesn't have any original ideas and will do some small tasks I tell them to do, and the rest don't know how to program.

I end up doing most of the work because I don't want to receive a bad grade, and I put everything in the project report. The professor doesn't really care about a fair division of labor, and on the day before presentations everyone ends up reading my project report, and especially the two people who did nothing just memorize what I said, then since the professor says everyone has to speak during the presentation, they end up stealing my lines, and I end up divide my work and sharing credit for it and throw it to charity.

How do I mitigate my group members plagiarizing off me and taking advantage of me?
This doesn't happen when I work with people who actually understand what they're doing in class, and it's not a big deal when a project isn't worth 40 percent of the grade.

The only benefit is that I know how to code everything, and they don't but the professor doesn't check who coded what or care. They don't seem to care or they don't know how to code and can't help themselves help me.

The problem is in an introductory freshman graduate course, I don't know who's capable of doing good work, and I can only seek the "smart" people as I gain knowledge of who's capable and not capable.

The professor is clueless and expects that everyone is capable of either coding well or having original Innovative ideas. But that isn't true. Some people neither are original nor code well. He expects us to play nice with each other.

Since I end up doing all the work, by presentation day, I'm also too exhausted to present well, and I can't shake things up, and I thought about quitting the group and doing things on my own, but should I do that? The people in my group are close and might conspire against me.

Option one: send the professor an e-mail privately telling him I did everything but per his instructions we have to split up the presentation and everyone pretends they did a fair amount.


texts: Should I e-mail my professor after completely blanking on my final exam?

texts:
I had a final exam today in my dynamics class. I took the exam with Adaptive Services because of my medically diagnosed ADHD, Anxiety, and OCD (among other things). I have been studying since Thanksgiving break and felt pretty confident going into it. I was even in the library just this morning teaching my classmates how to do things before the test.

Well, as soon as I was handed my test and opened it, I completely blanked looking at the first question. I was luckily that I had the extra time, because I started remembering things slowly, but before I knew it the 3.5 hours have already passed and I was out of time. I ended up getting 3/5 questions done (don't know if they were right), and made progress with the others so I am hoping the partial credit will be enough.

This is already my second time taking the class; I had to withdraw last Spring. I really don't want to be forced to take this class again: it is very time consuming and rigorous, it is a prerequisite for all my other classes (so if I failed I cannot move on), and, the main reason, I know the material.

Unfortunately, I really don't think it will be enough. I am devastated. I have been having a lot of trouble with my university lately, and I have strongly considered dropping out after last Spring. Failing this class will probably be my tipping point. I don't want to drop out, but I can barely afford it to begin with, failing the class could cause me to lose financial aid, and I can be far more productive doing something else than retaking a class I already have a strong understanding of.

I am wondering whether emailing my professor might be a good idea. I don't want to come off as defensive or making excuses. I'll be the first to admit I'm not the best test taker, I am lazy when it comes to school work, I don't get the best grades, etc. so I fear that it will look like an excuse to my professor. I just want to say something along the lines of:

  Dear Professor, Thank you for a good semester, I enjoyed your class but I am nervous of how the grade on my final will come back. I have been studying very hard and felt like I had a good grasp of the material going into it, but as soon as I sat down and looked at the first question I blanked. Over the course of the exam, I was able to work some stuff out but I don't know if it is enough and I'm afraid it won't be. I am not expecting any type of compensation or anything, but I wanted to bring this to your attention incase there was anything that could be done. Thank you, happy holidays.

Do you advise sending this mail?


texts: Can a graduate from university of applied science In Finland study higher degrees (Masters and PhD ) outside Finland?

texts:
Can a graduate from university of applied science in Finland study higher degrees (Masters and PhD) outside Finland?
I know you that can do a Masters inside Finland in any university of applied science inside Finland. But I don't know about PhD,
and I also don't know about completing a Masters and PhD outside of Finland. Is it possible?


texts: Is it plagiarism for my thesis advisor to publish a paper using content from my thesis without citation?

texts:
I did my master thesis last year and recently I found out that a group of four faculty members in my department, including my thesis advisor, have published an ACM paper based on that. (A publish subscribe system based on SDN)

I will be honest. The problem statement was put forward by the faculty. The implementation (design of algorithms and coding) was completely done by me in my thesis. Then they further extended it to a distributed SDN controller environment.

In the paper, an entire section is devoted to the algorithms and implementation. Where they have almost ripped off from my thesis. The sentence structures have been changed and some beautification done to the algorithms to make it look concise.

However, I have not been given any acknowledgement or citation. Anyone who'll read that paper will have an impression that the authors were the only brains behind the project.

The university holds the copyright of my thesis. So I am not sure if this qualifies for plagiarism. But certainly, I feel it is not fair to brush someone's contribution under the carpet.

What can I do about it ? Or am I mistaken and they have every right to do how they feel as I am no longer a student there and the copyright is with them ?


texts: Writing a research statement in mathematics without having any research experience

texts:
It's pretty common that European universities ask for a Research Statement when applying to a PhD program. The problem is that at my current university where I did my undergraduate and where I'm currently in a masters degree program, I haven't had any research experience at all. My adviser told me that I should wait until enrolled in a PhD program to start worrying about doing research. (My B.Sc. is in physics and I want to work in mathematics - hence the M.S. in math - so he told me I should work on having a solid basis in maths first.)

I'm pretty sure I know in which area I want to focus my future work, but I haven't worked substantially in that area (it's quite advanced) and I'm far from being able to contribute academically to this area.

How should I formulate my Research Statement on my PhD application?


texts: PhD university ranking when going for post doc/ jobs

texts: I have completed my bachelors and masters in engineering from a top UK uni and I am currently working towards my PhD at a low ranked uni (50th in the UK) mainly because it was one of the very few project in my field and with partial funding for non-EU students. My question is how negatively will the ranking of my new university affect me when applying for research jobs / post docs in the future?


texts: Applying for jobs outside academia: when and what kind of jobs are out there?

texts:
I am at the end of my PhD. I am considering switching to the private sector and find a job in some company. There are two main questions I did not find an answer yet:

Is there some professional profile requiring the abstract level of expertise acquired during a three years PhD project, independently from the specific field of research? I can see how the soft-skills of problem solving, project management, team-work, that most of PhD have to acquire in order to finish their studies can be spent outside academia. Yet, I am not aware of the terminology, and thus I am not able to find this answer by myself. All help is highly appreciated.
Is the end of a PhD the optimal time to do this passage from academia to private sector? Is a post-doc only an unnecessary step further from the employer point of view?

Despite I come from bio-medical research (behvioral neuroscience), I am especially looking for an answer that does not take in consideration the specific background of the PhD.

I hope I got my first question on this community right, and I didn´t waste anyone's time.


texts: How competitive are places for PhD positions in mathematics?

texts:
I am a master student in mathematics at a university in the Netherlands and am currently applying for PhD positions as I will be graduating soon. Thus far I have applied for about ten positions (in the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, etcetera) and although I am still waiting on some of my applications, I have been rejected without interview from the ones I have heard back from (which is the majority).

In brief conversations I have had with academics on this issue, they have generally hinted (albeit rather vaguely) that competition is not so high (say, compared with industry) and that I should be hopeful of landing  a position. This is in spite of the fact that my grades are quite average and the feedback I received from one failed application was that my grades were too low. My academic advisor, however, advised me that the quality of my thesis (which I am currently writing) was of more importance and downplayed the importance of grades due to how they differ from country to country, university to university (among other reasons).

The problem seems to be that positions are seldom advertised and even if only twenty percent of graduates wish to pursue a doctoral position, that means that there are still a lot of people vying for say only one position.

I was wondering what the general consensus on this was and if I should maybe lower my expectations of getting a doctoral position if it is say only intended for the "best of the best"?


texts: Which topics should be covered in a teaching statement?

texts:
In mathematics, submitting a teaching statement (also called teaching philosophy or similar names) is part of the application package for any teaching jobs (and most research jobs). I suspect it is a part of the application for academic jobs in other disciplines too. I have written a teaching statement and I rewrite and modify it every now and then. Since I wrote it myself I think it is perfect and I cannot detect its possible flaws and mistakes. Therefore, I am looking for tips and advice for improving my teaching statement. I particularly appreciate any advices from people who are involved in hiring committees. My questions are:

Which topics would members of search committees like to see in a teaching statement? or alternatively, which mistakes in a teaching statement can ruin an applicants' chances for getting an interview?

In order to make this Q&A useful for others, I didn't restrict it to mathematicians. However, I'll appreciate if someone has a specific advice for writing teaching statements for mathematics jobs.


texts:
The mainstream academic publishing model assumes that authors are somehow paid by third parties (typically universities or industry) for the time spent on research. With increasing casualisation of the academic workforce (particularly in the humanities) this is arguably less appropriate than it once was, and many authors are no longer paid for the time spent on research. Amongst other things, this has strong negative consequences for diversity, as it biases the system towards those who can afford to work 'for free'.
An alternative model could involve authors being paid directly by journals for their submissions (as is common for, say, freelance journalists). Has this ever been tried in academia? Is it a realistic possibility?


texts: Do people write research papers differently nowadays?

texts:
Revised.  I was thinking about the way I write research papers, it involves a lot of revising to even get a "first draft," and subsequently I do a lot of revising also.  Presumably this is fairly common nowadays, as computers have made revising papers easy.

However, in days of yore, before TeX/word processing, these revisions were not so easy, so I wonder:

Has TeX/word processing qualitatively changed the way we write papers?  Specifically: (i) did people do significantly less revising (or make fewer passes) before computers?  (ii) did people have different approaches to writing first drafts?

My understanding is that, in the past, faculty typically had assistants/secretaries to type up hand-written notes, and sometimes special symbols/figures would be drawn in by hand (by faculty? or assistant?).  Then I presume the faculty would go through and edit by hand, and necessary parts would be retyped.  Possibly there would be another pass of this, but I can't imagine that many more revised typings were made.  Did this mean less revising was done?

If so, did this force people to plan out their first drafts at the handwritten stages differently than now?  At least for me, I usually have a basic outline in mind and then just start writing and go back to revise earlier parts while writing later parts (apart from the intro, which is sometimes written last).  However, I guess this style is not so practical when writing by hand?

(Originally, my question was if word processing has changed the quality of papers, but that was deemed too opinion-based.  Hopefully, this is something people can answer semi-objectively from their first or second hand experience.)


texts: 1st year Ph.D. student in Computer Science - want to switch fields

texts:
I finished my Masters in Computer Science at a decently reputed university in the United States. I was (and still am) excited about doing research and I applied to the Ph.D. program at the same university. I was accepted and I started the program this Fall.

Because of my experience in the department, I could start working in a lab from my first day in the Ph.D. program. I'm currently working on a topic that is closely related to my Master's thesis topic. But now I feel that I should explore other areas before committing on a Ph.D. topic.

I've been working on Operating Systems for as long as I remember, but recently, I attended a couple of seminars on NLP and Bio-informatics that got me excited. I don't have any background in either topics. But this makes me think that I should take a semester to explore other areas of research in Computer Science.

How should I go about this?

Update - I told my advisor. He said I should devote 100% of my time on his project. I fired him.


texts: I'm currently a master student in computer science. I study at a school where we have only one take for the exam. I study really hard, yet I am never able to feel confident enough when the exams approach. I am nervous that somehow things will go bad and it only makes me perform worse. I tried studying weeks in advance and really going over all of the materials to feel sure that I know it, but it does not help me. I feel I have no power over what happens in an exam and I feel that I only have one chance that could lead to an ugly mark on my resume. How do I reduce the stress and the nervousness?


texts: Getting into PhD programme when having not the best grades due to personal issues

texts:
I have studied Physics (Diploma) and since 3 years I work as a Software Engineer.

But I am starting to miss the high degree of intellectual challenge. So I am thinking to go back to academia. Unfortunately my Diploma grade was B (German 2), likewise the grade of my in-depth elective Theoretical Particle Physics. I think I could have done better, but my mother died of cancer during my Diploma thesis and this didn't leave much focus and time for me. Plus I started working on a Web App in the last 2 months of my studies. Other grades were better, my Math elective (Functional Analysis) was A+, likewise Theoretical Physics. My undergraduate studies' grades were mixed, between A+ and B-.

My thesis also does not look so well. Because of a lack of time it has orthographic errors, discussion of results is too short and the source code snippets in it look ugly. Once I applied for a job through a head hunter and after they saw my thesis they completely lost interest in me as a candidate.

So question: how hard is it in such a situation to apply for a PhD Programme and is it a good idea at all? What would be a good strategy when applying? I am interested in Mathematics, Theoretical Physics, Mathematical Physics or Computer Science.


texts: Review conference papers under supervisor name

texts:
I work as a researcher in a private company and my supervisor, who was previously working as a university professor, asked me to review papers for a conference he's co-organizing. He mentioned the review will be under his name.

Is it normal for a researcher with a PhD to review papers without any type of exposure in return? Do you have tips on how to proceed? I have to mention that I come from a different field.


texts: How to speed up my research as a PhD student?

texts:
I am currently in a problem-solving mode of my PhD (theory, middle stage). I am working on something which is incremental on the last half a year. Until now, I did not get anything non-trivial. I noticed that I have become slow as compared to the initial two years of my PhD.

I am wondering how to speed up my research. I have tried to scan as many papers as possible. I am also trying to discuss my research problem with other students, but it is not working.

Question: Is it natural that you become slower in the middle of your PhD? How can I speed up my research?


texts: May I reuse my own figure without coauthor's permission?

texts:
I'm writing an editorial and would like to use a figure that I published with a coauthor a few years ago.

The copyright agreement (see #4) with the publisher allows the authors of the paper to reuse any of the work in any derivative work, as long as proper attribution is given, including a DOI.

Given the above, I would have permission from the publisher to include this figure in the editorial with proper attribution.

The coauthor and I, however, have had a falling out, and if I did ask permission he would almost certainly say no. He did not make the figure for the paper, I did, and I am first author.

Given that I produced the figure, and the publisher would allow me to use my work in any derivative work, am I required (even ethically) to ask permission of my coauthor to publish this figure in an editorial that I'm writing?

More generally, when copyright terms from the publisher are such that the author(s) may use their work in derivative works (with proper attribution), as is common in my field, must authors always obtain permission from all coauthors to republish orginal or derivative works?


texts: Should I send a second reminder for recommendation letter?

texts: I already sent one 5 days ago and she said she was working on it. However the deadline is really close now (30/11). Should I send a second reminder now?


texts: CV Gap: PhD dropout with no reliable reference

texts:
I spent 2 years doing a PhD. Not only did the study fail, my paths parted with my main and only supervisor in the worst possible manner. I don't know how to account for the gap on my CV due to the following reasons:

1.) It was 100% research, I cannot say I completed certain subjects or credits to swing it into a positive light.

2.) I obviously don't have a good (or any) reference to account for the 2 years in the PhD.

3.) I can't lie and say I worked as a research assistant during that time to account for the gap. I tried it, and I failed. The recruitment agency through which I tried to work nailed me on the fact that I could not provide them with the contact details of a supervisory figure for the time I spent working as a "research assistant". It's totally impossible to get away with not having a reference for your most recent "job".

I don't know what to do with my CV.

Any help would be substantially beneficial at this stage!


texts:
I have noticed that many French diplomas contain the mention "Pour en jouir avec les droits et prérogatives qui y sont attachés", which can be translated into "[The diploma is conferred upon Mr. X and gives the Y level] to be enjoyed with all rights and privileges pertaining thereto."

What does "to be enjoyed with all rights and privileges pertaining thereto" mean on a French diploma? I.e., what are those rights and privileges? For example, if someone obtained the Baccalaureate diploma, what rights and privileges does that give?

I'm not sure whether it refers to some legal consequences, academic consequences, or something else, so that's why I don't post on Law.SE.

Examples:


texts: Setting up a Mathematical Institute of Refereeing?

texts:
This question is mainly focused on the field of mathematics, although it might make sense for other areas too.

  would setting up a Mathematical Institute of Refereeing be a good idea ?

To explain the idea, I have noted several things that seem to go in the same direction :

referees today are not paid for their work (at least by good quality journals, I'm not talking about predatory ones), they do it by goodwill to be active members of their communities ;
discussing a result with a colleague always speeds up one's understanding ;
in many cases it is difficult to find a referee for a paper, and the process can easily take 9 months just to get a first report ;
many people experience a draught at some point in their career.

So what about an institute where members have a temporary affiliation (say a 5-year contract, which they can quit at any time) and are tasked to only do refereeing, any involvement in other time-consuming activities (teaching, grant application, but also one's own research) would be banned (and checked regularly by the administrative staff and citizens).

The members would be sworn to secrecy (like a medical one, with cash and jail sentences if found guilty of breach, say during their membership and the 2 years beyond it), which would allow them to discuss papers they are reviewing with other members on-site.

Funding would be provided by a variety of sources (Universities, Private sector...).

And to make sure that there is no change from traditional anonymous refereing, these referees would not mention in their report that there are members, so it would look like it had been done by a standard referee at a university (but much faster).

The idea would be both to speed up the process, and to lower the pressure to publish mediocre papers (i.e. it would be valued more highly by the community to know that someone is a hard-working member of that institute, rather than someone is painstainkingly publishing small papers every couple year which consume refereeing ressources while adding little value to the area).

[edit: thank you for the answers and comments, many good points there of course. Clearly not all sub-fields of maths would be covered this way, but I thought it might help in some where this is high traffic. Plus, I thought people towards the end of their career, who have taught for 25/30 years and, in some cases, have also lost a bit the will of finding new stuff all the time, might be interested. (If you don't find it lacking courtesy, I think I'd like perhaps not to accept an answer to let it open-ended.)]


texts: Can I avoid having bad grades and a dismissal show on my record if I transfer colleges?

texts: I'm considering transferring to a school with a worse CS program to avoid 3 semesters of W's (withdrawal grades) and a dismissal on my record come graduation time. (Or would I just have more explaining to do?) Should I stick with my school?


texts: Are there any "tells" for faculty hires?

texts: I was curious to find out if there were any "tells" in faculty searches that someone is going to get a formal offer before the official paperwork is received. Are candidates who are about to be hired asked to fill out extra forms or provide additional documentation that might not have been needed earlier in the process, or something similar?


texts: Early Career Publishing strategies? (Keep publications to a minimum before tenure-track job?)

texts:
I read that whatever you publish before beginning a tenure-track job does not count towards tenure, so it might be wise to wait with those publications until a tenure-track position is reached. (I read this in the book The Professor is In, by the way)

On the other hand, I would imagine that a tenure-track position is obtained quicker (or: at all), if one has publications, and to have more publications seems generally better than to have less publications (with some other assumptions here, regarding equal journal impact factor and so on)

What do people think? Is there a strategy which might make more sense than others? Does it make sense to hold back? Or not really?

edit:

Here is the quote I am referring to in the book, I hope it is ok to share this here:

  “Write your dissertation with an eye to the publications that it will
  become. As I have said, you need at least one refereed journal article
  while you are still ABD. At the same time, be aware that publications
  that date from before you accept your tenure track job do not
  typically count toward tenure. So the balance is delicate indeed. You
  must publish enough to get a job without prematurely exhausting the
  supply of material you will need for tenure. That is why I recommend
  writing a master’s thesis, which will give you material for a
  publication without cutting into your dissertation material.”

From: Kelsky, Karen. “The Professor Is in : The Essential Guide to Turning Your Ph.d. into a Job


texts: Software for personal remote monitoring of exams

texts:
I suppose many instructors are looking for such a software. I give an exam that requires pencil and paper and computer software. I want to be able to look at computer screens students are using, I want to be able to look at their webcam output, their desk, etc. I want to be able to send messages by chat or voice to class or to a single student.
I do not want to share the screen I am looking at, by default, with the entire class.
Of course only external webcams, relocated under command, will have the necessary effectiveness. Integrated webcams have many blind spots.
Some software attempt to automate the monitoring of exams. They produce videos and record student's computer and environment. In my case it has turned out to be of limited value.
What software do you plan to use in the coming fall semester?
Edit- 8/11/2020
I just used Blackboard Collaborative Ultra (BCU) in a summer junior-level class with 15 students. Perhaps BCU it is not meant for this purpose but it worked better than the automated monitoring software. It has 20 breakout rooms. So you can accommodate 20 students, or 40 if you are willing to give two  different exams. From the main room you have no view. You have to rotate among the rooms to see anything. So it feels a bit clunky. If you want to check students' work environment  ask them to show up in advance (you end up acting like a TSA agent at an airport).
Edit- 8/18/2020
Zoom has 50 breakout rooms. Spreading students into rooms seems easier here. I have not tried it yet though.
Independent webcam allow  you to inspect the environment with much more ease and certainty than an integrated one. However most of these do not get secured to anything easily and do not have a tripod or base. They can be secured to objects like a paper towel.
Please note that this is not a discussion about privacy issues, unless it is in relation to a comparison of two software.


texts: What preparatory steps should I be taking for admission into med school?

texts: I've been maintaining a great GPA in a specialization undergraduate program, am planning on taking the MCAT this summer, and have been looking into some volunteering/internship opportunities. Are there any other special precautions that I should be taking to increase the likelihood of my acceptance into med school? Are med schools looking for anything in particular for admissions? An all-encompassing, comprehensive answer would be appreciated, but any advice or tips are appreciated :).


texts: Proper reply for an letter "We will soon contact you for an interview"

texts:
I applied for a phd position in a Austrian university. Then I got a mail which said "We will soon contact you for an interview" and I have been waiting for four days now.
Is it appropriate if I ask an update about the interview?


texts: Awesome papers that were initially rejected?

texts:
Recently I heard from a senior student that the celebrated adaBoost paper was originally rejected by a conference.

Are there any other instances of seminal papers (in any field) which initially could not warrant a publication?


texts: What to do when you don't agree with an advisor's comment in your paper

texts:
What should I do when I disagree with my advisor's recommendations for revision of my manuscripts? The suggested changes are major revisions that will change the concept and message of the paper; for example, changes to the structure, the central idea of the paper, and the metrics I use in my simulations. I believe that the metrics I have used are logical and they have already been used to evaluate the performance of my proposed technique in my field. Every time, I spend more than 6 months between the first draft than the last one because of the advisor's comments. What should I do?

Thank you.


texts: Automatic failure for not completing all assignments - proper?

texts:
Related: How to motivate students to complete low-point homework?

One of my undergraduate professors had a similar problem to the OP's in the above question, that is, that students would skip many minor low-point assignments in favor of studying for big exams, and the professor felt that not completing every single assignment resulted in a lower-quality learning experience even though a student's average still might be passing or even excellent.

The professor's solution was a policy that any student who failed to complete  all assignments would be automatically assigned a zero for the course. That is, the student did not have an opportunity to accept a zero for the assignment that was not done - they would instead get an automatic F for the course. There was no requirement that each assignment be perfect, or even good - the requirement was that you had to at least attempt and turn something in for each assignment.

Are there any problems with this strategy from a pedagogical or ethics perspective? Obviously, some universities permit this and some do not, and the instructor in question did announce this policy in the syllabus at the beginning of the course, but I'm asking from a more general or best practices perspective. It seems to me that this is a non-optimal solution, more specifically one that is using an academic assessment system (grades/GPA) improperly as a behavioral management technique. That is, this strategy is similar/analogous to dropping a student's grade from a B to a C because they brought a weapon to class, or (in reverse) restricting a student from attending a campus dance because they did not demonstrate sufficient mastery of Boyle's Law (implementing a behavioral intervention when an academic one such as a lowered grade would have been more appropriate).

Is this a fair assessment of the situation, or is such a strategy a legitimate tool?

Obviously, the minimum level of effort required to constitute "completing" an assignment was vague and something I did not actually inquire into - one might wonder whether or not turning in a piece of paper with "I like pie, here is Boyle's Law, Boyle's Law is great, the answer to all of the questions on this assignment is THREE." would have sufficed (well, it would have been more than a blank page!). That also concerns me - whether or not being able to identify a boundary between making random guesses that effectively constitute not trying at all and an entirely incompetent, but sincere, attempt to complete the assignment (e.g. answers are all wrong, student failed to apply recent best practices covered in lecture, student confused Ohm's Law with Boyle's Law, student did not express all results to two significant figures as insisted upon in the instructions, answer was in French when English was required, student claimed that Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy was invented by Freud in 1543 and is generally considered effective in treating acute alcohol intoxication, student claimed that Orange is the New Black is a prime example of early twelfth-century Anglo-Saxon epic poetry, etc.), matters in determining whether or not such a penalty should be allowed.

This question has nothing to do with cheating or plagiarism.

Note: This was NOT Competency-Based Education (CBE). This was a regular engineering class that just happened to have this odd policy tacked on because the instructor was sick to death of students skipping his little 2 point assignments that he thought were critical. The course was otherwise entirely normal.

In response to @aeismail, yes, assignments could be turned in up until the date of the final exam, at least for purposes of not automatically failing the course for failing to turn something in.


texts: How to "tailor" the statement of purpose for a particular grad school

texts:
A prospective graduate student is normally not hyperspecialized and inflexibly hyperfocussed on a certain well-developed research line (like a more mature mid-career researcher could be) just yet.

That is to say, even if such student worked on topic "X" (say, in the area of algebraic geometry) for their master's thesis, they may well be flexible and willing to expand their horizon and start working on any interesting topic in algebraic geometry that falls within a certain wide range "A" (that possibly includes "X").

So, I assume, any school which is (1) reasonably prestigious, (2) conveniently located, (3) endowed with "good" mathematicians that work on a quite wide range "A" of topics within algebraic geometry is in principle a good fit for an application of said student. Any other reasons are (at least in my opinion) less relevant.

In this context, what does it mean to tailor a statement of purpose for a specific school?

In particular, how can one convincingly and professionally show that a certain school is a great fit for his academic career and education?

I have heard that the "Why is our university a good fit for you?" question for a statement of purpose is just a way of checking if a student has "done his homework". But what is that actually supposed to mean?


texts: When is a supervisor unable to request paper retraction if a paper gets published without her consent?

texts:
If a ex-PhD student publishes a paper from his thesis without his ex-supervisor's consent, the paper gets retracted upon his ex-adviser's request to the editor.

My question is: Could there be any exceptions from this rule?


texts:
In preparation for future PhD work I came up with some ideas & protypes for software components that might later become scientifically relevant, both from a CS and application viewpoint. My natural reflex to having a working proof of concept for an idea is to put it on Github under GPL.

However all (or most) of my colleagues strongly recommend against that before I haven't built any scientific credit based on that code. Their reasoning is that someone else might "steal" the idea and "usurp" the scientific precedence.

Given that the scientific and open source communities do seem a bit detached in places this appears plausible.

Does anyone have actual experience from a similar situation? Did anyone ever have scientific credit stolen from open-sourced code? The other questions, namely 19348 and 17740, don't even mention the appropriation issue. But when it's not an issue, why are my colleagues so frightened about it?


texts: How to deal with an inappropriate greeting in an email?

texts:
I'm relatively new to teaching (I was just hired as a tenure-track English professor at a local community college and have been teaching for just about 2 years). I recently received an email from a male student (he is in his mid-50's), and he addressed me as follows:

  A great morning to you my dear lass,

Now, the email was complimentary. He thanked me for teaching a great course and said that he learned a lot in my class (all of these things are nice to hear). He has, at times, been difficult to teach (he questions academic conventions regarding basic essay structure, such as not beginning or ending a body paragraph with a quote), but he eventually concedes and makes the necessary adjustments (I am teaching a developmental writing course).

Usually.

I was just a little surprised by his choice of greeting. I am not overly familiar with my students, and I am not young (I am a divorced, 40-year-old woman). I like this student, and I am unsure of how to address this (or if I even should...) situation without causing offense. I feel certain he didn't mean to sound condescending and sexist, but... I also feel certain that if I was a 40-year-old male professor he would not have began his email with "A great morning to you my dear lad."

I would really appreciate any advice concerning how to address this issue. Additionally, I am teaching a combo course, and we just completed the first half, so he will continue to be my student for another 8 weeks.


texts: Is there a Post-doctorate Equivalent for an ABD (All-But-Dissertation) status?

texts:
I am an ABD (all- But-Dissertation) student. I have done all my work, completed my credits, passed my qualifying exams, I passed my oral exams, but I am having trouble finishing my thesis (advisor problems) , and
I was wondering if there may be some variant of the standard post-doctorate for
people in an ABD status.

EDIT: Basically,  are there post-doc programs that will accept someone who did all the work but did not finish their thesis? Or are there programs similar to a post-doc for people who have

SECOND EDIT: I am in a Mathematics Program. Does anyone know of schools that will
allow me to transfer with relatively few requirements, i.e., not needing to take years worth of classes?

Thanks.


texts: Does this ProQuest "docview" URL include a DOI?

texts:
I am editing someone else's thesis. The references include ProQuest citations that look like this (where # = actual digits for an account):

  Anderson, L. (2012, Aug 17). Learning the game from the inside out. Sports Illustrated, 1.
  Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1040699841?accountid=#####

Is the number string that appears after .../docview/ the same as the DOI (digital object identifier) or something else?


texts: Sending an e-mail with multiple attachments?

texts:
This is probably a silly question, but I really need some advice.
I'm an undergraduate student and I want to take a different major in grad school. Luckily, my university offers you a possibility to take a different major in grad school provided that you pass certain exams and show that you'll be able to follow the program. Now, I've sent an e-mail to a professor that's in charge of all that at the department that I want to get into, and he said that for a start I should send him the list of all the courses I've taken with corresponding grades.

Now I don't know if I should write it manually (so it's going to be a really really long e-mail) or if I should take screenshots from this "program" we use at university that contains all the information about my academic success? For this second option, I'm worried it might seem impolite to just send multiple attachments and I know some people don't even open attachments because they're afraid of malware...

Thanks in advance for your help.


texts: use of of 'unlicensed' github code in research paper

texts:
I have used github code for my research paper. But that code comes with no license. I have asked author to add license to code but he has not replied so far. Will this be a problem for me in future? I have not intentions for owning that code. I have just used that code without any changing and i would like to cite that repository link in my paper giving credit to original developer.
Please give your valuable suggestions


texts: Academic job future for applied mathematicians

texts:
I've heard many times that it's getting harder and harder each year to find a place in academia for scientists. Now I'm on the hunt of a post-doc and the "what about the future?" question arises.

So, by looking at mathjobs.org, I really get the impression there are lots of jobs! But after further inspection, I notice most of them are non-permanent positions, which begs the question: Are there people in a constant nomadic life? meaning that they are switching from non-permanent positions to another in their entire lives.

I would like to restrict the answers to applied mathematicians because I think we are a lucky group that has a higher possibility to shift to industry jobs if academy fails. I like to believe that because of it, there are fewer people fighting for academy positions.

Maybe another related question is, at which point one is too old to switch from academy to industry?


texts: How to list proposals I assisted in writing on CV

texts: In the case a Post-doc is not allowed to be a Co-PI on proposals submitted to NSF etc. i.e., some schools require PIs to add a "mentoring plan" for post-docs (for budgeting purposes). In the event the post-doc developed the idea and helped in writing the proposal, how does the post-doc list this in his academic CV?


texts: 'Expert' interviews of academics - Consent and Ethics

texts:
I am conducting a research trip to another country where i will meet with academics (individually and as groups), industry professionals and other experts to explore different aspects of a particular issue. The meetings will take the form of semi-structured interviews. I will be writing an article on my return analysing my findings. As the research is overseas, my University requires I go through an Ethics Approval process, which includes consideration of informed consent and of participant anonymity.

I want to keep the consent process as streamlined as possible and I am trying to determine an appropriate process that works for both industry experts and academics.

I can see that industry professionals might prefer any references I make to anything they have said to be anonymized, either to "a spokesperson for xxx company" or to "a senior industry figure" or "a customer services manager". Or they might be happy to have their contributions on the record. And academics are more likely to prefer to be named.

So, in asking for consent to record interviews and use the information for my research, do I need to ask each participant whether they want their contributions to be
a) attributed
or b) anonymized?

I should note that when other academics have visited my research group for discussions and to find out about our research, no one has ever asked for participants to give their consent for the discussion, and it seems odd in the context of an academic discussion.

Could I justifiably apply the consent procedure only to non-academic interviewees?


texts: Is it OK to work on projects from research proposal before position starts?

texts:
There is considerable gap in time between submitting applications for academic positions and the time the postitions start. I'm wondering about the status of the problems listed in the research proposal during this gap. Are they off-limits and should be avoided, or is it OK to work on/think about them in the meantime? Suppose that I show up at the new institution already with a preprint on arXiv solving one of the problems from my research proposal - would it be considered inappropriate?

[My field is pure mathematics, meaning that the research tends to be relatively unpredictable and does not require external resuorces.]


texts: I submitted a paper to a journal one week ago. What does "Awaiting ME Processing" mean?

texts: The status from the very 1st day is "Awaiting ME Processing". Can someone tell me what does it mean?


texts: Suppose there is a paper by author A and B. B alone later publishes another paper, citing the first paper. Does this count or not as a self-citation to author A?


texts: Applying to PhD Programmes with novel undergraduate degrees

texts:
I'm applying for undergraduate studies and there is one question that keeps returning to my mind. Lots of novel degree programmes started to emerge within universities (at least where I live). For instance, one started offering a course in "Quantum Engineering", another one in "Nanostructure Engineering". Undoubtedly, a major cause for that is marketing (they sound nice), but when I looked into them, most are just interdisciplinary, specialized degrees in physics with chemistry.

Now, assuming I'm willing to pursue a PhD in an area related to those previously mentioned degrees, how would having one of those degrees affect an application as opposed to having a standard degree in physics?

On one side, I find such degrees more commensurate with my interests and intentions for further study, which would allow me to specialize earlier. Thus, I should be able to find and perform relevant research or internships more easily. But I'm also worried that such novel degrees would spark cynism and distrust that could be disadvantageous to a potential application for a PhD.

Thanks in advance for any response.


texts: What if point systems for tests were different?

texts:
What if when taking a test you could select multiple answers and the percent per question you got was
(100)(1/n), n being the amount of answers selected (only award points if any a selected answer was correct, and only for multiple choice questions). What this does is give people the option to sacrifice a chance at more points, and take a better chance at getting less points. What are some pros and cons of this system, would it be in any way worth trying?

Addition:
If you think this question fits better on a different site, please note. I have no idea what tag(s) to use, and I don’t know how well this question fits in Academia.


texts: How is rude, unprofessional behavior by one student toward another student handled in graduate school?

texts:
I just received a confirmation from my graduate program adviser that I successfully completed my two-year-long master's program. I had a negative experience in my second year because of a mandatory group project that I had to do in order to graduate.This group project was done under a certain level of guidance by a professor. The first semester of this group project was only one credit, while the second semester of this course was three credits. Much of the drama occurred in the last two days before the due date of the group's final paper, which was via email. I did not get along with two out of four former group members because those two bullied me and badmouthed me behind my back. It was evident to me that their actions were coordinated. Out of these two perpetrators, one was a female who was around my age (mid-20s), while the other one, the male, was 33 years old. I will only talk about the male here.

There were three different paper drafts that we had to submit in the second semester of this group project class. Both of these individuals referred to were procrastinators and felt like the rules of the group did not apply to them. However, they were the most domineering ones in the group and consistently used foul language in group settings. The 33-year-old male was the group editor, but he was an extreme procrastinator who would literally wait until the last moment to do things. He did not do much editing in the first two drafts, and right on the day before the due date of the third and final paper, he suggested to the group to make huge changes. He hardly communicated with me, so I wasn't even expecting any form of communication from him. Besides, I had another paper that was due at exactly the same day and time as this group project paper. By the time that he started communicating via email to the entire group to make significant changes, I was already much more focused on my other paper and I looked at his email much later. He had sent me an angry message asking if I "still wanted to be a part" of the project. Excuse me, I was involved in this project, but he chose to be actively involved at the very end. I replied to his email, politely asking why he could not make his suggestions much sooner, despite his angry tone in the email that he personally sent to me. What he did in his response was that he broke down every single sentence that I wrote, and commented on how I was 'wrong' or did "not know what I was talking about." In the process, he even dropped the F-bomb twice at me and called me "passive-aggressive" for "challenging him." He was clearly the aggressive one.
 He attacked me, saying that he was "not expecting me to make an effort." Despite his abusive words, I still made the changes that he demanded.

Just one day after the due date of this paper, I scheduled an appointment with the professor and the associate dean at my school. I explained the behavior of this male. Their response was that his behavior was very unprofessional. I needed to have this meeting because no one, especially in a higher education setting deserves to be treated the way I was treated. This male referred to was interested in further pursuing a PhD. Besides, he was formerly in the US military, which is very surprising to me, considering his character issues and him physically being very out of shape.

I was able to talk with the professor and the associate dean long before the conferral of degrees. However, I did not receive any updates after this meeting, which kind of made me angry. I don't know if the school took any measures or disciplinary action against this particular student. I don't know if the school actually took this issue seriously. Is it possible that no disciplinary action took place? Is it possible that students who exhibit such behavior get dismissed from the program for such unprofessional behavior?


texts: Applying for PHD in Europe: getting a recommendation

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I'm considering applying into an (individual) PHD program, after graduating from a top Russian university (computer science) with moderately high grades in 2013 and 3 years of professional experience.

However, I didn't notice whether mentioning recommendation isan necessary case for applying within the official and semi-official sources, I suppose it would be useful. But I'm not entirely sure how it is technically done.

I have a supervisor at the university, whom I have not stayed in contact with since 2013. Is it appropriate to email him with "Hello, I've decided to apply into a PHD program, could you provide a recommendation letter"? Do I get it correctly: if his answer is "yes, sure", then I will include his email in my cover letter (or CV?) and my potential PHD supervisor will send him an email, if interested in my case? Is it true that I will not see the recommendation, at all?

I also have a job, which is (somehow) relevant to my potential field of study. Getting a recommendation from my employer would be possible, but is it worth it? In one hand, our company is small and not widely known. On the other hand, it is pretty innovative and lead by a professor of the same University, at which I got an undergraduate degree. He personally didn't teach me, but I think he can confirm my research skills, as research is what I mostly do as my job. The output were not academic papers, but improving stuff within our developing tasks.

If the target country does matter: I am interested in German-speaking European countries, primarily Germany.


texts: Getting research jobs in Canada for immigrants

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I have a PhD in engineering from an African university which is obviously not well known and now I work at the same university as an assistant professor.

I think about immigrating to Canada (EE system), is there any actual chance that I can get a research position in Canada? Not necessarily at universities. How can I improve my chances? what are the criteria? should I forget about getting such jobs? Hit me with reality!


texts: How will a bad grade from a somewhat unrelated course look on applications?

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I'm taking a second year genetics course as a math major (I was interested in bioinformatics, and I need genetics for that). I'm doing poorly in the course so far (I'm passing, but not with great marks). I was wondering how a bad grad will look on my application to math grad schools.

My current cgpa is about 3.8 so I'm wondering if I should just cancel this course (honestly, bioinformatics isn't even interesting to me anymore) and take a CAN on my transcript than a bad grade that will kill my cgpa. How would that look?

Any and all help is appreciated!


texts: Peer reviewed article not picked up by Google scholar

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I've recently published an article in a fairly well respected journal in the Netherlands but it is not being picked up by google scholar's index.

The journal is not a 'predatory journal' and 3 of the volume's 5 articles have been picked up by google. How come mine hasnt made it?

Thanks for any advice you can spare,
Cheers!


texts: What's the difference between a preprint and a working paper?

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I'd always thought they were completely the same, but I saw a twitter thread in which this was questioned.

I mean here "working paper" only in its scholarly sense - I'm aware that the term has other uses, for instance at the UN where it can mean something akin to the draft of a resolution.

If the answer is that there is a meaningful difference in some disciplines but not in others, which disciplines treat the term differently?


texts: Deciding whether to study abroad or continue at my current university for my PhD, what factors to consider?

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I'm currently doing a master's degree near my home state and have been offered to continue at the same grad school with a PhD. The funding side of things has yet to be confirmed, but is almost secure. I also have another offer from a grad school in Switzerland for which the funding is definitely secured.

Regarding the position in Switzerland, (i) living abroad for a few years is an advantage and (ii) the research topic is more closely aligned to what I ultimately would like to focus.
My current place has the advantage of (i) continuity and knowing the research group environment and (ii) research collaborations and publications that would probably exceed - in terms of both quantity and quality - that of the position in Switzerland.

What other considerations should I factor in to my decision and any advice as to which option I should choose?


texts: Do I need to wait for a journal to "consent" to paper withdrawal before submitting elsewhere?

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I have a question about submission elsewhere and journal's "consent" of paper withdrawing.

Recently I have withdrawn a paper of mine from a journal, which I want to submit elsewhere. Since I knew that the journal had received my email (by read receipt device) on withdrawing the paper and since I am just in the stage of being notified that the paper has been accepted for publication, the problem is: In order to submit the paper elsewhere, do I have to wait for the journal to consent to the withdrawal?

I am looking for some ethical advice.


texts:
My advisor is responsible for assigning teachers to conducting excercises to lectures. Since there is a lot of students (and groups) sometimes last year students help by taking excercises in some groups. For the past 5 months I've been employed by the university and I've worked a couple of hours a week taking classes, without a formal position at the university (and for sure won't have until I finish my masters).

Right now I am writing a CV and I would like to include the last 5 months in my work experience but I don't know how to name my position - is "Math teacher @ university" a good one?


texts: Is it normal for a "Date Revision Due" to be unexpectedly modified on Evise?

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I submitted a paper to an Elsevier Journal in January,2019. I received a referee report on May 15, 2019. The report asked for some major revision, which my co-authors and I accepted. The Evise online system initially provided us with a "Due Revision Date" on July 20, 2019.

However, I recently noticed that the "Date Revision Due" has been changed to October 21, 2019, which is a very good news for my co-authors and myself. It looks like the months of June, July and August, which are the most usual months for taking holidays, have now been skipped.

I tried to contact the journal editor to validate that this modification is not a system error, but he is on holidays until our initial revision deadline's eve. I am now wondering whether I should take this modification for granted or contact directly the Elsevier support center?

Does this kind of situation ever happened to you?


texts: Is it bad for one's future career prospects if the PhD thesis topic is broad?

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As a graduate student in the PhD program (I will be graduating in about 2 months), my research has covered a wide range of topics rather than nailing down one specific topic (super-specialized). In fact, my thesis is broad enough that my current working title is something along the lines of "Toward the Application of Electronic Structure Theory to Solve Relevant Chemical Problems." (Can it get any more general?) There is nothing informative from that title as it completely leaves out details. The problem is, each paper I've published is its own research focus without any connection to the next outside of the fact that computational chemistry was used for each.

I've read in other places that a thesis topic is critical because it is the basis on which you launch your career. Is it bad to look like a 'jack-of-all-trades' person? There must be a better way to handle this.


texts: How to discuss job search with your advisor when your career plans differ from what your advisor wants you to do?

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I'm on the job market this fall (will earn my Ph.D. this spring), and have culled a list of open positions I would like to apply for. I'd like to talk to my advisor about this soon in regards to recommendation letters, as well as for their own information. I'm at a big US research university with an untenured advisor who would also like us all to be at an R1 school or doing research in industry when we graduate. However, my preference is for small teaching schools or lecturing positions, and my list reflects that. Additionally, I have a spouse with a Ph.D., and we will be prioritizing my spouse's job for personal reasons.

I'm among the first to graduate from my group this year. We've all been vague about our job aspirations in previous years, since we've learned that our preferences would often be discounted and it wasn't worth the argument. I don't anticipate anything drastic in this discussion, but I would like to be respectful in conveying the information while still getting across my point that I won't be applying to anywhere my advisor would be happy with.

Any recommendations on how to approach this discussion? Tips on how much to share on what's influencing my/our decisions would be helpful too.


texts:
I am applying for pure Math Ph.D programs this year.

I did some independent research in centralizer of matrices, and I developed an algorithm to generate the explicit k-basis for the space of centralizers. I guess this problem is not solved since I cannot find any papers on this topic, and a similar question asked on Math Stack Overflow has no complete solutions.

I asked my professor (one of my recommendation letter writer) to take a look, but this is irrelevant to his fields of studies and he said that he might have no time to read this.

I want this research experience to strengthen my application. So, how should I deal with my paper? Shall I just mention it in my resume and personal statement or should I post the paper on arXiv? I am not sure what is appropriate.


texts:
In an academic paper, we sometimes have a "Results and Discussion" section.

It is not uncommon to add the explanation and discussion of the results together with the results section.

What are the pros and cons of both practices from an academic point of view? How do I weigh them for each paper?

List the results without explaining their significance, which is then explained in the discussion section.
List the results with their explanation as they are being listed, and eliminate the discussion section.

I find the second approach more appropriate to understand the results, since the reader wouldn't need to be going back and forth the sections, but then again, that is just my feeling.


texts: How to judge the relative prestige of named postdoctoral fellowships?

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I see more and more named postdoctoral fellowships being advertised — sometimes funded by departments, sometimes by universities, and sometimes by government agencies or NGOs. I often notice recipients of such fellowships (or their PIs) claiming that they were awarded "the prestigious fellowship X", but I can't help but think that if everything is prestigious, then nothing is.

How to judge the relative prestige of such fellowships?


texts: Is it appropriate to ask professors at which schools their recommendation letters have more power?

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Usually in United States, three letters of recommendation are required by graduate schools but some applicants might ask more than more than three professors (say five) for letters. In this situation, there might be an issue of choosing whose-letter-to-which-school.

I wonder whether it is appropriate to ask each referee at which schools or departments they are relatively more well-known (having connections or interactions with professors in there) so that their letters are more powerful in there.

If it is not appropriate to do so, are there any efficient ways for students to determine to which schools should they send a certain professor's letter?

I am a little awkward with my grammar in this question (including the title). Please feel free to edit my question if you are a native speaker of English. Thank you very much!


texts: Does any university require reporting of misconduct at other universities?

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Some universities have ethics codes that require (whatever that might mean) members to report misconduct within the community.

Are there universities where such a requirement extends to reporting misconduct within the "larger academic community"?  For example, if someone at school X learned that someone at school Y had falsified laboratory data, the X person would be required to report the person at Y.

The example of falsified data is imperfect as it may be covered under legal and contractual rubrics not local to a university, such as a government grant agency requiring recipients to report any known misuse of government funds.   A better example is plagiarism in student papers, that usually does not violate any legal codes (unless additional scholarship money is earned through the plagiarism), and is treated as a reportable crime only within universities' internal ethics codes.  The question is whether any of those codes purport to protect the integrity of other institutions.

I'm asking only about reporting of academic or institutional misconduct, especially the kind where the only effective means of reporting is to the other university.


texts: Shifting a review process from one journal to another journal

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I have two articles under review. In first round of review both got decision of "minor revision" within 3-4 months. I submitted the revised version 5 months ago but since then the status of both articles is "Under Review". I sent follow up emails but always I got response from Journal Manager that the article is under review and he sent an email to Associate Editor to prompt the review process.
During the course of time I submitted another two articles in IEEE journals; both were accepted and came online within 5-6 months of time. I am thinking to withdraw both under review articles form Springier and Elsevier and submit them to IEEE Journals.
Is it possible to shift review history of those articles to IEEE?
Will it be helpful for further accelerating the review process in IEEE if I submit both articles as new submission and provide review reports as a supporting documents?


texts: Proper way of including pictures into the Master's thesis

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I'm doing mathematics and my thesis consists mainly of understanding and elaborating couple of articles, writing clearly everything down, and possibly including a little of my own original work at the end. Of course, I am citing everything, and also I am not copypasting, rather writing known stuff with my own words and trying to be more detailed.
But I am not sure what to do with the pictures(there are about 20 of them which are relatively difficult to draw, next to the 30-35 pages of plain text). I have an access to the tex files of these articles and could easily copy paste the code for pictures. On the other hand, I could write down(rather draw) everything by myself, and anyway I would properly cite the source because many of these pictures represent ideas behind which are not mine.
So what should I do? On the one hand, straight copypasting is not good. On the other hand, this is not a piece of text where I could write more details, although if I wouldn't have seen those pictures but I would been explained the ideas, then I would have drawn slightly differently. Should I draw everything by myself, while trying to be visually different then authors(while properly citing them of course).


texts: Who to cite as referees for a post doc position?

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I am currently finishing my PhD thesis (in Mathematics) and trying to find a post doc position.

My PhD supervisor is a very nice person and is, of course, one of my referees.
However, most places need 2-3, so I am not sure who else to ask.

I have a secondary supervisor but we only talked once really during a formal thing. So asking a referee who does not know much about the work or the personality is a bit... weird...

I had a decent relationship with my Master's supervisor, but unfortunately we have not corresponded once in the 3+ years after my masters, so me writing  "hey, do you remember me from waaaay back then, would you please write a reference for me" seems a bit ... strange .. too.

I have published several papers already but I don't have any co-authors whom I could ask.

I have given one talk outside my university but I am not sure who to ask there. I don't actually know these people, my supervisor referred me to them and they were OK so I gave the talk.

Any ideas?


texts: Writing someone else's master's thesis: Unethical and illegal?

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It is really difficult for me to decide on this situation: when someone calls me and asks for work-for-hire for his/her thesis. I don't know what to do. I want to help and earn money but I think this way of earning money is unethical.
I think that receiving the title of thesis and giving back prepared manuscript is the intention that some people have, when asking for their thesis to be written.
There are plenty of websites offering such services!

The question is that: Is it legal and or ethical to write someone else's master's thesis as work-for-hire?


texts: Is it a standard practice of tenure and promotion committee to ask for review reports of some published papers of the one evaluated?

texts: Is it a standard practice for tenure and promotion committee to ask for referee reports of some published papers of the one evaluated?


texts: Importance of publications if one decides to go industry after PhD?

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If a PhD student (hard sciences like math, physics) decides to work in industry after graduation, are publications important?

For transition to industry, what are the most important factors to take note of during one's PhD?

Thanks for any advice.


texts: MS thesis defense equivalent to publishing as a MS student?

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When applying to Ph.D. at the top 10 programs in the US, does MS thesis defended to committee members have the same weight as publishing paper as a MS student? Or am I at the disadvantage of not having any publications?

I was in EE working in Physics department in the field of Quantum Optics.


texts: What is a non-tenure-track assistant professor position in the USA and is it harmful?

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I see some offers on the Chronicle jobs website (such as this one from UC San Diego) for non-tenure-track assistant professor positions.

Is the work of a non-tenure-track assistant professor exactly the same as the work of a tenure-track assistant professor, e.g. in terms of teaching/research ratio?

Also, would taking on a position of this type be more, less or equally helpful compared to, say, taking up another postdoc, for someone that would later want to apply to a tenure-track position?

Forgive me if this question does not make sense to you, but I have taken the impression from some sources that whatever professional decision one takes that is slightly outside the "normal" progression of an academic career can be harmful.


texts:
Some programs require fall grades (which I'm happy about, mine are good).
However, some neither require it, nor do they have the ability to upload them through the online app.
Should I email someone on the grad admission committee something along the lines of:

Hi,

greetings and thanks for opportunity to submit my app and thank you for the time you take to read my app

rewording the text above^^^

happy holidays, thank you

Thoughts?


texts: How to deal with a procrastinating (student) collaborator?

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I am just beginning a research project with a fellow student. She is always 10-20 minutes late to scheduled meetings and has a very hard time making any sort of deadline. She freely admits that she is a procrastinator, and acknowledges that chronically being late is a problem which she has never effectively dealt with.

We are going to be working together for several months, perhaps longer, and I know that her chronic lateness will eventually become irritating. (I am always at least 10 minutes early, and consistently complete tasks before the deadline.) I enjoy working with her in a more casual setting, but I am concerned that her procrastination may become an issue in an academic collaboration. How should I approach her about this? Are there any ways to work around it? The collaboration was her initiative, so I am hesitant to confront if there are more diplomatic options.

How should I deal with her procrastination and lateness?


texts: Can I apply for Postdoctoral Research Assistant as a fresh MSc graduate?

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I know it sounds stupid but I have applied for a Postdoctoral Research Assistant at a university in London and I have received an invitation for a Skype interview. However, I am a fresh MSc graduate having finished my masters two months ago. One of the job requirements says "PhD and/or equivalent professional experience" as essential skill, yet they invited me for a Skype interview.

Now I am wondering if this was a mistake or am I just shortlisted??

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance


texts: What style questions should I ask potential graduate students interviewing for positions in my lab?

texts: As a converse to this question, as a professor, I find it difficult to conduct a useful interview. What types of questions should I ask which would give me a good idea as to how (1) productive and (2) self-sustaining of a student the interviewee may be? If different questions are required for each parameter, please mention that in your answer.


texts: Is it a good idea to include the writing of a wikipedia article(s) on your CV before grad school application?

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I am considering applying for graduate school at some point, and I am wondering how academia looks upon contributions to Wikipedia.

Essentially, the article will be a dedicated to a very specific subfield of the physics of spin glasses, with seminal papers written on it in the 1980's. It has somewhat of a "cult" status within a small subset of the field, and the inspiration for writing it is:

(a) This aligns strongly with techniques I aim to use for my further research, so it seems like a good way to share what I know with the community.

(b) This seems like there is a legitimate need for advanced undergraduates/new entrants into the field who want a surface level introduction to this technical area.

Of course I am not the authority on subject by any means but nevertheless I feel that there is something here to contribute. My question is mainly whether or not this could be used to my favour in future graduate admissions processes, or even academic applications beyond that? Assuming of course that I have written it at an acceptable level to the "real experts" who might read it.

EDIT: Just to clarify, I am in no way under the impression that this would replace legitimate academic work (hence in a CV this would go under "other interests",etc.) - indeed it should not. I am simply wondering whether it would be an added bonus (and if so, to what extent) that academia looks favourably upon.