texts: Is there any world-wide ranking of conferences/journals?

texts:
I know it's rather difficult to establish a ranking of publications, especially because the ones in charge of establishing values for venues might be biased by their field, and several other aspects. However, I know some well-accepted (at least locally) ranking, that consider all fields under research, e.g. Brazilian Qualis - in portuguese - that includes both confs and journals, and Australian ERA - this latter has served as baseline for some class A conferences in Computer Science (my research field), in some countries other than Australia.

Hence, I wonder about the existence of another "global ranking", that has been applied overseas, thus including at least the most prominent events and journals in every field. For journals, it's a little bit easier to measure its importance, by looking at their Impact Factor values, but for conferences it's a little bit tough. To the best of my knowledge, I don't know a largely-applied means of measuring the impact of a conf.

I'd like to hear from you. Thanks in advance.


texts: Can a successful grant application be considered a publication in academia?

texts:
I have spent most of my professional life writing proposals for improving the living and studying conditions of the constituents I served (community members, students, curricula and higher education institutions). Well, after 25 years serving as a teacher, professor, dean, and chancellor I find myself looking for a job in academia as an education professor and my publication count is extremely low compared to the number of successful grant proposals that I have in my credentials.

Can I count successful grant proposals, which actually changed the lives of thousands of people, as part of my publication or research record?


texts: Prospective PhD advisor encourages me to apply and positively mentions relevant experiences. What are my success chances?

texts:
I had recently e-mailed a professor asking for opportunities in his lab. He responded as follows -
Email content:

Dear [redacted]
Thanks for your interest in my lab. My lab is planning to hire multiple Ph.D. students who will start in the fall of 2021, and the application window is going to be this Winter.
It's good that you have some relevant research experiences, and I encourage you to apply to my lab at [redacted]. When you submit your application to the department, please mention my name in your personal statement. Also, please let me know when you submit the application.
Best,
[redacted]

Can I take this as a positive response? Does that mean he will take me in if I apply? How do I respond back to him?


texts: What are the working hours for full time PhD students in Germany?

texts: What are the working hours per week for full time PhD students in Germany? Also, how many holidays are granted in a year? How is the work-life balance for full time PhD students? Thanks!


texts: Is it difficult to get into graduate school for applied math with a computer science degree?

texts:
I'm a computer science student in my third year of undergrad. I've been taking math classes on the side and will have finished most of the applied math major by the time I graduate.

I'm wondering how difficult it would be to get into graduate school for applied math with a computer science undergrad degree. I could possibly switch over to the applied math major if that would make graduate school admissions easier, but I'm wondering if it would also be fairly possible with a computer science undergrad.


texts: Should a PhD Supervisor have a PhD in the same research subject, as the PhD student?

texts:
Is it generally accepted in academia, that a PhD supervisor should have a PhD in the same research area as the student's PhD research area?

For example, let's assume that my research area is the ACM subject area "Information Systems" and the supervisor's research area is in Sociology > Psychology.


texts: How can I ask a teacher to follow the textbook more closely?

texts:
This term I'm taking a (graduate) course which is crucial for my degree. The teacher's plan for the course is quite ambitious and all along he's been following the structure of a given text, but he doesn't follow it completely and quite often omits (what I consider) key results from it, e.g. results which motivate or deepen the understanding of definitions or other results. To put it bluntly, he leaves a lot of gaps that the book covers nicely.

It's been a frustrating process and we're soon going to start with a very important topic and I've been wondering how to approach him about this. My idea at the moment is to ask him to follow the textbook more closely, even if by doing so we sacrifice how much we cover, but I'm looking for suggestions.

Final edit (concluding remarks): I've chosen the answer which I think gave me the best course of action and I think summarizes some of the most important points in comments and other answers. Anyone reading this thread in the future should definitely check all of them anyway. They all provided valuable feedback for me.

I'd also like to point out that Shane's comments in chat are spot on. I believe said comments capture the exterior root of my problems, which I was unable to see at the time when the question was written. On my end I also learned a couple of important things on how to deal with these kind of situations.


texts: What types of industry positions favor PhD over a masters?

texts:
I'm coming from a biomedical engineering background, and I'm noticing that almost all job postings ask for either an MS or a PhD, and from speaking with my friends with masters it seems that masters are often favored, because they demand less pay. In fact, the only positions that specifically seek out PhDs seem to be research positions in industry.

Based on that, I'm curious to see if this exists beyond just engineering. Are there any non-research industry positions that actively seek to hire PhDs over masters students?


texts: Bad advisor + a research area that interesets me or an active advisor + research topic that doesn't interest me?

texts:
I'm a beginning Master's student in Mathematics, I'm passionate about Mathematical Analysis and want to have my Master's thesis on some topic in Mathematical Analysis. Problem is, in my Department, the professors who work in this area are very few and they have a bad reputation. On the other hand, professors who work in Computational Mathematics and Numerical Optimization are more active in research and have a good reputation. I can't really decide whether is it more important to choose a potential supervisor and learn from him the elements of research in a research topic I'm not interested in or should I take the risk and stick to the topic I'm passionate about?. If I chose the research area which I'm passionate about there's a huge probability that my supervisor will not offer any guidance at all or even any interest in reading my thesis.
I understand that the question is rather subjective as it depends on the personality of the student in the end. However, I'm looking forward to hearing other's analysis on the situation and if anyone had a similar experience or a challenge like this and how did they end up doing?

Thank you all for your time reading my post.


texts:
In life Science, What are the available postdoctoral fellowships in Europe that non-European can apply for?
Once joined an EU research center can a non-EU researcher apply for Marie-Curie postdoctoral fellowships?
during a PD interview, PI said, it's not possible once the applicant already joined an EU center?


texts:
I just wanted to get some input from the community about an issue I have run into with my main PhD supervisor.

I started my PhD about two years ago (hard science field), and about six months ago I finished a preliminary draft for most my first article. The draft is about 70 % complete, but I can't write the last part yet because I am still waiting on some final results.

I sent the draft to my main supervisor as I wanted to get some feedback on the parts I had written so far. Just before summer I had a meeting with my supervisor, and it turned out that my supervisor had not read anything in the draft even though I had sent it several weeks before. As such, I felt that the meeting was rather unproductive as I basically had to spend the short time I had allocated explaining what I had actually done research-wise instead of getting feedback on my draft. This also disappointed me a little bit as my supervisor had specifically informed me before that it was preferable that I summarized my findings in article-form instead of just sending random updates whenever I had some progress.

Fast forward until now. This semester I have spent working at another institution, and my supervisor recently came to visit me. Several weeks before this I had informed my supervisor that I would like to discuss my paper draft, and was told that this should not be a problem. However, it turned out yet again that my supervisor had not read antyhing. Instead I was told that as some of my co-supervisors had taken a look at the draft and said it needed a better focus and a thorough rewrite (which I fully expected anyways), there was no need for my main supervisor to read it. However, although my co-advisors have given me good tips on some of the issues in the draft, I still feel like I have not received proper guidance in how I can restructure the entire focus of the article based on my current findings.

As I have spent a lot of time writing this draft, and would like to receive feedback from my main supervisor on how to improve the paper, I find it disappointing that my supervisor has shown so little interest in reading my draft. It is my understanding that reading drafts is one of the main duties of a supervisor. I am now at the stage of my PhD where I can do most of the research independently, but I still feel I need input on my writing.

Is this something I should be more firm about with my supervisor? We have had a very good working relationship so far, but this issue is really starting to bother me. If anyone has any tips on how I can deal with this, then i would greatly appreciate it!


texts: I found some topographical errors in one of my published papers

texts: i found some topographical errors mainly missing spellings in one of my published papers. However the errors does not alter the meaning or concept of the paper. I contacted the joirnal editor but told me that it remains topographical error. Am just worried about it when readers find these mistakes. what do i do


texts: Publish as a book, then request a journal for peer review or reverse

texts: I am planning to publish my research as a book containing parts as a biography, then is it possible later to request a journal to peer review the research? or can publish as a peer review in a journal, then publish as a book?


texts:
Posted here as OP is not on SE:
Ok I have a dilemma. I am a university student. I was re-diagnosed late with ADHD due to a misdiagnosis of severe depression and anxiety, I have struggled at university often having submited assignments late with careless mistakes.

Now I know that the standard concessions given to someone with my condition are extensions plus additional support someone to help break down the assignments and help with structuring my arguments through providing strategies to organise my work.

My problem is the majority of my low marks and fails were caused by penalties for late submission 5% per work day. I failed multiple assignments being hit for the maximum penalty of 50% (10 working days).

Now that I have my late diagnosis, should I contest those results and ask the penalties be withdrawn or tempered? Or should I just go dig a hole and bury myself because without that degree that is about all I have left to do. ♂


texts: How does one create graphs like the following. I could not reproduce this from Excel as all the designs seems to be making the bars thicker and overlapping without gaps


texts: I have to read a paper for my PhD qualifying exams but I don't understand any of it. Does that mean I fail?

texts:
My committee assigned me to read a paper.  But there is a lot of notation I don't understand.  I tried looking at papers in the reference list and I can't really find anything that explains all the notation and concepts.  I also tried looking for talks that the author gave, but they don't go into as much detail as the paper.

What should I do?  I have no background in this field so I'm not really sure where to start.  I also have about three weeks to figure this out.

Edit: Please stop answering this question because apparently it might be cheating.


texts: Is it worth it to purchase a coursera certificate in Machine Learning for grad school apps?

texts: Specifically I'm applying to some data science programs. As Machine Learning is a relatively advanced topic at the undergrad level and one that is so relevant in the field, I was wondering if it would be enough of a plus on my application to be worth the money?


texts: Is it appropriate for a PI to appoint someone who is a family member?

texts: I am a junior faculty in one of the top-tier research US institutions. I just joined the department and hired two GRAs meanwhile. In addition, I would like to appoint one more individual in my research group who could be appointed as a research engineer/technician. His/her role would be to support my research program and assist my GRAs on their PhD work. I am wondering whether there are any legal issues/conflict of interests if he/she is one of my family members. How will the department see this recruitment?


texts: Is it ok to add a bit of humor and sarcasm to academic presentations

texts: Is it frowned upon to add slight humor and sarcasm to academic presentations? For example, I flip to a background slide and say "This is a typical slide used by researchers in (field) just to show off how difficult their work is." before going through the content of the slide. Is there a difference in doing that in different settings, like a department seminar vs an international conference?


texts: What are the main differences between undergraduate, master's, and doctoral theses?

texts:
When I did my undergraduate thesis, my adviser was expected big on students expecting them working really hard, so it ended up as a reduced master's thesis (most of the reviewers said that it was an overkill for a B.E).

So because of this, I did my master's thesis pretty much in the same way I did my bachelor's thesis; the PhD dissertation was a different story.

What are the principal differences between these three pieces of research?


texts: Asked to write a letter of recommendation for promotion for an abusive former professor

texts:
I've recently been asked to write a letter of recommendation for tenure and promotion for my former advisor from graduate school. This is for a potential promotion/tenure a few years down the line.

My time in grad school was one of the darkest periods of my life. My former advisor was verbally abusive, demanding, and insulting. The way they treated me, and the stress that came with it, led to severe problems with anxiety and depression to the point where I became suicidal. I'm also not the only student who's had these kind of problems with them: I know of at least one other student who's had serious mental health problems due to their experiences as their graduate student under the same professor.

The problem is I'm still potentially reliant on my former advisor. I'm now working full-time outside academia, and I'm applying for employment-based permanent residency in the United States. One of the requirements for that is a set of experience letters from a few previous employers or professors that states what skills you're bringing to the job (to justify why the company is hiring you instead of an American). This is a signed letter saying something like:

  This person was a student of mine from date A to date B, I have direct personal knowledge of their work, they took courses on X, Y, and Z topics, and demonstrated skills A, B, and C through the course of their research/work.

This advisor has already refused to sign such a letter for another student who left the lab on bad terms after standing up to the abuse.

Without permanent residency, I'd be forced to leave the country in the coming years when my work visa expires. I've spent long enough here that my entire life is here, and so anything that could potentially put it in jeopardy makes me extremely cautious.

The request states that my letter will be kept confidential, but my former advisor has supervised relatively few students overall. My understanding is that any points I bring up in my letter will be discussed with them as part of their review process, and so there's a good chance they'll know it was me.

I see three possible options:

Write the letter honestly, holding them accountable for their actions, but leaving myself open to the risk that they'll know I wrote something negative and retaliate by refusing to cooperate with my immigration process.
Politely decline to write the letter, which doesn't hold them accountable, and could still cause them to refuse when I ask them for the favour of signing the experience letter.
Grit my teeth and write something reasonably neutral in the letter, letting them potentially go on to harm more students in the future.

None of these are good options, and I'm not sure what the best course of action here is.


texts: In the context of a review of an academic paper, what does "technical accuracy" mean?

texts: I have been asked to review an academic conference paper for a computer-science conference. One of the elements, the review must contain is a review of “technical accuracy.* What does this mean exactly? Is it the ability of the author to use the English language? Or is it supposed to be a review of their ability in the particular subject matter? Or something else?


texts: Does knowing the language of the country of a prospective institution influence admission chances?

texts:
This question applies to universities in the Netherlands

If a given programme at an institution is being taught in English in full, would I be right in assuming that two otherwise identical applications (or as close as possible), differing only in whether the applicant knew the local language of the country where the institution is based, would also be ranked differently—with the applicant knowing the language being ranked better—despite the programme being listed as English-language without any assumptions of local language knowledge?


texts: Should I include interviews transcriptions in my thesis?

texts:
In my PhD, I ran an experiment falling within the grounded theory framework, based on interviews I conducted. I transcripted them, tagged them, etc. This "enhanced transcription" is about 130 pages long (with pretty narrow margins).
I am now writing my thesis and I wonder if I should include these transcription in appendix of my PhD thesis.

My first guess would be yes, in order to enable contextualization when I quote snippets of theses interviews, but also for "open science" purposes (being honest about what I've done, archival purpose, reproducible research, etc.).

However, thesis in my field are usually ca. 150 pages long. Addind these transcriptions (i.e. 130 pages) would add a significant amount a pages with a low information density. A solution could be to display these transcripts in a very small font, so that they are only 50 pages long, but I don't think it's a good solution.

By the way, my supervisors don't have opinion about it, since using grounded theory is rather uncommon in my field - hence no "jurisprudence".


texts: If an editor has "recommended acceptance", is that sufficient for me to list my article as "accepted" / "to appear"?

texts:
I submitted an article to a journal several months ago, and after two rounds of revisions, I have received an email from the editor with whom I've been corresponding, in which they said that the referee is "satisfied with the latest version", and therefore "I have recommended acceptance". Moreover, the editor said that I would receive information soon on uploading the final version of my paper to the journal.

What I'd like to understand is if this is enough to consider my article accepted, so that on my CV, I can list it as "accepted at ___" or "to appear in ___".

In the question When to label paper as "accepted" on your publication list?, the top answer recommends to list an article as "accepted" when one has received the "final acceptance letter", but I suppose I'm not sure whether the email that I received would count as such.


texts: How to know if these congresses (i.e. organized by ISCA) are good?

texts:
One of my colleages has published a couple of papers in the CS congresses organized by:
http://www.isca-hq.org/

For what I saw that the papers that got accepted in their conferences, are indexed in DBLP and INSPEC. Actually I would like to submit one paper in the conferences that they organized, but I am a little dubious about it. My main concern is to know if it would be a good idea to submit to that conference.

Could anybody give me his straight opinion about those congresses that they organized? do they seem good enough?

thanks


texts: What should I do if I believe my former advisor is alleging to journal editors that I have copied his study?

texts:
I have been through many different things with my previous advisor.

He wrote publications with my research proposal with his former female student after forcing me to give up the topic.  Also, as soon as I completed the simulation study for a different study, he asked me to stop again and then gave it to her again (she published it as a single author).
He simply asked me a personal relationship. I told him no.  Then he did his best to kick me out of my program. Even my Dept. and graduate college forced me to leave without my degree for about 6 months.

Luckily, I completed my Ph.D. and I am now doing my post doc.  Recently my paper has been rejected in the 2nd round from a top journal.  I heard from a colleague that my previous advisor called the chief editor (who was his student) and asked him  not to accept my paper, alleging I copied his study (it cannot be true).

Despite my experiences as his advisee, I haven't ever talked about anything about him because I need a job.  He just made a lot of crazy rumors about me, but I have been quiet.  Should I be quiet again?


texts: I feel that I have a weak application. Should I take a gap year before applying to grad school?

texts:
A little about me:
-I'm a math major.
-I'm going to be starting my senior year this fall.
-I have the credits to graduate early, at the end of the fall semester.
-I have taken a few graduate level math classes, computer science and statistics  classes, and science classes (psychology, biology, chem, physics).
-I'm leaning towards applied math.
-I go to my state school, which isn't very selective or prestigious.
-I have a 3.9 GPA.

I haven't had any advising beyond getting me to fulfill my graduation requirements and now it's my senior year and I still don't know what I want to do career-wise.  I think I want to go to graduate school because I really enjoy the school environment and learning, but I'm not 100% certain.

Assuming I do choose the grad school path, I feel that my application would be weak at this point. I would like to stand a chance at getting into a more prestigious program than my state school.

-I have not taken the GRE General or GRE Math test. These seem to be the most important factors in admission. I don't know that it's possible to get a good score on both between now and the application deadlines around December.
-I have no research experience yet. I plan to assist a professor with research in the fall, but I wish I would have more prior to applying.
-I have little work experience so my resume isn't impressive.
-I still don't know what program/research area I'd want to go into. I think this would show in my personal statement and recommendation letters.

Do I have time to improve all this before the application deadline? Should I take a gap year to see if I can get some research/work experience, make sure I want to go/figure out what I want to research, and do well on the GRE? Does a gap year weaken an application?


texts: How to proceed when a mathematical result contradicts existing literature?

texts:
An author has proven an interesting mathematical result, but notices that this result contradicts existing literature.

Does the author have to find an explicit error or counter-example to the existing literature before considering submission? Can she submit the proven result to a journal, if she cannot find an error in her own proof?


texts: Manuscript evaluation for becoming an editor

texts: I was wondering how editors evaluate manuscripts. They certainly do not have time to read the paper thoroughly. What are the key points to look for when evaluating a manuscript as an editor?


texts: how to show my willingness to accept a PhD offer from a potential supervisor

texts:
My prospective supervisor have given me an offer to join his research group. Now, how do I express my willingness to join his research group? I have written a sample letter. Please give me some suggestions if i have to add more or write differently
Dear professor
Thank you very much for the offer. I would definitely accept you offer and I am very enthusiastic to be a part of your research group.
Thanks


texts: How to cite a paper whose place and status of publication is questionable or unknown

texts:
I want to cite the following paper:

  Cem Kaner & Walter P. Bond, “Software engineering metrics: What do they measure and how do we know?” 10th International Software Metrics Symposium (Metrics 2004), Chicago, IL, September 14-16, 2004.

Most of my citations of papers in proceedings contain page numbers.
The PDF file does contain page numbers from 1 to 12. However, I cannot find any contribution from the author in the table of contents for the proceedings. Other citations cite the paper without page numbers.

What should my citation look like? And in case I encounter something like this in the future: what explains the apparent mismatch between the author's website and official proceedings?


texts: List of international internships/student programs

texts:
Is there a website where a list is maintained and constantly updated for undergrads/graduate students looking for internships/competitions/conferences in whatsoever field?

Such a website will be an invaluable resource!


texts: What software can I use to poll my audience during presentation?

texts:
I recently attended a lecture where the speaker used piece of software to interactively poll the audience and display the results. The particular solution was ResponseWare. What other solutions are available? Worth the money (if paid)? Pros and cons?

Please note, that I'm not interested in top 5 results of Google search.. I'd be more interested to hear personal experiences with specific software, both as a presenter or audience.


texts: Which is better at verifying that a conference is reliable: Scopus, IEEE Xplore or DBLP?

texts:
In the case that I got one paper published, which of the aforementioned repositories have more relevance (so that I can determine that my work has not been published in a nobody-knows-about, fake conference)? I have read that some papers that are in IEEE Xplore belong to bogus or fake conferences and there is also the same problem with Scopus. I have also seen that in some occasions Scopus miss some citations of my articles, while for example in Google Scholar they appear.

Well the bottom line, which repository is better viewed for backing up that one publication was in a reliable conference?


texts: What can I do if my English level is lower than the minimum requirements?

texts:
I am applying for a Masters degree. An  IELTS with an overall Band score of at least 6.5 and a minimum of 6.0 for each section is required. I have taken the test and my overall score is 7 but in particular my score is:

Listening:  8.5
Reading:    7.5
Writing:    7.0
Speaking:   5.5

Would an application with the aforementioned results get rejected before it even reaches the academic evaluation stage?
Would an Enquiry on Results (apply for my speaking to be remarked) help?
Is retaking the test the best option?


texts: Why would a small paper (10 pages) with an important result take over a year to get accepted?

texts:
Below is an example that I had in mind, but my question is more general: does the reputation of some authors cause their papers to be prioritized for review sooner than other important papers, e.g. the paper "primes is in p" (link below), which was written by unknown, Indian grad students?  In this specific example, a year seems like a long time to review an important -- and very short -- paper.

http://annals.math.princeton.edu/2004/160-2/p12

Milestones

Received: 24 January 2002

Accepted: 21 March 2003

Published online: September 2004


texts: Variance in academic fecundity during and after graduate school

texts:
Some people used to be prolific when they were working on their PhDs, but years after graduation, they hardly published a single paper. Why?

Also, some faculty members published great papers while working on their PhDs that received dozens of citations, but few years later and after they started leading their own research, most of their published work barely got any citation. How come?


texts: What are ways that academics make money?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  How do academics make money from applying their research?

What are the various revenue sources for academics? Are some ways to earn money more usual than others?

I'm asking this question per this comment.


texts: What is the appropriate response to students who peek at the exam questions before the exam starts?

texts:
I have been an invigilator for several exams for large classes. I am not formally affiliated with the classes.

One thing I routinely notice is that, despite warnings, there will always be some students who will very quickly and brazenly flip through the entire exam (booklet) and look at the questions before the exam starts. Some will do this very quickly to get a sense of the type of questions (no more than 10 seconds).

What should be the appropriate response to this type of behaviour? The dilemma for me is, I don't want to expel a student for a less than 10 second glance at an exam, but I have been very annoyed by this type of brazen behaviour (even when I was an undergrad), which clearly constitutes cheating.

Can someone please provide advice as to what to do for this minor type of cheating behaviour?


texts:
I just had an interview for a role that was a perfect fit for me. This is a research role in a University. During the interview, the professor who was making the hire commented on how my skills in computational modelling was a close fit to his research project including the amount of upper division quantitative units I have taken; in my undergraduate program I took two math and two physics units every semester.

Of the remaining two other guys in their 50s, one was constantly berating my Alma Mater for being slightly lower ranked than this current University.
He also berated my average GPA without taking into account the level and load of the units I was enrolled in.
In addition, he was constantly berating my long term career goal while also putting down Elon Musk and the national research group of the country I did my undergraduate in.
He even went as far back to nit-pick my grades in middle school.
There are no standardised questions asked by the two other interviewers aside from the professor making the hiring

At some point the professor who was making the hire had to rebuke this old man who was on the panel.

Throughout the interview, I politely yet logically articulated my argument as to why his views were flawed.

To be honest, I was shocked at how the interview turned out given the culture in academia and research.

Is there anything I should do in the future if something similar comes up? How common is this?


texts: Acknowledgement of Submission of a Paper

texts:
I submitted a paper to a journal several months ago (less than six months). That journal does not have an electronic submission systeem. I sent an email to one of the editors of that journal and I wrote politely (I believe) that I am submitting a paper to the journal. It’s my bad that I forgot to CC the email to the managing editor of that journal.

Up to now I have not received any acknowledgement of the submission and therefore I don’t know whether the paper is in the editorial process (i.e., being reviewed). I did send another email to the editor (and CC it to the managing editor) and ask if the submission was arrived safely. But again I has received no response (from both). So I am kind of afraid that my submission and/or the last email is regarded as spam. Of course I won’t reveal the journal’s name but it is a good and decent journal.

I know it’s not rare that authors may not receive acknowledgement of submission. But I do’'t know how to make sure that the submission email didn’t go into the spam folder.

What should I do? (Unfortunately this is not the first time I encountered this situation)

Edit: By the way, I would like to know if my situation is typical or rare? Of course if the journal has an electronic submission system, then this situation is not likely to happen.


texts: How do researchers send unsolicited emails asking for feedback on their works?

texts:
I wonder how a researcher send an unsolicited email to another one asking for feedback to their work. I guess it will be something like this?

Hello Dr. X
To introduce myself, I am Y, in institute Z. I'm sorry if this email is not convenient at this time, but my work about A is highly relevant to your work in B, so I think it will be interesting to you too. If possible, can you take a look at it and tell me what you think? Here is the link: Human interaction with cats
Thank you for your reading, hope you enjoy it.

I wonder if the summary/abstract should be included in the email too, since the principle for asking good question is to show everything you know about it. Maybe it's not necessary, since the title of the link should prove its interestingness nevertheless? I'd like to have your confirm.
I'm also interested in the case where Y has no Z, and the link is just a collection of observations posted in a blog, not a full paper with proper citation and literary review. It is possible that the observations may have been covered in the field, but Y isn't aware of that yet.
I also think that if the link is interesting enough, then putting a tracking method in there is fine too? Even if they finds out, they wouldn't feel insulted either, because they find that the link is indeed interesting.

Related:
• Is it appropriate (as a PhD student) to email other researchers asking about some details in their papers?
• Is it appropriate to drop by another university's professor's lecture to talk about research afterwards?
• What are the strategies for getting feedback on articles?


texts: How to revise the manuscript (one reject and one accept in first decision) and what could be the final decision?

texts:
I just received a decision letter from IEEE ACCESS with resubmission option(first decision came in one month). The recommendation of reviewer1 is "Accept (minor edits)" and the recommendation of reviewer2 is "Reject (update and resubmit encouraged)".

Reviewer 1: Accept (minor edits)
compare the performance of proposed method with conventional methods are given in ref[] & ref[].

Reviewer 2: Reject (update & resubmission encouraged)
Comments came like grammar check and typo corrections are needs to be done...
some notations, abbreviations are need to be corrected...
Add expression for proposed technique and also explanation with performance cure...

I am doing revision on my manuscript as per advice given by the journal reviewers and going to submit ASAP....

If anybody has the similar kind of experience, please share what could be the final decision?....
Valid points are welcome & appreciated....


texts: How important is the statement of purpose in a PhD application for admission to a top school in the US?

texts:
According to this MIT statement of purpose guideline, the statement of purpose seems to be an important part of a PhD application.
However, I have also heard that, in the case of MIT, the statement of purpose is only reviewed after the application has been tacitly accepted.

So, how crucial is this part of the application, and what part does it play in the process of graduate admissions at top schools in the US?


texts:
The recommendation letters seem to be one of the most important aspects of the application.

First of, how will I manage to ask a professor to write a recommendation letter for 5 colleges I am intending to apply to?
Does it make a difference for the professor what school I am
applying to (ivy league or not)?
What criteria should I use when picking the professors that will write a good recommendation?
I live in a different country at the moment. Should I go and meet them in person to ask for this?
I burned a few bridges, but how can I influence their opinion at this point and show them how much I have grown after college and how
much better I have become and it is partially thanks to them?

I am really scared of asking them. Any tips or advice is greatly appreciated it.


texts: Using mendeley and science papers from sci-hub in Germany

texts:
I am using mendeley to organize all my science papers and to keep things structured. From time to time capitalism forces me to get the texts from sci-hub which is not totally legit.

Now I noticed mendeley uploads the science papers to a cloud to save and synchronize them for different machines using that mendeley account. As I am uploading these papers again. So is there either an option to turn this feature off or is there any attention by any persons regarding this? If there is none I continue using it as it is.


texts: Application requests experience or interest in professional/leadership programs

texts:
I am a recent PhD graduate in a STEM field and I am currently a postdoc. I am also applying for assistant professorship positions since a postdoc is not permanent.
One of the applications for an assistant professorship position requires the usual documents (CV, research plan, letters of recommendation etc.) however this application also requests a "one-page statement listing experience or interest in professional and/or leadership programs" (this is taken verbatim from the posting for the position).
I have never come across this request for an assistant professor position before. Could someone please provide some advise regarding the content to write for this section of the application please?


texts: Do you have to find out/ prove something to get a PhD?

texts:
I went on a trip to Oxford with my school, and I asked a lady whether or not you have to go and discover something in a PhD? She said no, and it's more research. But I read up somewhere that you do have to discover something to get a PhD.

I just want to know precisely how a PhD works.

Will some subjects- like Maths or Computer Science- require you to go out and prove something, and are others- like English- just require the student to do extensive research?

Note: by getting a PhD, I don'y just mean anyone getting it, I do mean someone who's actually studying for one.


texts: Does the number of references influence reviewers decision?

texts: For journal article, does the number of references one has for an original research work have an influence on the reviewer? Like if I have say 11 references, in such a case, will the reviewer take it for granted that my work is incorrect?


texts: What is the point of a lecture when you have a textbook?

texts:
I never really understood the point of having a course with lectures when the course has a textbook. Sometimes the subject is so high-level or specialized or so modern that the contents are changing rapidly that there is no textbook (for example at the graduate level). But more often the textbook includes everything that will be said in the lecture, and much more: extra content, exercises, answers to exercises, appendices, etc.

I assume a STEM context, that is we can assume the textbook is available in the sense that there is one comprehensive source that contains undisputed facts, as opposed to a broad literature with lots of interpretations and opinions (as may be the case in non-STEM contexts).

So what is the point of a lecture?


texts: How many applications are usually received for a given PhD position?

texts: I realise that the answer to this question varies greatly between department and universities but I would like to get some estimates from somebody within the field since I myself has absolutely no idea. When I apply for a PhD position, can I expect to compete with a handful of other persons or can there be hundreds of applications sent?


texts: Is it typical for STEM students to be responsible for coming up with their own thesis projects?

texts:
I'm a first year recent science/STEM international PhD student. My advisor has mentioned to me that it is my responsibility  to come up with a project all on my own. I believe the understanding is that I come up with a project and only will receive help when I'm stuck. I'm wondering whether this is normal? I've asked every student in my cohort how they came up with their project and they said it was a mutual thing between them and their advisor. They both sat down and bounced ideas around or their advisor had a grant and they are taking a sub-portion of the grant idea and they will later on in their fourth/fifth years add more to it on their own merits.

I'm very worried about this, because I was always under the notion that in graduate school you receive guidance from your advisor is what projects might work from their experience. Later, at the post-doc level, the person is experienced enough to master their own project from scratch.

I'm in an unfunded lab and don't have access to protocols/money for wet lab. I have come up with multiple ideas, but they don't seem promising. My advisor only liked one of the ideas, however she is not sure that it will work. I spoke with other professors and they don't think my previous ideas will lead anywhere.

There are two other PhD students in my lab. They have not taken their quals yet and are in their fourth years. I'm worried about my future outlook since my advisor has not had a graduated PhD student yet. We are her first ones.

What is my best course of action?

Thank you in advance.


texts: What does "funding" mean for undergraduate students performing research over the holiday period?

texts: I am currently an undergraduate student interested in gaining research experience. I recently asked the research coordinator of our faculty if there were any opportunities to conduct research over the holidays, in preparation for graduate studies. I was told that there were no available summer research programs at the moment, and that I should approach individual faculty members and ask them. They also told me something about them themselves not being able to support any research students over the summer because they don't "have the funds". I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding what this means, but I'm actually not interested at all in getting paid; I just want to gain research experience. Is this what the individual meant, or does it mean something else?


texts: Is it unethical to not able to complete a journal review within provided time ?

texts:
I was invited to review a paper from a decent journal in my field. I was provided a month to review the article.

However, due to some work related commitments, I was not able to provide reviews within the stipulated time (and somehow forgot about the deadline). After 2 weeks of the deadline, I received an email from the editor for providing reviews on the article. I emailed him back that I will provide the reviews and mentioned the date and he acknowledged the same. However, on the date I had provided, I received an automated email that if I don't provide the reviews they will be forced to go ahead with the reviews from other reviewers.

I emailed them again that I have read the paper and ready with my reviews and will be uploading them within a few hours. But while filling the review form, I received another automated email stating that they have decided to move ahead without my reviews. Since it was my first opportunity to officially review a paper from a journal, the situation left me with the following questions

Was it unethical at my part to not able to provide the reviews within the provided time ?
Will it have any impact on my reputation as a reviewer in future?


texts: How to properly reference a source when almost exact copy?

texts:
I am currently writing a piece of work, mainly studying some theory developed in a particular article. I did my best to be clear whether it was one of my own comment concerning the subject or material, eventually rephrased, coming from the article.

But now, I need to copy a large section from the article. There is no point in modifying the section, it is actually a list of hypothesis written in a mathematical fashion, and rephrasing it would be unclear. So well, maybe I changed a bit the formulation of a few things, or changed the order of the list to fit the way I present the things, but really cosmetic changes.

How should I cite that ? I guess (as it is not exactly copy/paste) no "", but then what ? I already mentioned that the whole work was closely related to the article, but I feel uncomfortable copying the section without knowing how to reference it.


texts: Part time industrial work during a mathematics PhD

texts:
I am in the second year of my PhD in mathematics and I have recently decided I want to go into industry after I'm finished.  I feel like a lot of what I'm learning in the program does not have direct, real-world applications, and I'd like to remedy this problem by getting some work experience while I'm still in graduate school.

I have some programming background (but not as much as a CS grad) and a couple years experience doing simple data analysis programming.  I also have a BS in physics.  It seems like there should be a place in industry for me somewhere, but I don't know how to go about finding it.

I would like to work part-time, or as a consultant, so that the job won't greatly hinder my progress towards my degree.  (Of course, some time will be lost that could have gone to my dissertation, but this is made up for by gaining marketable skills.)  I'd like to work in science or in software.  I am aware of internships, but it seems like most are either for undergraduate students or engineers.

  Can a math grad student work part-time in industry during his PhD?  If so, how would one go about finding jobs?


texts: What are the benefits and drawbacks of fitting one's problem within an advisor's research?

texts:
I am passionate about working on a particular problem and domain, and have an opportunity to complete a PhD that does not require department/university subsidy. However, the problem I am interested in is outside of the domain of the research faculty. I have been encouraged to find a small part of my problem space that fits with the research of available advisors. However, I feel like conducting my research at another institution, where the research faculty are actively working in the same domain as myself, may be a better choice.

What are the benefits and drawbacks may be to work with advisors directly related to one's own area of research, rather than trying to just fit one's research into the scope of available advisors' research interests?

There is some discussion of this regarding the master's thesis, but I feel that the doctoral level is a little different, in that the advisor/advisee relationship is perhaps more important.


texts: How do I write a reference in my reference list which has various places of publication with different editorials?

texts: I am writing my reference list for my final paper and there is a book, which has different places of publication with different editorials in each one


texts: What is the workflow of an editor in this case?

texts:
I am rather new to the academic so I am bit insecure about the whole process. I have a small question regarding the publication process.

Context:
Recently I submitted a paper to a physics journal. Two referees were consulted by the editor and recently we received their comments. While one referee recommended publication after a small remark was answered the other referee recommended against the publication. He did not criticize the validity of our work and only said that our manuscript did not add any new physics to the literature. In our rebuttal letter we showed that in fact our approach is very different from the literature (one of the motivation to do the study) and we come to different and new conclusions compared to the present literature.

Question:
Recently we resubmitted our manuscript together with our rebuttal to the comments. I saw that our manuscript was sent to one referee. So my question is: what is the workflow of the editor in such a case? Did he sent the manuscript back to the referee who was against the publication or did he consult a new third referee? How is such a case handled by the editor?

Thank you very much

A concerned newbie to the field.

Cheers


texts: Is it Okay to Appear Constantly as Offline but Reply Back Instantly?

texts:
On apps such as Mattermost, there are the following online status symbols:

To be honest, I don't (i) like and (ii) want people to know on which times I'm online, and on which times I'm not. I feel like this is a huge intrusion into my privacy. For example, if I want to check sth at 11pm, then I want to freely do this, without people knowing.
Is it okay/accepted to appear constantly as offline during weekdays, but still reply back "instantly" when sb writes to me privately, when I chat with the professor (my boss) or with our students?
I know that appearing online at some points might make life easier for some people (particularly for students), and also the prof. might be wondering what is going on. All people from our group regularly appear as "online" or "away" during usual office hours, but I just don't seem to be able to cope with these things (though to be fair, via email, nobody knows whether I'm online or away or off either).


texts: Improving motivation in qualitative research motivation

texts:
My PhD project has evolved into a very qualitative methodology and approach. As my training and background is very positivist and focused on outcomes, I am really struggling with this shift into a more conceptual endeavour. Initially my PhD was going to involve complex surveys and some interesting statistical approaches (Selecting the Theory Underpinning the Research Project). However, as the literature review progressed, the many assumptions that the field explored earlier seems to to be poorly founded and I find myself keen to challenge and develop a new synthesis of the issues.

It seems clear that that what is required is a more open ended, interdisciplinary approach. Grounded theory, a methodology that aims to analyse data to develop theories seems like a great fit. Grounded theory draws on all sorts of data sources to explain complex experiences and phenomenon which seeems to be what is required in my field. Although I understand the intention of constructivist grounded theory on the whole, I have now lost a lot of faith in my project and have come to a standstill for weeks now.

I am really struggling to believe that my research will help draw clarity that I was hoping to find. Also, I am worried that once I start my research, the interviews and data that I collect will only consolidate stereotypes and biases that I found in the literature review. I will become another researcher that will only contribute further to the ongoing difficulties in the vulnerable group that I am researching. My supervisors have been encouraging, they supervised grounded theory projects before. Grounded theory and intercultural facebook groups have also been encouraging and argued that my experience is common. I feel that I just need to somehow snap out of my reverie and self-indulgence. I would appreciate some advice and perspective on how to get perspective and to get back into a more motivated state.

How should I deal with discouragement as a graduate student?

Student supervision when student loses motivation to work

Are there any ways to improve perspective taking and motivation in doing qualitative PhD research, rather than quantitative research which seems to be the main discussion in this stackexchange?


texts: Is there any website for announcements of journal's special issues?

texts:
I was wondering if there is a site or something where I can find announcements for all (most of) the special issues of journals (upcoming and past) . For example of Springer, IEEE, Elsevier, ...

If I search for this now, I find scattered call for papers. Also, I can't seem to find this on wikicfp.


texts: Is it better to have done a Masters Thesis before applying for a PhD? Or are shorter semester projects sufficient?

texts:
Basically, I have choices between two universities for an MSc Physics, with the idea of pursuing a PhD in theoretical/computational neuroscience in top UK/US schools.

In the first university, and I will have done more semester projects throughout the year, but the Masters thesis is only at the very end of the degree, hence after PhD applications. The second option would consist of a Masters project in either the second or third semesters (thus, either before or during applications), although likely not in the areas I'm interested in.

I would be grateful to know the opinion of former applicants/admissions committee personnel who think that this would be a deciding factor in PhD applications. Just to summarise the choice is between some research experience (2 shorter semester projects), but more expoure in computational neuroscience, and less exposure in computational neuroscience, but some exposure for a Masters thesis.

Perhaps even broader than that, how many solid research experiences (equivalent to a Masters thesis-level) would be needed for admissions into the top 10-20 US schools?


texts: Can a master's student change their mind and look for a different project?

texts:
I am a fairly new Master's student (~3 months). A few weeks ago, my supervisor told me to work on project X. I reluctantly agreed to work on X because I was not able to come up with any alternatives, due to my lack of knowledge in the field.

However, as I spend more time on project X, I'm more and more convinced it's a bad project for me:

I'm not interested in X
I don't think there is a good chance of getting published (my supervisor and the other students agree it's a stretch).
I think my supervisor is mostly asking me to work on it because he thinks project X could become a business opportunity. I'm not interested in business opportunities right now.

I have expressed a desire to work on a different project, but my supervisor hasn't been willing to help me come up with one. He is really focused on making X a reality. I've come up with broad topics that I could look into further, but my supervisor always answers that I need to focus on X or else I will never get anywhere.

TL;DR My supervisor asked me to work on project X, and I reluctantly agreed. A few weeks later, I'm realizing that it was a bad decision to agree to X.

Is it acceptable for me to tell him that I want to drop project X, and start looking for a better project?


texts: How to notify admissions that one quit another program?

texts:
I completed one term of a master's program before finding it was not what I expected, so I promptly quit. Now, I am sending fall application letters to other master's programs, for which I will be a paying student, but am uncertain how to mention this previous program, or whether that is even necessary. I do intent to send a transcript, as I want to transfer a few credits, however, should I mention this elsewhere in my application? Place a line on my CV? Mention this previous program in my application letters? Offer an explanation upfront describing why I left the program?

I found generally useful advice in Is transferring to another university an option for an unhappy PhD student?, but the answers do not explain what etiquette one should follow in reporting such a situation.


texts:
I am asking myself the question "Should I do PhD or should I leave academia and go for an industrial career?"

My life-goal is being a professor. And I love to do research.

PhD is surely a bite that not everyone can chew.
But I wonder who can chew it?

I never was good at tests and exams. My BSc. GPA was 2.84/4.00 but finished my MSc. with 3.50/4.00

However, currently I am working on a conference paper and I feel like even that is too much for me. It has been nearly 3 months and still, the paper draft is to be improved (not the wording but the content).

I am surely a hard-worker but not always. Sometimes, I let go of my work and absorbed in other stuff (composing, amateur radio etc). If this period is too wide, I have to spend double effort to warm-up and remember where I left.

I don't know how things work in PhD. It usually is 5-6 years. It is the one of two most-challenging milestones in academic career (the other is getting the title Assoc. Prof).
Should I completely be a "nerd" and work on my thesis systematically (something I could never make in my entire life) or working periodically but with extra effort is still sufficient?

So, here's my question: If I say "I'm considering to do PhD" and ask your advice, what would you ask me? What kind of skills/characteristics do you look for a potential academician?

I know it is way too late for me to ask this kind of question, as a person who almost finished his master's degree. But better lose the saddle than the horse.


texts: Do minors and/or non-major courses affect grad school admissions?

texts:
Basically what it says in the heading, lengthy explanation below

At my university, just completing your major and general ed courses won't get you enough credits to graduate. This means that we have to either complete a minor (6 courses) or just take courses from other fields. Up until now I have just been taking courses that I thought were interesting, in a variety of fields, none of which have much, if anything, to do with my major (which is psychology).
Minors don't show on the degree certificate - they're technically unofficial and you can only tell by going through the transcript that somebody's completed one. Al

the only two fields available at my university that have any real connection to psych are bio and computer science. The bio curriculum has next to nothing to do with psych though, except two courses which I am taking anyway. Judging from my experience in high school, I have no aptitude and not too much interest in CS. I could get a minor in sociology, which I do enjoying, but I don't plan to pursue social psych later on.

I'm sorry this has been so long. Basically, would it be advisable to minor in something related to psychology in order to boost my chances at grad school? Or is it okay if I finish my psychology requirements and electives and then just take other courses that I find interesting?

I'm an undergraduate, currently in the middle of my second year, so I still have time to finish a minor before I graduate and I'm very confused about everything.


texts: How to approach a research group for potential PhD advisorship

texts:
Here is the situation: I am looking for a PhD in a field somewhat different from the field of my previous studies. I have several research groups in this area in mind and they have a very large number of researchers each.

Being kind of an "outsider" to the field, I don't really have a basis to know which ones of the Professors in the groups are going to be better advisors for me, since reading the publications of each professor (among more than 100 of them) would take me an immense amount of time.

I had previously read (I think it was some answer in this forum, but I couldn't find it again) that in those situations a good approach would be to send an email to the director of the group, state your main interests and see if he can point you to maybe one or two professors who might be willing to advise you. The problem with this approach is that these research groups are huge and really important, so I'm anticipating that the director of the group isn't even going to read my email!

What would be the best approach here?

Thank you in advance.


texts: What to do when journal comments to rewrite the article?

texts: What to do when a journal editor comments to rewrite (revise and resubmit) the article to remove similarities from another paper published in the same journal by our group. The works are different but the writing style may be same. In this case, is it recommended to submit in the same journal after rewriting or should I go for another journal?


texts: Are infrequently-cited publications detrimental in academic hiring?

texts:
A past Q&A discussed the importance of citation counts for academic hiring decisions, particularly for tenure decisions and fresh PhDs. However, the same citation count or h-index could in theory represent (1) a researcher with just a few highly-cited publications, or (2) a researcher with a few highly-cited publications plus numerous infrequently-cited publications.

Do hiring committees care about this distinction? Holding constant total citation count and h-index, does the presence of multiple infrequently-cited publications (say, papers making incremental "workmanlike" advances or peer-reviewed Letters to the Editor or response letters) reflect poorly on a candidate? Or does it not matter much, conditional on overall impact?


texts: Presenting and disseminating research results before submitting a paper

texts:
I got a PhD in math in another country years ago. Recently I moved to the US and have a tenured position. Assume I wrote a paper and want to publish it in a journal. Is it considered OK to present the work and/or post an electronic copy on arXiv, before submitting the paper to a journal?  In particular, does it matter in what order I do the following things?

1) Present the work in a seminar at my department.

2) Present the work in a conference in my field.

3) Present the work in a seminar at another department.

4) Post the paper on the electronic arXiv.

5) I submit the paper to a journal.


texts: What are the advantages of top 20 universities over top 70s for CS PhD in USA?

texts:
I am a Computer Science M.Sc. Student in a university in a developing country. I am planning to apply for PhD this year. Actually my main reasons to not continue my PhD here, are the issues related to my country economics and infrastructures. Poor dorm conditions, no funded PhD, unstable internet, no proper study place in university are some of them where decrease the quality and contributions of a PhD student and I think that those issues will be solved by the migration to USA itself and is not related to the rank of the destination university. to make my question clear, actually I want to know what are the benefits of a top 20 university in USA saying, Caltech over a top 70 university saying, Oregon State University . I can imagine one or two like the strong advisor and peers but I can't think more. please note that I am not asking about the after-graduation job perspective, I mean What is the effects on the quality and contributions of a PhD student to study in a top-20 instead of a top-70 university.

P.S: if it matters ranks are according to the US News portal.


texts: How should a teaching-assistant calm his anxious student down in an exam?

texts:
At the class quizzes or at the mid- or final exams, I can see that some students are too anxious and nervous. They are not really weak students but too much anxiousness brings their efficiency down and they even may fail their important exams. In one of our important exams I could see that a student was that much nervous that he could not really sit on his chair, another one was so sick that needed to go to the bathroom or see a doctor. This may happen once per year but seeing such uncomfortable students is so sad. I really feel that I have to help them as I am their teaching-assistant.

As a teaching-assistant, when I see that there are one or two nervous students at my class; if they feel they need to consult about their anxiety I try to calm them down before the exam by talking to them privately after the class and if they are good students, remind them that they are perfect students and should not allow nervousness to ruin their exam's mark; and explain their academic potentials and their perfect progress to the professor. Of course I don't have any knowledge about anxiety, so I don't talk about their nervousness problems and I ask them to see a doctor who can help them. I only try to talk and help them about their problems in the course I am teaching. If the student has not good academic progress and I see that his anxiety is because of his academic performance, I spend more time for them answering their questions in the office hours when I am at the university.

At the exam session, when I see such students; If they need and ask for something to eat to relieve their anxiety I try to bring them bottle of water and sugar to help them feel more comfortable and answer their questions more relaxed.

However, I can not really give them extra time to solve their questions as it may be not fair to other students sitting the same exam or help them giving some clues over questions. Also, I can not give them some extra mark because of their nervousness because I think it is not fair at all.

As lecturers, teachers or even TAs who may have experience about this; could you please share me your experience and what you did about such anxious students?

What do you do about such nervous students to calm down and feel better at the exam session?


texts: The grad school I'm applying to accepts extracts from longer essays. I want to send an extract from my strongest (and rather long) essay, but I'm unsure how to go about it. Is it acceptable to take an extract from the middle and send it with a cover note? Or should I keep an introduction and/or conclusion? I'd be grateful for any advice.


texts:
This is probably really silly to ask, but I'd rather look silly anonymously here than look silly to my possible future department chair.  I received my first offer for a position at a public university today.  This is a teaching-focused position in mathematics at a public university.  To be clear, it is an "instructor" position, but they want instructors with PhDs to teach upper level undergrad courses.

There is a line in the offer letter that states "You will be provided with $3,000 start-up funds during the academic year 2019-20."  I have no idea what this is.  I've tried searching specifically on the university website and also general google searches, but found nothing on the university site and most searches just turn up info about start-up funds of high amounts for research focused positions.

What is this money typically used for?  My main question is can this be used for moving costs?  Just hoping from insight from people in public institutions who may know what this is intended for in a mathematics instructor position.


texts: Should I list conferences I attended on my CV?

texts:
I am a PhD student in mathematics, and I noticed that on my peers' CV's, they often list conferences they attended. It seems as if they just attended these conferences, they did not help organize, nor did they give a talk.

Should I list conferences I only attended on my CV, or does it look like obvious filler?


texts: Is it possible to get a research grant without any degree as a person that has a self-learning mentality?

texts:
With advancements in the internet and technology, I think that I can learn anything from internet with requirements of time and interest. I am very interested in quantum computing technology, but after finishing the learning process, I should do some research to find new things in that field. I am not aiming to get money or anything like that, I want only to get knowledge and have fun.
But in that stage, I guess that I will need a funding to build a lab and fulfill my needs to finish research. My writings above are my plan, I didn't mean any isolation,but I think that self-learning is the best way for me because I don't have enough money to get a degree and one of the reasons of plan is that. I also think that the internet can fulfill any needs for research except money.
Therefore,The aim of that question is asking you about your thoughts about my plans. Also,I want to ask about funding, is it possible to find research grant as a non-degree, self-taught person?


texts: How to tell whether email seeking paid peer-reviewers for grant scheme is legitimate? How to respond?

texts:
I am not sure if this question should be asked in the academia.SE. But, I don't have a clue either for other forums.

Today, I received an e-mail(in my academic id) from Kazakhstan saying that they would pay me USD250 per review of the research projects submitted to National Center of Science and Technology Evaluation (NCSTE) in Kazakhstan.

The e-mail reads as below:

  Dear Sir/Madam,

  The National Center of Science and Technology Evaluation (NCSTE) in Kazakhstan regularly organizes peer-review of research proposals from Kazakhstan’s scientific community. The center was founded in 2011 according to Decree of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

  NCSTE invites you to participate in peer-reviewing process of technical and scientific projects. The payment for assessing a research proposal is $250 (USD). One expert may assess up to 10 research proposals per call. The calls are expected to be announced throughout the year.

  If you are interested in cooperation and would like to be a member of our peer-review expertise, please let us know by filling in the “Form for international experts” (see in the attachment).Please, send to corporate@ncste.kz

  Please note, that NCSTE expects your H-index to be 5 or above according to Scopus or Web of Science databases for a particular period 2012-2017. Links are provided below:

  https://www.scopus.com/

  https://webofknowledge.com/

  In case your H-index is lower than 5, we still include you into our database, however won’t be able to use your service until it reaches 5.

  All expenses (postage and bank transfers) will be covered by NCSTE.

  Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

  P.S.: For more information, please visit our official web site at http://www.ncste.kz/en

I am hesistant to click any link provided or to visit any link provided here because of the latest Ransomware attack (WannaCry).

For answer to my worries, I went through a forum like discussion in Cronicle page where few persons claim that it is legit.

I have the following questions:

Should it be legit?
Why will some agency pay this much money for a review of 10-15 page report?
For the first time I am experiencing this, how should I respond? Should I respond at all?
Can it be a spam or a scam? (There is a doc attachment, which I have not clicked till now.)

Disclaimer: Please avoid yourself from clicking any link here if you think it could be a s[c/p]am even from my side.


texts: Do graduate students go home for the summer?

texts: Is it common or something usual for students to sometimes go home for the summer?


texts: What are some good ways to keep students coming to lectures?

texts:
Having taught calculus for several semesters, I've noticed that the number of students attending lectures are gradually declining (especially for the 9am session). I would not be worried if they have learned the material by themselves so don't see the need of coming; However looking at their exam scores I concluded that a lot of them are not doing so well in the class when they miss lectures.

So what are some good ways to keep students coming to lectures?


texts: How will I be viewed by an employer if I choose to do my own research?

texts:
I have recently been awarded full funding by the Canadian government's research council (NSERC) to do my Master's Degree (M.Sc.EE). I have the option to do a thesis with many different research projects that are ongoing in my department, or to find my own research to work on.

  How will I be viewed after I graduate by an employer if I choose to do my own research vs. working under a professor's project?


texts: Distance Learning vs Free Online Education

texts:
I'm currently enrolled as a first year student doing a computing related degree (my first) at the University of London (distance learning). Since I started, there has been a massive shifts in online education with a particular focus on the direction I want to take (computer science). With the exception to access to a wide-range of journals and digital libraries, the quality of the materials provided by the university are far eclipsed by those offered by sites such as Udacity and Coursera, plus there is no where near the same level of interaction among students or even lecturers for that matter.

Essentially, I feel like I am paying for a piece of paper and nothing more. I'm given a guide as to what is on the paper but I'm essentially on my own. I've spent all my savings so far on this, but would need to take a loan for next year. I'm both a mature student (28) and living in a foreign country, therefore the traditional paths were not open to me.

Is it worth it? Should I just invest the time pursuing the free courses and hope that It does not impact my employ-ability?


texts: Improving on a scientific paper (with source code) - publication of our work possible?

texts: I and my students are working on a paper that has associated source code in GitHub. We are planning to change the architecture of the Deep Learning Network they have used, and check to see if we would get better results. Would we be able to do any kind of publication of our work by citing the paper we had used?


texts:
I have an offer from an elite German institute (option A) for a PhD in particle physics and artificial intelligence.
I love the project but it is not in my first choice subject: the intersection of AI and cosmology (astrophysics).
At this stage of my career; my expertise is in AI but my training is in physics/astrophysics.
I think the project and institution of option A seriously warrants considering it regardless of this. The research facility and supercomputing infrastructure are unique (the project is great also).
I will not hear back from the institutions I have applied to for other PhDs and I have already asked for an extension to the deadline of my response to option A.
I'm a good enough student, but I can't really believe I got option A and I don't think it is likely that I will get any of my other options.
This is a very stressful decision for me and I worry about whether it is possible to leave option A should I obtain another offer.
What can I do? Decline and risk missing the other opportunities to be left with nothing, or accept and always wonder what could have happened?
Thank you for any advice you might have.


texts: How to anonymize research software in an abstract?

texts:
I'm writing an abstract for submission to a conference aimed at a rather small research community. The abstract should be submitted anonymously for double-blind review purposes.

The problem is that in the paper I describe a set of interoperable software tools which are fairly well-known within that community (thus, it would be reasonably simple for reviewers to infer authorship when acquainted with the software).

How can I anonymize the tools properly?

I need to go into engineering details, so I have thought about simply referring to tools by function, e.g., data processing tool, data analysis tool, data conversion tool, etc. (references would in reality a little more domain-specific). However, as the set of tools forms a relatively unique combination, reviewers may still be able to infer authorship.


texts: Why do some arXiv preprints have increased line spacing?

texts:
Some preprints on arXiv have 1.5- or double-spaced lines, making it less pleasant to read and more wasteful to print.

Is there a reason for it, except for the laziness/sloppiness?
(If drafts were >1-spaced, one need to change only one option.)


texts: When does a piece of work on machine learning have enough material to be publishable?

texts:
I am addressing the research especially the community on machine learning or deep learning.

For someone who is interested on applying machine learning or deep learning on another field. What do you think it's most important for a paper to have enough material to be publishable on a journal? Is it classification accuracy (for classification problems)? or the complexity of the model? I just need to know the criteria for a good machine learning/deep learning paper. Does the highest the results are, the good the paper is ?


texts: Research statement for liberal arts college: how much detail should I go into?

texts:
I am currently a math PhD student, and will be graduating next spring.

If I'm applying for a position at small liberal arts college, what should my research statement look like? How detailed and how long should it be?  I have heard/read that small liberal arts colleges are focused on undergraduate research. I am wondering how much of my own research I should talk about in the research statement. Should I go into as much detail as I would in the research statement for a postdoc?

(My advisor has never worked at a liberal arts college, so he doesn't really know the answer to this question.)


texts: Is it possible to cross over from chemistry to biology?

texts: I'm currently a chemistry major. However, I am more interested in the life science and want to be a molecular biologist in the future. However it is too late to change my degree to biology so I am wondering how to cross over into biology with my chemistry degree and whether is it possible for me to be a molecular biologist in the future? Will my chemistry degree be useful in helping me to become a biologist? Is there any relations between chemistry and biology?


texts:
I had an interview on Tuesday on a PhD topic and during the interview I was a little nervous.
I regret saying that I don’t like machine learning since the PhD topic requires using machine-learning tools. I explained that I don’t like it since I took a machine-learning course at university, and the professor taught us the subject in an unpleasant and boring way. His teaching manner seriously wasn’t clear.
I also told them that I will give myself a chance and learn it again in a better way since they don’t require deep experience in it.
I shouldn’t have told them this information because it could be an easy reason to reject me.
I have asked the professor in the interview whether he liked my profile. His answer was that he still has other students to interview... I mean if he did like my profile he could have simply said yes.
I still have some hope because if he didn’t find me suitable he would have rejected me the next day. Instead, when I asked him when I would get an answer to my application he told me next week.
I’m feeling bad. I was overly honest, and sometimes was too informal with my speech and facial expressions.
Did I make a mistake in being too honest in the PhD interview?
Update: I have read an article the professors have sent me where they have used a machine learning tool. I made further search and I was able to understand it. I have been invited to another interview and I did so well. They were friendly with me and I kept my honesty in everything. I asked them more questions and they clarified that there are different methods in the PhD and machine learning is just one of them. I told them that I no longer have fear towards ML since I no longer find it complicated. At the end I explained my interest that meets the goal of the PhD program. They will give me the final answer after one or two weeks. Please wish me luck :) I am glad that I have used Academia site and I thank everyone for their comments and answers that I found beneficial.


texts: What are differences between various indexing service: SCI, SSCI, SCOPUS and others?

texts:
I wanted to submit a paper to "Computer & Education (IF: 3.819 and indexed in many other indexing system)" journal by Elsevier, but unfortunately submitted a paper to "The Internet and Higher Education (IF 4.238 and indexed in few services compared to previous journal)" journal by Elsevier. I have only checked the impact factor and ranking of journal in the ICT and education domain but forgot to reconfirm whether it is indexed in SCI or SSCI.

My most of the peers talk about the SCI and SSCI papers, and they ignore SCOPUS indexing papers. My paper that I submitted to "The Internet and Higher Education" has already gone for review process. Is there any way to get rid of it?


texts: How to choose an associate editor for my manuscript?

texts:
I want to submit my manuscript to a journal.

It is written that I need to choose an associate editor for my paper and if the associate editor whom I assign rejects my paper,
I cannot resubmit my paper to the same journal with another associate editor of the same journal.

So the question boils down how to effectively choose the associate editor and assign my paper to him?

What are the things to keep in mind while choosing an associate editor for my manuscript?

Is it possible that wrong choice of associate editor can lead to rejection of paper? Or is it possible that even if I choose an associate editor who is not an expert in my field he may send my paper to the appropriate associate editor?


texts: Will papers published in other sub-disciplines matter for graduate admission?

texts:
I am currently a second year physics student from an Eastern European uni, that is thinking about doing a PhD in the US. I've done some research on the matter, but there are still a few aspects that I don't yet fully understand (graduate  system is rather different from Europe):
I saw that they value research experience of the applicants. I have co-authored a paper with a professor that has been accepted for publication in a national journal, one with another professor that will probably get published as well in a national journal and I may have found something that will maybe result in a paper in a more known, international journal. The thing is that this is not really "hot shot" research, i.e. not the kind of research that you would normally do for a PhD,  as I can't even tackle very advanced matters so I did something in areas that I can have a good grasp on (classical mechanics, finite time thermodynamics).
My question is how will the admission board regard these papers? I mean it can't be bad, but will it give me an advantage over other applicants?
Also, will it seem odd if I have research experience in a few unrelated areas? (as an undergrad I think I should explore as many subjects as possible)


texts: Reusing material from thesis proposal in final thesis

texts:
I'm writing my final thesis and there's a lot of material I would like to reuse from my proposal -- introductions, motivations, etc. -- and it would be nice to just copy-paste (and update a bit) entire chapters from the proposal.

But then I started to wonder what the technical status of a proposal really is. It's not archived anywhere, it's not "published" in any traditional sense. Is it a sort of first draft of the final thesis? Is it possible/legal/acceptable to reuse portions of it in the final thesis? Or is that plagiarism?


texts: Are there any benefits from publishing research on subjects different than one's degree/profession?

texts:
Are there any benefits from publishing research on subjects different than one's degree/profession, like being in the healthcare field but publishing about biology or psychology?

Thank you


texts: In an interdisciplinary context, is the argument of "imposter syndrome" really applicable?

texts:
There are many questions on this SE from young researchers who are not sure if they are "good enough" to actually be awarded a PhD because they think their work is not good/novel/innovative/advanced enough. Often times the answer to these questions is "imposter syndrome", especially in cases in which the OP is mentioning the contradicting good feedback from peers/supervisors.

But is the "imposter syndrome argument" applicable in interdisciplinary scenarios where someone trained in field A does his PhD in field B by applying methods from A on problems from B?
Peers and supervisors from field B would not be able to really judge the methodology from field A, which could be just very trivial. Same goes for peer reviewers from journals/conferences in field B which would mostly care for a solution to the problem from field B without really being able to judge the method from field A.

Would this justify a PhD anyway or is this "a crack in the system" for actual imposters to get through by applying trivial methods from A which they maybe even don´t fully understand because the actually are not good in their field to problems from B that they don´t even fully comprehend because of no formal training in B?


texts: How to gauge how professional/formal to dress for a tenure track interview

texts: Departments vary a lot by discipline when it comes to what is acceptable attire for men and women both on a day to day basis and at interviews.  Some demand a suit, while this would be ostentatious at others.  Whereas some wouldn't bat an eye at seeing a backpack at an interview, while others would sneer at anything that isn't a leather satchel.  For instance, I've been eyeing this convertible messenger/backpack like this for a job interview (in environmental sciences), but my colleague in the MedSci department says leather or nothing.  Are there any rules of thumb to determine what is and is not appropriate when interviewing at an institution whose office culture you're not familiar with?


texts: Etiquette for contacting a corresponding author?

texts:
I'm a 2nd year graduate student (biological sciences). I've been developing a new research tool, which builds upon a system developed by a different lab. However, I've had issues replicating the previous system, owing partly to a scarcity of certain details that would be useful for someone who is still new to most of the technical aspects of this type of research.

I'm debating whether I should contact the corresponding author of the source literature to ask for clarification (e.g. if they could send me specific plasmid maps). However, based upon the research history of my lab, I'm concerned that the other lab may be able to deduce what enhancements I'd like to make to their system (since they've attempted to do similar things in the past). As such, I'm not sure if they would be willing to provide such information.

I've thought about discussing with my advisor. However, I also don't want to seem like I don't have the initiative/independence to seek out what I need myself. If general protocol is for students to directly contact corresponding authors, I'm wondering what is the best way for me to phrase this inquiry.

Thanks so much!


texts:
First, some context: I'm a PhD student, and this term, I'm running a bunch of seminar groups for first years (I believe these are what would be called "discussion sections" in the US - essentially, each group is 20-ish students out of a much larger course, and I'm doing stuff to support the lectures. I'm marking, but not setting, the assignments). My previous teaching experience has all been with what I believe would be "upper division" courses in the US, and thus far I've tried to approach this in essentially the same way, but there are some pretty significant differences that lead me to think that I'm not using the time well. Specifically:

In previous teaching, I've been able to rely on students (at least after a little prior prompting) turning up with questions that we can discuss, being able to tell me which parts of the course they're struggling with, etc. and dealing with these issues has taken up a large part of the available time (essentially, because dealing with the things that they're definitely struggling with seems more reliable than me trying to guess what they're struggling with). This doesn't seem to be the case with these students.
Previous students have been able and willing to get involved in discussions, either in small groups or all together, and have even started such discussions. The default expectation from these students seems to be that they can sit there and do very little and I'll somehow pour mathematics into their brains.
Previous courses have all been heavily proof-based, and I've spent a good part of the available time helping with details of proofs that students have not been comfortable with, providing alternate proofs, and trying to drill down to the underlying concepts. This course, thus far, consists entirely of matrix algebra, and the expectation seems to be something far more computational.

As far as what I've done so far, besides the usual start-of-course administrative stuff, is briefly summarise the content of the course thus far, provide a couple of worked examples, and get them to work on some practice questions (theoretically in groups, but I haven't managed to overcome their unwillingness to talk to each other very successfully yet), while I walk around and provide support. I also experimented with asking a question involving slightly more thought ("so we've seen that it is not always the case that AB = BA, but we've also seen that this does hold when either A or B is the identity or zero matrix. Can we say any more about when AB = BA does or doesn't hold?"), which they found significantly more difficult than I had anticipated, and needed a lot of help to even start.

In general, this doesn't seem like that effective a use of the available time: in particular, there's very little that I've done that couldn't have been done by handing them a textbook with plenty of practice questions. I also haven't gained much information about concepts that they struggle with - most of the errors that I've found, both in their assignments and in the class, are purely failures of mental arithmetic, rather than any conceptual issues.

Essentially, I'm looking for ideas of how I can adjust my teaching to make it more productive. Ideas for encouraging more active participation would also be much appreciated.


texts: Can research breadth be a downside when applying for doctoral positions?

texts:
I'm going to apply for a doctorate position in mathematics soon, and I'm wondering if my breadth can be of any disadvantage. I have two MSc degrees, in mathematics and engineering respectively. The past years I've coauthored papers in different field on the side, all of which had novel content. My work has ranged from pure math, nanotechnology, to high performance computing and numerical analysis.

I'm wondering if this can be held against me when applying for a more "pure" math doctorate. As a side note, in my country a doctorate is the latter part of an American PhD, after you're done with the coursework and you mainly do research. So, the main focus will, of course, be on my research aptitude. I have demonstrated this through my work, and also by participating in competitions/conferences.

By the time they decide I will also have had some applied/industrial math experience, working for a research institute, and I have teaching experience with undergraduate courses.

Would I seem a much less interesting applicant than someone who has only focused on pure math, but doesn't have the same research experience (which is often the case)?


texts: How do I reassure my students that my grading really will be “strict but fair” when the university has an “official” grading policy?

texts:
One of the biggest challenges I face year after year in teaching—and one that seems to affect my teaching evaluations—is that students are convinced that they are doing poorly in my course, no matter how much I reassure them that this isn’t the case.

Part of the problem is that the university provides a standard grading scale, and many of the instructors in my department strictly implement, a grading scale where you need to earn 90% of the available points for an A, 80% for a B, and so on. A fixed, unalterable predetermined scale irks me significantly for a number of reasons:

Chasing after an arbitrary goal is a bad way to actually learn material. I’d rather students worry about being able to apply what I teach them later than the grade they’re going to get.
Difficulty must be pre-judged, and gauged accurately, to ensure a fair grade distribution. This means if I screw up the difficulty of a question, I end up “hosing” my students.
There is little opportunity to recover from one or two mistakes on an exam during the semester, particularly if they are worth a large portion of the grade each. I don’t think one bad day should screw things up for my students.
I could impose an alternate scale but then I’d be committed to that—same basic result just different checkpoints.
Because of the nature of the class, it’s easy to make a mistake early on in a problem that means you can’t solve the rest of the problem, and the result must unfortunately be a low score (a student might make an error early and can only get 5 out of 20 points, but a mistake later on might result in a grade of 18 out of 20).

So I use the basic scale, but adjust it in the students’ favor at the end of the semester to adjust for what I think makes a fair and equitable grading distribution, and most students do reasonably well, because that’s an accurate reflection of their performance overall. But no matter how much I tell the students in the class that this will take place, no one really seems to believe it. (A typical distribution will typically be 20% A’s, with most of the rest B’s and C’s.)

Is there a way I can convince my students that even though my grading is strict but fair, even when students don’t get very good scores on individual graded exercises?

There has been some issue about the amount of adjustment going on, so I should probably clarify. Typically, the curve amounts to about two-thirds to a full letter grade: so the borderline for an A would be in the low 80's rather than 90. This curving amount leads to a distribution that is about 20% to 30% of the students receive an A, with about two-thirds B's and C's, and a smattering of D's and F's.

There was also the issue of how much grading is done, and it caused some confusion because I worked in two different positions where the grading is completely different. For the course I'm describing in this question, the students receive grades on every homework assignment, take a series of eight quizzes, and have a project in addition to a final. So students know what the "worst-case scenario" will be if there is no rescaling, so there is plenty of opportunity for feedback and course correction. My issue is absolutely not with grading—it's with grading on a predetermined scale.


texts: How often do good journals publish amusing little corollaries?

texts:
I've had a little corollary sitting around a while now. It is closely related to a major theorem in my area.  Its statement is easy to understand (and rather interesting/amusing on the surface of it) and it's proof can be written in a couple of paragraphs.

I thought it had potential to be the beginnings of a nice paper, but I've struggled to find good "related stuff" to add to it.

Should I just submit this little 1.5 page paper, or would I be wasting everyone's time?  Do any good journals regularly accept these kinds of "notes"?


texts: My original data is in someone else's thesis without my knowledge or consent

texts:
I encountered in a Master's thesis some of my original and important findings. I finished my experiments and left the lab to home to write and while I was writing my supervisor put my data into someone else's thesis.

Funnily enough the data is also in my thesis but masters thesis came earlier. Even though, I am the original observer, I have the position who did plagiarism.

What is the best action to take?


texts: How to Remain Competitive at a Mediocre University?

texts:
I am attending a university with a mediocre mathematics department. The courses at my school cover fewer topics and are less challenging than the same courses at top universities.

How can I avoid becoming behind in coursework compared to students at top universities?
How can I ensure that I am competitive when applying to mathematics graduate school?


texts:
I have once, some time ago, received a rejection notice in which the journal editor made what I thought was a peculiar comment. The reviewers all found that the work was good, but one emitted a doubt that I had chosen the right journal for it, saying the paper might not appeal to the broad readership of the journal (it was a general physics journal). So far, nothing out of the ordinary.

However, the editor indicated that his judgment to reject the paper was based on the fact that very few of the citations in the manuscript actually referred to the journal I had submitted it to. (Like, 2 citations out of 35. Some of the other citations were to other general physics journals, some to more specific journals.)

Back then, this looked very weird to me. To some extent, it could be interpreted as a push by the editor to increase self-citation of his journal. It has never occurred to me since.

Is it common practice? When does it become ethically wrong?


texts:
I have submitted a paper in springer journal which stated in the instructions for author to provide highlights in supplementary material. I forgot to provide at the time of submission and 3 days have now passed. If I email highlights to the journal now, I fear they could say my submission as inappropriate for the journal  as it is in admin processing stage. Is submitting highlights really essential for successful publication? What can be the consequences if I don't submit highlights now.
Moreover, the journal says in instructions to send highlights in 3 page PPT. Does it mean 3 slides of powerpoint only?