texts: Is it possible to get another PhD in political science in Germany after getting a PhD in philosophy in Hong Kong

texts: I am doing a PhD with concentration on continental philosophy in Hong Kong (my MPhil also had the same concentration too), but I am really interested in political theory and political science and often audit relevant courses. I am wondering whether it is possible to get another PhD of political science in Germany, if I focus on empirical political science research or political theory, after finishing my current one, provided my German is fluent enough.


texts: Contacting a Professor about a possible Ph.D.

texts:
During my Masters I wrote and published a series of three research papers, which I presented at 3 different international conferences.

After my last presentation/talk at the 3rd conference, a Dean from an Australian university approached me and after talking for some time he gave me his business card and told me to send him an email if I'm interested in attending a Ph.D. programm at his university.

Now (4-5 months later): I will start my master's thesis in the summer and after talking to a lot of people (friends, parents, etc) I decided to contact him and ask about specifics. Turns out, I don't even know what to ask. (I havent sent the email yet btw).

In my eMail I start off with how we met (so he might remember me?) and then go on to say that he mentioned the possibility of the Ph.D. program at his university and gave me his business card.
I then mention that I will presumably finish my studies Nov/Dec 2018.  (so he knows a possible timeframe)

I would like to ask him questions about the possible research fields, finance possibilities, etc - but our conversation was so short back then, I'm guessing I can't just ambush him like this.

So what can I write between mentioning that I will finish my studies and writing

"I am looking forward to hearing from you, Best Regards,xxx"

Also:
What would be something a professor might want to know about me (should I include my CV already?), and what questions show that I am interested, without ambushing him completely? Should I write an "apology-sentence" that I am contacting him 4 months later and not in the following weeks?

Any suggestions are welcome! Thanks in advance!

PS: I am from Germany and currently also study at a German University.


texts: I am currently reviewing a paper for a journal and there's a section in the 'Methods' that may raise a questionable ethical concern on animal handling. The paper has a potential contribution to the field, however, there's this procedure that harms the animal in the study. I am thinking of rejecting the paper and raise a correspondence with the authors. Will the rejection decision a good decision for the paper?


texts: Does the reviewer ever get the same manuscript twice?

texts:
Consider the scenario where an author sends his paper to Journal A. Journal A then sends the paper to reviewer X and the reviewer rejects the papers. After rejection, the author send his paper to Journal B. Journal B then sends this paper to reviewer X.

Does this ever happen?
What does the reviewer do in this case?


texts: How to highlight the projects I was involved during my postdoc in CV?

texts: I had worked in several projects during my postdocs in past years. I would like to highlight them in my CV. My question is what could be the proper heading to highlight those projects. e.g. projects involved during postdoc


texts:
I'm a year and a half into a PhD at a top university in the Uk. Doing some good work but not enjoying academia and I think this is more than second year blues. I have quite a bad advisor which doesn't help, for example I've already had my work stolen by a collaborator and my supervisor is reluctant to rock the boat or say anything.

My PhD is in applied Math and computational physics and I have access to London. My current plan is to leave with an Mphil and find a job in the city - trouble is I don't know what I want to do.

I would like a career that uses my mathematical and programming abilities and is more commercial, i.e. not all technical. A career that I can go places with - but has a good work life balance.  I've always wanted to be a professor, but the reality of academia has really put a pin in that, I can't stand it, I hate the politics, I hate the way I'm treated by my supervisors, the university staff and colleges, I hate the academic culture here where I'm expected to let my research take over life and that just by considering other opportunities, I'm not worthy of academia - I came TOP of my class, I worked incredibly hard, I feel I deserve more respect than what I get as a grad student.

So I've been looking around and a few careers have caught my eye - though I want something with a better work-life balance.

Has anyone themselves quit a PhD? Were you happier?


texts: Does a PhD by monograph make you ineligible to be a lecturer at a university?

texts:
I heard that a Ph.D. by publication is better than the one by a monograph.

Does that mean academic positions are available only for a researcher who has a Ph.D. by publication? In other words, if she/he has a PhD by monograph then she/he cannot be a lecturer at a uni, where a lecturer need to have some publications,


texts:
In most universities, PhD students are literally students similar to master students. Fellowships and scholarships only support them financially, but officially they are students.

Some European university advertise PhD open positions like a contract job (similar to research associates or postdoc). It is understandable that these funded PhD students provide some services for the university, but in the first case too, PhD students regularly provide TA and RA services, but they are still students.

Are these two schemes different in action, or difference is only in words on paper?

Do European PhD students (mentioned in the second case) have more rights or flexibility?


texts: How useful is studying MSc Computer Science in Switzerland?

texts:
I am an international student in Australia studying Bachelor of IT.
Australian education system as the norm here is to take 4 subjects per semester and these subjects are pretty much "dumbed down". So a lot of subjects don't really teach much, for instance for Algorithms and Data Structures subject we weren't taught complexity at all, so during technical interviews for my internships, I was not able to give any answers in regarding to complexity.

Now this will be my last semester, and I feel like I still need more coursework for Computer Science and spending more money for Australian universities just sounds ridiculous at this step. Since almost all US and UK universities need honours award from Australian degrees (and that's extra $26k), I will not be applying to any US universities . I applied to one UK university that never mentioned requirement of honours and got rejection. I have applied to UBC in Canada but it will also cost me about CA$15-20k/y. So I had a look at European universities and found out that German and Swiss universities charges about 500-600 Euros per year. I found out that most German reputable universities don't really offer fully English Masters degrees in Computer Science, however that's not the case. ETH Zurich prefers students with honours as well. I found that EPFL has a good education and I would like to study Distributed Systems, which they offer quite a lot subjects on that, however what concerns me is after graduation job security. As I mentioned, my purpose of studying Computer Science is not to become an academia but to have stronger Computer Science skills.

Anyway so far it sounded like very specific, but my question is not that specific. Would it really worth studying Computer Science in Switzerland, with the consideration of graduate job prospects as well as doing internships and the fact that I don't have EU citizenship? I know that Google would accept international grads, but are there many companies like that?


texts: Should I Disclose Mental Health Conditions to a Potential Advisor Before Applying to the Program?

texts:
I know there are a lot of questions about whether or not to disclose mental health issues to advisors, but the difference is that I'm asking whether to disclose these conditions before they agree to supervise me. (Thus, I don't think this is a duplicate of To break mental health condition to potential new advisor because in that post, the professor had already agreed to supervise the student.) Also, unlike the other posters who are primarily concerned with diminished productivity and/or having to take time off, my condition hurt my relationship with a professor.

Here's what happened: How Would You React If a Student Complained to the Dept. Chair About You but Later Apologized and Disclosed Mental Illness?

Most of my problems stemmed not from the grievance itself but from persistently trying to have it dismissed, which I do not regret. However, since the university sent me a cease and desist letter (and all faculty know about the situation, or at the least know to forward any communication from me to the General Counsel's Office), they may mention or allude to this in a letter or recommendation. So it may be best for me to explain everything  prior to applying.

Anxiety also affects me in other ways. For example, I fear flying. Since advisors often encourage their students to travel for research/conferences, she should probably know about this phobia as well. Best case scenario, she's understanding and uses this information to better communicate with me and help me avoid stressors. However, she could also decline to advise me. (If it's relevant, this is for a master's degree.)


texts: How to tactfully request removal of my name from co-authorship?

texts:
I wrote a mathematics manuscript (see Extremely mild punishments for academic misconduct), and sent it to a professor, who then attempted to have it published after adding coauthors to the paper. His misconduct is not my concern. My concern is that the manuscript is not of publication quality, and I would prefer that my name not be attached to it. Virtually all of the manuscript is written by me, and all the work was done by me, so I can't claim that it is not my product.

My question is: What excuse do I use to have him take my name off the manuscript?

I would prefer to remain on good terms with this professor. I would also prefer not to mention in any way that the manuscript is worthless, because it solves a problem that he had been attempting unsuccessfully for quite a while, and such a statement would be deeply challenging to his pride.


texts: Should professors intervene if a student is wearing offensive clothing in their classroom?

texts:
A question about university dress codes reminded me of an incident that happened when I was an undergrad, in which a classmate came to school wearing a really offensive and misogynistic t-shirt.

I was extremely uncomfortable, especially since this was an engineering program and I was one of only three or four female students in a class of about fifty. I had another class with the same student later that day and he was still wearing the shirt. I remember wishing at the time that a faculty member or someone with more authority than me would do something about it.

So, my question is as follows:

Should a professor intervene if a student in their class is wearing clothing that is likely to be offensive and hostile to other students? If so, how?
If yes: are there any scenarios in which a professor should not do anything even though a student's clothes contains material that is hostile towards another student or group of students?

And finally,

If I come across this scenario as a TA, in which a student (who may be a peer in my program of study) in my class is wearing something offensive, what can I do about it? I don't feel comfortable (or safe, for that matter) as a woman confronting a male student about an item of clothing that is offensive to women. On the other hand, I feel like it is my responsibility to keep a non-hostile environment in my classroom.

Discriminatory harassment is forbidden by the university's code of conduct and includes: placing written or graphic material which demeans or shows hostility or aversion toward an individual or group because of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age or disability.

The item of clothing in question contained a slogan and image that is indubitably demeaning and hostile towards women.


texts: How to reference a website article of discussion between two people, posted by a third?

texts:
I would like to reference a website article at Point-Counterpoint: Additive vs Subtractive Rapid Prototyping that is a discussion between two individuals and posted by a third. I'm using Harvard British Standard referencing and it's not clear how exactly I should approach this situation.

In my references section, do I need a single reference crediting the poster, a single reference crediting both individuals in the discussion or separate references crediting each individual in the discussion? At the moment, I'm using the first option but I don't feel that it's correct.

It may be that an answer to this is a matter of opinion, rather than going by hard and fast rules, but I'd be extremely grateful for any help or advice with this issue!


texts: Is it a misuse of school resources to use school accounts for non-school work?

texts:
I work as a public school teacher. Due to a lack of current textbooks in my niche subject area, I am working on writing my own textbook which I hope to publish next year. In the meantime, and unrelated to this, I enrolled half-time in some college courses.
Being enrolled in the college courses means I have access to the state university's research tools, librarians, inter-library loan program, etc. I think I can get better assistance from the librarians if I am open about what exactly I am doing, however, it has no relation to the college courses I am taking. Can I be open about why I am doing the research, borrowing books and journals via inter-library loans or is this regarded as a misuse of those state-funded resources? How do university staff generally feel about assisting people with research not really related to the college?


texts: Do the fixed-term contracts in academia lead to a brain drain?

texts:
A significant, perhaps growing proportion of research at universities is carried out by postdocs¹.  Postdocs are typically employed on fixed-term contracts.  Personally, I know several people who have been employed on chains of temporary research contracts for well over ten years, including some all the way to retirement: their work is good enough to satisfy their PI, but not good enough (or perhaps not interested) for promotion.  Some may seek to move to industry, not because the work is more interesting but because a permanent contract is easier to get, such as suggested in this Dutch-language article), but a response in the same article denies that there is a brain drain.

Is there any evidence for a brain drain from academia to industry, lured by permanent² contracts?

NB: although personal stories/anecdotes are interesting (I could offer my own) it would be even more interesting to see if there is actual research into this question.

Edit: I welcome answers that challenge the assumption that job security as a researcher is more easily achievable outside academia than inside.  Some PhDs do of course become professors, but I've rarely seen professors that have much time to do research, as opposed to supervise research.  My question supposes the perspective of people who wish to do research themselves rather than in a supervisory role.

¹I use postdoc here in the meaning of any time-limited contract which is mainly or entirely focussed on research.

²Of course, no job is certain until retirement, but getting a mortgage without a permanent contract is likely hard/impossible.


texts: Possibility to supervise a student abroad?

texts:
I am a student interested in doing research in the field of (transcriptomics) that is lacking in my country. There is no possibility for me to travel in the next four years due to obligatory military service.

I am concerned about emailing some researchers in the field and ask for a remote supervision (for example working with a postdoc on one of his loose end projects and communicating Online).

Does this sound good? Have you done it before?

PS. The question isn't about opinions please post your experiences if you supervised someone abroad and the academic situation e.g. is it accepted by your institute? Does it require paperwork? Is it even possible?


texts: Homework Policy - Extension with Partial Solutions for Partial Credit

texts:
I'm going to be teaching my first course in the fall semester, and I've been trying to think of ways to make the homework benefit the students. One thought I had was to have the homework be due the week following its assignment for full credit, at which point partial solutions would be posted to the course site, or at the following lecture for partial credit. I can think of variants where parts of the assignment could be submitted at each deadline, so if a student figures out how to do problems 1, 3, and 4 but has no idea on problem 2, he can submit the three he figured out for full credit at the first deadline, then use the partial solutions to figure out the last problem and turn it in for partial credit at the second deadline.

What are the benefits and drawbacks for the students and administrators of such a system? Students: Is this a system that you would find helpful? Instructors: Have you tried anything similar in the past, and if so, what were the results?

This is what I've been able to think of so far:

Administrators

(+) Encourages students to look at the solutions
(+) Helps homework be a learning experience
(-) Requires two sets of solutions if full solutions are posted later
(-) Requires more organization, especially if students are allowed to submit on multiple days

Students

(+) Provides an extra resource when working through the assignment
(+) Encourages completion of the assignment, which should increase retention because students are using (some) of the knowledge
(-) Confusing system
(-) Assignments will overlap if assigned weekly


texts: My application is declined because of covid - true or false?

texts:
I am looking for an master's internship in Berlin in biology. (background in short: I am a student in another city's university, but because the lectures are online and I have a relative here, I moved to Berlin.)
I am cold-emailing professors and ask them if I could do an internship at their lab. Some don't answer, some simply decline my application with that because of corona restrictions, they can't accept students.
Can it be possible or is it just a nice excuse? As far as I know, people can go to work in Berlin. Also, this would be an laboratory internship, so I would have to attend in person.


texts:
I am teaching mathematical statistics and part of this is large sample theory. I would like to discuss some methods that do not focus on asymptotics and refer to J. M. Keynes quote

  In the long run, we are all dead.

I am a bit afraid some students might find this quote a bit too strong.
 Could this quote be considered a bit too strong to be presented to 3rd year undergraduate students in the UK?


texts: Is it common to do a MS in Germany and then a PhD in USA?

texts: Would love to hear stories if anyone has followed this path!


texts:
Alice, Bob and Carlos are coauthors on two papers, based at different institutions. They are listed in that order, with Alice the corresponding author. Both papers have been published as preprints, and are at different stages of the review process at journals.

Alice had most of the main ideas for one paper, Bob had most of them for the other. Alice has done the majority of the write ups. Carlos has helped with the write ups, has contributed few of the main ideas, but has significantly streamlined the proofs of the main results.

Because of their relatively high mathematical content, the papers are being targeted for publication in journals outside the "home discipline" of the authors. The intention all along, discussed, but not at much level of detail, between the co-authors, was to publish more accessible versions of the results in the home discipline of the authors.

Carlos has announced in passing that he is about to submit a single authored paper to a journal in the home discipline that presents a fairly obvious application of the results, one that the coauthors had briefly discussed.

Alice and Bob are shocked, and feel that this is unfair use of the results, and contrary to at least the spirit of the collaboration. But they do not know what to do, especially as collaborative work is not the norm in their home discipline.

The questions we have are: (1) Is Carlos's behavior inappropriate? and (2) What action, if any, should Alice and Bob take?


texts: It it appropriate to request a letter of recommendation via LinkedIn?

texts:
I had a professor who told me during the year that he'd be happy to write me a letter of recommendation for a research degree I was contemplating applying to. I've since decided to apply.
My university (in Europe) is on break until 1 October. I emailed the professor asking for the letter three weeks ago on his university email address. He hasn't answered me. However, I sent him a connection request on LinkedIn, and he accepted it within 45 seconds. I am thus wondering if he is not checking his university email during our vacation. However, I would like to know if he is willing to write it before October, as waiting until then would give me insufficient time to request one from someone else.
Would it be inappropriate for me to send him a follow-up letter request via LinkedIn, since I know he's checking that? Would it be more appropriate to make reference to the email I sent him, or send my entire request via the messenger? Or should I limit myself to communication via the university email address and just hope he reads it?


texts: COVID-19 - Is it okay to send emails this time for post-doc position?

texts: I will be submitting my Ph.D. thesis in the comming two months. From last one month I was sending email to professors for post-doc position but from last week I have stopped sending emails requesting for post-doc position due COVID -19. Although the impact of this virus in my country is less. I am in a confusion whether or not to send an email regarding post-doc position at this time?


texts: How to politely ask a co-author to remove his/her name from my manuscript?

texts:
Just found one of my very old written manuscript in my backup folder and interested to submit it to some journal.

I had written a Manuscript with 7 co-authors in 2008 just 10 years before. The entire work was dealt with observation datasets until 2008. Although I had conducted all the works independently and wrote the manuscript alone, but my supervisor had given 7 authors's name due to their little helps like suggestions to improve the manuscript, English check etc. However, I counts their contribution to some extent. But one of the co-author (say X) took 5 years to check the manuscript due to perhaps his busy schedule. So finally the manuscript was submitted to a journal in 2013. The reviewers appreciated the work and strongly recommended to update the results with recent datasets i.e. until 2013. It somehow irritated me because I had left the institute long before and was working in different field. Anyway, I updated the results until 2013 and modified the manuscript accordingly.

But all gone waste again, because the same X-author couldn't check the manuscript in the given time-line even within 1 year. So the editor rejected the manuscript. Now it is already 5 years, the same X-author could not send back his revision. I have also stopped sending reminders 2 years before (last reminded in April 2016). Probably I need to update the results again i.e. until 2018 now.

But I would like to remove this X-author's name from my manuscript first and then submit it as quick as possible. Now I am wondering proper sentences to ask the X-author to remove his/her name from our manuscript.


texts: Applying for a graduate-level Research Assistantship as an undergrad

texts:
I am undergraduate student, applying to be a research assistant for a relatively new professor.

During the interview, after discussing the research project he was currently working on, he made the comment that "this is hard stuff" and asserted that the research would be worthy of a PhD dissertation as well as saying that none of his previous assistants were able to produce anything of substance. It's worth noting that this university does not offer a PhD in this subject, so there are no PhD students to work with him and no chance that the work with him would lead to a PhD.

I believe I have a solution to solve one of the early, relatively easier, problems that we discussed. This piece would be integral for all further research for this project. I had considered writing proof-of-concept code to submit to him to show that:

I know what I'm doing and can produce results without needing him "hold my hand" through it, and
I am interested in working with him and on his project

My question is two-fold:

Why would a professor ask for research assistant applicants for an incredibly complex project worthy of a PhD at an institution that does not offer one?
As an undergraduate student, would it be a worthwhile investment of my time to develop the proof-of-concept for essentially an interview boost if the advising professor is certain that the project would be far too complex for an undergraduate student?


texts: French M2 research internship as a UK MSc student?

texts:
I'm planning on starting a UK MSc degree in September, but keen to get some research experience abroad.

I'm wondering if anyone knows if French universities/research labs would be accepting of a candidate from a UK university for advertised positions for a M2 stage (2nd year Masters internship), considering that a student on a UK MSc will have only been studying on the programme for 6/7 months.

Any insight appreciated!
Thanks


texts: How to handle supervisor not giving appropriate credit

texts:
Someone close to me (let's call her Natalie) recently completed an undergraduate degree in Preschool Education. Her thesis was by research; she did the field study and the majority of the theoretical analysis, and her supervisor (let's call her Betty) helped with the latter. They are now to present the research at a conference. Betty claimed she should be first author, which Natalie felt was unfair, but agreed to. Now that the conference is drawing close and they have created the presentation, Natalie realises that it contains no reference to her thesis, and is afraid that the fact that this was her thesis will not be mentioned at all (they are presenting it together, but Betty has the introduction and closing). How should she handle the situation?

It should also be noted that after this presentation they aim to publish the research either in the conference proceedings or in the conference organisers' journal.


texts: Global university ranking for graduates, not research

texts:
I work at a university that gives a small number of scholarships to PhD students to pay their fees and tuition.  Currently, the decision for who to give these to is based on their undergraduate transcript and the global ranking of the university they attended as an undergraduate.   If you don't get a scholarship, you have to pay full fees and tuition.

Unfortunately, one consequence of this system is that graduates from certain countries, for example India, are grossly disadvantaged.  The highest ranked Indian university is ranked below 250 in the main international tables (and below 400 in Excellence at http://www.webometrics.info/en/Asia/India?sort=asc&order=Excellence%20Rank*) . As far as I can tell, this is mostly because the ranking measures research output and many of the top Indian students go on to graduate school in the US.

Now we can all say how ridiculous it is to be doing this in the first place but that isn't going be helpful. I feel that in order to help address this question I need to give them an easy alternative.

Are there any more relevant league tables that might measure the quality of graduates on a fairer global basis, rather than the quality of research output from the relevant department?


texts:
As I'm currently pursuing an academic job search (in parallel to the industry one), which includes potential postdoctoral positions, I would appreciate some clarifications on the following aspect.

Freedom. I assume that there are two major options for postdoctoral positions in regard to academic (research) freedom: 1) postdoctoral researcher joins a group, lab or project and contributes to one or more of their research projects under PI's guidance; 2) postdoctoral researcher joins a group, lab or department and contributes to one of those entities' research portfolio by conceptualizing and performing her/his own research (still under PI's guidance), based on previously negotiated agenda, which fits and supports larger groups' research themes.

Question: are my my assumptions correct; does a postdoctoral title reflect the type of freedom (or lack of) of the position?

Note: My field is Information Systems, a discipline, which can be considered as a sub-domain of Management Science, which, in turn, is a social sciences discipline.


texts: Does citation count include cites from arxiv

texts:
I was wondering, suppose I have an arxiv paper citing my paper, does Researchgate or google scholar count it as if my paper was cited?

What if there are two versions (arxiv and peer reviewed) and lets say the citations do not all match, what then? (e.g. I would think counting at most once everything that is in either version is best. But, what actually happens?)


texts:
I’m writing an essay, and have been asked to use Harvard Referencing.
From what I know this type of referencing uses citations similar to (my brain, 2016).

And then contains a bibliography like:

Bibliography  — or — References

My Brain (18 Dec. 2016) - “Title of article, or something” available from my skull

...

I've seen referencing done with [number's] instead of (author / publisher, date) in a few papers and - probably most famously -  wikipedia.

Is this not classed as Harvard referencing?
I find it so much neater and easier to follow, especially if I'm going to refer to multiple peices of work by the same author/publisher.

Also, I've noticed some papers placing mini bibliographies at the end of every page, containing all the references for that page.

Is this not harvard referencing?

I'd like to do this as it removes the pain of having to go all the way to the bibliography to check a citation.


texts: How is the energy bill split in academic departments?

texts:
Consider a physics department for example. Does each lab get metered and pay its own bill in the United States, or does the department itself cover overhead? Do energy leaks get noticed and managed? Do you get yelled at for leaving the lights on?

What's the norm on who foots the energy bill?


texts: How to find conference papers which do not appear to have been published in any proceeding?

texts:
This question specifically arose from the following situation.

Recently, I have seen several citations referring to papers presented in conferences of the international network on personal relationships (INPR). However, I have been unable to find any proceedings of these conferences. Thus, I am unable to follow up on these citations.

It appears that the INPR no longer exists and has merged with another organisation to form the International Association for Relationship Research (IARR). However, looking at the website of the IARR, no conference proceedings from the conferences of the INPR seem to exist. Neither, does google nor my libraries search function yield any proceedings.

The above situation is quite specific. So I reckon a more general form of this question would be more helpful in the case of this situation reoccurring in the future: how to find articles from conferences which do not appear to have published any proceedings.


texts:
I have just started working on a dissertation and I need to contact a number of organisations to get an idea of how they work.

What I am after is not sensitive in its nature. I just want to know what practices they apply to their tasks and whether they have developed anything  different that suits their needs or perhaps the tools they use.

However, I am being troubled by the following points:

How can I assure the organisations that the information I require is not sensitive or for commercial purposes? My interests are purely academic.
I am carrying out my research within an organisation. I am worried they might see me as competition. For the time being I have opted to not mentioning any organisation.

How can I go about assuring them that my interests are purely academic and convince them to reply back? What should I do?


texts: Present tense or past tense for presenting someone else's paper?

texts:
I am supposed to present the famous Gregor Mendel's 1865 genetics paper.
So what tense I am supposed to present it in? Whether I must use present tense or past tense? A general advise regarding presentation viewpoint would be helpful.


texts: After what type of changes must a table be considered as adapted instead of reprinted? If I reproduce a part of a table in my text (by making my own table and inserting the info) and correct some spelling mistakes, will that make it adapted instead of reprinted?


texts: How to recruit a post doc from an area outside your labs expertise?

texts: I have just been given a dataset, and hopefully the money to hire a post doc to analyze it. The data set requires a post doc with experience in health informatics. No one in my deptartment, including myself, has experience with health informatics. The dataset is about 4 orders of magnitude bigger than anything anyone I know has looked at, and 2 orders of magnitude bigger than the largest published datasets in my field. How do I go about recruiting and hiring a post doc in an area outside my expertise?


texts: Should I mention a cancelled research summer internship in my document?

texts:
I got the admission from Mitacs Globalink Research Internship last year, a research internship initiative in Canada, but it was cancelled due to Covid19. Now I am applying for my Master program in a different major (My research program is physics but I am applying for Computer Science Program), should I mention it in my application document (like CV & Statement .etc)? If it is feasible, how to describe it properly?
PS: I contacted my instructor after the cancellation if it was possible to conduct it in a remote mode, but after the consideration he rejected it because of the difficulty of doing research remotely. So I have not done anything about the program
Many other people must have encountered the same cancellation in various programs, and some of my peers in the program have the same questions. I hope to hear a good instruction on the issue, thanks.


texts: What is the difference between a PhD degree and a DSc degree?

texts: Some universities that offer a DSc as the doctoral degree, while most of them also offer a PHD degree in science. What are the differences these degrees in terms of academic standing? What are the pros and cons?


texts: Recently, I have submitted a mathematical paper to a journal published by Taylor & Francis. After some days, the status of the paper was changed from Submitted to Journal to AWAITING REFEREE SELECTION. Up to now,  11 weeks passed but the status is still AWAITING REFEREE SELECTION. I have contacted to Editorial Office several but the result is not changed. How should we respond to them in this case?


texts: Statement of research interest for summer schools

texts:
I'm doing a PHD in physics (not in US), and I'm applying for a summer school in US (an example). I'm required to upload a statement of research interest.

I have searched for webpages on how to write statement of research interest for a while but found that most of them are for applying for graduate schools. So my question is, what is the difference between statement of research interest for graduate schools admission and that for summer school?


texts: How to tell advisor I'm declining a scholarship?

texts:
I recently won a scholarship that could (in theory) pay for the remainder of my time in graduate school. However, it comes attached with strings that I'm not comfortable with, and so I've decided to decline the offer.

I was aware of the strings when I applied for it (basically, the public institution funding the scholarship pays x years and you work for them for x years). I thought I had done my research at the time and knew all that I needed to know about that -- it didn't seem like an issue then. Since then, however, I've learned more about the program that has me on edge (some very negative experiences that past winners have had, and a relatively-low salary compared to industry on graduation). Furthermore, the placement is not what I had in mind -- I was hoping for a position on the east coast of the U.S., and they placed me on the west coast.

I have one more year of funding available, so I can continue applying for more fellowships/scholarships; and my advisor had indicated to me in the past that he had other funding available for when my current fellowship ran out. However, I'm worried he'll get angry if I tell him I'm turning down free (for him, at least) funding.

So my question is: how should I inform him of my decision such that (hopefully) he's least likely to get infuriated? Or, put another way, how would faculty members on Academia S.E. want to be informed of such a decision?

(I have already planned to do this in-person; I'm looking for suggestions for what to actually say.)


texts:
If someone writes a letter to the editor and I write a response, how should I list the response this in my CV?

It is peer reviewed but is only a 300 words, so it doesn't seem right to put this under 'journal articles' (though the title starts with "Reply To: ... ", which makes it clear).


texts:
Google Scholar shows the total number of citations per year for anyone with an account there:

Is it possible to see a similar figure just for one publication?


texts: Any disadvantage to multiple applications?

texts: I am considering applying for PhD programs in CS. I've been reading about the process, reading the sorts of things that programs want and I would say that I am an OK (but not stellar) applicant. For instance,  I'm missing some math classes that I could take next year. I've also been working in industry, so I could certainly get more involved with research (I'm working on a few in-progress papers now). I think that if I waited a year I would be a more competitive applicant. Is there any particular reason not to apply now, see how I do, and then potentially reapply in a year? If anything, applying a second time (as a stronger applicant) would show that I really want to do this. Right?


texts: Personal advantages of being a referee once you quit science?

texts:
I previously asked this question in the physics forum (tag soft-question), but was convinced that it better suits in the academia forum. So I deleted it and posted it here.

I was recently asked to review a paper for a well-established physical journal, but as I have a lot to do in the moment, I'm tempted to refuse it. This is even more the case since I quit my scientific carreer roughly a year ago.

Thus my question: particularly outside physics, what are the benefits of being a referee? [beside the idealistic attitude of "bringing on physics" -- this is a valuable point in principle, but in reality, I've been long enough in the business to know that this is hardly the case for most papers. In contrast, most papers originate due to the need to continuously publish, a thing which I consider to be wrong].

For people in science, I see a clear opportunity in being a referee.

First, it gives you a connection to the journal editors and contributes to your authority.
Second, by concentrating on the paper, you are forced to learn something on your topic which might help you later. Further, you might be able to add citations to your own work and thus increase your influence.
Third, from a global point of view, you have to do it since you also expect your own papers to be reviewed (although this point is somewhat of a social dilemma, since [neglecting the previous points] it would be better to review as few as possible and concentrate on your own research).

However, do you see any personal advantages once you have quit physics? Are there maybe some if one plans to return some day?


texts: How to handle multiple years lost to test preparation on CV?

texts:
In 2011, I passed the Master's degree in mathematics with more than 80 percentile. I had a dream of becoming a research scholar in one of country's reputable mathematical institutes.

However, here in India, PhD candidates have to pass a test called National Eligibility Test before facing the interview board of such institutes. To prepare for the test, I disconnected myself from the outer world. Unfortunately, I failed the first three times but managed to pass the test in my fourth attempt, and subsequently joined the institute of my dream for PhD in 2013.

Because I didn't do anything other than preparing for the test, I have a hard time filling the 2-year gap in my CV. Whenever I look at it, that 2-year void pains me as most of my fellow scholars can show an uninterrupted career path on their CVs. I do understand myself that my mathematical knowledge grew in that two years, still I can't find a single demonstrable item to support my case.

Most people either clear the national test in the first or second try, and most of the rest would choose to leave the field forever, or get involved in guest lectureship in some institutes while preparing for the test. For me, however, I found it hard to make the time for anything else on top of studying, and hence I did nothing else. Now, I really wish to have such examples in my CV.

My question: have you lost many years in order to prepare for tests or exams? If so, can you suggest some examples on how to explain that lost time?


texts: Refusing for turning on a zoom camera during an exam?

texts:
Hello I have a question regarding video during exams.

My professor is hosting an exam using Zoom, and I was wondering if there was any basis for refusing to use the camera during the exam. Each student will be able to see each other unlike a previous question asking about one-way monitoring.

The exam is also open-notes, and open-book. There is also an issue of cheating that is being discussed. The matter is being discussed because three exams already without the camera but the professor says its kind of just to make sure we are not doing anything sketchy. However, I feel its a contradiction because if the class "cheated" doing his past exams, then why give them the grade.

However, I am wondering if that means I can't refuse the camera.


texts:
I submitted a paper together with other people to an important journal. A couple of days ago we received the answer from the editor and the paper was rejected (I was 3rd author) with very bad comments. One of the reviewers wrote that the paper was lacking innovation or originality. Another one sent us more than 20 comments. To be honest the comments weren't really appropriate because we did particles loaded with gold or FITC and one of the comments was "It seems that the FITC and gold are encapsulated inside the nanoparticles, not the other way around." He did not understand a lot but still, he also did a lot of interesting comments.

Anyway, the main author yesterday emailed the editor saying that the reviewers do
not have enough knowledge to correct this paper, that they are unqualified and that people like this should not correct this kind of work. This person sent the email to the editor without speaking to any other authors, therefore we discovered today what happened and some of us still don't know.

Do you think that the journal, following this email, can do something to the authors of the paper? Like, e.g., sue us? or ban us to publish there? or stuff like this?

What should we do now?


texts: Extended position start date. How to extend it again while waiting for waiver?

texts:
I was on a Fulbright in the US during my Ph.D., and returned to my country upon completion of my studies. I was in the US on a J1 visa, which requires that you return to your home country for two years at the end of the visa.

I was offered an assistant professor position in the US and accepted it. Then I applied for a J1 2-year waiver. The start date of the position was August 2019, However, I am still waiting for the decision of the waiver. In the meantime, the department extended my start date to Jan 2020. Also the department chair said that they may not extend it again and the position may even be lost.

How do you think I can make my offer guaranteed or maybe increase my chances of extending the start date once again until I can obtain a waiver or fulfill my 2-year home residency by August 2020. This is the perfect job for me and the department is very supportive. Should I offer to teach in the spring for free to plead another extension? Thanks!


texts: Preparing a manuscript for double-blind review, what is meant by "complete manuscript text minus the title page" and "separate title page"?

texts:
I want to submit an article to a journal which uses the system of double peer review, the information that I found was the following:

  Confirm that you have prepared: (a) a complete manuscript text minus
  the title page, acknowledgements, and any running headers of author
  names so as to permit anonymous review; (b) a separate title page with
  author information.

so lets suppose that my article has the following structure:

Page 1: Title of the article, author, affiliation
Page 2: Abstract
Page 3: Title of the article, Introduction
...

so for part (a) what should I include? should I do something like this:

Page 2: Abstract
Page 3: Title of the article, Introduction

and for part (b) should I submit only:

Page 1: Title of the article, author, affiliation

is it like that? I have already take care that any reference about me or the place in which I made the research is anonymized. Any help?


texts: Several questions about Master Applications

texts:
I'm a last year student of Mathematics (and Physics) in Spain and I'm going to apply to some masters degree programmes in pure math in Europe this month and I have a couple of questions:

In one of the universities I intend to apply they say that they are expecting good marks, about 7.5/10 . My marks are about 7.45 at the moment but I have 6 subjects to do this term. I'm seriously expecting to get good grades in those last subjects of my degree. Two of them are the thesis, which I have already done and have really good critics. So if everything goes as expected I could go over 7.5. The thing is that the deadline is in two months so I won't be able to show those results.

Should I talk about this in my application letter? In that case, what should I say? I'm planning to send my thesis in the application to make them "forget" about the GPA a little. If my thesis is good enough could this help?

I'm simultaneously doing a degree in Math and another in Physics. The amount of work obviously affected my perfomance. Should I stress in the letter the two degrees thing? My thesis in the Physics University is about Entropy in mathematical physics should I include it too in the application?
I know that in American Universities they tend to appreciate if you have done some non-academic activities. I've been working as a jazz musician intensely since I started university. I received some grants and I've played in some national events. Should I omit this in my CV? Is this considered irrelevant in Europe? Maybe in some countries more than others?

Where does that kind of information usually go in your application? In the CV or in the letter?

Thanks a lot for your time.


texts: Is using the same topic title as a book title plagiarizing?

texts:
There is a well known book "Scientific topic X. Philosophical reflections." It contains a collection of articles on the topic. I am writing a paper myself. To what extent is it allowed to use the same title?

I am not stealing or borrowing the title because it is particularly original, it just concisely summarizes the goal and content of my paper (without redundancy). I also came up with about 10 alternatives, but I like this one still more.

I suppose it is ok, after all - there can be only so many permutations of words for a particular topic/approach, e.g. "Introduction to philosophy of science, Basic course in Calculus, etc."

What are the academic standards on this issue?


texts: What level would an assistant professor be hired at, if applying to associate professor position at another institution?

texts:
If a tenure-track Assistant Professor who will be coming up for tenure shortly (5th year) applies for a tenure-track Associate Professor position at another institution, and the other institution is interested in making the hire, what is the relative likelihood of the following scenarios:

hired as tenure-track Assistant Professor with shortened tenure clock
hired as tenure-track Associate Professor without tenure, with tenure decision in a few years
hired as tenure-track Associate Professor with tenure

(assuming the candidate's record is tenure-worthy at either institution).


texts: As a postdoc, how to deal with supervisor who keeps trying to involve my student in other projects?

texts:
I would appreciate very much an advice on the case which I will describe after a short intro about myself. Such introduction is not really necessary for the matter of question, but I hope it can better explain my situation.

I am PostDoc working in the field of one of the nature sciences in one of German Universities (I apologise for being so cryptic). It is my second postdoc position and I am doing science for about ten years. I moderately rate my achievements although I have several publications in high rank journals and currently my Hirsch index is 10.

Around three year ago I wrote a project for the German Research Foundation and was granted finances for one PhD student. Before submitting a project I discussed the matter with my prof. He was not against such project, but not very encouraging either.

After the project was granted I was first surprised that my boss used all possible kinds of arguments to prevent me of publicly advertising the position. After almost nine month of indeterminacy he suggested me to overtake one of our master students on this position. After all, it was not a bad decision because the student has already worked with me and we had a good experience of collaboration.

Currently, my biggest problem is that by boss interfere in all possible ways with our scientific work. He constantly tries to involve the student in other scientific projects. I would completely understand such approach if we were failing in some respect. On contrary, we regularly produce high rank papers, where my boss naturally is the last “courtesy author”. I spend sufficiently large time working with the student having 4-6 hours of weekly discussions.

One might say the situation is favourable to me. However, as scientist aiming at permanent position I am concerned with development of my own way in science, and working exactly according to the plan of the research project suits this aim. Therefore, I openly talked to my boss to get little bit more scientific independence. I was surprised to hear that "extra projects are in the interests of the student's scientific career". I am failing to see how this can be the case... (jumping from topic to topic?)

I need you advice how to deal with this kind of situation. Of course, I do not want to make strong steps because after working for so many years with my boss I heavily depend on him in e.g. searching for the next job.

Edits in response to comments

I am greatly surprised with the comments below which perceive everything from a very idealistic perspective:

Even though it might look selfish it is a post about my problem as a scientist trying to establish my way in science
I am also interested vey much in student being able to establish in science. Since the time for PhD is limited, in my view, involvement in too many problems, superficial approach is bad in a long time perspective
In the same way as time for PhD is limited same is true for Postdoc experience. Allowing the student to work on other projects also reduces the outcome of my project. In numerical terms it reduces the number of publications on the topic as I deny an opportunity to be a courtesy author. Which is never the case for my boss


texts: How to review a paper that is not related to my field, when my advisor has asked me to review it for him and I can't refuse?

texts:
I am an M.Sc. student in computer science, working on machine learning.

Recently my supervisor assigned me a paper on biomedical signals field to review. The review task is assigned to my advisor who is a referee of a journal and he assigned it to me to do it for him (I am sure he will not check my review and will submit it directly).

However, the paper is weakly (if not at all) related to my field; I don't even have an idea about its title. What should be my approach? Particularly in judging if the paper has properly covered background works and if it's novelty when I am not familiar with the field at all?

The best option is to decline but I have not that opportunity. That is a "must" to do work for me if I don't want to ruin my relation with my advisor.

I should mention that this is the first time I was assigned to review a paper.


texts: How to deal with a student lacking commitment

texts:
My question is whether anyone has advice for dealing with difficult students. Specifically, if a student is taking up your time/mental energy and you can no longer justify this investment, how do you distance yourself while still remaining supportive?

Apologies in advance for the length of this question.

I am a PhD student currently supervising an undergraduate student completing a short lab project as part of their bachelors degree in a lab where the main supervisor has been unavoidably absent recently. In addition to this we are a small lab with broad research interests, as such I am currently the only lab member apart from my supervisor who is qualified to oversee the project designed for the student.

I have found the undergraduate student very difficult to work with, a fact I brought up with my supervisor quite early on. My supervisor asked me at that time if I would be willing to continue with the student. I was optimistic and believed that I could reason with the student about their difficult behaviour but that now seems to be off the table.

Their behaviour is surprising to me and I have a difficult time resolving it as it seems quite bizarre. I have had several 'talks' with the student now regarding their behaviour which includes a range of single incidences that caused problems in the lab. Additionally the student does not handle unforeseen situations very well and so, I have been supervising them closely at times, which costs me time and has resulted in me working later and on weekends. Finally, the student has, despite assurances to the contrary, made it clear by their actions that their priorities lie elsewhere. This final point is perhaps the one I find most bizarre as this project is 4 months out of a 4 year degree but will affect the final grade significantly.

I feel that I have been open and  honest with the student, I have given them a chance to address behaviours which may not be suitable (I had assumed that they may not understand that they were now in a place of work, not a teaching lab). I have also informed the student that if they feel I am being too cold or they need a break from work to let me know - as the student often seems to become quite visibly stressed - and I could try to accommodate this. Overall I don't feel there is anything more I can do.

I have recently been informed that they have messaged my supervisor implying that my apparent 'harsh' behaviour is the reason for their lack of progress. This doesn't worry me as I have a good relationship with my supervisor and have supervised students before without issue - though never as closely as this.

At this point I feel I should cease close supervision of the student and my supervisor agrees. However, I worry that left alone the student will not be able to deliver a good project and will attempt to justify this - citing for example a 'sudden' lack of supervision. I am also reluctant to leave the student alone to perform large experiments required to finish the project as they have previously shown themselves to react quite badly in stressful situations.

In summary I feel between a rock and a hard place, do I continue to guide the student and possibly suffer the 'consequences' of their apparent belief that their slow progress is a result of my supervision and not their lack of commitment. Or do I leave the student to their own devices and risk them failing - a very real possibility from what I have observed and something I wish to avoid as it is a good project and I want the student to do well.


texts: Should graduate students peer-review papers?

texts: Why is being part of the peer-reviewing process beneficial for a graduate student?


texts:
I'm currently having a hard time understanding if authors are using the word methodology correctly, or if their papers should be classified as BS. Hence, I set out to get a better feeling for the correct use of the word, but now I'm even more confused than before:

First I had a look at wikipedia which states:

  Methodology is the systematic, theoretical analysis of the methods applied to a field of study, or the theoretical analysis of the body of methods and principles associated with a branch of knowledge.

This sentence is followed by a second sentence with reference to a paper from S.I. Irny, which as far as I could see, states something very contracting:

  Methodology is generally a guideline for solving a problem, with
  specific components such as phases, tasks, methods, techniques and
  tools [two sources are given]

Even though I think the wikipedia description is identical with my understanding of the term, the reference is confusion. I then asked Merriam & Webster for help. Here it says:

  1:  a body of methods, rules, and postulates employed by a discipline : a particular procedure or set of procedures
      2:  the analysis of the principles or procedures of inquiry in a particular field

Oxford says a discipline is branch of knowledge, which I would interpret as things like math, sociology, computer science and psychology, but not things like UML modeling, crossword solving, methods for solving a problem, or even sticking together methods to solve a problem. This does not match the discipline : a particular procedure or a set of procedures part of the definition.

And then again they give a weird example:

  «for solving crossword puzzles my usual methodology is to begin by
      filling in all of the answers I'm reasonably sure of»

Maybe the « and » brackets indicate that they chose a poor example, or they consider crosswords a discipline (case 1). It obviously doesn't qualify for case 2, as the example does not analyse methods used in the crossword domain.

Sadly, Oxford defines the term as:

  a system of methods used in a particular area of study or activity: a
  methodology for investigating the concept of focal points

Which again is used as a method/solution for a problem and not the theorecial study of methods in that field. Only the "Methodology as a buzzword" section on wikipedia seems to back up my understanding of the term:

  Many recent uses of the word methodology mistakenly treat it a synonym
  for method or body of methods. Doing this shifts it away from its true
  epistemological meaning and reduces it to being the procedure itself,
  the set of tools or the instruments that should have been its outcome.
  A methodology is the design process for carrying out research or the
  development of a procedure and is not in itself an instrument for
  doing those things. Using it as a synonym for method or set of
  methods, leads to misinterpretation and undermines the proper analysis
  that should go into designing research.

Question 1: Is my understanding that a methodology is, as the name suggests it, a logic behind methods, and consequently must not deal with the topic per se, but address some meta level of the used methods, wrong?

Question 2: For my particular academic problem in CS: Is the combination of general priciples and rules as part of a standard for creating a particular type of operating system a methodology (e.g. as used in AUTOSAR)? Such principles and rules govern and describe communication mechanisms, memory access methods, scheduling and the like. I would call this a body of methods, hence this must be a buzzword?

Additional fact: My Sixth edition Oxford from 1976 says:

  Science of method; body of methods used in a particular branch of
  activity;

So in the current version they dumped the actual meaning and only used that weird body of method definition.

I'm happy about any source bringing some clarity into this mess. Don't worry if you can't answer the CS specific question, a general purpose answer may well be just as good.


texts: Should a teaching statement always be included in faculty job applications, even if not required?

texts:
Should one always write a teaching statement when applying for faculty positions, even when not explicitly asked for in the job post?

If it depends on the field and/or type of university, please specify. If it matters, I'm applying to Physics departments in universities which primarily emphasize research, which already require (at least) a CV, research statement, cover letter, and letters of recommendation.


texts: Does a gap of 10 months after Master's degree affect my chances for a future academic career?

texts:
I am soon to submit my PhD thesis and I am currently looking for postdoc positions. I would eventually like to stay in academia and was concerned if my past gap year would harm my chances in getting a position.

After my master's degree, I got an R&D job and worked there for 4 months before quitting it as I did not enjoy it there. My plan was to join my master's lab as a research fellow, and I had an offer for that from my advisor. But, I got a bad disease and I fell ill for 3 months. I was not hospitalized, but had to live with my parents for the period.
As I always wanted to pursue PhD, I was searching for a position in the meantime. During the 3 months, I gave GRE (scored poorly, thanks to my illness) and applied to universities and professors. I got a positive response and I was sure of getting a PhD position.

However, it was already February and if I were to join a PhD program, I would have to wait till September. Also, the visa process and other formalities take time. So, I decided to not go further with the research fellow, and take time to complete the visa processing, spend time with parents and travel around.

I had a blast of time. Learned so much during that time. But, I don't have anything concrete to show for that 9-10 months period.

My concern is, how much will that affect my future career?


texts: My PhD adviser is objecting to my request to change my PhD topic

texts:
I am a midway PhD candidate, I have finished all of the coursework and the qualifying exam. This my fifth semester (i.e. I'm starting my 3rd year now). Now I feel that, the topic I've selected to work on is not the right one for me. As both my adviser and myself are not experts in that area.

I initially thought things will go fine and progress gradually but it hesn't gone as I expected. So far I have managed to write a manuscript for review paper (almost ready for submission) but I have only got very simple preliminary results. I'm really not feeling comfortable to continue in this topic because I am not getting the guidance that I need. I know that as a PhD candidate, I have a responsibility to do almost research and learn new techniques on my own but definitely help is needed to become an independent researcher, otherwise, we wouldn't have an adviser at all.

I have tried to contact someone in the field from another school but my advisor is not helping me in that regard (which I feel is discouraging). I don't know how am I going to make a meaningful contribution to the field, if I'm struggling to reproduce some results from the literature (that might look basic for the people in the field).

Last week I told my adviser I'm thinking of changing my topic;

  he told me either I have to continue on the same (current) topic or I need to find a new adviser, he also mentioned that he might leave the school soon so know if I should change to a new topic since this could may take time and delay my progress further.

I'm concerned that changing my adviser at this stage might look negative in the department. I've worked diligently to be allowed to work with my current adviser so I'm trying to avoid that option unless absolutely necessary.

Now, is it expected that I will continue working this topic even if I'm not comfortable with it and my adviser may not help me on it or should I change my adviser regardless of the consequences.

I'm looking for any suggestions on how to convince my adviser to change my topic and work on something that is in our field.


texts: What is the "chain search" method for literature search?

texts:
I am working through a tutorial about literature search, reading, and writing. It says:

  Chain Search:

  A chain search consists of finding suitable literature by letting one text lead you to the next, which leads to the next and so on.

  The strength of the chain search is that it leads from one good reference to another, and you will be able to follow the development of arguments through your literature search.
  Its weakness, however, is that you might lack references that present different understandings or raise objections to the text that started the chain.

I did not understand chain search from this.
The definition says: “letting one text lead you to the next“. What does text mean here? Could you please explain chain search in easy words along with an example?


texts: Tenure-track offer with other applications in progress

texts:
I am an academic in computer science in Europe, just completed my Ph.D. and applied for tenure-track positions in Europe. I received a very early offer in the UK more than a month ago and the negotiation stretched until now. Given the overal small startup packages in the UK, I managed to negotiate for a decent startup budget. However, as the department has no presence nor material for the research I am doing, the deal is more average/minimal. Apart from the details in the offer, the thing that is holding me back is that my partner also has a good career here but in the UK, she would have a very hard time and probably have to go back to university to make her degree compatible. We discussed all of this and I would take the offer if all other applications do not work out. Now the university really wants me to make a decision this week.

I have a tenure-track application running at my home university where I did my studies, grew up, and I am still living. The place is quite decent and despite the down-sides of staying at the same place, I would be very happy with the position as I was able to do good work here in the past, and my partner would be able to continue her career as well. I have a good chance of receiving an offer here but the interview and results will be out in 3-4 weeks. I contacted the university but they cannot speed-up the process. The other thing is that the position at the university here is quite exceptional in that a similar position will not be available anytime soon. As there not many/no universities that have a presence in my field nearby, this is the one opportunity for my partner and I to live in our hometown.

So I need to make a decision this week on an offer in the UK which I would totally take if the outcome on the other application would be negative. The application at my home university, which would be my preferred choice, will still take 3 weeks. If I say NO to the offer in the UK, I could end up with no position. The safest thing would be to say YES this week. But potentially canceling the offer in 3 weeks, when the results at my home university are out, is probably not very ethical?

Just for completeness, I have another tenure-track application at a university nearby, this could be a backup, but is very uncertain as it is not specifically focusing on my area of research.

I would welcome any advise or hear about similar experiences.


texts: How to describe the relationship with writer of recommendation letter?

texts:
I am applying for tenure track /postdoc and I asked two professor to write me a research letter. In some job applications I am asked to describe the relationship with them, and I am not so sure what are the correct words.

The first one is a professor in the university where I obtain the PhD. They are also an expert in the field.

The second one is a world-class expert in my field. I know them personally as we meet in conference over the years and I visited them occasionally.

I did not collaborate with both of them.

Any suggestions?


texts: Plural or singular for a multi-authored paper

texts:
Suppose Jackson and Kim wrote a paper in 2014. When I cite this paper, should it be

  Jackson and Kim (2014) show that ...

or

  Jackson and Kim (2014) shows that ...


texts: Uploading potentially copyrighted material onto Academia.edu

texts:
On Academia.edu, a user uploaded a Translation Database of Sun Tzu's Art of War, which includes translations as recent as 2020. Alongside it was a Bibliography Document that references all works shown in the former. I’d like to upload a similar document that shows Translations of Laozi’s Tao Te Ching, however I don’t know if this would violate any copyright protection held by the Authors/Publishers.
This site here, presents many translations, some entries consisting of an authors’ text verbatim whereas others either link to a pdf or to a wayback machine page. Seeing as it’s still operating, I’m assuming that TAO hasn’t violated any copyright protection, I’m wondering whether I could include translations appearing in TAO without violating copyright protection. I recognise that for some translations, in the case of Beck
or Muller,  I would need to seek permission in order to include them in the database, however would I need to do this for all translations that are not in public domain?


texts: What happens to equipment purchased using a startup package after an academic leaves the university?

texts: I am on the faculty of a large American university, and I have bought a lot of equipment (laptops, tablets, batteries, etc.) for research purposes using a startup package.  I will be leaving for a new university in September, and I am wondering what, in practice, will happen to this equipment.  Obviously, it is the property of the university and I'm going to leave it all there, but is someone going to come through with a clipboard and make sure it's all there?  Do these kinds of things usually just get sent off to surplus sales?  How about the students of mine who will still be at the old university?


texts: Discussing sole author vs first authorship in ML/CV with supervisor

texts:
I am an UG research assistant in CV/ML on a robotics project. I was given a surveillance video by my boss, and w/o being too specific, I was asked to find a way to detect something in the video. W/o revealing myself by giving too much info, I went above and beyond and found a way to predict something occurring in the videos. I did everything from collecting the data to implementing the code. I am not sure what I should do.
Usually, a co authorship or first authorship assumes some kind of mentoring in UG. There was 0 mentoring or guidance, so this would be wrong. I was given a project and left alone to do it. At the same time, he took me on and gave me a chance with little experience. Additionally, I would want to use him as a LOR, so I don't want to upset him.
Short summary: I discovered a new and effective way to do something that AFAIK, has not been done before. I am not saying this is groundbreaking research, but it's not too bad for UG work. I spent a little over a year on this project and worked extremely hard. I received no help. I am not sure if I should ask my boss if I can solo author. Should I write a draft of the paper, then ask him if I can solo author? He supplied me with a video, in which I collected data, can I acknowledge him in it instead of coauthoring?


texts: What is the difference between the MBA and EMBA?

texts: Somewhere I found Executive MBA degree program. How this program is different from regular Master of business administration, and which one is better program?


texts: Creating an central multi-purpose dictionary / database

texts:
I am trying to organize my workflow and make it more effective.

As non-native English-speaker studying in a foreign country I often need to look-up domain-specific translations (in 3 languages). As there are no specific dictionaries I am using textfiles containing translations I have collected over the time.
This is quite uncomfortable.

Often these words are related to some kind of mathematical definition which has to be stated as a theorem for proofs. Right now I usually copy these from my old publications.

It would be great to have some kind of central dictionary or knowledge-base where I could organize all this (Translations and Definitions).

Anyone who can recommend a program for this?
How do you organize definitions and domain-specific translations?


texts: Is it reasonable to ask for a research assistant position (field of economics) over email to a professor who doesn't live in my country/city?


texts: Difference in CS application between MS and PhD

texts:
I am an undergrad student in CS and I am planning to go to grad school after graduation. My ultimate goal is to pursue PhD since I have done research and I am interested in. However, my research experience may not be good enough for top PhD programs. So, I may go to MS first and then apply for PhD when I get good publications in my pocket. I understand that MS can cost a lot of money but I am able to afford it if I have to. There are some PhD programs that I would like to apply and it’s not that competitive. I think my profile could have a chance. That means I will apply both MS and PhD this year. If I get PhD, I will take it. If I get rejected from PhD, I will go for other MS programs.

My question is: “What are the difference in applying MS and PhD.”
I have heard a lot that applying PhD needs to emphasize research. But is it different in MS? Some MS programs even have track that does not require thesis. Is that mean they should not expect research experience from applicants? Then, what to emphasize in the application?

Thank you very much!


texts: Why "in Proceedings of conference...", but not "in Journal of ...."

texts: I'm wondering why a well-known citation style (bibtex's "plain" style) produces "In proceedings of 'conference name'" or "In 'conference name'", but drops "in" in case of journals. In my opinion, there is no difference between journals and conference proceedings from the viewpoint of typesetting citations to their parts. It's even strange that there is an entry @inproceedings, but not @injournal in bibtex. Any rationale behind the discrepancy between the presence of "in" in the one case and its absence in the other case?


texts: I quit my Masters halfway so should I tell about that during my interview?

texts: Due to that, my resume look empty (during my post graduate study). If the interviewer ask me what I have done during that time, what should I answer?


texts: Is an idea still 'novel' when already published in a blog post?

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Can I publish an idea as a paper if somebody else has published this idea in an online forum or a blog?
I believe it's useful to publish good ideas academically because posts on forums and blogs are usually of low quality and have a niche audience. I'm sure some journals will allow publication, even though I'll cite the blog posts. But suppose I want to submit to some high-tier journal like Nature. Will the blog post detract from the novelty of my work then?


texts: strategy to divide the class of large number of students

texts:
Let us consider that one is supposed to teach a class of a large number of students (say 100 or more). I am thinking of this scenario corresponding to undergraduate students, but hoping for a general solution.

Is it a good idea to divide the class to a number of sub-classes and teach them at separate sessions(say, 5 groups of 20 students or 4 groups of 25 students)? What are the plus and minus of dividing the class?
What are the alternate ways of managing a large number of students?
Suppose, we decide to divide the class to n number of sub-classes? What are the best criteria to take into account to put students into different classes?
I can think of two ways of dividing the class based on grades. However, this looks a narrow judgement to me... Any way, first, each subclass is a Gaussian distribution of students based on grades. Second, each subclass has students within certain range of grades. Which one will be more helpful to students?


texts: Is it appropriate for peer-reviewer to look for possible plagiarism?

texts:
I'm in the second year of a post-doc, and currently participating in my first experience as a peer-reviewer (my lab PI recommended me to the editor because he's too busy to do it right now). I noticed a section of the Methods that seems to be completely out of place. It describes statistical analysis of data that were neither generated nor reported in the manuscript, and is generally a source of confusion for me as a reviewer. So I did what I would have done grading papers in grad school, and pasted that section into a free online plagiarism detector. It came back with a 100% match for the full paragraph from an article published earlier this year. My suspicion is that this wasn't any sort of intentional plagiarism or research misconduct, but rather a case of someone using another text as a guide for how to structure that section of the text and simply forgetting to make the necessary changes, or possibly even submitting the wrong version.
I should mention, for context, that it's not uncommon to follow the methods of another paper exactly in experimental biology, but that's clearly not what happened in this case. My primary concern is that I can't properly review the reported results and conclusions without information that should be provided in this section of manuscript, which I've already discussed in my review comments. I'm just wondering if I would also be expected to point out the possibility of unintentional plagiarism, or if that's considered outside the scope of my responsibilities as a peer reviewer.


texts:
I am a PhD student in my second year, and I am thinking about doing a doctoral stay in some foreign university with a group that works on the same topic as I am. I do know about some interesting research groups where I could do this kind of doctoral activity. However, I am unsure about how does some proceed to pursue this kind of research position.

Does one directly write to the group presenting yourself and what are you doing (also presenting some of your published work)? Do you have to follow a formal application at the target university? Does it depend on the country/institution?


texts: My official name is Md. Tipu Sultan. Can I use only Tipu Sultan for publishing scientific articles or would there be any problem? I already have published a articles as Tipu Sultan.


texts:
I am a master’s student and have done some original research work which may not be that great.

I have asked my professor who works in that area where can I publish my work or is it at all publishable.
But he seems to be not so concerned about my work nor does he say whether I should publish it or not.
He says I might try it, but he seems more interested with his doctoral students.

What should I do?
Should I try to publish it in some journal?
If yes, how can I choose a journal?
Are there any journals which publish small works of master’s students?


texts: Should I thank the editor for accepting my paper?

texts: My paper has been accepted after several rounds of revisions. The editor him-/herself gave quite detailed comments some of which were quite important. Should I thank him/her personally for the acceptance of the paper and/or his effort(s) (the latter I have done before in my replies to reviews).


texts: is it ok to write about your poor economic condition in SOP

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I want to pursue my masters in USA. I have completed my bachelors in Electrical Engineering from one of the top colleges in India and have about 4 years of experience in software development.
I will need financial assistance for my masters. My parents are from lower income group. Can i mention the same in my statement of purpose?
I have completed my bachelors on student loans too.


texts: How important is trendiness of the research one works on?

texts:
I used to think that for research postdocs, faculty evaluate things like research potential. Now I think they still do, but they look a lot at whether the research topic interests the faculty. For example I have had a senior faculty member in some field (call it field A) tell me directly: "Field B is much sexier now than field A. Field A was very popular when I was doing my postdoc. Look at this researcher who did outstanding work in field A! Universities wouldn't hire him. He ended up getting something, but if he had worked in field B he would have done much better on the job market."

The lesson I took from this was: to succeed in academia it is not sufficient to do amazing research. It has to be amazing research in an area that interests people on the faculty of the universities you're applying to. For example, if University X has no homotopy theorists, but two representation theorists, then good results in representation theory would trump outstanding results in homotopy theory.

When applying for postdocs, there is sometimes a question asking if applicants have "faculty contacts." I am also taking this as another piece of evidence. My impression is that a blank response looks worse than being able to say: "Professor Y is a potential collaborator." It seems pretty much necessary, to get any position at a given university, to do work in an area that interests some faculty members, so that they can be enthusiastic about an applicant.

A last example. When looking at MathJobs.org you can find postdocs in Europe for working in certain research groups. To get such a position, you need to fit your research into those areas. Suppose professor X is looking for a postdoc who works on problem 1. If two strong applicants apply, but another, by chance, does work more directly related to problem 1, then that applicant would be preferred.

Looking back at my time in grad school I think this is what I should have done: Make a list of all the academics in a given field and see what work they do. Look at who gets the big grants, and what topics the big conferences are in. Based on those criteria, determine who you want to do a postdoc under. Then decide who you want for a thesis adviser. Then steer your research to be interesting to those faculty members at the universities you would like to work in for your postdoc. In other words, direct your entire academic trajectory for a postdoc position. This way, five years later when it's time to apply for jobs, you'll find faculty members interested in your work, because your entire trajectory throughout grad school was towards that goal. This seems to be the best way to get postdoc offers.

In other words, I feel that there are many traps in academia that unsuspecting grad students or junior faculty can fall into and not get out of. Is my impression accurate?

On a more personal note: I have applied for a lot of postdocs and have gotten shortlisted a few times. But I have received zero offers. I suspect that other applicants fit the position better, not because my work wasn't good work (whatever that means), or any deficiencies in my application (though I could be wrong). I have no idea how to avoid these issues in the future besides the (admittedly rather extreme) plan I had proposed.


texts: Is reusing old code for a new assignment considered self plagiarism? How to protect yourself if you consider it to be, and a group partner does not?

texts:
I am taking a graduate machine learning course and am working with another student in the class on a final project. In his undergraduate studies, the other student wrote code that accomplished a similar task, and mentioned in our previous meeting that we would be able to leverage much of this code for our current project if we wanted to. I responded that I believe it would constitute textbook cheating and self-plagiarism, but the other student disagrees and believes that re-using the code would not constitute self-plagiarism because he himself wrote it, and it would be redundant to re-write what he had already done.

Now, the course instructors have made it clear that we are not allowed to use any external libraries to perform certain classes of algorithms for this project. This students' prior code would fall under this category of prohibited tools, but he claims that it doesn't qualify because he wrote the code himself (so it is not an "external library"). I believe this is hyperbole, but he disagrees. It is also worth mentioning that this code is licensed under an MIT License, though it is not widely used at all.

It has gotten to the point where I am uncomfortable going forward with the project by re-using his old code, and he does not want to do work on the project that he considers to be redundant. My worry is that if it turns out we're not allowed to reuse the code, then using it could cause us to fail the course and severely negatively affect our reputations. Even if we don't get caught, I personally feel that it would be unethical to copy-paste old code and present it as though it's fresh code for this current project.

I am unsure of how to proceed. I have tried reaching out to the professor of the course some time ago (she has been traveling for some conferences recently and will be for a while) but I have not heard back from her. Additionally, the course TAs have been unwilling to weigh-in on the situation.

I have the following questions:

Is the above situation usually considered to be self plagiarism? Why or why not?
Is the above act typically allowed in an academic setting?
Assuming you are in my position, and consider re-using the code to be cheating and/or unethical, what is the best way to proceed; both in terms of how to make progress on the project, how to compromise with my group mate, and how to protect myself if my group mate refuses to budge.


texts: Is it possible that I can get a Duke University user account to access math videos?

texts:
I am an independent student of math and want to use many interesting video courses. Unfortunately the math video courses of Duke university are unavailable for others. So I want to know

  Is there any way to access these courses or is it possible that to get a temporary (and free) user account from Duke University?


texts: Didn't pay attention to rules and created an illegal note card for exam?

texts:
For final exam in my university chemistry class, a note sheet, 8 by 11, was allowed. You could put anything on the sheet, however it was to remain 1-sided. Of all things, I forgot about the last rule, and created a 2 sided note sheet for the exam. Well, now that the grades are out, my professor emailed me saying that a third of my points were deducted because of my note card. He was really being generous, because the rules say that I should actually get a score of 0.

Well, I still passed the class, but will this incident be put on my academic profile for applying to the engineering department? I mean, I'm still mad at myself for this, but do I have to and how would I explain it to the school if it's necessary?


texts: What percentage of links posted in published articles are dead?

texts: Is there any research/study that looked at the impact of the  percentage of links posted in published articles are dead? I am trying to know to what extent dead links are an issue. E.g. on Stack Overflow, it looks like 10% of the links posted here are dead.


texts: What to do when co-authors want to submit manuscript for publication and you think it still has problems?

texts:
I am a junior member on a research project. We have written a paper. I feel the work is not ready for publication and have issues. We have discussed the issues, and other members of the group including the lead author agree with me that there are issues. But the lead author who is more senior is too eager to get the results published to the extent that he is ready to mislead the reviewers/readers by exaggerating and misrepresenting the partial inconclusive results to get the paper accepted. I don't think I can convince him to allow more time for the project to reach a more satisfactory stage before publication. I am rather junior and have limited say on the project. I am new to the field of the project, and the senior author is established in the field and publishes several papers in top venues each year. Other members of the project are his students.

We don't have conclusive evidence for one of the central claims in the paper. It might turn out to be false under more experiments. The lead author, however, believes it is correct even though he agrees the evidence we have is not sufficient. He wants to publish the results and the idea as soon as possible, but accurately stating what we have and what we don't have will make the acceptance unlikely at this point. He is fine with getting the flawed results published and then continuing to work to fix the issues for the later publications.
I am not comfortable with my name appearing on the paper.

One option is to ask for the removal of my name as an author and to be mentioned in the acknowledgments. However, I have worked on the project for a considerable time and would like to get credit for my contributions, and I don't feel just being mentioned in the acknowledgments is good enough.

What would you do if you were in this situation?
How do you deal with major disagreements in writing a joint paper?
Would it be helpful if I post a different edited draft copy of the paper online where the claims are more accurate in my view?


texts:
I am a PhD student works in theory of computer science. I am worried about the timing, I have taken in writing a one paper.In last semester, I have few ideas, I told those idea to my supervisor then he suggested me to write the paper. I have spent almost six months on writing this paper which involves correcting the solutions, idea's etc multiple times. In short I have spent one year on a problem( including identification and solving ). I am worried about the time it take to write a paper. I am wondering, Is it possible to write a research paper in a less time or it comes with experience. Please suggest some idea in order to save the time in the writing phase. I have asked my supervisor about this, he told me to be organised and plan the things in a better way. He also suggested me to write the things in flow means whenever start writing a paper write a page at one time.

I have tried few things on my own, whenever I write I keep a top researcher's paper infront of me and see how they phrase the sentence's.

Note that this was my first time, when i have written a paper completely.

Question : Advice on writing a research paper in a less time


texts: What kinds of degrees are there in Europe that can be completed in 12-18 months?

texts:
I am just about to complete my Bachelor degree in Property Economics at the University of Technology, Sydney. I would like to study some more in Europe (France, Belgium, Holland or Switzerland) next year and preferably for 1 year to 18 months. I am thinking something in social science or (i know the complete other side of the spectrum) finance.

What options do i have for that time period - obviously most bachelor degrees are ruled out due to the time period.


texts: Recommendation letter has slightly wrong info – should I mention it in my cover letter?

texts:
When I asked for the letter, last semester’s grades hadn’t been fully uploaded to the system so among the things my professor wrote, they said I was a top-5% student. This week, grades were updated and now I’m the top student in my cohort.

I don’t want to bother my professor again, and they might not respond in time for the deadline (Feb 1st). Would it be okay to add a small note at the end of my cover letter indicating my new standing?


texts: How can I protect open research from being plagiarised?

texts:
Since open research is about publishing data which are accessible to all, what kind of actions should I take to prevent open research from unauthorised copying or its data being plagiarised without referring to its sources?

What kind of policy, terms or copyright statements should the open project have to make it clear in order to prevent any abuse?


texts: 4th year PhD, considering leaving for different program

texts:
I'm a 4th year PhD student at a top school in Canada studying chemical physics. For the past few years, I have been floating around the idea of leaving with a Masters and pursuing a PhD at a different institute due to many factors, such as:

Poor supervision. My supervisor is primarily overseas, and provides little to no direction or motivation in work. When discussing with him, his focus is on himself and offers little advice in regards to research.
The city I live in is not enjoyable and I find it hard to enjoy being here.
The group, while great, is not very cohesive; no group meetings, no reports, no discussion of progress at all.

For the past 2 years, I have been working on a very complicated instrument. I've spent a lot of time fixing it, as many aspects of it have needed to be repaired or upgraded, but unfortunately, finding a sample to study is highly non-trivial and has been proven to be very difficult. As a result, I find that I'm quite burned out. I have also been diagnosed with depression and anxiety (but have been treating it with medication and therapy). I've been unable to publish (but I have one first author in review after revisions, one co-author in preparation) Unfortunately, I've come to the conclusion that, due to the lack of direction of care from my supervisor's end in regards to helping myself (and other students) focus on to a project that has a clear set of steps or even overall direction, that I should probably leave with a Masters, and apply for a PhD at a different school with a project that I find myself passionate about.

The dilemma I have is that my supervisor has quite the ego. I'm certain he won't be happy with me proposing to leave with a Masters to go pursue work elsewhere. I'm not sure how to handle that; I can ask other faculty of whom I'm well-acquainted with for a reference, but I feel that the new school I apply to may question why that is the case. Maybe it's the burn out speaking on my behalf, but I am no longer passionate about what I do, and the day to day grind of improving things, trying to find a sample, and repeating is getting to me. I see other students with somewhat cohesive research goals and I look back on my own and realize there is no direction and that, I think, scares me more than anything. I don't want to run the risk of not being able to graduate. Of course, the onus is on me to be able to procure my own project or motivation, but alas, I think due to poor supervision and general lack of interest, it is in my best interest to move on to something more along my skillset and passion.

My question is, has anybody dealt with a similar dilemma? Were you able to be accepted at a different school, even if your supervisor responded poorly? Is 4 years for a Masters a waste of time or a bad idea, and should I just tough it out and finish, even if I hate it all?


texts: Career in Mathematics as an Electrical Engineer

texts: I am a university freshman with major in Electrical Engineering. My passion is pure math(topology, group theory etc). During my first semester I noticed that our math classes are not rigorous at all, focusing on approximations and practical purposes. My goal is to work on theoretical math research or mathematical Physics. Should I stay in engineering (and follow it with a math post-graduate) or switch to math major? In other words, is it possible to be applicable for research with a masters degree in Electrical Engineering?


texts: BSc and further career in Academia on different subject

texts:
Currently pursuing a Bachelor if Finance, but I have a huge interest on Statistics. I was wondering whether BSc in a non technical subject (With technical I mean Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science etc.) affects a potential academic career in Statistics.

Can MSc and PhD in Statistics or Applied Mathematics enable an academic career in these fields?