texts: How do I communicate to a Teacher Assistant that I would like to fix our relationship?

texts:
I am a final year undergrad student in mathematics. This is an important detail as usually there are not many mathematics students, and even less in their final (because of the dropout rate). Because of this, the number of students is pretty small, around 12-18, which allows the teachers to notice every one of us, learn our names, habits and etc.

Now, one of the Teacher Assistant seems to dislike me. One of the reasons for this is at the beginning of the semester I spoke too much according to him. I took this criticism with no problem, and made sure to talk as little as possible during the classes, that is I spoke only when a classmate would ask a question based on the problem we were working on.
Yet, he still seems to be irritated by me. I once answered my friends question in a quiet way, to which my teacher responded: "you're such a pain". He likes to ask questions first to me, which no one is able to answer. In a situation where my answer was far from being right he responded: "you would better not answer than give such an idiotic answer". This isn't very detailed, and shows only my point of view, but I wish to fix this situation or at least improve it. I am unsure if this Stack Exchange is suitable for this question, in case it's not, I will delete my question.

Now, I would like to talk to him as I want to fix this situation and  to do so I would like to first send an email asking to meet up. I want to know what exactly should I state in the email? I definitely don't want this to backfire me in any way.

So my question: how should I phrase my email to ask for a meeting to discuss this situation while staying polite and very tactiful?

I will accept any advices concerning the handling of this situation.


texts: Students leaving a new lab - have I made a wrong choice?

texts:
I've been accepted to a relatively prestigious neuroscience PhD program abroad and will be joining a new lab (2.5 y/o) in a few months. I've been in contact with a possible PI a few months before applying and was very excited about their previous and current research plans. From talking to their students (at the time, two postdocs, one PhD and one research assistant), I got the impression everything was going very well and everyone was very satisfied (this was about five months ago).

However, in a recent visit, I discovered both postdocs have decided to leave the lab (and also explicitly regret joining it), mostly due to disagreement about the way the research is conducted. I think it might be important to note that we're all pretty sure that the PI has some form of Asperger's, which is evident mostly in communication difficulties. While all of their students stressed that they are a very nice, generous person, who is always willing to help with whatever (and also well-funded), they also claim what was once seen as shyness and introvertness (which can be dealt with) is now being seen as mostly lack of understanding, direction, and general vagueness on part of the PI (i.e., not really having a clear direction of where the lab research should go or a good enough understanding of neuroscience).

The last PhD student and I get along very well, and they claim I shouldn't be too worried and mostly be prepared to work independently; however, I get the feeling they are also quite worried about the situation.

So I guess my question is: have I made a wrong choice? How worried should I be? I'm torn between moving forward with the program, and in the worst case moving labs after a year, and between giving up on this specific lab right now and trying to find other options. As I mentioned before, this is more complicated by the fact I would be moving abroad for this PhD, which includes quite a lot of pre-planning.

Thanks

Some additional information that may or may not be important:

I really like the PI, and we seem to get along well (as much as is possible with them).
The PI comes from a background in Physics, while their post-docs was in neuroscience. They don't have many publications, but those that they do have are in really highly-regarded journals. They are also very open to answering questions, but you need to be very direct in your questions.
One postdocs has a background in physics, while the other in psychology and neuroscience.


texts: Getting reference letter from professors whom I took their class-should I make any impression except my grade?

texts:
I am a master (international)student in Germany, I will apply Phd in Canada or US. There will be a gap year between my graduation year and entrance year.
Now my plan to get reference letter is as follows: One letter from my thesis supervisor. Another two letters from the professor whom I took a class with and got an A.
Now I am not sure if any of the professor will remember me after (at least) one year. Surely I got best grade in their exam(oral), but this does not guarantee the chance.
The question is, should I made a impression to them, like directly(politely) ask them if I can get a reference letter from them in the future?Or just wait till the application time and sending emails to ask them? Or any other?


texts: Is it advisable to emphasize (italicize) good research qualities in a research statement?

texts:
In a Ph.D. application, a statement of purpose (or more precisely, research statement) is required. I think a candidate should use this statement to showcase his/her good research qualities backed up by the research experience to the admission committee.

In order to make those qualities (i.e., those positive adjectives) stand out, can one emphasize those adjectives by italicizing them?

Specifically, I am referring to qualities such as "independent thinking ability, rigorous"...

In my opinion, the research interests and professors of interest should be highlighted in bold so as to facilitate the faculty reader allocation. This way, highlighting these adjectives also in bold will be pretty messy. So it may be a good idea to highlight the adjectives in another and less catchy form, i.e., the italic form. Am I right?


texts:
I am a junior researcher.
Recently I was able to prove a result in Graph Theory. I wish to know whether this result is already known in the existing literature of Graph Theory. I am not an expert in searching articles. I used Google and browse through some of the articles in vain.

I shared my result with my advisor. However, since he is not an expert of this field, he couldn't answer to my query.

I was wondering how academic reasearchers tackle this kind of situations. How do you make a good search to find the articles as close to possible to a related work?


texts: undergraduate research experience should go for 'depth' or 'width' in terms of graduate application?

texts: I am now going through my 3rd undergraduate year, and I am now feeling like I want to change my research direction. The current direction is yet the only direction I've dug into. But one factor is making me hesitate whether to make the move: the graduate application is less than one year away. I don't know whether changing a research direction is a wise choice at this point, i.e. I am wondering should I go for 'depth' or 'width' for my undergraduate research experience. Guys, any suggestions?


texts: Referee says the proof is wrong, but it is not, what to do?

texts:
About 3 months ago, my co-author and I submitted a mathematical paper to a journal. Yesterday, we got the editor's response and the paper has been rejected. The reason is that the referee thinks that our results are wrong or trivial.

However, we carefully read the referee's report and we conclude that the "errors" pointed out by the referee are not errors at all and that our proofs are correct. In all modesty, we think that the referee understood very poorly even the statements of our theorems.

Personally, this is the first time that such a situation occurs to me.
I already have four papers published in such journal and the reports I got from the referees have been always really accurate.

What do you think is the best thing to do?
Forget about and try another journal? Write an e-mail to the editor explaining why we disagree with the decision? Other ideas?

EDIT: Thank you very much for all your answers. At the end, we submitted our paper to another journal with only some slight edits we have already planned to do independently by the referee's report.


texts: I was wondering, I'm interested in both some aspects of pure math and some aspects of theoretical computer science. I'm currently in a PhD program in computer science at a pretty decent institution (let's say, top 5 in most TCS people's minds), but I think my interests are more mathematical than I had anticipated. (For example, I'm realizing I'm more interested in some areas of topology and geometry and connections to computer science.) Do you think it would be worth trying to transfer into the math PhD program/do you that would be viable? I'm just about to start my second year. It would likely set me back a year at least to pass the qualifying exam in the math department, but I sort of think that it would do me good to acquire a more robust background in math. Of course, this is a very individual consideration, but I wanted to get a sense of what the general feeling on this type of question would be before chatting seriously with faculty in the two departments. (I know that usually people move from math into CS, not vice versa...)


texts: How to check whether a student faced disciplinary action

texts:
I reported a fellow classmate's verbal abuse to my professor and an associate dean at my school in a previous semester. I showed proof as I was reporting the incident. Their response to me was merely that his behavior was "very unprofessional" and that was it. They never told me if and how they were going to proceed with this student's behavior.

Is there a way for me to check if the student faced any disciplinary action or not without asking the folks that I spoke with? I have a feeling that no disciplinary action was ever taken, and this was pathetically in a master's program.


texts: What is a username exactly used for in arXiv?

texts: This is a fairly simple question, which any arXiv author could answer: the username set while registering in arXiv is not the authorial name users see when they read a paper you've published, right? The arXiv username set during registration is merely so that the author can log into arXiv?


texts: technologies for remote proctoring / invigilating

texts:
I'm interested in a video solution (think Zoom) that would allow an
invigilator to see a number of candidates on the screen but which does
not allow candidates to see each other. Are there any such
software?solutions available for this? Obviously, the more mature the
better so that setup for the client side for candidate is simple. If it
was self-hosted then that would be ideal.

I'm aware of online proctoring / invigilating companies (Examity,
ProctorU, TestReach, ProctorExam,...) but they usually either use their
own invigilators or are quite costy.

Somewhat related question here.


texts: No response from professor for letter of recommendation

texts: I am applying to MS/MA programs and my first due date is tomorrow. All my matierals were submitted 2 weeks in advance,however, my final letter writer hasn’t submitted his LOR. My other two have both been submitted but I am worry they will not carry as much weight as they are coming from directors at my company (I have been out of school 3 years). My professor agreed to write me a letter late November and I i then sent him my resume/transcripts/statement of intent. I also sent him a thank you card over the holidays to express my gratitude. I have not heard back from him since early December, after he agreed to write my letters. I have sent him 1 reminder email on earlier this week as my first application is due tomorrow. He has not responded. I am wondering if it’s proper etiquette to call him? With the rest of my applications being due March 1st I am a little apprehensive that I may run into this issue every time.


texts: Is it normal/okay if my professor grades me lower "in comparison to my peers"?

texts:
My Uni is in Minnesota and classes started a couple weeks ago.  I'm taking a class for my undergraduate degree. I knew it was going to be writing intensive from the syllabus.  Every week we're going to have at minimum one short writing assignment due.  In the syllabus he said we would be graded on:

Structure/Organization
Word selection and sentence structure
Spelling, punctuation, and capitalization
Content

My first two writing assignments were bad, 60% on them.  His feedback was:

I didn't cite my sources
"Your grade is based on how you compare with your peers"

First of all, I didn't use any sources because they were basic questions that only required critical thinking and my opinions.

Second, is grading my work compared to my peers something that is actually done?  It seems bizarre to me, I've never heard of something like this being done before.  I have absolutely no control over the other people in my class.  It's frustrating that in a class with 20 writing assignments, I'm getting docked points for something outside of my control.

If this wasn't such a writing intensive course I wouldn't be as upset.  Is this normal to deduct points because someone subjectively wrote better than me?


texts: Commercial product with the same functiality as my research project

texts:
I’m writing my master’s thesis about visual automated testing, which will be summarized to paper.

In my theoretical study, I reference other people’s work, papers and study about this topic. Meanwhile, there are some new commercial products that have the same functionality as my research project and they provide a 30-day free trail.

Now my questions are:

Should I reference those commercial products too in my theoretical study or should I just ignore them?
If I reference them, do I have to add a comparison of results between those products and my implementation in my practical study?
There are no publications on the commercial product I found. So could I publish a paper on my work and if yes, should I ignore those methods?


texts: How to define author order of a collaborative paper where all authors have contributed equally?

texts:
I am finishing writing a manuscript in collaboration with a dozen of colleagues. The paper is mainly theoretical, does not involved experimentation of any kind and is born from numerous discussions between all the collaborators (it is actually hard to tell when the project started). No one really took the lead in the project, at least not during the whole time (for meeting setup and so someone had to take the lead, but only temporary). In addition, the ten collaborators are coming from 6-7 different research groups and universities.

In such case, when everyone as more or less the exact same contribution, what is the best way to determine the author order on the paper, without making any diplomacy misstep?

PS: in my field , alphabetical order is really not common.

PS2: we do not have time for a 25 games croquet tournament...


texts: How to let a journal know that its submission process is very painful?

texts:
I have recently decided to no longer publish, or at least publish less, with a well respected journal in my field. How do I let the journal know in a meaningful way that the submission process is very painful?

The required Microsoft Word and LaTeX templates are extremely dated and do not match my (or anyones) workflow. The review time (6 months), number of reviewer (3-4), number of rounds of review (3-4), and delay from in press to available online (8 months) are all too much. The lack of communication is extreme. The online system tells you if the manuscript is on your desk or the journals desk and nothing more. Editors do not respond to queries other than to tell you it is being reviewed.


texts: What are the steps I need to take when an author won't answer clarification questions?

texts:
I have recently read a paper in the Journal of Empirical Finance.
I was interested in the methodology that the author was using, but in terms of the data collection, the writing was particularly brief and I struggled to replicate their results.
This could have been clarified easily by the author, but they choose not to reply.
Is there anything I can do here or is it the authors choice not to answer questions about a published article?


texts: Is it ok (ethically speaking) to rename features of a dataset for publishing?

texts:
I work in the machine learning field where I deal with datasets provided by an industrial partner, and one concern of the project is the confidentiality of the data.
My team is working on a fault detection system using those datasets which includes features or columns, with names as Motor_sectionA_speed, Motor_sectionB_torque, Valve_sectionC_pressure, etc. which are subparts of a big system, and if the context is known, they could be traceable to details of our partner machinery and operation.
For publishing some results two options have appeared regarding naming those features:

Name features as Feature A, Feature B, Feature C, etc: I have seen this for synthetic datasets, where the focus is to highlight the algorithm where the importance of the feature is in its nature (distribution, range, etc) not its name or meaning.
Name them as Motor_1, Motor_2, Valve_1: One person stated that from training she/he had, the previous option could be unethical because the meaning of the variables is lost and might be misleading. Instead, names can only be simplified as Motor_1, Motor_2, Valve_3, etc.

Is it the first option considered unethical in all cases? or is this a "depends"/gray zone matter?


texts: Should I share a scan of my published paper with an academic in my field?

texts:
A notable academic in my field has asked for a copy of one of my papers which he says he wants to assign to a class. For me this is a big compliment and a good opportunity to get my work out there. Now, I could share the post-print with him, which is allowed by the journal, however, this does not have the correct page numbers and wouldn't be much use for any citations.

My institution always photocopies articles from books and sends them around the class. It's probably quite naughty but they do it a lot. Should I send a scan/photocopy or should I just send a post-print, which would effectively just be a Word doc?


texts: Teaching-oriented lectureship in a research-oriented university

texts: I have been offered a teaching-oriented position in power electronics in a research-intensive university. It is not a tenure-track position. It seems fine considering my career and age at this moment but in the long run, I would like to get involved in research and eventually get tenure-track positions. Therefore, I am wondering whether it is possible to do research from this kind of position. I will be grateful to you if you give some guidance with regards to this situation.


texts: How can I improve the effectiveness of my literature searches?

texts:
OK, I know this is a pretty basic question but I haven't been able to come up with any really satisfactory solutions. (I have searched around on this site, but none of the related questions precisely answer my problem.) I'm a first-year PhD student working mostly in evolution, phylogenomics, and conservation biology. I'm looking for basic tips on how I can become more effective at finding papers when I need to research a subject for any of the usual reasons like developing a methodology or drafting a proposal.

Right now I seem to be pretty bad at this. My search strategy pretty much consists of putting likely keywords into Web of Science and Google Scholar, and then looking at whatever papers appear that seem like they might be relevant to my query. Frequently this fails to yield satisfactory results, even when the subjects that I am researching seem like they ought to have a significant body of existing work behind them. I know I must be able to do better, because I see other people coming up with papers that I don't seem to be able to find.

What are some basic best practices for conducting a literature search? I feel like this is a big gap in my existing skillset, and something that will really hold me back if I don't get on top of it soon. Again, I realize that this is a pretty remedial-level question and I appreciate your patience and guidance here.


texts: Should I introduce myself to my supervisor via e-Mail or set up an appointment to introduce myself?

texts: For my graduate studies my supervisor was assigned to me without me having spoken to him first. Now I am wondering if I should introduce myself via e-Mail and then ask for an appointment, or keep it short and ask for an appointment specifically to introduce myself. I don't want to waste his time or appear rude.


texts: How to deal with a professor who grades assignments and exams incorrectly

texts:
I currently have a (graduate) professor who clearly does not understand the material she teaches at the level required by the course. This normally would not be a problem - I'm fine with educating myself via textbook - but unfortunately her inaccurate knowledge also extends to grading. I have no problem with studying hard for a difficult class, but I can't possibly know how to predict the exact incorrect ideas that the professor has and incorporate them into my work.

My first response was to very, verrrrry diplomatically approach the professor and talk to her about the questions - but she immediately became angry. I then talked to my advisor, who said that this isn't the first time she's heard of problems with this teacher. My advisor said that her only idea is for me to go to the head of the department, but I'd really prefer not to do this for two reasons:

Relatively small department; it's likely that this professor has
a good relationship with the department head, and I would look bad
It seems like a "nuclear option" and I would prefer to avoid it
(if possible)

This is my last semester of graduate coursework in molecular biology, and I have never had a problem like this before. I feel like my only option is to drop the course - without it, I would still have all my coursework requirements fulfilled - but I don't want to have a W on my transcript.

I have been unable to come up with a satisfactory way to resolve the problem.

Possibly helpful additional information

I have talked to other students in the class; all (of the six I have talked to about the issue) have experienced similar problems in grading
I have confirmation from other teachers that my answers are correct, but they don't want to confront a colleague (and I can't fault them for this)
I don't dislike the teacher; she seems like a relatively OK person. I just wish she understood the content better
The teacher can't possibly have a grudge against me, since I had never met her before the class
I'm  very interested in what this class covers, which is why I took it despite not needing to
I have taught some of this material at the undergraduate and graduate level; I understand it's difficult stuff. It's more the teacher's attitude towards grading that is the problem.


texts: Is there any Master or Ph.D. programme that involves Mathematics, Philosophy and Biology?

texts:
I majored in Business and Economics a few years ago and right now I'm looking for a master or PhD in Mathematics because I am quite passionate about it, but I just don't really know in which program and/or university I should apply, because what I want is kind of a relationship between Mathematics, Philosophy and Biology.

After finishing my degree I realised that Mathematics is what I truly hungered for and which motivated me. I feel the need to understand the existence of the universe as it is. I am a seeker of the truth, and the only thing I know is true is Mathematics, so I want to give my brain and life a good use, not for the mundane.

Im aware that human behaviour is mostly a reflection of nature, I want to understand nature by learning the universal language of Mathematics.

I need some advice in the following questions:

Is there any well-known Master or Ph.D. programme that can englobe Mathematics, Philosophy and Biology?
Although I did not take any Mathematics minor, should I go first to the Masters or go directly to the Ph.D.?

Lastly, I am free to study anywhere in the world.


texts: How to cite the same author multiples times in IEEE style?

texts:
For example:

According to Smith [5]...

For the second reference to the same author, would I write the following:

[5] argues that...

Is it appropriate to begin a sentence with a bracket?  Can someone please show me the correct options for referencing the same author multiple times?


texts: Discussing finances with advisor: Am I being selfish?

texts:
I have a bit of a quandary. I applied for a fellowship to send me to a foreign country for two months. They will give me a stipend, and pay for all of my other expenses. In the event I don't receive this fellowship, my advisor said she would fund me the whole summer using her discretionary funds. I would go on this trip and make it back exactly one month before classes start: would it be selfish for me, in the event I get this fellowship, to ask her to also fund me for that last month while I'm back and doing work?

The thing is, the fellowship stipend is about as much as I would make during the whole summer working here, so I would be making more money than I would normally make over the entire summer. Perhaps I am overthinking this.


texts: Finding a suitable research topic from outside academia

texts: I'd like to find a suitable research topic (specifically, in mathematics) to work on, where 'suitable' means that it's publishable and amenable to being completed in, say, 6-12 months. While there are plenty of topics I'm interested in and plenty of questions I'd like to answer, I'm not sure how to gauge the difficulty of a topic. I suppose this is normally part of learning to become a researcher in grad school; but while I have a (useless) PhD, my advisor handed me explicit problems to solve and summarily refused to allow me to change them when I'd asked. I'm also in industry now rather than academia (and not even in a real industry-research job), which means that I have little time--- certainly far less than a real researcher--- for useful work. Nevertheless, I'd still like to do whatever I can given my situation, and I can attend a few conferences, retain access to journals, etc.; I just don't have the time or resources that someone in academia would. So, how I can find a specific research topic?


texts: Article based on thesis and co authorship

texts:
I graduated 8 months ago with 7 SCI article published. Recently, I submitted another article based on my thesis work. My supervisor, who actually has no supervisory role in my thesis except for providing a monthly stipend, wants me to add him as a co-author. He argues that he supported my research,  but in fact I paid him back more than he supported me, in the form of my work on various projects (totally different than my thesis topic).

During my PhD he never took an  interest in my PhD thesis, rather he always used me for his short term industry projects. In 4.5 years we didn’t have a single discussion/meeting on my PhD thesis.

Is him asking me to add him as an author morally correct? What if I refuse his request? Can my action be consider an unethical act?


texts: Should a post doc recruit and supervise final year undergrad students when PI is getting older and wants to reduce involvement?

texts:
I'm a postdoctoral researcher in a small research group in Europe. My PI is advancing in age, and taken a step back from running the group personally. We have an admin assistant who deals with day-to-day things like signing purchase orders and booking rooms/coffee, and the lab itself is run by me and another post-doc.

The PI who I work for recently "asked" if I'd be willing to supervise a final year undergraduate student for the upcoming academic year (I'm fine with this, its a good opportunity to get an extra pair of hands to try some interesting experiments). This is common in the department I work for. What is less common is that she (the PI) refuses to meet/interview these students herself, and instead insists that I do this myself.

In some ways, this makes sense– she doesn't have much to do with the lab on a day-to-day basis, and almost certainly won't take an interest in the undergraduates process. This does leave two issues, however:

All of the other PI's meet students personally. This means when I do meet these undergraduates, they already feel like they've been passed off to 'some random post-doc', but also raises concerns for them that she isn't really going to be very supportive during their projects.
In previous years, after this process of a post-doc meeting all of these students, she has basically ignored their recommendations as to whom to hire, and just chosen based upon how they perform on paper (i.e. taking the one who's had some experience in a lab of someone she's a fan of, or taking the one who aced her course in the previous year etc.)

Since last week, she has been forwarding about 5 emails a day from interested students, requesting that I meet them, go over their CV's/research experience, and quiz them on some general physics to make sure that we're not taking anyone incompetent.

Whilst I obviously should meet the students, I feel like its a complete waste of my time. Interviewing 5 students is taking at least 3 hours since they also have questions, and my PI insists that we meet every student that applies, despite already having personal dealings with some of them/knowing they're truly not cut out for lab work. The time isn't a huge issue, but generally due to the small size of our lab and my teaching commitments, it is meaning that I;m basically not at my bench for most of the week.

Questions

What would be the best course of action?
Agree to do all of this, on the condition that she doesn't then overrule my opinion when it comes to actually choosing?
Or insist that since she's going to make the final decision anyway she should just suck it up and meet these students herself?


texts: What's the difference between "academic staff" and "research staff"?

texts: For example in Cambridge website of math department, it lists University Academic Staff and Research Staff. What is the difference?


texts: My student: "As of now it is unknown, why...". I have very recently found out why. Do I tell him?

texts:
I'm supervising an undergrad student. STEM, if that's relevant.
Due to Corona, his contract ending and me leaving this job we haven't spoken in quite some time. He has now worked at home and has written his thesis. I am currently proof-reading his (pretty much) completed thesis which he send to me on 4 days ago.
In his thesis, and obviously last time he spoke, he didn't know why there was a bump in his results. Neither did I. In his thesis he writes something along the lines of "as of now it is unknown...". So far, so normal.
Two days ago I more or less coincidentally found out why. It turns out it is somewhat obvious once you know why. What should I do now?
I could write him a mail explaining why. But this wouldn't be his work. It also can't be solved. It is just a "quirk" of the method he used.
I could just say nothing: "as of now it's unknown" is perfectly acceptable, but I feel in this case it's also unnecessary. After all he COULD know why.
I thought about not saying anything and just be happy about a question I already have for the oral examn. But I am afraid it might be a little too difficult for the exam and he doesn't do too well with pressure.

Thank you all for your input. You helped shaping my thought process in a great deal.
I ended up writing a detailed email telling him which dots to connect and leaving the rest to figure out for himself with some pointers.
I did so for a simple reason:
His statistical analysis is wrong. Furthermore I don't understand from his thesis what he did. And after all I KNOW what he wanted to do. And I know for a fact: Somewhere something went wrong. And that I can't "let slide". Incompletion is one thing, errors another.
And in order to provide an explanation I needed to show him why his data doesn't make any sense which is easiest to explain with the underlying mechaism and so on.
I will, however, use this specific topic in the oral exam. I specifically told him to make sure he knows what's happening at this particular point and I feel this is more of a warning than he probably deserves.


texts: How concerned should one be if he/she does not get referee invitations?

texts: A friend of mine is an experienced researcher in early career.  We are surprised to learn that she never get invited to referee for any journal.  I once rejected a referee request and referred the editor to her because the manuscript matches better with her expertise, but still, she did not get invited.  I recently learned that this happens more than once: some one else also recommended her for referee but the editor did not take the advice.  It becomes a little bit concerning: is she somehow blacklisted or what?  What is really happening here?


texts:
Is it a good idea to keep my comments in the chapter draft to be sent to my supervisor?
Sometimes when writing, I comment on the text, like personal notes.
I am feeling that it may sound like incomplete work. But there mostly notes for possible future investigations.


texts: Difference between slides and poster presentation

texts:
I am wondering that how explaining your work with a talk with slides differs from a poster presentation. Since I do not have any idea, I always explain my poster to the viewer just same way as I would have give a talk: starting from intro, methods, etc. Doing this it takes more time and I lack the time to explain it to more viewers.

So I want to know that whether the work shown on a poster and on slides should be same? And are there any good ideas to present your poster to more viewers?


texts: What will my academic path look like after testing out of high school math classes?

texts:
I am currently a 15-year-old in the 9th grade, and I am studying to test out all of my high school math classes, which is something I didn't realize I could do in the 8th grade and would have if I had. I contacted faculty, and if all goes well, I'll test out of Geometry, Algebra II, Precalculus, and AP Calculus BC. I also hope that once at college, I can test out of Linear Algebra.

I have also been studying Japanese for a few years, and know the meaning of all the required Jōyō Kanji, although I lack vocabulary otherwise. Because of this background, I plan to Major in Pure Mathematics, and Minor in Japanese Studies.

If I end up taking classes at Delta, (a nearby community college) I would not be able to take Topology, Complex Analysis, Real Analysis, or Abstract Algebra. Instead, I would take Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra (if I fail to test out of it), and an ODE course, as Delta only has a Transfer Math program, and no Japanese language program.

I've been told that my high school will also pay for my college classes while enrolled in high school, although the only people they have ever done this for went to Delta during high school, and they were seniors in the 12th grade.

That being said, I have a few general questions about college that that fall under the umbrella of the title.

Would it make sense to apply for colleges as anything other than a Senior, or dual enroll in non-community colleges?
What will writing a thesis be like for someone with no Math paper writing experience?
I have below-average grades in everything but Math, how much will this affect me?
As a high school freshman, I've yet to take the SAT, how much will this affect me?
For the math people reading this, how do you recommend studying math on my own?
My mother doesn't want me to test out of my math classes, because "they teach me hard work,"
and because she wants me to raise my other grades first before doing something "fun". How do I deal with that?


texts: When is it acceptable to ask a graduate program about their admissions decision?

texts:
I've recently applied for PhD programs in mathematics. I received an offer not long ago, and in light of this offer, there are only a few schools that I would consider an offer from. From past years results (and this year's), I expect to get results from two of them in the coming week, but another of them usually only sends out their final decisions three or so weeks from now (though they do, and have, sent decisions already to some applicants). I would like to make a decision fairly soon, and knowing about the status of my application at this final school would indeed make a difference in any decisions I make. When is it acceptable to ask them about the status of my application? Should I simply wait until they send me the result, or is it OK to ask earlier?

In more generality, so that this question might be useful to somebody that's not me: in general, when is it acceptable to ask schools about their admissions decision if they've not notified you yet?


texts: Is it inappropriate for a PI to hire the most suitable available researcher as an RA, just because s/he is his/her family member?

texts:
Below is a part of the guidelines from a grant:

"Research assistants (RA) shall not be appointed from amongst members of immediate or extended family of the researcher."

I know it's to prevent professors/researchers from misusing it for personal benefit.

But what if the two researchers (principal investigator and potential RA) are in the same field, doing and discussing the same project; and the potential RA is among the best in the field; and no other people/students here are capable of doing that project?

I've seen similar question in another thread, but it's quite different.

Here, we are talking about deep theoretical research; with lots of advanced mathematics and application to a field that is really rare even among researchers in the world. NOT about technical jobs or plain research tasks that anybody can do as long as we train them.

And the topic is quite hard, require extensive mastery - and already mastered by the potential RA through his extensive years of research. Note that the RA here is not a student, but rather has a history of working as a research scientist in a great research institution. The topic of the project itself was proposed based on the discussion between the PI and the potential RA.

Of course anybody can train but takes lots of time and effort, but the students here lack even the basic knowledge of the topic. So those students needed to study from scratch for months or even years. So it wastes time and effort to hire and guide student who don't know anything, and PI need to chase the project's deadlines too. The project will succeed more when working with the researcher who already mastered the topic.

Is it inappropriate for a PI to hire the most suitable available researcher as an RA, just because s/he is his/her family members?

(Isn't this kind of guidelines is an injustice towards a very good potential RA, but s/he is dismissed just because s/he's a family member of the principal investigator? Or is it possible to be amended if being discussed case-by-case with the higher-ups?)

There're also spouses, or fathers and sons/daughters who are doing the same researches together. It's sad if they're being discriminated by this 'good' rules. Moreover, there're lack of research jobs for postdocs/phd graduates, hence come the two-body problem in academia.

Of course it should be discussed directly with the university/institute, but any enlightenment is very appreciated.


texts: Why is it acceptable that publishers sell papers they didn’t pay for?

texts:
I am curious about the worldwide accepted ethics in publishing. I have never seen any other economic sector in which someone legally sold someone else's product for their own profit, apparently without paying for it in any way. I don’t intend to accuse any publisher, I just want to know how this works and why is this acceptable. Is it expected to be changed in the future? Do scientists want to change it, or is this accepted by more or less the whole community?

I admit, this question might seem to be off topic or opinion based but I don’t know where could I ask it.


texts: What can I do, if I don't like the proposed research subject by my potential supervisor?

texts:
I am supposed to be admitted to a M.A.Sc.  graduate program in engineering at a reputable Canadian university. I am now communicating with my potential supervisor about the potential plans for my research...  and here is my concern:

My background and enthusiasm have been shaped around applications research and implementation of the acquired control techniques within the realm of robotics, whereas my supervisor has a more theoretical viewpoint. When we had started to communicate, he did assert that we would determine the research theme,  according to our common interests and overlapping subjects.  But today, I have received an email from him,  consisting of an idea for research that is considerably theoretical.

I am not really attracted by that subject, since it does not cover my desired research field, considerably.  I might notify my idea,  frankly,  but I am afraid of confronting him and creating any dissatisfaction from him.
He is eager to hear my viewpoint,  and I have no idea how to transfer my perspective,  efficiently,  such that any misunderstanding will be avoided.

Have I right in this case,  or have to do whatever my potential supervisor is saying?

I have not yet met him,  face to face,  but I know that he is,  amazingly,  kind and able to track what's going in my mind.  How should I declare my opinion about the concern,  such that he would not consider my clarification as a disobeying?


texts: PhD Journey 2nd Year: Looking for perspective/focus

texts:
Without being too specific to my own problem, I wanted to ask your opinion/experiences about research process.

Recently I have read that a mediocre idea that is perfectly executed is much better than a brilliant idea that is poorly executed.

I am currently in track 1: My scope is clear and I feel comfortable to carry it out.

However, I have this irresistible urgency to expand my scope to a new, exciting research area that neither me nor my supervisor have prior background. I am lucky since my supervisor supports this decision, in fact found some contacts in this new subject. But now I am having some doubts, especially whether there will be enough time for me to get familiar in this new subject area and able to produce something.

Also, people around me telling that it is also common conducting a post-doc in a different area and I should consider this opportunity later not now during the PhD.

What do you think about based on your PhD experience? Would you rather stick to what you know the best and expand your knowledge marginally or sail to the unknown?

Many thanks.


texts: How does one switch PhD advisors without being on a fellowship?

texts:
What's the best way to switch PhD advisors/or get a taste for working with a potential advisor without being on a fellowship?

In other words how would I convince a potential advisor to fund me + avoid burning bridges with my current advisor?

Let's say the reason for the switch is that I realized I'm not that interested in the research area my advisor is focused on now.


texts: How should someone choose a PhD topic so that she doesn't fail?

texts:
One of my close relatives went to Australia to get a Ph.D. in computer science. PhDs in Australia are 3 years long. She couldn't complete her Ph.D. in 3 years. Then she applied for an extension and got 1 year more. However, ultimately she failed. I asked her about the issue and she preferred to stay silent.
As far as I guess, she chose a topic that was destined for failure. I.e. her hypothesis was incorrect.
How should someone choose a Ph.D. topic so that she doesn't fail?


texts: Should I submit a major revision if it seems that AE has the intent to reject?

texts:
A few months ago, I submitted a paper to the top journal in my field. I just received a major revision decision. There was an enormous amount of comments from the four reviewers on many different aspects but all of them specifically doubt if the proposed system advances the state of the art or if it is useful among other things. In reality, It is a novel and interesting idea/concept but it does not make the numbers (performance) better as the reviewers suggested.

The associate editor said that they will consider publication only if they received convincing responses but the wording indicates they doubt that I will be able to do. I could attempt to address the comments but I feel like my chances are close to zero given the number of comments and the tone of the AE.

As our group recently submitted another paper that was rejected by the same AE, I feel like the AE did not just outright reject this one because they just rejected the one before. Hence, a major revision.

I understand that the consensus in the community in the case of revisions is that the AE sees value in the paper but that does seem to be the case here from my understanding.

My question: with the information above, would it be a good idea to skip the major revision and submit to another Journal? My concern here is time as it will likely take three more months to get a high likely reject.

Also, how likely is it for papers to get rejected after major revisions?


texts: Can I list the published papers that I did intern work for even if I'm not an author

texts: I am applying to grad school for a Masters in Environmental Science. (My BS is in Biology). I interned throughout high school and college for NIH. I did the basic lab tech type of work, but there were 2 papers that were published which I helped work on. Obviously, I am not an author on either of those papers, however I think they show the kind of work of which I have been a part. I can't find any format for listing this type of thing, so perhaps I should exclude the reference completely? However, I went to a CV writing workshop and was advised that any papers I contributed to in any way should be listed. I would appreciate any advice on this subject. Thank you.


texts: Few years ago I completed a human trial (set up, data collection and analysis). My colleague and I drafted the paper however my line manager never provided any comments. Although I had to move on to another job, there were back and forth email exchanges until 2018 regarding paper updates. However, in 2018 he never sent me his comments. Now I asked him to continue and finalise the paper however he said that another researcher will draft it although this researcher was not involved in the study and has nothing to do with it. I tried to set up a meeting with them but he really pushes me out as if he doesn’t want me involved at all. What should I do? And what can I do if he adds other people to authorship? Thank you


texts: If a person stops contributing to a project do they deserve authorship?

texts:
I'm involved in a long collaborative software development project. The project required continuous effort because the goal is very ambitious and the project started from scratch.
However, some early collaborators contributed to the projects very little, one was an undergraduate who didn't have the skills to contribute significantly to the project and the other was a post-doc who caused more harm before ultimately leaving the group.
My question is do these early collaborators deserve authorship on any publication that may arise from this project? If no, at what point would someones contribution constitute authorship?
Here are some thoughts:
Pro: They did technically contribute to an early prototype, and I wouldn't want to be left out of a paper that I contributed to, but couldn't ultimately see the end of because of other circumstances.
Con: The project has substantially changed since they contributed to the point and it's debatable it's even the same project anymore, as practically all the software has changed. More importantly to me, it dilutes the effort of the authors who contributed significantly more, and this can be discouraging.


texts: If one professor gives recommendation letter to too many students then does it affect the admission of students?

texts: I am planning to apply for masters in US universities for fall 2020. I graduated from a school where the staff is quite less. Because of this reason, students tend to ask for recommendation letters from the same professor. When I asked some of the professors for a recommendation letter, they said they are already giving recommendations to 10 to 12 students. Though they don't mind giving a recommendation letter to one more student, will it affect the admission process of the students recommended by the professor? As the professor is already recommending too many students.


texts: Can students bargain over admission date?

texts:
Currently, I am a history student (MA) from Europe. I plan to pursue further education in Asia.

Initially, I applied to university X (a 2-year research program (MA) with full funding). I also applied for a 1-year language acquisition program (also with full funding). I was shortlisted by uni X and accepted for the language program. I, then, wanted to withdraw from the uni x's shortlist, but my potential supervisor encouraged me to stay on the list and wait for a final decision.

However, after some thinking I realised that I look out to take that language program for academic (learn an extra language), personal (get some time off) and financial reasons (save some money)

My question is the following: do I, as a (potential) admitted student, have certain bargaining power to delay my possible admission for a year for example?

I'm not a potential employee, post-doc or whatsoever. I'm just a potential research student and I'm definitely not the only candidate on the waiting list

Which points do I have to consider prior to send an e-mail to uni X when dealing with such an issue?

Thanks


texts: Can post graduate students be forbidden to work in the institution they are studying?

texts: I have seen some graduate (PhD and Masters) students in Turkey, Nigeria, Malaysia etc that can not work in the university they study. In fact I am one of them as I am about to finish Msc mathematics and computer science in Turkey and planning to start PhD in USA. My question is, is it a policy of most universities in the world that post graduate students can not work in the institution they are studying and earn their living? Even to work as graduate assistant perhaps.


texts: Is my GPA good enough for top-tier graduate schools?

texts: I'm currently an undergraduate and have a cGPA of about 3.6 in Mathematics. I worry that it's not good enough to land me a place at some of the best graduate schools such as UCB, Princeton and MIT. I still have a little over a year left till I get my degree, which means that I still have time to mess up or increase my GPA. So I guess my question is pretty straightforward, is my GPA enough? What more should I do to improve my chances? I've loved mathematics since a long while but now I fear that I'm worried only about maintaining good grades which has made me lose interest in everything I study. I want to get the same interest that I had back but the grades keep holding me back from it. I initially wanted to delve into research but given that I've lost interest in everything how can I expect it to be fun?What do I do to fix that? Any help would be appreciated.


texts: Is it ethical for a PI to tell university to pay out intern's salary for an extra month after internship ends, and keep the money?

texts:
There is an intern sharing the office with me. Once day his PI came to talk to him. Since there were only 3 of us in the office, although I didn't pay attention, their conversation just automatically went into my mind.

The story is like this: the intern had worked for 2 months, and he was going to leave. However, he would not let the university know that he was leaving. Instead, the PI would tell the university that the intern would work for another month. When the intern received the paycheck of the last month, he would send it to the PI.

At first, I think this was not right, the PI was stealing project money for personal use, and I needed to do something. However, in second thought, I think he might be the best one to deserve that money.

After all, he is the sole PI of the project, and there is no co-PI. The funding of the project comes from a (very competitive) external grant that he has spent a lot of effort to write proposal etc.

I think it is not very fair for the intern, since he has worked really hard, even in the weekend, so that the project can be shorten. He is going to start his PhD, and has promised to continue to work on that project in his free time.

Although it is not very fair for him, he will not benefit at all if I take any action. In contrast, he may still really want to continue the collaboration that way. This PI is friend of my boss (PI), I haven't talked much to him, but he appeared to be a nice guy. This is surely none of my business.

TL;DR: I know the PI cheats the system, but is it still right ethically given the fact that he has to fight really hard for this grant money? What should I do in this situation?


texts: PhD Interviews for CSE at US universities

texts:
I am a final year Master of Technology Student studying Computer Science. I am planning to apply for PhD's in top US universities. But I have a problem of stuttering. I stutter a lot while speaking on phone or over the video chats, but very less while talking face to face.
Does PhD admission process in US universities for computer science disciplines involve interviews for international candidates? And if yes, I am very nervous, that I will fail because of my stuttering despite having sufficient knowledge.


texts: Issues with a patent overlapping my work

texts:
I am a PhD student and recently found that a patent exists with significant overlap to my work. I.e. my situation is roughly similar to that described in

Proving that the PhD work was done prior to someone else's patent

except that I unfortunately did not publish my findings before the concurrent patent was filed. I however published it - unknowingly - while the patent was pending but before it became publicly available.
About two years before the patent was filed I mentioned the idea in talks, but none of them was video recorded. It was also discussed in various personal communication. As far as I heard about patent law, this would already qualify as sufficient publication to prevent protection by a patent. The principle is shown in my talk slides and I routinely host my slides at a cloud hoster, so it may be possible to get an external confirmation that the slides existed in this form on the date of each talk respectively.

Question 1: Can this be used to invalidate or weaken the patent?

I am not worried about conflicts with my research - as far as I know research and teaching are not affected by patent law. My worry is that the patent could block various applications. In typical patent manner it claims a very wide range of applications.
Actually, the patent aims to scope a wider use case than the proposed method can actually serve. I think that I can give counter examples that show the limits of the method as described in the patent.

Question 2: Can such a technical weakness invalidate or weaken the patent?

Following the answer in the question linked above I contacted the patent guys from my university, but they turned out to be rather uncooperative. It seems like the university has some cooperation in other areas with the company that is filing the patent and they made clear that no support from the university would happen against this company. In my eyes, there is likely a conflict of interest in effect.

So far I concluded that I should get advice from an external lawyer.

Question 3: With this post I am asking for ideas, hints and advise to make such a meeting as efficient as possible. Further ideas what else I can do would be appreciated.

Another aspect is that I have loose contact to the authors.

Question 4: How should I deal with that? / Can it cause even legal issues to be in contact? / Should I seek for some sort of consense with them, but how would that look like?

The patent is just entering review phase as it is publicly observable for almost six months now.
Yes, I am going to discuss that with a lawyer, but any information I can get about this in advance would be helpful.

Question 5: What are the possibilities to intervene this process, e.g. point the reviewers to supplementary material? Is there a deadline to consider?


texts: Professor creates assignment making students advocate for a bill being presented to Congress. Is this legal?

texts:
I attend a public university in Kentucky (USA). My professor has assigned an advocacy assignment that requires students to write three letters of support for a certain House bill that will soon be voted on (H.R. 592 / S. 109).

The professor has given us all a template where we get to "customize" one paragraph with our own supporting statement. The letters must have our name electronically and physically signed. This bill would alter our profession and most of our college is in support of it, including the professors
The letters must be positive and supporting of the bill. The letters must be turned in to the professor for proofreading, then will be sent by the professor to our home county/area representatives.
The template letter repetitively thanks the representative for sponsoring the bill and provides background info as to why the representative should vote in favor of it.

I have emailed the professor, the dean of academic affairs and the dean of the college. The dean of academic affairs responded with basically "not her issue". (Although our student handbook specifically states she's next in line after a professor with any concern.) The dean of the college has not responded. And the professor announced to our class that the assignment is still due tomorrow at noon. Later, I requested to meet with him but his requested meeting time is not until after the assignment is due.

I actually have a neutral stance on this bill. My concern is that a professor is using his position and course to force students to take his personal stance on a bill that will have a major change in healthcare, specifically pharmacy practice. My main concern is that even if the professor doesn't send my letters, he will all of my classmates that may not have expressed their concern. (That's 140 students with 3 letters each = 420 letters sent)

Can a professor do this? Is this legal? Or a violation of students' First amendment?

I turned in my assignment with the preamble edit as recommended by some and met with the professor at his request. His response was that I would receive full credit for my assignment, he was unaware of this issue previously, the other course director and himself have not looked into this issue, he is retiring in March, and he has no regard to continue the discussion besides our conversation in his office. He then proceeded to tell me his personal life stories and asked questions about my history (i.e. where are you from? What do your parents do? What do you want to do in life? etc.)
There is no resolution at this point and he does not seem concerned. He has not edited the assignment (as my initial request to him was to make the assignment not part of his final course grade due to the circumstances of the assignment) and all other students were still required to do the assignment (3 endorsed letters, addressed, and stamped, in support of the particular bill) and turn them in to class teaching assistants to review and mail.
I have also researched university policies on such matters and he is in violation of University policy as well as violating students' academic freedoms. I notified him of this during the meeting and he had no response other than "well you've done your research, I have not."

This professor is in his mid-70s, very traditional, and is retiring in March (2 months) as I stated previously. I believe he doesn't want to deal with this issue and has no desire to take the time to resolve it. Do I contact him again? The assignment still stands and has not been altered. Students were forced to endorse political activity of a Professor or be reprimanded by a failing grade.

What do I do now?


texts: What does it mean if the "upload updated article" feature is still active four months after submission?

texts:
I submitted an article to the International Journal of Vehicle Systems Modelling and Testing four months ago. Its status now is “Reviewing”. However, in the submission details, the upload updated article feature is still active:

My question is: What does this mean? Is it now under review or haven’t the editors found a reviewer yet?


texts: Is someone who is currently pursuing his Integrated Master's course/ Dual Degree course (or any other 5-year degree course) considered to be a graduate student or an undergraduate student?


texts: Writing articles based on the "Least Publishable Unit"

texts:
I have heard the term "Least Publishable Unit" used to describe the amount of scientific information that holds enough merit for a publication. From my understanding, there are two sides to publishing with this term in mind:

1) The positive aspect of this concept is the fact that the article remains focused on the research question and tends to be concise.

2) The downside, at least for me, is this notion of only obtaining enough data simply to produce publications.

Has anyone else heard of this term used when discussing publications? If so, is my interpretation of it correct?


texts:
I'm about to publish a paper with my previous group.

I'm not in a permanent position, and my boss doesn't care if I mention or if I don't mention my current institution in the paper.

For me, a researcher who wishes to have a permanent faculty position, would it be helpful or not at all to do that?


texts: Is it okay to work in different lab during Summer?

texts:
I was wondering if it is okay to work in different lab during summer.

I am first year master's student and currently I am working in the lab as volunteer at my college. During summer (May through August), because of housing/financial reasons, I have to go back home which is in different state. Despite wasting my summer without doing anything, I want to work in the lab in the different college that is working on similar project and the lab that is located near my home. Can I do that? I guess I care about if it would be rude or not. I will definitely tell my current P.I. and potential summer P.I. about it but I wanted to make sure it's okay before I proceed.


texts: Including poor undergraduate research performance in a masters application

texts:
During my undergraduate degree, in engineering, I took part in two 'undergraduate research assistantships'. Neither of them went well, from my point of view. Both were done during school terms, and were in my 2nd and 3rd years.

In the first assistantship, I chose to work in an area outside my field of study (and outside of my future interests), due to some interest from high school. The topic was too complicated and unfamiliar to me, however, and I was not able to make any contributions. I spent the entire term attempting to read papers on the subject (and not understanding most of them).

The second was more related to my field, and I was able to make some contributions. It was not at the quality that I would accept from myself now, however.

If a masters application form/site asks for a complete record of academic activities/jobs, I will be including information on these.

Would it be likely to help, or harm, and application if I included information on these voluntarily? I can see two possible views myself, but do not know if someone reading an application is likely to see them that way, or which would carry more weight:

Poor performance is the major factor that will be seen in the applications
Including these could show the ability to try and take on extra work (hopefully more successfully)

In either case, I would be able to speak about some lessons learned from the experience. Along the lines of 'Don't start a major project in an area you have zero knowledge in; get some foundational experience in it first'.


texts: Professor doesn't tell TAs what should be on exams until the day of the exam

texts: As a TA I am responsible for preparing problems and solution sets for the exams.  Last time we had an exam, the professor didn't tell us which problems he wanted to select for the exam until the morning of the exam, which meant I had to write solutions for a large number of problems the night before the exam, most of which did not end up being on the exam.  Now there is another exam coming up and I fear I will have to do this again.  What should I do?


texts: What is a "provisional transcript, stating your provisional grades"?

texts:
I am set to do a masters degree in the UK starting in mid September this year. It is exactly one year long.
I intend to do another masters after it which begins in October next year.
The structure of the course is we are examined on 4 modules in January and examined on 4 modules in June. We then write our dissertation from June to September. The weighting of the dissertation is 4 modules.
My problem is that I will have all my modules marks by September but not the dissertation mark.
I will get my certificate around November time.

I emailed the course director and he said that

"as long as you can get a provisional transcript, stating your provisional grades, before September, you are fine for the programme".

Does this mean that even if I do not get all my marks back before September, I am still eligible to apply and be accepted on the course?

Does provisional transcript mean an unofficial transcript with all my grades?
Or does it mean a transcript with my grades so far?


texts: Is it acceptable to have a research paper with no references?

texts:
I (an undergrad) and 2 other profs from my department have been working on something and we were thinking of submitting our work to a conference (a pretty well known one) this week. The fact is there is no related work that has been done on the problem we are solving and therefore there is no paper which we can cite as a starting point for our work. The only existing things that we make use of are trivial definitions from mathematics (like Riemann Integral) and also definitions that are pretty well known in my area (CS). So again, we do not think there is a need to cite any particular papers for that.

Now my question as stated was - is it acceptable to have a paper with no references? Or do you think we should just mention some papers (we never had to use them) where those definitions were actually proposed?

PS: I'm sure some of you might suggest me to ask those profs. But quite frankly none of them have much experience as far as publishing papers is concerned. So it would be great if some one could give me a good advice and help me out.

Edit: Thanks everyone for the answers. Of course somewhere a little sarcastic and ridiculing, but I can understand since this is a little weird. Actually yes, I had the notion that a paper wasn't worth citing unless I use some results from it (say an algo or some theorem). But I guess that isn't the only reason why I should be referencing as many seem to suggest here. The fact is we had seen quite a few survey papers before we started this out and I was under the impression that there wasn't a need to cite them since anyone could find them. But now, things are bit more clear and I guess I should cite them and I will :)


texts: Best certification for requesting disability accommodations for GRE?

texts:
I am planning to take the GRE Subject Test in Math. I have ADHD and would like to request accommodations.

I live in a first world country now but used to be based in a third world country. In this third world country I was seeing a resident psychiatrist.

I am about to have a new psychiatrist who is not a resident.

This psychiatrist has met me for only an hour while my old psychiatrist , the resident, met with me for over 12 hours already.

What certification should I submit to ETS?

new doctor only? Old doctor though resident only? Both?


texts: Asking a Professor to sign me to a group

texts:
I have a class assignment coming up. On the syllabus, it was indicated that groups would be assigned this week. I assumed that the professor would be assigning groups. However, last week the professor said that we need to choose the people we work with and come to him afterwards. I don't know anyone in my class and have a class directly after and before. I asked a few people and they had already chosen their friends to work with.

I sent him a polite email last weekend, asking him If he knew of anyone looking for an extra group member since I've been having a difficult time finding a group. It's now Monday night and he still hasn't answered. I'm panicking now since groups are due tomorrow and I have no form of contact with anyone in my class to even try and form a group. What do I do?!


texts: Referencing assignments from past students

texts:
When working on an assignment (e.g. essay, report), is it allowable or ethical to reference (as in both "read" and "cite") previous students' submissions for that assignment? For example, the student may have a friend or relative that sat the subject previously and is happy to share their assignments.

From my understanding, unless the teaching institution has an explicit policy, this should be allowable assuming the referencing is done correctly. So saying, it may not be the best educational experience, as the student may not undertake the critical thinking and research the assignment expects.

To be clear, I am not talking about referencing assignments of students currently studying that subject. That is clearly collusion.

I also assume the student attained previous submissions with consent from all the authors. However, I do not assume that all students currently working on the assignment have access to all past submissions.


texts: How do you convince students that it's OK to teach them "how to think?"

texts:
Often in a Calculus or Linear Algebra class, my students may ask - when am I ever going to use this?  The answer I try to give them is "You're not. And that's totally OK. But you do need to learn how to think logically and solve problems. Mathematics provides a safe place to learn these thinking skills."

But increasingly, the focus of the students is still "Is this going to be on the test?"

They seem unhappy when questions they haven't seen before end up on the test. My thought is that if they learn the process for solving problems, then they should know how to approach a new (but similar) problem.

I'm not interested in seeing them regurgitate facts, but I want them to develop their thinking skills and use them to solve new problems.  This often causes backlash.  I get it - learning how to think is harder than memorizing facts.

How do I effectively communicate that it's not the individual questions or ideas that are important, but it's the learning and thinking processes that are key?


texts: Should the editor's name be included in a rebuttal letter?

texts:
To make things simple, I am asking whether the rebuttal letter is starting with

  Dear Editor and Reviewers

or

  Dear Reviewers


texts: A student offered me money to take one of his exams in his place. What should I do?

texts:
Briefly, I am currently offering my services as a math tutor on a dedicated website.
Recently, a university student contacted me and offered me money to help him cheat an incoming exam. The arrangement would be easy since the exam will take place online, due to COVID-19 (the student would send me the exam text and I would send it back to him, once completed).
I have refused due to ethical reasons. Now, I have identified the precise university and course, and I am wondering if I should warn the course professor that at least one anonymous student has attempted such an arrangement.
I have thought some arguments pro and against:
Against:

such kind of cheating is obvious and warning the professor would
serve no purpose. I would just annoy the professor.
It could happen that the professor will ask me to identify the student. I don't know the student's name, but I have some information
about him that could identify him. Now, in this case, I would refuse
to attempt to identify the student because 1) no actual cheating has
happened yet and 2) it is a can of worms I don't want to open 3) I
don't want to see anybody reprehended, I just would like to prevent
the cheating from happening

Pro:

there are ways to prevent the cheating from happening (browser lock +
full webcam view of the student would make this kind of cheating
quite difficult). Thus the warning is not meaningless.
Even if the professor has already considered the possibility of such
an arrangement, it is still the right thing to do, and the professor
won't be annoyed in either case.
Realistically, the professor won't ask me to identify the student.

These are my thoughts about the matter. I am open to advise. Especially, I would like to know the opinion of actual university professors, if possible.


texts: Distributing your own papers in your thesis

texts:
I published three papers during my PhD, I'm now writing my thesis.

I have written three chapters, each based around each paper, but re-written so as not to fall foul of self-plagiarism rules. However, I've still used ALL of the figures from the publication in the chapters.

My concern is not really with this aspect of my thesis, though please tell me if I've misunderstood.

Finally, in the appendix, as reference, I have included the PDF files of my published papers, exactly as they are from the journal website.

Am I allowed to do this?

If not, am I allowed to use my own copies of the paper (e.g. the versions submitted on the arXiv)?


texts: Is it sensible to do two PhD's simultaneously?

texts:
I have finished my master's degree in Physics (Radiation and Health Physics Option) with distinction, but I want a PhD in Medical Physics. My university does not offer that pathway and other universities are insisting I do a M.Phil. for a year before they will consider me for PhD candidacy I really do not have the energy and time to concentrate on the M.Phil. right now and I fear I might not make the desired grade.

I have an offer to do a Ph.D. in my area of specialization (Radiation and Health) and I need to make a decision on this. I am thinking of accepting both offers and in case I don't get the desired grade to move over to PhD in medical physics, so I can still have my PhD in Radiation and Health Physics and not lose both ways.


texts: How to justify research assistant's role in the grant application

texts:
How can we justify the role of Research Assistant in the grant application?
Everyone knows that faculty members are busy with teaching, admin tasks, writing grants etc. so they actually seek PhD and MS graduate students as assistants. But how to justify it in the grant application without mentioning that we will not be doing actual research, but supervising in fact.


texts: Am I capable of doing PhD based on my advisor's words?

texts:
I am average student completed my under-grad and grad studies successfully. I am doing PhD since 4.5 years.

I was a hard-working student. I was a self-motivated student always wanted to do PhD and stay in Academia. I was hoping somehow my work will help to world.
If I compare playing tennis to a PhD studies, I feel like my advisor is breaking my racket to motivate me and I cannot keep up with a broken racket, which is my will to move on.

These are the some stuff that my advisor told me multiple times. I cannot forget or over-write them:

"You disappointed and hurt me. I don't know what am I going to do with you."
// One year later, during a meeting over zoom, when I told him that these words offended me and I do not want to hurt you anymore, he just closed the zoom meeting to my face saying I am not your psychologist.

"You are like a turtle. You can't even graduate in 20-30 years."

"You are bad at time management and always lost in details."

"Your model is junk. I won't write my name on top of this model."

"Even high-school students won't make the mistakes you do. Should I keep going?" [Me]: "No, please don't."

He threw a book at me and told me that: "You should learned from it"

He keep showing his other students Ph.D. saying: "See how good they are writing, you should write like them."

In front of all the jury members he also mentioned:

"I am giving you F to motivate you. I trust you keep working."
"I never helped that much to any of my student in my life. I don't know what I can do more."
"I start to understand the way he thinks and explains his work after 4 years. He is very complex."

Everything boiled up when I get F from my progress on my PhD studies. All lead to depression and anxiety.
Overall, I am not blaming my advisor, instead I chose blame myself and think over the following questions:

Where did I do wrong? What did I do to deserve all this?
Why did I start PhD journey?
Did I lost most important years of my life for nothing?
If I have chosen a different advisor, would it be the same?

All these let me to realize that I actually not capable enough mentally and emotionally to be successful in PhD or even in any job from now on.
=> Should I conclude that I am not capable enough to do PhD with the words of my advisor? or Should I give myself another chance?
Note: If this is not a proper question to ask, I can delete right away.


texts: Advice for a PhD... who is aiming for industry

texts:
In recent years there has been much talk of difficulties in the academic job market, and of many PhDs transitioning out of academia into the private sector. From what I've observed, it seems that those PhDs that did get private jobs experienced pay and hours much better than what they would have gotten as academic post-docs. Of course, academic freedom, and opportunity to publish or teach are often not as good, but those are somewhat subjective factors.

However most PhD programs aren't really suited to this sort of thing. They are designed (sometimes explicitly) for producing future professors. There is emphasis on teaching, academic research (ie. stuff that you can publish and bring in the cites), writing grants (to agencies like the NSF), and all sorts of academic-y things. These skills don't really seem like they would sound very attractive to a private sector employer, who I assume have, contrary to academia, some regard for making money and less for things I've listed.

Of course there are two main things the PhD has that a company concerned with profit rather than publications would want:

Specialized domain knowledge
General reasoning and analytical skills

Everything else you could get from non-PhDs cheaper. These, luckily, are things that PhD is designed to teach anyhow. However, there are often many soft skills I see in job ads, which seem relevant, like:

Computer skills
Proficiency with programming languages
Experience with frameworks and libraries of commercial use (.NET, phone apps, web administration, ecommerce)
"Works well with others"
"Good communicator"
"Can assume leadership role"
"Can supervise team of junior workers on project"

These are things that, if you want to learn while doing a PhD, sometimes you need to go out of your way to do so. And even if you acquire a skill, how do you convince the employer that you actually have it, as opposed to just saying you do?

So suppose you were a PhD student, but your goal upon graduation was not to start at a postdoc and aim for a college professorship, but do get a job in the private sector. This can be an industrial R&D job very similar to your PhD research, or it can be a supervisory role in an area related to your expertise (eg. fish biologist works at fishery), or it can be unrelated except for using the same skills (eg. physicist working in finance). What would you do differently during your PhD from your faculty-bound peers?

Does it make sense to sort of "flavor" your PhD work with things relevant to the private sector, so you can go into your job search having developed these tangential skills more than the average PhD would? Or is it better to just focus on research, and hope that employers will appreciate your academic success, and see your potential if you applied yourself to their business instead?

Someone will inevitably ask for what field, let's say biomedical -> biotech, software development, finance or healthcare. However, I encourage you to answer in a general way, that would apply to many disciplines; I think such an answer would be more useful.


texts: Deferring start of PhD program because of self-doubts

texts:
This year I applied to several universities in the US, and got into a top program in my field. It was great news; I was given a very nice project to work on, and accepted the offer, along with excessive impostor syndrome.

Then I went to an internship to a nice university. I asked the grads there about their plans after PhD. Most of them did not have thoughts reaching that far, as if PhD was a default. This was interesting, considering the strength of the university, and made me wonder.

My motivation to go to graduate school was something along the lines "I want to work with strong people, I like working in the lab and this field seems nice". So, the self-doubt creeped in. I don't think I'm the worst candidate; I guess I am just scared of committing 6 years of my life, because with the job market I am not sure I want to be a professor and would rather work in industry.

My questions are:
1) Is it normal that I have self-doubts before even starting my PhD program?
2) Is it often for students to defer admission and take a year off to think the decision over? It's late, but it is better than going there half-hearted?


texts:
How do you deal with the constant flow negativity from an advisor? Examples:

How worthless I am, how I am the worst student he ever had. Absolutely good for nothing.
Whatever I am doing is meaningless, trivial, or pointless.
I never did/can-do anything correct.
I just don't have the potential, and there is just no scope for growth. Maybe in some other universe, I might have excelled, but not in this one.
The fact that I chose the wrong career; instead, I should do something more simple and enjoy life for a change.
I should just quit my program.
He won't embarrass himself by writing a letter for me in the future.

What do you do when you start to believe in all of his statements, and they start to become self-fulfilling prophecies. Especially how worthless I am...


texts: Are scientifically detached professors referred to as ‘clinical’?

texts:
I have come across this term fairly often, where full/associate/assistant professors are referred to by the term ‘clinical’. Given that their departments had nothing to do with medicine, I thought the term referred to the second meaning of clinical:

  scientifically detached; strictly objective

Is this interpretation correct? If yes, isn’t such a branding offensive?


texts: Why should footnotes be avoided in scientific publications (natural science)?

texts:
Here are some guidelines and rules regarding the use of footnotes for different journals in Earth Science and IT:

  Footnotes are used only for author affiliations and tables.  Incorporate all other footnoted information into text.

Source: http://publications.agu.org/author-resource-center/text-requirements/

  Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article. Many word processors build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Should this not be the case, indicate the position of footnotes in the text and present the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article.

Source: https://www.elsevier.com/journals/information-and-computation/0890-5401/guide-for-authors or https://www.elsevier.com/journals/journal-of-volcanology-and-geothermal-research/0377-0273/guide-for-authors

I am wondering what the reasoning is behind making people avoid using footnotes. Can I not, in some cases, create more readable text by adding some kind of tangential information in a footnote rather than incorporating it into the text?


texts: Reapplying to a previously accepted Ph.D. program, will this be considered rude?

texts:
I looked online and saw one question that was similar, but it seemed like this question was for undergraduate admissions. Another similar question here on academia.stackexchange addressed differing the Ph.D. admission to reapply elsewhere, but my understanding of deferral, based on discussion with faculty and graduate students, is that you are still committed to that school but are just taking a year off before you begin the program. Also, I have concerns with the possible issues highlighted by aeismail that may arise from deferring as an attempt to apply to other schools. In that respect, my question is a slightly different in that it involves actually rejecting a school's offer.

I am currently in a situation where it looks like I got rejected from my first choice Ph.D. program, but got interviews at some of my later choice programs.

I believe my chances for my first choice Ph.D. program will be higher in the next upcoming application cycle due to a number of additional research experience and presentations.

In other words, my situations is as follows;

I wish to go to Uni A, but got rejected.
I received interviews by Uni B & C,
I believe I will have a better shot at Uni A the next cycle,
I reject offers (assuming I receive them) from Uni B & C for this cycle,
I reapply to Uni A, B, & C the next cycle,
I will attend B or C if I get rejected from A once again,

Although reapplying to Uni A wouldn't be uncommon, would it be considered rude to reject offers from B & C and then reapply the next cycle? And how might one approach this so that it's not blatantly obvious that I rejected the offer because I wanted to go to Uni A and I am reapplying with the intention that they are, more or less, 'safety' options? I would imagine that I could mention that my current research interests do not line up and this could be a reason for rejecting the current cycle, but I was curious as to how others may perceive this.

*I would still be very happy to go to Uni B or C and work with their faculty, it's more so that I believe I would later regret not having reapplied to Uni A when my application will be much stronger.


texts: Pros and cons of having a Ph.D. advisor who is (possibly) younger than me

texts:
I applied for a Ph.D. position.

A new assistant professor who would join that university next year reached me and asked whether I wanted to work with him. I have been working for two years since my Master graduation. I think his direction suits my interest.

He began his Ph.D. right after undergraduate study so I guess he is probably at my age, 27 or 28, even younger. If we are both 40s, I might be ok with that.


texts: Why did journal subscription prices increase by 25% between 2013 and 2017? (vs. 5% for US inflation)

texts:
I read on https://journals.ebsco.com/products-services/explore-content :

Why did journal subscription prices increase by 25% between 2013 and 2017?

That's much more than the US inflation (~5.1%  between 2013 and 2017 (mirror)):

(source of the image: http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/  (mirror))


texts: Do language skills impair students' ability to assess their skill in other subjects?

texts:
I'm sure many of you have heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect which basically states that people with low skills in a given area tend to overestimate their skill level relative to the general population. My question is how this capacity to assess one's own skills may be affected by language skills.

I am a TA at a German university in a first-year engineering course and I have a few students whose native language is not German. The class is entirely in German and relies on technical vocabulary more than e.g. math or physics. So obviously these students will have a harder time in the class [citation needed], and I'm not concerned about their skill level per se (that issue is covered in another question), but about their ability to judge how well they are doing in that class compared to other students, and also compared to what we expect of them.

Answering with your own personal experience and advice is of course welcome, but pointers to research on the subject would be greatly appreciated. It might support our department in helping these students better in the future.

PS: Feel free to suggest another stackexchange site if you consider this question unfit for academia.sx


texts: Is it okay for a professor to leave the classroom only 5 min past the class start if nobody has shown up?

texts:
Last week, because of a subway delay due to bad weather I arrived 15 minutes late to class to find out my professor had left 10 minutes before because nobody else had arrived.

Was it okay for him to do that? Would it be rude to complain about this matter?

We are just 4 students between mid 20's to mid 30's, this is a grad school elective course with a single session of 3 hours every week, starting at 17:00 ending at 20:00.

I'm also a former TA and currently a lecturer of an undergrad Physics 101 course, so I'm aware of how it feels when even half of the class is missing.

Update version 2 Today I was the only one to attend (unsure about the reasons my classmates had, the weather was OK this time). And talked to the professor about the issue. He said this situation wasn't his problem. About the weather/commute issue he said this: "Of course I know that happens, I'm much older than you". Then decided there wasn't enough people, handed me the class notes saying we will skip theory again because "everyone is irresponsible" (exact words again) and left. I'm dumbfounded a second time.

Final update I decided to let it be for now. I'm not going to pick a fight alone like a crazy person (my classmates don't see a problem, neither with the professor's behaviour, nor theirs). If the situation takes a turn to the worse, I'll just withdraw for the course and hope someone else teaches it next year. Thanks for everyone's interest :) never expected so many comments!


texts: Are standard metrics of academic output skewed by the relative popularity of a field?

texts:
The number of citations seems to be a good unit of measurement for someone's success in a specific field, however, shouldn't the h-index also include the popularity of a given field? For example, I've seen papers in computer science being cited thousand of times while other papers relating astronomy only a couple-hundred times.

When taking into account the actual quality of the paper and the amount of work that was put into releasing the evidence, the astronomy paper would probably be measured higher (for example). However publications within less popular fields are cited less simply because they're not as popular as other fields.

If I choose a field that is not particularly popular, I risk at perhaps not achieving the same amount of success that I would if I had chosen a more popular field.

Are standard measures of academic output skewed by the relative popularity of the field?


texts: Changing my information in a published paper

texts: How can I change my position/title that was mistakenly written in a published paper?


texts: What are potential downsides of (universal) author IDs pushed for by publishers etc.?

texts:
In recent years, several organizations (publishers, arXiv, universities) started pushing for systems of a reliable author identification, gaining considerable traction with the recent launch of ORCID. This works by assigning IDs to persons. In some cases, the person itself can then connect his/her articles to the person ID. In other cases, publishers ask / plan to ask for the ID upon manuscript submission.

Examples:

ORCID (supported among others by Spinger, Elsevier, American Physical Society, American Chemical Society, IEEE, Institute of Physics)
ResearcherID by Thomson Reuters
Scopus Author ID

There are some obvious advantages of a precise and machine-readable author identification. These pros are strongly advocated by the big organizations, which are of course very interested. But what about the cons? Before all researchers become obliged to using such IDs, we should discuss the cons and potential problems.

What do you think and what are the biggest potential disadvantages for the authors? Do you know some nice article / blog / discussion about disadvantages?

Related texts:

http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2009/03/11/the-author-id-dilemma/
http://blogs.plos.org/mfenner/author-identifier-overview/


texts: Is it okay to incorporate a block of citations from a review paper into my own paper?

texts:
I'm currently writing a paper on a certain topic for which a review article was recently published. Of course, I want to contrast my new approach to existing techniques. For that purpose, I have identified the relevant prior work with the help of the above-mentioned review article.

However, in my current version, I simply reuse the whole block of citations from the review article with no change at all. I have consulted each reference individually and they do seem appropriate for citation.

Is taking a pre-existing block of citations and using it in my own manuscript considered plagiarism?


texts: When looking for a PhD advisor, will it matter if I send them an updated version of my masters thesis?

texts:
I am about to finish my masters degree, and I want to apply for a PhD in the near future. I know that when contacting a potential advisor, they will ask you to send your CV and your previous research. The issue is that, according to my current advisor, my masters thesis will have no issues on being approved and my grades are good. Due to the pandemic, though, I was not able to be in the country my university is located in; communication and feedback with my advisor was very complicated. In my opinion, my thesis could be improved in some ways, but now I am lacking the time to do so.
My question is:
When a potential advisor asks me for my masters thesis or my previous research, it is compulsory to send the document I submitted for graduation? Can I send an updated version of it (I know I will be able to improve it, because I will work on it at my job)? Is this wrong?


texts: Should a conference paper in a journal be considered a journal article?

texts:
I have recently been doing a revision in my CV. I organized my publications into "Peer-reviewed journal articles", "Peer-reviewed conference papers", "Other published papers" ...

My dilema is which section to choose for conference papers published in a journal (either regular or special issue). Which of these two criteria should be used for classification of publications: the paper origin or the publication type?

Assumed, I have chosen journal article section for some of my conference papers. Could omitting conference details be treated as misleading?


texts: Should I take threats from a former professor seriously?

texts:
Some Context:

A member of my MA thesis committee, for whom I was also a GA (graduate assistant), threatened me several times while I was still in my masters program (last year). For example, she threatened to fire me from my GA position with them-- which, in fact, she cannot do (only the department head can remove a GA from their position). When she realized she had no power to fire me, she threatened not to write me letters of rec for doctoral programs. She tried to pressure me into promoting her from reader to thesis chair on my thesis committee. I was very afraid of her at the time because she was my work supervisor, my professor (I was taking a class with her at the time), and a reader on my thesis committee.

I was afraid she would diminish my reputation in the department, give me a bad grade in her class, delay my graduation by holding up the thesis process, and not write me any letters of recommendation or worse, write me a bad letter of recommendation for a doctoral program. I did not stand up for myself or for others to whom she was abusive until I graduated last summer; I saw her retaliate against other students (primarily through grades and intradepartmental reputation) and I felt sure she could carry out some of her threats toward me. She bragged to me and other students that she successfully reduced the scholarly reputation of an academic at another institution whom she said was 'inauthentic.' Shortly before graduating, I did leave a record with the Ombuds of her treatment of me.

Now: I asked her to write a letter of rec for one of my PhD apps because I was afraid she'd be insulted if I didn't ask her for a single one (this is probably ridiculous, I know). I was accepted to that program and have decided to go there. However, this professor continues to be hostile toward me. In a recent email, she told me she had "just spoken to" the graduate adviser of the program I will attend in the fall, and implied that she speaks to this adviser regularly as if they are friends (somehow I think she's lying). Because of a pattern of behavior, I recognized that she still wants me to be afraid of her. I am loathe to admit that it's working, I think primarily out of ignorance of how academic/institutional relationships truly function (tempted to play the First Gen card here).

Question: Are such inter-institutional threats actionable, i.e. how likely is it that faculty at one institution can influence faculty at another institution in order to negatively affect the reputation of a student?

Please note: The question is not, "Is this professor a bad person?" or anything to that effect.

If this question is too individualized, I will take it down. I feel like I can't be the only one who has experienced/is experiencing a situation like this. I would appreciate generalizable advice (e.g. across disciplines, types of academic relationships), especially from academics who have gone through similar situations.


texts: How professional it is to ask for rebate in conference registration fees?

texts:
I got two papers accepted in a decent IEEE conference. My current organisation (an industrial R&D lab) says that the conference fees are way too high and they would consider approval of funds only if we get a rebate for publication.

I have two questions:

Is it normal across the globe to ask for rebate?
Even if I do so, would it be considered professional? (The conference already has a discounted price for the second paper since authors are common in both.)