texts: What do professors do with personal copies of old textbooks?

texts:
I've been teaching a few years now and the number of older editions of textbooks is beginning to pile up in my office. There is no policy at my university for disposal of old textbooks. These books were purchase with department funds and it troubles me to throw them away. They content is still relevant as the newer editions are not ground-breaking in material.

My questions are as follows...

Please share how you deal with older editions of textbooks?
Is there a policy at your institution (if so please share) or do you have a personal way of dealing with this problem (again please share)?


texts: How to ask for employment help or referral from someone you don't know?

texts:
I will use fake names for the sake of anonymity. I have recently completed my PhD and applied to a professor position at University ABC. It has been almost 3 months since my application and I sent out an email to the Chair of the department (who presumably is the person in charge of recruiting academic/faculty members) but did not receive any response. There is another senior faculty member at University ABC, Dr. M, whose research is similar to mine and whose work I have referenced in my thesis. Moreover, Dr. M also attended the same university as my academic supervisor but they have never formally met.

Dr. M may not be involved at all in the recruitment process. However, I would like to ask for Dr. M's help in case he is able to give my application a push.

I am not sure how to write an email to Dr. M to ask for his help in such a scenario since there is no reason for me to believe that he is involved in the recruitment process. Nevertheless, I do want this job and I wan to do everything I can to make sure my application gets properly considered. How can I go about this task?


texts: Do Nature journals wrongly claim copyright in their published pdfs?

texts:
I just noticed this and I'm slightly confused by a small detail.

The Nature Publishing Group states in its Publishing Licences page that the copyright on articles remains with the author:

  NPG does not require authors of original (primary) research papers to assign copyright of their published contributions. Authors grant NPG an exclusive licence to publish, in return for which they can reuse their papers in their future printed work without first requiring permission from the publisher of the journal.

Moreover, this is supported by the Licence to Publish agreement, which explicitly states that

  [...] the Authors grant to NPG [...], subject to clause 2 below, the
  exclusive licence (a) to publish, reproduce, distribute, display and store the Contribution in all forms [...].

and

  Ownership of copyright remains with the Authors, and provided that, when reproducing the Contribution or extracts from it, the Authors acknowledge first and reference publication in the Journal, the Authors retain the following nonexclusive rights: [...].

However, the published articles have a clear Macmillan copyright marker. Taking this paper as an example:

Is NPG wrongly asserting copyright to the entire article? It is my understanding that they could still be claiming copyright over the copy-editing and formatting, but since they have explicitly opted for a licence to publish instead of a copyright transfer, it seems to me that they should be crediting the authors with the copyright, e.g. along the lines of

  © 2015 Qian Wang, Edward T. F. Rogers, Behrad Gholipour, Chih-Ming Wang, Guanghui Yuan, Jinghua Teng and Nikolay I. Zheludev. All rights reserved.

for the above-quoted example, with whatever legalese they felt necessary to indicate that they own the exclusive publishing licence.

Is there some interesting detail about copyrights that I'm missing here? Or is this simply a fudge?

I understand that this is not a big question and that it is on the edges of this site's purview, but I still think it is interesting. If the community decides that this is too much on the legal-question-answerable-only-by-a-lawyer, would migration to Law Stack Exchange be appropriate?


texts: What prevents reviewers from providing biased and very negative reviews?

texts:
One of the fundamental features of science, maybe even the most important, is that publication of scientific results is peer-reviewed.

I want to understand why peer review is effective in the scientific community, because I want to apply principles of peer review to a different domain.

As I understand it, a researcher is reviewing work of a competitor who is producing scientific results in exchange for grant funds and reputation, usually same as the reviewing researcher does. Of course, this competition may not be very direct, but the reviewer is in an overlapping area of research. In addition, there is some natural bias of every human being to groom their own ego. Based on this, I expect most reviews to be very negative. However, it seems that biased and extremely negative reviews are rare for decent submissions.

What stops reviewers from providing biased negative reviews?


texts: How to get a second Bachelor's degree in an unrelated field?

texts:
I was studying journalism in my country, but I realised it's not for me at all. I kind of had to apply there because there aren't really any good schools in things I was interested in. I was thinking of applying to a Physics school in the USA or UK, but all the universities I looked up say I won't be eligible because I already hold a Bachelor's degree, so what do I do? Has anyone of you done that before? Which schools allow this, since top schools won't?

And please, don't suggest I go and get a master's in journalism instead, that is not happening.
And yes, I can do physics and am really good at maths so none of that "are you sure you want it, physics is hard..."
No, money is not an issue for me if I won't be eligible for any type of scholarship.


texts: Who do I email about a question on a paper?

texts:
I want to ask the authors of a paper if they have thoughts on an application of their work. I'm not sure who to email.

The first author is a grad student, who is supervised by the last author - however, the authors are in alphabetical order so I'm not sure if there is any meaning to the ordering. The paper is in economics, which traditionally goes alphabetically, I believe.

Should I email all the authors in one bulk message? Just the professors? Choose one of the authors at random and email them?


texts:
I create a software in order to solve a step of an specific problem. The results obtained (aided by the software) are going to be published in some journal. The focus of the publication is far away from that step.

The software may be very useful for other people because that step is involved in many common problems. It is not a huge code, but neither me or my collaborators known about other similar software for the matter. We know many researchers that solve it manually in long time.

I want to make the software available online. I wish to do it in some way that it can be cited (and the cites counted).

I can include the code in the supporting information, but I think that it has some downsides:

Hard to find compared to a site like github.
Impossible to polish and improve it.

If I don't attach it to a paper, then I don't know how it can be cited.

In short I want to: Make the code widely avaliable in some way that let me collect cites, and make me free to modify/improove the code after publication.

Is there any way? Which are my best options?


texts:
Long story short, I'm a struggling first year graduate student. I considered myself very lucky when I found out that I was accepted into one of the best programs in my field, but didn't realize at the time how steep the learning curve would be to work alongside the best. I work in a wet lab, which I joined three months ago. However, given that I had very little research experience in undergrad, I've had a rough start. I don't think I fully realized the level of critical thinking skills that would be expected of me, and still depended on other people to tell me what to do and what to work on. A lot of science conversations I've had with people in the lab have also been completely over my head. Like I should be the one developing novel knowledge, yet sometimes I can't even understand someone else when they describe something to me (not just older grad students either, a lot of the undergrads also know more than me)... As a result, people in the lab have started treating me like I'm stupid or inferior, and my PI is slowly decreasing my level of responsibility.

I've spent the past few months in complete depression and anxiety, which is making the problem even worse. I would really like to change this situation, and have been working really hard on my project, but I'm not sure whether it's already too late to change the impression of my labmates and PI. So I guess my questions are as follows:

Have you ever had/known any grad students who started slow, but have reversed bad first impressions? How much harder did they have to work to achieve the same level of respect?
What do you think of students that on average take longer to learn the same technique or concept? Should such student still stay in research given the amount of competition that now exists in academia, or is it realistically a waste of their time?
How would you recommend I go about making changes. Work harder and push out more experimental results? Dig into and understand literature broadly? How should I go about changing people's impressions of me?
For any PIs out there, what do you think of your students that are not meeting your expectations? Do you wish you never took them on as a student, or are you still rooting for them to make changes?


texts: Am I obliged to answer student queries that can readily be answered by reading the syllabus?

texts:
I maintain an email group for my class where the reading list and other course materials are made available to the students. Despite sharing all relevant information with them, I still have students asking me exact page numbers and sections from the book, and whether 'Topic X or Y will be on the exam'. I am fed up! Am I obliged to entertain these queries? They usually ask these queries on email or typically on sms.

This is a second-year undergraduate class (about 50 students) majoring in economics. I teach them a statistics course. I've included a link to the syllabus (page 2 of linked document).

Link to syllabus


texts: Cite submitted paper in my master's thesis

texts:
Some time ago, I and another person submitted a paper to a conference. It has not yet been accepted. In my master's I want to express that the results of my algorithm (included in my thesis) have been compared to those of another algorithm in the submitted paper. In other words the derivation and results of my algorithm are included both in the thesis and the paper.
How do I cite the paper?
I know this question has been asked many times but I were not able to find previous answers entirely reflecting my situation. Most importantly, the review process of the conference is double-blind and I am afraid that by specifying the name of the conference in my master's thesis, I am jeopardizing the anonymity.
But if I cannot mention to which conference it is submitted, very little of the actual bibtex entry remains. I suspect that because of this it best to simply cite it as @unpublished with a note specifying the status.
I hope someone can confirm this for me or provide a better alternative. I simply do not want to make a fool of myself.
Update:
I eventually got around to speaking to my supervisor and we agreed that a citation of the form

Author A, Author B (Me), ... Title Of Paper, Submitted, 2020

was appropriate. I reference this citation in the overview of my thesis and mention that parts of my work have been submitted to an international conference. As Buffy points out, some form of citation is absolutely required to avoid self-plagiarism. By citing myself I clearly indicate that I revisit material that is also submitted in a paper.
I included the title of the submitted paper in the citation. Necessarily this puts anonymity at risk. The theses submitted to my university will be published. As its review process is shorter, we expect the thesis to be available before the paper is accepted. Therefore it is theoretically possible that the reviewers could find my thesis and cross-reference the title of the paper I cite to the paper submitted to the conference. However, we concluded that this is quite an unrealistic scenario.
Note that the name of the conference submitted to is left out. This is done primarily as the actual conference is, for me, unimportant (until it is potentially accepted). What matters is that I have contributed material to a paper, which reflects well on my thesis.
If you are more profiled than I, perhaps you must take further steps to anonymize the citation such that it cannot be cross-referenced to the paper. If so I would suggest you confer with your supervisor.


texts: What systems are most effective for monitoring student attendance?

texts:
I work in the Computing and Mathematics School at my university (UK). This year the School has adopted a fairly aggressive policy regarding student attendance. If a student has a poor – or zero – attendance rate, the student is contacted and a dialogue opened. This has many benefits including identifying those students who have possible  undiscovered or undeclared learning difficulties.

If a student’s attendance rate remains poor following a first intervention, a process of issuing formal warnings commences, culminating with the withdrawal of the student if the student does not start to engage with their course.

Attendance is presently monitored at all laboratory and tutorial sessions. Attendance is not presently monitored for lectures.

Our current system comprises a series of shared Google spreadsheets which contains the details of all students for all classes. Staff members enter attendance manually into the spreadsheet for their class.

The difficulty with this system is that there is presently no automatic link between the existing official university student record database and the attendance register spreadsheets. This means if students change groups, enrol late, withdraw, change course or units, all this information must be dealt with in a robust manner. Currently, such changes are implemented manually. This means errors are likely to be introduced into the attendance register.

I notice that there are a number of commercial attendance monitoring solutions available which are based on hardware, e.g. Telepen. I would be interested in anyone’s experience with such systems, however I don’t forsee these to be ultimately workable in my case owing to the large cost.

I am interested in software solutions. If your institution monitors student attendance, do you use any specialist software? If so, what do you use?

Another option – a preferable one – is to work within the existing university data systems.
All the necessary information regarding student details and activities is available. The problem arises when we try to ensure our ad hoc attendance register contains up to date student information. Ideally we’d use our Virtual Learning Environment to enter attendance data. Our VLE is Moodle. Are there any Moodle users out there who use Moodle to record attendance?


texts: Asking my prof. whether he is affected by the hurricane in Texas,

texts:
I and our security guards have not heard from nor seen a prof. of mine who I do research for.  We do know that he is from Texas, but we are unsure of his exact hometown.

How can I email to ask about his and his family's safety without overstepping any boundaries?


texts: What to do with negative research outcomes (results) of PhD research experiment?

texts:
It is an expectation that the PhD would make an original contribution and/or advance knowledge  in a given field. I understand this is a universal assumption for this level of study across all universities.

One of my friend's research experiment has not produced a single positive result. This was a science experiment, so it is easy to quantify whether the result is positive or negative.

[It is a bit different in the social sciences, where the outcome (result) would be that either the null hypothesis is supported or rejected (with some analysis on the effect size to make the analysis meaningful in a given context). In other words, the data analysis either supports or does not support the proposition that is being investigated.]

My question is: What should a student do if none of the research outcomes or results are positive?

Simply writing that nothing new was found does not add or advance knowledge other than to just confirm the status quo (which I guess is a form of contribution, but there has to be more than this at this level of research!).


texts: How to cite a thesis/paper when it's not available online?

texts: In a published research paper, the author has cited a thesis/paper, which is not available online. The question is, when I'm writing my paper and I need to cite the corresponding unavailable paper/thesis, what should I do? Should I cite the original material even though I haven't read it? Or the paper that cited  the unavailable material, say in its literature review section?


texts: Can affiliated university claim ownership of ideas presented in your paper?

texts:
I'm a part time lecturer in a university and conducted a research independently and I'm about to publish the result. I'm concerned about assigning the affiliation to the university. I'm afraid that I give them the power to limit my full rights over the paper. It's a paper with innovative ideas and I will continue to work on the ideas presented in this paper.
I want to know exactly what the affiliated university can claim for if they want to? Can they claim for ideas in the paper as intellectual property of university?


texts: Can you become faculty at your PhD granting institution?

texts: Is it true that if you get PhD from an institution, then it becomes very hard to become a tenure track faculty position at the same institution?


texts: Will reviewers see acknowledgements in double blind peer review?

texts:
In the acknowledgements section of a paper, I am thanking some well known people in the field I am working in, for helping me revise the paper.

Just out of curiosity: Do most conferences blank out the acknowledgements section? I feel like these people will add bias to the reviewers decision.


texts: What are the benefits for claiming authorship on the arXiv?

texts:
When you post an article on the arXiv, it gives the poster a link for co-authors to claim authorship of the paper. I have claimed authorship for most of my articles but some in the beginning of my career were posted by senior collaborators and I have not yet claimed authorship. My name is on the paper, but not in the electronic sense in arXiv's servers. There is also a solo-author paper that arXiv that I submitted but arXiv does not have me registered as the author.

Are there any reasons to try to fix this? What are the benefits to having a complete authorship record on arXiv's servers?


texts: In my second year of a three year PhD program and I now hate research. What career can I do?

texts: I have just started my second year in a Health Education and Promotion PhD program. It is a three year program and I will be done with classes after this year. Next year is my dissertation year. Currently I do research and teach.  I started doing research as a senior in my undergrad program and continued doing research while getting my MS in Health Education.  I have a lot of publications and research experience but do not see myself doing research in the future. For the last year I began to realize that I hate research.  I LOVE teaching online and some small classes but I realize that it is unlikely I will get a great career teaching online. I hate to drop out now since I do enjoy learning, taking the classes, and I only have a year and a half left until I graduate. My question is, what can I do with a Health Education PhD that is not research related besides being a professor? Could I use this degree in another field than health education or health promotion? My advisor keeps pushing research but I know I do not want to do that. Thank you!


texts: What makes for a "strong" LoR for graduate application?

texts:
I searched this site and it seems that some individual cases were addressed, but is there any general guideline? For example, between a renowned professor who may barely fill up one page, and another professor freshly hired from a postgrad who liked my course project and has more good things to say about me, whose LoR will be evaluated more highly by the committee? What (reputation, length, relevance of area, writing skills, etc) matters more for an LoR?

Thanks!


texts: My advisor used my research idea and wrote a paper with another student, what should I do?

texts:
I had an idea of using a specific type of data in a specific research area (sorry, I realize this sounds vague). No one has used this type of data in this area before. I shared the idea with my advisor. Recently I noticed the advisor and another student published a paper based on my idea. I think it is not fair. What do I do?

Edit: Thank you all for the comments and answers.
To clarify a couple of things: it wasn't just a fleeting conversation or group brainstorming. I came up with the idea myself, did initial work, and shared it with the advisor. I would expect to be at least told they wanted to work on this even if they were to conduct an independent analysis. I do not think the time frame and other factors would allow forgetting where the idea came from. The group works on several topics and my idea was more like a side line project. There is a lot of publications coming from these main topics, so it's not like this specific paper would be crucial for future funding.
I think the worst in the whole situation is that now I distrust my advisor.


texts: Is it appropriate to ask a job candidate if we can record their interview?

texts:
I am part of a faculty search committee. One round of our process is Skype interviews of top candidates. Not all of our committee will be able to attend each interview (even remotely).

Would it be appropriate to ask candidates if we can record their Skype interview to share among the committee? My concern is that candidates might not feel free to say no if they're uncomfortable being recorded.

In case it matters, this is in the United States.


texts: Masters in mathematics after bachelors in mechanical engineering

texts:
I am in a bit of dilemma regarding my career aspirations.
I am a mechanical engineering graduate from one of the top 5 IITs in India.
I have a average CGPA of 8.87/10 (top 20 in my class).
I have taken close to six mathematical courses like: Maths1(grade A), Maths2(grade B), Transform Calculus(Excellent grade), Partial Differential Equations( Excellent grade), Probability and statistics( grade A), Control systems( Excellent grade).
Currently I am working as a quantitative analyst for credit risk team at an investment bank, the job here has drawn me closer to the field of mathematics and statistics and through a lot of self-study, I have decided to pursue a masters course in statistics/applied mathematics and possibly use that masters degree for phd applications later.
I am in my mid-twenties currently.
I have self studied the entire statistical Inference book from Casella and Berger to supplement my knowledge/fill in the gaps.
However the problem lies in the application part for the masters program as they require an undergraduate degree from mathematics and letters of recommendation, while I can arrange for letters of recommendation from my manager here at workplace and a few professors whom I did my bachelors project with/took their courses, however I am not sure how relevant they will be.
I understand that because I don’t have a undergraduate in mathematics, even if I get admissions, they won’t be into any top coveted programs but I am willing to put in the extra effort/fill up the gaps using my experience in that college for graduate school admissions later on.
Does this sound like a plausible plan or am I working for a lost cause?
Do I stand a chance with my profile for admissions into decent masters courses in mathematics in US?
Can attending a decent mathematics masters program work as a stepping stone into some good graduate programs?
Any insights would be helpful.
Thanks in advance.


texts:
I am about to defend my PhD thesis in computer science and so far I have being asked to subreview 5 or 6 papers of different conferences.
At the beginning, it was exiting because it was a new experience in my career. However, at this moment I am a little bit snowed under work and I have being assigned with 2 subreviews from the same conference.

I do not want to turn down the opportunity of expanding my knowledge and experience, nevertheless, this situation has brought to me serious doubts about the usefulness of subreviewing.

Apart from the acquisition of knowledge and experience,

Which are (or could be in a future) the benefits of subreviewing?
Is there a moment in your career that it is not worth it anymore?

Thank you.


texts: Realized a co-author inserted plagiarism into our paper 8 years ago - what to do now?

texts:
Recently, after the acceptance of a paper, the journal said some sentences were exactly copied in my manuscript. I was shocked as I was the first author. Later, we found that during the preparation of the revised manuscript, one of the co-authors exactly copied two sentences from a reference. This brought fear in my mind if I had ever been a co-author in an unintentionally plagiarized paper. I got access to the Turnitin from a friend at a different institute and checked all my previous papers.

I realized that 8-10 years ago, a visiting student in my lab had significant portions of the published papers plagiarized. The data and analysis were correctly done in my supervision, but significant parts of introduction, methods and some places discussion were plagiarized. I had read and edited the drafts of the papers, but I didn't realize that he had copied text from other papers. Generally, most sources are cited. The student already earned a PhD based on the work.

At that time, no-one in our country had access to the plagiarism detection software from institutions.

What should I do now?


texts:
I have been trying for a few weeks now to obtain a published thesis (this one, if you're wondering), but have had no luck in doing so.

There currently exists only one copy of this thesis, at the Lewis Library of Princeton. It has not been digitized. I have contacted the library to enquire about obtaining it, but not being currently affiliated with any university, the best they could offer me was to ask local libraries about inter-library loan programs. I have done so, and discovered that people were amazed that inter-library loans were still a thing, and after ferreting out the person in charge of it, discovered that they would not even consider an ILL from the US (I am in France).

Are there any other process I can try to obtain a copy of that thesis?


texts: Are appeals of termination from PhD programs common and are there any unambiguously successful or unsuccessful approaches to fighting a termination?

texts:
I'm currently in the process of appealing a termination from my PhD program and although there are many facts concerning my case that I feel are relevant and important, I'm not sure how relevant they are in the consideration of my appeal.

My question is: how do I present my appeal in a way that ensures I have the best chance of success?

This may seem subjective, but there may be some objectively unsuccessful approaches to appealing such a decision. Are there any objectively successful ones?

The main thrust of my department's decision to terminate my candidacy is that I lack basic competency in topics related to my research. The issue is that the way my competency was evaluated was not in line with university and department guidelines (generally we are evaluated based on reports and formal meetings), I was evaluated based on my response to an email requesting more information from me about my research. In the grand scheme of things, this is a small part of the processes leading up to my termination, but it's what initiated the process. Would it be reasonable to appeal such a decision?

It is true that I don't have competency in the topics I was evaluated on, but these were part of one project I was working on and not related to the main thrust of my research, so I'm afraid I'm almost like a "fish" that was evaluated on its "climbing" ability (if that makes sense). I am confident I can "swim" quite well (meaning, I have other research merit as a PhD student), but there is no way I could "climb" in the time I was given.

It's simply nerve-racking and difficult consider my own assessment of myself over the assessment of experienced professors that seem to be making objective decisions about research ability, so I'm not sure whether my concerns are valid or not.

FYI - this is in Canada.


texts: Is it correct to get a scholarship to do your final degree work?

texts:
I applied for a public call for applications in which scholarships are awarded for the final year of my studies. The purpose of the fellowship is to promote the health sciences in other university studies.

Specifically, my studies are computer science and the project is to develop a web application to visualize medical images.

I have also discovered that the process of researching and learning new concepts motivates me. However, the aspect of having the responsibility of programming the application frustrates me, fills me with anxiety and causes discomfort, since I am actually a student who is finishing my degree studies, and it is the first time that I am doing an application for real use.

In short, I like the subject of using medical images, I hate programming the application because I get frustrated quickly, because I encounter difficulties with mathematical concepts, graphics or web programming that I have not been taught during my studies. Still, I do love the purpose for which the application is intended: to help the students and the veterinary teacher.

Considering I've already been paid my scholarship, is it correct that I've been given it?

EDIT:

There is a condition which states that tha maximum development time is a year since the scholarship's resolution which was on 10th november 2017.

Is it correct that they pay it before the app has been developed?


texts:
I have some elaborate drawings that need some space.  I think putting them "inline" would  break the flow of the (mathematics) paper.

Questions:

Where exactly should they go?  Just before the References? Do I have to make a section header for them, like Figures or Appendix?
Some of my figures will remain inline.  Do I number the figures in order of appearance, or in the order they are referenced?

Thanks!


texts: Properly cite a document from the WHO assembly

texts:
I want to cite a document from this years WHO World Health Assembly. The document in question can be found by clicking on "Main Documents" on their page and then selecting the document with the title A71/21 (Improving access to assistive technology).

I like to use IEEE referencing, so I would do it like this:

World Health Organization (WHO). 2018.
Improving access to assistive technology (A71/21).
Seventy-first World Health Assembly, World Health Organization, Geneva.
Available: http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA71/A71_21-en.pdf. [Accessed: 03-Dec-2018]

Is this acceptable?

Thanks!


texts: Would participating in student politics as a PhD student without an advisor create a bad impression?

texts:
When I had joined the program last year, I was assigned an advisor who was the one I'd wanted to work with. However, due to things not working out (because she thinks I lack the background), I have had to start looking for a new one, and that's what I was working on all summer. I'm still in the process of finding someone by working on small projects with some faculty (in order to show them I can do the kind of research they do). This kind of puts me a bit behind my cohort. In my department, most PhD students have an advisor within two quarters. While a lot of other students I spoke with told me that it is perfectly normal to be finding an advisor a bit later than year 1, I'm very much embarrassed about being at this stage.

So anyway, my department's academic advisor just sent out an email saying she needed someone to take up the role of President of the grad student organization of the department, and I really want to go for it. In the past, I've enjoyed working with people and organizing stuff; I really enjoy talking to people and putting forward people's problems and finding solutions to them, especially the seemingly small ones that actually do make a difference.

My question is, would faculty members consider it strange on my part if I ended up as President when I don't even have an advisor and a research project going for me? I mean, would it look like I don't have my priorities set straight? I wouldn't want to do it if there's even the slightest chance of it creating a bad impression.


texts: Is it possible to be paid by a company for research and also use this research towards a Ph.D.?

texts:
The question in this link makes the assumption that the work you do at a private company and the work you do at a university for a Ph.D. do not intersect (or have very little in common), thus the person asks if "it is too much work or stress" to do both.  This question (and its answer) got me to think of another related question.

My Question: I'm wondering if the research you do for a private company can be used towards a Ph.D.? For example, suppose I work for a private company X and I have been accepted into the Ph.D. program at university Y.

Is it possible to be paid by company X for your research work, but at the same time use that research work to publish a paper along with your advisor at university Y?

I think I already know the answer to the question: It's possibly only if your advisor at university Y and your supervisor at company X have a strong relationship of many years and trust each other.

But I'm wondering if there are other answers?

Some background information about me: I have 10+ years of software engineering experience. I have a two B.S. degrees (Computer Engineering and Mathematics), one M.S. degree (Software Engineering), and a 2nd M.S. on the way in 2020 (Electrical Engineering).  My plan is indeed to pursue a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 2020.


texts: Do I need to check references of the paper with cross checking softwares?

texts:
I've finished writing a paper with 2 co-authors. As everyone participated in the writing, I thought there might be some ( maybe unexpected) plagiarism in the paper. So I checked the paper with Cross check software, for some reasons I couldn't supply all of the paper to the cross check program at the same time.
Therefore, I divided the paper in 4 parts in which, each part has almost 2,000 words.
The plagiarism level found by the program for part 1,2,3 and 4 are 12%,20%,1%,16%.
So my questions are:
1) what is the overall plagiarism level of the paper? In other words, should get the average of these 4 parts or get their summation them?  (assuming that each parts has 2000 words.)
2) lets assume the last part only contains the references (16% plagiarism level detected). Do journals take the plagiarism level of the references into account as well?
3) what are the thresholds of the most popular journals? (IEEE,Elsevier,John wily, Taylor & Francis)


texts: Is this level of publication politics normal in academia?

texts:
I'm currently finishing up a master's thesis in computer science/applied mathematics and have for the last few years been sure of my goals: to pursue a PhD.

The decision to do a PhD or not should largely be a function of your research potential. There's a lot of questions of the "am I good enough for a PhD" sort, but my concerns are of the opposite flavor. I'm fairly convinced that I would make an able researcher, based on discussions with several members of faculty and my output record thus far.

Lately, I've gotten a taste of academia's backside. There's the general record padding done by a fraction of faculty: publishing/coauthoring stuff they KNOW have no novel content, blatant reciprocal out-of-context citations and stuff like that. This strategizing almost seems to spill over into the problem selection process as well - a good problem is one that has potential for publication quantity first and foremost.

Not all professors do it, so I guess I could live with it. What's worse is the attitude from what is supposed to be peers. PhD students who I've proposed ideas to pitching them as their own to their supervisors. Others acting threatened and stand-offish, leading to awkward social situations. There's much less free exchange of ideas and much more politics than I thought.

It seems like such a cynical culture at times. Most of the professors are great, but I don't know if I'd want to enter academia if this is a typical situation between peers. So my question is: is this really typical? Am I being unreasonable in expecting less politics between peers? Is it possible to work in this sort of atmosphere without becoming part of it?


texts: Is listener's fees in a conference justified?

texts:
In a conference, where I am an author, I noticed that there is a substantial fees for registering as a listener for the conference.(10-30% less than the fees for professionals, students etc  but it is still on higher side).

Is this justified given that as an author I would like my work to be presented in front of as many people as possible and receive comments for the same. Is this common practice in conferences across Computer Science or any other field ?


texts: Usefulness of prior industry experience before entering grad school?

texts:
I'm wondering what impact does prior industry experience (by which I mean 2+ years in a non-trivial functional role in any established organization) lend to the profile of someone who is entering grad school for a Ph.D. (in my case, its Computer Science, but I expect the question to be applicable to other areas as well) ?

Do admission committees look upon it as a bonus point, seeing that the applicant has managed real-world responsibilities successfully in the past, thereby improving the chances of acquiring funding (in terms of TA/RA) ?
More importantly, does it help the candidate during (and post Ph.D), when he is looking for research internships/post-docs ?

In both cases, assuming the position the applicant held is in a completely different area from his/her research, what other factors become important in the both the above cases? Is it the difficulty of projects the candidate undertook (which, frankly, very few people outside the organization are equipped to judge), or the level of success (promotions, accolades acquired during the stint in industry) that matter, or are there other parameters as well ?

Also, in case it is deemed that such a profile offer limited/no advantage to the grad student, it would be nice to know why that may be the case - after all, most (if not all!) organizations are run for profit, and they would tend to have very little use for someone who is not productive or capable of learning.


texts: What are strategies for minimizing student questions during exams?

texts:
Context: I am an assistant professor of mathematics at a small liberal arts college in the US.

I generally find student questions during tests and quizzes to be somewhat annoying.  I disliked them when I was a student, and they're even worse as an instructor.

To elaborate on my dislike:

As a student I found such questioning very distracting.  I'd be in the midst of trying to solve a difficult problem when suddenly people around me are talking in hushed voices about a problem I had already done.  As one can imagine, it was challenging to pull my attention back to what I was doing.

As an instructor, I want to do my best to provide a good test environment, so I would like to minimize questions that I see mostly as a distraction.  In addition, most courses contain a student or two who I don't entirely trust, so I like to be able to watch the students during the exam to ensure test security, and answering questions can hinder that.  I also don't want students getting up during a test to ask questions, for obvious security-related reasons.  (This problem is easily solved by telling them to raise their hand.)

Most questions fall into the following categories:

Legitimate questions aiming to clarify vague instructions or a typo.
Questions fishing for a hint.
Questions seeking support of a solution method.
Questions asking for confirmation about answer format.

Type 1 questions are not a problem. Type 2 and 3 questions are foolish, because I hardly ever tell students anything remotely useful. Type 4 questions are irritating, because my questions specifically say what format to use (i.e. "show two decimal places," "you do not need to simplify," etc.).

What are some strategies for eliminating questions of type 2, 3, and 4 while not discouraging type 1 questions?

Of course, I can just straight-up tell them that they're not to ask questions unless they believe them to be very legitimate, but I'd like to use a less "adversarial" approach, if possible.


texts: Is it ethical to apply to be a conference volunteer (with a registration fee waiver) if I have a fellowship?

texts:
I am a US graduate student, and recently I have had the great honor of being awarded a large fellowship that provides a sizable monthly stipend for tuition, living expenses, and conference travel.

I plan to travel to a couple of conferences in Europe this summer where I have accepted/pending submissions. However, there also happens to be a pair of nearby conferences a few days prior. These conferences are not as essential to my interests as my planned travel, but still extremely relevant, and if given the opportunity I would like to attend them despite the fact that I will not be presenting a paper.

But conferences are expensive. It is a huge stretch to afford all of these conferences, even with my stipend (which will begin in June, so I won't have had the time to save up). I would like to apply for the student volunteer positions at these conferences, which would reduce registration fees partially or completely if I were selected.

However, I feel anxious that I may be taking away the opportunity from a student who really cannot afford to go. Especially since, as I mentioned, I can stretch myself super thin to make it without the volunteer waiver(s).

On the other hand, though, I suppose it could be argued that I "earned" this financial freedom by earning the fellowship.

Is it ethical to volunteer at a conference where the registration fee would be waived, if I have a fellowship and wish to attend the conference despite the lack of any obligation to do so?


texts: Can I request the code behind a research paper from the author?

texts:
I am in the field of computer science. It is often the case when I am reading a paper I start to wonder, "Wow stunning results, however, I would like to prove that." or "How exactly did he get these amazing results? He/she just wrote a rough overview of the real methodology used in this paper.". As you can see, a lot of times the small things have a huge impact on the overall performance of the underlying methodology. Often they are not part of the paper or not revealed at all.

My idea would be to contact the paper writer, to ask for his research programs to recreate them and understand them. Can/should I do that?

I personally think that there are probably not a lot of researchers, who would let somebody else "look at their cards". What's your experience with that?


texts:
Why are some academic research datasets not available to people who only have freely available email addresses?

For example,  ImageNet is not available to people only have freely available email addresses:


texts: Supervisor wants me to withdraw from program

texts:
I have had continuing problems with my supervisor in that

I used data from a publication but didn't cite it properly (this was an honest mistake and during discussions, I plainly said that I received the data from elsewhere) leading him to accuse me of academic dishonesty.
I had some publications in journals not of a good standard and he started accusing me of lying and having fake publications.
I did a lab presentation for which I was not prepared enough and he called me lazy and incompetent.
I got delayed in providing him with some research material and he plainly stated that he does not want to supervise me anymore.

I am planning to talk to the chair of the dept about my issues but are these sufficient grounds for the chair to recommend that I be withdrawn from the department?


texts: How should one interpret a rejection on the grounds that a paper "has no added value to the existing state of the art"?

texts:
I've got a rejection for my paper that was submitted to a high impact journal;
after waiting 6 weeks instead of 4 normally it was rejected with only one referee comment 4 lines:

  This study seems to be well done and the results are properly and concisely described. But, the paper is also nothing more than that...It is just the determination of some basic  properties and a comparison of the calculated and measured ones. As such, the paper presents no new insights, new methodologies, or whatsoever... Hence, it must be concluded that the current study applies current measurement protocols in a correct way, but has no added value to the existing state of the art. Therefore, although I have hardly any small remarks on the paper, it does not meet the standards of the journal.

How should one react to such a review? Submit to another journal? The paper is about new material, so I don't agree the referee about the fact it has no added value to the existing state of art!!!!


texts: Are colored in-text citations against APA6?

texts:
For my thesis I am required to follow the APA citation and reference style. I personally quite like having colored citations (typically blue; some journals do this) because they allow the reader to identify citations more easily and highlight the fact that they are linked to the reference list (clickable).

To give an example:

Is this against APA rules? I have not been able to find any information on this online at all. Any help would be greatly appreciated!


texts: Where do you place the link to open data in a manuscript?

texts:
Assume you are writing a manuscript and you have uploaded your raw data to a relevant hosting site (e.g., The Dataverse Network, FigShare, etc.). Where in the manuscript should you indicate a link to this?

This question was posted on twitter and one suggestion was to include a link in the author notes and the results.


texts: How to list an academic award received multiple times on CV

texts:
I was distinguished as 'Best Freshman' when I started university as a freshman. If, as I did, I managed to display an exceptional academic performance, I was re-awarded this distinction (which actually doubled as a scholarship). I am now preparing my CV to apply for Master's degrees. How should I list this award in my CV? I feel saying,

  Awarded 'Best Freshman' distinction in 2016, 2017 and 2018

for example, might convey the wrong idea, as I was only a freshman that first year.

Any suggestions? Thank you!


texts: Preserving ownership of authorship in the period after leaving a position and before journal submission

texts:
Background:
I am currently working on a paper as a first author with 3 other members.
My tenure with the research institute ends on the end of this month and I have no intention to continue any working relationship due to the very complex political environment and "back-scratching" among upper management in this research institute I am in, plus my observations of other ethical issues.

However, I intend to submit this paper to a journal after the end of my tenure. This journal has an associated conference that has deadline submission on the 15th July 2018. For this particular conference, an acceptances of a paper for this conference would enable a direct proceeding to its associated journal.
I have a valid concern aimed at the senior research fellow (No PhD), whom I report to and who is also the last author of this paper, due to strong corroborated anecdotes (credit stealing included) from multiple employees. As far as facts is concerned, he comes from industry after 20 years, without a PhD, and sorely lacks technical skills in my observation.
This further cements my concern and I am aware that there exists a possibility that my concerns may be misguided.

Measures taken:

1) I have created an official email confirming the roles, responsibilities and order of authorship of each team member involved in this project. The email has been acknowledged by each individual team member including aforementioned senior research fellow/ programme director (without a PhD).
His role is to review to review the draft before my submission (possible and probably potential red flag?).
He has not acknowledged nor mentioned anything in his reply about getting back to me with changes to the draft.

2) I intend to submit my paper to an open journal arXiv before submitting any draft to this senior research fellow.

3) 2) is followed by a submission of a draft to senior research fellow with a co-correspondence to the integrity office, worded in a diplomatic manner.

Are these three steps sufficient? What more should I be aware of?

Edit: The email also serves as a centralised communication where any work done by must submitted to that email.


texts: Best options for publishing original research without being in academia?

texts:
What are the best options for publishing an original piece of research for someone who is not in academia? The main issues are:

zero prior publications, i.e. no reputation whatsoever in the given field,
no contacts, i.e. no-one that can step in as a "referee" or a "supervisor",
no academic titles in the given field (ex. a PhD or something equivalent).

The research is original and does provide new information about a given topic. But given the above limitations the options are not obvious.

What can one do in this case? I heard people who are starting out in publishing can post on arXiv.org, and once they have a couple of "published" papers respectable journals will be more likely to consider the candidate.

Is there any advice out there for people doing research as hobby?


texts:
What does it means a project being licensed with the name of the author?

I mean, one instance is: there is an author X, that writes an open source book on biology with git and at the end of the README file is © 2017 X. Other instance is when the same author X, writes his webpage and at the end of the page put his characteristic © 2017 X.

It is evident author does not get into the game of licenses (justified or not!!). But what should I interpret with his license? Every change (in any sense) that I want to make I should contact him? What is the (legal status) point of this license "© 2017 X"??

Example of webpage


texts: How many recommendation letters are enough?

texts: If I apply to a job, and it asks for 4 recommendation letters, is it good if I submit 5 or more letters? Why and why not?


texts: How to start a startup based on university research?

texts:
This is a follow-up to How good are entrepreneurial opportunities for faculty members?.
Say, a few researchers, professors and their students, at a university would like to start a company to exploit and commercialize their research.

Who owns the copyright/patent of their research? Will the university claim ownership of the startup company? What is the general procedure?


texts: Dispute grade penalty for reading in class?

texts:
I am in an large, entry level course targeted at engineers. A few weeks ago, I was reading for another class while my professor covered material I was familiar with, and she marked me down as absent for at least one and maybe two classes. She has a strict attendance policy so that she gives a 5 percent penalty for missing three or more classes, and I already have three marked absences.

The only relevant section in the syllabus says, "Good manners provide the foundation for proper classroom behavior: arrive on time, listen attentively and take detailed notes, remain quietly in your seat until dismissed by the instructor." There is a strict no-screen policy, but nothing about reading.

I am considering taking it up the ladder and arguing that she should have asked me to put the book away if she wanted me to, as I spoke to her multiple times between the time of the alleged offense and becoming aware that she had penalized me for it. Do I have a good chance of a grade appeal? on merit? statistically?

She is a teaching only professor, so I assume she doesn't have huge sway in the department. It is a ginormous class at a large school though, so I probably don't either.


texts: Paper contributions and first authorship

texts:
Twelve months ago I started working on a project (which began at that time) with my advisor.
Six months ago another student (refered to as A in the following) joined the project.

We are now publishing a paper on our results. My advisor asked me if I would find it reasonable that A’s name was put before mine in the article. Our advisor’s reason is that she believes A has contributed a lot more to the publishable results and making figures for the article.

I agree with this latter part: student A has definitely been the working horse behind these results and made the graphics for the article. However, my contributions were in the first 6 months of the project, laying the foundations for the setup, etc.

I’m not sure how to feel about my advisor’s question. Is my contribution worth less because they are further back in time? And does making article-figures count as “ammunition” to be put first in an article?


texts: Is giving condolences to a professor socially acceptable?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate in the US.

My professor just told us via email that he will not be able to grade an exam until next week because his family member died from complications due to COVID-19. I don't care much about the delay, but I do like my professor, both as a person and an educator. Would it be out of line for me to send an email along the lines of "Hi professor, I'm sorry to hear your loved one passed."

I'm not a very socially outgoing person and I don't speak up in class much, so I don't know if this would overstep the student-professor relationship.


texts: Should papers presented at local conferences be put in list of publications?

texts: I have two papers presented at state and national level conferences. These conference proceedings were not published in any journal. Now, should I list these papers in my list of publications or not?


texts: What are the effective strategies to increase GPA?

texts:
I am doing Undergraduate in Software Engineering and am going to finish my third semester (total of 8 semesters) now and as with my calculation, I am going to end it with a GPA of mere 1.89. I know this is a very low GPA, and this is because I failed my calculus II and Data Structure class. It might be very difficult to raise this GPA but I believe I still have time to make up and reach at least 2.5. Now since I don't want to set my goals too high or I might end up miserably disappointed, I want to know if this is even possible? Will a GPA of 2.5 be too bad for life career? And what are the strategies I can take to get my goals or even higher if possible anyhow?

Reasons of previous failures

To point out causes of failing previous semesters, I am studying in a foreign land and hence the language difference is the biggest problem in communication and even understanding lectures. Recently, I have also been suffering from a lot of anxiety and have been having symptoms of depression (as I have read on Internet, I don't know till what extent they are true). I have been losing my social life and feeling just nothing at all. I have a part time job as well to support my personal finance.

So what can I do to tackle with my personal anxiety and make up for the bad scores I had earlier? Do I still have enough time for that? And how high can I reach?


texts: PhD defense in germany: how do they decide for the final grade?

texts:
I am a PhD student in Germany (physics) and I will have my PhD defense in some months. I am not German.
My thesis is mainly based on 2 PRL's and a paper not yet published (submitted to PRB). The reviews (Gutachten) on my thesis are positive: I've got 1.3 and 1.7 (1 is very good, 4 is sufficient).
The defense will consist of an oral presentation of my thesis and of an oral exam (Rigorosum) in the presence of two professors (two main topics, one of which is completely not related with my thesis).

My question is, how much are important the presentation, the rigorosum, and the reviews respectively, to the decision of the final grade? Is it possible to fail the PhD defense, having good reviews? Actually, I am mainly concerned about nasty questions after the thesis presentation and during the Rigorosum...


texts:
Someone asked a similar question here: How to find out who funded a study / research?
several years ago, but not a single person had a real answer. So perhaps now. So...how? How do I find information on who funded a certain company or where their funds might come from in general? Specifically trying to find information on this company: https://ridgebackbio.com/
Thank you in advance.
PS: not looking to be spoon-fed information on this company, but to learn this skill on following money. I just can't find any resources to learn it in the first place.


texts: Which logo to use in a seminar title page?

texts:
This might sound a silly (probably it is!) question to ask. But whenever I go to give a talk at some other institute I face this dilemma of putting the host institute's logo or only my affiliation logo, on the title slide. Most of the time I put both.

Keeping aside my decade-old-hesitations, let me ask you about your opinion on this.


texts: I am curious to know if there are musicians or music bands whose compositions (in any musical style) have lyrics that talk about our "academia world" with songs, for instance "my manuscript was rejected twice", "happy day, my grant was accepted", "the nature paper that wasn't there", etc.


texts: Are religious invocations in academic presentations appropriate?

texts:
One thing that I have noted come up a few times in presentations in the US in the last few years has been that some speakers—usually graduate students and postdocs, rather than more established career professionals—have included religious invocations at the end of presentations in entirely secular venues. One presenter went so far as to have an entire slide devoted to it, complete with quotations to spiritual texts and illustration.

Is there any sort of protocol about when such sorts of invocations are considered appropriate? (For instance, at a student's doctoral defense, but not at a public seminar?)


texts: Should I warn new/prospective PhD Student that supervisor is terrible?

texts:
My supervisor got some funding and is hiring new PhD students. Today one of them came to an interview and we told him about the things that we do.

The main problem is that my supervisor is a terrible supervisor. He wants to lead the research project but has no idea on how to work on real implementations. He does not help or even provide feedback although he still is the leading author of all the publications we do. He does not want to spend money on us or on equipment, but expects results as if we were using high-end equipment. He treats us plainly wrong, taking credit for our accomplishments, humiliating us when possible, not helping or leading in any way and not allowing as to grow as researchers.

I know that I could be biased for some personal bad experience but 100% of the students at my research center (both his students and other students) agree with me that he is, by far, the worst possible advisor that there is in our research center.

My question is: should I warn a new coming PhD student about this so that he can take his decision taking this into account, or am I supposed to say nothing because it is not my business?

On one hand, when I was where he is now I would have LOVED if someone told me about this situation, but on the other hand as a PhD student I'm risking a lot by saying this and I don't know if I should get involved.

EDIT: At the end I did it. I called him as it was impossible for me to see him face to face. I basically explained him several facts (not opinions) and my personal view of the situation, trying to be as much understanding and empathic as possible. Luckily he has done research before and understand me very well. He thanked me for the honesty. On one hand I feel that I did the correct thing, but on the other one I think that this situation is a time bomb that could explode at any time... But today I slept like a baby, which I think is a good sign. Thank you all for your answers, they helped me a lot.


texts: Teaching the daughter of a lecturer, while being simultaneously enrolled in his course

texts:
I'm a student in a bachelor program at a local university, while I'm also a teacher (professional school) of apprenticeship students within the same sphere of study.

A few days ago I received the participants list of a class which I going to teach next semester. I went briefly through the names and one quite unique name caught my interest. After a quick search on the web, I'm sure that one of the participants is the daughter of a lecturer who gives courses in which I'm enrolled at the university. He was grading my work and he will probably be grading my work in the future for one more course.

I had a few intense discussions with this lecturer about some topics of my studies. He also felt a bit insulted once because I missed some of his lectures, but we always stayed professional. I also feel that he graded my work and exams like the ones of any other student.

It's too late to find a replacement for me and this class? I'm wondering what should I do with this situation -- should I notify the school where I'm teaching about this?


texts: Requesting for my class rank information after graduation

texts:
For advance and challenging courses undertaken in one's undergraduate academic career, absolute grades or GPA does not necessarily indicates the abilities of a student. This is especially so where grade inflation is more rampant than before and tougher courses are not weighted.
Class rank might be a more accurate way to signal that student's abilities relative to his/her cohort. In particular, the physics department with which I did my undergraduate do not partake in scaling of grades.

Suppose I would like to obtain my class rank after graduation, what would be the most appropriate channel to do so?


texts: Should I use an out-of-order version of my name for academic publications?

texts:
I have a common US first AND last name, but a unique middle name. Think John Aardvark Smith.
I am nearing my first publication and want to decide on my name for academic/scientific publications now so that it can remain consistent.
I like to be called John and would like to be Dr. Smith when that time comes, however there are a million JA Smiths, including in my field.
I'm considering being JS Aardvark for publications instead, a completely unique name.
My questions are:
Would I HAVE to then be John Smith Aardvark for all intents and purposes? If you click my JS Aardvark link on Google Scholar, would it make any sense to link to a person called John Aardvark Smith? Would I have to accept that people will call me Dr. Aardvark? What should me email address and sign-off then be?
I may be missing other potential pitfalls as well. I'd be glad for any feedback on this, positive or negative, personal anecdotes, etc.


texts:
Several times I have met young visiting faculty members who got "bought out" of teaching. This means that some senior professor opened their grant treasure chest and pays money so their younger co-worker needs to teach one course per semester less than usual.

How does that actually work? On the department side, they probably need manpower to offer courses to their students. Does somebody else do the job then (for the money) or what is the background with those buy-outs? Can people buy out themselves? Who can do such things and what are the official and unofficial issues with such a procedure?


texts: Data analysis internship not going well because of lack of programming background

texts:
I started my internship with a biological data analysis institute yesterday (i.e. have spent two full working days there), and I am very concerned that I am expected to have programming skills that I really don't have.
My own background: I have just finished a theoretical physics degree and next year will be persuing a Masters in Mathematics. I have done some programming in my course (an intro to MATLAB, C++ and python in my 3 years respectively), but everything has been very geared towards physics applications. e.g. simulate many body collisions, plot a graph of the transmitted intensity for some funky aperature etc). What's worse, I now realise that we only really looked at very basic features of these programming languages, and basic packages. We never learned the fundamentals of 'how a computer thinks', which is why I am having difficulties now.

I did OK in our programming tasks, and this gave me a really skewed perspective of what it means to know a programming language. I put 'python, MATLAB, basic C++' on the 'skills' section of my CV, not really realising that my knowledge of python really is 'basic' at best. That's the paradox I guess. It feels like with computing, you only know how little you know after you reach a certain level of proficiency. I did not mean to deceive anyone with writing the skills I thought I had.

In any case, I have been struggling over the last couple of days. I realised that at the institute, everyone is basically a programming pro, and the interns are generally computer science students or statisticians. While my degree is numerical, I really have done pathetically little in the way of real data analysis and computing.

I didn't know about Anaconda for instance. I have only ever used simple python libraries like scipy and numpy, matplotlib. I was introduced to it today. But the thing I am struggling with most are things like: what folders does the (programming language? interface? Environment? I don't even know the right word to use here :() have access to? When I want to read/call a file, which folder does it have to be in? How can I check my path without exiting my working environment? etc. Today I wasted 2 hours simply because I called a file name by the name of a python module that I was later calling. I wish I could say t was 'by mistake'. In reality, I didn't think this would be a problem. The text file has an extension anyway?

As you can see these are small things that really require PROGRAMMING EXPERIENCE to be ok with. I don't think that cramming a python book will help.

I can tell that the other members of the team are getting annoyed. I don't ask too may questions (nor too little I think). But if I ask a question, it's often too basic. And if I don't I waste time.

The person who gave me a (long) skype interview- the head on my group- is returning tomorrow and we are meeting for the first time. I am quite embarrased, especially as I know they were considering other candidtaes.

Any advice on the best way to proceed, or how to learn what might be useful quickly, would be much appreciated.


texts: How to phrase omissions correctly in a thesis?

texts:
This might be a strange question, but I am currently thinking about a good phrase to use if I want to emphasize that the theoretical omissions I am making are not caused by neglect, laziness, or because they don't fit my results or something. Instead, I want to quickly get across that the main reason I am not discussing them is that it would increase the section without adding anything of value.

Is there some good phrase that gets this across?

To give a specific example: Let's say I am describing an instrument that heats up a sample until it goes into a phase transition. The instrument works the same way no matter what phase the sample is currently in, but it's a different type of transition in each case. For solids, it would be melting. For liquids, it would be vaporization. For gases, it would be the formation of a plasma. The underlying principles are always the same, but depending on the transition different energies are necessary, the changes take different amounts of time etc., and of course the terminology is completely different. So even though it's the same, and I could talk about it in a very general way, I can't because language fails me. I simply cannot phrase it elegantly, so I have to omit stuff that is not absolutely necessary.

I can't say "I'm leaving this out because modern languages are not advanced enough to discuss this phenomenon in a general way, even though it's actually a very simple phenomenon. And my professor wants this to be 150 pages or less and I'm running out of space." But this is kind of what my problem is.

Any suggestions?


texts: Completely stuck with nonsensical project

texts:
I am a graduate student in Mathematics. I have solved my original thesis problem, and that will probably one or two papers, at least one of them very good. After that, my advisor basically told me: "Here is this paper that I wrote (together with two other very strong professors), there are some cases missing, I would like you to do them". Problem is, none of them has an idea on how to solve these cases (otherwise they would have written them in their paper, of course), so here I am, stuck on this problem for months, with basically no advance whatsoever (at the beginning at least I was learning a lot of stuff, now I know everything that's relevant that's been written up to know - I spent a lot of time looking at the literature). How can a PhD student (decently good, but certainly not a star) be expected to improve upon the work of some professors, if there nobody has a precise idea on how to do so? I think this is overambitious and nonsensical, to say the least (especially after spending 3-4 months on it).

It is one of those problems where once you have found the key idea, the problem is completely done (exactly the opposite of what I like working on).

I would like to work on other lower risk projects, but my advisor made it pretty clear that he wants me to spend time on this, so I would be completely on my own. I don't think I can come up with something new just on my own, but I think that spending other months trying to outdo professors is not going to work either! What should I do?


texts: I am asking this question to understand the difference (if there exits any) between reputation of some journals in mathematics which includes "Bulletin" in their title with other journals? In the Scopus ranking they are named general journals.


texts: Should I submit a mixed theory-experimental paper to a computer science conference where most papers do not appear to include experimental results?

texts:
I am considering submitting a (Computer Science) research paper to a conference. The paper contains both theoretical and experimental results. The call for papers of the conference that I am considering sending the paper to, says that it welcomes papers related to "theory, design, implementation, modeling, analysis, or application". But when I look through the papers submitted in the previous years (in order to better understand the sort of papers that get accepted), I do not find a single paper with experimental results. The results are all theoretical.

Does this mean that papers with experiments are not a good fit for this conference?


texts: Is it reasonable to ask a professor about the strength of a recommendation letter (after they have submitted)?

texts:
I have asked a professor that I took a year long project with to write a recommendation to support my application to a well-known, selective masters programme in the UK (my university is based in South Africa). The letter has already been submitted but the problem is, I have no idea how strong the letter is.

Some useful information: I think the project went fairly well and I will not have to interact with this professor again in any formal capacity.

Question: (1) Do you think it is reasonable to ask the professor about the strength of the letter he has submitted? (2) If so, how should I go about doing this?

I would like to do this for the following reasons:

If the letter is not so strong, I have other people who are willing to write me strong letters for my other applications (though none with the same reputation)
I can possibly try to change references for the current application (that the prof. has already submitted the letter for) since I have not submitted the actual application.

Any advice is welcome and appreciated.


texts: Agreed to an earlier starting date for my post-doc position, but my question about initially working from home remained unanswered

texts:
I recently had a postdoc interview that went well. The appointment was originally set to start in September, but shortly after the meeting they sent me an email asking if I'd be able to start sooner, in July. I said yes and asked if it would be possible for me to do my teaching remotely (in another country) until September, as I originally planned.

Now I've received the written contract, and I will accept the position, but I never got a response for this request. I have the following questions:

1) Is my request reasonable? I think that given the current state of affairs my physical location shouldn't be too relevant for the university, at least until late August/September.

2) Does it hurt to ask?

3) If the answer to (1) is yes, how should I go about asking this? Who would be the right person to talk with? If (1) is a no, thoughts and comments are also welcome.

Edit: the postdoc is in a public US university.


texts: What would be the difference between the public and private graduate schools in US?

texts:
Okay, so back in my country, the difference between private and public colleges is pretty visible. I have worked in biotech labs of both kinds and know that there's a lot of restrictions on using costly instruments in private colleges whereas we get a lot of liberty to get hands-on lab experience in public ones and sometimes they even encourage the person to conduct independent research without any external interference and to let the person fall and learn. In an internship at a private research lab, I had to ask them multiple times (more than 10 times) to let me use a PCR just once (as I needed it in my project thesis) during my stay there for a good two months. They were doubtful about "someone new" manhandling the instrument despite me having been rigorously trained to set-up that machine in the past (You'll be able to comprehend the annoyance if you have a biology background.) This was one incident and I certainly do not wish to rant about the other ones here. This year, I would be applying to US universities for doctoral studies. I have never been to the US, but I have applied to both category. Should I be concerned about such incidents occurring there in private institutions? Also, here the government institutions are highly reputed and have a very stimulating environment much better than any private institutions.

I have found a similar question before here, but I feel that people mainly talk about funding issues here.


texts:
I am trying to figure out which template to use for the journals

IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence

and

IEEE Transactions on Multimedia

Both are journals published by IEEE comsoc, but both also are transactions.

On the IEEE template info page I find separate template for both of them:

http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/authors/author_templates.html


texts: Is it conventional to provide topic related word definitions in a glossary?

texts:
I'm currently writing my dissertation/thesis and am quite new to using glossaries. I'm unsure if I'm going a bit overboard regarding the number of terms I'm including in my glossary. E.g. I talk about the terms Breadth-First Search, Depth First Search, and Iterative Deepening A* Search (All search algorithms) for which I have included glossary definitions so I am able to use their corresponding abbreviations.
Would it be convenient to include definitions in a glossary for terms such as "Rubik's Cube" and "Cubie" and "Facelet" - Rubik's Cube Jargon. My dissertation revolves around a Rubik's Cube Solver. Terms like these are plastered throughout the report and I'm unsure if I should just write a simple description in some form of bullet-pointed format, separate from the glossary, or would I just include terms like these in the glossary. The first mention of these terms is visibly internally hyperlinked.
Any advice, recommendations, and ideas are most welcome
Thanks!


texts: I have an "integrated masters" degree. How can I eventually gain a PhD?

texts:
I graduated in the UK last year with an M Ost, an integrated masters of osteopathy. This is currently the standard qualification offered by colleges teaching osteopathy in the UK, although it's changed several times in the past and seems likely to change again.

My course consisted of 480 credits. 360 credits were at undergraduate level (including 120 at honours level) and a further 120 credits were at master's level.

I am intrigued by research, and wonder if it would be possible to eventually apply for a PhD, but I have no idea whether applicants with integrated masters courses are considered. I suspect not, and assume I would need to do some extra work.

However I don't understand what that extra work would be.

As you can tell.... I am a little lost! This seems the most basic of questions, but I am struggling to find any clear advice. I have contacted members of the faculty in my old college, but they haven't not been very helpful. Suggestions have included doing a further qualification in osteopathic studies -- something I'm not keen on. I would prefer something that is science-based, and would be accepted as qualification to go on to apply for a PhD.

I appreciate this is quite an open-ended question. Ideally I'm probably looking for pointers as to where and how to continue my search. Should I contact PhD-providing universities and colleges directly, and ask what I would need to do in order to be considered?

I also understand that PhDs are hard, hard work. I am not looking for questions around why I want to do one, or alternative options. Many thanks for understanding this.


texts:
What exactly is demanded in a Research-In-Progress (RIP) paper? Specifically, how do they differ from other types of paper submission? A sample call can be found here: http://www.ecis2016.eu/en/RESEARCH-IN-PROGRESS-PAPERS.html

Is it merely sufficient to clearly outline a research question, the background and proposed solution, without any substantive results? I am curious because many of these sort of calls have relatively long page counts (around 6, which seems fairly typical of a journal paper). Is the difference that a RIP paper may talk about the entire scope of one's research, while with many other types of submission it would be prudent to merely focus on a single aspect of one's research?


texts: What should I do if I find a mistake in my submitted master's thesis?

texts:
What would you do if you have already handed in a thesis to your professor, but you printed an earlier version with a small mistake. You want to have a great grade nevertheless, but I am feeling unsure of what to do:

Would you tell him your mistake and hope that he indulgent and says "Okay, then this does not count as a mistake." Since you recognized your own mistake, he is likely to be forgiving. Or would you say nothing and hope that he won't find the mistake?


texts: Methods to track behind cheating on exams using on-line sites?

texts:
In the current state of the technologies, what ways can be used to track clear yet directly untraceable cases of academic misconduct specific to students who post questions from and view answers to a take-home exam using on-line (homework) sites?

My case is specific to Chegg, although answers related to other on-line sites would be certainly welcomed.

As a background, I have a list (from Chegg) of the email address, log-in times, university affiliation, and question posted / viewed. I can clearly correlate the posting information to being from my exam during my exam. I can directly correlate some cases because the email address is ... surprisingly ... the student's university email address or their personal email address. What I do not have in some cases is a) a valid or directly representative email address and b) a full name.

I have a roster list of students and have diligently checked their email addresses against the offending emails to no avail. I will pass the roster and list to our administration to review against their (larger) database of email accounts. However, I can only imagine that an email address could be from a neighbor or friend or roommate or ... someone entirely untraceable in the full university email database.

After a formal inquiry to obtain the above list, I have an email response (from Chegg) that tells me that I will get no further help to obtain any other information. I will be glad to hear about other levers that can be pulled to get better information.

I can accept that at some point I may have to conceed that I am simply out of luck to track the real perpetrator. But, before I do so, I have to wonder whether this community has insights to additional resources to help solve my problem.

To help also focus the discussion further, I am not interested to learn about the ways to avoid this problem in the future. I have my own insights and plans to move forward on this front. I am also not interested to spend time trashing Chegg or equivalent sites, deserving or not.

Finally, in addition to the specific question on additional effective methods, I am also interested in one other broader aspect of the problem. I am curious to hear from like-minded individuals who have initiated or are aware of actions being initiated for a larger academic community stand against the problem. I make this latter statement especially as we faculty are all most likely to have to face yet another round of on-line teaching for the coming Fall 2020 semester.

In summary, I hope to hear about approaches that others have used that could also help me solve my problem to track perpetrators of cheating who, up to this point, are essentially directly untraceable.


texts: Why is method so important for a thesis?

texts:
Right now I am preparing a paper for my bachelor's degree thesis in computer science. I myself is an active programmer at work in my company and have created many programs till now.

I want to take some of my programs and take it for my thesis paper, my supervisor the program itself is good and I also can be promised a good grade too, but he still can't accept my paper because it does not have a Methodology in there. So my paper got rejected.

I wonder why the thesis really needs this methodology inside of the paper. But of course, I'm not that clueless to think that everything I make is always the original method I make myself. It just I always self-studying for programming for almost 5 years, so there might be someone method in my program but I just don't know what method I use or who make it.

But still, it kinda frustrating to get rejected just because there is no methodology mentioned... Why methodology is so important anyway?


texts: How much does a professional qualification e.g. CChem add to applications for permanent academic positions or early career fellowships?

texts:
I am a postdoc right now. I am not yet at the stage of applying to any permanent positions, but I am planning ahead. My aim would be to apply for early career fellowships within the next 2-3 years, or permanent academic positions a little after that. My current plan is to apply in the UK, though I am working in continental Europe at the moment. However, I am also open to taking another postdoc in North America, and I am also considering the possibility of applying to positions in Asia or elsewhere if UK does not work out.

I am aware that the things that would be most important would be my research topic and output. Some teaching experience (not so important for fellowships perhaps), and some "service to the community and professional development".

For the final point, I am wondering how useful it would be to try to achieve accreditations from professional bodies such as:

Royal Society of Chemistry: Chartered Chemist (CChem)
http://www.rsc.org/careers/cpd/practising-scientists/#cchem-tab
Institute of Physics: Chartered Physicist (CPhys)
http://www.iop.org/membership/char-sta/chartership/cphys/page_51812.html
Royal Society of Biology: Chartered Biology (CBiol)

and there are CStat, CMath, CSci etc. I am only eligible for the CChem.

Obviously, getting Chartered status in the natural sciences is not as important as it is for engineers. I have seen academics with all the Chartered qualifications they can get, and I have also seen (fairly senior) academics without any Chartered statuses. I can see that it is a "nice to have". My question is, how much would it improve my chances of getting a fellowship or a permanent position? Or, how many hours should it be worth to me in an average working week?


texts: Where to find curriculum for a specific program?

texts:
I have an assignment for preparing the first draft of curriculum for a new program in my university. To include international experiences, I tried to get the curriculum of other universities, but I was unable to find a university website sharing the full curriculum. Department websites just put the title of courses, and professors post syllabus for their courses.

Each department should have its curriculum (description of the program, courses and credit details, course descriptions, etc), and this should be a public document.

When I searched general or visited top university websites, I expected to find such documents.

Do you have any idea where I can find documented curriculum?


texts:
I am preparing to send a review report for the International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing, I wrote all the comments about the paper in Word Document when I log in to my account to attach the file, In the review form there is a called comments to the author, should I rewrite the comments located in the Word Document or what?

is the file attached will be visible to the authors?


texts: Is it worth it to print a copy of the syllabus for each student or it is better to have it on my course's website?

texts:
This is a question that has plagued me for a couple of years now. Is it worth it to print a copy of the syllabus for each student?  Or, is posting it on my course website good enough?  My syllabus contains a good deal of information.  I have the homework schedule, online video schedule, office hour info, etc.  But, the class is close to 30 students.  And printing that many three page syllabuses seems extreme.  To make the question more specific, has anyone noticed that printing the syllabus has had a greater effect than not?

EDIT: In response to the comment below, all the students have access to free printing of the syllabus in any number of computer labs.


texts: Applying and requirements for a Phd program

texts:
I am currently holding a diploma in computer science which is equivallent to a BSc. I have also finished my MAS (master of advanced studies) in economy, which was made up out of 5 CAS modules.

Now I would love to attend a doctoral program and research in the field of predictive modelling, machine learning and computational vision.

However my MAS diploma seems not to be enough to apply for a Phd program (except for DBA programs which only exists in the field of economy). Many (all?) programs require a MSc.

Questions

Is the only way to get there attending to another master program to get my MSc?
Are there Phd programs I can apply to that only require a MAS that I just havent found yet?
Is there some equivalent to a DBA but in the field of computational science?

Thanks in advance


texts: Does editing someone's paper improve your own writing?

texts:
You get asked to read and edit papers (more or less form the same research area) to become a co-author. The editing requires a lot of rearranging of paragraphs, rewriting sections, new/updated figures, lots of grammar and spelling mistakes, recalculating numbers, and so on.

I am curious to know what your experience is, does your own writing get better from editing papers?

I have heard opinions that it actually decreases your own writing ability - any references for that statement?


texts: Not ticking boxes in recommendation forms

texts:
Like many people, I hate the recommendation forms for graduate schools, particular the part where you're asked to rank/rate a whole bunch of abilities.  When the electronic application allows me, I omit this part or select an option like "cannot evaluate" and maybe make a comment somewhere to see my letter for everything.

I know many people just mark the highest ranking for everyone, but I don't even want to do that (for one, it seems dishonest; also, sometimes it's not clear which is the highest ranking without carefully reading the question).

The places I'm familiar with (some math grad schools) probably don't care about what you put here at all.  As far as I can tell, the people who design these forms are pretty far removed from those who make admissions decisions.  The only time I could see these coming into play is if a student gets very bad ratings or one person has lower ratings from the same recommender.

But I want to make sure I'm not doing my students a disservice, so:

  Does anyone know of any US grad programs where not ticking these boxes on recommendation forms will hurt my students' chances?  If so, please indicate what kinds of graduate programs (e.g., maybe it matters for MBA but not STEM programs).


texts: What impresses more in a graduate school application for CS: an REU or an honors thesis?

texts:
I'm a prospective applicant (or will be in the near future) for PhD programs in Computer Science.  I recently did an REU this past summer at a top-ranked CS school and am seriously considering graduate school, albeit after a break so I can be certain which particular area I may want to go into.

While I have my REU as some form of research experience, I'm wondering how much more I will need before I apply to graduate programs.  In my department, there's been a couple who have worked in labs for maybe a year or so (but so far, nothing like two or three years like I have heard at other places), and others in our Honors program are required to do an honors project with a professor at the end.  It's more or less rare that undergrads publish so much where I'm currently doing my undergrad.

While I have done the REU, I haven't gotten much further as far as doing research at my own school goes.  I tried working with a professor one semester during my senior year, but I wasn't able to get much done before I had to stop due to a busy semester next semester.  Generally speaking, is an REU more impressive to graduate admission committees over a senior thesis or doing research at your own institution?


texts: The manuscript status suddenly changed to “Draft Status” in ScholarOne

texts:
About two weeks ago, we submitted a paper to a Taylor & Francis journal that uses the ScholarOne manuscript-submission system. We also received an e-mail confirming that the submission process is complete and that the editor is considering the paper for publication.

Today, I checked the status and it has now changed to Draft Status. I have never seen something like this in my previous submissions. I would be very grateful if someone could possibly tell me if I need to contact the editor or do something specific.


texts: Currently I use Mendeley. I have heard some stuff about ReadCube, but they don't have a Mendeley quick import tool, so… before I go through the hassle of resetting up my library with them, I wondered how it compared to Mendeley. What are its extra features? What is missing? How smooth is it to use, how widely adopted is it, that sort of things…


texts: In grading, professor takes into account submission time, performance compared to other students, and visibility of posters. Is it fair?

texts:
I came across this site trying to see if the way my professor has graded certain assignments is fair, and if it's grounds to complain to someone higher up at my college (I'm not sure who I would go to - maybe the dean?). But any way, I have this professor who's been grading some assignments in what I, and other students in the class, realize is quite unfair. So, for example, we had to post a discussion post assignment online, along with responding to our classmates posts. When it was graded, I received a 17 out of 20 total points. Upon looking at the rubric, there was section for "initiative" - if you were one of the first 10 students to submit the assignment, you received the full 2 points. I submitted my assignment pretty close to the due, but, keep in mind, it was turned in completely on time! I know professors reserve the right to grade how they see is best, but come on... If the assignment is turned in on time, how can the professor be allowed to take points off for not doing it early?? Professors/teachers - does this seem like a fair and legitimate way to grade students? Should I look into reporting this to someone higher up at the university?

Here are some other examples that I believe are not fair to students. She often said how she grades off the "best" students work. Like for written assignments, she would say that she had to look at all of them, decide whoever's assignment was best, and then grade everyone thereafter based on that student's work. Is it just me or is that crazy? Should I not be graded based off my own abilities, how I'm understanding the material/completing the work based off common expectations, and whether the work sufficiently meets common standards (like a rubric). My professor just made everything a huge competition which is very frustrating as even though I was putting in the effort and time, I knew it wouldn't matter because there are other students in the class who are smarter, may have more time to put in, and have a different educational background (like they may have taken classes that I haven't that aid with this course). In addition, we had a project that was presented (a case study poster) where other students and some professors were invited to come in and see them. She had observers put stickers on their "favorite" poster and those who received the most stickers  received extra credit. However, the people who came in didn't have to go look at every poster. So, many came into the room, looked at the first few posters that were set up right when you walk in, put stickers on those, and then left. Posters on the other side of the room didn't have an equal opportunity to be seen, because everyone who came in wasn't going to look at 16 posters.

All in all, this is just super frustrating and, if it seems reasonable, I want to send in a complaint.

To clarify, grading based on initiative was never stated in the syllabus. As for the rubric for first assignment I mentioned, we  were not give an initial rubric stating this. I came across the rubric used for grading on the online program where grades are posted (it was a link on the grade given to me).

In addition, all of my concerns were addressed in a course evaluation. So I guess that it would be best to leave it as that, as it seems that although some may believe this is not the best way to grade, it is not completely unheard of.


texts: Edit a manuscript after submit and approve it

texts: I submitted my manuscript to a Springer journal and after viewing the submission, I approved it. But now I need to edit one of my references, but the Edit button is not available after approving the submission. How can I edit it? Should I submit a new manuscript?


texts: How does the PhD thesis examination result impact academic job success?

texts:
In majority of universities around the world, the PhD examining committee should meet and allow PhD student to defend his/her thesis. Based on the thesis content and student performance in the viva, the committee decides whether to grant PhD to the candidate or not.

In most of the cases that I have seen, there are 4 types of decisions

Accept as it is (Distinction in some universities)
Accept with Minor Revisions (without re-examination of thesis)
Accept with Major Revisions (without re-examination of thesis)
Major Revisions with re-examination
Reject (No PhD; some universities grant MSc instead of PhD if the work is fine but its contribution is small).

Now my questions are:

How often do employers ask for PhD examination Committee decision report at the time of application/interview?
Considering the PhD requirement by almost all universities for the professorship positions, how the decision by the committee members impacts employment. My main concern is about the first three decisions of "accept." Can a PhD graduate who has "accept with major revision" never gets job in good places"?


texts: Acknowledging local government for quarantine measures

texts:
It looks like I may completely write a paper while in coronavirus-related quarantine.  Would it be appropriate to thank my local government in the acknowledgements?  If I'm honest with myself, I don't think I would have been able to do this with such focus and efficiency if all other aspects of my life hadn't been suddenly shut down.

People often acknowledge visits to other institutions, which seem to serve a similar purpose, hence why I pose the question seriously.

Edit: I'm also in an at-risk group, and the government-mandated quarantine is kind of saving my life, so there's also that.