texts: Asking A Colleague for a Letter of Recommendation

texts:
I am working as an Assistant Professor at a university for over 2 years, but I am not happy with my current job and university. I want to apply to a university in another country (from where I've done my PhD) for a faculty position.
I'd like to know if it would help the application if a colleague who is a PhD and already holding a Tenure Track Position writes a letter of recommendation for in support of this application?


texts: How to work with a student who has a tendency to overcomplicate things?

texts:
I am supervising a senior reading course. As I cannot give a name to a problem I am having with one of the students, I will give an example.

We are reading a paper, and he was not making progress. He was not able to read the introduction and present an overview of the paper's method and main results. I held an extra meeting to outline the paper and review the methodology step by step. I explained the first two outcomes, and asked him to fill in the steps joining them. I checked on him two weeks later, and he has been reading a book that is related to the paper only in title.

I have two other students who are working on similar topics and they get it. I can tell they have not mastered the topics yet. They are still good at figuring out and presenting intermediate steps on their own. Maybe they have different abilities, or maybe they are better at interpretting what I am saying. I do not judge anybody based on their abilities or skills. That is, I am not holding this against the student. I still want to help him and myself learn to be more efficient at whatever this is.


texts: U.S. humanities professors: Can you get back into academia if you leave?

texts:
I'm a tenured professor in a humanities department at a second-tier research university in the United States. My Ph.D. is from a top-ten program in my discipline. I have an above-average number of publications for my age.  I have about five years of undergraduate and graduate teaching experience post-Ph.D.

I have an opportunity to take a job as a writer/editor for a marketing company. I'm inclined to take it (for reasons I won't detail here) but am worried that if I don't end up liking my new job, it will be impossible to get back into academia after having left voluntarily.

I'm not expecting that I would get my current position back, or necessarily be rehired to a tenured position. I'm just wondering how hard it would be to go back on the job market and find a tenured or tenure-track position somewhere in maybe two or three years' time if I end up hating the new job.

I want to emphasize that I am in a humanities discipline. I gather that in the sciences, it is common for one to leave an academic position to go work in "industry," then later return to academia. I have never heard of anyone doing this in the humanities, however. Does it happen?


texts: Can a PhD supervisor take unpublished ideas from a student's dissertation?

texts:
Rephrased question: Can a PhD supervisor take unpublished ideas from a student's dissertation and work on them hence denying the student the opportunity to work on her ideas herself?

I completed a PhD and took on a short postdoc immediately afterwards with the same supervisor. The idea was to be doing something while I apply for bursaries or funds to continue research on the ideas I proposed in my thesis. Throughout my PhD I had minimal supervision and minimal input of any sort from him. In fact, in 5 years, he never proposed or even simply put me on track to an idea or a solution. I know for a fact that my supervisor barely read a fourth of my dissertation; however, I had spoken to him about my ideas several times and they are mentioned in my dissertation as my own. I know he is aware of that because I sent him the acknowledgement part by email before putting it in my thesis.

Now he decided to take my ideas for himself and got a new student to work on them with the contacts I developed myself because he was incapable of doing that himself. I supervised the new student who is working on my ideas for a particular application and got him going etc and I will be on the eventual paper. However, my supervisor has now decided to apply my idea to another application which I proposed myself in my thesis as well and given that I am leaving soon, I’ve been told that I will not be on that paper because I haven’t contributed directly. Beside the fact that this is still an application of my idea and one that I suggested myself in my thesis, the supervision I’ve given to the student is perfectly applicable to this idea as well because they are related.

Can my supervisor do this even though he knows I want to work on them myself? Can I stop him from doing this? Frankly, I’m gutted and totally demoralised. There is no way for me to compete with him and get a paper out before him.


texts: What are the risks of doing a PhD in a new department?

texts:
I was recently admitted to a doctoral program to be part of their inaugural class for a new interdisciplinary science and engineering department. The program is located at a top-tier university in the United States and appears to be very well funded by the founding university.

The faculty that they have hired so far are all well established researchers in their respective fields. These faculty have also successfully brought the majority of their students and post-docs with them, so there should be no major loss of continuity as far as research is concerned.

My primary concerns are that:

the graduate curriculum itself is new
the program (outside of the reputation of the individual faculty/university itself) is currently not very well known. Will this look bad to prospective employers (both in industry and academic), or is the reputation of my faculty advisor more important?
professors may need to spend more time doing administrative activities for the new department

What other risks are associated with joining a new program, and are there any professional/academic advantages to doing so?


texts: Can research publications or paper acquire University credit? Or a degree?

texts: I've seen and been with people with a master's degree that haven't gone to any Universities. They acquired a degree by submitting a papers correspondingly to their field of interest. How is this possible? Where is it possible to publish those papers? How can one publish those.


texts: Why could an accelerated education be seen as negative?

texts:
I've had discussions with professors in conjunction with my postgraduate application. Many were very skeptical at the fact that I completed one BSc and two MSc within 4 years. This would normally take at least 5-6 years in my country. I explained that I did it because I was very interested in my subjects. However, they thought it was strange and concerning since I had a small portion of "bad grades". This can be explained by a combination of heavy workload, bad family situation, and poor mental health during one or two semesters. I did not mention the latter parts due to social stigma. As a result, professors said I may have "learned more", i.e. gotten straight A's, if I'd have studied a year or two longer like most people. Other than this I have a very good record, which made this seem strange to them.

I live in a small country that has a lot of ex-Soviet professors, many of which believe that a student must have straight A's and a standard educational history to succeed. However, in my country universities are very diverse in terms of expectations and grading. Every university has their own grading scale and level of education. My university, for instance, likes to fail 50% every module to weed out bad students. Sometimes, up to 85% fail, because they give undergraduate students graduate modules because "life's tough, just learn it".

So, depending on where you study, your grades will be wildly different, and it can be hard to convert between places. There's even massive variation within my department alone, where they have the same module but different formats depending on who takes it. This means that an architect taking linear algebra who gets an A may be counted as a C for someone who studies physics, for instance.

Given this knowledge of the educational system, what could be the reason that professors dislike accelerated education? If asked at my university, where it is common, they'd just say good job. When asked at the universities I applied to, it's almost unheard of. How can one highlight the advantages of having taken a fast educational route?


texts: Admissions - University - Graduate School. Is this a commitment?

texts:
I recently applied to a graduate engineering program at a university and was contacted by a professor who was interested in my application. We discussed the projects that he is undertaking and seems to think I would be a good addition to the team. A week after the interview, he reached out stating that he has instructed the university to offer me the MASc position in the program I was applying for, and discussed the courses he would be interested in having me taking and the total funding he is willing to provide for the program. I replied back stating that I would love to join his team.

My concern so far is that I have not received an official letter of admission from the university and I am not sure if it is practical or ethical to apply to other universities in the meantime in order to ensure that if things won't work out I have a backup plan.

My question: is this the right thing to do or should I wait for the decision to arrive from the main university I applied to?


texts: Is it acceptable to ask my professor for help for another class during her office hours?

texts:
I am in two classes (1 and 2), and my 1 professor never answers emails or holds office hours now that we're online. There is also no TA. Oh well, there's nothing I can do except include this information in my review at the end of the class.

I happen to know that my 2 professor has taught 1 sections in the recent past, and she attends her office hours without fail. If I give precedence to any student hoping to learn 2 during my professor's office hours, then is it acceptable to attend with the intention of getting help for my 1 class?


texts: Should I finish my current not so good PhD research or start a new PhD in a much better university with a much better PhD adviser?

texts:
I'm in the third year of my PhD in the US. I defended my PhD proposal successfully at November 2018. My research is related to computational science but the problem is that I did not and I don't have any funding for this PhD research, where you can read about it more comprehensively here.

Honestly, my relationship with my current PhD adviser is not that good (even I could say it's bad...), for no apparent reason... Long story short, I don't think this PhD will go anywhere or at least will end up in a good publication record for me due to: 1. Lack of research funding and very limited resources available to us, 2. My PhD adviser opinion that this research has nothing to do with the objectives of our department as general, 3. Not so good relationship of me and my PhD adviser.

Due to that, I don't have funding for my PhD research, I work as a graduate research assistant in a completely different department. Despite my bad relationship with my PhD adviser, I have a really good relationship with my current boss for my graduate research assistant position. My boss has PhD but here he works as a staff, where basically he doesn't do active research. Recently, he got a faculty position in another university, and really wants me to be his PhD student. I really like him and we have really good relationship. I mean during past 2 years that I worked for him, we were always friendly and understand each other very well.

My question: Here in my current position, I have a really bad feeling... No matter how good or bad I work, my current PhD adviser is never satisfied with me. More importantly, in my current PhD adviser eyes, I'm the one that always is wrong. I mean obviously nobody can be right always, but it's that improbable that somebody is always wrong. I prefer to be judged as a someone that sometimes is right and sometimes is wrong like a normal guy. Long story short: Should I leave my current PhD based on my current experience and start a new one with my current boss in a different university? I'm really close to finish this PhD but everyday my relationship with my current PhD adviser becomes worst and worst...


texts: apply for a Master's, already holding a PhD in a similar field

texts: If one has a PhD in a similar field and goes apply for a Master's, will that hurt his/her chance of getting accepted? In the Statement of objectives, one can argue for some slight nuances between the PhD obtained and the desired Master's. Other reasons could be that the Master's school is a top school or wanting to move to the area the Master's is located in.


texts: Cautions while writing non-specialist/lay versions of scientific articles

texts:
I would like to write engaging summaries/discussions of research papers in my field for non-specialists. These summaries/discussions would be posted on my personal website. The original article, authors, and journal would be transparently and prominently cited.
The objectives are two-fold:
(1) To improve my communication skills, specifically the effective communication of complex ideas.
(2) To develop more traction for my own work in specific and my area of work in general [I am an early career researcher].
Is this an acceptable and encouraged practice? Specifically, are there any cautions I should take to avoid copyright violations or ruffling feathers?


texts: What is the impact factor of EPJ Web of Conference?

texts: The journal EPJ Web of Conference is indexed in many databases: DOAJ, EBSCO, CAS, SCOPUS, etc., but I cannot find its impact factor. Does anyone know it?


texts: When applying to a masters program, is your undergraduate school important?

texts: Is the prestige / difficulty of my undergraduate school taken into consideration when I apply to graduate school? I understand that it is not an excuse my lower grades (however, my GPA is respectable). I am wondering if this has an influence.


texts: How should a drop in GPA be presented positively in a Statement of Purpose?

texts:
During my undergrad studies, my first two years went fine but in third did not go well as compared to the first two years. Consequently, there was a drop in the GPA. But there was one good project at that time and I and my roommate did some independent research work during this time which we got published in beginning of our final year.

The main reason for the drop in GPA was due to trouble in catching up with the subjects. I just could not handle my studies at that moment.

Though it was the third year when I realised which field of computer science I wanted to specialize in, so since then all my projects, independent research work and even some research work under my professor has been related to that domain.

I must also add that my GPA increased every semester since the drop.

I wanted some suggestions on how to present this in a positive way in an SOP?


texts: Is a research article the most comprehensive information available about a research project?

texts:
I sometimes stumble upon an article about an experiment, e.g a medical experiment done in some medical journal, or an article refering to a physics experiment done, and would like to know more exact details about the experiment and just in general as much information as possible about the subject.
I never wrote an article for a journal nor have I participated in the management of an experiment, but I understand documentation is done beyond what is written in the article, a journal article is a summary of the experiment and only elaborates on the important points.
For example a lab book AFAIK is often kept and used during the course of an experiment.
But this question pertains to theoretical research as well, e.g in mathematics; I may wish to find more information about the process by which the author came to his findings.

Is there usually a more complete documentation available which delineates the whole process of the experiment/research-project?
One thing I found is this Wikipedia article about "Open notebook science", but I understand this is not the norm. Still, I suspect I may be missing something (maybe a iece of documentation not as comprehensive as a lab notebook, but more so then a journal article.
Is there anything more for me to do if I wish to dig deeper and understand the subject more thoroughly?


texts: My french-to-english translated transcripts and certificates use the term Computing instead of Computer Science

texts: In order to apply for foreign universities, I translated my academic transcripts and certificates from French to English, and the sworn translator used the term "Computing" instead of "Computer Science" (French for both terms is "Informatique"). My question is: Does the difference between the two terms really matters? or do universities use the list of subjects taken to decide whether I have the prerequisites or not?


texts: Course requiring students to use Examity

texts:
I am an undergrad student and one of my professors is saying that we will be using Examity for the final exam.

I am concerned with downloading this software on my computer for various reasons, including security (a simple look at their privacy policy is enough to warrant extreme suspicion) and privacy (although a weaker argument, it doesn't feel ok for someone to demand that they be able to watch me in my home). I also only have one computer with some files that are quite sensitive and risking this by being forced to download Examity is difficult for me to swallow.

In fact, my college (along with various others within our university) has emailed all the faculty (to the best of my knowledge) discouraging the use of Examity and other proctoring tools like this. Yet it has been 2 days since this email has gone out and my professor has not retracted the statement on the course website that we will be using Examity.

While I realize that the professor may have forgotten to take this notice down, I cannot seem to find the right words to ask her this while not seeming rude.

What actions can I take to confirm that she does not intend to use Examity? If she still intends to use it, what can I do?

UPDATE: I followed the below advice and emailed the prof detailing my concerns. A couple days after that, the professor withdrew the Examity requirements.


texts:
I found a lab offering the kind of research that I really want to do. I approached them and they were very happy to take me in. However, there is no funding and we all hoped I could get into a PhD programme at my university (their lab was on the list for rotation year). Sadly I was not selected for an interview, apparently the competition was very fierce this year. I contacted the lab again and now they are asking if I have other PhD funding? I wonder how I should reply to them, because I don't have any and I tried searching. From others I heard that you can get accepted and then look together for funding or there is a funding (the PhD programme that I was not selected for) and they just search for a suitable candidate. In my case they kind of ask me for the funding, is that right?

Self-funding would be very hard and I even tried looking if my country offers any government funding but I found none. I was told I could try getting maybe an assistant/technician job in their lab and hope that they might apply for grants? I'm very new to all the PhD issues so I'm not sure how I should deal with this but I would appreciate any help!


texts: What is the difference between all of these impact factors?

texts:
While searching a Thomson indexed journal to submit to, I found this one :
http://www.bepls.com
And they are showing different impact factors :

Impact Factor: 0.971 [UIF, Germany]
Global Impact Factor 0.533 [ Australia]
Scientific Journal Impact Factor: 2.59 [ Canada]
Scientific Indexing Services Impact Factor: 0.982 [USA]
NAAS Rating : 4.95

My question is : what are the differences between all of them, and How can I evaluate the quality of a journal beside its impact factor.
Thanks!


texts: What is the meaning of "honorable speaker"?

texts: I have an email from the 2nd World Congress on Wind & Renewable Energy 2017 as an "Honorable Speaker" .... does that mean presenting a new paper and paying any fees?


texts: mentioning MOOC's I took in my scholarship application

texts: I'm preparing my application for a master degree scholarship, would it help to put the MOOC's I took in the application, I earned five MOOC certificates and expecting another two in the near future.


texts: What additional revisions can I make in a journal paper after review, beyond those suggested by reviewers?

texts:
Suppose that I have submitted a paper to a journal, and I have a list of suggested changes from the referee.

Then, let's say I put the article in the appropriate format and make the suggested changes, but I still want to make some additional changes.

Perhaps I want to be a little more exact with my wording in certain places, or I need to condense/expand some sections, so that my figures are not forced into awkward positions.

Is this acceptable?


texts: I did something I am not proud of, and was rightly accused of cheating by the instructor. What is next for me?

texts:
A throwaway account for this issue I need advice in. I am in an engineering course and had an online exam (thanks to COVID-19) with no form of protection for cheating, just an "open now, turn in within 2 hours" exam. I spent way too much time perfecting one particular question (I blame my diagnosed test anxiety for that part of this situation), so I, quite moronically may I add, used a resource that I was not allowed to use. I got an email from the instructor saying that I was accused of cheating.

After fainting once and vomiting twice I read the message and learned that I had 2 options. First of which is to refute and provide evidence in contrary of the accusation, for which I had none. The second option was to accept a zero-marking on the heftily-weighted question, but keep the grade and accept it as the grade on the exam. This was quite a lenient punishment as it was outlined in the syllabus that any form of cheating on any exam will result in a 0 on said exam and a failure within the course. I can only attribute this to the fact that I always went to lecture, actively took notes, asked many questions, and sat in the front row (really like ALL students should do). Therefore, I accepted that option and still ended up with a passing average in the class, because I worked extremely hard to understand the material well (I am not an academically gifted person, may I add.).

Along with both options, a report of academic misconduct will be reported to the chair of the engineering department of my discipline. From there I am unsure where the situation will go. The university does not have any set-in-stone rules for a situation like this within the academic policy or student guideline book, which is where I turn to  Academia. I have never done anything of this sort and I am unsure on where to turn or where to go next, depending on where this situation escalates to.

I also fear for my eligibility for security clearances once I graduate (United States). I only fear that this will be seen as a major, major red flag and may result in me unable to gain said clearance, even though I have nothing on my record (not even as minor as a traffic stop). I feel like that will most definitely ruin my career (rightfully so if so, may I add), as any form of my work will most likely require said clearance. But, having never gotten a clearance before, I am unsure about how it will be affected. To anyone who has experience in this realm, is this a major red flag? Should I switch majors now to something where I can get a job without one?

Regardless of any switching majors, if I lose my academic scholarship for the university (again, rightfully so), I will be forced to drop and/or go far into debt to complete my academic career. Most definitely worth it if so, but still upsetting. Again, this is not set in stone anywhere within the documentation I have access to, so would something like this be a possible/fitting punishment for my academic dishonesty?

I thoroughly understand that this shows that I have little experience in a particular realm of this class, and that in the workforce, if I make a mistake due to it, I may cost lives. If anything, that's the most sickening part of this whole situation. For that reason, I am currently re-studying all material within the class and making sure that I will keep the knowledge that I have been taught. But employers, would you even consider hiring someone like me if you found this out?

I really appreciate anyone reading this. Please leave any comments about my integrity to the comment section, and not the answer section.


texts: How to start abstract of previous research activities for a PhD position

texts: I know that's a very simple question but I just don't know how to start it? What will be the introductory paragraph? I am applying for a Ph.D. position related to my field and luckily I am fulfilling all the requirements for the program. I have relevant research experience and publication for the position. Long story short, I just don't want to lose this opportunity.


texts: Pointing to problems without suggesting solutions

texts:
As a peer reviewer, I sometimes feel there are issues in the manuscript but I'm not sure how they should be corrected/addressed, partly due to my inadequate expertise in those exact issues.

I also sometimes find some words/terms are incorrectly used, but as a non-native speaker I can't easily suggest alternatives.

Should I just point to such issues anyway, or ignore them since I couldn't suggest solutions?


texts:
Several recent questions on oral examinations have caused me to reflect on whether or not this particular examination tactic would be worth further investigation for my courses.

From a practical standpoint, I am stumped as to how one would go about grading an oral exam. For example, one of the key benefits of an oral exam from the student's perspective seems to be that the exam can be optimized in real time according to the student's performance; however, a well-prepared student may end up getting a relatively more challenging exam, while the ill-prepared student may receive a relatively easier exam.

All of this has me wondering:

  How would one go about grading an oral exam in a manner which is both fair and accurate?


texts:
Can a professor (let's say a math professor) do something like an internship at a tech company during the summer as a way to keep their industry skills sharp / relevant? Does anyone ever do this?

Perhaps the word "internship" is not quite right, but the idea would be to show up, be useful for 6 weeks or so, then go back to the university and teach students relevant real-world skills they'll need in industry.


texts: How frequently do pre-tenured assistant professors switch institutions?

texts:
It's interview season. I've noticed that many of the applicants in this round are already assistant professors at other institutions.

Is there any known number or record on how frequently (let's say, across North America) assistant professors who don't have tenure yet switch institutions?

The market is already incredibly competitive. The academic institution has spent thousands of dollars on hiring a candidate and wants to retain them. If an assistant professor goes to another school and gets hired, then what you might end up with is this cycle of highly-ranking candidates swirling around and leaving empty positions in their wake. Alternatively, one might presume that the hiring system must be inefficient if, in a competitive environment, a university is unable to retain its hires.

This article (and associated comments) for example, illustrates how many faculty have changed institutions for various reasons; I also know personally at least two assistant professors who left their original institution to move to a new one within the first few years of them being hired.

Depending on the answer to this question, I would have a number of follow-ups (Do schools hate it if you apply elsewhere, and would they fire you? How does a department react when a recent hire leaves? Why do people switch? Are applicants often successful? Do people switch more than once?) but I'll start with this first.


texts: How to get second chance at pursuing honours/PhD if your undergraduate grades are poor in Australia?

texts:
I recently completed a 3 year bachelor degree in Computer Science at an Australian university. I graduated with a GPA which is roughly the equivalent of a “C” in the US. I only blame the grades on my poor work ethic and wasting time studying content unrelated to my course. The pathway to a PhD in Australia is to do a 3 year Bachelors degree and then complete an honours year which involves a significant research component.

I emailed the honours coordinator and unsurprisingly, they replied that with my transcript I stand no chance. The only post I found online by someone with similar transcript got the advice that they shouldn’t even be thinking about doing honours and that it is sad enough that people with such low grades get degrees. I have tried to give up my desire to do research (in Machine Learning) because it is naive to think about doing an honours program, let alone harbour any delusions of doing a PhD.

I know at some point I’ll just have to accept the truth. But before I give up I want to fail one more time - only this time I want to give it my 100%. Is there any way to get a “second chance”? No matter what I do I feel that my transcript will forever haunt me. Even if I somehow found an honours program which would accept me (unlikely) and I managed to get straight A’s, my past grades mean that my average GPA would still be very low.  My fate is sealed, and a criminal record would be less of a burden. I want to work hard but with a best case scenario so grim I don’t know what to do.

Should I do a second bachelors degree?
Try to gain research experience (with problematic marks)?
Or just get a library membership and call it a day?


texts: How to use international experiences for a US faculty position?

texts:
I have studied and worked outside the US, now I am applying for a faculty  position in the US.

I understand that the competition is very tough, as search committees prefer candidates who have studied and worked in the US. However, I have a wide range of academic and administrative experiences, which might be unique (in comparison with other candidates).

How do search committees compare local and international candidates?
Do they care about my unique experiences? for example possibility for
building collaboration with my home country or attracting
international students?
Are my administrative experiences beneficial or it is a faculty
position and nobody cares about administrative works?

In general, how can I prove my competency? When my qualifications (publications, teaching experiences, etc) are better or as well as American candidates, how can I convince the search committee that my international credentials are comparable with the American standards?


texts:
As a guest editor of an international journal, I was supposed to handle the review process of submitted articles. Two of the reviewers do not respond even after sending couple of reminders. I had clearly mentioned about their availability and timely review process at the beginning. I aware that the reviewers are often very busy with their academic overload. Thus, it is very common about the delay. However, from editor's point of view, it has to be make sure about timely review process. So, it is ethically right to ignore the reviewers and search/assign new set of reviewers?

I have also found that some reviewers do not respond after the 2nd time submissions for a paper suggested for resubmission. Thus I have faced the similar issues with different prospect.


texts: How do institutions evaluate requests for faculty startup funds if they have never hired in the subfield before?

texts: Smaller departments typically want to hire someone with different expertise from the faculty they already have.  Suppose they have decided to advertise that they want to hire an experimentalist in an area of research with which the institution has no experience.  How do they evaluate applicants' requests for laboratory start-up funds?  Assume this is an experimental area where equipment costs are in the six figure range (USD).


texts: What do universities get from students with valuable research ideas?

texts:
I recently stumbled upon an obscure economic theory. Currently, I'm trying to understand whether or not it makes sense. If it does, I intend to build a certain simulation of the economy (using some concepts of that theory). This software will allow to better understand the economy than existing approaches. Let's assume that everything went fine and I do have a simulator of the economy in my hands, plus (someone else's) theory which explains, why it works.

The next step would be to find a scientific institution (university), which could check my findings and officially confirm that they are scientific (look through the stuff I wrote, find logical errors, verify that this is not some hocus-pocus pseudoscience etc.). Thereafter it may be much easier to spread this knowledge. A little book published by a nobody (even if it contains breakthrough knowledge) won't be noticed and its wisdom won't be applied. When the same information has been verified by some prestigious university, it's a different game (there is more trust in these findings).

If I want the university to invest resources in such check (and do it better than many professors who don't even read the theses of the students they supervise), they must have some incentive. Let's rule out money (paid by me) as such incentive.

What do universities get from sound theories developed by people who study or cooperate with them?

In other words: Imagine, some of that university's professors looks through my writing, checks how the simulator works and comes to the conclusion that it, indeed, does what I promised. No fatal flaws are discovered in the work and they agree that this method is valuable (should be researched further).

How exactly does the university, its professors, and other people doing research and teaching there benefit from this discovery?

My answers:

Better rankings. If this discovery is truly valuable, it may increase the university's prestige and help them get more (or better) students, money from public and private sponsors etc.
The professor may publish a paper (together with me). If the findings are truly new, the paper may get cited and improve the professor's h index.
The university may get consulting contracts for applying my findings to client's problems.

Notes:

I need the answer to this question in order to determine whether or not I have a chance of "selling" the cooperation with me to a university. You can only sell something, if the buyer's (university's) benefits are greater than the costs.
I have very little academic background therefore the answers above may be wrong.


texts: Content for slides of theoretical project

texts:
I was assigned a project of reading a unit of a textbook for 3 months and I need to present it by making a project report.

Since my mentor didn't ask for any hands-on, I just studied the particular unit in the textbook.

Now, I need to present my report. I am thinking of placing key theorem statements and results from that unit and explain them. Note that all of the members of the panel know that unit very well. But I'm confused yet because if I place all the statements, I can get very few slides(at most 3) and faculty may feel that I did very little work in 3 months. My colleagues are presenting their code and output screenshots etc., instead of theoretical since they did the implementation project.

So what are the contents I need to keep in my report presentation?


texts: Can publicly available datasets which are hosted in Github be used in research papers?

texts:
I am in a dilemma. I have used an old publicly available dataset for some of my analysis and want to publish it. But the problem is that it was publicly available and hosted in a website (infochimps.com) some 4 years ago. But now it's not available there and I got the data from a Github repository. It's not possible to reach the owner of the dataset as the email id given in the readme file is no longer valid. But recently there have been some analyses on the web which have used this data directly from the github repo.

So my question is can I use this data for my paper? And if yes, how to cite it?


texts: Course assessment for programming courses

texts:
Next year,
I will be teaching a course that has a significant programming component.
While I have taught other courses before,
it will be my first time teaching a programming course.
Consequently, I was wondering:
what is a typical design of the course assessment for a programming course,
e.g., intro to Java/Python programming?
In particular, how many assessment tasks are there, and how are they weighted?
The assessment tasks that I have in mind would include
individual assignments, group projects,
and individual assessment (quizzes or a final exam).
Are there other assessment tasks that are typically present in a programming course?

(I have taken a few programming courses in the past---unfortunately that was more than 10 years ago so,
so my memory of my classes is quite hazy at this point.)

Response to comment: ask your colleagues who have taught similar courses

Unfortunately,
my department is focused on an academic discipline where programming is not central,
thus, most of the courses in my department do not involve any programming at all.
Also, the course that I will be teaching is a new course
that I am in the process of developing,
thus I have a lot of freedom about deciding how to design the course assessment.
Nevertheless,
Nate Eldredge's suggestion is helpful in that I can ask the one or two colleagues in my department
who are teaching programming courses (different contexts, different languages)
how they assess students.


texts: How can someone get access to German education system with poor grades?

texts:
According to the German education system, applicants are evaluated on the basis of their immediate previous academics grades. For instance, if someone wants to do an MA, his bachelor grades are examined. Similarly, if someone wants to do a BA, his highschool grades are examined.

Now, the problem with this system is: If someone has poor grades in both high school and bachelor's, there is no way he can be admitted into the MA.

How can someone get around this issue?


texts: What should you do if a co-author has an unethical affiliation?

texts:
A person I know was in the process of publishing her first manuscript when her supervisor told her to add his newly acquired affiliation from a university in Saudi Arabia to his name. The Saudi Arabian university hired this Supervisor as guest faculty and were essentially paying him for adding them as one of the affiliated universities in all the forthcoming manuscripts.

This was of major ethical concern to my acquaintance.  In recent years, Saudi universities have been accused in multiple different prominent articles of "buying rankings" by paying prominent faculty to list them as an affiliation, even though the faculty have little real interaction with the university.  To many, this looks like simple bribery or unethical sale of reputation, particularly give the high sums of money involved.

My acquaintance was concerned that, if her advisor was listing this affiliation on her paper, then she would be aiding and abetting in this unethical behavior.  Unfortunately, her confrontation with her advisor went badly, and although she was able to publish the paper without the questionable affiliation, the relationship was destroyed and she ended up resigning the laboratory under pressure.

Now my question is this: what should a junior researcher do when they feel they are being asked to be party to "affiliation fraud" of this sort?  We would not ask a person to remain silent if they thought a co-author was being unethically added or removed.  Should unethical addition or removal of an affiliation be treated the same way?


texts: When a journal requires that the work has not been published before except as a "preprint", is an arXiv publication considered a preprint?

texts:
In the copyright transfer agreement of a journal there is the following sentence:

  "The Author warrants that the Work has not been published before in
  any form except as a preprint."

Nowhere do they mention ArXiv specifically, but does "published to ArXiv" fall under "published as a preprint"?


texts: I am a 2nd year undergraduate student. What should I do now to prepare for my PhD?

texts:
I am a 2nd year undergraduate student in Aerospace Engineering, in India. I am really willing to go into Academia as a researcher. I am specifically interested in Aerospace Controls. Some points to consider :

1) I love the fast internet access in university, so that I can research and learn all I want.

2) I have read up a few research papers regarding error reduction in GPS measurements, when I was doing a Supervised Project under a professor. Reading research papers are gruelling, but after 2-3 days of bending your mind over them and finally understanding what the author intended to say, I feel elated.
In this specific case, I read up a few algorithms and got excited on the prospect of developing my own algorithms for error reductions.

3) I have a fair academic standing with a cumulative grade point of greater than 9 out of 10

So I would like a few pointers on what I can do now, as an undergraduate student to prepare for my PhD.


texts: To work in statistics for industry and research centers, is a masters sufficient or is there a major advantage to having a PhD?

texts:
So I am inquiring general tips from experienced individuals of academia and industry.  I am a recent graduate from a top university with B.S. in math.  I had goals of doing PhD in stats, but recently changed mind.  I have a bit of family pressure to get a job and work to build income.  I am from lower middle class, and am 30 years old.  I've worked at a leading hospital and my boss encourages me to do a PhD.

However, it seems better to work full time at a company which will pay for the masters or some of it. My strategy is that at 33-35 years old, I would be working full time and working on a masters instead. Thus at this age I could have work experience, income, and a graduate degree.

It seems like an unwise choice to pursue a PhD and graduate at age 35-36 without work experience and having to start earning income.

My interests are to work in industry, and research centers. I do not believe PhDs would guarantee job security, higher wages, or happier careers.  A masters would suffice.  I argue that a PhD is not necessary.

Is my logic sensible?  On a personal note, I am quite disenchanted/burned out with higher education.


texts: When I cite examples of competitors, say like I mention that the competitors of company X are: A, B & C. Do I have to support my claim with a reference? It's just out of my personal observation that I know these are/could be the competitors of company X.


texts: Apply for PhD before finishing my Master's degree

texts:
I am now in the middle of my master's degree and I plan to graduate in August 2015. I currently study in Germany and for most engineering students here it is common to finish the five-year program (3 or 3.5 years for the bachelor's degree and 1.5 to 2 years for the master's). I'm thinking about applying for robotics PhD programs at different US universities but I noticed that most of them have a deadline in December for programs starting 9 months later. I don't have any publications in any international journals because in Germany this is mostly done by PhD students. But I have worked a lot during my studies (1 year internship, part-time research in university).

I don't want to lose one year waiting to start my PhD but in the same time I think that my master thesis will be a great asset while applying for such a program, especially when I will be willing to continue my research and PhD thesis in the same field as my master thesis. Do you think I should take the GRE and apply for next December or wait until getting my master's degree? And how this would influence the selection process.


texts: Advisor drops incoming student four weeks before Master's program starts

texts:
This is not my directly personal situation, but that of a family member who is to start a Master's program (natural science), in Canada. You are, as a rule of thumb, admitted with your advisors specified on the offer of admission.

Their primary advisor (with whom I happen to have professional ties) has abruptly resigned from the university to take an administrative position elsewhere. For them, it is a great career move. However, this advisor is contractually unable to start new projects in January, so they have dropped the family member as a student. The secondary advisor appears to have done the same because they lack expertise in half of the project area. The primary advisor further says that the project is cancelled; the project was in collaboration with a government body which would have provided funding.

From what I've gathered so far, it might be possible to get the collaboration going if another prof would be supervising but it looks like a Hail Mary option. The department that Master's was to be done in is very small and the profs have fairly different areas of expertise. Going with a different advisor and project would mean (a) finding funding in three weeks (b) a radical shift in research area and (c) finding a prof who can take on an extra student.

This opportunity arose slightly in part from my ties to the original primary advisor. I would be able to advise my family member during the Master's based on my expertise in the field (this is the field of expertise that the original secondary adviser lacks, whereas I have a Ph.D. in the broad topic) but a formal supervision, aside from my not having any formal link to the university, is completely out of the question! So, if a prof could be found that would be comfortable with such an arrangement where I informally assist my family member with the parts that the adviser (original secondary or otherwise) is shaky on, that could be an option. And precisely for this reason everything seems like a Hail Mary!

As it stands so right now, my family member is being completely screwed over by the original primary advisor out of the money and an education. I have in addition advised my family member to go see the university's ombudsman to see what they think or advise. Otherwise, I myself am out of ideas, because the options I can think of so far are long-shot Hail Marys.

What else can be done here?


texts: When should a source be marked as available online?

texts:
Short background: I'm a first year undergrad student and one of our study untis aims to educate us on academic reading and writing, including citation styles. Our Faculty requested we use the IEEE standard.

We have to gather the bibliographic data for some articles and books given to us. Two of these are articles (one is a journal article and one is a magazine article), each having a DOI and each having a PDF version available for purchase.

Would these two have to be marked as available online (with the doi/url) given or are there other conditions for these to be marked as availble online?

Better yet, to generalise the question, what are the conditions to have a source marked as available online (thereby also providing the DOI/URL of the source)?

By "marked online" I mean that the bibliography citation would have [Online] in the case of the IEEE standard


texts: How does a candidate look like when he applies for another PhD program while being enrolled in a program?

texts:
Suppose, someone is enrolled in a PhD program in a university 'X' in, say, Serbia (totally hypothetical and suits my analogy).

After one year, after publishing 5-6 research papers, he thought that a West-European or North American PhD has greater brand value. So, he applies for a different PhD program in the same discipline/topic.

How would the selection committee perceive about this particular candidate as opposed to someone just came out of a masters degree?


texts: Should I include the proposed method name in manuscript Keywords section?

texts:
The JASA manuscript template contains the Keywords section to insert 3-6 keywords. Is it appropriate to insert there the proposed method name as one of the Keywords?

If yes, should I use method's acronym (well-sounded but not self-explanatory, a 5 letters-long word) or the full name (4 words)?


texts: Should a professor require students to attend classes well past their listed times?

texts:
I'm currently in an undergraduate class that is focused on doing group presentations. This class has a total of around 80 students, in groups of 4. Every two to three weeks we are required to present a 10-15 minute slide show on a specific topic to the class. The issue is our professor does not want people going on different days, because he feels it gives an unfair advantage. On the course schedule the class runs from 1810-1930, however on presentation days he expects all students to sign in at the start of class and sign again at the end of presentations (which seem to run until around 2200).

We've tried to talk with the professor about how late classes are running during presentation days and his solution was to move them to Saturdays from 0800-1200 (but keep the normal class times during the week). He is refusing to break presentations up over multiple days and falls back on the fact he let everyone know this would happen during the first week of class and we had ample time to drop the course.

Is this expected behavior for a large class focused on multiple group presentations? It's too late to drop the course (this wasn't really an option from the start since it's one of the few upper level classes offered this semester), so is this a case of just suck it up and deal or should I bring this up to my department?


texts: How to explain to letter writers that I want to apply to completely different PhD programs?

texts:
I am not entirely sure yet what I will want to do: It will either by subject A or subject B. Those to subject have very little to do with each other though. (Say one is history of art, the other one political science)

I have decided to apply to programs in both fields and decide later where I would like to go to, depending also on where I would get in.

I am worried, however, what my letter writers are going to think? Is it possible that I will look less determined because of this and consequently get weaker letters? Any advice on how to go about such a situation? Shall I just be completely open about this and tell them that i am unsure?


texts:
I'm currently halfway though my interviews for tenure-track computer science faculty positions in the US. I've been offered a really great postdoc opportunity. I want to take up the postdoc and defer the start date of my faculty position by a year.

The trouble is that the postdoc wants a definite answer from me soon and they have said that I should get approval from the places where I have interviews. I feel like it is premature to discuss deferring an offer before I even have one. Potentially it will look bad.

How do I delicately raise this issue with the places I am interviewing at? Or should I simply accept the postdoc and deal with the deferral problem later if and when it arises? I assume this situation is pretty common and someone can tell me how this is usually dealt with.


texts: How to find out who were the reviewers of an article?

texts:
I understand the concept of (peer-)reviewing as helpful to guarantee a good quality result. Clearly it makes sense that journal articles are reviewed by someone before publication. Yet, what I am still unclear about is who the reviewers are? The focus of this question is not who can peer-review articles, as I am not interested in who qualifies for being a reviewer, but rather about how to find out about the actual people having been involved in the review process?

It disappoints me to not be furnished with a list of the reviewers as it would help me tell if the article is likely to be well-reviewed or not. In academia, where reputation is paramount, it would seem imperfect if the people behind the reviews are kept secret. Yet I have not yet encountered a list of reviewers for a specific article and the best place to put this information seems to be with the article itself.

Another worthwhile information connected to it would be the number of reviewers. After all the more people investing time into a review of some contribtion the higher I assume to be the chances that flaws and problems become corrected and again the more interesting the contribution may become. Since unfortunately there is an excess of publications from people needing to make a career and reading through all of those articles constitutes an obstacle more than an accelaration of the scientific progress.


texts: How to politely decline the university medal?

texts:
I have studied in an Australian university and throughout my university studies, I declined all prizes awarded to me. It is not that I have had something against my university but it is due to my own ethical values. I believe that a true scholar should have no interest in fame and prizes and that is exactly the reason I declined all the prizes given to me so far (I want to remain a true scholar).

It's not that I see myself superior to others in any way; indeed, I always claimed to be the dumbest student in my university. If it takes someone 10 minutes to understand a math theorem, it would take me at least 3 hours to understand it properly.  Some people unfortunately misinterpret my statement:

  I believe that a true scholar should have no interest in fame and
  prizes and that is exactly the reason I declined all the prizes given
  to me so far (I want to remain a true scholar).

I did not mean in any way, that someone who accepts prizes is not a true scholar and if that is the message conveyed by my statement, then I apologize from the bottom of my heart. This statement only applies to me; if I accept prizes, then I think that I am better than others and because of this I decline prizes because I want to remain a true scholar. I do not want to feel superior to others. This will make me not work hard. Some people said that I am following Perelman's footsteps. I honestly do not even consider myself a successful student; how could I dare to compare myself to Perelman. I am only an ordinary dumb student.

I just received an email from the university that this July (my graduation ceremony), they will award the university medal to me. I am going to decline the university medal but I am not sure what is the best way to do this politely so that the academics at my university will not be offended.

Update: After discussing this with the dean of my faculty, I agreed to accept the university medal. It will be annotated in my academic transcript, record, and testamur. This helps my Phd admission chances in the top 10 universities (something I was told by academics at my university).


texts: Is it OK to use fonts, i.e bold, italic, in an email to a professor or to any other academic?

texts:
Is it acceptable or appropriate to use fonts, i.e bold, italic, in an email to an academic in order to do emphasise or organise the text ?

or would it be perceived as offensive ?


texts: Should I do anything when I see several references that are not used in the text?

texts:
In a linguistics paper I read, I noticed that several references in the bibliography are not actually used in the text. This is for about 10-15% of the references the case. Should I do anything with this?
I always thought that all references must be used in the text, because even if they are just suggestions for further reading you would want some explanation why it is relevant and what you can find where.

I only know the author through their work and do not know the editors. The paper is from 2011. The references are rather general. They are relevant to the paper, but you would want page numbers with them unless you are familiar with them. They are all from different authors and different institutes. It is likely that the references were used in previous versions of the text.


texts: Documentation control to prevent plagarism

texts: I am current working on a research paper with a few other members. Are there good online documentation control tools where work contribution of different members can be tracked?


texts: Recommendation from institutional email or private?

texts:
I recently went to a summer program. Now, I’m asking my mentor there for a recommendation for college. The email account she uses for all correspondences related to the program is private (Gmail). The institution she works at is not related to the summer program in any way. Now, the college asks for the letter to be sent through institutional email accounts (letters from private accounts will be subject to further review).

She wouldn’t be sending the letter in her capacity as professor at the college she works at, but rather as mentor in the program, an institution in itself.

So should I ask her to send it through her private or institutional email account?


texts: Comparing a career in medicine vs. medical research?

texts: My friend recently graduated with a bachelor degree in biology. He is thinking that he can help more people by studying a biomedical engineering Ph.D., rather than becoming a medical doctor.  He is wondering, however, about the differences between these two paths from a career perspective.  What the advantages and disadvantages of an academic career vs. a medical career?


texts: How are British PhDs looked upon in the United States?

texts: Assuming I got a PhD in Computer Science from Oxford or Cambridge University, how would that affect my chances at becoming a professor at a top US university versus getting a PhD from a top US institution? Assuming also that I had US citizenship?


texts: UK Higher Education Academic Teaching Qualification

texts:
I have come across a few questions similar to the following during academic job application process at UK HEIs. I think I understand and I am aware of the choices from 2 to 10. However, option 1 confuses me, I'll be more specific below.

  Please indicate if you have successfully completed a higher education
  teaching qualification or any other relevant teaching qualification

  Successfully completed an institutional provision in teaching in the higher education sector accredited against the UK Professional
  Standards Framework
  Recognised by the HEA as an Associate Fellow
  Recognised by the HEA as a Fellow
  Recognised by the HEA as a Senior Fellow
  Recognised by the HEA as a Principal Fellow
  Holder of a National Teaching Fellowship Scheme Individual Award
  Holder of a PGCE in secondary education, further education, lifelong learning or any other equivalent qualification
  Accredited as a teacher of their subject by a professional body
  Other accreditation or qualification in teaching in the higher education sector
  Overseas accreditation or qualification for any level of teaching

When I was a PhD student at a UK university, I completed a one-day workshop on “Survival Skills in Teaching” which was required before I could be TA. So, does this training satisfy option 1? In addition, I have attended two to three days faculty development trainings overseas (outside UK). Do these trainings allow me to pick any of the choices?

I will much appreciate if anyone could shed some light on this.


texts:
I can't seem to find the answer online.

If no, can I assume no one would ever need to? I haven't looked at sample GREs yet because I haven't tried any yet, and I don't want these exams compromised when I take it in the future. I tried a 10-number GRE and thought it would be helpful to have a calculator for

$$\binom{5}{3}$$


texts: How should you cite dead urls in a thesis?

texts:
I am currently writing a thesis. In the related work part I am discussing a paper from a few years ago. The paper presents several web applications which were available back then. Hence, these applications are referenced via footnotes in this paper. Unfortunately, some applications were shutdown, hence, the URL is not working anymore.

How should I proceed, when mentioning these applications in my text? If the URLs would still be online, I would (as in the original paper) add a footnote which shows the URL + the date/time when I accessed the url. But how should I do it knowing that the URL cannot be reached anymore?

I can see two options as of now, but both don't really satisfy me:

Just do nothing, that is, no footnote whatsoever
Use an archived version of the URL from the web archive (web.archive.org) instead of the original URL. If this is a good solution, then I think it would be necessary to state in the footnote something along the lines of "due to the discontinuation of the application the original URL is down and that we provide an archived version of the URL...". If this is a good solution, I would like to know a proper formulation of the statement about why an archived version is provided.


texts: How do I go about publishing a paper without a university affiliation?

texts:
I graduated with a B.S. degree and I have been working in industry for a few years as a software engineer. I am very interested in reinforcement learning, a sub-field of machine learning, and I am interested in performing research and publishing a paper on that topic.

The problem is, in my city there are no professors working in this field (or related fields) who could help me. I contacted other professors in different cities and they rejected my help request for a variety of reasons (such as I am not their student, they don't know me, they are busy, etc.).

Still, I want to perform research and publish a paper. I can't attend school as a full time student and my collaboration requests were not successful. Given all that, how can I publish by myself?

How to choose a research topic?
Should I read all the papers on this field?
How to decide which problem to work on or which is not obsolete? I don't want to work on something which no one is interested in.
Should I read and study all the prerequisite material, or fill in the gaps during research efforts?


texts: How do I handle a Program Officer who simply will not execute an awarded contract?

texts:
I have been awarded a US DoD contract, which is stuck on the desk of the Program Officer. I have spoken to this individual, and indeed had positive conversations. However, for the last 15 (!) months this contract has remained unfunded. This individual's support personnel have joined me in rallying them to get it done. They have also advised me that the funds are available, sitting in an account, ready to be dispersed to my laboratory. This has not happened.

Individuals in my laboratory who were to be involved in this research have moved on, and indeed my lab is moving in new directions. It is a large enough award, however, on a topic that I value enough to continue attempting to find movement forward. Further, the award was reported in my tenure argument, which is due in the near future. I would prefer not to have a caveat in that regard.

How can I better handle the situation?


texts: Why do big companies ask for conference instead of journal publications?

texts:
It is generalized that journal publications are normally more complete research papers than those in conference proceedings. However, when applying for a job in the industry, most companies (e.g. Facebook) ask for first-authored publications at peer-reviewed conferences (e.g. ICRA, RSS, IROS, or similar).
Why is this? Are these top conferences more valuable than top journals like Nature or Science from an industrial standpoint? Why could this be?


texts:
I'm an undergraduate mathematics student finishing my degree.  I plan to go to grad school, and ultimately aspire to become a professor.  I really like tattoos, but I'm hesitant to get one because it could affect my future job.

Of course, if I did get one, it would be discrete and innocent.  What I really want is the axioms from ZFC wrapped around my upper arm.

I'm very interested in hearing people's thoughts on tattoos in the workplace, particularly from people who work in mathematics.  Do you think it is acceptable?  How would you judge someone based on their tattoos?  Do any of you have tattoos?  What are your experiences?


texts: A few students requesting to cancel lectures due to their personal reasons. What should I do?

texts:
I give lectures to postgraduate students. The number of students in this batch is very low (< 20). The lectures are foundation lectures for the course. We are only into the basics of the course.

A few (maybe 4) students of this batch are requesting to cancel two lectures as they won't be available for personal reasons. In fact, they are going to attend a workshop. In my university, attending workshops that are not fully recommended by the department is considered 'personal interest'.

One option is to ignore their request and ask them to study the topics covered during the lectures or with the help of students present during the lectures. If they could study these topics themselves or with friends, they wouldn't have requested me to cancel these lectures.

What should I do in this case?

I could ask this question to my head of the department, but, I don't know how this will turn out for students. They should not feel that they were not allowed by the head to attend this workshop.

I do understand that there will be variations of opinions on my question as per the different academic rules of universities but I still want some insights from experienced academicians.


texts: Is it dishonest to start a PhD with intent to leave it and transfer to another program?

texts:
I just finished my master and am about to start a funded PhD in October. Thing is that the reason I am doing this PhD is because I missed the deadlines for the PhDs that I am truly interested in. I was thinking that it would be better to do something academic this year and get paid than to do nothing until the next application cycle.

Is this extremely dishonest to start a PhD without the intention to finish it? Will this put me on some blacklist at that university?
How should I portray my position in my other PhD applications? I was thinking of saying that I was doing a funded student placement program or something?


texts: Is is inappropriate to bring a +1 to a gradate school recruiting weekend?

texts:
I have a recruiting/visit weekend coming up for one of my prospective PhD programs (to which I've already been admitted). Travel is covered, and my hotel is paid for. Food is provided the entire weekend. I had intended to bring my girlfriend. She is my SO of 6 years; we live together and moving somewhere for school would be a big decision on both of our parts and she really should be visiting the city/school before I accept anything.

She of course doesn't need specific details about every aspect of the program, as I will no doubt receive, or to meet faculty, and of course the university has no reason to pay for her weekend. My parents also were hinting that they wanted to come, but that's an even bigger stretch, it seems.

Am I overthinking this? Or is it really not appropriate to be bringing a +1 to a recruiting weekend. I can always bring my family members there soon after to show them around.


texts: The use of words such as "clearly", "obviously" etc. in a technical paper

texts: Is there any hidden rule for using the words "clearly", "obviously" or similar ones in a technical paper? It can be offensive to the readers in many cases (especially in mathematical proofs), since the reader may not find it "clear" or "obvious". But does that mean that we should completely avoid the use of these words?


texts: How do you join programme committees for conferences?

texts: For most conferences in my field it seems to be invitation-only, i.e. somebody has to suggest you/remember you. Are there any conferences that have open calls for applications to the programme committee?


texts:
I am an international student who has been admitted to a graduate program in US. I am collecting information about the study plan. For example, what courses can be taken? How many courses can I take outside the department? Any typical study route for reference? Can I work with more than 1 professor on research?

There is a study plan in our college.

I Googled around, but I can only find very rough information about the general policy on the website, which I went through several months ago. What I need is detail.

Question:
What is the equivalent of the study plan in America? How can I collect information about the study plan of a graduate program?


texts: Experiences with Scientific Research Publishing (SCIRP) journals

texts:
Recently I've been receiving an increasing number of invitations to submit papers to several new Open-Access journals published by Scientific Research Publishing (SCIRP).

Has anybody here had any direct interactions with any of their journals? If so, what is your opinion?

I googled around a bit and they do not seem to be an exceedingly serious outfit. Although I have no intention of publishing there, I think this discussion may be useful for others receiving the same, or similar, invitations.


texts: Sending email to editor about reason of rejection of paper

texts:
My manuscript was rejected without sending to peer review, of course the editor whom I sent my paper is an expert in my field and he rejected it without any report. (it took one and half month with editor). Just the editor in chief told that the editor can not recommend this paper to publish in Journal X. Now I want to ask about sending another email to Editor to ask about his suggestions on my paper. For example, if he recommend another journal or some advice on improving my paper? Can I send such direct email to him?

  The editor who rejected my paper is the editor of several journals, what about  sending my paper to him through other journals' which he is on editorial board as well?


texts:
Please allow me to ask for suggestion about no recommendation problem.
I graduated my master with distinction and my paper was published in nation wide journal, everything seems to be perfect. But after the graduation,  my thesis supervisor has a personal problem with me and we've never talked since then. So now I want to apply for PhD and when it comes to recommendation, I really don't know what to do and I don't think my supervisor will write a good thing about me since we are in personal conflict.

Do you have any suggestion for this situation?


texts: Cite page of paper vs page of proceedings

texts:
I am currently writing my thesis and I use several papers that are available als single PDFs like this one

I did not want to write the bibtex on my own, so I searched online and found this:

@inproceedings{Rozinat:2005:CTM:2179586.2179604,
 author = {Rozinat, A. and van der Aalst, W. M. P.},
 title = {Conformance Testing: Measuring the Fit and Appropriateness of Event Logs and Process Models},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Business Process Management},
 series = {BPM'05},
 year = {2006},
 isbn = {3-540-32595-6, 978-3-540-32595-6},
 location = {Nancy, France},
 pages = {163--176},
 numpages = {14},
 url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/11678564_15},
 doi = {10.1007/11678564_15},
 acmid = {2179604},
 publisher = {Springer-Verlag},
 address = {Berlin, Heidelberg},
}

The problem: When citing a particular page of this paper, I use the page number of the single article PDF because I don't have access to the proceedings book as cited in my bibtex file.

Is this a valid practice or should the page number equal the page number in the proceedings book?

If not, how would a correct bibtex look for this single PDF?


texts:
I have started a PhD on a subject I have quite some industry research experience, just to get the title.

My approach to the PhD is to come up with a novel solution or method and tell all about it on a paper (the sexy, the good, and the bad) as an independent observer. However my tutors seem to be uneasy with my approach and they claim that for a paper to be publishable I should omit/minimize the bad things, although they know that doing so is bad science.

I have the impression that people in the academia might have formulas for writing publishable papers. After all, to publish seems to be the only valid metric in Academia.

I would appreciate if someone could point out some of the non-written rules. That would help me to avoid the frustration it causes me the writing of academic articles.

Thanks.

PS: I ask this because I want to avoid ending up like this folk.


texts: Asking University for quick admissions decison

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So I have received an offer from a school (University A) which requires I send my decision to join them by a deadline, coming soon. While the other school (University B) still hasn't decided.

Should I inform the admissions committee of University B by email so that they can send their decisions quickly? If so is it a better idea to share with them the admission letter of University A? University B requires a supervisor that approves students for admission. Should I tell my prospective supervisor about this?


texts: Why do the rankings from U.S. News & World Report list some schools twice?

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The 2014 rankings of US statistics doctoral programs compiled by the U.S. News & World Report lists a few of the schools twice. I assume that the rankings are probably for different types of statistics programs (Harvard for example has both a statistics department but also a very good School of Public Health, which I'm sure has a biostatistics program), but the methodology section does not address this problem and I am doing research which requires analysis of this list.

Question:  Why are some schools listed twice in the rankings?

I cannot request this information from U.S. News & World Report directly because they only release this information to university officials.


texts: Professor uploaded a recommendation meant for university 'A' to a different university 'B'

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There are 2 universities that I was applying to for a PhD program. Lets call them 'A' and 'B'.
The professor, who was writing a recommendation for me, uploaded the recommendation, meant for university 'A', to university 'B' and the one meant for university 'B' to university 'A'.

This error was realized by the professor after I had already submitted the entire application, so I cannot remove the recommendation from my application and request a new one.

So my queries are:

Can I/Should I drop a mail to the graduate program stating such as happened and request a new link(or something along those lines)?
If the situation is not rectified, how does that reflect onto my application?


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I am having a personal crisis and I thought maybe I should ask for some guidance in this forum.

I have been in grad school in 4 years, failed qualifiers once passed at second attempt. I am dedicated to my math-intensive research area, queueing theory, yet I still feel I am far away of being an expert in it. I have only almost finished a paper, that requires feedback from my advisor but I feel I am a big failure. My advisor thinks that I am ready to propose my thesis (thus make an early presentation to committee) next month and possibly graduate next summer. The trouble is, although I respect his opinion, even if I do get my PhD I think I will feel like I don't deserve it. It is as if I hit the magic 4 year landmark and being allowed to graduate.

Now, publication record may not be the only indicator as in my department people don't publish as much as in other fields. When I look at some good thesis's I feel that mine can be considered as masters (personal not confirmed opinion). In retrospect, all the proofs I stuggled seem so easy to me. Although I never considered acedemia as a career path and only consider industry, I more and more feel that I am a failure and will have achieved so little in the last years. I have been always aware of the challenges of grad school but I feel I messed up somewhere considering I work 10 hours each day, at most a day off weekends and having no time left to cultivate my interests, develop new friendships or develop other useful skills.

Maybe I should also mention that I am doing my studies in a top 20 US university, people mostly have the impression that I am smart, and I am aware that I have learnt so much during the last 4 years. I have read many books on productivity, learnt about Feynman's method, watched TED videos. I started going to gym to manage my stress and I think that smartness is a matter of knowledge and I have the capacity to be smart. I don't regret going for a PhD but on the other hand I can't stop feeling like I wasted my years in going grad school and maybe should have just gone to a mundane job where I'd have time to read about architecture, finance or philosopy and be a much more interesting person.

Does anyone share or shared the same feelings? Any advice to people in my situation? Any help appreciated


texts: I am non-tenured and have been offered a tenure-track position at my current university, but I don't want to stay here long term. What should I do?

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I work at a midwestern university in a very small department in a specialised field in the Humanities. I've been working here as a non-tenure track assistant professor, and have been offered a TT position.
I genuinely dislike the place I live in, not for aesthetic or social reasons, but because I have experienced racial harassment fairly consistently since last year (the area is extremely conservative, and does not look kindly on difference of any kind. I'm brown, female and immigrant). It got so bad I had to file a police report against someone who had been harassing me at my apartment. That's not the only instance, though. I've been abused on the streets and told to 'Go back home where I come from, you b*&T*h' while out running. Among other things.

I was offered an extension on my non-TT contract a while back and would give anything to go back to the non-TT track with the possibility of leaving for another TT position outside the university after an undoubtedly difficult application season or two.

I'm happy to continue working here, as I like teaching here, but I can't do this for another 20 years, which is what my department head talks about when he refers to the tenure track. I don't think I can live or work here for that long, no matter how nice it is to be wanted in the department. I've tried approaching him with a long list of the encounters I've had here, and he seems genuinely nice, but also said that there is nothing he can do, which I understand. Most faculty I discuss this with keep telling me to 'forget the racism, it's just a few idiots'. I can't be quite that sanguine about it. They don't seem to understand the psychological effects of living in a place where you run the risk of harassment every time you step out of the house.

And yes, I get that the market is bad. By dint and design, however, I work on a rather niche subject which IS rather marketable.

I am rather anxious about taking this offer, and was wondering what to do. Any tips or advice would be much appreciated.


texts: Can my Specialist degree be equalized to Bachelor degree?

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I have graduated from Russian university after 5 years of education and got a Specialist degree (Engineer in Computer Science). According to Wikipedia, Specialist is a four-tier degree and stands right above Master degree in some specialities. But despite graduation requirements and due to the duration, I suggest, it can only be put right above Bachelor degree. So the next step I should take is to continue my education to then get Master degree. Is my suggestion right? Or do I think about it wrong way?

If it helps or is necessary, I'm planning to continue education in Canadian university.


texts: How does a Professor contact another professor regarding a PhD student?

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I sent my CV to a Professor regarding a PhD position. He asked me to send the name of three referees. I could have sent him the names, but here is an issue.
I have worked in Germany for 2 years as a research assistant and then I moved to my home country and worked here for almost 4 years and published papers in reputed journals. Logically I think I should include the names of my current supervisors or the supervisors I have published works with.
But the professor (I am applying to) is originally from Germany, currently residing in Canada. He asked me to include three referees from Germany.
Is there any specific reason that he asked specifically for references from that country? Also, how do professors usually communicate? Do they call or send emails? Are they more comfortable if they are from the same country?


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In the UK, for grant-holders there is an annual need to report all publications via ResearchFish to the UK government. In mathematics, it is confusing which papers should be included. Do I include arxiv postings? Papers that have been published since the onset of the grant? Both? I want to do the most ethical thing, but these lines seem much more blurred in mathematics--there's times where papers will take >2 years to get published so the "products" from a grant would be shunted to the next grant, etc.

Do I put in work that was started before the grant and then was finished during the grant?
Do I include arxiv postings?
Do I include published work that was on the arxiv before the grant started?

Thank you for your time.


texts: What are the differences between the Statements of Purpose for Terminal Masters and Ph.Ds?

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When applying graduate schools, what is the difference in the elements that go into writing a SoP for a Masters program vs. writing a SoP for a Ph.D. program.

As background, I'm looking into Computer Science graduate programs.


texts: Is your advisor allowed to read your emails?

texts: In a typical workplace (North America), it is accepted that all communications through your work email are not personal property, and can be accessed by managers, IT department etc. Is this also true for graduate students? Assuming the student works in an university or research institute, the IT department obviously will have access to all emails. Does this also hold for advisors/supervisors? Are they allowed to, or typically have access to student emails?


texts: How to learn to make a meaningful study without having an academical background?

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I am an autist who had been in therapie for 8 years. In that therapie I learned a lot about my own and later about others psychology. I also developed over the years an tendency to just experiment with my own and others perception of situations/interactions and evaluating the differences/similarity of different people's reaction. The amount of information I was able to gain and by that learn from it made me become kind of an experimenter by heart what started taking over to all aspects of my life.

Very often, I had already an idea of doing an experiment I should document because it might be interesting (but not meaningful) for others aswell, but I decided not to, as I had no idea how to do it.

Now through all the therapies I had and especially in group therapies, I figured a really big problem in getting an autism diagnosis is that the criteria for the diagnose are kinda subjective and many therapists hesitate to give it, as its hard for them to give a final judgement if someone has autism or not. I have an idea how this process could be improved by giving the therapists additional backup, so they could make a decision with more certainty and hence reduce the hesitation in the process of giving an autism diagnosis. I talked already with my therapist about my idea and he agreed that the idea sounds very interesting but that he knows from his field, that there are so many different opinions on what are the important criteria for an autism diagnosis, that my idea couldn't be generally applied due to the fact that it had to be individually phrased for anyone to find acceptance.

After that conversation I couldn't anymore let go the idea of making a study proofing that my idea would work. So far, I have an aim with that study, which would be improving the required time and precision of spotting the presence or absence of the criteria required for making an autism diagnosis.
I have a concept of how my idea could universally be applied in form of a questionnaire (despite I haven't considered yet, what questions had to be asked in specific). And I have an vague idea of how to design an experiment that possibly would proof (or disprove) the premise of my idea.

What from my understanding should be enough to (dis)proof a concept.

Now the only thing that prevents me from doing this study is, I have no idea how to perform such a study in a way that it has any means. I don't know how to check what related research others had already done or if someone made this study already before I did. I have no idea how to figure whats the threshold of candidates to participate in my study had to be, so the result is meaningful. I have no idea how to avoid or spot irregularitys in the results of the study. And I have no idea how to actually reach out to possible candidates wanting to participate in that study. As the around 30 other autists I know from which I could be lucky if half of them was interested to participate, I suspect by far wouldn't be enough for getting an meaningful result.

tl&dr

So my question is, if I have no academical background and don't know how to design a study in its detail, how could I learn or find help for doing so outside of academia?


texts: How should a student handle possible misconduct in his supervisor's work?

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Given that you just read your supervisor's dissertation because it is important for your research. As you have already conducted a fairly broad literature review about the subject some time ago, you start to notice that your supervisor's work appears familiar to you. While skimming through the relevant papers, you are able to identify some large parts of your supervisor's dissertation that were invented before. Those parts are not properly marked, and/or your supervisor's (suggested) improvements seem to be fairly trivial and insignificant - at least in your opinion.

Would you suggest to approach the supervisor with your findings?


texts: Is it a good idea to introduce myself via email after submitting application?

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I am asking this question on behalf of my brother, who has recently submitted applications to several Physician Assistant programs around the U.S. For various reasons, his GPA is close to the minimum level; but he has strengths elsewhere. Therefore, he is worried that the schools may discard his application in the first round, without getting the full picture.
In order to improve his chances, he is considering to send an introduction email (or any sort of email) to the schools in order to introduce himself, so that they don't see him as Applicant # 3143.
Would this be a good idea? If so, what sort of email would be good to send?
Thank you very much.


texts: Applying for industry jobs: how early do you submit job applications?

texts: I've heard conflicting advice on this, from 6 months prior to graduation all the way to "wait until after you've graduated so you can start immediately". On the one hand you don't want to give yourself too little time to interview, but on the other I understand that employers may want you to start immediately to fill a need.  Is there anything rude/impolite/weird about applying for a job knowing that you won't be able to accept an offer for several months?  Do companies routinely wait on Ph.D.'s to finish?


texts: How does someone with C's and F's in graduate-level courses and A's and B's in undergraduate courses get admitted to a PhD program?

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I am currently the BA undergraduate math major (4th year), and I got ~3.3 cumulative GPA.  I'm the average student who likes math a lot, so I took more than 10 graduate courses and higher division undergraduate courses in mathematics.  For two courses, I received two C grades in those graduate courses by the same professor (hard exams and finals).  I attempted to get better grade in one of those courses, but received the F (because of super hard final and midterm, and because of the same professor).  For the undergraduate courses, I got mostly A's and one B+.

Though I still have time to maximize my chance to get into math PhD program by (probably) research experience and great letters of recommendation, I believe that I am more likely not to get into the program (because low grades greatly affect my application).  However, I have one question to ask: is it REALLY over for me to get into PhD math program if I receive bad grades in these courses or not?  I don't have lots of time to retake such courses, and if I do I will have to waste all money and time on doing so.

I don't aim to get into top-notch universities with excellent PhD programs, like Harvard University.  All I expect is a good PhD program for me.


texts: Should I accept this invitation to conference PC?

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I have received an e-mail inviting me to join the program committee (PC) of a well-established and renowned conference in computer science.
The e-mail looks genuine, based on the sender address and the links provided to accept the invitation.

However, I do not directly know the guy writing to me (though he seems to be a respectable researcher, after I googled his name), and the e-mail is not tailored at all on my profile: it looks automatically generated, and does not specify at all why they chose me.

Is that normal, or should that ring some bells?

Thanks in advance.


texts: Discussing diversity and underrepresented groups in personal history statement for PhD application

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I am applying for a PhD program in US. The university has asked to address the following in personal history statement:

  How your perspectives or activities contribute to social or cultural diversity and/or make you sensitive to the experiences of underrepresented groups

Honestly, the statement does not make sense. What is social or cultural diversity? Why it is important? Who are exactly underrepresented groups? What is experiences of underrepresented groups? I would be grateful if someone help me to understand this statement and give some examples about it. Many thanks.


texts: Employment Contract Negotiation and Graduate School (Computer Science)

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Is it possible to negotiate employment contracts to include sponsorship for graduate school? For example, accepting the job and school on the terms that the job will pay for Master's and I would be contractually obliged to work for the company after I get my degree?

Is this a common thing, I do not want to be in a position where my contract gets taken off of the table for asking an unreasonable thing.

(The Master's would be absolutely relevant to the engineering position at the company)


texts:
I'm currently a second year undergraduate student in mathematics and I'll have finished all my degree requirements two years early, but I'm at an absolutely great department so I don't want to graduate ASAP because I have a lot of opportunities here.

However, out of curiosity, I want to know if in a year or so if I could apply to graduate school and see if I can get in, and if I do, go, since I will have the option to graduate, or otherwise try again the year after. Is this frowned upon? Especially if I'll be applying to some of the same places twice? I'll probably be taking prelim courses anyway, so the course load isn't something I'd be missing out on, but the department is.


texts: To apply for a PhD. position, should I first contact the professor I like to work with or publish a couple of papers and then make attempts?

texts: I plan to apply for a PhD position, but I don't know where should I exactly start that process. I know that I should have an SOP and a proposal for that. But should I first contact the professor I like to work with, the postgraduate studies section of the universities, or publish a couple of papers before making all such attempts?


texts: IELTS - How is the exam handed to students?

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My wife and I are taking the IELTS exam in a few days and this question just occurred to me - When taking the test, do students receive the whole listening/reading/writing package or do they receive individual sections as they finish the previous section?

I ask because during my practice sessions, I realized that I would usually finish the listening and reading sections a few minutes before the time limit. On the other hand, I always finish my essay in the writing section only one or two minutes before the time limit.
Therefore, by the end of the listening/reading sections I usually end up with a combined ~6-minute spare time. I would love to use that extra time to plan and actually write my essay, but that would not work if we can only do one section at a time.

So, how does the exam work? Do students receive all the sections to answer at their own pace Or do they receive individual sections, only receiving the next section after the previous one is finished?


texts: Can I ask for payment if my employer wants to use my dissertation?

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I completed my PhD research as an industry based researcher. My employer was fully aware of my research. There was no support given by the employer other than encouragement. However, I used the company information which I had access to as part of my role. My employer had no objection and I was extremely careful of the disclosure I made.

I have now completed my PhD and graduated. My  dissertation is publicly available on my university website. A google search can bring it up too.

QUESTION: If my employer wants to use my dissertation, would it be ethical for me to ask for a payment?

EDIT: To clarify some comments below, my company wants to use my dissertation as part of an advocacy campaign.


texts: PhD. in the US directly after European BSc., or is it better to go for a MSc. at first?

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I'm currently in the final year of my BSc. in physics and the second year of my BSc. in mathematics at a university in german-speaking Europe. I'll have my degrees finished in summer 2018.
Eventually, I'd like to end up in theoretical or mathematical physics research (most probably gravitational physics) and would love to experience some time at a foreign university. Firstly, since my university is stronger in the experimental field and has a relatively small theory group and secondly for the sake of broadening my horizon. The US (or generally Northern America) would be particularly interesting, because of the somewhat "more open" research culture, in comparison to a highly bureaucratic and kind of inert (and often poorly financed) apparatus in german-speaking part of Europe (and probably in the whole EU - at least that's my naive perception of it, or am I wrong in this?).
I read that the PhD. in the US is a bit different to the one in Europe, e.g.  that a MSc. is kind of integrated in the coursework-heavy first one or two years of a US PhD. Nevertheless, there are some interesting MSc. programs in Europe, e.g. in Edinburgh or at the ETH in Zurich.
So, my questions would be (from a rational/scientific-career point of view):

Is it reasonable to go for a PhD. directly after a BSc. in the US? Or would it be more sensible to pursue a MSc. in Europe first and only then head for a PhD. in the US?
Small side question for physicists since I'm just researching into this: Which universities in Northern America have a strong gravitational physics department (aside from Stanford and Princeton)?


texts: Transcribing non-native speakers of English who are presenters at an international conference?

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An international conference on sericulture will be held in Japan soon, and I need to create a transcription of the oral presentations. There will be 10 to 20 presentations, and almost all speakers will likely be non-native speakers of English.

I have little experience listening to non-native speakers. Also, I’ve only transcribed interviews so far. Do you think I can transcribe the presentations myself, or would it be a huge hassle?  Should I use a transcription service? I want to save money if I can. Transcribing half of it myself and hiring a transcription service for the other half might be the way.

I record the presentations then transcribe at home. The language of the conference is English.

I would appreciate any advice!


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I am in an interesting situation, I have a masters degree in electrical engineering but have been working as a software engineer for about 10 years. I have a lot of interest in doing peer reviews and contributing to research part-time in computer science. But I find it very hard to convince anyone to let me review their work.

My question is, is it possible to do so while working in a day job? If so, how can one go about signing up to do peer reviews? All the journals seems to want to see credibility before you can peer-review any articles or papers.

How can one get started midway through their work career?