texts: I have a figure showing that on different datasets, method 1 is x times faster than method 2. What is a good x axis label?

texts:
I have many datasets(over 10000), and two data processing methods A and B. B takes only 1/2 to 1/5 time of A to run on them. I want to draw a graph showing on these datasets, how much B is faster than A.
I use the ratio of their running time.
E.g., on Set 1, A uses 30 sec, B uses 5 sec, and the ratio is 6x. On Set 2, A uses 180 sec, B uses 50 sec, the ratio is 3.6x.
Now I draw a distribution bar graph. The X axis is the ratio described above, the Y axis is the percentage of datasets with that ratio. So assume there is a bar at (X,Y) in the figure, it means "There are Y% datasets on which A takes X times compared to B".
What is a good X label for this kind of graph? Do I just write "Ratio of Running Time Between A and B"?


texts: Is it possible to access referee reports for investigating scientific history?

texts: Do most journals keep archives of referee reports and would historians of science be able to access them? Perhaps after some delay?


texts: How do you properly put your published work in to your PhD thesis?

texts: I have previously published a couple of papers in my PhD. I want to put them into my PhD. thesis as is. Is there any proper way to include the papers without doing any self-plagiarism?


texts:
Recently I got a master's degree in Computer Science and now I'm writing my doctorate proposal. Meanwhile, I'm looking to colaborate on book writing within HPC, virtualization, cloud computing area.

I know most of books are written inside a common group... but, my question is: is there a place where you can seek for people to colaborate on a book writing with you? I mean, perhaps a group of person want to write about operating systems, but there is no people specialized on scheduler for instance... is there a "craig list" of this type of thing?

I dont know if I made myself clear.


texts: What to talk about with academic recruiters?

texts:
Recently I was in a large research conference mostly targeted at undergraduates, so there were people from many universities recruiting for summer programs, grad schools and academic societies.

It seemed like an excellent opportunity to make myself known, but I didn't have much success when interacting with them.

Most of the time I could have easily found on the internet all the information they gave me.  When I tried to dig a little deeper (i.e. how much research experience do students accepted to your school have?) I got some very generic responses (i.e. We look at the whole package so it varies).  I also attempted to talk a bit about my research interests in general to schools that seemed a good match, but that also went nowhere.

However, universities wouldn't spend so many resources if they didn't expect to gain something at these events, so I imagine I'm going about this the wrong way.

What should I speak about with university recruiters?


texts: Already have a DOI number but can't find it

texts:
My paper was accepted and it was given a DOI, but I can't find yet.
It seems the conference didn't upload the papers for the ACM digital library yet.

Is it normal?
How long does it take to upload a conference paper to the ACM DL?


texts: Switching group due to a lack of interest; How to break the news to an advisor who has been very supportive

texts:
like many others I'm here to ask for advice about switching groups. I'm a third year PhD in physics. I have been working in my current lab for about a year. Prior to that, I worked on another project with a different professor for about 2 years. I want to leave my current group because I realize this area is not my passion. Good thing is there's a professor from math department who wants to work with me on a project, and I absolutely want to work with him. But I'm not sure how to tell my current advisor that I want leave.

I must say that my current advisor is an excellent advisor in all aspects. He is supportive (both academically and financially); he is absolutely smart and has deep understanding of the field. He cares about his students' overall progress and growth. In addition, the group dynamics is great. I have zero things to complain about. The only thing making me want to leave is that I realize I have absolutely no interest in this area.

His financial support (RA) to me has one more month before it expires, and he is willing to extend it for the summer. But I do not want to stay for another two months, since it does not fit my academic development and I don't think it's ethical to take his money and not willing to work productively. I don't know how to tell him my decision. I definitely don't want to be ungrateful or disrespectful, because I very much appreciate his support in the past year.

Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much for the help.


texts: What are the pros and cons of coursework at the doctoral level?

texts:
This is a debatable issue given for me to make inquires on: some people said that coursework should be introduced at the doctoral level while others insist that it should not be introduced, as a PhD student is already a Master in the area of study.

What are the arguments for and against introducing coursework for PhD students?


texts: What features does Adobe Illustrator lack compared to Microsoft PowerPoint for making posters?

texts:
I have used Microsoft PowerPoint to make posters so far, and I am considering giving Adobe Illustrator a shot for my next poster. What features does Adobe Illustrator lack compared to Microsoft PowerPoint to make a poster?

For example, one cannot generate bulleted lists automatically in Adobe Illustrator.

(I am aware of the question Software to use for creating posters for academic conferences?.)


texts:
I am planning to write several papers exploring various aspects of the same scientific question. Each of these papers must have an introduction which motivates it and explains the relationship between the problem and what others have studied in the past.
It would be fantastic if I could simply copy-and-paste the same introduction, or, at least, 90% of it.  This seems to me to be ethically unproblematic. After all, I need to say the exact same things every time, and I certainly don't mind the self-plagiarism. Am I hurting the reader in any way? I suppose I might be, if the reader desired an introduction which consists of original material, but that is an odd desire, isn't it? Its the research, the stuff that follows the intro, that is original.
Sadly, I have gotten wind that the majority of the research community apparently does not agree with the sentiments expressed in the previous paragraph. This leads me here to ask a series of related questions:

To what extent is self-plagiarism in non-technical bits considered acceptable? I often see authors recycle paragraphs but I have never seen anyone cut-and-paste the entire section outright.
I'd be particularly interested in learning whether norms on this vary across different scientific communities.

How often do scholars find themselves trying to same the same thing in different words to avoid self-plagiarism?

Supposing I insert a sentence to the effect of: "The introductory section 1.2 is taken verbatim from the author's earlier paper [1]." How likely are journal editors and reviewers to complain about this?

By the way, I am fairly certain they would be very likely to complain about a sentence to the effect of "We refer the reader to [1] for motivation to study this problem and a discussion of its relation to prior work."


texts: Is it possible not to have a hypothesis in your thesis?

texts:
I have been working on a research report in which forecasting is done on the basis of data, followed by an interpretation of the forecasted results.

Is it possible to have that kind of research without hypothesizing any statement?

If this question is off-topic kindly recommend a suitable community.


texts: How to write a cover letter to request a postdoc (not advertised)

texts: I am going to graduate soon as a Ph.D. in computer science and I am interested in working with a group. However, I don't know the professor and I am not sure whether there is an available postdoc position. How to write a cover in such situation ?


texts: How to transfer or delete a Google Scholar profile from my own account?

texts:
I accidentally created my advisor's Google scholar profile using my personal Gmail. Now I can't find a way to transfer the profile to him, nor can I delete his profile in my account.

Does anyone have any idea what to do?

This is almost a tech support question, but since it's so unique to academics I figure I should ask here.

I tried to look at the Google product forum, but there is no forum for Google Scholar. They don't have a support line for Google Scholar either. I have not found a way even after posting on the Google product forum. I'm truly stuck.


texts: How much feedback to give for an undergraduate / master's thesis?

texts:
I'm a post-doc who has been the primary supervisor for two master's students this year (computer science, UK). Their theses are due in soon, and I have asked for a draft beforehand so that I can give some feedback. However, I am now wondering how typical this is, and whether it is fair on other students in the year (because more senior supervisors would have less time for this than me.) It has been so long since my master's that I cannot remember how it was for me!

I believe that this is slightly different to a PhD thesis. Whilst my PhD supervisor was rather uninvolved with my PhD thesis, I know that some PhD supervisors are very hands-on, even to the point of correcting spelling and grammar. However, it seems to me that doing a PhD is more a collaborative process with the supervisor, whereas a master's thesis should be more independent, and a more rigorous evaluation of the student's own abilities.

So -- how much feedback should I be giving to my master's students, if any at all?


texts: How to encourage faculty involvement as judges in a local research exposé?

texts: Our university has a an annual event showcasing graduate student research projects and has a competition for best presentation.  However, faculty involvement (as judges for the event) was very sparse and we had a difficult time getting enough faculty to volunteer as judges.  I know that faculty time is very precious and this event did demand a lot of time and provided little incentive other than free food.  How else can I encourage more faculty involvement in this event?


texts: Phd in the computer science - mathematics interface

texts: Currently I am Bachelor student in Psychology. My plan is to do a Master in Artificial-intelligence. And then I wish to do research on the interface in Computer Science/Artificial-intelligence and Mathematics. Is is possible to do a Phd in the Computer Science/Artificial-intelligence - Mathematics interface?


texts: If I take an unpaid leave from my institute to work for another institution, is it ok to put my original institution as a second affiliation on publications produced during the leave? That is regardless of the research funding source.


texts: What is the distinction between "graduate school" and "professional school"?

texts:
I have previously been involved with mentoring high school students as well as undergraduates, who typically don't have a clear understanding of all of the career possibilities available to them and how they might pursue them.

One of the distinctions I typically make is that "Professional School" (e.g. medical, law, physicians assistant, nurse practitioner, dental) is further training past undergraduate studies that prepares you for entry into a very specific profession/job with a terminal degree. "Graduate School" is additional training that prepares you to be an expert in a particular field, but the job opportunities are much more diverse and you may or may not be working toward a terminal degree. One of my college advisors made this distinction to me, and I have carried it forward.

Is making this distinction between graduate and professional school correct?
Is there another more specific or subtle difference that I am missing?

What is the true distinction between graduate and professional school? - Or is there not one?


texts: Pursuing Ph.D. at two institutions simultaneously

texts: I am enrolled in a Ph.D. program at a leading institute in India. However I am facing certain problems which are administrative in nature and hence want to restart my Ph.D. at another institute. I am seeking clarification on the possibility to pursue Ph.D. from two institutes simultaneously. For your reference, I have already completed the course work at the current institute.


texts: How the US Dept of Education define a school year for purposes of Pell Grant eligibility?

texts:
I applied for a pell grant for the 2016/2017 school year.  My question is, what is a school year to the US Dept of Ed?  Is it Fall 2016 - Spring 2017 or is it literally any day in 2016 or 2017, so long as school is in session?

I would love to attend the summer 2016 semester, but if a school year begins in fall, then I guess I will have to wait.


texts: Does one typically hand over their research work to their lab if they decide to leave academia?

texts: Let's say that I've been part of a research lab at a U.S. university for awhile but do not plan to continue on for my PhD.  What does one typically do with all of their research work, e.g. experimental write-ups, code files and email correspondence with researchers external to the lab?  Does one typically initiate some "handover process" and document all of the work carefully enough so that someone else in the lab gets to inherit the work and take over from that point on, or should one keep their own work theirs, without distributing it to the lab that they were a part of?


texts: How to write proper nouns such as company names whose spelling is nonstandard in reports?

texts:
I am currently writing a paper on accessibility and I am talking about some companies in my report. How do I write a company name, product or otherwise when the word is not spelled correctly?

For example:

  I went to ToysR’us at the weekend.
  I visited the Change4Life website.

Is it acceptable to just write it as normal, or should you put the word in italics or quotation marks?


texts:
I see researchers working on their PhD calling themselves PhD Candidates, other call themselves PhD students. What's the difference between a PhD Candidate and a PhD Student?

According to two posters on the WordReferences forums:

  This terms vary from university to university, usually a PhD student is granted the candidate status after completion of a “comprehensive examination”, which occurs sometime after the first year.

and

  Here in the U.S., a “Ph.D. Candidate” is a student who has completed all of the academic requirements for their degree, except their dissertation.

So this works in the USA and Canada I presume, because they have structured PhD programs where you attend courses as part of your PhD. Unlike most of the universities in Europe where a PhD student starts off directly with his/her PhD thesis. (Europe does have structured programs as well, but they are not as widely spread yet).


texts: How can I enable productive online meetings with my supervisor?

texts:
I am currently writing my master's thesis. My advisor is very busy, and I reckon he will allocate about 1-3 hours a month to actively supervise me, at least in the near future. Due to the ongoing pandemic, our communication takes place via short e-mails and video conferencing. Because of this, I would like to ask about ways to communicate with my supervisor in a productive way.
My impression in the last meeting was that a high-level, conceptual communication would be appropriate. While this could change when my thesis works gets more in-depth, I feel that I need to consider the implication of hands-off supervision where my supervisor will not at all times be up-to-date with my current state.
What I have been doing so far:

Summarized our meeting and its outcome in an e-mail
For the last meeting, I prepared slides to show my impressions from literature review, which I also e-mailed
Presented interesting approaches on a high level (general method, outcome, my brief opinion)
For the next meeting, I have set up a doodle to choose a date. I have also given key points for an outline of what I would like to discuss

Since the approaches are very different from each other and there are a lot of them, it is hard to actually break down key elements of them and compare them without going into depth (for me at least). Because I would like the online meetings to be as productive as possible, I am asking for ways to prepare and hold good meetings with my supervisor.
Questions:

How can I prepare a video meeting in a way that will enable my supervisor to understand my line of thought, and be informed enough to give advise?
What are good ways to present a wide range of methods from a top-level view?
How can I make good use of the video conferencing format, as opposed to a real-life meeting?
If you are a student: What ways to present information to your supervisor have been successful?
If you are an advisor or similar: What do your students do to enable productive and successful online meetings? What is not helpful?

In contrast to other questions on this site, I am not dissatisfied with the amount of supervision I get. I am also specifically asking about video meetings, which make communication harder (e.g. taking turns speaking) but also potentially enable new ways of collaboration (such as screen sharing or meeting people from different locations).
This related question and its answers discuss a hands-on-situation where the advisor takes more time and goes into detail. In terms of productivity, it is suggested for the student to take initiative which I think I'm already doing.
In an answer to a previous question of mine, among other things it was suggested I send update mails to enable my advisor to get an idea of what I'm currently working on.
If this question is too open, please let me know so I can narrow it down. This would make everything more specific, but I think would be less valuable to others facing similar problems.


texts: would it sound weird to ask for a professor to be as a permanent reviewer of a journal or conference?

texts:
In my current work, we organize a CS conference every year, and we also have a journal in the CS field. However, we are currently facing a problem with some reviewers. On few occasions, we have a couple of reviewers who rejected the sent paper, saying they have not been appointed for the current year. However, they have acted as reviewers in previous versions of our conference. The question would be if it would be sound weird to ask a reviewer if he would like to form part as a permanent reviewer of the conference or journal. Are there any suggestions about how to deal with this?
Thanks


texts: Is admission standard for math PhD significantly higher than that for physics PhD?

texts:
I'm a student at a small LAC, and I'm considering to apply to both math and physics PhD programs. In my school, which is top 15 but do not have large (20 students in each dep.) or well-known departments for either of these fields, students did significantly well on physics PhD admission than on math PhD admission. For math, many students go instead to master, and only one or two students can make top 40~70 PhD program per year. For physics, some students went to Caltech, Columbia, UCSB, and other high ranked programs in the last year, which was just as usual. A similar phenomena seem to happen not only in my school. Mathgre.com and Physicsgre.com list applicant profiles and admission results for each PhD program, and they show a similar tendency. For example, students accepted to top pure math PhD programs are exclusively those who got nearly 4.0 GPA, took many grad-level courses, had significant amount of research experience and come from an undergrad institution with renowned PhD program. On the other hand, students accepted to top physics PhD programs have more diversity in GPA, their undergrad institution, number of grad-level courses taken and amount of research experience.

What causes this difference? Or is my view wrong? If this difference actually exists, I think the following factors are among the causes:

Physics PhDs are funded more, and therefore more students can be afforded.
Physics PhDs have both theoretical and applied subdivisions, while many applied math programs exist as master's programs.
Math PhDs demand its applicants to take a significant number of grad-level courses, while physics ones don't.

Also, how about the situation when it comes to pure math vs. hep-th in the U.S.?


texts: Considering my poor undergrad and masters performance, can I be successful in PhD program?

texts:
I have just 3.3 GPa in my materials engineering undergrad degree. I flunked three courses in my undergrad and worked sufficient to get passing grades, get into decent masters university.
However, I am technically dumb. I made poor decision, like selecting hard Master's research topic which I am currently finishing up. I am objectively bad in mathematics, dynamics and mechanics. Still took masters research project related to these fields. However, I love working on these topics and it intrigues me. I enjoy the physics behind the topic and can't see myself working on any other field. I am trying my best, but I don't understand many things in my topic.
I have been accepted in a Canadian university PhD program (materials engineering) for similar research topic. Now, my department doesn't need coursework for PhD. My PhD advisor is a associate professor and is decently published in my research area.
His main area of research is battery and graphene. While he is also active in 3D printing modeling for the past 5 years. My PhD research is on 3D printing modeling.
I have two questions:

Considering my poor background in mathematics and mechanics, can I successfully work in the PhD research? My PhD thesis is completely computational.

There are no requirement of coursework and few courses that I have to do mandatorily are not relevant to my research. Can I perform well on my research by self-studying advanced topics like FEA, peridynamics and crystal plasticity?


texts: Publication charges are not sent to the right address?

texts:
I am disappointed that I can not get an answer about a submitted article for publication in a journal.
I receved the acceptation for final publication, then I paid the publication fees by Western Union according to the recommendations that I received by the publisher on my account. I sent the payment order then I receved the Acceptance letter and the Payment Receipt indicating successfully received money with changement of the article status to : Revised Manuscript has been accepted for publication.
After two days I get an mail telling me that the mailing address of the publication fees is incorrect !
I try to communicate with the journal editor for several days but I do not receive any answer.
What can I do !

Thank you for your help

Regards


texts: Need suggestions on quitting a computer science PhD

texts:
Seems it's the second time that I came to ask a question here. But this time the situation is quite different for me.

I've completed my B.S. 2.5 years ago, and entered a PhD program in a top notch school. My advisor is a domain expect in my field and he treats all of us very nicely and friendly, and he does know a hell lot of both academia and industry. I just received my master degree and interned at a uprising company in Silicon Vally.

However for academic work, I'm not doing that well. The past 2.5 years I only published in a workshop. In the meanwhile many of my friends have published top conference papers. I feel really stupid that I can't do so. Since my mathematic background is not well to understand some papers, I tried to digest the math while I'm on free time. And now I could understand most of the papers that I read.

The problem is that, I can't think of new ideas. Every ideas I try fails, constantly. I'm don't know why my mates could do so well in publishing. Because of this, I seriously feel a lot of pressure. Everyday when I wake up, I can feel the heart beats like dumb. However during the internship in the previous summer, everything is so smooth and I enjoyed the life there.

In theory, my advisor could let me graduate even if I don't publish. But I really do not want to let him down and waste his funding. The question is, shall I quit my PhD now and receive the offer if the pressure continues? Any suggestions?


texts:
Sorry if this is off-topic, just close or delete this thread if that is the case.

Is anyone aware of 2-year Masters programs in mathematics that sufficiently prepare a student for a potential PhD, and accepts students who did not do so well (achieve the equivalent of an Australian honours degree) or did not major in mathematics?

It seems to me most masters programs in the UK and Australia are done over 1 year, and require at least Honours div. 2A for entry. While the masters programs from the well-known US universities require the same, and some even need students to pass PhD entrance exams for entry. Anyone familiar with programs that fit the description in the previous paragraph? Prestige really isn't a factor here.


texts: Explaining contribution of book and journal

texts:
I'm writing a scientific paper and I want to add the contribution of a book in my paper. Generally, we use to write like that way ''authors in this work present [1].....'' but this is the case when we are writing about any other scientific paper. But for the first time I'm using the reference of book, could you kindly elaborate how do I add the book reference that makes my work relevant.

Thanks in advance...


texts: Personal quote at the beginning of a PhD thesis?

texts:
Is it appropriate to put at the beginning of my PhD thesis a personal quote that very few people would understand ? Could it make my work seem not serious ?

More specifically, it would be lyrics from a song that reflects a personal problem , that my phd helped me to deal with eventually. There is no direct link with the actual content about my research. It just feels right to me to acknowledge what these 4 years of phd brought to my life, beyond pure scientific aspects.
 99% of the people reading my thesis would not understand the meaning, and it may even sound quite cryptic for them.


texts: Contributing to the cause of biology (beyond research)

texts:
I've been studying microbiology for a while (undergrad sophomore). I've been finding something to do other than my regular academic work and projects.
Someone told me that Nature allows freelancers to edit some articles. Is it true ?
What are some other places where I can use my biology/writing/communication skills to help the cause of science and maybe even build my CV (last part is optional, I'm basically bored and will do anything if seems fun)


texts: Referring to papers by myself and others in my thesis

texts:
In citing a paper by myself and others in my thesis, suppose my surname is A and that I have a paper jointly with B and C.  I want to cite it, and normally, I would write

  A, B, and C showed that this can be done [ABC15].

However, in my thesis, it feels more natural to say

  Together with B and C, we showed that this can be done [ABC15].

Which is better?  Are there better options?

In other words, should I pretend that A is some random dude when it is in fact the author of the thesis the reader is currently reading?

For context:  This is a thesis in theoretical computer science/algorithmic graph theory/parameterized algorithms/complexity.  I prefer to use "we" as is usual in mathematical texts.


texts: I am reading a paper that I barely understand. How can I make the best of my mentor in this situation?

texts:
Half of my inability to understand the paper comes from not being acquainted with the folklore of this particular part of the field, and the other half might be because I am lacking general background knowledge. I cannot just go to my mentor asking them to fill in every single step I am missing. I am also sure they can put things in perspective, or just say something illuminating.

What kinds of questions are reasonable in this case?


texts: Is it appropriate to cite a piece of academic work when the author has been charged with child pornography?

texts: It has recently come to my attention that a renowned scholar in my field whose academic journals have been highly influential in my area of research has recently been charged with child pornography. Is it possible to separate the scholar from their work? And will my thesis research, in turn, be judged for referencing the work?


texts: Fraternity/Sorority and Graduate Application

texts:
I'm going to start applying to graduate schools (Masters and PhD) for Economics in a few months primarily in the US, but also to a few schools in Canada, Australia and the UK. During my time as an undergraduate I joined a fraternity, and was relatively active in sorority on campus. I was wondering what effect my involvement will have on my chance of being accepted into the more competitive programs. I was also wondering in what ways should I display that information on my application/CV/resume?

While in a fraternity, I served as treasurer for the Inter-Fraternity Council (the governing body for fraternities on-campus) for two years. I was treasurer of my own chapter for a year, as well as president of my chapter for a semester--I stepped down after the first semester to run for CFO of the Associated Students (election still on-going).
My chapter has always been very friendly with the campus and has never gotten into any trouble; however, I fear the extra scrutiny brought on sorority may hurt me. My fraternity also has chapters at many of the schools I am planning on applying to, so I fear that that may also hurt my chances--either because the admission committee associates me with a rowdy chapter or because they might see it as a potential conflict of interest if I were to grade or TA for the department.


texts: Is there a way to edit author name after publication for trans people (at least online)?

texts:
I have seen questions about people changing their last names due to marriage but not for trans people. However, for them, it can be much more harmful (and wrong) to always carry their old names forever, although all other kinds of public records can be changed. Moreover, they should not be forced to out themselves every time.

I have asked Elsevier and said it is not possible. What would be some ways to minimize the damage (e.g. search engines, CV, ways to apply more pressure for change etc.)?

I'm not asking for the work to change but if the only author identifier is the name (which is supposed to be immutable but isn't), it doesn't make sense right?
It can only add confusion and be harmful, as I mentioned. By minimizing the damage, I mean either replace it or hide it wherever possible (e.g. something like a second edition).
I understand all the complications with hard copies, citations etc.


texts: Trend of postdoc in theoretical computer science

texts:
When looking at profiles of professors in theoretical computer science, I've noticed a trend that older professors usually go straight from PhD to assistant professor, while younger ones tend to go through 1-2 (sometimes even 3) postdocs.

Is the trend a reality, and if so, what explains it? Is it because there is nowadays more supply of PhD graduates in theoretical computer science (relative to demand), so that people need to go through more training in order to become a professor?


texts: Looking for a good repository for academic drafts

texts: I'm currently submitting my CV for Ph.D positions and internships at research labs. I have one publication already, and I am currently in the process writing my Master's thesis. I would very much like to attach a hyperlink in my CV to directs to my thesis since it is more telling of the work I've been doing than say my publication. I'm wondering if there is exists a "version control" paper repository, similar to say the way Github works for software developers? What I mean by this is a place where I can upload improvements to my thesis without necessary making it publicly available (it can only be accessed via the hyperlink). My reason for doing this is fairly obvious. I can actively make improvements to my thesis after I have submitted the relevant documents, which the committee members viewing my dossier would later see. Does anyone know of such a resource?


texts: Reference a web page by author and year: which date to use in citation; publication date or revision date?

texts:
I came to a web page where it says beneath:

  Updated 3 September 2011 (first published August 2002)

When I cite this should the year be 2002 or 2011?


texts: Is it a bad idea to change/remove a co-author from a manuscript which is revision?

texts: One of my manuscripts is in revision. The co-authors in the paper are my advisors. Now I had sent the paper to a journal and it is in revision phase now. One of the co-authors has taken a U-turn and due to ego issues, rejects being a co-author. Now there is actually no significant contribution from this co-author to add his name. But will it be wise now to request the editor in chief about this, now that there is good chance of getting the paper accepted? The above mentioned co-author is known to have mood swings.


texts: Is having a chapter in an open-access book valuable as a publication?

texts:
So I work in a project where the consortium is planning to write an open-access book with Springer publications.

There might be a chapter regarding the work I have done in the project. The editors of the book will be some other people, but every chapter will have the authors of the dedicated work.

Doesn't this mean that irrespective of the chapter's content, at the end if one cites the book, only the editors of the book are cited and not me?

I am just not sure how does it help when one considers writing chapter(s) in a book helpful in academia?


texts: What does it mean "a dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction"?

texts:
It appears in thesis, e.g. "A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction
of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics".

Does it mean the thesis is OK for a Ph.D, just some reviewers have comments? or does it mean that it's not good enough for Ph.D, and although the one summits it will not continue to work on the thesis, but still decide to submit it for, i don't know, archiving?


texts: What license should be chosen on arXiv for a paper to be published in Communications in Algebra at Taylor&Francis?

texts:
I have never been submitting the paper to arXiv so I have a question about
what kind of license or declaration I must choose to be able to submit the expanded version of the manuscript, which is soon to be accepted in Communications in Algebra at Taylor&Francis. My worry is about the Copyright agreement I will sign with Taylor&Francis.

The options on the arXiv are as follows:

arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license to distribute this article (Minimal rights required by arXiv.org)
Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY 4.0)
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Creative Commons Public Domain Declaration (CC0 1.0)
None of the above licenses apply.


texts: Why do PIs say no to students working during grad studies?

texts:
Professors in my department frown upon students working (part-time or full-time) during their MSc or PhD. Even extra TA hours are looked down upon...

The rent on-campus is ~$950/month and we are paid ~$18000/year. So there is enough money BUT the on-campus housing is very limited so students usually have to find off-campus res ... which is ~$150 more per month. Again, while I can make it work w/ $18k, I'd like some extra income to help pay off undergrad loans.

What is the reason behind saying no to students working while doing graduate studies? I'd like to understand the PI's perspective.

Does working while doing graduate studies affect the student's performance negatively?

University: top-20. Area of study: life science, computer science.

(Unrelated question: how many hrs/week should students put into their lab?)


texts: How should I start Undergraduate Research in Mathematics?

texts:
Dear Academic SE advisers,

I am a college sophomore in US with double majors in mathematics and microbiology. My algorithmic biology research got me passionate about the number theory and analysis, and I have been pursuing a mathematics major starting on this Spring semester. I have been independently self-studying the number theory textbooks written by Niven/Zuckerman/Montgomery, Apostol, and Ireland/Rosen on this semester. As this semester progressed, I discovered that I am more interested in the pure mathematics than applied aspects (computational biology, cryptography, etc.). I want to pursue a career as analytic number theorist and prove the Collatz conjecture and Erdos-Straus conjecture.

I have been thinking about doing the number-theory research on my university (research university; huge mathematics department). I have been self-studying the NT by myself and also regularly attending the professional and graduate seminars on number theory but I did not do any pure mathematics research as an undergraduate. Should I visit NT professors in my university and ask them about if I can do undergraduate research under them? If research is not possible (perhaps due to my lacking maturity), should I request of doing independent reading under them and later proceed with the research? How should I ask them? What should I address? If even independent reading is not desirable to them, what should I ask to them or do in my own?

As for my mathematical background, I have been taking Calculus II (computational) and discrete mathematics. I will be taking calculus III (vector calc.) on Summer, followed by Analysis I, Probability, Theoretical Linear Algebra on Fall 2015. As for my self-studying on this semester, I have been studying NT textbooks (mentioned above), proof methodologies, and basic linear algebra.

Thank you very much for your time, and I look forward to your advice!

Sincerely,

PK


texts: Why do journals reformat your submissions?

texts:
When submitting to (computer science) conferences, you usually have full control over the layout and are able to submit a camera-ready version that will be published as submitted.

For journals, however, you usually have to submit a manuscript that will be reformatted before publication. In my experience, this includes rearranging and scaling of the figures, reformatting the equations etc.

Of course, it made sense before researchers were able to typeset camera-ready papers, but now it seems to be unnecessary and just generates additional costs and errors. Why do publishers still prefer this way instead of letting the authors do the layout? I would expect that the journal style can easily be enforced by providing an appropriate LaTeX template and some additional rules.

I thought it might be due to copyright issues (maybe if the publisher does not do any modifications, it has no right to have a copyright on it), but it also happens for open-access journals where this should be no issue.


texts: Publication process in the Communications of the ACM

texts: Does anybody have experience publishing at the Communications of the ACM? I couldn't find any information about average duration of the review cycle or acceptance rates.


texts: Is it ethical for an instructor to "hack" my system as part of the evaluation for my thesis defense?

texts:
Background: I remember when I was still in college here in the Philippines, one of the member of the school thesis committee tries to hack my system by injecting some kind of code (I am not sure but I think this is SQL injection). Now that I am working I realized that it is illegal to just hack and get inside of the system. This hacking includes breaking into the security of the system then extracting the datas (some are dummies only and some are original). He said that he do this to prove that our system has not enough security and therefore concluded that it is not safe to use, due to this my team has been subjected to re-defense. Also, there are no proper discussions whether he has the authority to get inside the system, I also don't know the privileges of the panelist.

Please take note that the computer we are using is ours (students) then the panelist are obliged to test the system for certain minutes only (maybe 5 minutes). Also, we didn't use any ISP because it is only a system together with it's database and therefore can be use offline.

During that time we've been subjected to re-defense simply because our system is not secured.

Question: Does hacking the system just to prove that it lacks security and therefore not safe to use, still ethical? Considering that we are on a thesis-defense and are still a learner. Our knowledge cannot be compared to a professional that is expert in system developing.


texts: How to cite information removed from a working paper when it was published

texts:
Here's a simplified version of a bibliographic problem I'm facing.
A working paper estimated that Public Policy X caused Social Indicator Y to increase by 25%—practically significant, but not statistically significant at p < .05. So the paper's authors, as they told me by e-mail, omitted the discussion of Indicator Y when the paper was published in a journal.
Other studies of Policy X have found effects of 20%–40% on Indicator Y, so I'd like to cite the 25% estimate to corroborate these other studies. I'm writing for semi-popular consumption, so I'd like to minimize bibliographic clutter in the main text without confusing readers who can't find Indicator Y in the published paper. (The working and published papers have identical titles. The working paper is paywalled on every website that hosts it, and the published paper is unpaywalled on the website of one of its authors, so readers may find the published paper if they chase a citation to the working paper and aren't told that the two differ.)
What's the best solution? My current idea is this, but if there's a standard method, I'd prefer that. My publisher generally follows Chicago format.

In main text:
Kent and Parker found that Policy X increased Indicator Y by approximately 25%.1 Though not statistically significant,2 this estimate corroborates independent studies' estimates, such as [etc.]
In footnotes:
1 Clark Kent and Peter Parker. "Various Effects of Policy X." NBER Working Paper No. 90210, June 2016. Discussion of Indicator Y is absent from the version ultimately published: Clark Kent and Peter Parker. "Various Effects of Policy X." Los Angeles Journal of Sociology 16, no. 1 (2017): 42–50.
2 Peter Parker, e-mail message to author, October 31, 2017.


texts:
When refereeing a paper, I often have objections to the work that do not rise to the level of using the coercive powers of a referee to delay or reject the work. For instance, I find myself wanting to write: "If I were you, I would be embarrassed to publish a paper with [such unclear writing/such a silly comparison to experiment/so few parameters studied/incredibly ugly figures]."*

If the paper is not wrong or incoherent, just lazy or badly written, I don't feel justified in rejecting the paper or requiring a revision. I also don't want to invest hours of time acting as a language editor or graphic designer for figures.

Is there a politer way to express this sentiment and encourage the authors to improve their own work? Or should I simply take on good faith that the authors have done the work to the standards they are willing to publish, and that these may differ from my own?

*note: this is distinct from the case where the paper is so unclear that you can't tell whether their work is correct or not - where I think rejection is appropriate. I'm also assuming that this is not a terribly selective journal - in fact, it could be a journal like PLOS ONE, which explicitly says that importance to the field is not a relevant criterion.

Note: I've edited this to address a couple of points made by answers, and to focus away from the writing part, which has been answered in the past. Bad writing is one aspect of this question, but general author laziness is the larger one.


texts: Can we just send the same two recommendation letters to every colleges? And will I be able to look at what was written in each recommendation letter?

texts:
I'm a French student planning to go study in the United States.

Most colleges in the United States seem to ask for two recommendation letters from our professors.

Can we just send the same two recommendation letters to every colleges? Or do we need to provide two different recommendation letters for each college?
In other words: If I'm applying to 10 universities/colleges, do I need to get 20 recommendation letters or just 2?

Also: Will I be able to look at what was written in each recommendation letter? Or are they sent via internet by the professors, without the option for me to see them?


texts:
As a young scientist I find it increasingly difficult to filter out the good vs not-so-good research publications. Especially given the number of publications that get published every day. Reports on retraction watch like this one, don't help. Very often some aspects of research can be missed or misinterpreted by an inexperienced young researcher.

I was wondering if there is any resource where I could suggest a publication for a quick, short commentary and obtain comments from the community? I am aware of f1000 idea but I'm not particularly fond of the subscription requirements they impose.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.


texts: How do you comment on rapid improvement in a student's performance?

texts:
Sometimes, it can happen that a graduate student who is struggling on a project finally sees everything "click," and becomes far more productive. It might be due to a change in attitude, an improved work ethic, serendipitous success, or some combination of all of the above.

In writing recommendations, how do you comment on the student's rapid turnaround, without making the previous state of the work (in which the student was working, and clearly understood what needed to be done, but didn't have the results to show for it) seem like it was a weakness or liability on the part of the student. Given how real signs of weakness can cause problems for people reviewing the letters, how do you call attention to the fact that the student underwent such a startling transformation, while acknowledging the previous struggles and not harming the student's chances?


texts: Is there a journal/magazine about research?

texts:
I wonder if there is a peer-reviewed journal or a magazine about general aspects of academic research such as

peer-review
scientific publication
the procedure of research funding

Different topics such as higher education are investigated and analyzed scientifically. I am curious to know if there are research fields for the analysis of peer-review process or funding systems.


texts: Getting a Masters in computer science but I am without any undergraduate degree

texts:
I am a programmer working 6 years in the industry. I am proficient in Javascript/JQuery, PHP, Java, c/c++, MASM Assembly, MySQL/SQL, together with accessory tools/technologies like Git/Github, UML, XML, JSON, etc and the Drupal and Zend CMS/framework.

Is there any way of getting accepted into a computer science, Masters degree program in universities in Europe, USA or Canada?


texts: Should Professors use COVID as Discussion Board Material?

texts:
I am not a professor, but I work at a Community College. I work with students directly (basically a tutor) and someone asked me a question that I didn't know how to respond: Is it appropriate for professors to use COVID as a topic in their online discussion boards?
Obviously, the whole COVID situation can provide professors an ample supply of material directly related to the content of the course. If you study math, then you can look at different data and statistics about it. If you study economics, then you can look at the economic impact and response. If you study sociology, you can look at it through a sociological lens. Basically, every subject has the potential to use COVID in their class. At my community college, all of the online professors require weekly discussion board posts, as a way to keep the students talking and engaged with each other. It appears that most professors are making their discussion board posts COVID related. But issues can arise when a student has high anxiety or stress about their quarantine. Basically, the student I was working with said something along the lines of "I have been in quarantine for 5 months already, COVID is all over the news and social media, I read about it and listen to it 24/7. I'm tired of it. I don't want it waved in my face from all of my professors trying to get me to discuss it even more. I'm having a tough time as it is, why are they making me re-live it?"
Should professors use COVID as a real world example of their material? Or should they be more sensitive to possible student issues of quarantine?
I wasn't sure what to tag...I tagged health-issues more for mental health issues. I couldn't find a tag for discussion boards or online forums for classes.
EDIT: I am based in the U.S. if that helps shape any thoughts/answers. And now after reading the accepted answer, it makes me worry about this particular student I have. She had to write a discussion board post and the professor said "write about 3 examples of xyz as it relates to the COVID pandemic. Keep this dscussion post in mind later this week when I give you your first paper assignment." So now I am afraid she will have to write about something COVID related for a 5 page paper. Would it be acceptable for her to ask for a different assignment, since she has high anxiety about anything COVID related? (she is very high risk since she is older and has had previous lung surgery. She literally has not left her house since March, so I know the topic compounds her mental health difficulties).


texts: How has the application review process for NSF graduate fellowships changed?

texts:
I was looking for some information on the site that might help for applications to the GRFP.  I found JeffE's answer to an old question extremely useful.  However, I noticed that some of the advice he gives appears to be somewhat outdated.  For example, the answer claims that it is a very bad idea to provide more than 3 recommendations, since any extra recommendations will be ignored.  However, the NSF site now states:

  Applicants are required to submit three reference letters. There are five slots available for applicants to list reference writers. Applicants are strongly encouraged to utilize all available slots.

Have there been any other changes to the application criteria in the last few years that might invalidate any of the points in the old answer? Is there anything new to consider?


texts: Is it immoral to expect uncompensated contribution to the university from doctorate students?

texts:
In every university that I know, doctorate (and very commonly master's) students are expected to do a number of things which I would categorize as work, related to the operation of the faculty, such as:

correcting exams
supervising exams
supervising undergraduates in lab exercises, answering questions, usually organizing groups and  lab exams
teaching lectures on the methodology for exercises of a course
various errands for the professor (I won't get into detail in this, as it's clearly immoral in my opinion)

From what I have heard, those practices are common in Greece.  Every PhD student that I know has no official salary from the university, and may get paid from certain research funds for particular projects that he has to complete/contribute to from outside sources. According to the regulations in Greek universities, Master's and above students are obliged to provide "auxiliary work" without this being specified further.

Given the fact that correcting exams is actual work, isn't it immoral to do it without monetary compensation?


texts: Are multiple APA citations supposed to make the same claim or do they combine?

texts:
Consider this example from APA style:

  Studies of reading in childhood have produced mixed results (Albright,
  Wayne, & Fortinbras, 2004; Gibson, 2011; Smith & Wexwood, 2010).

Do all these cited works above claim that "studies of reading in childhood have produced mixed results" or is it a list of studies of reading in childhood that have produced mixed results?

Consequently, if I am writing a sentence where I cite from one work but I add a detail in my sentence from a different work, do I cite both works together?


texts: Will the ORCID appear in the article people write? I could not find an article in which ORCID was included. Can somebody point out some examples if there are any?


texts: When should you require to be addressed by your title?

texts: I have been asked to sign a lengthly and detailed contract in order to teach a course as an adjunct at a local community college. The administrator requesting this information signed it with her title and her degree. The document was addressed to me as "Mr." ... I have both a Ph.D. and a thirty plus year career at a major university where I retired as a named research professor (facts clearly indicated on the vita in the administrator's possession!). Am I wrong to expect to be addressed as Dr. in such documents?


texts: Reading (& understanding) a lot of papers is hard. How to deal with it?

texts:
I am a student doing my Masters (in Computer Science). I am much interested in Ph.D and I know to do Ph.D I really need to read and understand a lot of papers. (I also know that its not all about reading papers, but doing something new and useful) but I find difficult to understand papers, especially mathematical. There are lots of things (like bloom filters, k-means algorithms, and a lot lot much more terminologies) which we, normally, don't encounter (except if you are a Ph.D or doing one) but are really crucial to understand papers.

I am not very good at understanding such stuff (atleast quickly, if given time I can but it takes time). Are there people like me who have done/are doing a Ph.D and had the same problem? If yes, how do you overcome it?


texts:
At present I write my bachelor's thesis in the field of computer science and I really enjoy it. I would like to continue doing research after I'll have finished my thesis. Is there any way to do that in parallel to my master programme? I think there are two ways in general and would like to hear what your opinion is.

Ask a professor

Are professors interested in supervising a student having only a bachelor's degree? Of course I would work free of charge because I would profit from a better CV and maybe good chances of a career at that chair. I should also mention that the chair I'm writing at is very practically oriented and my professor is a really student-friendly person. They work on real projects and implement algorithms rather than design them. I think that they could benefit from me beacuse I'm a very talented guy with years of experience.

Do research on my own

I could also try to publish papers on my own. But this way is somewhat to hard I think because I would have no reviewers nor topics to write about.
I can also imagine to write scientific blog posts; probably nobody will read them but that would be okay since I could reference them in my future applications.

So do you guys have any tipps for me how to accomplish it?


texts: Acknowledging the discussion with someone in the paper but excluding this person as a reviewer: how to do this?

texts:
While writing a paper I discussed its first draft with a certain colleague (he is from a different university, so it is not likely that he will be automatically ruled out as a reviewer as suggested in the Visoft's answer). He made a few helpful suggestions but by and large didn't like the paper: he would like the results to be compared with the ones one could obtain using his favorite method -- but this is a separate piece of hard work, and his favorite method is, to put it mildly, far from being universally recognized by the community of experts in the field.

I would like to acknowledge his helpful suggestions in the paper but at the same time I would like to rule him out as a possible reviewer (some journals give you an opportunity to let them know whom the paper should NOT be sent for review).

QUESTION: How should one word the acknowledgment of this colleague's helpful suggestions in the paper in a way compatible with excluding him as a possible reviewer, so that the editor who will handle the paper does not get confused by the whole situation and honors my request to exclude this person from the list of possible reviewers?

Also, which is the best way to state the reason for excluding this person from the list of reviewers (conflict of interests, or something else)?

Thanks in advance.


texts: Can we share the presentations and posters that we presented for a international/national conferences online?

texts: Can we share the presentations and posters that we presented for a international/national conferences online, may be in LinkedIn and other job websites? Is it allowed?


texts: How to resolve authorship issue of a conference paper?

texts:
I work in an research institute in a german university. My institute does not work in my area of research (Spacecraft GNC) but they got funding for a project in this area for which I was hired (when I was hired, institute's Managing Director (MD) did not tell me that Spacecraft GNC is not their area and that this is the first project they have gotten in this area. I found this out after 2 years at this institute because a colleague told me that if we don't lie to the candidates, no one will come to our institute).

While working on this project I found out several mistakes/illogical points made in the proposal but I did extra literature research to show that some of the ideas they proposed in the proposal were technologically not possible currently. I worked in this project solely without any guidance, help or even discussion with anyone in my institute, but when I wrote the paper for the conference about this project research, my project Manager and Institute's MD told me to put their name as authors which I had to do.

After this project, I wrote a continuing proposal within this project about developing different system for this project which is also not the research area of my institute. All the ideas in the proposal are mine. Now, my Project Manager (different guy) is asking me to put some other colleague's name and his name in the next conference abstract both of whom know little about my system, have not contributed to any research and I have not gotten any input from anyone of them as it is not their area.

I just want to include my MD's name in the abstract keeping in mind that I work in this institute I have to write his name for political reasons. He has also not contributed anything to this research, in fact it is not his area. How should I tell my project manager and MD that I do not want to include the project manager and another unrelated colleague's name to the paper abstract, as the atmosphere at my institute is toxic. My dealings with my colleagues and Managers is such that they take ALL the credit for ALL the work that I did/do and they don't like it when I do extra work in my projects. I have always been courteous to them but they have abused and harassed me. I think the fact that I am an international woman is also a factor as I have not seen my male colleagues treated like this.

I would really appreciate if someone could advise.


texts: Should I share my course notes with my co-students?

texts:
After leaving school I set myself the goal of completely digitalizing my note-system. Because of this I now scan all hand-written notes and make digital notes while in lectures and keep them nicely ordered on my laptop.

After a couple of days I realized, I could as well share these notes with my co-students having the same courses, which is what I am doing right now.

I've now (sometimes) observed an attitude among them along the lines of "I don't need to go the lectures, X will take notes anyways and I understand them better than the actual lecture". This also resulted in most of them taking (nearly) no notes on their own at all, however I'm not 100% certain they would have without my notes.

So I'm no longer sure this is the right thing to do, so I wanted to ask here:

Should I share my course notes with my co-students having the same courses?

A few notes on what they have access to: They have basically everything (e.g. notes on the lecture, public lecture slides, lab notes, assignment solutions, assignment corrections) where I enforce the policy of not sharing assignment solutions before the end of the admission period.
The notes in question are current, e.g. they are not ahead of the courses and we all have the courses (largely) together.
Everything is shared via the university-run OwnCloud service from and the actual process of uploading / sharing is no more than doing one addition conversion and making a bunch of copies.
If it matters: I study computer science in Germany.


texts: Expectation of students in Graduate vs. Undergraduate STEM classes

texts:
I'm not sure if this question is okay to post here (I am only an undergrad), so please feel free to close/migrate if necessary. I won't be offended.

I am an undergraduate taking an undergraduate CS class right now. I feel the class is being taught like a graduate-level course, but we are being tested like undergraduates. I say this because I have taken graduate-level STEM classes in the past, and I think my professor is teaching the material as if we were graduate students.

The homework in this class emphasizes theoretical understanding and proof writing. When the midterm was upon us, we were given no practice problems to prepare for the test. There were no practice midterms either. Going into the midterm, I figured, well, the professor will probably test us on our understanding of the material. However, the midterm tested for speed and accuracy. There were several short answer questions that had little to do with the kind of understanding of the material we developed from the homework. In fact, there were questions for which we haven't yet had homework. I think he tried to make the test "easy," which totally threw me off.

I did very poorly on my midterm, and now I am trying to figure out whether I can judge what to expect in a graduate-level class vs. an undergraduate-level class so I may avoid such poor exam performance in the future. I have come up with the following qualities to expect from a graduate-level STEM class vs. an undergraduate-level STEM class.

Graduate-level STEM Class

Emphasis on depth of understanding.
Abstract material can sometimes be presented ad hoc: Less emphasis on linear presentation of material.
Theoretical presentation of material. Typically, we look at axioms/rules whenever we are presented new notation. We then derive everything from these axioms/rules.
Often the material covered has so much depth that we are expected to have minimal breadth of understanding; We are expected to take what we've learned and focus on a particular are in great depth.
Exams, projects, and papers test understanding of the material, not the speed in which we can solve arbitrary problems.

Undergraduate-level STEM Class

Emphasis on breadth of knowledge.
Material is presented in a linear fashion, often starting with some concrete examples and building from there.
There is often so much ground to cover that we are taught through rote memorization. We solve problems excessively.
Exams test for speed and accuracy of exact solutions to several problems. One often succeeds in such a class by performing many practice problems.

My questions are as follows:

Is this accurate? If not, why, and what kinds of differences can I expect between graduate vs. undergraduate-level courses?
Are there other/better ways to find correlations between teaching and testing styles? How can I know I am prepared for an exam given a professor's teaching style (rote memorization vs. emphasis on derivations, etc.)?


texts: First year PhD without advisor, or experience, or a clue about research

texts:
TL; DR    How can I go about either convincing this unwilling advisor or others in my department to keep me despite poor performance?

*Thank you so much for your comments. It's beyond valuable that you are taking the time to read and share opinions. *

Background: I started PhD in management in a reputable institution in US, immediately after undergrad in a small university in Europe. The system works much more differently than I was used to and now I have invested all I can to this area. However, I lack prior experience in research, and especially when changing areas like this, need to develop very specific skills that were hard for me so far. Now I'm pretty beaten up and discouraged by potential advisors to go for a PhD.

The catch is when I applied, one senior faculty jointly appointed with this program and others was my primary "advisor"-candidate- and a second one supported this. Now, the second one has left the institution without any progress with research; and no one else in my department with similar topics is willing to advise me or fund any research I want to do. Without guidance or funding, this seems like a no way out. I really love the research the primary "advisor" is doing and want to continue on the topic I am in, but the topic is not the most common to find among researchers in my field.

My primary "advisor" is already planning to work with other students and my funding is not covering more than tuition after this first year. I really need someone to support me, and help me figure academia out as my first year was really bumpy. The department liaison and chairs are encouraging me to drop out and keep their money in...


texts: How to describe affiliation in between college and grad school?

texts:
This question is similar to another one on here, but the details of my situation are not quite the same: Affiliation in the transition period between studies at different universities

I graduated college recently and applied to and was accepted to grad school. However, I deferred my admission for a year so I could complete a fellowship, which I have not yet begun.

1. How should I describe my academic affiliation now?

2. How should I describe my academic affiliation once I start my fellowship?

3. How should I describe my academic affiliation once I complete my fellowship but before I begin grad school?

It seems improper to list my former university, since I graduated and therefore should now be completely unaffiliated from them. Also an undergraduate has a tenuous academic affiliation to a department at best, at least in my opinion. On the other hand, the fellowship isn't really an affiliation with an institution either (even though I formally had to register at a university as part of the process, although I actually haven't completed the registration yet since this needs to be done in person). And for the grad school I haven't begun studies, and even though I was accepted and have an e-mail address there now, I feel like I would be counting my eggs before they hatched.

Honestly I know my situation is kind of strange, and maybe it would be best to say 'unaffiliated', but at the same time, for example if I posted something on ArXiv, I wouldn't want people refusing to take it seriously at all because I am 'unaffiliated', especially if they wouldn't think that way if they knew the specifics of my situation. That being said, they lack a snappy quick description.


texts: How did you or your advisor’s behavior change after obtaining tenure

texts: I am curious (if you are a professor) how you changed consciously or unconsciously after obtaining tenure and (if you are a student) how did your advisor change and did that affect you?


texts: How to say please erase\cutoff my lower gre score information from my application

texts:
Want to admit an abc university. GRE is not a requirement for them originally, BUT since i have taken it, my score is REALLY lower than what they can consider. This is an academic program and in case of having a GRE test, UNFORTUNATLY, their policy is that it cannot be too low. 12% is not acceptable. Need help to write a letter about erase/cutoff gre information from my submitted application and  give me admission on.

If have any query please ask,thanks in advanced.


texts: Should Self-Assessments be Scored? (not Graded)

texts:
I do not like the self-assessment software that comes with Desire2Learn, my institution's chosen LMS.  It is semester break, and I'm writing my own self-assessment software.  My software identifies wrong answers, marks right answers, and provides feedback for all incorrect answers and any correct answers where the student requests it.  These electronic quizzes are delivered anonymously and in no way affect the student's grade.

I asked a colleague to do an informal peer review of the software, and she complained that no score is calculated.  I did that on purpose in the belief that scoring could discourage the student who needs to put forth more effort.  My colleague says the score is what tells students they need to work harder.

So, my non-opinion-based question is, is there any research one way or another concerning scoring self-assessments?


texts: Why are review articles cited more frequently than original research articles?

texts:
Review articles generally receive more citations compared to original research articles.
In my mind, it should be the other way around, as journal guidelines generally solicit researchers to cite original research articles rather than review articles. So reviews should only be cited after their original content, which tends to be a small fraction of their total content, while the largest part of it consists of paraphrasing and citing research articles.
Therefore, I would venture to believe that reviews receive more citations because the rule I mentioned previously is generally not followed; and that authors usually cite reviews to avoid taking time to search for original articles (which I have to admit can be exhausting, and extremely time-consuming).
Can someone corroborate if this is the case, or am I missing something? Thanks!


texts: Verb plurality when citing paper with multiple authors

texts:
I already wrote a paper draft using inline citations like the following:

  However, [12] argues that ...

Here I use "argues" instead of "argue" because the citation "[12]" acts as a singular noun (i.e., the paper), regardless of how many authors that paper has.

Now, I must change my citation style to the following format:

  However, Smith et al. [2018] argues that ...

Must I change "argues" to "argue", since the subject is plural (i.e., multiple authors)? Or can the phrase "Smith et al. [2018]" still refer to a singular paper, meaning "argues" is still correct? Is it better to be consistent and always use a singular verb (I have many such constructions with single and multiple authors), or should the verb plurality depend on the number of authors?


texts: Mentioning student name changes in a letter of recommendation

texts:
What is the best protocol for handling a student whose name has changed from the time when a letter writer knew the student. For instance, suppose Pat Jones has become Pat Smith. Do we write

  Pat Smith (né(e) Jones)

or is this unnecessary? I would think that the name should match what's in the rest of the application, but I would imagine it would also be helpful to make sure that the name change is noted, just in case there's some inconsistencies in the overall record (for instance, I doubt that all universities would change transcripts of alumni).


texts: Must you attend a conference to attend/present at an affiliated event?

texts:
Specifically, I'm in the field of Computer Science, where conferences (such as EuroS&P) have lots of cool affiliated events, some of which have proceedings and some which do not.

I am more interested in the affiliated events than the conference itself, and was wanting to submit a paper to one of the workshops and an extended abstract to another -- I am working rather than a student at the moment, and so funding for the conference itself will be hard to come by (in addition to the cost of taking time off work). The affiliated events are held over the weekend, and I was wondering:

Is it possible to attend/be published at only affiliated events and skip the conference?
Is this a commonly done thing or, if it were to happen, should I keep quiet about it?

Thanks!


texts: What is required of a mathematics referee?

texts: To review a paper that was submitted to a good journal, what am I required to do?  Must I understand everything presented in the paper? Must I check the details and verify each argument/proof? Or is it sufficient to check that the paper is generally well-written, contains no obvious mistakes, and is interesting?


texts: What ratio of PhD graduates in STEM fields ultimately end up as (tenured) professors?

texts:
I recently saw this infogram circling around various social networks:

It appeared in this Tweet with the following claim:

  Got a PhD? Your chance of becoming a Professor is 0.45%. Good luck.

Being a bit sceptical of the claim and of shiny info-grams in general, I traced the image back through this blog to this report by the Royal Society (see page 14), featuring various reputable academics in the introduction. The report cites a number of other reports from UK organisations as its source (I did not dig deeper). The infogram seemingly pertains to graduates of PhDs in the UK in STEM fields.

I find the figures literally incredible. I cannot believe them. Fewer than 1-in-200 PhD graduates become professors? This would imply, for example, that STEM professors in the UK would need to graduate 200 PhD students just to "repopulate" themselves.

I would like to compare these estimates with figures sourced elsewhere. And so my question is:

Are any other studies or sources of data for estimating the number of PhD graduates who end up with professorships? (... preferably within the STEM areas and not restricted to the UK)

There is a related question specifically for the maths field and referring to tenure-track positions but none of the answers really address this question: What percentage of phds in math actually get a tenure track academic job?

EDIT: Pointer to a follow-up question asked by @gerrit: How many PhD students does a typical STEM professor graduate during their entire career?


texts: Can I get a university teaching job with only a bachelors degree?

texts:
I have a B.Tech (Bachelors of Technology) from IIT Madras (class of 2000) and looking to change tracks from my current job in the software industry. In university, I specialized in computer science and engineering.

I want to know if I can get paid as a faculty for teaching at university level either in private or public universities. I’m also interested to learn what possible salary ranges I should expect.


texts: Applying to Ph.D, how to reach out to a professor with no exactly overlapping research topic with me?

texts:
Before everyone's coming at me, let me explain.
I am a CS student and been working on a fundamental type of research project. In my project, I had to propose a new approach, find a new algorithm to tackle a specific topic issue. The ultimate goal was to find the algorithm itself, not directly to application/implementation. My algorithm is new and has never been used before as an approach to solve this problem. It is tested, has less drawbacks than existing algorithms, and has been published in a paper.

Meanwhile, this professor I'm trying to reach out, is from the same specific field of CS as me, and he's a "rockstar" in device implementation and optimization. I've come across his name from papers and books countless times during my years of research, since he's indeed an expert in my field. It's always been my goal to actually implement my algorithm in devices to begin with. But unfortunately due to time constraints during my master, I was only able to work on the algorithm development.

I believe with his implementation competence, expertise and guidance, not only this research can be improved, but also he could enrich my skills in algorithm development along with implementation as well. I've read his book and some papers, but because my project is addressing a real-life target issue that has never been addressed in his lab before, unfortunately there's no overlapping research topic between us, apart from a broad topic, and that he's been working on device optimization that could be extremely useful for my research.

How do I politely explain this situation to him, that I genuinely want to learn from him under his supervision about implementation and optimization area, without sounding like I'm a random student with a random research idea who would like to do Ph.D. in his lab ?


texts: Masters in computer science vs masters in cyber security

texts:
I recently graduated with a degree in computer science and really enjoyed it. However in my last semester I took a cyber security elective class and found it very interesting, especially with the things going on in the world in reference to cyber security. I'm currently working full time and am strongly considering going back to school in the fall (I'd only be out of school one semester between undergrad and grad school) I would continue to work because they have a great tuition reimbursement program.

My question is, I really enjoy and find cyber security interesting, but I feel it's somewhat limiting myself to the cyber security field if I get a master's in that. I know I could still work in other computing areas and use what I learn in those areas, but I would kind of feel like I wasted my time if I'm not using my knowledge on a regular basis.

On the other hand, the university I'd be applying to has a cyber security concentration in the computer science master's program, but it's only about 1/3rd as many classes as the cyber security program. This way I'd have a competency in cyber security, but the program would allow me to have other roles and jobs, and I'd feel like I was still using what I learned.

I'm not planning on going for a PhD (not any time in the next decade or two at least) and have no real experience in security except for the class I took my last semester.

Any thoughts or suggestions?


texts: What is the traditional way of earning a doctorate in Germany?

texts:
I came across this website:

https://www.academics.com/guide/individual-doctorate-germany

At the same time I am interested in pursuing a part-time PhD in Finance in Germany.

Anyone familiar with what is meant by "traditional way of doing a PhD in Germany" / "individual doctorate in Germany"?

Also, does it somehow better comply to a part-time formula?


texts: How valuable/impressive is a review article written by an undergraduate?

texts:
I am the Graduate Coordinator of my department at my state research university.  I am currently evaluating several PhD applications for a prestigious internal fellowship.  The catch is that, while I am in the math department, I am only evaluating applications from other STEM departments.  When it comes to accomplishments in the laboratory sciences, I am often out of my depth, and I usually just admit as much and move on.  However, I've just come to something in which I wonder whether academic cultural differences could give me the wrong idea (rather than no idea).

Namely, an undergraduate student in chemistry has written a review article under the direction of a faculty coauthor. The faculty member says of the student:

  [S/he] was
  responsible for assembling the preliminary bibliography and writing the initial summaries of the
  main papers that we reviewed.  [S/he] was primarily responsible for creating the schemes and
  figures used in the paper. While I did have to heavily edit [his/her] writing, which is to be expected, [s/he] really carried a bulk of the work. Consequently, [s/he] is first author on this paper.

(I did look at the article, but I won't violate confidentiality by describing it...and moreover I am completely incapable of meaningfully evaluating it.)

My question: how valuable/impressive is it for an undergraduate in chemistry to be the first author of a review article like this?  By way of comparison, in mathematics there are almost no "review articles." The closest equivalent I know of are long articles published in the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, which are more like historically oriented mini-courses on a mathematical subfield written by a leading expert in the field.  This type of review article strikes more as a helpful library tool for a chemist interested in certain types of reactions and procedures. So it looks more like a moderate piece of service to the profession, and being first author sounds like the student carried out the assigned task more independently than not.

Is that accurate?  Or is it a big plus for an undergraduate to have done work like this?


texts: What is the difference between academic and administrative department heads?

texts:
In a comment, it was quoted that some universities have administrative or academic department head. I sensed this difference before (but do not remember specifically), but I always thought that the latter is the case: one of the faculty members of a department is appointed as the head or hiring a new faculty member to serve as the department head (or vice versa in some sense).

How and why are administrative and academic heads different?


texts: Should I accept authorship on large collaborations for which I have made little contribution?

texts: I have just started a post-doc. So far all of my papers have had small author lists (4-5 people). I have just been invited as a co-author on several papers with hundreds of authors. The papers are pitched as community-wide collaborations: some being white papers describing a future experiment that the community plans to engage in, others being the results from first data from such experiments. My contribution, and the contribution of 99% of the authors whose names are already there, have been negligible. What are the pros and cons of agreeing to be on such a paper?


texts:
I recently had a postdoc interview (at a research institution) in which I wasn't selected. After receiving the interview outcome, I decided to directly email the panel a few weeks later asking for a feedback. One of the professors replied and invited me for a chat the following week. He said that he has other opportunities that are a good fit for my profile. I know that he's talking about the university where he's working and not the research intuition where I met him (with the panel).
The issue, is that I checked the university's website and I didn't find any job postings. Can a PI hire a postdoctoral researcher without first advertising the job?


texts: Submitting Workshop Proposal by A first Year PhD student

texts:
I am interested in submitting a workshop proposal for a top-tier conference related to my topic. I don't know whether this could be a good idea but this year I co-organized a workshop in a top-tier conference. I handled the speaker, funding and I really enjoyed although it was for women who made a contribution in the field .

I had quite good relations with some professors. However, I don't know whether asking them that I want to submit a workshop proposal is an acceptable idea. Of course, I am doing my research and trying to come up with a paper, but I want to lead a workshop in the field since it still emerging.

Another problem, my ex-supervisor who is bully still got recognition. I found that he is going to be a chair at the conference for a specific category and cannot hide anymore and have to face him anyway.

The question is: Is it a good idea to submit a workshop proposal by a first-year Ph.D. student?

P.S.I had two years of experience in this emerging field and I have been invited for a talk the last month and feedback was positive by professor attended the workshop.


texts: Don't like my choice of grad program and don't know what to do

texts: I have a BSW (social work) and have decided to go back to school for MSW; but social work was never my passion. I honestly picked it in undergrad because they took all my credits when I didn't pass the Praxis for Early Childhood Education (missed each by 1 point) and now I'm in the MSW program at Delaware State University but hate it. I feel like I'm just wasting my time; its not something that I am interested in at all. I went back because "its the thing to do" if I want to get money in my field. I'm just lost when I'm in class because it doesn't have 100% of my attention. I am 26 years old and feel like its too late for me to be saying "I don't know what I want to do with my life." What are some other options of programs I could  look into that is somewhat within social work?


texts: How to condense a 2 page statement of purpose to 500 words?

texts: I have a well written statement of purpose that is about 2 pages in length, single spaced and 12 point font, which were the requirements of a few programs that I applied to. One of them, however, needs a statement that is only 500 words maximum. Any suggestions for effectively condensing this to 500 words and still having it be a solid statement of purpose? Having the same issue with my diversity statement as well.


texts: Research Questions / Hypotheses for an Engineering (CS) Thesis

texts: I am writing a PhD proposal on a solution to an AI problem that hasn't been solved before (although there's related research). I am having trouble determining what kind of research questions / hypotheses are appropriate for this topic. I can't propose my solution is better, faster, more efficient than some previous technique (as is common in CS theses) as there is nothing to compare it to, it's a novel problem. I am not testing a hypothesis as to how something works (such as a theory of evolution, or quantum mechanics), nor developing some set of equations to describe some phenomenon. Rather I am using some standard machine learning algorithms to solve the problem. What form then should my hypotheses take? That I solve the problem to within some degree of accuracy?


texts:
I am currently a Ph.D student(computational maths) works in a theory. I will be graduating in the next year. I have one paper which I will be submitting soon and working one more paper. One of my research article has been published but not related to Ph.D thesis. My first research paper is fully reviewed by my advisor several times. I don't know I will be able to publish anything more in my Ph.D as this is my second last year. I have put of lot of effort in my Ph.D my supervisor also have admit this thing, but verbally. I don't want to do go for a faculty job after my Ph.D, I will be going searching a post-doc after my Ph.D. I am worried about whether I will get a post-doc or not. According to institution norm's there is no requirement of publication in Ph.D.

Question : Is it going to harm my research carrier if I submit my  PhD thesis without any publication?


texts: Is it appropriate to say "hi" to a professor in email?

texts: There is a professor with whom I've taken two courses so far, and who has also agreed to write me a reference letter for graduate school when I complete my undergraduate program. I usually write to all professors "Dear Prof. [...]" or "Hello Prof. [...]", but some professors reply to me as "Hi [...]", which is OK. However, I'm wondering if it is also okay to reply "Hi Prof. [...]" in North America?


texts:
My adviser just informed me that summer funding for theoretical research in his department is unavailable for the coming summer. I trying to brainstorm many different ways to obtain summer funding. Anything from writing my own grants to finding part time jobs over the summer.

How do theorists obtain summer funding after the beginning of February?

Me personally: I am a first year physics graduate student in the United States. My theoretical discipline is a mix between cosmology and condensed matter.


texts: Is it possible to run two postdocs simultaneously if one of them is "independent"?

texts:
I currently have a postdoc at a university in the US whose contract stipulates only that I "produce research" relevant to my field. I have no supervisor and have not been hired as part of a particular grant requiring regular updates to a funding institution. I have been offered a second year of this postdoc should I choose it (I have not yet).
In the meanwhile, I have accepted an offer for next year in another country funded by a private foundation in which I will be working closely with a supervisor. For a fleeting moment, I have wondered whether or not it would be possible to run both jobs simultaneously, since one (my current appointment) has no tangible requirements beyond the "production of research". I can't find anything relevant in either of my contracts or in the conflict of interest statements for the respective universities. However, I haven't pursued this option since:

It seems tasteless, and I wouldn't want to jeopardize my relationship with anyone at either institution.

I assume there must be some injunction against accepting two positions, particularly with regard to the intellectual property produced by the researcher.

Point 1 also prevents me from asking anyone at my institutions about this option (for the moment). Are my suspicions correct?
Thanks in advance.
Edit:  Two more relevant points: first, my current position allows me to work remotely at the moment and I strongly suspect this will continue; second, I do have some extremely light obligations in the form of aiding in the organization of departmental events, but, again, this can be done remotely and I would certainly continue this in the event of a dual postdoc.


texts: To what extent is it acceptable to copy definitions from reference materials?

texts:
I'm working on my master's thesis and am thinking of writing parts of a chapter as an introductory segment of a sub chapter within my work.

Is this acceptable if I include a portion of introductory matter of a source text if the source material is referenced?

I'm using only the well accepted definitions to set a basis for the reader to build on for the main topic described later.


texts: Misunderstood exam question with consequences for incorrect answer

texts:
I suspect a student misread an exam question worth 10 points (exam out of 120). Aside from this one student, the rest all understood the question and the average grade was 8.2/10 for this question. One student did something entirely different and got 0.

After staring at their answer for a while, I realize he / she had confused "map generalization" and "general purpose map". I suspect English is this student’s second language. Now, this question awards 3 or 4 times the points of a typical multiple choice question as it is of a higher level.

I do not like the thought of giving this student a zero on this question when it may be a language nuance issue. They are very close terms, the one I used and the one they misunderstood if for. This student has had issues all semester though with handing work in, attending class, completing assignments, etc., (hence, why this is important as it may have implications for their grade, major, graduation).

The student is on an important grade boundary and it could make a difference to their final grade even a difference to if they have to take the class again / can graduate on time / or even stay in the major.

My thoughts are one of:

Give them another stab at it with more language context, ASAP.
Give them some consolation points.
Stick with the 0 for this question.
Grade the question they answered and not the question asked.
Give him / her the lowest grade anyone else got (or 1 lower) for
this question.

The semester is over but I have a few days before grades are due.

What to do?

UPDATE

The Department Chair recommends removing this one question from this one student's exam and the Associate (sub) Dean applying the "rest of the exam average" to this one question. This is two ways of saying the same thing really as the outcome is identical. Either way you do it applies this one student's average grade for all the other questions to this one question. The Chair and Dean (both whom I highly regard) have no more information than this board aside from the student's name. So if the student averaged 70% on the other questions this would be identical to giving them a 7 out of 10 on this question (this 7 is close to what would happen).  Hmmmm. This has not come up in all the answers or comments below.

What to do?


texts: Is it ok to publish a picture from a dataset without permission?

texts:
I am writing up some research I did using a Kaggle dataset:
https://www.kaggle.com/c/dogs-vs-cats

I want to include one or two images from the dataset in my paper to show the types of images I'm using. Will this run afoul of copyright issues?

The rules for the dataset say:

  These images have been published by Microsoft Research for the express purpose of furthering academic research. They may be used for non-commercial research purposes, but they may not be re-published without the express permission of Microsoft Research.

Including an image in my paper is use for non-commercial research purposes, but it is also re-publishing them without the express permission of Microsoft Research. I asked this question on the Kaggle forum, with no response in several weeks, and there is no contact information for anyone at Microsoft Research.

More generally, is it acceptable to publish examples of images from publicly available datasets even if there is not an explicit copyright license? What about ImageNet, where they took images from all over the internet? Is any paper that publishes examples from ImageNet (there are plenty!) breaking copyright law?


texts: Supervisor does not allow use of commercial software for student project, against student's interests

texts:
My supervisor does not allow me to use commercial software for my project. I believe that they want to reuse, modify and build upon what I do and thus are interested only in tools/libraries that are widely-accepted in the scientific community (which I do not intend to pursue a career in).

The commercial software products license costs are not an issue as students can either officially use the software for free or licenses are quite cheap (e.g. less than 5 Euro for students). As I know which tools are used in the kind of jobs I want to get in, I do not need the supervisor "to guide my software decisions" to help me in this aspect. I am also already quite proficient in one of the commercial software tools I want to use, but I feel my supervisor is not (and also has no interest in learning more about it - I do not blame him for this).

When signing up for the project, usage of commercial software was not explicitly excluded. The topic of the project itself is actually interesting, it is just the software that we cannot agree on.

How might I persuade them to change their view? If impossible, how can I make the most of this situation?

This question is related to what I am asking about, but it is more normative in nature.


texts: postdoc position does not require letter of recommendation only contact details of referees. Should I still provide the letters?

texts:
I'm applying for a postdoc position at ETH Zurich.
For the application, the following requirements are listed:

Letter of motivation
CV and list of publications
Electronic copies of university transcripts and certificates
Contact details of two referees

They do not list letters of recommendation in their requirements.

This leads me to the following question:
Would it be better to provide letters of recommendation, even though they are not required?

Additional information:

I know the professor and he knows me.
In fact, it would be possible to get four letters of recommendation from leading scientists.
I know that the professor knows and respects these scientists very much.
I'm sure that most of the other applicants would not have this strong support behind them. This would be a chance to separate me from those. However, I'm unsure if it is not counterproductive since they explicitly stated that they only need the contact information of two referees.


texts: Does Google Scholar link to post-print PDFs lodged on academia.edu or ResearchGate?

texts:
I'm a big fan of how Google Scholar puts links to full text PDFs of journal articles that are indexed on the internet next to the link the publication page of academic publishers. This means that people who find a reference to a paywalled article in Google Scholar that they do not have access to can still read a PDF from elsewhere on the web.

I've been preparing post-prints of various articles for this purpose. If I post them to academia.edu or ResearchGate, will Google Scholar index them?


texts: On math papers and general questions they need to address

texts:
If you proved something new in math and want to publish it (or even before you've started proving that and before you have thoughts on publishing anything), do you need to answer questions like "why do people care about what I proved?", "why is this topic interesting?", "how does this fit into a broader picture?", "what theoretical implications does this have?", etc.? I have some background in linguistics, and in linguistics, from what I understand, it is essential to answer these questions (even before you've decided to work on some research question/problem). But I've taken a look at several math papers from arxiv, and I didn't seem to see those questions addressed. So does nobody care about them in math, and as long as you proved something new (or gave a better proof of an old result), this itself is considered good enough?
If so, then I guess this question can be extended to "how do you choose a good research question in math?", but maybe it should be a separate question.


texts: How important are reference letters when it comes to postdoc hiring decision? At what stage in the hiring process are they considered?

texts: Context: I am planning to apply to a US lab.