texts: Do scientists using user facilities (such as Advanced Light Sources) have to travel frequently?

texts:
I recently met an experimental physicist who does his measurements using the X-ray beam-line at a national lab. Since the university he works at is not too close to the facility, I wonder how much travel do people in this and related fields of research have to do for taking measurements on their samples.

Also, do people have any personal opinions about how strenuous the constant travelling can be?


texts: What's the bargaining space in a post-doc employment contract - in the Netherlands?

texts:
Motivation

I'm soon going to start a Post-Doc in the Netherlands. The labor laws are different from where I did my Ph.D. work; the academic culture is somewhat different; the unionization situation is different; etc.

So, I've gotten the informal offer over email, and I'm now expecting the formal contract offer. I already have a copy of the collective employment agreement which covers post-doctoral researchers where I'll be working.

When I did my PhD, like I said, the situation was quite different - plus, I didn't actually get to sign any contract and no bargaining was involved. But now there might be some bargaining (although I'm not sure to what extent as employment conditions are mostly standardized).

The actual question

My question is: What are, in your experience or opinion are points that are possible/useful to bargain about in the individualized contract? If you can, please give an example of better vs worse options for the same point. Long lists with less details are also quite ok by me :-)

Examples

(some more academia-specific and some more generic)

The extent to which the academic institute controls copyrights to your discoveries: Partial copyright in your works / Institute controls everything / Automatic publication under free license.
The extent to which you can be required to perform duties other than your chosen specific personal research: Not at all / At their discretion / Upto x% of the work week
Funding for attending conferences abroad

Notes

Somewhat-related question: What questions should I ask when I visit labs for potential post-doc employment?
Please answer even if your experience does not regard the Netherlands. I'm particularly interested in inter-national differences, because the prevalence of alternatives elsewhere is a point I can use in bargaining.


texts: What's the best way to share my presentation slides online?

texts:
I'm thinking of posting slides from some of my technical presentations online.  One option I've used in the past is just posting the PDFs.  But I've seen some sites that offer nice interfaces for others to view and share your slides without downloading them, such as

SpeakerDeck
Slideshare
Present.me

I am primarily interested in advertising my research to other researchers who might be interested in using it or collaborating.

Which site should I use, and why?  Or are raw PDFs the way to go?

In case it matters, I'm a computational mathematician and my slides are a mixture of text, equations, plots, short videos, and diagrams.


texts: Math PhD in US vs Master + PhD in Europe

texts:
I'm currently doing my bachelor's degree in mathematics in Germany (Heidelberg to be precise) and I'll soon be applying for master programs / grad school. I basically consider two  options:

I) First do a master's degree and then a PhD in Europe and try to get a postdoc position in the US afterwards

II) Go to grad school in the US now and then look for a postdoc position in the US

Concerning I) I really like how math programs at universities in Germany (and other European countries) are structured and if I decide to stay in Europe for now, I will probably do my master's degree at Bonn. However, I am afraid that I'll have a hard time finding a postdoc position in the US having done my PhD in Europe, both because my experience (for instance regarding teaching) might not be what US universities are looking for and because European universities might not have as good of a reputation as universities in the US. I suspect, at least a PhD from Oxford or Cambridge might have some prestige in the US, however, I really don't like the 9 month master system there, as I feel like the material is rushed through and as I've heard, in order to get admitted to a PhD there, it is strongly advised to also do your master's there.

Concerning II) Since I prefer the European master/PhD system, for me to be happy with moving to the US now, it would be helpful to get a position at a top university. I already (successfully) did the TOEFL test but I would have to do the GRE (both general and math) test. Together with application fees this would probably add up to about 1000$ which is a hell of lot of money.

So I guess my questions are:

1) Are my concerns regarding I) justified? How hard is it for someone who just completed their PhD in Europe to find a job at a university in the US?

2) What is the reputation of places like Heidelberg, Bonn, ETH Zürich,... in the US? Is a PhD from Oxbridge prestigious enough for it to be worth it to overcome my aversion towards their program?

3) Do I even stand a chance of getting admitted to a top US program? I took a lot of courses and managed to score between 1.0 and 1.3 (if I looked it up correctly, this should be between 3.7 and 4.0 GPA?) almost everywhere. However I haven't participated in any REUs and don't have anything to offer besides the courses I took. Having read what people that got admitted to Harvard, Princeton, Berkely... have done prior to grad school, I don't think I can keep up with them.

4) Having said that, do you think it is even worth applying and spending such a huge amount of money in the application process?

5) Do you have any other piece of advice or experience to share?

Thank you so much for your help!


texts: I am working on an extension to my thesis work in robotics.  I believe that, in order to complete the result I'm moving towards, I'll need at least two, probably more, papers to provide a full solution.  The problem itself can be broken into several pieces that clearly build off of each other.  I'd like to publish each piece separately in order to keep the size of the paper reasonable.  Also, the first piece is actually of limited technical use but introduces the concepts, notations, and methods required for the further pieces.  Has anyone had any success trying to publish work that stands alone but is very obviously incomplete?


texts: Why is the CV needed for graduate application

texts: Why do graduate schools ask for a CV to be included in the application? Do they look for anything else besides publications and work experience?


texts: Information in my Thesis incorrectly represented in another publication

texts:
Recently I came across a publication that referenced my PhD Thesis in a literature survey. The citing is correct, however, the information that they sited is incredibly erroneous. In a table, they claimed that my thesis (in Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting) reported values that it simply did not. The only information apparently from my thesis is reported in a table (Table 3) and nowhere else.

This is the publication in question.

Given the journal and publisher, is it worthwhile to attempt to contact the authors to fix the error?


texts: The complication of not inviting my ex-supervisor to a podcast dedicated to our sub-field?

texts: I am hosting a podcast related to our field where we invite the stars of our field, the podcast has grabbed an audience from different demographic regions and it becomes very well know in the community. Before that, my ex-supervisor who is in the field and somehow is well known in the field was trying to destroy my career, it was a long story and s(he) was abusive. Now, no one knows about that, I feel sometimes it may sound unethical as I somehow invited everyone the field except him/her. The podcast also got an award from the events organized by the leaders of the field. I don't know how to be neutral, should I invite him/her at some point? because it becomes blatant I am trying to avoid inviting him/her, I know s(he) destroyed me literally, but now we have an audience and at least I have to be inclusive, do you think I have to invite him/her?


texts: Is it okay to explore other grad school options while deferring admission for other reasons?

texts:
So the school that I got into for m PhD program offers a simple admission deferral process that I'd like to apply for, for personal reasons (I don't want to use this post to discuss whether or not I should defer; assume that the personal reasons are serious enough, because they are). This could defer my admission one year, to fall 2019.

My question is, would it be very unprofessional/unethical to also apply to other schools during my deferral period? It seems silly to throw away my offer, since I would like to take it, but I would also like to see where else I may be able to get in. Would it be better to simply rescind my acceptance, rather than having the department believe that I am certain on my intentions to enroll in a year?

Edit to clarify: The decision to defer is due to the personal reasons that I mentioned above, and not because I take issue with the program to which I've been admitted. If not for the personal reasons, I would go to school now. But, if I'm going to be deferring at all anyway, it would seem imprudent to not at least try my hand and open up the future by applying elsewhere. Telling the department about the personal issues and leaving out the previous sentence, though, does seem wrong.


texts: How to ask for code from authors who have proposed algorithms in computer science?

texts:
I am developing an algorithm, and I want to compare its performance with various existing state-of-the art methods. I would like to contact the authors of these methods and ask if they can send me the code for their methods.

What should I tell them? Should I say that I am developing a method that is in some way an alternative to their method? Or is enough to ask to say that I want to do generic comparisons?


texts: Potential Collaborators insisting on Joining Supervision Panel

texts:
TLDR: Researchers wanting to join supervisory team instead of collaborating, why?

I have started my PhD for awhile now and I am gearing up for my confirmation presentation (research proposal defence). I am quite happy with my supervisory team, who I know well and work very well together. I met some researchers by accident with the potential of collaboration on some interesting off-shoots of my thesis, I was hoping to publish.

One researcher worked on the same topic as mine but from a different discipline, so I thought I would ask her some theory questions I had and potentially get her help for a methodology paper at the end of my thesis. Another researcher I approached before my PhD but she did not answer my emails. I have since met her and she was keen to be involved. I thought I could include some questions relevant to her area in my survey and hopefully publish a separate paper. I felt the topic did not meld well with my overall thesis.

Both researchers insisted in joining my supervisory team with some force. Both refused to volunteer or discuss specific questions that I posed, that would have been helpful in my thesis. Both insisted that I speak to my supervisory team and let my team decide whether they can join. They did not call nor spend time with me and getting to know me and my thesis better. One of them did not even read the draft thesis proposal that I emailed her before she offered to join my supervisory team, which I thought was rather rude (was I being unreasonable?). In both instances I felt quite disrespected and demeaned as both thought that my supervisory team should make the decision to join with seemingly no consideration of my opinion. Is this common? Why is that so?

1) What are the possible motivations for both of them to insist they join my supervisory panel? Both of them seem reasonably thin on PhD supervision even though they were both quite hard to get a hold of. Both seem keen to develop links with my department.

2) Why the forceful insistence for my supervisory team to decide whether they can join? Why am I not a relevant decision-maker in their eyes? I can veto them joining the team, so why don't they seem to appreciate that I need to be onboard?

3) Why are they not generous in spending time answering what I thought were simple conceptual and theory development questions that I had? Just one or two lines pointing in a general direction would have been helpful. Why did they focus on joining my supervisory team before discussing their topic areas? I am now concerned that they are not competent in their topic areas, but at the very least they do not seem interested in scholarly discussion.

4) If I am offering publication, why is that not sufficient? I thought publications are a great outcome and sufficient reward for collaboration. I don't understand why joining the supervisory panel participation is more important in their minds than publications and potential collaboration with me and my department in the longer term?

In the end, I was unfortunately forceful with both of them. To one, I outlined how I got to know one of my current supervisors that I who I did not know previously, about how I was able to find out what they were capable of, what they were comfortable with, also their availability and current work pipelines.

To the other one, I offered that we look for a potential student(s) in order to pay justice to the topic. I told her that I am happy for her to meet my supervisors and collaborate with my department either way. I have not heard back from her. I suspect she is upset. I feel horrible being forceful and direct with both of them and I wonder what other ways I could have handled the situation? Is there another approach that could have achieved a successful collaboration instead, if I somehow knew their agenda better? Instead, I am left with the feeling that I was some child answering to some doorknockers insisting on speaking to my parents...


texts: Is the author of a letter of recommendation notified that their letter has been submitted?

texts: My professor wants to give me a letter of recommendation for a graduate school that I am applying which I will submit via scanning. She didn't give offline recommendation to any One. So she wants to know, when I will submit the recommendation, will there be any email sent from the admission council to the professor informing a letter in her name has been submitted. It will be great if anyone here can inform me if there is any such process like this.


texts: Should I publish or present in academic conferences before doing science outreach?

texts: I have just finished fieldwork and the media and the community I’ve been working with want me to give a talk on preliminary results. Should I first present data to colleagues?


texts: Reference on abuse of stimulant medications among professors to enhance academic performance?

texts:
Various research articles1 have been published on the prevalence of stimulant medicine (Adderall, Concerta, Ritalin) abuse among undergraduate students.

By "abuse of stimulant medicine," I am referring to the practice of students taking prescription medication that is prescribed to someone else (or, that is prescribed to them under false pretenses) in order to improve their focus and concentration while studying.

There is some anecdotal evidence of university faculty taking Adderall and related medications to enhance academic performance (and not to treat an attention disorder).

Is there any reference to research2 on the prevalance of stimulant medicine abuse among university faculty?

1 Here is a review article that covers some of them:

  Varga, Matthew D. "Adderall abuse on college campuses: a comprehensive literature review." Journal of evidence-based social work 9.3 (2012): 293-313.
  DOI: 10.1080/15433714.2010.525402

2 I am looking for answers that are a reference to such a study. I am not looking for answers from anecdotal evidence not supported by a study or citation. I am also not looking for answers explaining why such a study is unlikely to exist, or why it should not be trusted if it did.


texts: What constitutes a declarable conflict of interest in gender studies?

texts:
From Wikipedia:

  A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial interest, or otherwise, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation of the individual or organization.

Question: In the context of gender studies, what constitutes a declarable conflict of interest in gender studies?

As some hypothetical examples:

A woman scientist is writing about male violence against women, and is herself a victim of such violence.
An LGBT person is writing about an LGBT topic.

In both cases, the work will likely be influenced to some degree by the author's personal experience, i.e., one could argue that there is a conflict of interest.  However, it seems unreasonable to insist that a victim of violence declare the fact.  Similarly, it seems unreasonable for an LGBT person to declare their LGBT status, and possibly face discrimination as a result.

In these scenarios, there's a conflict of interest in declaring a possible conflict of interest.


texts: How ethical is the practice of including spouses as co-authors when they are in the same field?

texts:
I've noticed many situations where a researcher will put their spouses as co-authors in a paper. This is commonly seen in situations where both spouses are in the same field. Valid collaboration between spouses is possible (and exist).

The question is not meant to attack spousal collaborations in academia. Simply put, this is just one possible example where a conflict of interest might arise (the same question can be placed in situations of parent-child and parent-sibling collaborations with no significant difference).

However, where does one draw the line in such a situation? What is stopping them from putting each other in every paper they write, effectively "doubling" their academic output? Whether we like it or not, publication metrics are used in fellowships, grants, awards, and many other situations in academia. In order for it to remain an objective metric requires the integrity of authorship to be upheld. When a PI is choosing authorship, they are responsible for not only themselves, but those in their own group, as well as their department and institution.

The situation with spouses (and other familial relationships) is somewhat unique in that the barrier for co-author contribution is far more easily passed, compared to two regular collaborating PIs. Not only are they often more readily available for collaborations, there is also a possibility of subconscious bias when evaluating the contributions of a significant other. There is also a greater possibility such a system can be gamed. For example, could such a possibility arise where a contribution which would otherwise be recognized in an acknowledgement be replaced by co-authorship due to a slight bias?

The issue is not whether or not spouses, family members or any other person should be allowed to be a co-author when they have made a valid contribution. The problem lies in whether or not the judgement of valid contribution can be made fairly without a conflict of interest by someone in that situation. Being aware of this, is it ethical to still make that decision? Is there a way to be unbiased without complete recusal?


texts: What to do if a professor confused me with another student in a letter of reference?

texts:
Last year one of the recommendation letter writers wrote incorrect information about my character and this was the reason I was rejected when I applied to graduate school.

After hearing about the rejection the professor realized his mistake and told me about it. Basically, he wrote I had serious mental health issues, but this was about another student.

I will apply again this year, what should I do about this error? Can the professor simply mention this on his new recommendation? How will the committee view an error as serious as this?


texts: My affiliation after I moved to another institution for Ph.D

texts:
I did my Master's in A university and then moved on to B for my Ph.D.
Covid outbreak started about the time when I was wrapping up my project, I had most of my manuscript done and was pending for iterative feedbacks from my advisor at A university. Due to COVID, my project got pushed back from priority and now, as a Ph.D. student at B university, I'm re-working my manuscripts to submit to an academic journal.
I don't know what to do with my affiliation in this situation. Should I list mine as of B university? Or should it still be A?


texts: Should I agree to review a paper that I do not fully understand?

texts:
I recently received a request to subreview a paper for a top computer science conference. While it is related to my field of research, it is extremely long (the conference does not have a page limit) and complicated (it is an algorithm made of more than ten sub-algorithms, each of which is itself worth a conference paper). I find it very difficult to verify that it is correct. I mean, theoretically I may be able to understand it if I spend several whole weeks on reading every sub-algorithm, crafting small examples to myself, writing comupter simulations etc., but then I will have to stop doing anything else. What should I do?

Decline the request, hoping that the paper will be given to a smarter reviewer that will be more capable of verifying its correctness? Or -
Agree to the request, but tell the PC member in advance that I am going to review only a part of the paper which I can understand?

NOTE: The problem is not with the authors' presentation. In fact, their explanations seem good and clear. Just the algorithms themselves are highly complex.


texts: Returning to academia after a long peroid

texts:
A person I know has been teaching undergraduate students for about ~8 years. She has a master in science and she is ~41 years old. For personal reasons, she quit her job five years ago. She would like to return to academia by enrolling in a Ph.D. program.

In my opinion, the chances of getting a funded Ph.D. position is really low because she got her master ~13 years ago and she could not find such a position after applying several times. My question is that if she has a reasonable chance of a funded Ph.D. position in Europe or north America if she spends some volunteer time in a lab and publishes one paper?
How realistic it is even to get a volunteer research work in a lab?

I should add that I have read several questions with regards to age and starting a Ph.D.. It seems the age is not important, however, in her case she already applied and failed to get even interview. Those people who have started a Ph.D. at a similar age might have paid for their study which is not possible for her.


texts: Are contributions to a open source project helpful for graduate admissions?

texts: I have about 400 ~ 500 lines of what I would call average open source code contribution. Does open source code contribution matter for graduate admissions? I am interested in applying to a MS in computer science and am interested in machine learning. I have a great plan for an awesome feature for Libsvm (and open-source implementation of the popular support vector machine technique for machine learning). Will implementing it help my application ?


texts: How do I email my professor about assigning me to a group?

texts: I have a class project coming up, the professor asked us to form groups of 6. Everyone in class seems to know each other and have already started forming groups. Unfortunately, I don’t know anyone in that class. I would like to know how can I email my professor about assigning me to a group? I am an international student so I am not really sure how to address this.


texts: How to ensure my papers are indexed by Google Scholar

texts:
I have some papers published in some journals in India, but Google Scholar does not index those journals. What approach can I take to get these papers indexed by Google Scholar?

I tried uploading the papers to Academia.edu, but it didn't work. I don't have an institutional email and webpage at this moment. My research field is computer science.


texts:
I am working on a paper after finishing my Masters. I did all the lab research and writing of the manuscript. My professor was only involved to guide me throughout the research and read my writing and give his comments.

Can I argue with him and tell him I am not letting the article to be published if he insists on being the first author?


texts: Can my undergraduate research thesis be published in a scientific paper? If so, how should I go?

texts: I'm starting my bachelor's degree thesis and i will do some research work. If I achieve good results can my work be published? If so , who should get the credits? I'm afraid that my prof or his research lab can publish/include my work in some their future papers without my name.


texts: Are undergraduate reference letters adequate for PhD applications after a masters program?

texts:
Currently I am finishing my masters (one year) in economics at a Canadian university and am intending to apply to Canadian universities to do a PhD.

The issue I have is that in the courses I had taken last semester the professors were closed to student contact making it near impossible to build relationships.

For my applications I intended to rely upon professors from my undergraduate university that know me quite well and who I know will write high-quality letters.

A colleague of mine mentioned that when applying for a PhD program, it is expected that my references will come from my masters university and it is generally not acceptable practice to have references from the undergraduate one.

Is this actually the case? If so, what is the best course of action?


texts: Potential consequences of providing voluntary work for a team I've been forced to leave

texts:
I have been forced to leave my previous institute by my former principal investigator.

At the institute I have solved problems regarding the software, and I enjoyed giving help as much as I can to many users, even after resignation. I had a request from users to do a tutorial video.

I was thinking of that before resignation, but I am afraid that could be not favourable by the ex-PI. Although, a week ago I have received a message from him apologizing for what he did and wishing me good luck. Despite his behaviour, I forgive him.

I would really like to do that video voluntarily, but I am not belonging to the institute anymore and I would like to keep things good and not fabricating sensitivity. Should I ignore the request of those potential users or do those tutorials on my own?


texts: Can I ask a reference letter from someone I met at a place I interviewed?

texts:
I had an interview at a university for a tenure track position.  They decided not to give me an offer, but I met a professor there (for the first time) that supported me as a candidate.  This professor saw my application, went to my talk, and was not on the search committee, but participated in my campus visit.

I corresponded with this person through e-mail, and the phone, about my career (not just about the position).

Since I didn't get an offer for a job I wanted this year, can I ask this person if they would write me a reference letter for my job search next year?


texts:
I am just about to finish my PhD and a prof I know well and I were discussing future postdoc labs. They suggested I email a friend of theirs in the US. I got a very positive reply saying my research experience and interest are perfect for them and they will have funding for a postdoc. They then said to give them a few days to find out when they will have the money and if I can be flexible about when I could start. I replied yes I can be flexible. It’s been two weeks and he has not got back to me with the interview date and when they will have the money as they promised.

Should I be worried or does things like this take time? I have another interview lined up hence why I am curious as to know when I should expect to hear from them.


texts: Will I get charged if my paper is accepted and sent to language editor?

texts:
I have just received an e-mail saying that my manuscript is acceptable for publication. However, the journal stated that my paper will be sent to a language editor prior to the production stage as the reviewers indicated that our English needs serious improvement, despite our efforts in reviewing and editing our language thoroughly. In this case, will I be charged for the language editing service?
Thank you very much for the help
Best,


texts: Is it legal to have a collection of interesting articles printed for personal use, in the form of a book?

texts:
Every once in a while I come across an article whose quality stands out exceptionally in my field of research. While I don't always have the time to read the full paper (usually tens of pages long), I "mark" it so that I may read it later or refer to it in a future article if needed. Unfortunately my attempts at marking articles have always had several shortcomings:

Bookmarking it: after a while I will forget what I bookmarked, what the title of the article was, the author, and so forth,
Saving it on disk: I never recall I had them in the first place,
Printing it out: tedious, and after a while I am left with hundreds of pages of documents lying around in an unordered fashion.

So I was thinking of collecting my "favorite" articles into a single collection, then having them printed in the form of a book, strictly for personal use of course. Then whenever I am writing on a specific subject, I take the book down from the shelf that corresponds most to my research and have everything nicely laid out in a single place.

Now obviously, this raises all sorts of red flags about printing a large number of people's work, collecting them in a single place, having it bound in a book, ... So I am not sure what I am allowed and not allowed to do in such a context. Legally speaking, can I do this without fear of a backlash?


texts:
While reading this question, and specifically Chris Gregg's answer, I started to think about recording my lectures in order to help students review, help students who missed class, and generally provide a way for people to learn about the subjects I teach.

So, how do teachers (with the same goal as I wrote) record their lectures? Do they simply ask someone to record them with a video camera? Do they go in and do more serious editing like you see in Coursera videos where the video transitions between the lecturer's face and slides being drawn on by the lecturer (as described here)?

I'm curious what my options are, considering my university provides zero support for this idea of recording lectures.


texts: What stops a university from doing whatever they want when an academic misconduct allegation arises?

texts:
I got permission from a professor to submit an essay to him that I wrote for one of his previous classes. It is academic misconduct to do this unless you receive permission from the professor.

Say the professor changes his mind for whatever reason and I have his permission in writing, what is to stop him from going back on his word during or after the class? I understand the Dean and Department Chair would also be involved. If I prove that I had permission, what can stop the university from failing me on the class or assignment and/or doing whatever they want essentially since it's basically a private business/entity? Would I need to sue the school?


texts: Is there a website for academic computer science jobs in the US like mathjobs.org?

texts:
I know there is a mathjobs website in the US called mathjobs.org, which is the main website for posting math jobs in the US universities. But is there a similar one for the computer science jobs? I'm asking because I searched for csjobs.org and computersciencejobs.org, but I couldn't find a relevant match.

Thanks in advance!


texts: Does ScholarOne really force you to have multiple logins?

texts: Why can't I have a single ScholarOne login for every journal I submit or review for?  Is there some way to copy over the address, keywords & password for all my accounts so I don't have to waste time making the same stuff up every time I get involved with another journal?


texts:
I generate detailed notes throughout the school year to help out the students. Most of these notes are in the range of 30 - 50 pages.

I wonder if I should attempt to copyright my notes to ensure that it is not copied without attributing me as the creator.

If so, how can I go about doing this to the maximum effectiveness? As for now, all I am thinking is to place a copyright icon somewhere in the notes.


texts: I am applying for a job and I have to submit (among other) the list of all my citations (excluding autocitations of course). I wonder how the list should look like. Should it look like references at the end of any scientific paper? I guess not since then you could not tell which papers of yours were cited?! Is there any standard way how to do this?


texts: How to deal with career anxiety and manage to remain concentrated on the matter in hand?

texts:
I am just over 30 years and about to finish my PhD. I will obtain my PhD from an EU country, and I must obtain residence permit to keep staying in EU.
My thesis is almost a staple thesis which contains the results of my publications and some introduction. It requires some work, but nothing compared to a writing a thesis from the beginning. Although, I feel so desperate and stuck, I am procrastinating. I am so procrastinating that I did not write a couple of pages since four months now.
I am actively applying to postdocs. Most of them reply with negative results, because the field I'm working on is way too specific and not very popular across Europe. I am afraid that I will have to go back to my country and the application period will start all over again, which means I will never, ever will find a job in Europe. Especially due to current travelling restrictions.
Applying to some industry job is one of the options, but it seems to me like throwing away my PhD and my efforts I put on publishing papers. Because if I start in a company, I will start in junior position with people who just finished their bachelor's degree. I did that almost ten years ago. I do not want to feel like I've wasted ten years of my life.
On the other hand, I do not want to lose my right to apply for a permanent residence permit, which I can obtain only after 5 years of continuous residency. Thus, applying to a company and working for a couple of years seems viable, but then it is extremely hard to go back to academy because I already receive negative replies from faculties now. 2-3 years from now, I will be the same me but after non-productive 2-3 years.
I am literally panicked. On one hand, I want to settle down, and see where my life is going. Thus I am applying to industry (mostly corporate) jobs. On the other hand, I spent many years obtaining academic formation and research is the thing I do passionately, but I am not sure if I can find a postdoc position. Even if I do, it is still a question whether I can find a faculty position.
Have you ever been in a similar situation? If so, how did you deal with it?


texts: Am I allowed to republish / distribute abstracts?

texts: Example: I have a document containing 1,000 abstracts of research articles from different publishers. Am I allowed to distribute this document for free online? If not, has anyone being sued for doing so?


texts: Professional ways of saying "Keep me in the loop in case you have some other projects I may be able to contribute to"

texts:
I’m a student and I’ve been visiting a collaborator of my advisor to work on a project. The visiting period ends in a few days and it has been productive and enjoyable. We have worked well together, but the professor has no shortage of students or collaborators.

What is a more “refined and professional” way (for lack of a better term) to phrase the following message:

  Keep me in the loop in case you have some other projects I may be able to contribute to.


texts: What is the rationale behind requiring a meeting before filing academic misconduct charges?

texts:
Some universities have a rule that, for example, "if it appears that a student in your class may be guilty of academic misconduct, you must promptly ask the student to meet with you informally to discuss your concerns."  The quote is taken from one such university, the University of Wisconsin.  UW's Academic Misconduct Guide for Instructors goes on to say: "You can discuss the matter with the student in person, by telephone, or online. During this meeting, you should explain why you believe the student may have committed academic misconduct and give the student an opportunity to respond. It is not necessary to inform the student in writing before this meeting."

What is the rationale behind this type of requirement?

Bonus: How common is this?  When did universities in the US start instituting this type of requirement?


texts: Should academic experience from other domains be included on a CV?

texts: As an undergrad, I was a double-major in neuroscience and music. Now, I'm working on putting together a CV for applications to master's programs in neuroscience. But, my thesis work was done in the music department and unrelated to neuroscience whatsoever. Should I include this on my CV, or would it be seen as irrelevant "padding" of my CV? (I'm not really concerned about shoring up my experience, as I've had several years of directly relevant work experience since I finished my bachelor's degree.)


texts: Is it acceptable to use working hours to read general interest books?

texts:
Every year are published around a dozen of books directly related to my research. By directly I mean on the same topics of my research, normally by authors I am familiar with, and potential reference sources for my current or future research. Some are fairly technical, but others can be of more general interest, or, for example, more on the policy side. I think it is not controversial that one uses "normal working hours" (e.g. whilst in the office) to read these books.

However, my problem is with books that are not directly related to my research, but which pertain to topics that might be indirectly related to it, or which I think might be interesting to explore in order to foster interdisciplinary work, or which are of another sub-discipline I don't research on, or books that refer to academia and science in general, or to teaching. Naturally, there are hundreds of these books published every year, and I do not aim to read them all. But some are of particular interest to me.

Is it socially acceptable for one to use "working hours" to read these books? Or are these expected to be read only outside work, e.g. on weekends, or holidays, or so? What's your experience on this?

Context: I'm a standard "early career researcher" in academia, with both research and teaching responsibilities.


texts: How do I get a summer research position as an undergraduate?

texts: All the questions here on this topic seem to be about masters/PhD students, so I'm not sure if that applies to me. I am an international student studying in the US, which means the only place I can get a full-time paid summer job without mountains of paperwork is on campus. I would love to get involved with a professor's research over the summer, for valuable skills and experience. How do I go about developing that kind of rapport/relationship with a professor? It feels weird to just do a cold email saying "hello, I'm really interested in your research, do you have anything going on over the summer that I could get involved in?".


texts: How to approach "potential benefits to society of proposed research" question on a grant application for a pure math project?

texts:
I have been writing a grant proposal, where it is based in the UK. I almost did most of the application, but I have no idea for the following parts:
Benefits of Overseas Country: Describe any potential benefits to the overseas country and/or country of origin that will result from the proposed Fellowship. This may include supporting the development of a well-trained research community and promoting economic development and social welfare of the country through enhanced research and innovation capacity to benefit the wider society
Benefits of UK: Describe any potential benefits to the UK and UK research that will result from the proposed Fellowship
I am an early-stage researcher in pure math. To be honest, I see neither any benefits of my research to the economics nor to the UK. I would really appreciate it if one could give me some hints/examples. Thanks in advance.


texts:
I know we've all had situations with students who seem to have a solid number of excuses not to be in class or get work done.  However, for the most part, it will be only once or twice a semester that I have to deal with any single student for which I'm normally happy to give them the benefit of the doubt with even a modicum of forewarning or evidence of reason (doctor's note, etc).

But I'm pretty much at my wit's end with a student this semester and I'm not entirely how I should deal with it.  The student has missed close to half of class meetings and missed so far both of the exams given so far this semester.   They have had excuses of one sort or another for each absence, but the diversity of them rivals anything Lemony Snicket could hope to write.  But all of them fall within our departmental policy for excused absences so I have to work with the student.  I'll spare details (also for FERPA concerns), but the extra work load it's resulted in has absolutely not been welcome give I'm on a large overload this semester.

When it comes to excused/justified absences, just how many is too many?  And how can one best handle it given departmental or institutional policies that force instructors' hands to be lenient even for cases where, really, a student ought to have withdrawn if they're having so many problems?


texts: How to ask new advisor about her "style" in a professional way?

texts:
In the first meeting my new advisor, how should I ask her what her "style" is when supervising students, in a way that is straightforward but not cheeky?

Bonus question: what are good questions to ask to your new advisor on your first meeting?


texts: How should I credit a plagiarized paper in open source code?

texts:
Background:

In order to form a body of work to show to prospective employers, I am implementing a genetic solver for the weighted maximum independent set problem. The code will be available on github under an open-source license. While researching the problem, I came across this paper. However, I found it to be lacking justification for many of its decisions. Attempting to gain a deeper understanding of the topic, I went through other papers that it cited as references. I quickly found Beasley and Chu's A Genetic Algorithm for the Set Covering Problem which provides a much clearer explanation of many of the same issues.

In fact, upon closer reading, I realized that many paragraphs from the first paper were copied--almost word for word--from the second one (e.g. the last paragraph in section 3.6 from Beasley and Chu is identical to the first paragraph on page 8 of the other paper). Perhaps most damning is the reproduction of the heuristic-feasibility operator with absolutely no attribution to the original authors. After discovering this, I stopped referencing the derivative paper (which, by the way, greatly sped up my development process).

Question:

First, is the first paper guilty of plagiarism? If so, how much of this should I discuss in the code and the project summary on github? Should I even mention the derivative paper? I don't want to slander the author in a public forum--although this case seems pretty straightforward--and I certainly don't want to commit plagiarism, but I feel some obligation to the original authors to point people to their work instead of the derivative one.


texts: How to transition from theoretical mathematics to theoretical computer science

texts:
Background: I started my undergraduate career in computer science and transitioned to mathematics leaving computer science as a minor. I have just recently completed my Bachelors in Mathematics with a research project in Galois theory, algebraic geometry, and additive number theory. For the next academic year, I am pursuing a Masters in Mathematics which I will complete in a year through a 5-year (BS/MS) program.

Although I did not complete more than a minor in computer science, I have been interested in having it play a vital role in my career goals in academia.

My goal after finishing my masters is to transition into a Ph.D. program in mathematics, but I have not yet decided what I want to focus my research on.

I would like to learn about what Theoretical Computer Science is for academia and what background someone needs to become a theoretical computer scientist.

Questions:
Do most theoretical computer science professors have their Ph.D. in mathematics?

How much formal background does one need from computer science itself? Can this be achieved outside of a school setting?

What fields of mathematics play an important role in theoretical cs?


texts: How to make a connection with academics on Linkedin that they would accept?

texts:
I read that some academics would avoid accepting students (undergraduate or graduate) or other researchers requests on Linkedin. So what are the cases that could be acceptable for academics to add people on Linkedin and avoid any embarrassments?

After completing their course?
After working on a joint research?
After attending a workshop, seminar, talk?
After meeting them at a conference?
After sending them an email about mutual work, papers, etc.?


texts: How to satisfy the publisher when making an article available on a personal web page?

texts:
At least in computer science, many publishers allow authors to make their published articles (or final manuscripts of them) freely available on their personal web site. A usual condition is to provide a link to the publisher's web service, where the "official version" of the article can be found.

However, there is one peculiar point about this issue: in most cases, the copyright agreement contains a condition that the link has to be "accompanied by" some text, such as "The original article is available at XYZ". I would like to ask what does this mean, precisely. The main reasons I have for this are:

Many scientists make their articles freely available online and many of them provide links to publisher's web pages. However, I have never seen a personal web page containing text like "The original article is available at XYZ". For this reason, I do not have a slightest idea about how the accompanying text should (precisely) look like.
Suppose that you have a bilingual web page. In this case, taking the above condition literally would imply that you could make your articles available only from the English version of your site (or at least you should include an English text in the non-English version of your site).
The term "accompanied by" can be interpreted in a variety of ways. For instance, is it OK to follow the link by an HTML comment containing the requested text?

So my question is: What is the usual interpretation of this condition? And what is the most common legal way to satisfy the publisher in this respect? Thank you in advance.


texts:
I am wondering about review articles. Where to get them? Google scholar or Researchgate or other such sites does not provide any option to separate out the review articles. It is very hard to look into all the articles and separate out.

Is there any way to separate out the review articles only?


texts: What do I do when a co-author takes too long to give feedback during the peer review process?

texts: Two years ago I did a piece of research for a journal's especial edition. I got the reviewer's comments, did all the corrections and sent it to my co-authors. One of them took so long to return his comments that the paper wasn't included in the EE. I then tried to submit it to another journal but again the same co-author took long time to provide his comments. Finally my boss suggested me to submit it to another journal (good one) without waiting for my co-author's opinion. I got the reviewer's comments back, I did all the corrections (I have 45 days), sent it to my co-authors and gave them a week to send me their comments. The same co-author is now telling me he's not happy I didn't tell him I submitted to that journal and that he won't be able to make comments in a week. I'm again in a catch-22. What do you do?


texts: Uncertainty in Essay Writing: How do I know I will find a good argument?

texts:
I have a few things that I would like to explore for my Masters thesis. However, I don't know yet whether I am good at this kind of topic, its more historical than what I am used to etc.

But my question is this:

How do people settle on a research question they haven't really explored yet, but then also know that they will be able to have something (more or less substantial) to argue for / to contribute once they are in the topic?

I feel like have an interesting topic, but I have no idea yet what I want to argue for or whether I have anything to contribute yet.


texts: Can the book "Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track" be understood without any prior reading?

texts:
I want to read the book Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track only if I would be able to understand it without first doing more than about a few books worth of other reading I have not yet done. My first question is

  Would almost everyone who got a high school diploma in Canada be able to understand that book even if they never took any more education after that or read any books they didn't have to read in school?

If the answer is no, then I have another question

  Would almost everyone who got a high school diploma in Canada be able to understand that book after reading only a few other books even if they never took any more education after that or read any books they didn't have to read in school?

If the answer to that is yes, then I have another question

  What books do they need to read in order to be able to understand that book?

After reading this answer, I think there's a real possibility that the answers to the first and second question are both no and in order to understand that book, I might first have to read so many research results that it takes years to read them. It's also possible that the answer to the first question is yes. It's possible that the author of the book did a really great job of summarizing the research results in a way that people can understand without first having read them.

If the answer to the first or the second question is yes, then I want to read that book because I might think of useful ideas for the world based on it. If that's not the case, I prefer to use my time to read other books that I can understand and have a chance of thinking of useful ideas based on.


texts:
As my field, Computer Science (CS), has many sub-areas and specializations. I found myself having a not-so-good impression about different areas within CS. For example, I see working on Software Engineering as a waste of time while working on Artificial Intelligence (AI) is much more worthing an investigation.

This is not a field-specific question, I wish hearing whether this exists on other fields as well. Is it common in academia for individuals to find some subfields of a more broader research area more interesting and relevant than others? Relatedly, how does one avoid thinking that way?


texts: Fields of computer science with good academic outlook

texts:
I gather that the academic job market is very tough for theoretical computer science PhDs with a low chance of obtaining a professorship.

Some things I have read with regards to this:
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-academic-job-market-going-to-be-like-for-computational-complexity-theory-after-5-6-years
https://www.reddit.com/r/compsci/comments/njdyq/so_you_want_a_phd_in_theoretical_computer_science/
https://www.quora.com/I-want-to-pursue-PhD-in-Theoretical-Computer-Science-but-I-am-concerned-with-the-job-options-What-should-I-do

If this truly is the case, I would hope it is completely reasonable to ask what fields in computer science are looking a lot better in terms of their academic job market?

My background: I am an undergraduate and have been exploring my research interests since I aspire to become a researcher in academia. I am reading a joint degree in mathematics and computer science in the UK. Naturally, TCS was one of the first fields I started looking at.


texts:
I think I have seen it spelled both ways.

Is one spelling more common or formal than the other ? (e.g. in the U.S.)


texts: Applying for undergraduate research - include transcript with bad 1st year GPA?

texts:
I'm a 2nd year student writing a request to volunteer as a research assistant to a professor. From what I've read, attaching a transcript to the introductory email is a good idea. [1][2]

I'm considering not including it as my 1st year marks were pretty terrible. My 2nd year went well, but I suspect my 1st year might give a bad impression and disqualify me for many professors.

In such a case, which (if any) are a good idea:

Include the transcript, don't mention anything in the email
Include the transcript, explain reason for bad marks in the email.
Don't include the transcript. Mention good GPA received this semester.
Don't mention the transcript.


texts: Does doing a postdoc mean a commitment to an academic career?

texts:
I have heard that it would be a bad idea to take up a post-doctoral position, if your ultimate goal is to work in industry. The basis of this maybe that it is harder to be hired for an opening at a company, maybe because you would seem unsure of your direction, or would be over qualified for a junior role.

If there are no ideal jobs available at present, should I take up a post-doctoral position as a safe option, or easy way out, in the meantime?


texts: Should I Consider Publishing in a Brand New Journal?

texts:
I got an e-mail this morning inviting me to submit papers to a journal. I looked at the website and found that the journal has no back issues. It would appear to be a brand new journal. Naturally, a brand new journal isn't all prestigious, so I have to wonder about publishing in it. But on the other hand, the journal has to start somewhere.

Should someone even consider publishing in such a place?


texts: How do research papers differ from research articles?

texts: What is the difference between a research paper and a research article? Frequently these two terms are considered in the same category. So, what features distinguish these two terms?


texts: APIs for titles and abstracts for most or all published articles?

texts:
Are there any APIs that index and capture the titles and abstracts most or all published scientific journals?

If not, what about only for pharmaceutical or health fields?

//////

Edits: I came across CrossRef api, but wonder if there are other options.


texts: Astrophysics after Aerospace Engineering?

texts:
I'm a second year aerospace engineering undergraduate student.
I like this course because it might get me to the space industry; but it is not as closely tied to the subject of space sciences as astronomy/astrophysics courses are.

Of course I don't want to abandon my course, so I was wondering how difficult it is to get a graduate degree in astrophysics after I'm done with aerospace. I know I'd be lacking some knowledge but I feel like the trade-off is worth it.

I can consider abandoning my course and going to physics instead, but that's a last resort.

Any advice is highly appreciated. Thank you.


texts: What is the recommended level of detail for published mathematical proofs?

texts:
Suppose I am writing a Mathematics paper to a peer review reputed journal. I have to go from step 1 to step 2 in the paper which needs the knowledge of some well-established theorem X. Can I go from step 1 to step 2 without saying anything about X?

For example, this page contains some identities related to Fibonacci numbers, which (I assume that) may be well known to reviewers. So, instead of explicitly showing the identity, I want to use it implicitly from going one statement to another statement.

Does it give a poor impression on my paper? If I need to include all supporting identities, the paper may become too long!


texts: Use of words like "herein" in research articles

texts: A colleague of mine recently used the word "herein" in a research article (of which I am a co-author) to mean essentially "in this paper". To me it makes the paper read more like a legal document than a research article, so I commented that I would I prefer a phrase like "in this research", "in this paper", or "in this work". A quick google search showed that sometimes researchers use such words, but I haven't done a detailed check of how common it is. I can only go from my own experience that I don't often see this type of language used in scientific articles and that it sounds awkward to me. My question for this community is would you use words like "herein", "hereinafter", etc. in a scientific research article, or do they belong rather exclusively to legal literature/documents as my intuition tells me?


texts: How do I balance interests within a specialized PhD? Do I simply read a lot outside my field?

texts:
I'm going to get a Master's in Artificial Intelligence, likely a PhD in Molecular Biology afterwards. I'm thinking I can do computer vision as a hobby while putting most of my energy toward understanding the big picture of cellular processes, because computer vision is something I can performance check. That's why I'm leaning towards Molecular Biology over AI even though I'll have years of research experience in AI.

The problem is that I want to know too much. I want to study Cell Signaling/regulation, Genomics, Molecular Biology/Biochemistry/Structural Biology, and disease during my PhD to do some interdisciplinary research in all of it. I want to develop computational data mining models that can take entire cellular systems into account.

Is it unheard of to fully specialize in two subfields during a PhD and associate my research topic to cancer later on in my PhD over 5-7 years? Or must I, for example, study a single new enzyme in an important pathway across various environments only in biochemistry?

Can you have a more general PhD that is still a successful contribution to the field? Say an analysis that studies an entire biochemical pathway from genetics through molecular biology to cancer if I have two committee members (one in each subfield)?


texts: Green card or student visa (J1) for a post-doc in the US?

texts:
I'm a non-US citizen, considering a post-doc in the states. I'm eligible for a 'green card' through marriage (my wife is a US citizen). I'm deliberating whether I should apply for permanent residency right now or go through the standard path of a student visa (e.g. J1) once I find a post-doc position.

I understand that not being a 'US person' somewhat limits the funding options of prospective advisors. Does searching for a post-doc as a permanent resident holder indeed opens up more opportunities?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of holding a green card instead of a student visa, both prior and during the post-doc?


texts: Forced to Quit PhD although the hard and proved work

texts:
I am a first year Ph. D student, and I have been working on a new topic of research.  I worked day and night to prove something new and verified it. I began my Ph. D while my supervisor was on travel, but he returned before I had been here for long.  When he returned, he told me we have to stop and not continue without any reasonable reasons.

After a few months he began treating me poorly---always belittling and underestimating---although I got two grants from a top conference, made videos and podcasts, and constantly received praise for my good work and personality.

It seems that I have been treated as a competitor, not a collaborator.  Although agreeing with my approaches in private, my supervisor said false words to the committee to take the decision and stop my Ph. D work!

It is not surprising, as there was another former senior Ph. D student who I met on campus, who was not allowed to defend his Ph. D: this same supervisor claimed he was not able to finish his dissertation although he had published in a peer reviewed journal and having citation as well, it was scary and not familiar.

In front of committee, he lied, and said something without proving. I asked if he can make a detailed constructive criticism, but he could not.  All I can say that they are a gang literally, and he said words that show that he is jealous and doesn't want to see me having self confidence in my self. I know no one will believe me, but this is the truth.

Honestly, I am distressed and I'm losing sleep.  I had this dream where there were many people who saw me fail.  All things considered, I don't know whether what happened is good or bad, and I definitely don't know what I should do next!

I would be grateful for your advice and whether there is someone has encountered any similar situation.


texts: Prerequisites for Master's Degree in Pure Mathematics (and eventually PhD)

texts:
This will be my first post on the Academia SE so apologies if there are some conventions I break!

I am an undergraduate student of mathematics at a university in the UK whose emphasis lies a lot more in statistics and applied mathematics than it does in pure mathematics, there being only 2 modules in the entire degree program that focus only partially on higher algebra, and only 4 weeks of the entire 3 year program that have anything to do with number theory. I am in this position because my A-Levels did not go as well as I had expected as I had a few issues and did not achieve the grades needed to go to a more "pure based" university. I am deeply interested in the area of Algebraic Number Theory and intend to go on to study a master's degree in pure mathematics and eventually/hopefully a PhD.

My question is this; what should I/can I do to "boost" my application to a master's degree in pure mathematics if my undergraduate degree has a relatively low pure mathematics content?

I will be applying for an undergraduate research bursary from the London Mathematical Society to fund an 8 week research project, be it expository or otherwise, in the field of Algebraic Number Theory.

Thank you in advance for any information you can give me.


texts: Can self-funded international students be denied admission based on absence of scholarship/fellowship?

texts:
Is having a scholarship/fellowship mandatory for graduate studies (MSc) for an international student?

I told my potential supervisor that I can fund my studies on my own through an education loan, but she didn't reply. Can I be denied admission, and what steps (if any) can I take to avoid this?


texts: Accepted vs. published (for grad math admissions)

texts:
For an applicant to a high ranking U.S. graduate program in mathematics, how much more beneficial would it be to have a (coauthored) article published rather than accepted for publication?

(If more details are relevant, without possibly breeching anonymity, there are a few student authors and one faculty author.  The article is on a recreational mathematics topic in an expository journal.)


texts: Why have schools been discontinuing the practice of giving A+ grades?

texts:
My high school and undergraduate college did not offer grades of "A+." At both schools, the grading scheme was this:

93–100: A

90–92: A–

87–89: B+

83–86: B

80–82: B–

(Grades below 80 were similar for the C-range and D-range.)

At my current graduate institution, A+ grades are given for grades of 97–100 and an "A+" appears on the transcript, but they still count as 4.0 toward the GPA, same as an A.

To add to the intrigue, the transcripts from both my undergrad and grad institutions have a line on the back stating a historical change in policy around A+ grades: My undergrad stopped giving A+ grades in 2006, and my grad stopped counting A+ grades as 4.3 toward the GPA in 1993.

Conclusion: The practice of granting A+ grades seems to be falling out of fashion.

But why? Did some particular event prompt this widespread change in policy, or is it due to a gradual shift in educational philosophy?


texts: Why is Brill selling chapters of my book for $30?

texts:
I just found that PDFs of chapters of my book (Semitic Noun Patterns, Harvard Semitic Studies 52, 2003) are  being sold for $30 each by Brill, a giant academic publisher, who did not publish the book.

The whole thing can be bought on paper for $32 (e.g. at Amazon), or, blessedly, downloaded for free from Library Genesis.

What is going on? The Eisenbrauns family business that originally published the book was bought out by Penn State University Press -- not Brill -- while the President and Fellows of Harvard University own the copyright -- so how can Brill pull off this scam?

If you know about the presumed deal allowing Brill to do this, I would appreciate learning about it.


texts: Is it considered unethical/bad etiquette to contact another potential PhD supervisor while waiting for a response from my first choice?

texts:
I have contacted a potential PhD supervisor and currently he is reviewing my work, however this evaluation process seems to be taking too long.

Is it ethical to give my research proposal to another professor (another university) while he is reviewing my work? Will this reflect negatively on me if he finds out about it?
There is a good chance that these two professors are in contact with each other ( though I can't be sure!)

He is the foremost expert in my field and I would prefer to have him as supervisor. I just don't want to lose my other opportunities.

Note : I have already secured funding for my PhD. I am only looking for a reputable school (and supervisor). I am considering two institutions in Europe, in Netherlands and Germany.


texts: Is source code provided in the appendix of a thesis copyrighted? [US]

texts:
I'm contemplating including source code in the appendix of my thesis. Although, I will not be strictly required to, I think this would be something that my committee would like to see.

Will I run into any copyright issue for this? Will the university own the rights to the code if I include it? The project was not funded so the university didn't pay me to write the code and no one else has contributed to it or even seen it.

Also, if the university is to own the right to my code, another concern of mine would be that I have used various open-source libraries and I would worry about running into license issues for using those as well.


texts: Is the salutation and/or the signature of an email indicative of the intended level of formality?

texts:
I wrote an email recently to the author of a book. I'm working on the master's degree in Hungary, the author is a professor in Canada. I'm not a native English speaker. My letter looked like the following:

Dear Dr. [professor's full name],
[body of the email including an introduction with my full name]
With best regards:
[my first name]

When I write to someone for the first time, I make the salutation and the self-introduction formal. But I tend to write my first name as the signature because I feel this shows that I don't insist on keeping the high level of formality I started the email with. In subsequent emails I choose the level of formality to be the same as it happens to be in the reply to my first email.
However, the reply to my quoted email seems to me to be so informal that I don't dare to imitate its level of formality without asking for the international academic community's, i.e. your suggestions. Their letter looked like the following:

Hi [my first name],
[body of the email]
Best, [professor's first name in diminutive (!) form]

So is a signature usually indicative of the intended level of formality? Would it be appropriate to start my reply like this: "Dear [professor's first name]," or "Dear [professor's first name in diminutive form],"? Or can my habit of "imitation" backfire often and make me seem insulting?


texts: Can a university track students’ ip for academic integrity violation?

texts:
There had been a mass email sent to students taking one class at my university. Would it be possible for them to track each one’s IP address if they were using websites or internet tool against the policy?
Let’s say that there were few students detected by “ Academic Integrity detection program” for using unauthorized tools like cheggs, github, online calculator, or such. I am curious if the school can track down those students through IP address since they are not clear where those students live. Or would there be other ways in detecting them?


texts: Might colleges and universities not consider me for an assistant professor position because I'm a professional tutor in addition to being a teacher?

texts:
I'm a physical scientist, having completed both my Ph.D. and postdoc at top 5 U.S. universities. After working in industry for more than 10 years, I decided it was time for a career switch to academia, not due to economic reasons, however due to a strong passion for teaching.

I taught for 5 years in graduate school, and established my own private tutoring service years ago. In total, I've been tutoring for more than 12 years. Recently I spent one (1) year teaching at a top 10 public university, and am now teaching at a community college.

During spring 2014, I sent out ~32 assistant professor applications, and heard back only from one school. I interviewed there, however did not get the position.

QUESTION: Is there a possibility that, once discovering my tutoring service (simply a matter of a Google search), colleges and universities might not want to hire me?

Interested only in science education research, my passion is exclusively in teaching at the undergraduate level, and I've used the tutoring to hone my skills over the years. Understanding exactly where students experience the pitfalls of my branch of physical science has provided me with a unique insight into teaching, however I'm not certain everyone perceives it this way.

I very much appreciate anyone who indicate whether or not the image of a tutor might take a toll in terms of applications and interviews.

Thank you!
Pensive


texts: A student forgot to answer an exam question

texts:
A student in an undergrad class seems to have forgotten to answer the last few questions on a written essay.

This student has achieved an average of A+ so far (over the term)

The last few questions are not worth much, but is the difference between receiving an A and an A+

This student has also submitted a draft of this essay earlier in the term to get feedback (all students are allowed to do this once).

Should I give 0 because this student did not answer it, or part marks because this student knows how to answer it (as evidenced by the draft) but simply forgot?


texts: How to properly add "scientific reading" as personal interest in CV?

texts:
I'm applying to a Ph.D. program (in the field of robotics) and I have a hard time to fill the personal interests. I initially was going to avoid that section but then I got convinced that it's not a bad idea to have it. But I digress...

One of my hobbies is reading* about science, mostly in mathematics, [astro]physics and science in general. The problem is, I don't know how to write this in a clear, honest and concise fashion. I don't want to simply write "reading" because I don't want to be that generic applicant! Also I want it to be clear that this reading is not related to my professional field. And last but not least, I don't want it to sound fake!

*also watching or listening. Sometimes I also code for fun, generally speaking I fool around the science.


texts: How do I comment the code I wrote for a course I am lecturing in?

texts:
I am an assistant professor for a course on audio signal processing (for engineers) and I often write snippets of code to try to help the students follow the material. In addition, I get to lecture (1) one session of the course.

I have a lot of code I wrote over the last couple of years for this particular session but I realized my comments on it are not consistent at all and I have not found any sort of standards or guidelines for pedagogically appropriated commenting style.

Should I comment this code like I normally do with any code?

I usually add a header comment explaining which course the code was written for and something about what it is showing. But I also tend to comment the code with some trivialities in order to state somethings that I think would be obvious to developers but not to engineering students.


texts: How does PhD candidate salary compares between differen European countries, and the USA?

texts:
I would like to know which is the salary average of a PhD candidate position in chemistry in different countries of Europe or in USA.

I know that in Germany and France the salaries are around 1300€ after tax and in Spain, Italy and Portugal around 900€ (correct me if I´m wrong).


texts: What to do during the first stages of your PhD program?

texts:
Fresh from undergrad, I will be starting a math PhD program this upcoming fall in the United States. After several conversations with math professors and current PhD students, I noticed that several people advised having a sense of "urgency" right from the very start of your PhD program. Most recommended working to complete preliminary exams as soon as possible, but there was some variance in their opinions about when to jump into your thesis. One professor recommended "courting" potential thesis advisers by doing research projects with a professor or two during the first couple summers.

Do you agree with this call for urgency? If so, how do your recommend attacking those first 2-3 years of a (pure) math PhD program? Is it ever too soon to decide on your thesis topic? Recall that I do not have a master's, although I have taken three graduate-level algebra courses.


texts: MLA: How to write translations of terms?

texts:
I am finishing my MA thesis and in the process of polishing it.

I adhere to MLA style and I cannot find anything online concerning:

I am translating a few terms. How do you write a term when in isolation? Imagine I am translating the word monere from Latin, which I write in italics. How to I write its translation? Between quotes or not?


texts: Selecting the relevant papers for a survey paper I have to write?

texts:
I have to write a paper as an assignment for one of the courses that I take in University.

The main outcome of this lecture is having a good final paper in the end. As we are Masters students, the paper that I am going to write resembles more a survey paper in a given topic, rather than a research paper presented by the authors of a specific research.

I have my topic assigned already. I have done my literature search and organized all the papers that I want to use. Unfortunately, at this point I am not that deep into the topic. But, everything I read seems to me like relevant for the topic, and somehow useful.

I have had difficulties with a similar situation before. As I was trying to include as much as possible relevant material to the survey paper, to make is complete. But in the end I was blamed that the paper loses its coherence.

Now I am stuck. In fact I am reluctant, because reading multiple papers, multiple times, writing them and then getting bad remarks does not feel nice.

What criteria should I use to filter my papers all over again, and what approach should I use when writing a survey paper.


texts: How significant is a good personal website to advance standing in the academic world?

texts: I happen to be close to a professor at my college that has the highest citations of all professors there.  However, his website looks like its from the 1990's.  I have some knowledge and motivation to help redesign his website.  However, given that he has an academic business background, and already has significant clout he will almost certainly ask about the value of an improved website.  Is there an article stating the significance of a website, or lack there of?


texts: Unsuccessful job search with an MS in Math degree

texts:
My question is similar to this one

Career for a mathematician outside academia

but slightly different: what can I do with an MS in Math degree, if I don't continue for a PhD?

I wrote an MS thesis, spent about a year with a good research lab on campus, and have made good progress in research.  The feedback I've gotten from the lab directors has been pretty good.

The problem now is that I'm testing the job market, and currently nobody really seems to want me or value me.  They don't seem to care that I wrote a thesis or worked in a research lab.  And, people are taking a long time in getting back to me on the phone, on email, etc.

This is interesting to experience; however, how can I figure out which companies or industries will actually value someone with my background?

I've been looking for entry-level to mid-career finance positions, at banks and hedge funds -- nobody seems to want to talk seriously with me yet.

(I have a bit of coding experience but not a fully developed computer science background, e.g. I don't know anything about operating systems or compilers.)

For context: I'm in the United States :)


texts: What is the grammatical number of an inline citation?

texts:
Which of the following is correct?

a) Johnson et al. (2010) prove that all snow is yellow.
b) Johnson et al. (2010) proves that all snow is yellow.

I suppose the question boils down to whether I'm citing the authors or their paper. If the paper is the subject of the sentence, it's singular (b). If the authors are the subject, then it's plural (a).


texts: How to write a objectives section in undergraduate thesis?

texts: I'm writting my undergraduate statistical thesis proposal. I wrote directly and clearly what I intend to do in my project. However the objectives section was very small, only 6 lines. It would be appropriate to give details of the objectives, even though they already being clear from the introduction?


texts: If I have a single word as my official name since birth then what should I fill in as the second name in the GRE form?

texts: I have just a single name "Anubhav" in every one of my official documents, be it my passport, my official birth certificate, my secondary education certificate, my senior secondary certificate etc. What should I fill in as my second name in the GRE form?


texts: How to reduce amount of language proofreading of my revised paper?

texts: I'm a non-native author and I have a revised paper that has been edited for good English before the first review. Now I made major changes, but still a large part of my essay remained as before. What is the best way to get my revised paper edited for English and flow without having to get charged for the whole (relatively long) paper again? Was someone in a similar situation?


texts: As a post-doc, should I pursue incremental research or revolutionary research?

texts:
I've recently finished my PhD (the field almost doesn't matter, but applied mathematics if it helps), and begun a 3 year grant-funded postdoc with a heavy but very flexible research emphasis, in the same general area as my dissertation.  At their request, I sent my doctoral adviser (a super senior/recently emeritus professor) a list of the papers I'm currently working on/close to submitting, and my ideas for approximately the next 6 months to a year.

All the papers I'm currently working on represent incremental progress on projects that either developed from my dissertation, or formed as collaborations with others.  I didn't outline any wide-eyed ideas, because all the wide-eyed ideas I have will take several years and a long list of incremental progress to come to fruition. In my opinion (formed in part by reading science philosophers like Kuhn), this is how science progresses: incremental progress as long as it yields fruit.

My adviser responded with an alarming level of "concern" (to put it gently) that my current projects are not ambitious enough and he feels they don't match his expectations of me nor do they sufficiently challenge the status quo.  I got the impression that he seemed to think that by publishing works that are only a slight improvement on the existing literature, I won't amount to anything, which I took to mean I won't be able to get myself a "real" job once my 3 year postdoc is up.

Oh, and by the way, he suggested a solution, which is essentially to drop everything I'm doing and spend more time working on a particular idea that he thinks will revolutionize a particular area of science.  I'm always skeptical any time someone says that, no matter how good the idea, so I pushed back and said no, I'm going to pursue an array of topics, some of which are pretty mainstream, in order to build up a good publication record and good relationships with people in my field.

Ignoring the complexities of funding (my funding is flexible enough to permit me to work on a wide array of sub-topics), am I right to think that an early career academic doesn't really have the political (or emotional!) capital built up to make a "bold move" into an unproven field, which inevitably might involve trying to convince many experts they're doing it wrong?  It seems to me like "challenging the status quo" is a dangerous game that can only be played by those with Tenure.

Or do I have it backwards?  Is academic science so competitive that one can only progress, career-wise, by challenging the status quo?  If so, aren't we just chasing each other around in circles, scientifically speaking?


texts: Leaving PhD in the 6th year and apply for a new PhD program

texts:
I am a 6-year PhD student in computer engineering in an Asian country. My research field is Bioinformatics which was really hard to me in the beginning, but now, I love it and I have much experience at it.

Last year I was an intern in the bioinformatics department at a high-quality university in the United States. Since then, I have become disinterested in pursuing my PhD in computer engineering. Actually, most of the times I think of leaving my PhD and applying to a bioinformatics PhD program in the United States.
However, I am worried if leaving my current PhD program in the 6th year will appear as a negative point on my CV when I am applying for a new PhD in bioinformatics.

If I leave my PhD, do I have any chance of getting admitted to a new PhD program in bioinformatics?

EDIT: Also, I am worried about the letters of recommendation. If I leave my current PhD program, of course I can't get any recommendation from my PhD supervisor.


texts: I did not receive an "official invitation", my poster (abstract) acceptance was sent by a conference organizer for CMHA.

texts:
I am not an academic yet I have developed something of my own and it was accepted for National Conference in Toronto Canada by an employed conference organizer.  The conference is for mental health and I wonder if this is a big deal for me as I have never attended university, and I have never done this before?

Any advice on this please would help, thank you in advance.


texts: How do I prove math background for Stats PhD?

texts:
From Stanford's admissions page:

My mathematics background isn't that strong. Should I still apply?
A strong mathematics background, especially in probability, statistics and linear
algebra, is important in the admission process. However, it is not the only factor that determines which applicants are admitted.  You may consider strengthening your math background and applying later, or just hope that factors such as breadth or research experience will compensate for a relatively weak math background.

My math background isn't "weak" per se, but I assume they are talking about a much stronger level of mathematics than I might have on the gradesheets of my MS and bachelor's programmes. I do take an interest in mathematics, and I try to study several concepts related to stats and math (eg., Machine Learning).
However, how can I prove this? I have done well in courses related to Machine Learning and Probability, and have taken courses in Real Analysis and Linear Algebra (and there is of course overlap in all four of those areas), but how can I say "I also read stuff because I like it"? I guess one way would be to ask a professor in the stats dept. to guide me through some research and then make them assess me, but how else can I show that I have "strengthened my background"?
Also, is a background in machine learning, signal processing and computer science in general considered for these admissions?


texts: How would I cite the US Constitution in Harvard style?

texts:
How would I go about citing the US constitution (specifically the 1st Amendment) using the Harvard style?

I'd like to add it using Mendeley, but just plain text would be fine.

If someone could let me know, that would be fantastic.
Many thanks.


texts: Time allocation in conference presentations

texts: How much time should I expect to 'leave' at the end of a conference presentation for questions? This question suggests to allocate 2-3 minutes per slide, including front/back matter (like a question slide). Does this mean I should leave 2-3 minutes for every 15 minutes of presentation delivered? Is there a good 'rule of thumb' for this?


texts: Removing co-authors after re-running study

texts:
2 years ago, as a PhD student in Department X at a European university, I designed and ran a study and then over the next year wrote it up for submission to decent but not top-level journals. I did 100% of the work, with no useful suggestions from anyne else, and in particular from my PhD advisor, who is also the department head. In fact, the work is quite far afield from his methods, knowledge, and expertise; however, it is understood in local academic culture that the department head goes on the paper, regardless of their contribution (which is typically zero). While preparing the manuscript, we solicited comments from my advisor's colleague, who is a respected researcher on this topic. The comments mostly related to structure, presentation, how to build the story better, etc., but nothing substantial in terms of subject matter. He also said it was a good paper and he wished he were on it. My advisor then "advised" me to put him on the paper. Being a young academic, I didn't know how to say "no", and also thought that maybe it would be strategic to have a more respected name among the co-authors.

Fast-forward to now. I have my PhD and am now an assistant professor in Department Y, no relation to X. The paper has had 1 review from a good journal and 3 desk rejects. To summarize the feedback, they generally say the paper is good and would probably be accepted, were it not for an issue which is considered a methodological flaw in one (but not the other) of the 2 fields which this paper straddles. I am convinced that I should re-run the study to fix this and, if the results stand up, submit it to the remaining relevant journals for which it would be appropriate. My co-authors, when they can even be bothered to respond to my requests for input/opinions on how to proceed, don't want to be bothered with rewriting, etc., and want to just keep trying to push it to the remaining journals.

I am very interested in the idea, I believe it is a good one, and I want to pursue this by rerunning the study without the flaw. Since these co-authors (my former PhD advisor/department head and his colleague) have not given any substantial input or help, it seems justified that they cease to be coauthors when the study is re-run -- it is virtually a new paper at this point. My questions are whether the community would generally agree that this would be wise -- especially since it hurts my job prospects to have papers with big-name researchers, since it's potentially unclear that I'm really the one doing the work. If advisable to eliminate them, I would appreciate any advice about how to navigate this.On the other hand, I do have fears about the potential fallout and am open to keeping them on the paper if necessary, but it's impossible to make progress when they don't respond to my emails about e.g. finalizing design, running/analyzing the experiment, preparing the manuscript, etc. Perhaps it is wiser to keep them, but then how can I make progress with my work without them holding me back?


texts: How to make this attribution without offending anyone or looking unscholarly?

texts:
In my field, Linguistics, we often use sentences from published works, or attested examples of sentences we have read or heard, as evidence of what kinds of things are possible or grammatical in a language. These are often felt to be more convincing than examples of sentences derived from our own introspection.
Suppose one wishes to re-use and refer to examples from a paper (paper A), which were themselves cited from a previous paper (paper B). If the examples were used to illustrate related points and discussions in the two papers, the scholarly thing to do would be to go and investigate the original paper and look at the examples in context there. One would then likely cite the original paper.
What should one do, however, if some of the examples in paper A do not actually appear in the published version of paper B? Let's say, for example, that paper B was a conference paper and that one might assume that the examples appeared in the original presentation but did not make it to the published paper in the conference proceedings?
In my case, the article I am writing is a response to paper A. If I merely cite the examples as from B cited in paper A, I might look as if I couldn't be bothered to go and look at paper B myself. This, I suppose, might reflect badly on the perceived scholarliness of the work. I cannot honestly cite the examples as being from paper B, as they do not appear in the published version. If I say the examples are cited from B by the authors of A, but that they don't appear in the published version of B, I might look as if I'm publicly criticising A, and also as if I'm a pedant.
What is the best thing to do in terms of attribution here?

In case it counts for anything, I'm a lowly PhD student.


texts: What should I do if a paper makes false claims about my work?

texts:
I recently found a paper published in the proceedings of a very important AI conference that makes a false claim about my work, i.e., claim that is false from the technical point of view.

I already contacted all the authors when I found the paper on arXiv, kindly explaining that they may have misunderstood my work, and asking to adjust that claim. They never replied and now the paper is published in a quite good venue.

Should I try to contact them again, or what?


texts: What training is appropriate to get to help students deal with stress?

texts:
I often have undergraduate students in my office who are clearly under considerable stress.  These students are usually first years who are making the transition from high school.  This goes beyond the "school is lots of work" stress into the "I'm about to break down" level.  The university does have a counselling service that I almost always refer the students to, but they are often booked up and it takes a while to get an appointment.

I am not interested in becoming a therapist, but I would like to know some techniques for helping students through this sort of problem when they are in my office.  Things like how to get a student to calm down and how to get them to start working to solve their problems.

What types of training should I seek out to help me with this?  I'm not even sure what the right field of study is, so I'd be starting from scratch...


texts: Can a honours supervisors be called a Project Leader?

texts:
I am completing my undergraduate honours.
To do some of my experiments I am considering applying for some supercomputer time.
I would be applying to a external organistation who manages supercomputer for research in this state.
It funded by a partnership of universities (including my own) and the state and national government.

One of the conditions on the application is that the listed "Project Leader" be a non-student member of a university.
Can I (after talking to my supervisor), fill out the paperwork, listing him as "Project Leader"?
Even if his (direct) contributions are minimal, I would still be going to him for advice regularly, so he would be providing leadership on the project.

On the other hand, I would be the person doing all the interactions with the people from the supercomputing organisation.


texts:
I have a question worries me a lot, I have read on "https://stackoverflow.com" that members' posts are subject to the "Creative Commons" license.

The question is:When I benefit from the answer of any members, Do I have to mention the name of the answer holder within my program?

For example:If I found one of the answers on this site was how to use the "loop" in Java, Then I used that code in my program,
Do I have to referring to the answer holder within my program? and is the length of my life whenever I use the loop of repetition in my programs must i mention the name of the answer holder?

The other question is, If I change a little bit in the code I got from the answers, should I mention the owner of the answer as well?
Also the question includes books and authors, should I mention the owner of the Book as well?
My questions may be strange, but it really does concern me.


texts: Is it possible to write PhD thesis (or PhD level article) in Computer Science without (real) advisor?

texts:
Is it possible to write PhD thesis (or PhD thesis level scientific articles) in Computer Science without real advisor (of course there always be formal one)? E.g. there are (almost) no books how to learn musical composition, artistic painting, cello playing - all such learning is done during private tête-à-tête studies. Maybe Computer Science is similar discipline which can not be learned by self-studying books, articles and conference proceedings. Maybe Computer Science has enough unwritten folklore that is passed only via direct contact between advisor and student? I have read many acknowledgments in thesis that ascertain this viewpoins, there are so much thanks for explaining one or another thing.

My question is about having real PhD advisor. Of course, each PhD student has its advisor by the University rules but there may be cases when having advisor is mere formality, advisor can have no knowledge and skills and the discipline pursued by the student. It can happen and it happens in countries that are not top countries.


texts: Will people judge me negatively for skipping department seminars?

texts:
I'm a graduate student in the Earth Sciences.  The breadth of my departments runs the gamut from geobiology to geophysics and everything in between.  As a result, a large number of the department seminars that get hosted are on topics that I have little or no background in and do not relate to my research field in any way.

The expectation seems to be that everyone should go to these type of events to stay abreast of major events and gain some breadth of knowledge, but whenever I go to one that is far outside my sphere of knowledge I end up resenting the wasted time.  To me, it seems like a huge waste to sit through a 60 minute talk on something I don't have the background knowledge necessary to understand in even a rudimentary way.  Sometimes this is the fault of the presenter for not preparing a talk for a broad enough audience, but with biology talks I know that the fault is my own.  Don't ask me the difference between a protein and an amino acid; I have no idea!

So lately I've felt a strong temptation to blow off some of these events reasoning that it would be vastly better to get in another experiment that day than go sit through a lecture I'm not equipped to understand.  But I'm worried that other people will think I'm being a slacker as a result.

Do you look down on colleagues who sometimes skip out on talks far outside their expertise?

And, Is skipping an event like this better or worse than showing up but discreetly reclaiming time during bad talks by studying on a smartphone?  Obviously, whipping out a laptop during a lecture would be very rude, but flipping through flashcards on my ipod while sitting in the back of the hall would be a low-key way to reclaim some of that time during talks when I have no idea what they are talking about.


texts: Motivation for getting good grades in graduate school

texts:
Okay, so in grade school, in high school and also in college, a long face from my parents would scare me, so it would in most part act as an extra motivator for me to get good grades. In grad school though, I always have the option of getting a job and fending for myself. If I want to learn something, I always have MOOCs covering me up. I can have the education without constantly thinking of being admitted to a good school or dealing with social pressure.

Now as I am into grad school, what specific points should I think of while studying? I really love studying, and enjoy the company of smart people; but sometimes I lose the extra impetus (which I used to get because of the fear of dealing with social embarrassment) in order to get good grades. Can someone just shed a different angle on the importance of getting good grades which does not include social stigma or the prospect of having a good job?