texts: What are the pros and cons of doing PhD study at a big vs. small department?

texts:
Crudely, it seems better to study at a big department - one has more peers, more seminars, and is also more likely to find a faculty member with the same interests if one's interests change during the program. However some top-tier departments appear to prefer to stay small, e.g. Caltech as a whole. That seems to imply there's a downside to becoming a big department, which is part of the reason they haven't expanded (I'm guessing they aren't staying small because they lack the funding - they're top tier after all).

For the student, is it preferable to study at a big or small department? What are the pros and cons of each?


texts: Information with no reference in literature review

texts: I am writing a literature review and I've found information in a thesis written in the literature review in a paragraph with no source, just ending with full stop. While at the end of the whole paragraph and after three full stops there is a cited source. How to cite the information with no source? Does that mean it belongs to the author who wrote that thesis or the whole paragraph belong to the source at the end? I am a little lost..


texts: Will a letter of recommendation from a postdoc fellow be valued for applying a PhD program?

texts:
My master thesis supervisor is a postdoc fellow. And I plan to do a PhD program after finishing master degree. Is it matter to my PhD application with the letter of recommendation from her (my supervisor). I mean whether the members of the PhD application committee will think that she does not have enough knowledge and skills in research to evaluate my research ability? And therefore, they will not highly evaluate my application?
Many thanks in advance for your answers.


texts: In what cases should I completely state a theorem I'm about to use?

texts:
This is the question. The theorem is taken from someplace else.
In my case, I want to use the asymmetric case of local lovasz lemma , and I am not sure if I should completely state it, or just refer the reader to (lemma 5.1.1 on pg ..).

If the answer is yes, the next question is where. Specifically, in the middle of the proof, it is strange to have all of a sudden another lemma. So I guess I should state it before the start of the lemma(should I write: I am about to use this lemma?).

Thanks.


texts: Advisor suggesting my marriage may cause problems in Postdoc position search

texts:
I am currently looking for postdoctoral positions, and am considering applying overseas (in US right now). My advisor has expressed his opinion that I can not be successful in an overseas position because my wife won't want to move there and will cause trouble. She doesn't like to move, but has realized that it's necessary, even if it's to a foreign country.

To help in my job search, my advisor has arranged for mock interviews with other faculty members in the department. He has provided a list of questions to prepare for, including "How will your wife like living in INSERT CITY HERE?"

I'm not a lawyer, so I don't precisely what section of the law bans questions about marital status, but I know it's outlawed. Even in an academic environment, a professor hiring a postdoc sure seems to fit into the definition of an employer or supervisor, given that he has the authority to hire, fire, or otherwise direct job responsibilities.

I don't think it's appropriate for him to criticize my personal life, and I have done my best to keep it from interfering with my work. I am mad that he might use my marital issues to sabotage potential job offers. What is the best way to respond to his behavior, and how should I prepare for any potential problems it might cause?

By sabotage, I think he might give negative recommendations. He has told me that if someone asks him for a letter of recommendation about me that he might have to tell them that my personal issues will interfere with my ability to function in the lab. Because this statement happened in the middle of a discussion about how he doesn't think my wife can adjust, the only way I can interpret "personal issues" is "marriage".


texts:
I'll be applying to graduate schools in the fall but so far don't have any real clue what area I want to focus on. As such, I hope to attend a very large math graduate program with a lot of varied research going on so that there are many avenues I can explore. I also worry that if I attend a small or midsize graduate school, I may come to find out that my true passion is in an topic for which there are no suitable advisers. I also think I'd fit in much better in a larger department.

I'm interested in a list of PhD math programs by number of students. So I've done some googling, but I can't find any relavant results. What are the largest math graduate programs in the US?


texts: Is it okay to share with a colleague my peer-review assessment of a paper; but not the original paper?

texts:
As an academician, we do peer-review (sometimes double-blind, sometimes single-blind; it doesn't matter).

Usually, I create a file where I list my peer-review assessment of a paper. The file includes Summary, Positives, Negatives, and Recommendation.

Is it okay to get a feedback on my assessment from a colleague without sharing the original manuscript [1] itself?

The idea behind getting a feedback has following benefits:

It might set the peer-review tone right.
Sometimes, it could add more clarity to the review.
Any language issues.

[1] It is not right to share the original manuscript with others. I treat it as confidential.


texts: Should I include a DOI/website URL for a publication in dissertation bibliography?

texts:
Context: I'm writing a dissertation in Computational Social Science using the Kluwer bibliographic style.  My question isn't specific to this style and applies generally to dissertations in computer science, sociology, economics, and management.

Q: Should I include URL (DOI or other) in bibliographic entries for all journal or conference articles, in addition to normal full citation information?

There is no such requirement or guidelines from my University or Department.  I've done numerous web searches, but I've never found any general guidelines on this.

Pro: All of my committee members and most of my readers now read articles on-line rather than through printed journals or proceedings.  All the URLs will have hyperlinks, so when they are reading the PDF of my dissertation, they can click on the hyperlink that will open a browser window to the article.  In addition, my dissertation will have internal hyperlinks from citations to bibliography entries and from key terms to glossary entries.  Finally, I use the Zotero reference manager, and I can usually acquire the URL as part of the "one click" import process.

Con: Adding URLs for every journal/conference article adds visual clutter to the bibliography.  When the URLs are not DOI, they may not be valid for a long time.  It will add some work to test and correct URLs that don't meet the basic criteria of usability, consistency, and stability.


texts:
I am currently writing a research proposal for a PhD in a very interesting field. While working on the proposal I noticed that I run through the following (emotional) stages:

Enthusiasm: I think about the topic and am excited to work on it. I
start thinking about what I want to do and how I am going to do it.
Optimism: I do the necessary initial research on the topic and am
still excited. My interest in the topic grows and I am very
optimistic.
Self-doubt: I start writing and suddenly I am confronted with questions I can’t answer. I start doubting myself and think about all the things I don’t know. I start thinking that I am incapable of finishing this and that I really have no idea about the topic and what is expected of me. I try pushing through but am really hitting a brick-wall.
Desperation: I can’t get any work done because I don’t think I can do
the work. I get depressed and angry and make no progress.
Mild optimism: I somehow get myself to work on the project again. I
start with the easy parts and just push through until it is all
done. I start thinking that it wasn’t all that bad and that the
desperation really wasn’t necessary. While I am mostly satisfied
with the outcome I still doubt that the result is the best I could
do.

Looking back at my time as a student1 I realized that I run through those stages every time I have to do scientific writing. While I am never quite satisfied with the result, I have always received great feedback and excellent grades from my professors.

Now that I am thinking about doing a PhD I am starting to doubt if I am the right candidate for this because of my difficult writing process. While I know a few people who run trough similar stages I also know people that are enthusiastic throughout the entire process and love writing scientific papers. Maybe those people are more suited for PhD programmes than I am.

So my question is:
Are self-doubt and desperation a normal part of scientific writing?

Related questions:
Can I still be a good researcher if I constantly doubt the quality of my work?
Is there something that I can do to mitigate this part of the process?

1Not sure if this is relevant but I have written several smaller papers in class, two bachelor’s theses and two master’s theses (in different academic fields).


texts: What computations of the Lotka function exist for publications in humanities meta-disciplines?

texts:
Given Lotka's law's general applicability to publishing rates and bibliometrics; what computations of the Lotka function exist for the meta-disciplines in the humanities?  (Philosophy, History, Literary Criticism by language, Film criticism, Anthropology, History and Philosophy of Science / Science and Technology Studies)

I wish to test cultural assumptions ("work culture") about publication rates of sole authored papers against Lotka values to check managerial assumptions, and my own assumptions, about productivity levels and "workload".  Yet I have no adequate grounding to find computed Lotka functions for discipline.


texts: Do I need to translate Works Cited at the end?

texts: I am translating an academic paper to English. However, most of the sources cited at the end, are in other languages (e.g. Russian). Do I need to translate the list of references into English as well?


texts: Re-submission of rejected manuscript without informing co-authors

texts: A paper we submitted was rejected without a review because of journal scope issues. After the rejection, I decided to send the same manuscript content (changed formats only according to the journal's guidelines) to another journal where I believe it fits. However, I missed informing other co-authors about the rejection as I presumed it is unnecessary because I am submitting the same version of the MS and we are not particular of the journal and its metrics as long as it is fitting. I experienced the same thing before where the primary and corresponding author did not inform us of the rejection rather send it to another journal without our consent (for me that time it was fine). However, this time one of the co-authors scolded me because of the actions I made and I realised it was wrong. Any advice on how will I handle and respond to this?


texts: Conducting a training seminar without projector

texts:
What is the best way to conduct a training seminar inside a computer laboratory without a projector?

Is there an existing software program that could achieve the same results as conducting a training seminar with the aid of a projector?


texts: Authorship determination for a paper in IEEE journal

texts:
I finished my bachelor project and my supervisor suggested to work with me on publishing a paper about my work which is an encryption algorithm, Now my supervisor helped me with some remarks along my bachelor project and helped me with the paper (like grammar mistakes and such) but I am the one who made encryption algorithm and I am the one who wrote the paper:

Now should I include my supervisor as a 2nd author as he wants? (I can refuse, and then publish the paper on my own) He is a senior IEEE member and has published papers (where he was also 2nd author taking credit for others' work). Should I mention him just for the sake to get my paper accepted or protect it from getting stolen?

From my point of view, what he deserves is to be mentioned in acknowledgments but not as a second author.

And will the ownership of the paper will be 50% to me, while 50% to him ?


texts: How to ask a professor to join a project in a way that leaves him a "graceful out"?

texts: This is a follow up question to a previous question I have asked about co advising :  professor will agree to be my thesis advisor but only if I can find a co-advisor  . After sitting in on this professors lab meetings I would like to work on two projects that he is getting off the ground in collaboration with another professors lab. How can I ask him in a way that gives him a graceful out even though he agreed to co-advise on my master's thesis? I would really like to work with him since I am really interested in his research, but I do not want to end up trapping either of us in an advising relationship that would be bad for both of us in the event he was just trying to be nice when he agreed to be co-advisor on my master's thesis.


texts: Is it appropriate to informally address my supervisor in the thesis acknowledgements?

texts: All of the acknowledgment examples I have read online address the supervisor with formal title and full name (i.e. Prof WhatNot). In my case, I'd rather use the first name only ("nickname" actually), is that so uncommon? I should probably ask him, but I wanted to understand what is the general opinion.


texts: Where to place tables/figures in APA style dissertation

texts:
In following APA style, I put my tables and figures at the end of the paper, after the references. For example, here they explicitly say to put them at the end.

One of my committee members told me that this was incorrect and that she "didn't even bother looking" at my tables and figures. In retrospect, I didn't include a list of them in the table of contents. But as far as I can tell, the placement is still correct: I've seen people insert tables and figures in-text in theses, but this is seemingly not what you're supposed to do according to the APA manual. I've tried to see if different rules apply somehow to a dissertation and haven't found anything official. There are also no guidelines specific to tables and figures at my university.

Am I wrong here? If so, please refer me to some concrete source I can use for the future! And if not, how am I supposed to submit it without correcting my committee member?


texts: How to proceed when one peer reviewer gives a much lower score than the others but provides no negative feedback?

texts:
I have received peer reviews for an academic proposal for a project. Three reviewers (A,B and C) submitted sets of observations and scores for three criteria/sections of the evaluation.

Reviewers A and B gave generally favourably worded reviews with pertinent clarification questions and observations that reflect themselves in the scoring they awarded for each section - generally high, with explanations on why deductions were made.
Reviewer C gave significantly lower scores for all sections when compared to A&B but their review only mentioned positive aspects of the project proposal and no questions or negative observations.

For each criterion I am able (and expected) to submit a short "applicant's rebuttal" in order to offer answers and clarifications which address the reviews for that section (one combined field for all three reviewers per section). The three reviewers are going to see these observations, have a panel discussion and potentially amend their scores/reviews if they see fit.

Would it be appropriate to politely point out the discrepancy between A&B's and C's scores and note that much higher score deductions were made by C without any suggestion on what could be improved, taking into account that I would have to do this for each of the three sections in the evaluation?
Should I instead just focus on answering A&B's questions and hope that C would (if their score deductions were concerning the same questions) favourably change their score?

Any suggestions on other ways I could proceed with this situation would be greatly appreciated.


texts: Organizing technical documents and reports

texts:
At my university, I work on an aircraft design project. I’m building a fairly hefty collection of technical and design reports I’ve written as well as documents about things I’m trying to research to help with my design.

How can I organize these documents in a professional and a formal manner? I’m thinking of something like a document numbering system with hierarchy. For example, I’d like the numbering scheme to reflect document type (technical report, research findings, data, calculations, CAD drawings) and aircraft element (control systems, control surfaces, wing, landing gear, etc).


texts:
My university is starting a policy where graduate students need to pay for printing (10 cents per page) while It was free before. As a student coming from another university, I see it very weird policy. Actually, I am not aware of any university charges its PhD students for printing. I heard faculty members will be charged as well but at lower rate.

is freely printing a fundamental right for PhD students? If Yes, how to raise it?

is this common in other universities across the world (charging PhD students for printing)?


texts: Highlighting sentences in the statement of purpose

texts:
I am under the impression that admissions officers are busy people and they have lots and lots of applications to review, especially in top schools. Because of this, it could happen that the some statements of purpose might not be thoroughly read.

Does it make sense to highlight things (underline, bold) that I think admissions officers are looking for? Like ranking or publications? What might admissions officers understand from the statement of purpose if they found these highlights?


texts: When do the application reviewers contact my references (PhD application)?

texts:
When applying for a PhD position in Germany typically one of the required documents is:

Contact details of at least 2 academic references

This is just contact details (e.g. email addresses) of the people who agreed to act as your reference, not the actual reference letter (the latter is not required).
When do the application reviewers contact my references? Is it before or after they invite me for an interview? Or do they contact my references at all? In other words, in what stage of the application process my references have an impact on the probability of my application being successful?


texts: How to secure recommendations and apply for PhD after having worked outside of academia for two years?

texts:
I have been working in a big-shot multi-national corporation as a developer for two years now, with a possible future as a software architect in some eight to ten years.

Now I want to enroll in a PhD program. I am planning to quit my job and join some university for PhD programs. Now most of the universities needs some research papers, of which I have none. They also require recommendations from professors, however I have already quit college two years back and don't have a working relationship with those professors.

How should I secure letters of recommendation? Will a letter of recommendation from my manager help? Does academia really care about professionals wanting to enter back into the world of higher education again? Will I be able to apply to competitive universities with my profile?


texts: Is it polite or annoying to send a professor a short "Thanks" email?

texts:
After asking a professor a question through e-mail and receiving an answer, is it polite that a student send a short e-mail simply saying "Thanks" as an acknowledgment that the answer was received and appreciated? I'm thinking of sending this but am not sure if it might be considered annoying or unnecessary  (as I'm not sure how busy the professor is, or how many emails he/she has to sort through every day.)

Is there some widely agreed-upon etiquette for this?


texts: How best to approach an industry based research program at another university (with independent ideas)

texts:
I am an engineering masters by coursework student. For my final project I have implemented something I have since found is a current topic of research for another university (their project aim aligns with mine exactly). They have partnered with a company specifically as it seems to be a something that the industry is particularly interested in. Furthermore, it looks like the company in question is part funding the PHD involved. (i.e. there is a commercial concern at some level)

At heart, my project is the definiton of a conceptual backbone, a collection of ideas put forward in a way I am yet to encounter. Work—perhaps above my level of knowledge at this stage—would be required to optimize it, but I have implemented a working example of it. My goal would be involvement with the university research (co-authorship?) and/or involvement with the company itself (work + potential income). Of course this depends on if my project is actually worthwhile and aligns with their approach; there is only one way to find out…

So, without advice I’d simply contact both the head of the company involved and the research head at the university. My question pertains to the fact that I don’t know what I don’t know about this situation.

How can I both protect and further the interests of all parties?
Is there anything I should be aware of regarding intellectual property? According to my university, we own the IP for our projects.

Other details: My project was 1 year long and I am just a masters (it is the equivalent of 2 standard courses in terms of grades). The deadline to apply for the PHD program at the (foreign) university is over (2 months past), and regardless I am not interested in doing a PHD. I am more interested in getting involved in the industry.

Additionally, I gave a formal progress report of my project to my supervisor and examiner yesterday and there was immediate discussion about submitting it to an upcoming robotics conference (I would work with someone to make sure it has the required academic rigor). If it were successful, would conference proceedings impact the situation in any way?


texts: Absent a formal policy, is it rude to use a mobile phone to take notes in lectures and seminars?

texts:
I like to use my iPhone to take notes in lectures and seminars. I prefer it to using paper (easy to lose, hard to search, bad for the environment) or a laptop (cumbersome to carry and loud to type with).
However, I get the impression that many people are against the use of phones in lectures for any purpose. As an undergraduate, I remember some lecturers publicly shaming people who used their phones, even when they were making notes or looking up something relevant to the lecture. One lecturer in particular even brought a jug of water to the class with her, and threatened that if she saw anyone with a phone she would put it in the jug. Admittedly phones can be used for irrelevant or distracting purposes, but this is also true of laptops and paper! I am now an academic myself, but still worry about offending colleagues.
Is it acceptable to use a phone to make notes in a lecture? If not, what makes them particularly unacceptable/rude compared with a laptop or tablet? And are there any strategies that can be used to indicate to a lecturer that you are using your phone to make notes (and not to make Tik Tok videos)?
Note, I am not asking for advice about whether taking notes on an iPhone is wise, nor about whether a "no phone policy" would be a good idea (the latter point is discussed here).


texts: Students plagiarising assignments: What level is worth the effort of pursuing?

texts:
As a tutor marking assignments, I regularly come across cases of plagiarism. As someone who put a lot of effort into my coursework studies it really offends me to see what students think they can (and ultimately do) get away with - it's making me incredibly jaded about the way universities are run and the value of (my) degrees.

I spot things from the mild "sharing answers" to the "change a few things so it's not obvious" copying, to the virtually identical outright blatant copying (not even changing the student number) to the absurd "submitting a screenshot of last years solutions". Talking to other tutors I seem to spot and pursue a lot more than anyone else.

When I come across these I always examine them, make a determination if it breaches my threshold (usually a bit past the "just change it a bit" level), then pass it on to the lecturer for them to decide what to do. It takes be significant effort to do this - I might recognise an unusual way of writing something, then go back through the assignments I've already marked to check how similar it is, then I'll decide if it looks too similar, then send an email about it.

I can't remember a single case that has gone further than a warning (yes even the one who submitted last year's solutions). I care about this a lot and I don't want students to think they can keep doing this with impunity, but there seems to be a general reluctance in academia to do anything, even in extreme cases. It makes me wonder whether it's worth the checking, the discussing, the extra time that I don't get paid for and ultimately the emotional toll it takes on me. It would be so much easier to let it slide.

From a pragmatic perspective of (for want of a better phrase) cost/benefit, what level of plagiarism should I be bothering myself with? Should I just ignore anything but the most absurd cases?


texts: Is it appropriate to request that the department hire a female faculty member?

texts:
Our department is currently hiring a new faculty member. At the moment, the faculty gender ratio in our department is very skewed, even for our field. I believe that this has a negative impact on the department environment.

There is general consensus among the grad students on which candidate we support. This candidate is highly qualified in terms of her research and teaching. Moreover, among all the candidates who have visited, she is the only one who has any experience with diversity initiatives and getting underrepresented groups into STEM. This is very important to many of us, especially since the department is planning to add an undergraduate program in the near future.

We are planning to write an open letter to the department in support of this candidate, citing her qualifications as someone who has worked to make science a more inclusive place for women and other underrepresented minorities.

My main question is is whether it is appropriate for us to additionally express our desire for a woman faculty member.

EDIT: Thank you for all of the answers, it certainly gives us a lot to think about. I would like to follow up on a couple things.

When I say something like "we think the department should hire a woman", I don't strictly mean that the next faculty should be a woman regardless of any other factors. Rather, I mean that the department should hire someone who will be able to relate to the issues women face in academia and STEM, and help champion female students in our department. The average woman will be in a better place to do this than the average man, so perhaps I should have been a bit more precise about what I meant in the original post.
While "diversity programs" designed to get underrepresented minorities into stem are discriminatory in the strictest sense of the word, they are in place to address systemic injustices which have existed for a very long time. The hypothetical examples of discriminating against men and women don't account for the fact that many gender/race imbalances in academia exist because of previous institutional discrimination.


texts: How difficult is it to get an academic position in applied mathematics when your PhD is in electrical engineering?

texts:
How difficult is it to get an assistant professor position in a department (e.g., applied math) while you have a PhD degree from another area (e.g., electrical engineering)? Particularly, when you target only relatively good departments (top 20~30).

If it makes any difference, I am particularly thinking of becoming professor of applied math with an EE degree.

update: I don't know exactly what constitutes mathematical research in the eyes of mathematicians, but I can say there are some really theoretical subjects needed in my research. For example random matrix theory and empirical processes are prevalent in my research area. However, in spite of my great interest, I haven't been able to (or prohibited from doing) work on purely theoretical part of the problems. So I mostly have applied the existing theoretical results. Developing optimization algorithms with provable convergence guarantees, perhaps in statistical sense of it, are also important in the area I worked in. However, I don't think optimization is considered an interesting area for mathematicians.


texts: What is the goal of research questions in a paper?

texts:
I'm a PhD student about to begin writing my first research paper for a software engineering conference. My research is about an approach to measure the performance of software systems. I will evaluate and compare this approach to other state of the art approaches that measure performance to compare the performance of the approach itself and the accuracy.

First, I wanted to know what the goal of research questions are in research papers. Once that is clarified, I believe I would be able to decide if my paper should include research questions.


texts: Does having a more successful professor write your letter of recommendation improve your chances of having your application accepted?

texts:
My question is about academic careers of a professor who would want to write a recommendation letter for someone. Some professors in my university have better academic career than others, for example they would have graduated from better/more well-known/higher ranked universities around the world, better resume/CV, higher GPA in MSc. and PhD, etc.

Question: Does a stronger professor's letter of recommendation raise someone chance for his/her application to be accepted?

Some basic contexts:

Apply in PhD program in computer science
Apply for US universities


texts: My mentor got laid off from a private research lab. Is there anything I can do to help him find a new job?

texts:
I am a grad student and I wanted to know if there was anything I could realistically do.  I think he's the best supervisor I've ever had, and working with him was very fun, and made me grow a lot as a researcher.  He's done a lot for my career and I think the world would be grossly unfair if he didn't get another research job.

I would love to serve as a reference but I don't think universities or industrial research labs listen to random grad students.


texts:
In a course, the professor sets an open book exam with the restriction that students can use only class notes and textbook in any electronic device(mobile, laptop, etc). In short, no internet during exam.

A student came across few previous year exams from another university which has exact same syllabus for the course. The student went through these exams(with solutions) one day before the exam and the student could remember most of it. It turned out that the exact same questions appeared in that student's exam next day. The student wrote down similar answers.

Now the professor accuses the student for academic dishonesty and says that the answers should have been cited in the exam.

Questions:

Should the answers be cited by the student in exam? With no internet access how would the student get the link of reference.
Should the questions be cited as well by the professor in the exam. Even these are taken from another university exams (word-by-word) ?
Does academic integrity apply to only students or can it apply to even professors? Can any action be taken on the professor if any student happens to have lots of evidence that not just exam questions but all of the coursework including slides of powerpoint are copied from another university coursework with no sign of citation?


texts:
Suppose you were to find what you think are serious flaws in a preprint (arXiv or something similar). What should you do? Now, after the obvious first step of contacting the authors and letting them know, what should you do if you were basically told off ("thanks for your interest" without addressing any of the technical concerns)?

Were this a regular journal, one might write a letter to the editor, or a comment (one might go this route even without contacting the authors in the first place), but how should you deal with preprints, whose contents is in a way still evolving? Would a "comment" paper uploaded to the preprint server not be considered rather aggressive (I don't remember seeing anyone doing this)? Is there anything one can, or should, do before the (eventual) publication of the paper in some peer-reviewed venue?

Stretching this well into the hypothetical, suppose that one did write a "comment" paper and uploaded it onto the preprint server. Would the authors of the original preprint be ethically obliged to cite this and address the concerns raised therein when submitting to peer-reviewed journals (assuming that they were to submit after being let known of the existence of the comment)?


texts:
How can I check whether a person who puts DSc after their name is in fact entitled to do so?

Is it possible to find out where this person was allegedly confirmed as a DSc?


texts: Credit load for Grad courses vs Undergraduate courses for professors

texts:
As a professor I was wondering what others have experienced at the College/University regarding credit hours/compensation for teaching MA level vs BA level courses.  This is for a Psychology department...For example, a 3-credit BA course counts towards 3 credit hours of instruction. A 3-credit MA course may count at 3 credit hours or double (6-credit hours) depending on enrollment.  This policy is changing and I am wondering what policies may be in pace elsewhere for comparison.  In relation to this - how are professors compensated for mentoring MA thesis students?

Thanks in advance for any feedback that would be helpful while drafting our policy.


texts: Why would a grad school not want me to defer admission?

texts:
I have been accepted to a fairly competitive online computer science-related graduate program (in the US). It is a part-time program geared toward working professionals. During the application process, I was assigned an admissions counselor that worked with me during the application and answered questions, etc. The counselor did mention at one point that I could defer  admission by one trimester, should I be accepted.

Well, long story short, I have a situation with my employer (who would be funding my graduate studies), that is now making me strongly prefer to exercise the deferral option.

I have reached out to my admission counselor seeking guidance on how to do this. I expected this to be a fairly routine, straightforward process. Instead, I am getting aggressive pushback, with the counselor trying to talk me out of it.

After several emails and phone calls with the counselor, I still do not have any instructions on how to actually accept the admission but defer by one trimester. My admission offer is still pending. I would really like to simply accept the offer (and pay the deposits), but with deferral.

All I have are appointments to talk with a current student and a scheduled one-on-one demo of the "courseware" with the counselor. I cannot help but notice the counselor is seemingly dancing around my question on how to defer.

Since this deferral option was mentioned up front when I was still just an applicant, why would I be encountering this kind of resistance? I am truly baffled. Why can't I just do "what is best for me"?

The program has three admission cycles throughout the year: fall, spring, and summer. I applied for fall 2015 and was accepted. I'd like to exercise the option to defer, essentially as if I applied for spring 2016.

I am starting to wonder: Does my request for a deferral reflect badly on someone? On me? On the counselor? Might the school have some aggressive revenue forecast that was expecting my tuition payment, and now this deferral request throws a wrench in it? Does the admission committee and/or counselor have some quota for accepted offers they need to meet? Might they simply be trying to balance class/cohort sizes? I am trying to understand this from the school and counselor's perspective: Why might they do this, and why do so in this aggressive manner?

Furtheremore, does anyone have any advice on how to proceed from this point? Should I just be frank and ask the counselor why the aggressive pushback?


texts: Are GRE/GMAT or other certificates needed for academic career after PhD?

texts:
My interest is mainly in computer science. I am wondering if, for a post-doc or an assintant professor poistion, the certifications such as GRE or GMAT are reqired or if they don't have any relevance.

My interest is both for Europe and USA.

Also, what can be said about language certifications, such as TOEFL and IELTS?
Are they required too?


texts:
I am a sixth year female PhD student in the CS department of a renowned US university. I  have had a very difficult time with my adviser for the past two years due to personal and research conflicts. At that stage I was faced with the option to leave the department, or suck it up and stick with my adviser. After two years of me working alone without feedback, now I am finishing up my PhD, having completed my proposal successfully and am in the writing phase of my thesis. My adviser has asked me to complete a few more experiments for the thesis. However, she has dismissed my attempts to get feedback on sections of my thesis which is due in another three months.

What I find as particularly odd is that, she has been delaying on drafts for my main journal publication for sometime now. She , in a verbal conversation said that no one reads the thesis so I shouldn't bother too much about her feedback. Instead I should focus on more experiments. Last week she asked me to remove a part of my main proof from the thesis and said that people might scoop the idea. These seem like extremely odd to come from a PhD adviser. A couple of months back, she said that papers are not important in the industry and that I can be successful without too many journal papers to my name.

I have had a tough history with her but given the circumstances, I had no option but to trust her as the timing of the conflict was extremely unfortunate. Now I want to salvage whatever I can from this degree. I want to know how much authority does a PhD adviser have over your thesis. Can she ask me to remove important sections of my analysis that has been with her for over an year? I am asking this because of a strong suspicion that she might want to scoop my work once I leave school. In that case the only proof of authorship of my work is  the thesis document. If I have to press forward with my work, how should I diplomatically go about it?


texts: The Ethics of Preparing for a Course Long Before Actually Taking it

texts:
I think this is an unspoken question in academia: how do you factor in the effort put forth by a student before taking your class?

I think  the answer to this question has several consequences:

it presents accurate reflection of your teaching,
it presents more accurate reflection of the quality of work of a student

It also addresses a more profound question:

Is good educational outcome measured by grades a product of privilege or a measure of intelligence?

Personal anecdote:

In my undergrad classes, I find for some courses the class will be divided into two camps - one who has done some work outside of the class (the ones who have a background), another who will try to learn the course material as the course progresses.

The results are vastly different. The ones who have done work outside of class will achieve higher grade across the board, are more motivated, ask extremely technical questions in classes, gets all the attention of the professor as the next "rising star", etc., whereas the other students who haven't had as much experience prior coming to class will try his/her hardest with uncertain outcomes and will tend to struggle a great deal more.

From my own observation, a course taught by a lecturer who uses less conventional course material seems to even out the grade much better than a lecturer who uses standard material - since in these cases, the advanced students are less able to predict what will show up on the exams.

This is most significant in computer science classes. Any computer, CS, programming classes will teach things in two folds: practical and theoretical. I find in many of my classes, a portion of the student will have a great deal of knowledge in the former, therefore significantly reducing his/her course load. How easy is it to ace an introduction to programming course if you already have years of experience in the language? These courses will always produce several students who go on doing interesting research or work at some big-name companies, and the lecturer will be praised as being effective at teaching. But it is so obvious to me, that the student - the one who has taken years of programming at middle to high school level, a summer course at another University... - is more advantaged in this area than a student who is just coming in to be acquainted with a field of study.

Hence, what is the ethics of preparing yourself for a course before it begins given such uneven playing field in today's academic setting? Will this be a mark of a motivated student who is genuinely interested to learn a subject or a student who is just trying to get ahead and earn good grades? Why should or shouldn't a student prepare himself for all the courses he will take one or two years down the road?


texts: What is the etiquette in using honorary names in the title of North American professors?

texts:
Academic titles of many professors in U.S. (and maybe in Canada) include one or more honorary names the samples of which are be Jean-Lou Chameau Professor of X and Thomas E. and Doris Everhart Professor of Y. I am curious about the mechanics of using such titles in view of academic norms. To be specific,
1- Are such titles something that any professor at any level (assistant, associate, or full) may pick for herself or academic individuals need specific advantages to use honorary names?
2- Is there any restriction or ethical norm, such as permission, to select an honorary person's name? I am wondering the necessity of permissions because in many cases an honorary person of interest might be already died.


texts:
Some time ago I had emailed a professor regarding the original data of an experiment they'd conducted almost two decades ago. He replied today to apologize as he had unfortunately not found the data after looking for it for a while.

How can I thank the professor for his efforts without coming off as condescending? Something like "Thank you very much for going to the trouble of finding the data" sounds to me like I still expect something and simply saying "Thank you for your effort" comes off as condescending to me, but this may be because I am not a native English speaker.


texts: Required reviews completed vs ready for decision elsevier

texts: In elsevier journal publication process, what is the difference between "required reviews completed" and "ready for decision"?


texts: Can a peer-grading system still work despite malicious students?

texts:
I'm asking this as a purely theoretical question, out of curiosity.

Let's say you are teaching an undergraduate class with complete autonomy. Instead of grading it traditionally, you decide to have the students grade each other. The goal is to significantly (by at least 50-90%) reduce the instructor's grading burden and promote self-assessment for students.

My initial instinct is that any such system will always be vulnerable to students collaborating to grade all papers 100 or 0, disregarding the rubric. Is this the case? Are there any peer-grading systems that work without the "honor principle"?


texts: Is it acceptable if I write a title of a thesis of the same as the title of the co-advisor paper?

texts: Can I use the same title for a thesis and a co-advisor paper?


texts: Level of difficulty of exams in math PhD and anxiety over being able to do well

texts: I am a first year PhD student in math. I have a course right now that is pretty challenging as expected. I get high grades on all the homework. On our midterm the highest grade was a 35 percent. I was told this is how nearly all of the exams this professor gives turn out. Is this a common thing to happen? I suddenly feel inadequate to be a PhD student in math.


texts: Examples for non-math department students to be used for Calculus course

texts:
This semester I am a teaching assistant for Calculus. There are many students from different departments like International Relations, Economics and more taking the course. The course is comprehensive. For example, we gave the "epsilon-delta" definition of limit, we find the derivative of functions using the definition of derivative, find the equation of tangent line that passes through a point on some function. I am trying my best to explain what are we doing during class; I draw graphs to explain formal stuff, give daily life examples while finding a delta for a given epsilon. However, I can see the pain in their face and that bothers me a lot because I want them to understand or at least pass the class with a relatively high grade.

So, can you give me some examples related to your department that I can use in Calculus, or some advice about to increase the level of understanding of the course? Any answers will be appreciated, thank you.


texts: Msc Thesis: Drowning in knowledge and ideas, whilst my supervisor is not answering my emails

texts:
I am a student at Cybersecurity master's degree program in a Greek University and I choose as my topic on "Multiparty chat privacy protection mechanisms" my idea behind this was that I wanted to implement on a post-master's time a system so a Bibliographic Research on that topic would provide me this knowledge.

So I started doing that and I found myself bombarded with new ideas and approaches for the Msc Thesis while I became more knowledgeable about the technologies on this topic. Therefore I discussed my approaches with my supervisor and came up with one approach. I followed that one but suddenly I became stuck and I see time slowly ticking towards to the end (It is far away but I do not want  my work to become last-breath patchwork).

Therefore I contacted with my supervisor via email and to make up with time started to work on a second approach. And here's the problem:

I sent 3 emails towards him and still no response. (I sent 1 email every 3 days in order not to fill it with spam and being way too pushy/impolite.)
I find myself drowned and with an unmanageable heap of ideas.
I do not feel confident I can manage in time at least one of the 2 approaches.

In other words I feel drowned with knowledge, stuck on an unmanageable heap of ideas and alone whilst I work on my MSc Thesis. How do you suggest to manage that?

Ps. On of the 3 emails I sent towards him is a physical face-to-face request and I have no other means of contacting him.

An approach to fix that is to ask for external help/counseling regarding this issue. But would that be offensive/rude towards him. Also my first email is at 29th of October and the last one 1 day before posting this question.


texts: When Corresponding Authors Don't Correspond

texts:
What are appropriate steps to take when the corresponding author of a paper one finds very interesting, and potentially very useful, but slightly puzzling (due to the enforced brevity of the publication format) in its nuts and bolts implementation doesn't correspond?  (I do not mean, 'Does not provide instant and copiously detailed answers,' I mean, 'Complete radio silence.')

Clearly, one does not send e-mail after e-mail after e-mail.  That is both rude and insane.  (Expecting different results from the same action.)

Clearly, one does survey that author's other literature (including past theses or dissertations, often the best place to find more verbose treatments of early papers) to see if the nuts and bolts questions are resolved there; one also surveys the literature of the non-corresponding co-authors for the same reason. (In fact, one does this, in my opinion, before contacting anyone in the first place.)

Clearly one does verify that the e-mail is up to date, to the best of one's ability.

When these options fail, and one is still extremely interested in a working implementation of a tersely published technique, are there any other reasonable strategies to apply?  Reasonable, as in, will not cause terrible reputation in the field.


texts: I will be writing an essay about Brexit and I am confused on which style of writing to use.


texts: Should I defer or start a PhD program right away?

texts:
I just completed a Master's degree in Canada and have been accepted to a US PhD program beginning this fall as an international student. My Master's degree allows me to work as a healthcare provider.

I'd like to work part-time throughout my degree as I intend to conduct clinical research and also to continue practicing as a healthcare provider after my PhD (not sure if I'm interested in academia). I have no real work experience in the field. My field requires licensing to practice and there is a ton of licensing regulations in the US - especially as an international applicant. I haven't had much luck contacting the license board to gather more information about rules for international applicants. The state license documents are vague and I'm concerned there are requirements I'm unaware of that may block or delay me from practicing in the states.

I considered deferring my program start date to work for a year in my country, since having work experience would smooth the licensing process - the US requires a year of working under supervision before being licensed.

However, at this point I am quite certain it would be too late to request a deferral without ruffling feathers in the department, as I have accepted the offer and funding, and the school year begins soon.

There is an option to take a leave of absence during my program to complete the supervised work requirement. That said, I worry my advisor won't agree to a leave of absence (although my advisor knows of my interest in becoming licensed), as it might negatively impact my research projects.

I've mostly made up my mind to head directly into my PhD program, and try to navigate the (vague and confusing) license requirements once I'm there, thus potentially risking delays in being able to work as a clinician. I think this way I won't damage any departmental relationships and funding possibilities from deferring admission so late in the game. I do have the leave of absence as a possible back-up plan. The department may also help me with the license portion once I'm on campus.

So my questions is: Do you think this sounds like a solid decision, or are there other factors/perspectives that I haven't considered?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!


texts: Is going to graduate school the same place I went to undergrad okay?

texts:
Is it okay to get my bachelor's and master's degrees at the same school?  I intend to go into industry in computer science.

OK = will not substantially harm future prospects.

Getting a doctoral degree is not planned.

Edit: I might need to take out loans to go to a different school.


texts: What address to put in bibliography for Springer (and others)?

texts:
Some publishers like Springer appear variously with different addresses.  Sometimes (in the case of Springer) it's "Berlin, Heidelberg", sometimes it's "Heidelberg, New York", or even "Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, London, Paris, Tokyo".

Should I, eg. in a thesis, just settle for one address per publisher and stick to it, or is there a different correct address for each publication?


texts: Are nonfiction writers, that avoid the use of footnotes/endnotes, respected by the academic community?

texts:
I've seen books of Jared Diamond (biogeographer) and other fine nonfiction writers, that don't use any references or footnotes/endnotes - not even bibliography. Instead, they put a "for further readings" section at the end, where they "talk" about related books, papers and articles, and they don't seem to express directly that they used any of those books for their writing.

Is that enough to be "respected" (or recommended to friends or family) by the academic community?
Doesn't he incur in plagiarism in any way?
What method would you use if you were writing for the popular?


texts: Is it possible to be enrolled into a PhD programme in electrical engineering with an integrated UK masters?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate in London South Bank University. After I finish my four year integrated master programme, can I directly apply for a 3 year PhD programme in the UK or Europe? Likewise, if I apply for PhD programme in the US, can I skip a year or more from a five-year US PhD program?

Some notes: I'm doing research in electrical engineering. My GPA is 3.9 on a 4-point scale.


texts: Why do many graduate programs in mathematics (United States) still have foreign language requirements today (in 2010s)?

texts:
As far as I know, nowadays most of the mathematical literature is written and published in English and mathematicians communicate with each other in English. Although there are certain number of books written in other languages (like EGA), but at the same time their counterparts also appear in English (like Stacks Project). However, many graduate programs still require their students to pass a language translation test in French, German or Russian (which a paper dictionary, not a dictionary app in cellphones, which seems even more ridiculous to me...). I wonder what makes it still necessary to have foreign language requirement as of 2010s.

I believe my question has different focus than this one

Mathematics Ph.D program foreign language requirement

Where the questioner specifically asked for advice for the most useful language among French, German and Russian:

I personally have no preference on which to learn, but I was wondering if there were other reasons that would make one language more advantageous over the others in terms of a general mathematical career.

while I am asking why we ever need a second language for mathematical study in 2010s:


texts: Found errors in paper: What happens now?

texts:
As second-year bachelor students, we “validated” a scientific paper from our university. We took the raw data, evaluated it independently of the original paper, and then compared it back to see if there was a difference. It had recently been presented at a conference but has yet to be published in a journal. The task was assigned as part of our course project work. We were more successful then we imagined: We found rather large errors in some of the calculations. This was very satisfying for us, although probably less so for the people who wrote it.

It was a fair bit of effort and we worked more than the other groups. Each group were assigned different papers or projects, i.e. nobody else was working on the same stuff. It was not compensated or anything being university coursework.
We hinted at the problem to the authors weeks ago but only submitted our work the other day.

Disclaimer: I am completely inexperienced/unknowledgeable in this academia thing. I might be completely off here.

This has lead me to wonder however:

What will happen to the conference proceedings in questions? The paper with mistakes can still be found online.
Can (or should) we expect any credit for our work when they correct their paper? I know people acknowledge help with, say, a novel or computer program, but does the same principle apply to finding a problem in a scientific paper? Our would this have been caught in peer review later?
Certainly not saying we are going to do this, but do people publish counter-articles to papers with corrections?

The field is aerospace engineering.


texts: Going to a different University for part of my PhD

texts:
SHORT: Is it normal -or perhaps "is there likely to be any kind of existing framework"- for me to go and do part of my PhD at another institution? For, say, a summer - although I might prefer something like 5 months or even a year?

DETAILS: I'll now try to explain why I'm thinking about this - while keeping details anonymous!

I am working on "X". I'm very happy to be doing so, but X is not quite a large enough thing to be the entire focus of a PhD - this is something I and my supervisor both believe. I am ~1.3 years into my 4 years of funding.

A few days ago I met "Dr Y" at a conference. With Dr Y, I conceived an idea/project "Z", that is very closely related to X. In my next supervisory meeting I will be talking to my supervisor about Z, and I believe it will excite him, because it fits so nicely into my PhD. So I am going to start working on Z soon; and if Z turns out really well, I might very well want to invest a year or maybe more out of my PhD into Z.

Thing is: Z is deeply integrated into Dr Y's work, but not that of my supervisor. My supervisor's work isn't even very related to X! Which I know is kinda bad, but we've been getting by ok.

However, if Z starts to turn into something cool, maybe you can see why I'd like to go off and work for Dr Y for a bit! He is in the same country but a different institution. Skype conversations and email can do the job but it's nice to be alongside the person whose work you are contributing to.

I believe Dr Y would be willing to make room for me if Z started to look promising. Not sure what my supervisor would think; but of course all of this is contingent on it all being an administrative possibility at all. So what's the verdict?

Further information related to the comments

I feel like this is very different from "transfer for unhappy", because I'm not unhappy and I don't want to permanently transfer. I want to come back to work on project X. If nothing else, there's more paperwork with that, right?

"Ultimately your dissertation needs to be on something that matches the expertise of your supervisor, and that doesn't seem to be the case for Z": Well, it is not particularly the case for X either.

I'd hope to continue using the funds given to me by my current funding source.

I'm based in the UK, but I can't be more specific.


texts:
I worked with this teammate on a 4-people class group project. We did research, conceived ideas and prototyped the concept together. I just found out that he is publishing this research work with himself as the first author and another guy who was not in our group as the second author. He may write the entire paper, but the implementation of the research and the majority of the published results come from the team effort. He did not even notify us that he planned to publish it. It seemed like he consolidated the research work and did all the writing with the other author behind our back without notifying us. I am wondering what should I do with this situation?

We are all graduate students enrolled in a master's program. Both he and I are applying for the same Ph.D. program this year. He has a few publications before coming to this graduate program. I am totally new to the academic publication and just started collaborating with a professor this summer on a project which could lead to publication. I am not sure whether this situation perceived as "unethical conduct" or "reasonably tolerable" in the academic world, as the research efforts are hard to be quantified. How should I approach this?


texts: Is it better to focus on relearning mathematics fundamentals or learn material as needed to understand research papers?

texts:
I am working toward a PhD degree and my major involves lot of mathematics. The problem is that my basis of math is not very strong but after putting a lot of time I can understand the theorems, lemmas, corollaries in the published papers. Sometime I wonder should I start learning the basics again or should I read the research papers only to make my math strong. If I start from the basics then it may consume lot of time however it may help me understanding things better and in applying accepted ideas to more general problems. On the other hand if I learn through research papers then my knowledge will be limited to only the problem I am working on and new ideas of solving the problem may not fluently come into my mind.

In essence which of the following strategy is better in your opinion

Start learning from basics.
Learn through published research papers during the literature review.


texts: Where to start with grant proposal writing

texts:
I finished my Ph.D. in Robotics in a French institution and I am moving to Switzerland for my PostDoc.

For my new position, I am supposed to write a lot of grant proposals. I participated in writing grant proposals in the past (not many) already. I would like to know if someone of you knows a good place where to learn how to do it. I am wondering if there are books you suggest, links, or whatever comes to your mind.

For now I found these books:

The Craft Of Research
Grant Writing For Dummies
The Only Grant-Writing Book You'll Ever Need: Top Grant Writers and Grant Givers Share Their Secrets

I love learning and improving myself, I love reading, therefore any suggestion is well accepted.

Thanks in advance.


texts: Updating an application for a faculty position

texts:
I would like to ask if it is appropriate to update documents (e.g. cover letter) in the application package for a faculty position.

Thank you very much for your response

Kind regards,
Yannis


texts: PhD student where TA work leaves little time for PhD. Is it even worth it to finish this PhD?

texts:
Background: I started a PhD in a CS-oriented field about 8 months ago, after completing my masters. At the very start, I was given a lot of duties besides my PhD project, such as responsibility for several of our servers, various software and hardware, user accounts, etc. I also serve as a TA to different courses every semester. After all that, I estimate that in terms of time, 15% of the working week is maybe left for research work. In my project I work alone (this is nice), but my project as well is more ambitious than that of other people, as already confirmed by my advisor and colleagues.

Problem: I started a PhD with the hopes to research an issue at depth and gain expertise in that field, now I find I don't actually have time to seriously devote myself to research activity. I was apparently hired to be some kind of an "assistant", but not one that should be called "research assistant". On top of all, I'm paid much lower than what I could earn out in the open, or what I should be paid given the amount of hours extra I put in. I am really demotivated because I entered the PhD with different intentions. FYI, I have no desire to continue in academia as a career, neither do I need the "Dr." title to be more marketable or for ego purposes or whatever - the only reason was fun of the kind I get very little.

Question: I can't decide if it's worth it to stay, I also don't want to be spoiled and foolish. I won't take your word as command, but would be nice to just get honest 3rd party opinions, or sharing if you're dealing with the same situation.

EDIT: thanks all for sharing thoughts and giving some advice. I marked as "answer" the comment with the most subcomments. I already talked to other PhD students and it seems most don't have it as tough as me. I guess with all these tasks eventually the quality of my research will suffer, and I will talk to my advisor about this particular point, as I believe this should be a concern for him as well.


texts: How does one issue a call for papers on military history?

texts:
A non-academic group to which I belong holds military history conferences a few times a year. We've discussed seeking presentations from graduate students, but we're unsure of the process. So, I have a few questions that might be answerable here.

Where would one publish a "call for papers" on specific areas of military history? (Our conferences are on Operation Dragoon and the Battle of the Colmar Pocket in WWII.)

What would be expected to be provided for presenters who are accepted? We're a non-profit, funded only by fees for the conferences, so have never budgeted for honorariums, lodging for speakers or their expenses. Would that be so uncouth as to inhibit anyone from responding?

Would sample presentation videos be excessive? We've had some presenters in the past whose style has been so dry and non-interactive that the audience became disengaged. So, before we would accept a speaker, we'd want to see video or a live presentation to ensure that they will meet our needs. Is this excessive?

How long a presentation would be acceptable from the speaker's perspective? I expect we'd be interested in presentations of 15-20 minutes, as the topic would be rather specific (such as a presentation on the actions of a single military unit rather than on the campaign in general).

Basically, I want to know if our expectations don't meet academic expectations, so we can decide whether to modify our expectations or decide not to issue a call for papers.


texts:
It seems many US academic institutes co-own patents filed by their employees, and have policies for redistributing the royalty (minus costs) back to the inventor. For example,

Stanford: 1/3
MIT: 1/3
University of California (UC) system: 35%
State University of New York (SUNY) system: 40%

Are these numbers negotiable? In particular, can the academic institute force a lower proportion for inventor redistribution by making a deal with the inventor?


texts: Should GitHub repositories be included in a resume or statement of purpose?

texts:
I am applying to a MS in information technology program coming from a BS in computer science and have worked on several projects over the last couple of years. I have 3 projects on my GitHub account that I think are interesting, two are cryptography related, and one is a lightweight Json library for Java. None of my projects are "finished" ranging from some cosmetics and nice to have, to containing major bugs because I wrote it in a day and thought it was cool and a good idea.

Should GitHub projects be included in a resume or statement of purpose when applying to a technical MS program? Bonus question- if it should be included, should it be included in my contact information or somewhere else?


texts: Poster orientation: Landscape or portrait (horizontal or vertical)?

texts:
Which is a better poster orientation: Vertical/portrait (taller than wide) or horizontal/landscape (wider than tall)?  Assume that the content does not "naturally" fit either of these formats so as to make one choice obvious.

Are there any studies that explore the differences between these two?
If you aren't aware of any, what psychological mechanisms might underly differences in the way people perceive the research (or researcher) based on the difference between the orientations?

I'm not interested in answers that say "it's just a subjective personal style choice" but am interested in answers that detail at least some difference in what may be perceived or communicated differently as a result of a change in orientation.

If there are strong field-specific conventions, those would be good to know (because being the only person who fails to follow that structure might give an impression that this person is an outsider or doesn't understand the community) but it'd be nice to have at least some answers that can apply in a very broad multidisciplinary poster session which is too topically diverse for any field-specific orientation convention to apply.

For the purposes of answering here, please assume the two dimensions are fixed at a bit under 3 and 4 feet, but orientation is not fixed.

Related:

What are some general good principles for creating a poster for a poster session?
Default poster size


texts: How to handle repeated references in footnotes?

texts:
I have to cite the same reference two times on each footnote on different pages. Suppose footnote note 1 on page 1 is the same reference as footnote 7 on page 4.
Should I provide different serial numbers for the footnote or the same?

Can I repeat the same reference twice with different footnote numbers, or should I us the same footnote number for identical references? I cannot write "ibid", as the footnotes are not in sequence.


texts: Must a master's thesis fall within one's advisor's area of expertise?

texts:
When I studied my bachelor's degree, my professors often let me write papers in whatever area I wanted, even if it was an area completely outside of their expertise. Within master's programs, is this still the case, or must students generally stay within the specific expertise of their professors or advisors?

In my particular situation, I want to study second language acquisition (SLA), however, none of the programs I can attend have professors knowledgeable in my particular language of focus. Is it likely that I'll face resistance from advisors in trying to write my research papers and thesis about a language which none of the school's faculty are familiar with?


texts: A terrible PhD situation in Germany. Please help

texts:
I am an international student in a interdisciplinary PhD in the social sciences.

My supervisor has about 60 students and does not do any advising beyond a few personal favorites.

My second supervisor considers me a student of the first, resents the fact that he is the expert on the subject, and as a result won't read my thesis either. This has gone on for seven years and now I must submit. I speak four European languages and my thesis is in an area which is very relevant. Right now I can t see any future for myself as there are no jobs back home.

1.What do I do about my supervisors as the PhD is graded here?
2.Can I apply for post docs/tenure track (community college is more than fine) in North America with a PhD from Germany, or do they prefer N.American PhDs? How do I go about it? I have publications.
I'd be grateful for any advice/career suggestions etc. I don't mind leaving academia but I cannot return home as there are no jobs there.


texts:
I'm a grad student and have been assigned to a group with several other students. This is a semester long group that will work on various projects. From the start, this group has been a disaster. I spent two days fixing grammar mistakes in another group member's paper. Some sentences didn't make sense at all and he obviously didn't proofread it because there were mistakes such as "for the for the". Another student in the group, an international student, told the student that wrote it, "great job". This was prior to me correcting it, but the fact that he complimented him made me think that he didn't read the paper at all. Absolutely no one would think it was a great paper, purely based on how many mistakes it had.

After we submitted the corrected paper, the professor sent it back to us with several notes about how to improve it. The original author told another group member that I should fix it since there were grammar mistakes and I wrote it (corrected it). In reality, his original paper wasn't even at high school level until I fixed it.

Another time we had to give a 20 minute presentation. The rest of the group wanted to go over who would say what in 5 minutes before class. However, with some coercing, I convinced them we should review it the prior day instead.

I have to maintain a B to keep my scholarship and I feel like this group doesn't care about their own grades. They seem like they just want to coast by into graduation. Should I approach the professor about this?


texts: How do US grad schools interpret international GPAs?

texts:
I am an international student looking to apply for a PhD in mathematics in mainly the USA. My current university uses a 10 point scale for GPA but most of the universities I've seen, in the US seem to use a 4 point scale, and they rarely provide a conversion scale to convert a 10 point GPA to a 4 point one.
Some people suggest dividing my current GPA by 10/4=2.5 to get my 4 scale GPA but as my masters' GPA is 7.6/10 (not great, I know) this formula makes it 7.6/2.5= 3.04 and so just barely above the minimum required for the most places. And according to it, I can never get into a PhD program.

As disheartening as it is, IMO this does not seem to be a correct way to interpret an international GPA. After all, the universities abroad don't know how were the classes taught, their contents and how difficult/easy it was to get good grades is in different unis.

At my university, it is really difficult to get good grade. One can get one of the following grades, A, B, C, or a D and it is incredibly difficult to get an A, most of the times only one or two people would get it, and so slim chances of getting most of As. My transcripts are filled with mostly Bs, (and I know I worked really hard for them), a few As and Cs and unfortunately one D (worst decision ever to take that class, it's not related to what I want to study in grad school, the instructor gave one grade to each of the students who took the class). Also, my last two years of coursework was very heavy (at least for me), we'll have 5-6 courses (all math) each semester, and I struggled a lot with my time management throughout this. Combine it with some anxiety and overthinking issues, and you have a bad GPA as a result.

So, my questions are-

1) How do grad schools in the US interpret international GPAs?

2) Would it be okay to address the reasons for my low GPA in SOP)personal statement briefly, like in a line or two? If so, how should I subtly go about doing it? I don't want to make an excuse and of course, don't want to blame others.

3) Should I just give up on applying for PhDs then and focus more on the masters program, say in some Canadian universities?

(I should mention that in the name of 'research experience' I only have a bunch of reading projects/ independent studies and a Masters' thesis. My university didn't offer courses and a supervisor directly in my area of interest and so I don't have much background in it and that's why I don't feel confident to directly apply for a PhD elsewhere like in Europe or Canada)


texts: Should I share course notes from my previous university with my students?

texts: I have recently been a TA and I realised I have a large collection of comprehensive notes from my alma mater dating back to my Bachelor degree courses. I wonder if this is an acceptable practice to share them without my professor's consent (since this is purely for education purpose)? My student is asking for these notes, and I told them I should ask my professor first.


texts:
I would like to submit an article to IEEE Access. As per their requirements, I need to add a license statement on my corresponding ArXiv upload, which will look like this:

  IEEE copyright notice. © 2020 IEEE. Personal use of this material is
  permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses,
  in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this
  material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new
  collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or
  reuse of any copyrighted

My question is: Which copyright do I have to select on ArXiv?
They offer the following options:

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

Thank you in advance!


texts:
When writing a journal paper, we are expected to write in third person. But when I present some assumptions of other researchers and then want to say that I disagree with that and then present my own hypothesis, how do I write it?

Example:
Artificial neural networks store neural weights, which are a generalized way of memorizing and abstracting training data, similar to the neurons of the human brain.
I disagree with that because I theorize that memories are not stored in the neurons. I don't have any evidence, but can provide my theories about how memory storage actually works.

But I can't start writing it as "My hypothesis is that...", because it isn't in third person. What is the right way to write it?


texts: Can "Feel free to contact me if you are interested in a copy of any of my publications." cause legal issues?

texts:
I know that some journals allow public archiving of publications (making them available for download) on a researcher's personal website. Some of these journals (at least in my field), however, constrict this right by saying that it is only allowed to public archive after one year following publication. EDIT: My question is concerned with the time frame of this first year or with the situation where journals do not allow public archiving.

To make a publication available to an interested reader, who is unable to obtain the article from the publisher due to institutional subscription policies, does one risk any legal problems on putting the following sentence on his/her website:

  Feel free to contact me if you are interested in a copy of any of my publications.


texts: Should I feel guilty for quitting postdoc due to immigration status?

texts:
Background:
I hold citizenship of a country included in the Exchange Visitor Skill list for J1 visa holders (my research area, biological sciences, is on the list as well). My postdoc project is funded by NIH/NSF grants to the lab (not in a university). I completed a Ph.D. in a major US university last year, and my work authorization is under the F1 OPT. In light of diminishing faculty openings, I do not have a strong preference for staying in academia long term.

Details:
I started my current (and first) postdoc position a few months back, and this position is funded for the next few years. My advisor has been great, and she is supportive. I am also satisfied with the progress being made in the project.

Due to the increased visa denials, I was advised to wait for the next visa and not leave the US during the OPT period. The HR informed me that J1 is the only option as per the organization policy, and my advisor is powerless even if she wants to help. I did not know that non-University entities could sponsor J1 and thought H1B was the only choice (a significant reason for choosing this position; my bad.)

If I take J1, I will be subject to the two year home residency rule (which is the worst; the economy in my home country (a banana republic) is in shambles). Being on OPT would make it extremely risky to leave the US, and the status of the OPT STEM extension is uncertain. These factors make me want to look for new opportunities with H1B sponsorship. However, the fact that my advisor has been supportive and having to leave after a few months without any publication makes me feel incredibly guilty. I would appreciate perspectives on this issue.


texts: Does Hill University (USA) have legitimate accreditation?

texts: I need to know if Hill University is accredited. Especially in the field of MBA degrees.


texts: Is it possible for an F-1 graduate student in US to do internship in Europe?

texts:
I am a graduate student in US with F-1 visa. I have an internship offer from a company in France. Is it possible/feasible for me to accept this offer, or are there any rules preventing me from doing so?

Added:

I am an Indian National with F-1 visa. The internship will be for 6 months (2 terms). I am allowed to do 3 or 6 months internship in US with CPT, but I cannot find any such information regarding internship out of US.


texts: What does it mean when APS editors ask us to "list first page" for some refferences?

texts:
Basically the title. I don't understand what the editors are asking from us? Are they asking us to make a list out of the first page of these references, e.g. by copying and pasting them into a file and then submit it??

Needless to say, English isn't my first language. Any help is appreciated.


texts: Some journals put author pictures and short bios at the end of the articles. Do you know of published examples in which the authors used humorous pictures of themselves, for instance with funny poses or unusual hats?


texts: Is it ethical to explicitly or implicitly bias against student papers unless co-authored with senior researcher(s)?

texts:
A few days ago I was browsing open-access social-science journals and I found one ‘author guideline’ explicitly saying that they are accepting student submissions if and only if the manuscript is co-authored with the academic advisor or a senior researcher.

I have acquaintances with several editors and editorial board members at various journals and I know from experience that some of us tends to be careful with manuscripts coming from PhD students. This manifests in practices that I find questionable (e.g., insisting on three unanimously positive specialist peer evaluations before acceptance, while a senior researcher’s manuscript may go with only two positives) and in other practices that I find to be biased (like an easier desk reject, or being less willing to deal with them, which results in longer peer evaluation cycles).

Is it justifiable for editors to restrict – formally or informally – the opportunities for PhD students to publish in their journals, like restricting them to submit only co-authored papers or subject their manuscript to more strict criteria than those of senior researchers before acceptance?


texts: How difficult is it to transfer to a different field of study in a master's program compared to getting admitted in the first place?

texts:
My friend in China has been admitted to some schools in the US, but hasn’t started his program yet, and is having some second thoughts about his field of study. It would be in the same school, from a different engineering field to CS.

Would it be easier to transfer once he starts or just re-apply with a different major for the next cycle?


texts: Is SCI Impact Factor valid for a year? And, my PhD publication dilemma regarding it

texts:
My advisor asked me to publish in an SCI-indexed journal with better impact factor (say more than 1). I found a journal with impact factor as 1.2. But the journal says that its present impact factor is based on 2015 journal citation report (JCR). It does not mention anything the year 2016. I couldn't find their name listed in 2016 report too. But I found a journal with impact factor .4 in 2016 report. My questions are

Is the Impact factor valid only for a year?
If I publish my work in a journal that says having an impact factor (in the year 2015), can I claim it when I publish in 2017?


texts: What are some criteria to get an Australian PhD scholarship?

texts:
I want to apply for a PhD in Australia and I wrote a professor (who has an open position) with my CV. He was very positive in his mail and encouraged me to apply for that position. Now I want to know who is the decision-maker in taking a student and offering funds? I mean is it like the professor asks people to apply but the ultimate decision-maker is the university itself? Or the professor can take anyone if he wants to. What is most likely to be in Australia?
Also, is it true the scholarship committee focuses solely on GPA, rather than research work? I mean is it possible if the GPA is not high but research experience and works are excellent?


texts: I am doing my PhD still in the beginning and one of colleague is so bitchy, he is from the hell, he has a good and strong relationship with the head of the lab, and always fabricate stories about me, and that I don't do that good in the lab... of course, when I speak the PI is so upset and never ever you can say he is lying, he is always right, and excellent... screaming and closing the line of zoom suddenly, I did not have the chance to defend myself... I tried to avoid this colleague, but in vain, he sent an email to supervisor faking up data about me and something did not happened at all... the PI send me an email that you are not doing well, I will report you ill-performance to committee, I asked for a call to defend myself, but they made their mind, although I had pictures of my work and everything is right... I am crying all the night, how someone could be so devil to destroy me and acclaim things did not happen. He is so jealous almost from everyone, but maybe because I had got recognition and multiples awards before joining their group, this postdoc is so jealous and want only him in the scene, I really tried to avoid and every encounter made a disaster after... I am so tired there are no other labs accepting students for the moment, I feel that I am going to have a heart attack, I am by myself in a foreign country and that is so hard, I really I feel I am going to have a heart attack even the ombudsman don't reply to my emails.


texts:
Motivated by the answer written by @ÉbeIsaac to this question: Can I write a paper on a method that is novel but yields similar results compared to existing methods?

This participant wrote

  Also make sure you go through the Journal guidelines and consult with
  the publisher/editor prior to manuscript submission.

The part that I would like to understand better is consult with
the publisher/editor prior to manuscript submission.

My question:

When is it appropriate to consult with the publisher/editor prior to manuscript submission?


texts: What is a typical dress code for campus interviews on west coast state schools?

texts:
The question says it all.

I am shortlisted for a campus interview at a state school in California. I was wondering about the dress code? Should I wear a suit or would it be too much?

EDIT: It's for CSU math position in Northern California.


texts: Why does the Statistics community publish in journals while the Machine Learning community presents at conferences?

texts:
I got my Bachelor's degree in Statistics and I'm starting graduate school to study Computer Science (CS) with an emphasis on Data Mining. One of the big differences that I've noticed between the Statistics and the ML communities is that Statistics tends to publish in journals, while CS tend to publish at conferences.

I've heard people say that conference presentations are preferred to publishing in journals because "things move so fast" in Machine Learning research. However, if you actually look reputable statistics journals are published very frequently.

The American Statistical Association publishes Statistical Analysis and Data Mining every other month and the Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics is published quarterly. It looks like they both also have pretty quick turnaround times. The International Statistical Institute even has a journal that was started specifically as a "rapid communication research journal" that published papers monthly.

So, if presenting at conferences isn't actually faster than publishing in a credible statistics journal, how did this division between the two communities start?


texts:
An increasing number of funding agencies require recipients to make all research papers it funded open access.

Does any scholarship require the benefiting student to make open access any research paper they wrote during the scholarship period?


texts: Who decides about admission of a PhD student?

texts:
I am applying for a PhD position in Canada. I have already talked to a Professor and for some reasons, he really wants to hire me as his student. The problem is that currently, I have no TOEFL score requirement. The professor told me that he may convince the graduate committee to conditionally accept me.

I was wondering how likely he can do it? Who makes the final decision about a PhD applicant?


texts:
Currently, I'm doing my bachelor's in science. I wanted to write a bachelor thesis so I tried contacting many professors so that I can get some projects and can write my bachelor thesis but most of them were busy or better to say all of them were busy. So I decided to do a project by myself and to write a paper (a bachelor thesis). But What should I have to do with it?
Where I can publish it so that in the future I can have proof?

Edit:
I'm a physics honors student currently in my last year of the degree. I understood that research work and writing a bachelor's thesis are two different things. I have read this post. And  I don't have any research work as I have not come too far in the subject. But I have some things in my mind like writing a new solution to Brachistochrone problem or some geometrical proof for some theorems that I want to be in some official paper as my bachelor's work.
I contacted many professors from my department as well as some other universities but I got no response from them apart from saying that they don't have time or something of the sort. I haven't contacted Ph.D. scholars as I don't how to contact them (How I can access their information from the site?)  But I will try to contact them. Any of the students don't have a personal tutor or anything. And I haven't written the paper under their supervision so do they give really mention it?
I actually tried it posting on arXiv but they too need some endorsement approval or something of the sort. So I ask some professor showing my work and asking to approve it but He said,

Dear student
?It is better to publish it in a journal rather than sending it to arXiv.

I don't understand what's the difference and I don't know How to do what He said.


texts: Accidentally leaked the solution to an assignment, what to do now? (I'm the prof)

texts:
TL;DR; I accidentally made the solution of an assignment visible to some of my students. How can I now fairly address that problem?

A few weeks ago I set a programming assignment to be done using Processing (a graphical programming tool), and to make sure the goal was clear I implemented a solution on openprocessing.org, which I made available to the students. On openprocessing.org, they can look at the working program (a little graphical game similar to tic-tac-toe), but the source code is hidden to them (I took a paid account to get private source code).
But then I embedded the openprocessing.org 'sketch' (a web page that displays the working program as described above) in a different web page, and failed to notice that the embedded version has the source code readily available (the person viewing the sketch just clicks an icon at the top and they get the editor with the source code). I think that's a bug with openprocessing.org and I complained to them (and there's obviously also an oversight on my part), but that's not relevant to my issue.

So basically the solution to the assignment was available to anybody who clicked that button at the top. It's not obvious, so I think only a few students noticed it. One team emailed me asking whether it was intentional and expressing their concern.
The assignment deadline is in 5 days (it's been up for 2 weeks) and it's the end of the term. This was supposed to be 10% of their grade.
I took down the visible solution, and I' trying to come up with a contingency plan. I could cancel the whole assignment, or give everyone full marks... Just let those who saw it submit as is (and indicate the source). I just don't know how to handle this best.

Any suggestions or recommendations?


texts: (How) can I evaluate, whether a field has a future or not?

texts:
I'm new here, so I hope my question fits in:

I am trying to decide where I should do my master thesis, and since I am considering an academic career, this could be a fist step towards the field I will finally end up working.
With my education up to now, there are two fields, where I would fit in, and that's where my problem begins:

The one field I find far more interesting seems to be kind of "Out of fashion" (or at a dead end?) with lots of publications from the 80ies and 90ies, and nothing that looks to me like a big advance  since then. But of course that's just my un-informed impression, and I don't know how far I can trust that... I tried to ask a professor working in the field, whether he thinks, there will be advances in the future, but I formulated my question very carefully, since I didn't want it to sound like "is your area of research dead?", so I am not sure, if he did understand, what I want to ask and shrugged it off, if he was personally offended, or if he didn't understand the question at all.*

Dear people with experience in the academic world, how could I find out, whether a field has a future or not?

Is it presumptious to make these considerations as a student?

If my University largely reduces the funding of research projects on that field, is it a sign that I should forget about it?

If you were a professor/postdoc etc. in a field that has already seen its best days, would you tell a prospective student?

Does it even happen, that a field "runs down" ? And if, why? What does it look like for the people still working there?

How was it for you, how did you weigh the interestingness of the field against future job prospects, when deciding for a specialization?

If that makes a difference: Both fields I could choose are in the area of Biomedical Engineering/ Biochemistry - I do not want to name the field, because I don't want to be "the idiot that said xy was dead", and I don't want to offend anyone working on it. Also answers to my questions would be more helpful for me than opinions on the specific field.

Thanks a lot & sorry for the long wall-of-text-ish question !
- NewBie

*You get an idea how good I am with that kind of thing. Please help me.


texts: How to find out whether my advisor expects to be author of a paper to which she did not contribute?

texts:
I am a postdoc and I prepared a paper that is now ready for submission.
I did this work by myself.
I know that adding my advisor as an author would violate authorship standards, but it is a widespread practice and therefore my supervisor may still expect it, which I have to take into account when making a decision.

How can I tactfully find out, whether she would like me to put her name on it or not?


texts: Do I inform my Professor that our digital exam isn't recording us?

texts:
For one of the classes I am taking at University, our exams are administered online. We were told that each of these exams would start a special browser that recorded you as you took the test, and also prevented you from visiting other tabs in the browser.

A few minutes before our first test, one of the other students in the class tells me that his friend from the earlier section took it and it didn't record him. I didn't run the risk, but I am quite certain that the browser is not recording us when we take these exams. The light for my laptop camera does not go on, and in past experiences with online exams we were told to download a special browser (you can take the exams for this class on chrome, firefox, etc.)

I'm torn, and I'm a little annoyed considering I got a 77% on the first exam. Ultimately, I don't think I will tell the professor, that really isn't my nature. However, in a situation like this I felt I should at least turn to strangers on the internet to possibly change my mind.

Should I tell or not?

(the exams are not curved)


texts: How to suggest textbook improvement to author?

texts:
There's a popular math textbook I enjoyed a lot when I was a grad student. Recently I noticed an extension to one of the many interesting exercises provided by the textbook. I'd like to communicate this idea with the textbook author (single author).

The exercise is to calculate and show an amazing coincidence, and the way it is phrased in the textbook suggests that the author didn't think there could be an explanation. I think I found an interpretation, and I think it might make this exercise richer if the author adds a couple of subquestions guiding readers to discover this viewpoint for on this coincidence.

My Question Is This:

  Is it considered inappropriate to email the author and suggest this as a possible improvement?
  The interpretation to that exercise is somewhat technically intensive and hard to explain in a few words. Should I try to make it brief or should I make it solid that undoubtedly my interpretation is correct?

I'm worried that my suggestion might appear either rude (as if the author doesn't know this already) or annoying (just too lengthy), or it might seem like a clumsy attempt to advertise myself (like a lot of layman claiming to have made a breakthrough).

I think it's 50/50 whether or not the author might have known this interpretation all along but simply didn't include it in the exercise for various reasons. Even under this circumstances, this coincidence is so intriguing that I still think a few words from the author encouraging readers to explore it would completely change the tone of this exercise.

Any thoughts would be appreciated, thank you. This question might be mostly opinion based thus not suited for this site, and I'll be fine with that.

P.S.

I'm on a 6-year-long hiatus from the academia, going on to the 7th year, I currently don't affiliate to any institution. I've been keeping a certain level of capability to do this subfield in math, and I'm about 95% confident that my result is correct. Currently I have no plans to return to the academia within the next 2 to 3 years, but things might change.


texts: How to know if a topic is completely explored?

texts:
I read a very recent paper that describes something I am only starting to study. Basically, it looks like authors of the paper have covered almost everything that can be explored in the topic.
How can I know if there is room left to research the topic? Should I approach the authors with a similar question?


texts: Do the disciplines of my PhD thesis and of my MA thesis have to be identical?

texts: I graduated in history, with a specialization in cultural studies. Now I want to pursue a PhD in literature. Is this possible? What are the potential obstacles and how can I avoid them?