texts: Evaluating and negotiating a start-up package

texts:
I've been offered an academic position, and am now in the fortunate, but unfamiliar position of negotiating the offer.  I've seen a few blogs/comments/posts on this process.  However, I have no real idea how to evaluate the offer that's been made.  Coming from the position of a postdoc, the package seems impressive (given that, as a postdoc, my "package" consists of a very modest salary and health benefits).  However, I also realize the importance of maximizing (within reason) my initial offer, as this sets the baseline for, at least, the first few years of my faculty career and could provide support that would prove very important in the initial year or so while I'm trying to obtain grant funding.

In particular, I'm looking for two types of information.  First, what types of startup packages are standard for tenure-track assistant professors of Computer Science at a public RU/VH (i.e. Research) university?  This is just to give me some point of comparison.  Second, what types of changes are reasonable to negotiate?  Can I ask for more summer salary support while still conveying to them my desire to obtain grant funding as quickly as possible?  The offer already includes a reduced teaching load for the first few years --- is it also reasonable to ask for an extra semester off prior to a tenure review?

I understand these are fairly broad questions, but any input or suggestions would be very helpful.  I'm definitely interested in the job; I really liked the department and think it's a great opportunity.  I don't want to alienate anyone by pushing too hard, but at the same time, I want to make sure that I make every reasonable effort to maximize my chances for academic success, which includes maximizing my available resources by negotiating the best startup package I can.


texts: Is it possible to find an unpaid and "half-time" postdoc?

texts:
I've defended my thesis, and I would like to do my postdoc abroad. But the problem is that I am married, and I have two little children. So, I can't just leave my family for a couple of years, and neither I can bring them with me (too expensive, too difficult etc.).

I have a couple of colleagues in the same situation, and they seem to find a solution: a kind of unpaid postdoc (they receive only small sums of money covering travel expenses) which supposes visiting the inviting university regularly but without staying there for a long time. In this format they prepare a monograph and give some seminars, it is counted as a postdoc by ANECA (homologation institution) here in Spain but doesn't require full-time occupation if you can maintain certain level and volume of academic publications. In both cases they were invited unofficially by their postdoc coordinators, it was not an announced grant or scholarship.

For me it could be the best option. It will give me an opportunity to get some foreign postdoc experience, stay on academic track (in Spain it is really difficult in the umanities) and at the same time I don't have to leave or move my family...

But I really don't know how to start. Is there any opportunity to get an information which universities offer this way of collaboration and how to apply? In the case of one of my colleagues, it is one of the Swiss universities and in another case it's Finland, but the information offered by these universities on their webpages is related only to the "normal," fellowship-based, full-time postdocs. And maybe there are some other opportunities of this kind in other countries and universities?


texts: Is it okay to add a lecturer on LinkedIn

texts:
I'm a graduate student and I recently attended a course by a very inspiring lecturer (associate professor).
Do you think it is okay add him on LinkedIn? Do I push him into an uncomfortable situation by doing that?


texts: Moving from a University to a National Research Institution, career implications?

texts:
Because of Brexit issues with my large grant, I'm considering a move from a permanent research+teaching post at a university to one of Europe's large research institutions. I'm not particularly familiar with these entities and I'm finding it difficult to gauge the long term implications of this move. Can anyone tell me:

What are the key differences between basing research at a university and basing research at a (large, European) research institution?

What might the long-term effects on one's career be due to making the switch, e.g. from not teaching or supervising phds?

For the record I'm not STEM, I'm a social scientist who does a lot of humanities/arts work.


texts: Do undergraduate students usually share poster award money with their PhD student supervisor?

texts: I participated in an poster competition (for undergraduate students) and I won an award with a decent amount of money. My research supervisor was a PhD student at a researcher's lab. Do people usually share the money of the award with their research supervisor, with the PhD student since he helped me a lot with my poster?


texts: Is it possible to ask editor-in-chief to change a reviewer?

texts:
I have submitted a paper to a peer-reviewed journal. On the first round of review, 3 reviewers had different comments and I tried my best to answer them. On the second round of review, two of them were almost satisfied but the third one had an aggressive tone and asked some questions that were completely answered in the paper or were basically wrong questions.

I answered the reviewer's comments and sent the paper, but one of my friends told me that it was better to ask the editor-in-chief to change the reviewer. I want to know, is that possible? How?


texts: Is certified translation of diploma an absolute necessary?

texts:
I will apply for a Ph.D. position, and the university is asking for an English version of my transcript record and diploma.

My diploma/transcripts records are in French and the cost of a certified translation is enormous.

Is it possible to send non-certified translations? I would, of course, precise that they can ask for a certified one if necessary


texts: Is it appropriate to ask colleagues opinions when reviewing a paper?

texts:
Several times my supervisor has asked me for my opinion on papers he is reviewing. I find this helpful as it encourages me to read things I otherwise would not, helps me understand how to review articles, and can lead to interesting discussions. Presumably my supervisor also finds it useful to have a second opinion or sometimes to act as a sanity check.

Recently I was wondering is this entirely appropriate. Not least because all the manuscripts for review have confidential for review only in bold at the top.

So my question is what are the legal/ethical issues with asking a student/colleague/supervisor's (depending on your position) opinion on a paper you are reviewing?

Note I'm not saying that they write the review just that you get them to read the manuscript and ask their opinion on certain points.


texts: When should I say I'm leaving my PhD program

texts:
I am currently in my first year of a humanities PhD program at one of the ivy-league colleges, and I've decided to leave the program at the end of the  current spring term. (Yes, I'm 100% certain - I simply can't stand my field, dread every minute of my classes/research, and no longer desire to work in academia anyway. I also have been admitted to a certificate program elsewhere starting in the summer, and I have already accepted enrollment there.)

I do feel bad about quitting and want to tell my advisor and the director of graduate studies in my department that I'll be leaving at the end of May, so that it is not too sudden or abrupt. I have good grades and have never mentioned any problems with them out of politeness - none of my issues are the fault of the program; I am just a bad match for this work - so I'm fairly certain they do not suspect how I feel at all. I'm not especially close with either of them, but we do generally have a good relationship, I think. They both seem courteous and genuinely interested in helping me succeed in the program.

However, I am worried that if I tell them now, they will cut off my funding right away. (Normally, I would receive a stipend at the end of each month through May.) I need that money through May to pay for my current lease, which doesn't end until the summer. Basically, I would be in huge financial trouble if my funding ended now.

Is that even what would happen if I told them that I had decided to leave though? I am leaving without even a Master's degree, so I'm worried they won't see the point in letting me continue through to the end of the semester. I believe my funding cannot be terminated until my academic review at the end of May (and only then if I haven't received good marks), but I don't know if this guarantee would be voided by my decision to leave.

I would appreciate any advice for this situation. I believe the right thing to do is to be honest about my intention to leave, but practically, I also need to consider my immediate financial welfare.


texts: How to properly adapt academic papers obtained from a university to private companies?

texts:
My post is more related to private research than academic research, but as I think they could be strongly related, I thought this would be the most appropriate place to ask.
I have recently started working for a small startup in Brazil, where we conduct intensive research to develop a product. However, I have some doubts about how this is done in terms of ethics and licensing.
I am also student of a federal university and so I could freely access non-open-source papers via proxy or via Google CASA. However, I do not think this would be ethical since my work research is not related to the university, so I use to conduct the work research on anonymous browsing. However, my workmate researches using Mendeley and share with me pdfs of the papers, which are frequently non-open-access material. I have already questioned her about it, but she thinks it is everything ok and I'm not so sure of it, as brazilian people do not care much about these things. About this:

Am I right in thinking that university students should not use the free-access benefit to access papers for work?
If she is having access to non-open-access papers via Mendeley, does this mean that her university account is being used somehow or is it possible for a personal account to have this benefit via Mendeley?
Since the pdfs are being shared internally but we are not making any business on themselves but on the knowledge we absorb from them, would this be considered commercial-use or be infringing any license/copyright terms?

If the answers to these questions point that the company's research conduct is beign wrong, I would appreciate to make things right. I wish we could be successful following the most ethical, legal and responsible ways, so I have one remaining question, maybe the most important one:

What does a research company need to have a research power close to a university, i.e., to have a free/viable access to research from the most important publishers? Does research companies invest on buying every single material, limit their work only for open-acess or is there any kind of program for research in private companies?


texts: How to make my Thesis supervisor aware of my Visa issues?

texts:
I am finishing my Master in a foreign country on a student Visa. The Visa will expire in one and a half month, the exact time I was appointed to receive graduation, but my Thesis supervisor wants me to stay one additional month to "finish" the Thesis. Indeed, he says he won't accept it if I don't stay to include additional verification, rendering me unable to fulfil my graduation requirements.

I have asked for support at the International Office of my University, but it seems nothing can be done at this point to extend the Visa. I should have begun the process at the beginning of the semester if I needed an extension. Therefore, I am facing the imminence of being deported, not to mention that: 1. Without a valid student Visa the University can't award me my degree. 2. If I remain in the country, I will become homeless because my student's room contract will end at the same time that my Visa and, as a foreign student, I don't have enough money to rent a room on my own.

I had a tense relation with him after one month on my thesis. He wasn't particularly interested in my Thesis (poor communication, not interested in students benefit but on his project, disappeared for months and then reappeared totally disconnected, etc.), but I remained because of his prestige and fear of losing one complete year of preparation in the field. This is the worst moment in our relation. On his criteria, I have been lazy and put myself in this situation. Either way, I have to solve it now or lose two years of hard work and spent money.

How can I solve such situation? How can I make my a Professor aware that there is bureaucratic world beyond academia, that I don't have the same privileges as a national of his country? Maybe a foreign student had a similar problem and can give me advice or tell his/her experience...

Edit: I have to mention that my supervisor has a legal/financial obligation on the project I am part of henceforth comes his worry.


texts: How do I find similar research problems in other fields?

texts:
I have published a paper about the combinatorics of adding a mixture of chemicals to a compound and observing a number of spectral peaks for this, which allows the user to gain information about the compound involved, while keeping cross-chemical effects low.

I am pretty sure the same approach not only occurs in my field of expertise, but also elsewhere in science, as this is a pretty abstract concept. Where can i find other problems like this, so that my algorithm can be solved by simply modifying the input/output of my software? A specific journal would of course only hold articles concerning my own field/their own field.


texts: I am planning to apply for The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) scholarship and applicants are encouraged to have a recommendation letter from members of the TWAS. Is it ok to ask someone who is not personally familiar with my work?


texts: What does archival contribution in journals mean?

texts:
When I submitted my manuscript for publication in a journal, the editor rejected it with the comment "not enough archival contribution".

Please help me by saying what he meant.


texts:
I'm preparing my application to send it to my dream university (it's located in Germany), and my problem is:
Since I'm coming from a country that facing civil war (Syria), I had real troubles in high school (no electricity power and such things), so I had poor results,So I had entered college I don't like (I want to study CS) also I fall in some troubles with my classmates because I came from a different culture, the general atmosphere was not friendly at all, studying with all that was very hard for me, so I have poor results again, after all I take my decision I left the college and retake the high school exam and I have got ~80%.
So the question is: should I mention that I have 2 high school certificates and I got out the college with poor results or just mention my second high school certificate, is that ethical? and is that will effect on my new university decision?

Just to get the whole picture : I had studied hardly for my second high school exam and I lost a lot of time with no academic results, in other hand I'm a good programmer, book worm, research enthusiasm, I want to continue my studies to get the PhD, I have industry experience in the field, and working on some projects as a volunteer to help my community.

I'm in bad situation and my academic future is depends on what to do now, so any advice are welcome.

Edit (clarification): I'm going as undergraduate student.


texts: Impact of gap year during phd program on future post-doc and employment options?

texts: I am a Doctoral candidate in a top program in my field in the U.S. I should be starting my second year of classes in September before sitting for qualifying exams, however I had an catastrophic academic year. My program Chair and Dean of Students are have been understanding on my situation and have offered me all the support possible to allow me to resolve the issues that got in the way. Provided this, they  have recommended I take a medical leave of absence from my program to I would start fresh.  The way things currently stand, my transcript shows okay grades for the Fall semester and failing grades for the spring. I have asked for a retroactive medical leave that would wipe my slate clean, at least  for the spring semester. This may or may not be possible to do.  In the event that I can't wipe my failing grades from the spring semester record and return to complete my program with an outstanding record, I wonder if and how having a gap year will on my transcript affect my candidacy when applying for top-notch post-doc positions and fellowships?


texts: How to structure a presentation for a Post Doctoral Research Fellowship

texts: After the initial peer review stage, most research fellowships (for example RCUK or ERC grants) have a final interview stage primarily assessing the qualities of the candidate. Alongside the interview it is typical to give a short talk around 10 minutes in length. What points should the talk focus on to give the best chances for success?


texts: The importance of credentials in pursuing an academic career in pure mathematics

texts:
I would like to get some information and opinions of how the prestige of your so-called "credentials" helps or hurts in getting an academic job. I'm interested in this with respect to pure mathematics (I state this since I'm not sure if this is the same of all STEM subjects).

I guess that it is universally accepted the most important factor in one's academic career is his research. Of course, there are some more intricate relevant matters like a relationship with faculty of the department you apply to, success in teaching and the intersection of your research interests and faculty members' research interests.

However, the I wonder how pure prestige of one's credentials matter. Let me state it more clearly:

1) The prestige of your graduate school. If we have two candidates for a postdoc/tenure track with relatively equal research experience, but one holds a PhD from Harvard, while another from University of British Columbia, or University of Pennsylvania, or something else good, but not as famous and "shiny" as Harvard (or MIT/Princeton, for that matter), would a Harvard alumni be in a better position?

2) The fame of your doctoral advisor. Again, I advise you to consider how much the pure "fame" of your advisor matters, all other things aside, like the fact that a strong mathematician could help you mature as a mathematician too.
Would having a Breakthrough Prize in Math/Fields winner boost on CV in way that math departments would more readily accept you as a postdoctorial researcher/assistant professor? Of course, this question is not only about Fields medalist, it was just an example.

3) The prestige of the institution where you did your postdoc. While points 1) and 2) were also related to getting a postdoc position, this matters only to getting an assistant professorship/tenure track. Usually, the advice for choosing a postdoc is to find a suitable researchers with respect to your interests. But this question again asks you to look on the matter from a different angle: the one of how being a postodoctorial researcher in a high-ranked institution assists in getting a tenure track.

Again, I wish to emphasize that this question is not about how a quality of a graduate school, a strength of a PhD advisor and a research atmosphere in a postdoctorial institution matters to an aspiring mathematician with respect to getting stronger as a researcher and a teacher. This much I know.
I wish to hear some opinions on more "petty" stuff like "shiny", "glowing" names of departments or advisors, or relatively less famous ones.


texts: Is it unethical for professional societies to offer conference discounts to members?

texts:
There is a recurring pattern I see in conferences organized by several professional associations. Two different conference fees are offered, X for members and Y for non-members, with Y>X. Often, the annual membership fee for said professional associations is less than Y-X, so becoming member is cheaper than paying the non-member fee. For example, for different reasons today I have stumbled upon the pages of this, this and this conference.

I can only see two possible reasons for this practice, both ethically dubious:

to force people to become members, increasing artificially the dimension of the professional association.
to "move" funds from the conference treasure to the association treasure, leaving them available for a larger number of activities.

Often conference fees are paid by research funds, while membership fees are paid personally by the researchers, so this practice also has unpleasant side-effects on their personal finances.

Questions:

Am I overlooking more plausible justifications for this practice? Do you agree with my analysis?
How ethical do you find this practice?
Should I raise the issue with the professional societies I am a member* of?

*: You can probably guess the reason why I am a member. :(


texts: Is it normal for a PhD candidate to be dissatisfied with their PhD thesis topic, if the field is not hot?

texts:
I am a 2nd year PhD student in Germany. I am working on computational mechanics. It is on modeling the mechanical behavior of a composite coating. My background is metallurgical engineering. When I had started with the research, I was very interested in the field. It's a field which was a hot research area a decade back, but now it's not.

As time went by, l have grown unsure of the implications of my research. I feel that my research is wasteful as I would never be able to publish in top journals like Nature and Science. As my research area does not belong to a hot field. I feel that I should have researched a bit more about the research area before coming for PhD. I think I made a poor decision.

All these concerns make me distracted and unenthusiastic about my work. I feel that even if I graduate, I won't be able get any good academic positions.

Are these concerns common among PhD students?


texts: Sharing paper after it has been submitted to journal?

texts:
I am a co-author on a mathematics paper, and we have submitted it to a journal. It will take a long while before we hear back from them, and I wanted to share my paper with friends and family.

If you share a paper before it has been submitted, it is theoretically possible that other people could steal your work, etc, before you submit it. What about after you have submitted your paper?

This might be similar to Can I publish research as "working paper" after journal submission? but I am curious about the mathematics world of academia. Also, what about other fields?


texts: Submitting a note on the falsehood of a conjecture to the journal the conjecture originally appeared in

texts:
I wrote a short note, showing that someone's recent conjecture is false. Is it a good idea to submit the manuscript to the same journal the conjecture originally appeared in? Will it expedite the reviewing process?

Update: After reading the comments in here and talking to my advisor, I ended up submitting the manuscript(including the counterexample and a little improvement of the original result) to the same journal as the original was appeared in. Paper got accepted in less than 40 days. I highly believe in my case, choosing the same journal shortened the reviewing process significantly.


texts: Research on active learning in mathematics tutorial/practice classes

texts:
In the country where I live, university students studying mathematics usually attend lectures, consultation with their lecturers (if they have questions relating to material taught) and tutorial/practice classes.

Years ago there was a change in the way tutorials are run. Now students work  in groups of 2-4 in front of white boards and the tutor walks around and checks and comments on the solutions written by students (on the white boards). (Previously the students would have asked questions and the tutor would have solved problems on a white board).

The change was implemented on the basis of some research that suggested possibly greater learning benefits for the students. Is anyone familiar or can give a reference to this research article/s?

I'd be interested in how tutorial in mathematics are run in other countries.

The benefit of the above practice class is that student is `forced' to participate. Or at least one student from each group since there are always students who either don't attend or simply stand and contribute very little to the group discussion (even though they are encouraged to take turns and help each other understand this does not necessarily work).

It is also hard to tell how much this helps an average student learn things. Have there been any studies on this?


texts: What's the meaning of "first-page-first order"?

texts:
Recently I prepared to submit to a conference of IEEE. In the requirements of submission, it indicated that:

PDF and Postscript files:

must not have Adobe Document Protection or Document Security enabled,

must have either 'US Letter' or 'A4' sized pages,

must be in first-page-first order, and

must have ALL FONTS embedded and subset.

I have searched for the phrase of "first-page-first", but still did not have an idea of it (sorry my first language is not english).
If anyone can tell me what's the meaning of it exactly I would be very grateful.


texts: Was my student being disrespectful by using shouting language in her email to me?

texts:
I have a PhD in statistics and teach statistics for humanities students in a university. One week before the start of the semester I posted all the required information regarding the course textbook, as well as guidelines for how to access it (it is available online). I also explained all of this to the students verbally on the first day.
It is now the third week of teaching. At the beginning of the week I posted the first online homework. Three hours before the deadline, one of my students sent me an informal email, without a subject line or her name. She said in her email that she needed a help with accessing the book in order to do her homework.
I requested that she let me know her name and section number. She replied at 8pm with the information. I politely responded to help her with the problem. At 10pm, she sent me another email with another problem, that I also helped her with.
Then she sent me a final email a few minutes before the deadline. Her email was really informal and disrespectful. I replied saying that it is not acceptable to request help on the same day as the homework is due and that it is her responsibility to be ready for everything as we are at week 3. Then, I helped her and told her that if she needed any more help with the course book she should contact the bookstore and not me.
Then she replied with some sentences in full capital letters. For example, 'SORRY', 'THERE IS NO ACCESS CODES IN THE UNI BOOKSTORE'. Then, 'the uni must save CODES'. Then she said "you try to challenge me".
I replied that I did not want to argue and that she should be careful about what she said.
Was she disrespectful in her emails? Is it acceptable to send an email in all caps? Am I wrong to deal with this point?


texts: What to do about advisor with history of possible plagiarism?

texts:
Recently, my MS advisor instructed me to submit a conference paper.  They outlined what this paper would include, which would be a simulation study that is a near duplication of a ten-year-old published journal article (from a different group of researchers) that I have been reproducing results from for learning purposes.  They said to omit citation of that journal article for the initial submission, and add it in the final draft if the conference paper is accepted.  From a professional integrity standpoint, I have no intention to do this.  I plan to write a paper that extends the results, and to include the citation in all drafts.  I am unhappy that my advisor instructed me to essentially plagiarize, but plenty capable of not doing so, so I wasn't going to make a fuss about it.

However, in my literature search for writing my conference paper, I stumbled across Paper A that is extremely similar to one of my advisor's papers, Paper B.  Paper A has different notation, but the same equations and results, published about 30 years earlier than my advisor's paper.  Paper B does not cite this older paper, but does include a new simulation example in additional to the similar material, so it is not a complete copy.  In light of their recent request to me, I am suspicious of my advisor's previous publications, and uncertain how to proceed working with them.

Should I show this older paper to them and ask about it?  Should I report this to some higher authority?  Is this a relatively common occurrence that I am overthinking?  I do not rely on my advisor for funding, but I would not be thrilled about sabotaging my thesis by starting drama with my advisor.  I would also not be thrilled to sabotage my future publishibility by working with a serial plagiarizer.


texts: How to deal with uninterested students during an optional exercise session?

texts:
Last week I taught my first exercise session. I am a PhD student so the kind of classes that I will teach are exercise sessions about what the Professor explained in the theory class. They essentially have to work problems and I have to explain and help them with their approach in solving them.

Students of the same year are divided into small groups. I had about 25 students and from what I noticed: 17 were working hard, 7 were working more slowly with less interest and 1 was watching videos with his smartphone.

I tried to get his attention in a kind way several times (by going to him and telling something like "I know that videos are funnier than this theoretical stuff but if you want to practice for the exam you should do also exercises") but even if he stopped and started to read the exercises then he always restarted watching videos.

Since I will not assign grades and this kind of class is not mandatory, his participation will change nothing in his final grade.
So at a certain point I just wanted to ask him why is he attending.  There are many seats outside the class where he could sit and watch videos, but I just stopped to get his attention and I left him watching videos. I made this decision because he was watching videos/surfing the web without audio and without annoying the other students.

What is the best way to deal with these situations?


texts: How to determine if I'm just incompetent, or if my work is more difficult than expected?

texts:
I'm a PhD student in my (planned) last year, with no journal publications until now (one rejection, though, due to not having the level of research the journal aims for). Several things which were planned to be finished already in the first year are still not finished, partly because they were more difficult than expected, partly because we did not have the material at the time we should start them (and now we do not have time for starting them, because we still have unfinished tasks). My supervisor keeps telling me that I should have finished those tasks already a long time ago, including several suggestions and changes which were made during the development.
Thus, I slowly started to doubt myself, and am not sure anymore if those tasks are more complex than expected, or if I'm just incompetent and unable to complete them at all. It doesn't help either that my supervisor has no knowledge about the field the tasks are located in (he's an experimentalist, the current tasks are involving both heavy computational tasks and experimental tasks with materials no one in the university has worked with before).
Therefore, I was wondering if there is a way to determine if those tasks are just more complicated than expected, or if I'm just too slow for completion due to incompetence or lack of working hours?


texts: Change of interest right before qualifying exam

texts:
I'm a first-year pure math PhD student. I'm going to take an oral qualifying exam in a few months, and for this I need to find at least one person who agrees to be my adviser and one of the examiners in the qual. I'm interested in symplectic topology, and I have already talked with a professor of this area, whom I was going to ask for being my adviser. However, my interest in machine learning got revived, and I'm now very certain that I want to change my path.

Reapplying to CS PhD isn't really a good choice for me, since I didn't take any CS course in undergrad. However, I have studied this area by myself, and the process was very easy compared with studying pure math. I've audited topics courses in ML, from which I believe I don't have any lack of prerequisite for this subject, and that I'm ready for research once I finish reading relevant papers.

I'm aware that, once passing qual, I have freedom of changing the area to pursue. For example, a pure math PhD student having done a qual on symplectic topology can get a PhD by writing a thesis on computational complexity. While qual is not difficult for me, I have no idea how to actually proceed from now on. Should I tell the professor that I want to take the qual with him as my adviser and that I will not work on symplectic topology after that? (After that, I will find a co-adviser from CS department with whom I will work on thesis.) Or should I not tell him my intention until after the qual?


texts: When is it okay to update other search committees?

texts:
I'm on the academic job market this season for a position in a STEM field. I've had one on-campus interview and may receive an offer from this school within the next week or so. I've also had Skype interviews with a few other schools, but haven't received any on-campus invites from them. (The Skype interviews occurred about 3 weeks ago.)

At this point, should I let these schools know that I've had an on-campus interview? Or is it safe to assume that I've been rejected by them if I haven't received a campus invite already?


texts: How can one join the Royal Society of Chemistry as an AMRSC (or MRSC) without a referee?

texts:
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is an amalgam of what used to be many different societies, and has a long and rich history going back to Faraday (who incidentally, never received any degree), and it is considered a learned society, like the ACS in the USA, of which I am a long-standing member.

I have perused the RSC website extensively and I possess the necessary education and experience to join as a Associate Member, but one of the requisites when completing the application is that I name a referee, optimally someone who is already a member.

I do not know anyone who is a member as I live in the U.S.A. and simply have not crossed paths with such a person who would know me well enough.  I am aware there are offices in the US (Philadelphia) and there is not categorical statement that you must be of a certain nationality, so how do "Americans" apply?

Does anyone know how this process works?


texts: What is the salary range for a Post Doc in France?

texts:
I was wondering what is the salary range for a Post Doc in France (Engineering - Ecole des Mines)?

In the UK the range is £31K - 38K and I'm already midway in the range. I'm considering moving to France for an interesting Post Doc and I was wondering how much of a salary I can negotiate.


texts: If I decline admissions at a program that doesn't allow deferment, will I be accepted next year?

texts: I've been accepted to a top 20 Computer Science department with a RA, TA and fellowship. I decided to defer my admissions a year due to unforeseen circumstances. I was informed the school does not allow deferment, and my adviser told me to simply reapply next year. If I was accepted to the university this academic year, should I be able to get accepted next Fall? My application will be the exact same as it was this year including my recommendation letters, personal statement, and research experience.


texts: What is the difference between aims and objectives in a research proposal?

texts:
Within the context of research (e.g., research proposal), what makes the Aims and Objectives different to one another?

I am looking for a clear and simple answer. When I look around I often end up more confused.


texts:
I teach psychology to undergraduate students while I am studying in my PhD. The module's assignment is a research report on a subject of the students' choice (the report has to be written in English). Before the data collection the students had to send me their research proposal and their ethics form for approval. I have given approval to all the students and they have already started to collect their data.
However, yesterday I was searching some studies about my PhD and Ι found out that a student had copied and pasted whole parts of a Greek thesis in her research proposal (actually she has "stolen" the subject and research questions as well as many parts of the introduction) and translated them verbatim in English.
I am very confused on what to do. I am pretty sure that her report will constitute a complete copy of the other students' thesis. However, due to the fact that the text will be translated, the Turnitin score will possibly come out low. Should I inform the university's principal or wait to see what will happen?
Update: Thank you all for your answers. You helped me a lot! Just to explain why I asked about how to deal with plagiarism: I am quite new in this job (lecturing)and additionally the college I am working for belongs to the private sector in Greece (i.e. students pay to study in the specific college smth that is not the prevailing way of studying here. All the universities are free of charge). So far, I have noticed (due to my experience as a second marker) that there is a silent policy of not failing students unless they are completely incompetent to study in the college. As you can understand, the students' level is quite low. So, I am afraid that if I report a translated plagiarism (smth that cannot be indicated by turnitin score meaning that I deliberately searched for it) I will "accused" of discrimination towards the student. Additionally, despite their low level the students (as well as their parents who pay for their studies) react aggressively when they receive a low grade. So, I am afraid that I will have to deal with this, too. That is why I am very concerned about what to do.


texts:
I am finishing my first paper. I am unaware of how I should treat a certain situation, and have come  here for advice.

The paper is about 30 pages long. I have written 26 of those pages. On the pages I wrote, the other person helped with how thoughts are to be expressed, but all the theorems and proofs were done by me. The ideas of the paper are mine, and their execution.

How is the authorship to be divided in such an example? Should I be the first author or the corresponding author? Both? Should he be the second author, or the co-author?

I read this answer here, saying in math and computer science all authors are considered to have contributed equally. How should the ranking be notated than?

EDIT:

Question in partially answered in the linking answer (duplicate), at the comments bellow.


texts: Is it possible to write a proposal to get a junior professor position in Germany, when existing openings seem far from my research interests?

texts:
It has been several months that I am looking for a juniorprofessor position in German institutes. Basically there are just a few opening which are far from my research interests. I have a good publication record and I was involved in writing funding proposals. Is it possible to write a proposal to ask for a professorship position?

P.S. My research lies in computer science and electrical engineering.


texts: How many papers per week does a professor typically read?

texts:
I'm curious as to how many papers one would need to read per week, in order to keep up with the latest research in a particular field. For example, how many papers on average would a typical tenured professor read in a week?

I am aware the answer might vary a lot between different fields, so perhaps answers could give a range or try to break it down by disciplines.


texts: Giving a career talk in my old university, how prominently should I tell students my salary?

texts:
I have offered to do a talk at my old university’s 'employabilty fair' ten years after graduation, where am I now. With some advice on traps to avoid, how to make the transition from university to work life etc., with some anecdotes along the way type thing. Within the realms of software engineering.

The person who asked me to do the talk thinks I should put my current salary on the first slide to grab their attention in a 'this is what you could aim for' type way. But I feel it's a bit crass. I don't mind sharing my salary with the students if they ask, but I think it's a bit odd to stick it on the first slide.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this that could help me make this decision?

Update

the talk went down very well, no one asked about my salary and I didn't see anyone suddenly become more engaged after I pointed to the salaries in the Glass door table.

There were a few very engaged students who I think will do just fine, they definitely seemed more interested in my day to day and whether I actually enjoyed it :p it was good to see.

There were a couple that might have listened more intently if I had framed it as "I earn X and this is how you can do to" but I'm glad I didn't. In the end of the day that might have got a couple more students to care a little bit more but the focus of the rest of my talk was for the students that love software engineering. Career traps to avoid (manipulative managers, stagnation etc), the differences between uni and job mentality (individual vs team etc) and the fact that I enjoy my job (and that its not just coding all day :) )


texts: Not asking for Letter of Recommendation from Masters thesis supervisor

texts: Recently I finished my Masters. My relationship with my thesis supervisor is very bad. He is a professor.  I am very disappointed with his mentoring. He is very lazy and always kept himself busy with work other than research. I expressed my dissatisfaction to him directly. That made him furious at me. I have planned to pursue my Masters degree at a university in North America. Three reference letters are required. I don't want my thesis supervisor as a referee. Other faculty members in our department have agreed to refer me. But will it affect my admissions chances negatively if I don't submit a reference letter from my thesis supervisor?


texts:
I'm having the problem that my advisor isn't providing me with any real guidance. To avoid making this a rant post, I'll just state the facts: my advisor is an MD/PhD, working almost full-time as an MD. He comes to the lab once a week for lab meetings, and often doesn't have time to meet. He seems to have lost interest in doing research, and isn't being helpful at all regarding how I should proceed with my research.

So far, here's what I've tried and how well it worked out:

Talking to department graduate chair: marginally useful, scheduled a useless meeting with me and my advisor. Nice meeting, but no results.
Talk to other members of my committee: pretty useful, gave me some very good advice about my research, but I wonder how often I can use them as a resource

Any other suggestions on how I can handle this?


texts: Emailing professor too early has any impact?

texts: I was just wondering when should we start contacting professor of grad school for admission. Does contacting professor too early cause any impact? like, professor gets irritated and never reply back again, blocks forever and things?


texts: How should I approach my advisors about switching research topics, when they're counting on my results for a grant proposal?

texts:
I'm a second year PhD student in Computer Science in the United States. I started on a research topic in my first year of PhD. There are two advisors jointly involved in it and I don't get along with one of them at all. On the other hand, the other one has been extremely helpful as my mentor.

I want to switch research areas because I'm not excited about the work and I'm starting to dread my meetings with the PI. But my advisors are counting on preliminary results for applying for a grant. How should I approach this without burning bridges?

(I apologize for the poor grammar, English isn't my first language)


texts: Asking questions of examiners in PhD thesis defense?

texts:
I have my PhD defense coming up and understand that I'll be asked if I have any questions for the examination committee, like asking for advice on turning chapters into publications.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm completely stumped!
FYI the defense includes just myself and a small examination committee (three people) so no audience, peers etc.


texts: Am I allowed to share Stack Overflow data along with a paper that uses it?

texts:
I plan on submitting a paper that uses Stack Overflow data (contents of Stack Overflow questions, fetched using the Stack Exchange API) to a conference, and the conference is welcoming authors to share the code and the data used.
I saw some other papers that use Twitter data (Tweets) only share the tweet ID instead of the tweet itself, and they said that it is due to Twitter's privacy policy.
Does Stack Overflow have such a privacy policy?


texts: Can one demand to see code used to generate an article?

texts:
An article is published and the results depend heavily on a piece of code that the author wrote themselves.

The author has not shared the code with the community, even though they have been using it possibly for years now.

If I request the source code from the author and they refuse to share it, can I "demand" to see it (for example, making a formal request to one of the journals that published one of the articles)?


texts: Make Up Tests: Should I alter the questions?

texts:
I'm teaching a unit this semester that involves an in-class test. The students will be required to conduct a textual analyse of a video using the themes/unit literature etc to help formulate their responses. This is for a sociology unit.

It is a large unit and there will undoubtedly be students that will need to sit a make-up test at a later date (as long as they have appropriate documentation).

I will change the video for the second test, but I was wondering, should I also change the questions on the make-up test? Or should I leave the test questions? They are not straight correct/incorrect answers but rather, questions that ask students to use critical thinking and analysis skills to analyse the video contents in relation to the unit themes (short essay style).

There are no policies or procedures at my university that highlight what a make-up test should entail, so I'm at a bit of a loss as to what might be the best way to go about this to ensure fairness to both students who take the test on-time, and those who sit a make-up.


texts: Where does the title Dr come from for PhD?

texts: I have always wondered why a person is given the title of Dr after completing a PhD in a non-medical field. This is especially because of the confusion over the medical title of Dr. Why hasn't a better distinction been formulated by now?


texts: Communication with a student pursuing the bachelor's thesis

texts:
As a part-time lecturer, this is the first time that I have been assigned to drive a bachelor's thesis.
I try to convey to them my interest in their project. And, I also recommend them to be in contact with me.
A student asked me for my personal phone number, and I gave it back.
We have exchanged a few WhatsApp messages, always, fully work-related. Nevertheless, I have serious doubts about if it is professional enough to use this means of communication. And if I should avoid this in the future.


texts: IELTS Listening Complaint due to coughing

texts:
I took the IELTS today and during the listening section and at the end during the last passage a student started constantly coughing. This made us lose track and miss the last part.

The center was playing the cd on a small portable cd player. When we went to complain the management of the center was shady and gave us 4 different explanations on what would happen if we decided to file written complaint each one nastier than before.

The last explanation they gave is that if IELTS investigates this and finds you are at fault then they will cancel this test and not give you a retest or refund. Hence we will lose out $300 and not get a test score.

I am not sure if this is true and was wondering if anyone can verify this.

(I am adding this last line because this question got put on hold for some reason of it being too general. I think that's invalid and this will prove very resourceful to everyone who takes this exam. So I am stating the country where this occurs making it general)

Please see this applies to all IELTS exam taken in USA where it's not standardized. It may apply to other countries as well where the exam is not standardized yet.


texts: Should I inform my referee about my applying result even I get rejected?

texts: My referees tell me to inform them the result once I know. Should I still inform them if I get rejected? I don't want to disappoint them.


texts:
I'm interested in subscribing to cross-listings on the arXiv; similar to their regular e-mail alerts, but with the caveat that I'm interested in papers cross-listed on both quant-ph and cond-mat. The majority of papers relevant to my research seem to be cross listed between those two one way or another.

I haven't found any way to do it through the arXiv subscription system; does a third party service exist? Is there a better way to zero in on these intersectional areas? Barring the existence of such a method, I may try to create my own; is there a stable API worth using?

Edit: Found the API, must have missed it earlier


texts: How big are Mathematics research projects usually?

texts:
I have been involved in a number of large-ish research consortia usually with 10 or more groups, with each group containing 2 or more individuals. Some have originated from computer science, others engineering, and even the social sciences. In general all have contained partners from a variety of disciplines.

I'm curious as to how large mathematics research projects tend to be? Do they tend to be smaller, with individuals rather than research groups and/or subject matter experts involved. Are there any mathematical research associates out there that could offer insight into this please?

EDIT: Just to clarify, if P is a project, the "size" of P I'm interested in is:

|P|=Total number of people involved.


texts: Is it unethical to give students a sample math test as a study guide?

texts:
The students were never told this is the actual exam or this will be on the exam; my physics teacher used to give us the problems for the exam as a study guide and those were the exact problems on the test, if you studied that.

If this is a coordinated course, do I get some autonomy and do as my physics teacher used to do?


texts: Changing Interests After Getting Accepted for PhD

texts:
I have brought some trouble onto myself I know, but what can be done by someone in my situation.

I applied and got accepted for a PhD program in Computer Science.  I automatically assumed that I wanted to continue the work I did on my Master's thesis and I identified a professor who would be willing to work with me on that subject.  When I got there, I reviewed the literature (there had been a few years of gap since defending my thesis) and decided I really did not like the direction the field was going in.  I had been developing a new interest anyway, so I changed sub-disciplines.  Now, no one will commit to be my advisor, at best maybe co-advisor with some outside expert.  Part of the reason is because my school lacks experts in that area.  I personally (on a friend basis) know some Computer Science professors, but none are experts in my field.  What can I do?  No advisor = No PhD, I know that much anyway.


texts:
I was enrolled in a PhD at the Faculty of Science, and broke up "temporarily" after 4 years due to a horrible Professor, and restarted a new PhD at the Faculty of Engineering.

For the 1st university, I am still enrolled, but I do not have a formal PhD supervisor.

For the 2nd University, I have collected a huge amount of data which allows me to split the topic in two separated ones (Processing and Characterization).

Now the horrible professor has gone from the 1st university, and there is chance to get re-enrolled with a new Professor.

Would that be possible to re-enroll simultaneously in two PhD programs (Science and Engineering) and write two separate dissertations of my topic at the same time? or at least one main PhD and the 2nd one as "appended thesis" with an introduction chapter, methodology chapter + publications for the experimental part?.

The goal is to recover the 4 years of gap in my CV which has nearly destroyed my Academic career, rather than "collecting" a new title.


texts: What is the difference between digest and extended abstract?

texts:
Conference asks for digest not exceeding 5 double-spaced pages to be submitted.
Up until now I had to submit only one page of extended abstract.
What to put in digest? 5 pages are quite a lot of text; full article with double spacing in single column is almost 10 pages long.

Why some conferences ask for extended abstract and some for digest? Does this tell something more about the conference or it is just the chairman's and reviewer's preference?


texts: Eleven reviewers invited but only one has accepted--is this a problem?

texts: I have a manuscript under review at Nature Scientific Reports. The editorial system shows eleven reviewers invited but only one has accepted.  Is this a problem? Is it normal?


texts: Is Academia really just a huge competition?

texts:
I am currently an undergraduate student. I noticed that regardless of what courses I'm taking, there are always a handful of people who view everything as a huge competition. That is, they would do anything possible (other than committing academic offenses) to ensure that the final grade they receive is higher than everyone else's. They create a rather hostile environment.

However, I always thought that Academia is about advancing knowledge, which means we need to help each other, not put each other down.

I am still young, but I have been thinking of pursue an academic career. So my question is, are there any reasons for this competitive behaviour? Is this just an undergraduate problem that will go away when I enter graduate school? Or am I just way too naive of how the world really works?


texts: Follow-up email after faculty position interview

texts: I followed up and was told that "we are still navigating the university's recruitment process, so still need several weeks to provide update". Could anyone explain what does it mean? Does it imply any positive or negative results?


texts: can I not mention that I have will complete a PhD degree while applying for another one in another country

texts:
I am a second-year Ph.D. student/ RA from a university in country A. I had no problem with my laboratory or supervisor; however, as I could not speak the country language and was not able to find a post-doc position due to COVID, I applied for another Ph.D. positions in the same field in an English speaking country (B) where I can immigrate and settle. In the application form for the universities and during my interviews I mentioned that I am a Research assistant, omitting the fact that I am a Ph.D. candidate. Also, my supervisors mentioned that I am RA in their recommendation letters understating the fact that I want to go to an English-speaking country. The problem is that due to my successful publications our department from country A decided to grant me the Ph.D. degree at the end of this year.
I read some posts that mentioned that omitting your academic records is the same as falsifying them. I am afraid if I go to country B without mentioning that I was in fact a Ph.D. candidate and RA and get in huge trouble, so what should I do?
Is it be unethical if I omit this fact that I would have a Ph.D., refer it to RA and start the second Ph.D. in the same field in country B, or should I contact the prospective professors from country B and tell him/her that I did a mistake in my application?


texts: Are there any other impact factor journals for electrical, electronics, communication engineering (or multi-disciplinary) with a very fast response like mdpi journals? I know it is not wise to ask for a fast response as it is normal for the process to take some time. However, I am in a situation where it is very important for me to get a publication in the next 1-2 months.


texts: How to establish collaborations with academics who you do not know where you contribute to their research projects?

texts:
Lately it feels like I haven't been doing enough both personally and professionally. I am very productive at both my place of employment and my graduate studies (i.e. PhD in Soil and Water Science) however I want to be more active. I am perfectly content with crunching numbers, developing models, researching the literature, writing up results, etc...I know I am kinda...well nerdy and weird that way.

Recently I have begun reaching out to scientists in my field asking if they would like to collaborate in an effort to gain more experience with different kinds of data and ecosystems, make more connections, etc. When I offer to collaborate most don't respond...which I completely understand being an overworked scientists in the publish or perish game who needs another person to slow you down? Meanwhile some respond with a "sure love too" then when I follow up with questions or brainstorming ideas no one responds.

Is it proper to email say a professor with an email indicating that I am interested in their work and would like to collaborate on any projects? If they respond with a "Yes, love to work with you" type email with subsequent emails falling on deaf ears, is it them nicely trying to say bugger off?


texts: Interview with potential supervisor for graduate program. Should I keep contacting other potential professors?

texts: I applied for winter 2020 entry. The applications open in September but I was recommended to contact potential supervisors ahead of time. I emailed my CV, transcript and quick background about myself to few potential supervisors and landed an interview with one. I went to the interview and we discussed the research endeavours and my research proposal. The 45 minutes interview seemed positive and the prof mentioned me to email him when applications open. He said he will be a potential supervisor. Acceptance into the program is conditional upon securing a supervisor. Should I continuing contacting other profs or assume my prof is secured based upon the interview? I am worried if by the time applications open another potential grad might catch his attention and take my spot. Thanks in advance.


texts: What are some good practices when asking people to share their PowerPoint presentations from a conference/talk?

texts:
In many cases, they (understandably) don't reply (or they are uncomfortable with sharing them, as they often contain unpublished material). Also, I do this often, and don't want to be known as "the person who asks people for their powerpoint slides".

At the same time though, it's simply far easier to remember the content of a presentation/talk when you actually have access to the stuff inside (and I do discover that I learn faster from talks than from any other source). Most of the time, I request the slides as a reference for learning the material (since I'm still new to the area, and they are quite helpful for that).

(though I do wonder - what are the underlying circumstances when most people ask for them?)


texts: Book suggestions for teaching science at advanced level

texts:
I teach in a university to Masters students in Science. I have taught courses from Physics, Statistics, Mathematics and Computation, and every time I finish teaching a course, I find myself unsatisfied. It is difficult to articulate what exactly I feel unsatisfied with, but it is probably a combination of choice of topics, the order in which I taught them, the total amount of depth I covered each topic to, the way I explained the concept, the type of problems I assigned for practice, the way I gave my feedback to student submissions etc. One thing that I always seem to fear while teaching is that even if I explained something, students may not have understood it. This makes me extremely conscious during the class itself, and once I start thinking about it while I am talking, I seem to forget things, which in turn leads to fumbling, and that feeling is disturbing.
Over the years, I have made active efforts to improve. However as the courses that I teach seem to become more and more difficult as I progress in my career, the improvement seems to be lagging quite a lot. During my bachelor's degree, I had devoured Feynman Lectures on Physics, and that motivated me a lot to become a good teacher. Even now while reading these, I "hear" the sentences in Feynman's voice with all ups and downs of the tone. I have also read the book "The craft of scientific presentations" by Michael Ally, and several other articles. Perhaps it is needless to say that I have tried to implement various strategies learned from these resources into my teaching. However, I still feel that my teaching is not up to the mark. When I think of some of the scientists I personally know, their teaching seems flawless (I have attended their actual in-person courses). Here I am not saying that each one of them mesmerize the students in the class, but that given their styles, everything seems to fall in place when they are teaching. Let it be a difficult calculation, or a complex explanation of conceptually difficult concept, they seem to get it done as if it is a piece of cake.
Given this, I am looking for books or other resources that specifically talk about great teachers and their teaching methods, especially in advanced science. The books should not cover just some algorithms which should be followed but they should emphasize how teaching can be approached as an art that can be learned and excelled. Two good books (about different topics) which are of this type are "Writing Science" by Joshua Schimel, and "Craft of Scientific Presentations" by Michael Ally.


texts: In which sections of a paper can I find literature reviews?

texts: I would like to practice writing lit review from reading other papers and looking at the style of writing. Where usually are the review sections found in papers? Is it the "Introduction" Section, for example?


texts: How to quantify potential supervisor's reputation at a non-top university?

texts:
I ended up in a decent but below 50 ranked PhD program for math, and I'm going to try my best to get an academic job after my PhD. I want to work with someone who is well-respected and well-known, and who allows me to do a great thesis, in order to even put my foot in the door for a career in academia.

How can I quantify a potential supervisor's reputation?
Should I look for number of citations, number of publications total, number of publications in recent few years, or number of students/where they end up?
Is there a threshold I should be looking for (e.g. at least 20 citations total, at least a few good journals, etc)?

The reason I ask:

This may be field-specific, but I'd like to know what risk I am taking with working with a new professor who has only one student and maybe 8-10 publications, the most popular of which having been cited about 13 times by other mathematicians, vs. an older professor with not many students total but with many publications and many citations per publication.


texts: Should I submit my revised workshop paper to a journal if I don't think it will meet the "30% new material" requirement?

texts:
Let me explain my case first. I submitted an article to a Computer Science Conference, and it got one rejection, and two qualifications as a borderline paper. The reviewer that rejected the paper only said that it was not in the scope of the conference and nothing more. The other two reviewers made thoughtful comments and the final verdict was that I should submit it for a workshop on that conference.

I made the necessary changes, submitted to the workshop and it got accepted. Here it was one accept, one borderline and one reject. So I changed some parts that the reviewers suggested and submit it for the final printing.

The thing is that there will be an special edition of a journal that is planning to consider the papers submitted to this conference. So the authors should re-submit their papers for a new review and they state that the papers should present at least 30% of new material.

Here is the point, the deadline is approaching fast and I am making the add-ons based on what the reviewers point me before (when I first submit it for the conference and then what was the suggestions for the workshop), but I am running out of ideas; by the way, I am the sole author of this paper. What should I do in this case? Should I just submit it with the changes? I just don't know if that would be enough. Or am I just wasting my time and should I left it because it has already been published in the workshop?


texts:
A student from another university is planning on taking a class I'll be teaching this fall and will be doing it as a transient student. Apparently, in order to have their transient status approved, they need a copy of the course syllabus, and so requested it from me by email.

I don't normally finalize my syllabi until a few days before classes start — certainly not five months in advance —, and the course itself is not one that is identical each semester so I don't feel comfortable just sending an old syllabus. (And even that wouldn't exist if it were a new class or a special topics class)

It seems odd to need the syllabi so early — AFAIK the normal process is for his home institution to review the syllabi after taking the classes to determine credit given.

So two parter:

Is this a normal request that somehow has just never come by me before?
If it is, how do you handle for courses that don't have syllabus ready to go?


texts: Best practices when refering to above section

texts:
I'm wondering about how to refer to sections right above or below the piece of text referring. I know that I'm supposed to use section numbers almost all the time, but personally feel that this might be an exception.
I know that this question might be subjective, but that's what I want to find out: if it's subjective I can choose and write whatever I think is best. However, I want to check that what I think is right isn't 'not-done'.
Concider the following piece of pseudo-document:

Section 1: point-by-point problem description
Section 2.1: point-by-point solution description
Section 2.2: mapping problem points to solution and explain benefit
Referring text here

Right now, the referring text says something like "This section explains how the point-by-point problem description in section 1 maps to the point-by-point solution description above." Is this right? Because the alternative "This section explains how the point-by-point problem description in section 1 maps to the point-by-point solution description in section 2.1." seems wrong, since it is right under the thing it is referring to.
Thanks!


texts: Is this website that claims to provide paper writing services real and legal?

texts:
I've found a jaw-dropping page that offers to write essays for you (link redacted to avoid promoting them).
Quotes:

SWAMPED WITH WRITING ASSIGNMENTS?

EXCEL AT ACADEMIC PAPER WRITING WITH OUR HELP

And the "help" means...

HOW IT WORKS:
1 Submit task details
2 We find an expert
3 You get top-level paper

More details:

WHAT CAN WE DO
Our team consists of 40+ experts in academic disciplines. Peer-reviewed research, editing, proofreading, gathering sources and tutoring and writing - we can help you with any kind of daily challenge or struggle that college and university students face.

And the icing on the cake:

24/7 ASSISTANCE. URGENT DELIVERY. 100% LEGAL.

Is this site real (and legal)? This image

("ethics" !!!!!) suggests that the site is a parody...


texts: Principal Research Scientist vs. Senior Research Scientist?

texts:
I notice that some schools, e.g., MIT EECS, has these two non-faculty appointments, Principal Research Scientist and Senior Research Scientist.

At least true for MIT EECS:

Both of them, just as Faculty members, are PI's and can run their own research groups. One difference I know is that Principal Research Scientist's appointment is reviewed every 4 years, whereas Senior Research Scientist's is evaluated every 5 years (as per MIT's website). Yet, this doesn't tell much.

In addition, Principal Research Scientist falls under "Sponsored Research Staff Appointments" category, whereas Senior Research Scientist falls under "Academic Research Staff Appointments". Does this tell something?

What is the exact difference between them and the Faculty members (i.e., professors)?

Why aren't they just called professors?

What are the differences between these two?


texts: Should a student use the email account provided by the university to communicate with professors?

texts:
I am an undergraduate and I do not know much about the rules of writing an email.
The email system used by our university is not convenient at all: it responds slowly, often crashes, and its common to miss important emails.

I need to email profs in our school and other universities.  Is it necessary for me to use the email account of the school? Can I use my personal gmail account? Is it informal or impolite?


texts:
Do Geophysical Research Letters (AGU) accept PhD thesis as reference?
In other words, can be possible to cite a PhD thesis in a GRl paper?

On their website they stated that any unpublished studies will not be accepted.


texts: How much time do researchers spend on writing grants?

texts:
As a potential future researcher I would like to know how much I could focus on my research and how much distraction grants cause. My research interest lie in theoretical cs and logic, however the answers should include other areas so that they may be useful to other readers too.

Specifically, how many hours of your working day on average is dedicated to grant related issues - searching a grant, writing a grant proposal, writing the final report for the funded projects, etc.

I heard in an informal talk that this can be as much as half of the time of the researcher, say 5 hours, Monday to Friday. In such circumstance, I do not think I would be able to focus on the research.


texts: Confusion on whom to get letter of recommendation from

texts: I'm working as a research assistant in a mechatronics lab. My research and work is largely based on designing circuits, robotics and programming. My PI also works on mechatronics. But I've also worked with two other professors. For one of them, I had to develop circuits for electrochemical studies and for the latter, I worked in a clean room for photolithography. But their fields ( chemistry and MEMS packaging respectively) are way different from the field I want to apply for ( mechatronics and robotics). Will it affect my application if I use a letter of recommendation from them, since their primary field of research is different from mine?


texts: Criteria for acceptable integrative research

texts:
Conventional research almost always involves the research of only one aspect, problem. But sometimes, I feel, there is need for integrative, holistic, synergistic research projects. Let's consider artificial intelligence and neural networks. Almost always the individual research is around the specific problems - e.g. about implementation of one specific logic in neural networks, implementation of specific language model in neural networks, implementation of visual recognition in neural networks and so on. But the practice invites use to consider the whole system, cognitive architecture, e.g. that can use the synergy of common language/visual/auditory/tactile semantics to complete multiple tasks. Such synergy can lead to improved results and hence - it is welcome from the Science as well. There is indeed the research about cognitive architectures but it is far, far less in amount and gaining far less support than the research of specific themes.

My question is - what considerations should be taken into account when one chooses the integrative projects as the theme for his/her master or PhD thesis. What can go bad? I have heard about specific requirements, advice for the doing the systems research, maybe more warning and more suggestions can be made about the acceptable and good integrative research.

I guess, such integrative research of end-to-end systems is actual not only in the cognitive architectures, but also in systems biology where one is eager to consider multi-scale models of full organisms of even full ecosystems. Maybe such research should be done in late career only? But what about the cases when internal drive, interests and perception of topicality make one to choose such theme for master of PhD thesis and nothing less is enough for keeping the momentum of drive and flow.

p.s. with the advent of the category theory there seems to be the right toolbox for such integrative research and so, maybe today, where so much facts and ideas are gathered, maybe today is the right time for doing good integrative research.


texts: Does citation refer to paper or authors?

texts:
I imagine this question is asked before, but I could not find the answer.

This is the example sentence that got me wondering:

  Gneiting and Ranjan (2013) generalize/generalizes these findings and state/states that ...

Should I plural verbs (generalize, state), as if I am referring to the authors, or should I use singular verbs (generalizes,states) as if I am referring to the paper itself?


texts:
I am switching fields from math to CS. I want to get a Masters in CS focused on coursework to go into industry later. I am aiming for a good school but not the very top.

I have some CS courses and a bit of programming experience but my background is mainly in math. My GPA for my math Masters is 3.1-3.2 but my undergrad GPA is much higher. My math subject GRE score is pretty good.

I think I will be quite capable of handling the CS Masters coursework but I want a sense for how high/low I am aiming and how CS depts consider applicants. Also, do I have any chance if I have minimal CS background and low Masters GPA?

Thanks.


texts: Why does grade inflation seem to be so severe in the USA?

texts:
A comment on this question on undergraduate admissions notes that a good college might get 10x more applicants who all have the maximum possible grade point average, than the college can admit.  (The rest of my question is based on the assumption that is is actually true.  If it is not, my question might be based on an incorrect premise.)  Coming from The Netherlands, this sounds strange to me.  We have a standardised test at the end of secondary school, and few people score average grades higher than 8/10 (passing is 6/10), with people scoring 10.0/10 being practically nonexistent (I seem to recall reading about one such student in the newspaper many years ago).  The overall average is 6.4/10 for the school category granting admittance to university.  For universities I don't have hard numbers but I would be surprised if more than 1 in 30 students score 10.0/10 in undergraduate introductory calculus. Most students seem to score mostly around 6–7/10, which I believe would translate to E–D in the American system, but I'm not sure.  Grades 6–10 are passing grades, grades 1–5 are failing grades.  My question is for pre-university tests though, the ones that are used to test if people should be admitted to university.

Why is there so much grade inflation in the USA?  Is there no standardised testing for whatever tests are used to establish the grades used for undergraduate admissions?  This system would make it very hard for Dutch students to gain admission to American universities, because getting the maximum average grade is virtually unheard of.

See also: Do price and value of degrees correlate much?


texts: Is there a general rule for whether adjuncts who are regular faculty in other departments can supervise grad students?

texts:
I'm very interested in working with a specific professor, who is a full-time full professor in one department, and adjunct faculty in another. In this case he is not a part-time adjunct who only teaches. I'm more interested in being a grad student in the second department, for a number of reasons that aren't important to go into.

In the US, would it be typical for such a professor to be able to supervise a grad student in the second department? Or is this likely to vary by school? The department website is unclear.

I know I can ask him, but I thought this would be a valuable question for the community as well.


texts: Can I hyper link large source data in manuscript?

texts: I have prepared a manuscripts in which there is very large set of equations almost covering 3 pages on manuscript. Although these actions are major source of analysis in my manuscript but their beast size concerns me. To save space I am thinking of hyperlinking these equations to my personal webpage so that reviewer can access these equations from my personal page. Is this a good idea ?


texts: Is it possible to use my partially published previous work as a bachelor thesis?

texts:
Some time ago I put up a question on the SE network. I ended up writing an extensive answer myself and published it in the same question and on my blog. Later, I put a lot more thought into the topic and found additional results, which I did not publish yet.

I have since considered if that question might be usable as a topic for a bachelor thesis.

Disregarding the fact that I would need to convince a professor to accept an existing topic, does the publication of the question and some results in the past prevent this?


texts: How to deal with procrastination and delays in final assignment of undergraduate class?

texts:
This semester I taught an optional course for undergraduate students. While I find it normal that fewer students attend optional classes, presence in class itself was low even for the enrolled students, and now the only requirements for evaluation have not been met by most of the students. Only 7 out of a total of 21 students have turned in their final written essays until the deadline.

The problem is, the university grading system allows for students who have not passed the exams during the semester to take a "recovery" exam/written assignment. Through this loophole, students who have not even written their essays may pass if they get good grades in this "recovery" exam. While I think it is somehow unfair for the other students, because it allows procrastination and delays of over a week, and gives a second chance for students who did poorly during the whole semester no matter what the reason, it is not clear if I am supposed to apply this "recovery" exam or if this is optional.

The question is, if I do not do this (accept procrastination and delays), most students will not pass.

Should I just accept it or be strict with rules and deadlines?


texts: Can I ask for co-authorship if I share code and am willing to help applying code to the problem?

texts:
Recently I have been asked to share some source code I have written
with another PhD student. I have developed and used the methods in
that source code for the purposes of my own research. The code will
save her approximately 2 months of development/testing. I'm prepared
also to offer additional help with data pre/post-processing & writing.

Given the above, am I entitled to ask for co-authorship?


texts: How to answer "Your experience in supervision of research students"?

texts: I finished my PhD in 2013. I don't have any experience in supervision of research students. When I apply for teaching job uni. always ask me "Your experience in supervision of research students". How to answer those kind questions properly?


texts: The chances of postdoc position higher in PhD country

texts: Are the chances of getting a postdoc position or full academic position higher in the country you are going to study your PhD in? What if you are not a citizen? Is it important to take into account postdoc stage and career path possibilities when you decide the country you want to study PhD?


texts: When does a statistical consultant become a co-author or collaborator?

texts:
I am a graduate student in a small department and have become the go-to person for statistics advice among the other students.  I enjoy this but am wondering at what point I should expect, or request, becoming a collaborator on the project.  Pointing someone towards a method, a paper or a book is definitely not worthy of any recognition, neither would a short one-off 15 minute conversation in the hallway.  But what if I help them understand a difficult statistical method or fix some computer code that otherwise might have taken them days or even weeks to achieve on their own?  What if our conversations helps clarify the questions they are asking either statistically and scientifically.

I assume that if I became a co-author, I'd continue to contribute to the project, help write the statistical methods, comment on the full paper, etc.

I'm wondering if I should set up ground rules that I tell people, like, "the 1st 20 minutes are free, but after that, we'll have to talk about long-term collaboration."  Or I could come up with a list of services I can provide and what the expectations are.

This blog post comments on these issues from the perspective of a full-time statistician.  This StackExchange question addresses more general issues about co-authorship.


texts: How to apply for professorship in another field?

texts:
I am an associate professor of chemistry and all my education was in chemistry programs too. But my works were always in computational science. I developed various programs for analyzing chemical data. All I work with are programming language and algorithms.

I prefer to work in a computer department where I can use my skills for other applications (than chemistry) and work with colleagues who have knowledge about programming.

Can I apply for an assistant professorship in a department of computer science? How can I convince them that my experiences are comparable with computer education?

My worry is that because any academic position includes teaching at undergraduate level, department does not allow me to teach course as I have not studied that curriculum.


texts:
In a recent review, one reviewer said we must rework the paper in light of two other papers.  One paper was a highly valuable suggestion, and we've enthusiastically taken it on board.  However, the second paper seems to be an ultra-specific paper (one example among thousands) and not applicable to our work.

I'm thinking of writing something like:

  There are many methods for XYZ (and an anonymous reviewer of this paper seemed fond of QRST [26]), and a survey was given in [15].  In this paper, we take the approach ABC for our specific problem.

(Here, I leave off "...since QRST does not actually apply to our problem".)

In this example, we (fairly politely) highlight that we're citing [26] at the reviewer's request.  But I'm a bit worried it would be perceived as a passive-aggressive slight.

Question: Is it okay to mention we're citing an article only because a reviewer told us to?

I'm also considering two alternatives:

Alternative 1:

  There are many methods for XYZ, such as QRST [26], LMNOP [4], and QRSTUV [5]; a survey is given in [15].  In this paper, we take the approach ABC.

But this seems like I'm adding even more virtually irrelevant citations.

Alternative 2:

  Acknowledgment
  A helpful anonymous reviewer suggested citing [26].

But while accurate, it might be considered provocative (and rude) and get the paper rejected.

This question is related to: How to deal with an unreasonable reviewer asking to cite irrelevant articles?  But in our case, the reviewer is not being unreasonable, maybe just fond of this particular paper.  And it's just one additional citation that's being requested.

Update: Thanks for everyone's help!  To let you know what's going on (and maybe this will help someone who winds up in the same situation):

(TL;DR: The reviewer's suggested paper is related to an "in-between" paper which is related to our work; we feel it's not off-topic to cite it while discussing this in-between paper.  It wasn't as off-topic as originally thought.)

We generally agreed with the advice in the answers (don't cite it).  We also found the editor's email specifically said not to cite irrelevant papers suggested by reviewers.  But we dug deeper to ensure we're not perceived as being dismissive.  What happened next:
Upon more careful inspection, the reviewer described it as an "example".  Eventually, we concluded that the reviewer was not giving us a list of papers to cite, but to generally say "look at papers like these".
This turned out to be a gold mine: it gave many papers which we could use to put our work into a broader context; none of our paper's predecessors do this.  In fact, we found a paper which almost identically states the motivation for our paper, but in a broader context (which empowers our justification for working on this topic).
We looked into the suggested paper's references and papers citing that paper.  We found another paper is a kind of "in-between" paper (related to both our paper, and the paper that was mentioned by the reviewer).  We now discuss this in-between paper in detail, and explain how our method deviates from it.  In the context of discussing this in-between paper, we feel it's not irrelevant to quickly cite the paper that was mentioned by the reviewer, without giving it undue weight.

(PS. In this particular instance, I feel this is not the reviewer's paper: other papers by the same authors (e.g. the in-between paper) are more natural to cite.)


texts: Has anybody had any success with a college level "flipped classroom?"

texts: The "flipped classroom" seems quite successful and growing in popularity in high school. Students get their lectures at home from youtube or kahnacademy, write clarifying questions about the material and then bring it to class. This allows the instructor to focus on practice and application. Does anybody have any information about its success or failure when implemented at university?


texts: How serious should I regard the "compliments" in an email denying my application?

texts:
A school, whose PhD program I applied to, denied my application with words such as "Your record is strong, but...". I am kind of confused. Is such a reply simply a "polite" way to decline a person? Should I believe that the sentence "your record is strong" is a compliment, or it is simply a decoration?

To me, such a compliment does not seem to help because obviously, for the school, my record was not strong enough to be admitted, so speaking of "your record is strong" is almost meaningless?


texts: Biochemistry/Computer Science BS applying for top 10 Computer Science PhD

texts:
I am currently an undergraduate student at a large state university.

I have good grades (>3.90 GPA) in Biochemistry and I am now adding computer science courses. I am doing equally well in those (>3.80 GPA). But the majority of my research is in biochemistry. I did my honors thesis, worked in a wet lab for two years, and have two research publications. But these all have nothing to do with computer science.

I am really happy with the people in biochemistry and molecular biology, but not with the field itself. My biology advisors tell me I can probably do very well for myself in biochemistry. But I want to do computer science, since that is where my interests really lie. I like making algorithms out of strange algebras that don't exist and really fancy statistics that pretend they can think, and that is almost non-existent in my field of molecular genetics. I am not a fan of bioinformatics.

I already have research experience. But it might not be the right type of research experience. Nor do I have CS internships. Just lots of biology. Should I apply for those phd programs now, or should I wait until I have more research in computer science before I apply for Ph.D. programs?

Now suppose I apply for these top ten Ph.D. programs and I am rejected. How are reapplicants viewed within the academic cs community? Can I try again after a stint in your average brand-name company?


texts: Doing research/travel between postdocs (pure mathematics, Europe)

texts:
I have just finished a postdoc but will not start a new postdoc for a few months.

In the meantime, I will continue to do my research. The problem is that I registered for a conference while at my former institute and the conference will take place while I'm not officially employed at any institute. I also plan to visit collaborators during this time and will likely need a visa for at least one of the visits.

I'm hoping someone else may have been in this situation and have some advice:

What do I put as my affiliation for that and any other conference I might attend in the meantime? Will not having any affiliation affect my ability to participate in conferences or make research visits?


texts: How to edit citation style in CSL? or What citation style is this?

texts:
What Style is this?

I'm trying to work on a bibliography for a paper that has to conform to an unspecified citation style. It's basically the CEEA2016 style:

I saw this great link when googling which seems awesome [CLS]. The problem is that the closest I could get was IEEE with URL which is close in many respects one of the major issues is that the citation style I need uses full names and the IEEE style uses Initials and Last names (Sarah Jane vs S. Jane). Is there a style that is closer to what I'm looking for?

How do I make this style?

Alternatively is there any way to edit the IEEE with URL style to give me full names? I've tried listening to webinars and none of them seem to get into that in my scrubbing and I've even found this primer which seemed to hint towards it but then completely dropped the topic of author names in favor of authorship dates (presumably because it's a heading for citation not bibliography as I would eventually figure out).


texts: How to improve profile for graduate admissions in mathematics, when coming from a country where quality of math education is poor?

texts: What should I do after BS Maths before applying to a well reputed institute for masters and PHD in maths, given that my BS was done from a less developed country where quality of math education is very low?


texts: Should you keep a notebook of example problems while going through science and engineering courses?

texts: I find myself constantly being told I should not intentionally jot down example problems but understand the core logic of a topic. But some of my high level math classes tend to have very few examples and mainly definitions, i.e. words. Is it sound to keep a notebook of example problems related to the topic so you have a more practical understanding of the subject?


texts: Should I bring materials for teaching demonstration?

texts:
For a teaching demonstration for an academic job interview (in mathematics, if that matters), should I bring worksheets to my interview, and hand them out to my "students?"

My teaching demonstration will be in front of a search committee rather than an actual class of students.  I wanted to demonstrate what I actually do with real students, which is hand out worksheets to them at the start of class. I was wondering if it will be appropriate to print these out and bring them to my interview and hand them out like I usually would to a real class.


texts: About writing to editor of a journal to identify serious mistake in a published article

texts:
I am reading a paper published in a SCI-core journal.
After a very careful and tedious evaluation, I have come to the conclusion that the authors have made serious mistakes.
Should I write to the editor of the journal about it so that other people do not waste their time on this paper and may learn a thing or two about it? How can we do that?


texts: Does having publications on a completely separate field helps my graduate school application?

texts:
I am currently a mathematics undergraduate with every intention to enter a top mathematics PhD program in the future. I understand that having research experiences as an undergraduate is one of the key aspects of making your applications sufficiently strong to be considered, and as such, I have participated/am participating in a couple of undergraduate research projects.
Here is the problem: While I have been interested mostly in number theory/analysis in my earlier days as an undergraduate, only recently have I realised that I'm most interested in set theory. I have completed one undergraduate research on number theory (not publishable but was published on a small, local mathematical journal), and am currently participating in a project related to PDE, which is very heavy on functional/nonlinear analysis (this project is expected to lead to a publishable article). As one can tell, these two projects have completely no relation to set theory. I also have one final project to undertake, which is my final year project, and I intend to research on set theory on this project.
Should I ultimately decide to apply for PhD under the set theory/logic department in the future, how much would my past research experiences in other fields help in my application?
I appreciate any advice provided.


texts: How is Google Scholar changing academic evaluation?

texts: Google Scholar is making it very easy to track (their measure of) citation counts, h-index, etc. for individual researchers. Is this changing how academics are evaluated? Do tenure committees now bring up google scholar profiles, or do they continue to prefer other sources for citation data? Is there pressure to make your Google Scholar profile public?


texts: Should a thesis advisor be an onlooker or somebody who struggles with the problem?

texts:
I am asking about research in a Math department, although I believe the question generalises to other departments.

I would like to know what a potential thesis advisor should be like. Should the advisor be somebody who is experienced, is quite famous but nowadays usually supervises the works of his students as an onlooker and does not really work on the same problem? Note, he still studies his area but does not publish anything by himself recently. Or should he be somebody who fights along with the PhD student on a problem, and they share ideas and attempts, and both are active in this?

In the first case, I have heard that the experience of the professor matters and his fame will help in getting a placement much more easily. Also he would want me to learn, and trying the same problem with me would tilt the scales towards him since he would come up with ideas more quickly than me due to his experience. As a result, there is a chance the work would become primarily his. But isn't this the thing to look out for? Why would I have somebody as my advisor who doesn't work on my problems, (but who has worked on these previously) and merely tells me references and guides me to papers or books when I get stuck? How exactly am I learning from him, then?

Personally, I would prefer somebody who may be young, but who is motivated enough and willing to spend hours with me discussing things and working together on a problem, rather than somebody whose aim is to "help" me do things by giving suggestions, most of which he hasn't read completely (which usually happens). He should be my friend and together we should explore the frontiers of human knowledge. But that's my opinion. If I manage to get my degrees, maybe I would try to be that kind of an advisor to my students, and if I cannot, I would tell them straight away.


texts: How to handle a case of unpublished plagiarism?

texts:
I am a Master's student in a field of the humanities. Half a year ago I was invited to an informal colloquium of mostly doctorands and post-docs who work at the institute I'm studying at. One participant's draft for an essay was the topic of the first meeting.

On working through that draft the evening before, I found five sentences in total that were obviously copied from online sources (blogs, wikis, etc.) without any citation. Due to stress I decided to postpone the decision on what to do with my findings and did not attend the colloquium at all.

To date, I can find no evidence online that the essay has been made available to the public and I do not know if it was ever supposed to be. Its form though is clearly that of an essay (not a sketch or an unstructured gathering of ideas), so that I can not think of any circumstance under which this would not qualify as straight-out plagiarism.

The author is still working at the institute and holding classes.

What is the professional way to handle my findings?


texts: Will submitting to viXra before being accepted by arXiv cause me to be blacklisted by arXiv?

texts:
I'm in a position where I will have fairly inconsequential work to publish soon. I'm working in the blockchain space, where it is common for whitepapers to be posted on individual websites or github.

I'm personally very bothered by arXiv's practices of blacklisting people, and the field I'm involved in claims to be all about openness and transparency.

I'm not bothered by my work being dismissed because it was uploaded onto viXra, but I am bothered by the possibility of arXiv banning me from future contributions.

I will be able to have review/support from those who have published in reputable math journals and are affiliated with universities. However this will occur later than is practical, since I am involved in the launching of a product based off my work.

I am also planning on putting up my low-quality or prototypical on viXra in the future, because I would like my arXiv to be higher quality.

ViXra doesn't track citations easily, and I do not feel it is unethical to submit work to both platforms.