texts: Applying for Post Doc position with already one in hand

texts:
I have finished my PhD in Germany recently and am applying for post doc positions here. I have an offer from one branch of a reputed research organization among the other institutes of the same organization that I applied to.

The people at the institute have initiated the process of processing the contract. Although I like the work that they are doing, I am looking for replies from other institutes since they are in a location that is preferred by me.

I am now in a fix that if they have already initiated the process, would I be able to attend interviews by the other institutes of this organization or does the hiring process reflect in the database and would I not be called for any more interviews at all.

If it helps, the organization is of the likes of Fraunhofer, MPI, Leibniz institutes.


texts: Graduate student salary increase only for new students

texts:
Graduate student stipends on our campus were low, and our new president increased some stipends. This applied to our department. However, I figured out it only apply to the new students. So we are currently getting paid $1,800 per month, they will get paid $2,200 per month for recruitment purposes.

What would be the best way to approach this, so that current student can also get an increase?


texts: Is it better to lecture with a board or a document camera?

texts:
I will be teaching my first class this fall. The course will be an undergraduate engineering course, so there will be some derivations and other math.
I am trying to decide if I should present with a white board, or with a document camera & projector.
Most people in this SE can probably speculate on which is better, and for what reason.
I could present so very elaborate arguments also, one for each side. However, elaborate theories are not what I am interested in.
Has there been any published research to show that one is better for student learning than another?

Edit:
There is a question of what a document camera is. There is a wikipedia page about it.
Just to summarize what it is, when lecturing, instead of writing on a black board, you write on a normal piece of paper. A camera looks at the paper as you write, and projects it with the same sort of projector you would use for power point. Here is what they look like:
When lecturing with these, generally the professor will sit behind the desk, and talk as normal, just write everything on paper and the students can see it. It is similar to using transparencies, like my physics professors used in the 90's.
A nice comment by @Alchimista

I've personally found teacher writing on board more interesting than those projecting. Is matter of flow, which is more natural in the first case. It seems to me that projecting was invented to communicate time effectively without omissions, and resembles more a briefing than teaching. Obviously projected slide can be used in parallel, when complicated graphics plays a role. I won't draw the schematic of an eye if I can show a nice figure of it, for instance.

This agrees well with my assessment; as a student I prefer instructors who use the blackboard. However, teaching with a doc-cam is much easier to learn than writing on a black board. I would speculate that because the interaction between professor and student is stronger using a board, that it is more effective. I assume that there has been some outcome bases assessment of this by someone, and that they published at least an abstract. I posted this here because (1) I want make a choice based on something more solid than my feelings, and (2) it might help others to teach more effectively.


texts: How to email a professor requesting to supervise a PhD thesis?

texts:
I am interested in applying to PhD in Mathematics in University of Luxembourg. In the webpage it is written that "We recommend that you contact potential thesis supervisors by email to discuss your areas of general research interest and specific ideas for a thesis topic. You may consider sending a description of the research project and your CV. Once you have identified a supervisor, he/she will initiate the application process and complete the application for admission."
Therefore, I need to contact potential thesis supervisors by emails to discuss  areas of general research interest and specific ideas for a thesis topic. That is, first I need to convince a professor to supervise me or I am well prepared to work under the professor.
Therefore, I am thinking that I will send an email to a professor. But I am facing some troubles.
I want to apply to PhD in Mathematics on Algebraic Topology. One thing that I have understood is to be selected I need to show interest on that particular subject. I want to convince the professor that I am well prepared to work under him and eager to join his research group. But, the problem this how to show the interest?
I have planned something and I want to execute my plans. I am sharing with you. One of the ideas is to read some papers of the professor and do comment on that. But I think it's not so the good idea because it may be cause of a bad impression. But I may be wrong. Now I am writing here, what I am thinking.
I am thinking the followings.

Since, I am particularly interested in Algebraic Topology, I will attach in the email a detailed  learning roadmaps (mentioning the references) of Algebraic Topology in which way I learned the subject.
I am thinking that I will attach (or give a google drive link) solutions of the exercises of some books, the exercises of those books are not easy to solve (even for researchers). I am preparing the hand written  solutions on the IPad.
Also, I will attached a write-up for the ideas for future research on the particular topic, in which I would like to help from some papers of the professor and mention those in my write-up. That's mean I will read some papers of the professor and made a write-up where I will include my ideas as well as some parts (or results or may be some ideas) of the Professor's paper.

Please advise me. Am I thinking in a right way? Please help me. It will also be helpful for me if you add your opinions and advise in details.
Thanking in advanced.


texts: Why would a journal accept my previous paper for publication, but reject latest manuscript due to being "outside of the journal's scope?"

texts:
I submitted a manuscript last year to an IEEE journal, and the paper was accepted for publication. I recently submitted a new manuscript to the same journal, but, this time, the paper was rejected, and I was told that I should submit to another journal since my paper was not within the journal's scope. The two papers both target similar applications. Furthermore, the second paper uses some work in the first paper, making substantial improvements at solving a much more difficult problem. Based on the reviewer's comments (and my own personal assessment), I do not believe that the work presented in the second paper was "incremental" in nature. Far from it. Two of the three reviewers gave positive reviews. The third reviewer, however, mentioned the "outside of journal's scope" issue and the associate editor and editor-in-chief both sided with the 3rd reviewer, and the paper was stopped dead in its tracks.

I'm scratching my head trying to come to terms with how in the world my first paper could be accepted by this journal, but the second paper focused on the same application space and achieving substantial improvements on a much more difficult problem (backed up with measured results) could be rejected. Any ideas?


texts: Plagiarism between a Physical Review Letters paper and a previous arXiv preprint

texts:
I am a PhD student and today, a PRL paper has been published in which a part of its main section reports the same results as our arXiv preprint, that was submitted also to PRL (and to arXiv) at the end of 2019. They submitted their work after ours; however, our paper is still under review since the referees asked us for experiments to validate the theory and numerics. Furthermore, his work does not include experiments, is also mostly numerics and theory, and their analysis is not as exhaustive and detailed as ours. There are sentences in their work and even the plots that are pretty similar and some of them almost identical, and they even use the same name for a characteristic quantity that was used for the first time in our preprint. The thing is that they have only cited our preprint at the end of the paper as "Note added", not in the main section or even in the supplementary material where they also use almost identical sentences. I am 100% sure that they were aware of our preprint since day one since they read it in ResearchGate. It seems they wanted to include this result in their PRL at any cost, hoping that nothing happens since it is not a clear case of plagiarism and they succinctly added the note at the end of the Letter to cover their backs. Moreover, they did not publish any arXiv preprint of his work.

PRL is supposed to publish "new physics" and its standards are really high, so I cannot understand how PRL has permitted this publication.

I feel that this is a really bad practice, and I am strongly disappointed and sad, not just for my work, which in my eyes is a complete injustice, but for science. Indeed, the group that publishes this work used to be a big name in the field, so I feel that we cannot do much to solve this. My PhD advisor thinks that probably the only thing we can accomplish is an erratum from this group in PRL.

What do you think is the best way to proceed? Do you think it is possible that PRL retracts the work?


texts: Is a "textbook" considered to be an academic work?

texts: A question (mostly) for the tenured ones: Does writing a textbook count as an academic publication? I teach history, and also languages for historians. I was offered to publish a textbook of Serbian for historians with a relatively new press (Vernon Press). Is it considered to be an academic publication that may be presented to a tenure committee?


texts: Can I Request Presenting a Different Paper at a Conference?

texts:
Important note: This is for a humanities conference.

About a month out from a conference, I realize that the abstract I wrote is not going to work. I can write the paper I set out to write in the abstract, but it's not going well due to archival limitations. I have received a small stipend to attend this conference, so I feel obliged to go. In addition, it is an important, international conference and I have already booked flights. I am a PhD Candidate on the job market, so I would like to "look good" around people who could very likely be on my hiring committee someday.

Question: At this point out, I'd feel more comfortable presenting on an entirely new topic. The new topic would be in keeping with the topic of the panel. I am embarassed to ask the panel organizers if I can submit a paper on the new topic. I mean, I should know better, right? However, the new topic is still related to the overall theme of the panel. If they say "no," then I imagine that I will still need to go ahead with the original abstract. How do I make this request without sounding like an idiotic grad student?

I don't want to offend anyone by changing my topic, but I also don't want to offend anyone on the panel by presenting a paper that isn't going to be great.


texts:
During my PhD, I developed a new microscopy technique and soon I will submit a major paper presenting the work. I am now in the job market looking for postdocs, not necessarily in the same field where I did my PhD work.

Would it be a good idea to make a Wikipedia page on the technique I developed? Would it be perceived as a signal that I have no good science to show (I don't think so)? Thanks!


texts: How has the current governmental funding affected NSF GRFP?

texts:
As I was reading about the NSF GRFP, I came across this article detailing how the GRFP would be significantly defunded as per the governmental budget at the time.

I'm sure the landscape has changed since May. However, I haven't seen any followup articles. I also notice that within the solicitation for the GRFP, it states the following:
"The NSF expects to award 2,000 Graduate Research Fellowships per fiscal year under this program solicitation pending availability of
funds."

However, I am not aware of a way to check the funding for these awards. Can anyone confirm that the number of GRFP awards will be halved this coming cycle?


texts: How is the production of a Festschrift usually initiated?

texts: For the first time I have been asked to contribute to a Festschrift. I was surprised to read in the invitation that it is being prepared "in consultation with XY's institution and himself". I had always expected that the book would be a surprise for the honouree. I also don't quite understand what role the institution has to play in this. So how is a Festschrift usually initiated?


texts: Is it reasonable to say I'm not happy at my current position at interviews?

texts:
I am working as a research fellow at a University in UK. Its a two year contract with no chance of extension or renewal. Although I have 1 year left, I have considered not staying for the second year, and I have started applying for jobs elsewhere. I have been called for an interview at another much higher ranking university.

They will most probably ask why I am leaving my current position. And I don't know how best to answer this, as I don't want to say too much at this stage.

The University I am currently employed at is not purely research targeted, so along with our research targets we are given modules to teach along with assignment/exam checking. This takes a lot of time from my research.

Also I am personally not satisfied with the quality of my work here as I have been told quantity over quality and I am producing subpar papers at least once a month and even after discussing with my PI to target better journals he still expects me to continue working and printing out papers, some of the papers that I have produced are so bad in such low ranking conferences/journals that I am ashamed to add them to my CV.

Also as mentioned above, this project has no chance of extension, but is this a valid reason? Would this not alarm my new employers that this guy might leave us as well as the project comes to an end?

The place I have applied for is known for its research excellence. And I really want to move there. So, based on the above reasons how should I answer this question.

Also I am not ashamed in admitting that I am very nervous as I am really hoping to get this job. I don't know what to expect at the interview and how to prepare for it. I have found out the name of the PI and have read his previous published work. Is there anything else I can do that would improve my chances of succeeding at the interview?

I have also read this answer, and was wondering if anything else can be added to this.

Thank you.


texts:
I'm currently undertaking a part time BEng in Digital Embedded Systems Design and Development whilst working as a Control Systems Engineer. When I graduate I plan on doing an MEng in Space Systems Engineering.

After this, I want to move on to some sort of doctoral study. I have yet to decide whether or not I want to do an EngD or a PhD.

Whilst I understand that, on-paper at least, they are equally placed I'm wondering if the EngD option will be seen as less of an achievement due to the taught component and lesser research amount.

Is there any truth to this?

Note on duplication: This question is mainly surrounding the perception, both industrially and academically, of these two degrees.


texts:
Is there a way to search specifically for literature reviews which have been written by others on a certain topic?

I’d like the search to either return literature reviews on their own or contained within articles. At present, when I do a Google Scholar search for literature reviews it returns a list of articles containing the term “literature review” which clearly isn’t what I want.

The reason I’m asking is because I’m looking to get an overview of the research that has taken place in a certain area.


texts: Is it appropriate for random students to approach professors they admire?

texts:
I am a freshman, and over the summer I found out about a professor at my university who has recently published a book. Curious, I bought a copy and ended up falling in LOVE with this man's writing. As an aspiring author myself, I would be honored to receive advice from him.

But would it be too weird for me to go up, introduce myself to him and be like, "Hey, Dr. ___, my name is Jenny. I read your book and loved it. Is there a time we could possibly get together and discuss it? I just have a few questions."

I'm asking because I'm not sure how common it is for students to do this. I know it would be one thing if I was in his class, but I'm not. Unfortunately, I will not be able to take his class for several years, as he only teaches upper level courses.

I just don't want to seem annoying to him, or like too much of a fangirl. But like I said, I was mesmerized (cheesy as that sounds) by his book. I thought it was incredible, and I'm dying to talk to him about it. I definitely wouldn't want to sound demanding or anything; I'd ask him if he would be willing, and at what time.


texts:
looking for advice on what factors do granting agencies such as NIH takes into account while funding new researchers.
I am set to start as a new faculty soon. My Post-doc was short because of the faculty position offer. I could not generate preliminary data for the research area that I am interested in for a million reasons nevermind. Please, can anyone advise me on how to navigate the grants? I am reading books on the subjects but they assume the ideal PI, the Ideal Postdoc with the ideal supervisor, and unfortunately, my situation is tight with limited publications and high aspirations.  Any advice will be highly appreciated.


texts: Email address etiquette - Which address should I use to contact professors?

texts:
I am currently a master's student outside the U.S., and I plan to contact professors in U.S. universities for PhD applications. I have a bunch of email addresses available, and I don't know which one is the most appropriate for communication.

My main objective is to make sure my email doesn't get lost in the spam folder, and a decent first impression would not hurt.

My options:

(1) surname@university.edu.xx: Email given from the current institution where I attend.

(2) surname@alumni.university.edu.xx: Alumni email from the university where I got my undergrad degree.

(3) f.surname@university.edu: Email from a well known U.S. university where I spent a year as an exchange student.

(4) firstname.surname@gmail.com : Private email address

My question is, do you think the possibility of getting a response depends on the email domain? What email domain should I use?

A friend of mine who ended up at a top-5 grad program suggested me to use (3), saying that it could increase my chances of getting a response. However I am cautious that it may look pretentious or delusional, considering I had been there some time ago.

Am I overthinking this?


texts: Reference for annual journal subscription costs paid per university?

texts: Is there any resource that lists how much each university pay in journal subscription fees? I am mostly interested in US universities (E.g. Harvard: $3.5M/year in 2014, MIT: $4M/year in 2006 for science and engineering journals alone), but still curious about other countries (e.g. French universities paid 172M EUR/5years to Elsevier, Finnish research organisations paid a total of 27 million euros in subscription fees in 2015).


texts: Is it common for undergraduate students to feel overwhelmed by the reading assignments? How to deal with it?

texts:
I'm in the second year of an International Affairs undergraduate program.
When classes first began last year, I - like most of my peers - felt overwhelmed by the amount of text assigned for reading, which I averaged as 400 pages per week, the whole year.
I initially managed it by reading the texts faster than I should (thus not properly apprehending the text) and prioritising the ones with an obvious precedence and skipping others right away.
If that wasn't improper enough and made me feel lacking, we were briefed on how to do scientific reading in two of our disciplines. Basically we were 'taught' how to do a 'micro-research' on every text assigned to us, by first reading the text superficially, taking notes of everything unknown to us (authors, dates, events, places, concepts, word definitions) and then getting to know each of those, to just then go back to the text with the goal of apprehending and taking notes of the logical structure of the text, identifying its main theses and how arguments are presented, in order to be able to reconstruct the presentation the author gave accurately, either mentally, or when giving a speech or writing.
In theory, we should be doing that to every text. In practice, I felt like I barely had time to read the texts once and then I would go to the next. By the end of last year I assessed I had to at least double my reading skills to handle that amount of text. I maybe improved 20%, tops.
Now we began having online classes because of the pandemics. There was a lot of opposition from professors and students, but as a state university, costs were still running and there was a lot of pressure coming from the upper realms, thus, online classes began. Now, we're being given harder texts. I just finished watching a Political Theory class. I literally didn't understand any of the texts, neither the class itself made sense and my professor kept asking questions to me, it was frustrating.
It makes me feel somehow depressed and it makes it even worse when I see there are a few students who not only seem able to handle it, but are doing research and a lot of other stuff, I can't even imagine how they do it.
Edit: One thing that gets me beaten and very sick sometimes is how relatively unimportant authors that talk about the simplest concepts are the ones writing texts that almost demands me to become cryptologist. On the other hand, some of the authors presenting the most complex topics, e.g, Kant and Weber [especially Kant], despite being very demanding, seemed to be quite clear and straightforward in their argumentation. The problem here, again, was time. When reading Kant I had to skip almost all the other texts in other to complete it with a satisfiable understanding of the text. I got the 2nd best grade of the class in that discipline.
Edit 2: I also find it interesting, for lack of a better word, how some professors throw you in the lion's pit. For today's class we read a text by Italian Norberto Bobbio which is an answer to a critic of an earlier text. I felt totally out of context, as we didn't read the first text nor the critics, I was simply unable to understand half the text, as it was constantly referencing stuff we didn't read and would never be able to do it in time.


texts: Is There a Way to List Writing Recommendation Letters on a CV?

texts: As a PhD Candidate, I've written several successful recommendation letters for students who I've taught in my classes. Is it worthwhile to include this information on a CV, say under "Service"? I've never seen this included before on a CV, but I was hoping there might be a way for me to highlight my contributions to teaching outside of the classroom.


texts:
I am trying to use "Web of Science API Expanded" or "Web of Science API Lite" for my search. I have managed to log on to the developer website and register an application. Now there comes the step where I should subscribe the application to one of the available APIs by clicking on a subscribe button. This step is supposed to be the last one on the path leading me to an API KEY.
However, when I navigate to the preferred API's information page from my application, I see the sections "Api Settings" and "Description" but no "Applications" section! Hence, no Subscribe button and no API KEY! Any suggestions on how else to get my Application subscribed or get an API KEY?


texts: What is the correct etiquette when one would like to include the alternative proofs supplied by the reviewer

texts:
Sometimes when one receives referee's reports, the referee supplies alternative proofs for the results of the paper. Sometimes the supplied proof is much shorter and more elegant than the original proof.

Is it acceptable to include these proofs in the paper (without formally asking the permission from the reviewer) if the author emphasizes that this proof comes from the anonymous reviewer?

Many times I have done this, and the reviewer has never objected. But I am wondering if one should be more cautious and first formally asks a permission and if the referee permits then includes the referee's proof.

If that matters the subject is Mathematics.

Edit: Side information (following the comment). Assuming that the supplied proofs are for the auxiliary results of the paper, not the main results.


texts: Bad experiences with the production of an accepted manuscript

texts:
The long and erroneous publishing process after a recently accepted  (Open Access) paper has led me to ask this question. I'll explain its context briefly.
We submitted a journal paper (a LaTeX manuscript including supplemental material) which after, in my domain (Computer Science) somewhat reasonable, 7 to 8 months time got accepted subject to minor revision. The journal has a very good reputation, the reviewers unanimously liked the manuscript and gave very helpful and detailed feedback. I handed in the revision not quite a month later. About 4 months from then I got the final acceptance notification. Although I felt already that took quite long, what followed seems like an Odyssey to me: after more than two months I got the first online proof which had numerous (100s of) typos, type setting and conversion errors introduced, tables wrongly formatted, cross-references lost, etc. I had to invest considerable time to point out all the errors, and after several more weeks (about two months in the meanwhile) and two proof revisions, I'm still stuck with waiting for another iteration of the proof. The editorial office has politely and helpfully handled the corrections with the production team, however, my requests/concerns also got a bit lost in translation. Overall, we are about to reach 9 months after acceptance with minor corrections and, after a couple of emails with the editorial office, I have no idea how long it will still take to at least see something like an official online-first version, not talking of the journal issue the article will possibly be included.
I believe that journal's procedure seems inappropriate inasmuch as I opted for full Open Access according to the funding policies and my Uni accepted (by a default waiver for that publisher) to pay a decent amount of article processing charges (I believe from their library budget). This inappropriateness stems from the long production time and that the conversion of the LaTeX manuscript caused so many further issues and required several proof iterations. Maybe strange, but again, I would have expected a more accurate production process than for a non-OA publication. But OA might not play a role here.
Just for comparison: a year earlier, we had a non-OA article accepted with minor for another (even higher ranked) journal where it took them about six weeks from this acceptance to complete publication, no typos introduced, and those six weeks even included our time to submit the minor revisions.
That whole thing made me wonder what expectations one ought to have on the paid portion of work done in the production process, other than reviewing and editing which in the majority of cases is purely voluntary in my field? How could one improve this situation? E.g. would a notification of my Uni (maybe our library) be exaggerated, so they can consider blocking future APC waivers for that journal/publisher?
I believe my concerns go beyond this interesting question about long review processes.


texts: As a reviewer, how much raw data or code should you request?

texts:
The topic of reproducible research is attracting quite some press these days, yet much remains to be done. In this spirit, I am asking what can be a reviewer's role in this — I'll explain fully below.

Like many people, I would like to see academic research moving toward a more “open data” model, especially because the principle of reproducibility of research is central to the scientific method. However, I know that at least in my field (theoretical chemistry), the usual standards are pretty lax. I'll give two examples:

If you develop your own simulation/modeling code, you do not have to make it public in order to publish your results.
If you use an existing modeling code (available for free or commercial), you do not need to include your full/raw input files with your publication.

When I peer-reviewed papers for publication in the past, I typically did not ask for this, because (a) maybe my standards are not other people's standards, and (b) the role of the reviewer is more to advise on the quality of the science and analysis of the results.

But, over time, I'm not really satisfied with this approach any more. So: as a reviewer, how much information do you think is reasonable to request from the authors? Should you follow the customs and unwritten standards of your field, or is it okay to push it toward the direction you'd like to see it go? And how much can you push?


texts: May a PhD be more practical than theoretical?

texts:
I'm thinking about pursue my studies and doing a PhD in information technology.
My problem is that I would like to create something new (== write code), and focus my thesis on how this new technology works (each component and global interactions), what it can do, and how it can evolves / be improved.
I'm not against doing research, reading books and work on theory - but I want to be more practical than theoretical.

I'm starting to think that a PhD is not a valid option if my goal is to develop something new instead of conducting pure research. Am I wrong ?

About my cursus: I will receive my master degree soon (~= 3 months). I come from a highly technical background, with 5 years of programming and project management.

Edit & more information
My university doesn't offers PhD courses, thus my supervisor don't care about   my choices. Another consequence is that I have no other choices than to go to another university.


texts: speed of problem solving in grad school in mathematics

texts:
I wonder if anyone in graduate school in mathematics had managed to improve considerably his/her speed of problem solving.
I had failed to get my PhD pass and obtained only Master Pass on my qualifiers.  I have been trying to increase speed of solving problems but alas, achieved only slight improvement.  I know that most problems on these exams are manageable and may be few are hard. Problems of similar level of difficulty would take me days or even weeks of solving. Any suggestions and especially real life examples of improving problem solving speed would be highly appreciated.


texts: Supervisors constantly rejecting my ideas. What to do?

texts:
I just started my PhD. I work in an interdisciplinary field so I have 3 supervisors from different fields.
Up until now, we had 4 research meetings together and the weird thing was everytime I came up with an idea, it was immediately rejected. Although, they gave me reasons why they rejected it, it always feels like they didn't really understand what I was trying to say exactly. I did not want to push on because I fear it may make them feel dumb in front of others because they don't understand what I am saying.
But yesterday, we had another meeting and I got really annoyed. One of the supervisors came up with an idea and the others all thought it was a great idea. But I actually mentioned the idea a long time ago, but it was immediately rejected back then.
This makes me feel really depressing since it feels like it's mainly my fault for not communicating properly but at the same time it somehow feels like my supervisors are willfully rejecting my ideas because of my status as a fresh PhD student.
How do I deal with this?


texts:
Question
What exactly is the definition of a scientific publication or journal?

Background
What fueled this question in particular is the current rise of predatory publishers. Jeffrey Beall had a list published online of suspected predatory publishers, but his blog has very recently been discontinued (cached copy, 11 Jan 2017). Speculations of this disappearance include threats and political motivations.

Anyway, predatory publishers are characterized by any or all of the following:

They appear suddenly and generate a host of new journals that cover a wide range of topics;
They are open access and charge high fees;
They have rudimentary, faked, or even no review process at all;
They spam about every researcher with a publication record asking them to publish in their journals;
They spam researchers to join their board of editors or become a reviewer.

For more backgrounds on predatory publishers see the wiki page.

Now still these predatory publishers profile themselves as being scientific publishers, e.g., Scientific Research and Austin Publishing Group.
 Access these links at your own risk. I would not call this class of journals scientific, as pretty much any author willing to pay a few grand can make it in there.

So what makes a scientific journal scientific? How exactly is this defined? I long thought a peer review process guarantees scientificness, but it can be faked or even absent, yet publishers claim to be scientific.

Where this question becomes particularly relevant is in the role of teaching - when I tell students only to use 'scientific literature' then what is it exactly? Would it be more a matter of what it is not?


texts: Ethics on shortening project in grant application to raise chances of success

texts:
I am currently writing a PhD grant application, and I completed the first draft. The project is ambitious, but I and my advisors think feasible, but my advisors told me that it is quite dense and could be daunting for the grant reviewers, who may label it as unrealistic (which is a criterion of admission) and thus they may reject it.

I have no problem in working on simplifying my research project's description to make it more concise and readable, but my advisors suggested to strip half of the project, in order to raise the chances for it to be accepted. But they told me that of course, I can do the rest of the project too with the grant I will get, I just shouldn't mention that in the application.

Is it ethical and honest to "sell" a research project based on only half of its description and goals? Not only that, but also the logical reasoning and the bigger goal get totally lost, so are these worth losing against displaying a more realistic target? To me, it seems like reasoning that the end justifies the means...

I should mention that almost all the ideas for the research project are mine (the advisors helped me with naming the methods I will use, but the concepts, bibliography and goals are my own), and I was really motivated by the original whole project.


texts: What are some good ways to structure material before writing a theoretical paper/thesis/book?

texts:
Let's say that you are going to write a theoretical paper/thesis/book (that is, you're not conducting empirical work). More often than not, I find it troublesome to just start writing right away, especially when I don't know what the results of my investigation is going to be.

What are some good ways to structure and organize your material, as well as your workflow, before starting to write?


texts: My supervisor is trying to "steal" my collaborators: what can I do?

texts:
I work as a postdoc in Prof. X's research group. I have my own funding and work on my own topics, which are related to X's interests. X is an expert in experimental work and I do simulations, on which X lacks expertise.

X largely depends on me for the simulation projects to progress, including doing the supervision of students working on computational topics, who X cannot supervise directly since he lacks the required expertise.

I have a very productive line of collaboration with a group of researchers who are world leaders in this particular topic. X has been somewhat involved in our joint papers through me, benefiting from high impact publications, although he has not contributed significantly. My collaborators are mostly interested in working with me because of the expertise I can contribute to their own.

Understandably, X is trying to minimize his dependence on me. At the same time, he wants to keep collaborating with the top team on the projects that I have been leading. So he's contacting them to write proposals together while keeping me in the shadows. I have no problem with this, everyone is free to work with anyone else, except that my collaborators seem to be assuming that this is just a continuation of the work with me, and that I am involved. Awkward situations have arisen where one of my collaborators has cc'ed me in a reply to X's request to write a joint proposal, assuming that I was involved in it, while I was totally unaware of what was going on (since X has not been in contact with me about this). Another collaborator with whom I talked to in person recently was also very surprised that X had not let me know about this proposal, especially because he's promising to continue the research that I am currently leading and which is based on my ideas, codes, etc.

Incidentally, I am preparing my own project proposal (of which X is fully aware) for the same call. I will be listing the top team as collaborators and some of the topics will overlap with X's proposal. Since we will be competing in the same review panel, I am afraid that the funding agency or the reviewers will discard my application on the basis that the work is going to be done on similar topics and with the same collaborators as X's project and, since X is a professor and has a stronger overall profile, X will be better at taking the project to completion.

I feel that, in his understandable effort to loosen his dependence on me, X is trying to steal my ideas and collaborators, and in the process reducing my chances to advance my career. Is there anything I should or could do to solve this problem, such as letting my collaborators know that X is purposely leaving me out of these proposals? Or should I just concentrate on writing the best proposal I can and hope that the panel with agree that I am the right person to do it (this is my current strategy)?


texts: Submission procedure for letters of recommendation

texts:
I intend to study for a Master Program in the US. I'm from foreign country, so I don't know what's the procedure to submit letters of recommendation.

My initial guess is, the ones who write the letters for me have to submit it (otherwise it would be meaningless to submit it myself). But I wonder, do I have to create separate accounts for sending the letters, or I have to send my application account to my writers? If so, can I create accounts for them, because they are very busy? Finally, is it possible to submit same letters to multiple universities?


texts: Publishing a paper as the sole author (undergraduate)

texts:
I am an undergraduate student and I have been working with a computational physics group for three years.

Over the past three years, the code I used for our research has grown from one simple algorithm to a very complex and expansive suite of numerical tools for both simulations and investigating analytical solutions of the specific nonlinear partial differential equation we are interested in. This program has been vital to the two papers I've published during my junior year.

I am working with two professors, professor A and professor B. I showed professor A my program a couple of months ago and he was very impressed. He suggested that I submit it as an original software publication in the journal Computer Physics Communications which publishes such things. He said that I should be the sole author on the paper since I did all the work myself and no one else had any significant contribution. I discussed this with him again a few days ago, saying he and professor B should be my coauthor, but he said it would be dishonest since it's my own work and they didn't really contribute.

However, having known professor B for a few years, I know he likes to have his name on all papers published by our group/international collaboration, whether or not he had a sizable contribution (I don't mean to disrespect him in any way, just an observation, he even says so himself). I have no idea how I should tackle this issue. On the one hand, professor A refuses to be the coauthor and believes I deserve to be the sole author, which of course could be very beneficial for my PhD application. On the other hand, I do not want to upset professor B, and I will inevitably need their help in revising the paper (I'm sure A wouldn't mind revising it, however). I still haven't talked to professor B and I don't know how to bring it up.

Edit: I just emailed professor B, explained the situation and asked him for advice on which option would be best, he replied saying "it would be nice if you can publish a paper on your own." So I guess that's what I'll try to do. Thank you everybody for the advice, I've learned my lesson.


texts: When doing comparative evaluation among different research tools should we debug others research tool?

texts:
Researchers propose software tools as part of their research work to gather some metrics about application performance. I intend to propose a tool with better features and capabilities. For comparison I am using publicly available tools of other researchers.

The difficulty I am facing is that other researcher tool crash for some applications of benchmarks. Different tool crash for different applications. So when reporting the comparison what should I do? List applications for which other researcher tool did not worked or try to debug other researcher tool and then report the comparison?

The benchmark applications used for testing the tools are large scientific applications. The tools are written using complex software frameworks. In short, debugging either of them will require substantial effort. Before committing I would like to have some advise.


texts: Is it better to add a transcript of a non-completed degree for a master's degree admission?

texts:
Im getting my degree this year (in june presumably) in physics. And while I was getting it I was at the same time getting a degree in mathematics. (By degree I mean completing undergraduate studies in both of those things, I'm from Spain and I'm not sure about the equivalence...).

Now, I dedicated to physics full-time and by the time I will have finished physics (june as I said) I will have approximately 50% of my degree in maths. Independently of the maths degree, next year I will apply to some post-graduate studies outside of my country and I would like to know if I should apply with my physics degree or if it would make any significant (and positive) change in my application to say that I've also been studying half a degree on maths and include a transcript of what I've studied in that degree.

The problems is what I commented on BPND answer, plus the fact that transcripts are 30€ plus 80€ the sworn translation, and if I can keep expenses down, that's a plus. My question is if the difference by including it will be positive. The average grades are 9.24 (GPA 3.9) and 9.2 (GPA 3.82) in physics and maths respectively, out of 10.

The GPAs were calculated with some online converter I found, using all the subjects and the credits for each one.


texts: Is it unwise to start a Ms/PhD program without a stipend - will it upset professors if I leave with a masters to apply to funded programs?

texts:
I was recently notified that I was accepted to a Ms/PhD program with a full tuition scholarship but I am waitlisted for receiving a Stipend. I don't currently have the best credentials so I don't think the prospect of me getting into a better program is too good.

Would it be unwise for me to start this program? For now my plan is to attend until I get an MS and then at that point apply to a better program if I still don't have a stipend. I figure a tuition free MS is better than the usual.

By "unwise" I meant, will it potentially upset professors if I leave after two years with the masters to apply elsewhere to potentially funded programs (if I still don't have a stipend at that point). I don't want to ruin my reputation in the process.


texts:
In the commercial world, Windows utterly dominates. As of time of writing its market share is somewhere around 85%.

I don't have similar statistics for academia, but my personal observation is that most professors seem to prefer Macs, especially on personal devices. Linux is also a lot more common than in the public at large. Windows computers are still around, but much less common - maybe around 1/3 of computers run Windows, a substantial fraction of which seem to be because they're preinstalled with Windows.

Why the preference for Macs / Linux?


texts: I have one bad grade on my transcript and I'm thinking of applying for MS CS programs at top US Graduate schools. How badly would my chances be hurt?

texts: I am currently studying Computer Science and Engineering at a top Indian engineering school (IIT). However, I have a CD (5 out of 10) grade in one subject (System Software Laboratory) in one semester. My overall grade is pretty good but I have a bad grade for this one subject. For context, this grade is kind of equivalent to a D in the US.


texts: Paper work came to halt - what can I do?

texts:
Some time ago, I enrolled in a PhD programme and at the same time I started a full-time job. The full-time job became so time-consuming that progress on PhD related duties became really slow. As a result, I decided to terminate my PhD studies, however I would like to finish a paper that I have worked on.

Currently, the paper containts the estimations with results and the approx. fifth version of text, that makes sense to me. Unfortunately, my supervisor tells me that the text needs to undergo some changes in order to bring it closer to the "academic English".

As I do not intend to continue an academic carreer, I have no use for learning academic English beyond the scope of my Bachelor and Master theses. Hence, forgoing one or two month's evenings/weekends just to learn academic English well enough to publish is something I am unwilling to do.

What would you do in my position? Get someone else on the paper and give them co-authorship for editing the text into publishable form? Or something entirely else?

Any input is much appreciated,
Daniel


texts: How much research funding do faculty members get in China?

texts:
In China, how much research funding do faculty members in physical science departments tend to receive?

What are the approximate grant sizes and grant success rates in natural sciences from the National Natural Science Foundation of China?

For example, would a 100,000-USD/year grant be considered a competitive offer?


texts: How should I know if my supervisor is deliberately ignoring my emails or he is simply bad in responding?

texts: I am a Ph.D. student in the third year, and I am working on my dissertation with two supervisors since my thesis is interdisciplinary. I recently noticed that my 2nd supervisor has not responded to my last 4 emails although I see he is active on his email. The answer to two of my emails could be even a simple affirmation! The first time I sent him part of my argument and asked his opinion, which he didn't respond. The two next times I sent an email to both my supervisors, which he didn't respond either. The fourth time, I sent him again, a very short and polite email, asking him if he could answer my email since I am defending my prospectus within the next few weeks and I need his opinion on it. Again, I didn't get an answer. It is really irritating. I don't know how to ask him if something is wrong! Due to this new virus, the university is closed, and the only way I can reach him is through email. What should I do? I've been thinking of changing this supervisor but his field of study is so close to my topic, and he is really knowledgable that I regret missing him  :(


texts: Is it appropriate for an undergrad to friend grad students / postdocs on social media?

texts:
I'm guessing that if the grad student / postdoc is directly supervising the undergrad, friending would not be very appropriate. However, would it be ok for an undergrad to friend other grad students / postdocs in the lab?

This is for a university in the U.S.


texts: Is taking a postdoc for training purposes wise as an industry scientist?

texts:
I'm considering taking a postdoc after 5 years as an analytical chemist in the pharma industry (small molecule). This may seem backwards and counter-productive due to the massive pay cut but here's my reasoning:

I am extremely unhappy in my current role; I've been pigeon-holed into developing methods for a rather
niche technique that isn't versatile and incredibly uninteresting.
I've also been pushed into pure project management and doing little
to no science.

When searching and interviewing for roles I want, it has been
highlighted that, while I have industry experience, I am not
experienced enough in mass spectrometry or large molecule work, which
I do not have the opportunity to train at my current job. I've been
searching for 6 months now with several interviews that all came back
with the same feedback about my lack of mass spectrometry or biomolecule experience.

A postdoc position is likely available to me through my personal
network and it would be an intensive way to train in mass spectrometry and large
molecule analysis (as well as some data science and bioinformatics). There is a grad student who currently handles most of the technical aspects of the instrumentation and sample prep (he'll be my immediate mentor) while the PI is more on the bioinformatics and publication side of things. I will be asked to help conduct analysis, maintain the instruments, and write papers (the PI has mountains of data but no time or desire to write the papers).

My logic is that, with 2 years of focused mass spectrometry training and 5 years in
industry, I would be a more attractive candidate and have more
options in terms of where I might land a job (different industries,
possible academic facilities staff, or national labs staff). I would also have materials for presentation that highlight my competency whereas right now, I only have my PhD work (in a different technique) and a generic industry presentation (cannot use company data so I can only give lectures on general topics in pharma).

My long term goal is to shift my expertise to mass spectrometry and either join a national lab, core facility, or build up an analytical department at a startup. Mass spectrometry is incredibly versatile and is a critical hard skill in pharma, biotech, food science, environmental, and other key industries.

Am I thinking about this correctly? Or am I making a mistake be treating the postdoc as a training opportunity and stepping stone?


texts: Publishing on Scholarpedia: Experiences & feasibility (early career)

texts: Some months ago, I ran across a peer-reviewed open access encyclopedia Scholarpedia and became rather excited about the idea and the implementation. So far I haven't had a chance to publish any materials there or, even, initiate that process (obviously, I'm talking about rather small and focused articles due to my limited research experience). However, I am curious about people's perceptions about the site (from both perspectives of an independent publishing outlet and an addition to traditional journal publishing) as well as your experiences, if any, with the publication process there and interactions with the site's editorial team. Also, what do you think about the feasibility and career value of publishing on Scholarpedia for a beginner researcher and scholar?


texts: Can I hide my bachelor and master degrees in CV when I apply for a PhD position?

texts:
I have 1 Bachelors degree and 2 Masters degrees. They are in different subjects, not closely related. I am now planning to apply for a PhD program.

Question: Do you think that I can only mention the most recent Masters degree and hide others? My last degree is closely related with this PhD program. Also, my grades were good in this recent Masters program, unlike the others.

To be honest, I am not happy with my other degrees. My performance was not good and they are not related with the PhD that I intend to pursue. For these reasons, I prefer to not to talk about them. Can I leave them off my CV? If, in an interview, they ask my education before my last degree, my plan is to talk about them briefly.  Do you think this is acceptable?


texts: How to negotiate for clinical vs protected research time in academic job offer?

texts:
I am a doctor, with specialty in psychiatry and a subspecialty in mood disorders.

I have been offered an academic position at a larger university, but the letter of offer does not specify any research time - only clinical time. I want to negotiate clinical time (number of patients to see per week), which will be my main source of income, vs protected research time (for which the Hospital/University will provide compensation). I want to be able to do research but need the department to commit to paying me for it.

It is my understanding that this will be the only time I will be in a position of power to negotiate something, but I don't know where to start. I have other 2 offers in place as well.

The clinical aspect may make this negotiation different from other junior faculty members, e.g. as in Evaluating and negotiating a start-up package.


texts: How can I counter a student response saying "Why are we bothered to reinvent the wheel when proving mathematical identities?"

texts:
I am teaching an undergraduate mathematics course to software engineering students. I often ask my students to prove some mathematical identities as their homework. The identities could be, for example: trigonometry identities, Laplace transform identities, Menelaus', Stewart's, Ceva's theorems, etc.
One special student often just copies other works obtained from the Internet without doing any effort to prove them by himself. When I asked him, he replied "Why are we bothered to reinvent the wheel?". I have not replied yet and I will do later.
Could you give some advice for countering his argument?


texts: Is generic "thank you" email a waste of time in academia?

texts:
A very busy professor just responded my email. He answered my questions, and in the end, he explicitly said something like "Please let me know if you have any questions" or "Please respond if you have further questions".

So, I am trying to think as if I am in his shoe. Is he not expecting me to reply to this email, if I do not have any further questions?

Is it impolite if I do not respond to this email and let it go? Or, is it considered impolite if I spam his "already-too-full" mailbox with a generic "Dear XXX, Thanks for XXXXX, Regards, XXXX" ?


texts: How do search committees use feedback from one-on-one faculty meetings during an academic interview?

texts:
I am wondering how the search committees take into account feedback that is provided by faculty members who meet one-on-one with a candidate. I am curious about both the process as well as how the committee considers the feedback when making their decision.

So, for example, does the faculty member who meets with the candidate email the committee as soon as the discussion is done to write about how the meeting went? Are they evaluating the candidate on "culture fit", technical prowess, teaching/research, etc.? Do they have veto power over a candidate? Do they meet with the search committee and discuss candidates after everyone's met with each one? Is it the same faculty who meet one-on-one with the candidates, or does it depend on who's available that day?

I'm rather interested in the process of how it works, for those who have been on search committees, and that is why I ask this question. I am most interested in responses for research interviews for institutions in the United States but experiences from other locations would be valuable as I am sure that the process is not identical even within one country (or even one department).

This question is highly related, but isn't specifically addressing what I am wondering.


texts:
My question is : What is a time effective way to learn new material/ reviewing old material you don't completely remember?

Motivation:

For my research in Computer Science, I need lots of elements of hypothesis testing that I learnt in Statistics 101 (Roughly 10 years ago). I haven't taken a single stats class ever since. I vaguely remember the terms involved in the subject and am somewhat conversant with the basics of statistics (so I don't need to retake the course). But all in all, it's as good as a blank slate right now.

I have read How to efficiently read mathematically and theoretically dense books in STEM fields? but that targets a specific topic that the OP wants to learn, not an entire book. The top 3 answers talk about reading only those sections which you are interesting in. I, on the other hand, need to understand the whole of hypothesis testing which by itself is a book.

My options are (As far as I can see):

Take out the book I used / "Best" book of the subject (i.e. the one best suited for my background) and read it from page 1 till I am comfortable. Too time consuming
Read the chapter I need and then go back to the terms I don't understand. Time spent in confusion and direction-less reading exceeds the time actually spent adding value.
Take course again/Read cover to cover. God No.
Any other?

EDIT : I wish to add that I can sacrifice depth for familiarity and savings in time. (Is this a good idea but? Assuming that it's not a central part of my research)


texts: Is it accetable to request independent-study for graduate courses which are cancelled?

texts:
I am enrolled in a new hybrid Business/Mathematics graduate program at a small liberal arts college in the Pacific NW. Since last fall, I have completed 6 of the 12 courses required to obtain my MSc. These were mostly business courses. Now I am at the point where I need to take my mathematics courses in advanced statistical topics.

My intention was to complete the program in 2 years (as per discussions with my admissions counselor), but my advisor has now told me that given the low enrollment, I may be looking at 3+ years to graduate.

Does this situation seem acceptable? I would like to approach a dean regarding this to see if these courses can be offered 1-on-1 or guided-study so that I may graduate in a reasonable amount of time, but am not sure what is the norm in this situation.

To note:

There are roughly 10 students in the program. There is no "cohort",
and most of the students take only one course per semester, as that
is what their employer will cover. Because of this, it is unlikely
that these students will drive significant enrollment to these
advanced courses in the near future.
This is an accredited college. The program is unaccredited (it is not a typically offered program at many colleges). However, all of the other graduate programs offered at the college are accredited.


texts: Protocol for checking in on a letter of recommendation more than once?

texts:
Quick background: I am applying to grad school and asked two professors from undergrad and a current work supervisor for letters of recommendation and they all said yes.  I asked about a month and a half out from the due date, gave them all updated resumes/statement of purpose/any other information or paperwork they asked for. My supervisor got the letter finished rather quickly and sent me an email to let me know. About two weeks out from the application due date I sent a brief reminder/follow up email to my two professors ("just a reminder this is the due date, let me know if you need any more information" etc). Last week (about a week before the due date) one of the professors got back to me to let me know she had finished/submitted the letter. The due date for my application is in a few days and I have not heard from the second professor.

My question is: I have already sent an initial follow up email for a letter of recommendation. Is it considered rude or pestering to send a second email? I have no qualms on how to word this email - I will still be very polite and accommodating of course - but I understand professors are very busy. I don't want to be a bother but also I need this third letter of recommendation and this professor willingly agreed to help me. Is there a protocol for a second round of follow-ups for letters of recommendation?


texts: Presented a paper in a conference, but my paper did not get published in proceeding

texts:
I presented a paper in a conference, but my paper did not get published in the proceedings. The authority said my paper was submitted late and could not be reviewed and therefore it was not published in the proceedings. However I was called to present my research paper and got a certificate also saying that I presented the paper in that conference.
But the issue is my paper did not get indexed/published.
I am worried about the fate of my paper now. What should I do ?
Can I give it for publication at some better place?


texts:
I recently graduated with a degree of BSc in Physics, after failing a masters in physics due to depression. I have been interested in data science during my undergraduate studies and have been trying to find a job as a data scientist or machine learning engineer, but after several months of rejections, it's clear that companies don't want someone with no experience or a relevant degree. So I am pondering the possibility of applying to a masters in data science or machine learning. Is reapplying masters frowned upon? Any advice on how I can convey to the professors that I can complete the degree despite my failure?
Update: I have disclosed my situation in my personal statement. My referees have also promised to write strong recommendation letters. It all depends on my performance in the interview now, if I get one.
Update 2: I applied to UCL, KCL, Nottingham and Bristol. I received offers from all apart from UCL! I accepted the offer from KCL.


texts: Could I ask a recommendation letter from a professor who left the university?

texts: One of my friends had a pretty good relationship with their undergraduate professor; however, the professor decided to retire and no longer teaches at that university. In a few months, my friend is deciding to apply to graduate school, and he is wondering if it would still be appropriate to ask his retired professor to write him a letter of recommendation?


texts: Do academics have any standard system for annotating text?

texts:
I teach secondary history classes. My principal is pushing for all teachers to introduce students to a annotation system which should be the same in all classes.  But the system doesn't seem appropriate for my student's needs, e.g. here are some of the 20+ items:

Underline key words.
Put a question mark next to questions you have.
Put a star next to important items.
Put an exclamation mark next to things you felt were interesting.
Write the infinity symbol next to a "connection" you made.
Etc.

The items don't help students to focus on achieving their goal at hand. The annotations might help students to closely read a text, but don't product meaningful notes that students can refer to for other purposes.

My students need to use annotations in two contexts, which I think also resemble the reason-for-annotating text in college:

To annotate a text, identifying items relevant to a given prompt, in preparation for writing a short essay.
To annotate a text, identifying items relevant to their own thesis statement (or possibly requiring them to reevaluate their thesis statement), for a research project.

I tried arguing for a simpler system that addressed these needs, but my suggestion was dropped, because the principal was using a method from a "credible" source, one downloaded from Pinterest. My principal might be swayed if I presented some "standard" method used in academia (i.e. something with a name).

Just as there is formal "Cornell Notes", which was even created by a Cornell professor, is there a named, standard system for annotating in academia?


texts:
Often I learn about conferences, even in my own country, when it is too late to submit papers. Is there a mailing list, or another way to get information about conferences in a specific location and domain?

EDIT: I am mainly interested in computer science and game theory.


texts: Correct typo error in the article title that published Early Access of the journal

texts:
I have a accepted  article that published under early Access.

Today, I have got the proofs from the journal to approve some changes. I have found a typo error in the title "Commutation" instead of "Communication". I have already sign the copyright form that contains the paper title.

What should i do?


texts: How to use Microsoft Word for formatting references according to ACM (and others) guidelines

texts:
It is commonly known that using LaTeX is the best option for formatting a scientific paper (including references). I know.

But recent versions of Microsoft Word use a quite interesting reference management system (see this video for a demo). However this system only include few formatting styles, e.g. APA, IEEE, ISO, etc...

Is there a way to "install" a new style, to get reference formatted as required by ACM journals (and, possibly, as required by any other scientific association, journal or conference guidelines)?


texts: Public data repositories: Multiple figures as one reference

texts:
my current manuscript is combining work in multiple research fields, so naturally it's difficult to find good journals to submit it to.

At the moment I'm down to one journal where I would really like to submit it, however, the author's instructions of the journal make it difficult to wrap all my data into it.

I'm only allowed 2 tables and 3 figures and all supplemental material needs to be uploaded to public data repositories like FigShare. There is another table and 3 more figures that I would like to include that way.
BUT
The journal also only allows 30 references. At the moment I'm at 29 references. I have never used FigShare before but as far as I understand it, I need a new reference for every figure or table I cite that way?! So that would leave me at 33 references and I really can't afford to cut my text. I also don't have any redundant references.

So as I said. I would really love to still be able to submit it to that journal somehow. Is there any way that I can upload all my 3 figures and 1 table in a public repository and cite it as one single reference in the manuscript?

I hope my question makes sense so far.

Many thanks


texts: Why are external PhDs considered to take "decades"?

texts:
I have just finished my master degree (TU Vienna) and I am working 20 hours per week. I have talked to several professors in my field of interest and they said that the earliest position for a PhD would be in December, because of funding.

However, I think I could take the route as external researcher and do my PhD by working 20 hours per week and devoting the other 20 hours to my research.

By browsing some posts here I have read that a lot of you consider an external PhD as inefficient (it takes a long time, etc.). Why? What are the reasons for that? Can't such a PhD be done within 3 years?

  UPDATE

PS.: What are mostly the reason that it takes so long?


texts: Two applications to different departments at same uni. But: One professor is affiliated with both departments

texts: I would like to apply for PhD programs in two different departments, but at the same uni. I am interested in both fields, but not in the overlap between the two. Generally, this shouldn't be a problem. However, there is a professor associated with both departments. Could this turn out to be a problem? How would you deal with this?


texts: Can a conference listed as CORE 'A' have an acceptance rate of 60%?

texts:
My university follows the conference ranking as per CORE. Specifically, the department (Computer Science) encourages the faculty members and the research students to submit to either CORE 'A' or CORE 'A*' conference (It must not be below CORE 'B', in the worst case).

However, I have a general conscience that the acceptance rate of a conference and the quality of the conference are highly related (Does a low acceptance rate imply quality?). Further, conference acceptance rate does influence the final decision on the number of quality papers to be selected for final proceedings (How does the acceptance rate affect papers decisions?).

We have an article and we were planning to submit to a conference ranked as CORE 'A', but it has an acceptance rate of as high as 60% (sometimes more than 61%). However, the conference is quite old (26 years to be precise). So, presently, we are confused whether should we submit the article to the conference and have following recurring questions in mind.

Can my department reject our conference funding because of this high acceptance rate?
Should we rather argue about the quality of the conference based on their ranking system as per CORE? (What if the department refute?)
Should we step back from submitting here? (But then, there is no better conference in the field in this year. We have to soak our paper for at least 7-8 months more.)


texts: Could an undergraduate with an applied physics background get a research spot in a university lab in aerospace?

texts:
I am an undergraduate who has a very impressive resume in applied physics related to lasers and ultrafast optics but my major is going to be in the aerospace field.
I want to do research in an aerospace field but I have very little coursework or experience in that field. My resume shows that I am good at picking up advanced topics fairly quickly.

Would I have a shot at a research spot in university research lab in aerospace even though I have very little experience in it?

EDIT: I am looking for an unpaid internship in a lab where I can hopefully get co-authored in as an undergraduate (next fall).


texts: Are dressing habits at poster presentations influenced by implicit sexism in STEM disciplines?

texts:
I am currently attending the meeting of the American Chemical Society and was surprised by the way people were dressed for the poster presentations. In particular, many young women (and some young men) seemed to be dressed for a night out (tight clothes, heels, make up, etc.). This is not what I'm used to in European or international meetings (including international meetings at the US). More senior female (and male) researchers were wearing clothes I'm more used to in this kind of setting.

This made me wonder: is there some sort of implicit sexism at play here, and do some of these young female researchers feel the need to impress other researchers (both male and female) with their appearance?

I probably should also add that I usually attend physics meetings rather than chemistry meetings, where the ratio of female/male is much higher (we really need to work on improving this in physics). So perhaps dressing habits are simply different across fields.


texts: Google scholar: Search papers by all the authors with particular label

texts:
Is it possible to use google scholar to search all the papers by a list of authors who has a particular label.

Example: all the papers by the authors with label:power_electronics


texts: What should I do to maximize my chance at grad school (mathematics)?

texts:
I'm a second year student who has had a terrible semester. I don't live in a great place this year and I became really unhappy because of it. I'm also involved with too many extra curricular activities and took an extra course (biochemistry) that all together brought my GPA (and motivation) down incredibly.

I'm positive next semester will go much better, I've taken a step back and analyzed my situation and what I need to do to bring my GPA back up (I might take some summer courses too). Lucky for me, the course I'm doing terribly in isn't a math course that contributes to my major, and the other two courses I anticipate I'll end with a B/B+.

If anyone has any advice on what else I can do to make my applicant profile look better for grad school, I'd really appreciate it. I'm planning on asking professors to see if they'd be willing to take me in for research, hopefully my stellar math grades will make up for the crap ones I've got this semester.

Otherwise, I'm hoping to take the Putnam and GRE of course, but if anyone has a similar experience, I'd really appreciate hearing about it.

Thanks!


texts: How to teach students not to use other people's work in an assignment or a thesis?

texts:
When reading submissions by students, for example coding assignments or bachelor theses, I stumble upon code or text not originally written by the students themselves, usually not referenced properly (see the edit below). After being confronted with this, I often hear or read statements like:

"I did write it myself -- using a source, and making some of my own modifications."
"Wikipedia explains this topic very well. I didn't know that I am
not allowed to copy the article in my thesis. Wikipedia is
even on my list of references!"
"Our code looks similar, because he helped me with some bugs I had."
Or that plagiarism in the methodology section is small and unimportant (original version).

I usually tend to see these statements as lame excuses, because I thought it would be common sense how not to plagiarize, but maybe they are right that they really do not know it better. It seems like they think the correct way to avoid plagiarism is to modify the source even more instead of doing it on their own in the first place.

Our usual approach to tackle this problem is to state that we do not want
plagiarism, search for indications of plagiarism and then have endless
discussion about it afterwards.

There are methods to circumvent this partially, for example by providing
individualized tasks, and our university also provides workshops that teach you for example how a reference list should be built, but I am searching for ideas for the everyday teaching (programming labs, supervising students writing a thesis...) to promote the mindset that taking the text or code from someone else and modifying it is not the correct way, especially when it comes to graded submissions or publications.

EDIT: After receiving multiple comments about what I am worried about is not plagiarism, I would like to explain this aspect a little more by means of some examples:

There is no reference at all: This is clearly plagiarism, period.
The reference is not sufficient: This is the Wikipedia case from above. Having only "Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/" in the list of references without any indication which part of the text is from which article and which part is written by the student does not help at all and is in my opinion nearly as bad as having no reference at all.
There is a proper reference: As others have noted, this is not plagiarism. Still, in the context of grading, we have to look deeper:

Written exam: Everyone should agree that a student should fail an exam if he copies the solution by another student even if he writes "This solution was copied from the student sitting next to me."
Code Assignments: I had cases where students wrote "I copied this part from ..., because I was not able to do it myself and the rest of the program would not work without it". This is totally fine for me, but the student should not expect to receive points for the copied part, but only for the other parts written by himself. The same holds for code copied from other sources and modified afterwards.
Lengthy text passages: This is the example of copying significant parts of a Wikipedia article, again. But this is already covered in several other questions.


texts: Should a special issue follow the regular frequency of the journal or separately?

texts: If a quarterly journal wants to publish a special issue, should it be published as an additional issue or it should replace a regular seasonal issue? Are there any guidelines on this or it's a matter that depends on the journal's policies?


texts: How can I improve my research experience for PhD application?

texts:
It's well-known that many grad schools (especially top-ranked) require some research experience from prospective students and consider this as main criterion for accept/reject decision.

During undergraduate study I was working on my research (hadn't finished it - had solved just one particular case) - but can't say it was great research. Now I work as software developer in subdivision of national Academy of Science. My position requires only coding, no problem solving (there's no projects here requiring any fundamential research).

How can I make any research (better related to my field of interests) without being undergrad or MS student, without working in lab. Can I simply choose interesting problem (e.g. my undegrad problem), work hard to solve it and then refer to that in research statement? Who should write letter of recommendation in this case? Or I must have any advisor (who can verify my results and then write recommendation letter for me)? Can it be unofficial advisor (just researcher I know well)?


texts: Capitalising terms like “machine learning” and “natural language processing”

texts:
Currently I’m proofreading my master thesis in computer science.
I am not sure about terms machine learning or natural language processing.
Is it common to write them capitalized?


texts: How to approach potential collaborators via email?

texts: From your experience, what are some of the best ways to approach potential collaborators via email? Specially for post-docs approaching faculty members (not to join their schools/groups) but to work on possible ideas for proposals/publications. For instance, Post-doc A who works with advisor B has a good idea for research that is very far from his advisor's field. Thus, Advisor B encouraged Post-doc A to seek other collaborators. Since meeting at conferences is not possible, for some reasons, communication via email is the method of choice. How can Post-doc A approach a faculty member with his/her idea while making sure s/he gets the right to his/her ideas?


texts: Master's degree in a different field while in a PhD program?

texts:
I am finishing up my BS degree in Computer Science, and I have been accepted to a PhD program in Computing and Information Sciences. I was wondering if it would be possible (and how feasible it would be) to get a Master's degree in Mathematics during my PhD by doing math research with a professor and publishing something?

Would I have to apply and be accepted to the Master's program at my university? How likely do you think this is? I have quite quite a bit of math completed from my BS in CS; I would estimate about 18-30 credits left not including the [required] electives if I was pursuing a BS in Applied Math.


texts: How to deal with student with low self-awareness about health condition?

texts:
Summary: Student got defensive when I suggested he might have some neurologial issue that should be checked, should I apologize or how to address the issue?
I am a PhD student advising a student midway through his master. This student has always been a very slow learner which has caused me frustration because I advise a few other students in the lab. Therefore, I don't have so much time and I feel that without my help he will fail his master.
Every protocol he makes, I have to teach him 3 times because he forgets the steps, doesn't take notes and is overall disorganized.  Our advisor has taught him how to take notes a few times but this aspect has not improved. When he tries to do the protocol by himself, he messages me asking about the steps and ultimately can not do it.
In the last 2 times we met, he was limping. The first time, he said he fell off his bicycle and on the second time he said he "just fell" and his legs have a lot of bruises from these falls.
The experiments we do require very steady hands, but his hands shake a lot in a way I am not sure it is normal for a young person, so he has a lot of trouble assembling the devices we make and sometimes breaks them.
Last time we met, we were going to do a new protocol. To be sure he understood, I asked him to read it and explain the steps to me. I gave him an hour to read and when I tried to check it, he couldn't explain it and asked for 3 more minutes.
I believe some activities are harder for some people and even if it is extremely difficult for someone, I should not be the person to tell them to give up. I always consider the case the person might have some personall challenges, but I can only accomodate if I know if the person  doesn't want to do a master or if the person has some disability.
Last time he failed a protocol, I asked by message if he would like to see a neurologist for these issues and he got very defensive. This makes me angry because I think he has ADHD or essential tremor or some form of anxiety which are all treatable but prevent him from doing his work and make me loose my time.
I should not diagnose him and that is why I would like him to see a professional, so I resent him not considering this option because if he has no issues, I feel like I should give up on him and let him fail, which is against my principles and the idea of "giving up on someone" makes me feel like a failure too.
I don't know if I should treat him as he has an undiagnosed disability or someone with the opposite of an impostor syndrome (someone who really shouldn't be doing a master but doesn't realize it).
Should I continue helping him? Give up on him?


texts: Do proofs count as post-prints for sharing purposes?

texts: Some journals allow post-prints to be shared, but not the publisher's version. In these cases, can I share those proofs that are generated before the paper is published? They are not the final version that will show up on the publisher's website, but are formatted.


texts: Should I trust a study that doesn't mention sample size, but that is published in a scholarly journal?

texts:
I'm doing a bit of research on the exchange experiences of international students for my supervisor.

I came across an article in the Journal of Education for Business that is relevant to my topic: 'Confronting Diversity Issues in the Classroom with Strategies to Improve Satisfaction and Retention of International Students.' The authors conducted surveys of Business faculty and international students, and they ran some focus groups. Here's the thing, there's no indication of the sample size in the methods or results (or anywhere so I don't know whether they surveyed 10 professors or 100. The survey results are all given as percentages so there's no way to infer the scope of the study.

I am skeptical, but they were also published in a scholarly journal, so they must have passed peer review right? The information is good so if I could, I'd like to use it.


texts: Which tables should be put in the appendix?

texts:
I am currently writing my bachelor's thesis. I made a lot of experiments and I describe them as well as their result in the text. Currently, I have most tables with the results of the experiments within the main part. However, I am thinking about putting at least the bigger tables in the appendix as they make the text hard to read.

What should I put in the appendix and what should be in the main part?


texts: How does a committee select received manuscripts for poster presentation?

texts: What are the differences between papers that are chosen for presentation vs those which are accepted for poster presentation? Is one less reputable than the other one? How does a committee select received manuscripts for these two categories?


texts:
What is the best way to establish your authority as the instructor in a classroom?

I am asking from the perspective of a graduate student who will be TA-ing a large class for the first time. But I think similar advice could be said for new assistant professors who still look like students.


texts: Is teaching calculus important for getting a job as a university professor in mathematics?

texts: I am a master's student currently deciding between two different Ph. D. programs in mathematics.  The two programs have very different teaching opportunities as a grad student.  One of the two programs I'm applying to allows (and encourages) students to teach a first-year calculus course, and the other one does not.  However, I would be able to teach a college algebra or precalculus course at the other school.  Would it reflect badly on me as a job applicant if I have no experience teaching calculus?


texts: Were any Russian diploma mills once prestigious universities?

texts:
Like many countries, the Russian Federation seems to have a lot of diploma mills that grant academic degrees to anyone who will pay the enrolment fees (and possibly fulfill some nominal academic requirements, such submitting a dissertation that doesn't undergo meaningful peer review).  I understand that these diploma mills tend to be newer, private institutions established in the past quarter-century, and that the government has recently taken steps to crack down on them.
From what I've read here on the Academia Stack Exchange and elsewhere, Russian universities were once quite good, at least in STEM subjects, but overall their quality started to slip in the years following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.  This leads me to the following question.

Among those Russian institutions which could currently be regarded as diploma mills, were any of them once highly respected, bona fide universities in Soviet times?

It's not hard for me to imagine that some once-great scientific institutions may have fallen upon hard times and, drained of funding and professorial talent, resorted to selling prestigious-sounding degrees for cash.  But I don't know if that ever really happened, or if so, how often.

If a prospective new student or employee presents themselves to me with a recent degree from a university I know to have been highly regarded in the USSR, how safe is it to assume that they didn't just buy it?


texts: Is verbatim copying a data collection plan with citation considered plagiarism?

texts: Cheers, I am writing a thesis using secondary data and need to report on the sampling methods used to collect the data. Am I allowed to verbatim state what is listed in the study documentation? It is fairly complex and thus paraphrasing it changes the meaning.


texts: Citing medium of access for a book in MLA

texts:
I'm trying to write an essay with the following MLA citation in the bibliography:

  Hoffman, Conrad. In the Prison Camps of Germany: A Narrative of "Y" Service among Prisoners of War. New York: Association,  1920. Print.

After reviewing it, my teacher posted the following comment:

  Be sure to include the medium of access.

The resource in question was virtualized via Google. How do I represent the medium of access in an MLA citation for a virtualized book?


texts: Resources for students designing surveys?

texts:
Somewhat similar to this question, but looking for resources (books/articles, etc) for undergrad students who are not very familiar with designing effective surveys, (for example, one student is creating a survey in SurveyMonkey to evaluate nurses' attitudes toward their work). I'm looking for a resource to help my students develop survey questions that will return meaningful, non-biases responses.

Note: this is in the social sciences, but would welcome resources that will be helpful to undergrads in any field.


texts: Studying in the UK for a Master's degree, still worth it?

texts:
I am an Italian student who is about to get his undergrad degree in Computer Science. As I look to further my education, I'm also looking at universities outside of my own country, also in the UK. In the past years, I always thought studying there would be a great opportunity, although expensive. But now, with the Brexit looming over, I wonder if it would still be worth it.

Preface: I want to apply to some of the major universities in England (for example UCL, Edimburgh Un., Bristol Un., so on...), and of course I need to be accepted first. It seems that universities will not be raising the tuition fee amount for EU students for the academic year 2019/2020 regardless of Brexit. I have some savings which would cover for most costs.

Assuming I get accepted to an university, what I'm looking at in the UK is: one year of studying, the average tuition fee is around 13.000€ (12.000£), the housing seems to hover around 7000€(6000£) for the period I would be studying. So far I can afford this without taking loans and such. I didn't take into account living costs yet for most cities (except London, I know it really expensive in any case), but I'm covered for another 10.000€ more or less. All of my savings gone (I'm "fine" with it, I saved because I wanted to study abroad after all)

In Italy: two years of studying, about 200€ (two-hundred) per year in tuition fees, an average of 3500€ for housing (if I can get a scholarship then I would get a room for free in most unis). Living costs would not be much a problem anywhere.

Is it worth it, spending so much money and moving away? I'm very worried about Brexit. Deal, no-deal, hard Brexit, whatever. How would it affect me as a student? I'm assuming that university-wise it would not change much, but as a person living abroad in the UK? And how would it affect me as soon as I graduate? If there is a hard Brexit, would working in the UK be worth it (assuming is would be possible).

Now I can't really talk about the quality of teaching, going by the ratings, Edinburgh, UCL, and Bristol are some of the top universties in the EU. Most universities in Italy rank as "average" in most ratings. Is it such a massive difference significant for finding a job after graduating? Of course by staying home I would be giving up the networking opportunities that I would have in a UK university (which a generally very diverse), and I think that would be that biggest loss maybe.

I would like to hear some opinions on the matter. Thank you guys, have a good day.


texts: Has the popularisation of online conferencing tools made research positions at smaller universities more attractive?

texts:
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent confinements in various countries, there has been a tremendous development of the use of online collaboration tools (e.g. daily use of video conferencing with Zoom, Skype and the like, writing a paper  with co-authors for the first time using a shared environment like overleaf or google docs...).  Also, many online-only research seminars have been set up where entry is usually not restricted to members of a given university (e.g. researchseminars.org, see also the related panel discussion from mid-may 2020).
My question is: has this made positions at small research universities more attractive than they used to be given that daily interactions can now occur with lots of different colleagues worldwide(i.e. not just those of the small department) ? If so, is there any way to quantify this (amount of applications in the coming years, maybe?) Or was there already a trend for a few years?


texts: Doing research, outside of my specific interests, for a MS program

texts:
Here's a very brief description of my scenario: I have ambitions to pursue a PhD in a bit a of fringe field (vertebrate paleontology). I already have schools and faculty in mind who are doing research I am very interested in. But I find it very important to first get a MS in order to secure research experience and to possibly offset my less-than-immaculate undergrad GPA. However, the schools I'm set on for a PhD do not offer MS programs.

I am currently in the process of applying to 6 other schools for a MS, through departments of biology, zoology, and geology (My undergrad was in Bio). Only 2 of the schools contain faculty members whose interests are at least decently aligned with my specific interests. But I don't want to limit myself, so I'm applying to the other schools as well, even though their faculty members' interests may not be too relevant to my specific interests.

So what my question boils down to this: In the event the other 2 schools don't work out for me, would it be worth it to temporarily change my desired research interests to better align myself for a MS program that is at least in the same discipline?

Like I mentioned earlier, my main reasons for wanting to enroll in a MS program is to gain experience in research, and show that I can perform well at a graduate level. So my initial thought is "Yes, it is worth it". But I am also concerned about unforeseen consequences this may have. Is it common for someone to change their research interests between switching from a MS program to a PhD program? Or are there complications with that I may not be seeing, and I should stick to applying to schools that better suit my current interests?


texts: With most applications status available online, follow up or not?

texts: Many applications in academia have their status available online. Starting from school admission, faculty jobs, and research funding proposals. If there are no updates on the application, does it worth to send a follow-up email to show interest or that might have negative consequences (desperate move?).


texts:
My article was recently published after a long process of peer-review. I don't know how to introduce the new findings in mainstream science.
Can you advise me on the best way to promote my study?


texts: In a paper with a co-author who contributed one part (say, computer implementation), where should the contributions of the authors be outlined?

texts: If I write a paper, and another person provides a computer program that visualizes the idea, where should I mention the roles of the authors? Is the "acknowledgements" section appropriate for this? Or it is considered a bad tone to delineate the contributions of the co-authors?


texts: Inclusion of GRE score/completion on CV - under which heading?

texts:
First of all, yes I know people have asked questions over whether or not to include the GRE score on here, and the answer is generally no. If you're already in a (US or Canada) grad school.

I would argue my case is different. I took the GRE less than a year ago and did well, with the plan to attend the grad school at Notre Dame. I'm from the UK and ended up heading to Germany to undertake a PhD. After the PhD (if I complete) there's a high likelihood I will apply for Postdoctoral / teaching positions in the US. So my question to you all is:

Let's say I've completed (or are on track to complete) my PhD by the time potential employers at universities or research institutions in the US see my application. Would they like to see / would it help their judgement of my aptitude if my GRE score was on there? [Regarding expiry of the scores, I sat the GRE in Spring 2019 and am scheduled to finish my PhD in Summer 2022; I don't remember the expiry time]. But in my mind, it might be good to simply include the fact that I sat and completed it.
Under which heading on my CV would I include it? Education, Qualifications, Advanced Training?


texts: I have been sanctioned by my country's Higher Education Commission after being accused of plagiarism. What can I do?

texts:
I am a professor in a public university and have been accused of plagiarism by an anonymous letter to the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan.

The anonymous letter framed two charges:

It accused four scientists of submitting a plagiarized manuscript in Laser Surgery and Medicine, a prestigious US journal. As a proof the accuser attached an email of rejection on the basis of high similarity index from the editor of the journal addressed to the corresponding author. I have been listed as a co-author, whereas the email of rejection is addressed to seven email addresses.
In second allegation a reference of 2005 of the editor of a Pakistani journal is mentioned. The editor accused the corresponding author of submitting an article which was already published in a journal, i.e. attempted self-plagiarism. The manuscript was not published but the editor declared that the corresponding author and his co-authors were blacklisted from the journal without mentioning the names of co-authors. Unfortunately the corresponding author in both cases is the same person and the co-authors in both cases are unclear.

My name is listed as a co-author by the anonymous letter and I was completely unaware of both the incidents. But HEC has black-listed all four people accused, including me, for two-years.

What can I do?


texts: Is it worthwhile to find a teaching letter writer who can also speak to research abilities?

texts:
When applying for academic jobs in the US, one is often asked for a recommendation letter from someone who can attest to your teaching abilities.

Should you try to find a teaching-letter-writer who can also speak in some way to your research? (For research-focused jobs, since you get to submit a bounded number of letters, this could be a sneaky way to get more research content into the letters.) Or do search committees for research-focused jobs generally not read teaching letters deeply/at all?

I am personally in mathematics. I am assuming the answers will not be too field-dependent (please correct me if I am mistaken), so I left it out of the main body of the question.