texts: Applying to PhD position (Scandinavia): what should be included in personal letter

texts:
So I'm thinking about applying for a PhD position in Norway (life sciences). They use a jobb portal for the application, meaning that you just upload your diplomas (bachelor, master, etc.) and write a personal letter. However, I am a bit unsure of what I should include in this letter.

I have written one outcast, where I ended up writing a lot about myself, what bachelor I had and why, and also what master degree project I had, and what came out of this. Then I discussed a bit what I have learned, both my weaknesses and strengths. And finally I try to explain/summarize what laboratory methods I have used, etc.

Does anyone have suggestions of what is more or less important to include? Is it a bad idea to discuss my weaknesses as well, and how I handle them? Should the focus be more on what I know compared to the position, or should it also be a bit personal so that they get the sense of who you are (and if you will fit into the group or not)?

The thing is that most of these suggestions on the web (and here) seemed to be aimed at people who want to apply for degrees in the states, or other places with similar academic structure.  If you take your entire degree in Norway, then there is more or less nothing called internships for life sciences, nor relevant summer jobs (only for a very few lucky people, but it's only routine stuff that you don't really learn a lot from), and master thesis is normally 60 credits (6 months in lab and then writing) which is hardly enough to publish anything. It's therefore hard to know what you should write about. Is it therefore a good idea to discuss who you are, regarding my weakness and strengths compared to the experiences I have? Or should I focus on the courses that I've taken (labs etc), and other experiences outside of academia (e.g. summer job teaching children etc?)?


texts: What should I do if the professor I intended to work with has moved to a different school?

texts:
So, without giving out the details about the school. I joined a graduate program at school X, because I was really interested in work of professor Y. I met him during the graduate school visit and I accepted the offer to join school X.

Though Prof. Y did not officially accept me as his graduate student, he said come and meet me when school starts and we can figure out your research direction. Now, when I came to start at this school; I found out the professor Y has left and joined a different school Z.

I don't know what do now. My decision of joining school X was based on my intentions to work with Prof Y. Also, on top of that the school X now just has one faculty working in my interested area.

To be precise I am starting the PhD program now (Fall , 1st sem). I am not sure what my next step should be? I would appreciate any suggestions on the given situation.


texts: Is it immoral to read scientific articles if you find them as pdf on Google without having access to some official libraries?

texts: I like to learn things even outside my university degree and I wonder if it is moral to read articles found online on blogs and other sources?


texts: Becoming a professor at a liberal arts college with H1B visa

texts:
I am an international student on an F-1 visa in the United States and planning to pursue a PhD in mathematics. I've been looking into career options after graduation, and lots of people from my current undergraduate program who have gone on to complete PhD's (especially in pure math) have become professors at liberal arts colleges after graduation, with fewer of them doing postdocs or becoming R1/R2 university professors.
Considering my visa situation, would it be possible to become a professor in the future at a liberal arts college? Do they sponsor H1B visas or is this very uncommon? Could you work as a professor at a liberal arts college on an OPT or extended OPT?


texts: Quoting a typo: Do I really have to do "sic", or can I just fix the sentence?

texts:
I've got an upcoming work in which I quote a couple sentences from a scholar's book.  There's an unambiguous typo in it; the author just switched a few words around.

Do I really have to quote him verbatim, adding "sic" to point out the error?  Or can I just "quote" him, with the typo fixed?


texts: Should I answer a revise decision saying that I will?

texts: Should I answer an EiC email that communicates a revise decision and sends me the reviews, saying that I will? Or just revise an upload the revised manuscript when it is ready?


texts: Can my advisor's advisor be a reviewer for a paper written by me along with my advisor

texts: Can my advisor's advisor (he is a very well known person in the field) be a reviewer for a paper written by me along with my advisor (I mean the authors are me and my advisor). The work is extending/generalizing a work of my advisor's advisor. I mean whether conflict of interest will allow this. Thanks in advance. Any help/suggestions will be useful.


texts: Profs who have done a full year sabbatical overseas with a family: How did you make it work?

texts:
I'm curious to hear from any American professor out there who has successfully done a full-year sabbatical overseas, with his or her family along for the ride. How did you make it work for you financially and personally?

For context: I'll be eligible in 2018 for my first sabbatical in my 20-year career (I changed jobs twice and the tenure clock got reset). I would very much like to take an entire year, and I have contacts at a university in the UK (I am in the US) with mutual interest in me coming to spend a year there doing teaching and research. What I don't have is any idea how to pull this off logistically, since I have three kids ages 7, 10, and 12, and a wife with a full-time job. My university only gives half salary for a full-year sabbatical, so we would have to replace half of my salary plus all of my wife's salary (about $30K US), rent our house to cover mortgage expenses, enroll the kids in schools, rent a house in the host country, etc. I believe I would be given a small salary at the host institution if I taught a class (which I would love to do) but still, that's a lot of income to replace and I am not sure if my wife can take a year off.

I do believe the professional experience would be amazing, and it would be an incredible experience for my kids that would be absolutely worth the upheaval. But I'm at a loss to know how to make this work -- so your experiences and ideas would be most welcome.

I have looked into Fulbright fellowships, but my understanding of how those work is that you can only pick from the universities and positions that Fulbright has in a list. The institution I am referring to is not one of those. Also -- simply squirreling away money to save up for it is not an option for a number of reasons.


texts: Professor falsely accusing me of cheating in a class he does not teach, two months after end of the class. What precautions should I take?

texts:
I'm a domestic student in the US. Despite my poor English, it's my first language.

In May 2019, I finished a class on web development.
My final submission was a simple but fully functional web app.
The professor of the that class seemed happy with my work (and the work of my classmates) and gave positive feedback. No one was accused of plagiarism. It was a small class with only five people, we all know each other fairly well and I don't think anyone cheated. I know I certainly didn't.

This summer I am taking another class, which is co-taught by Prof X, who has made it clear that he thinks I am an idiot. Prof X is also one of the co-chairs of my program.

Last week, I asked Prof X a question. He scoffed at me and asked me how I completed the web-development class if I didn't already know the answer to the question.
I told him I had completed it just fine. Then he told me I couldn't possibly have completed the final project. I told him I did. I asked him the question again.
Then he asked me what my grade was in the web development class. I got an A, so I told him that. Normally I wouldn't get into it but I was happy with the grade.
I was not able to get an answer to my question.

This week I found out that Prof X is starting a formal university disciplinary process against me.

I didn't cheat and I can prove it. I have all the code I wrote for the project and it's in my GitHub in a private repo so it was all version-controlled. I also have the presentations I gave to the class that show the work in progress. The web-development class's professor would vouch for me if needed, I'm sure of that.

While I think this is likely to blow over and not result in any problems for me, what are some precautions I should take just in case?

Bringing info from OP's self-answer below up into the question:

@MichaelKay - "my guess would be that you wrote the code and got it working despite not understanding some fundamental concept of WHY it worked; and the Prof, having a more theoretical mind-set than yours, can't imagine the possibility that people can get code working without understanding the theory."

I accept that I may not understand some fundamental concepts of why it worked. However, Prof X is not a computer science professor and by his own admission is not a programmer. The class I'm taking this summer is in psychology and that is the area of research of Prof X.

"It would help to know exactly what the question was."

Sure, without going into too much detail about the coursework, I had asked for help with my presenting skills. My question did not have anything to do with programming. The class I'm taking this summer is in psychology, no programming involved.

Prof X has never criticized my coding skills, only my ability to pass the web development class based on my question about giving presentations.

@Bey - This isn't a major research university, it's a medium-sized state school. Prof X is not a department chair, he is one of the co-chairs of my program specifically, not the whole department. I can't drop the course as it is past the drop date now. But regardless, Prof X is one of three professors teaching this class and the other two seem to think highly of me so far, so I am less concerned about the grading.


texts: Do I ask the editor of the rejecting journal where to submit next?

texts: I got a rejection after one review cycle, with a comment that reviewer comments are useful and will help you in submission to another journal. Can I ask the editor's opinion on which journal to target?


texts: Do any legitimate conferences charge per publication?

texts:
In computer science, or at least my subfield of it, most research is published in conference proceedings.  The usual procedure is to write a full article, submit it to a conference, and then if it's accepted for publication, at least one author must register for the conference and present the work at a talk or poster session there.  The flat registration fee fully covers the author's attendance at the conference, and a physical or electronic copy of the proceedings, no matter how many papers he or she may be presenting.

I recently discovered a computer science conference that employs a different model:  "Authors have to pay for each accpeted paper the registration fee." [sic]  I've never heard of this sort of arrangement before.  Is this an unusual but legitimate practice in computer science (or any other field), or is this something only a disreputable or predatory conference would do?  If it's legitimate, on what basis could the organizers justify charging the full conference registration fee (in this case up to €1797 with tax) per paper rather than per attendee?


texts: How to politely point out an issue with a cited paper?

texts:
I am writing a paper that illustrates a technique that is superior to a technique presented in a separate paper that I am citing as part of my work. The technique in the prior paper is not wrong, but it has several major drawbacks that my results address.

My question is, what is a polite way to point out the problems in the initial results, and then demonstrate why my results address these problems without coming across as insulting to the original authors? I would prefer an explanation of how to actually point out their drawbacks, rather than one that avoids it altogether, because I think it allows me to give a more clear and cohesive explanation of my findings. For example, I would prefer not to resort to just saying, "My technique is , which has ,  and  advantages", because I think that pointing out drawbacks of earlier techniques will highlight and clarify the advantages of this new technique.

I would fully expect (and hope) that someone in the future would come along and point out the drawbacks of my approach, and how they improved upon it. It just seems to me that if I don't point out the drawbacks in the previous approach, I'm being both intellectually dishonest, and unfair to the reader who would have gained a deeper understanding of my paper had they had the full context.


texts: Is it appropriate to contact a professor about paid summer research before beginning PhD?

texts:
I apologize if this is specific to the field or professor, I'm still figuring out academia.StackExchange. Just flag me if it's a bad question. If it matters, I'm studying Electrical and Computer Engineering.
I've recently been accepted to some Ph.D. programs. I also happen to have no internships lined up for this summer. Is it appropriate to ask professors if I can begin (paid) research with them this summer before I begin as a Ph.D. candidate?


texts: Citing an ISO standard with multiple parts, using Harvard style?

texts:
I would like to cite an ISO standard that is split into multiple parts, I want to cite the whole standard but am unsure of how to do this in Harvard style.

ISO 14230 Road vehicles – Diagnostic systems – Keyword Protocol 2000 has 4 different parts

ISO 14230-1 Physical layer
ISO 14230-2 Data link layer
ISO 14230-3 Application layer
ISO 14230-4 Requirements for emission-related systems

In my text I would like to cite the whole document something like ISO 14230 (year) but am unsure whether this would be correct, Which year would I put the year of the first part or the last part? (The different parts of the ISO have been published or updated on different years)

My bibtex currently looks like this:

@techreport{ISO14230,
type = {Standard},
key = {ISO 14230},
year = {1999},
title = {{Road vehicles - Diagnostic systems - Keyword Protocol 2000}},
publisher = {British Standards Institution},
institution = {International Organization for Standardization},
note = {Available from: \url{https://bsol.bsigroup.com/en/}}
}


texts: Is doing research alone and publishing solo frowned upon by colleagues and superiors in engineering sciences?

texts: Research has become more and more complex and difficult to be successfully conducted by a single person. However, there are fields (such as some branches of engineering) in which a researcher can conduct pretty high standard research without wasting anybody's time or resources (for example, using opensource software on his/her own laptop over a couple of months during the weekends). Nevertheless, single author papers are very rare. How is this possible? I am asking because I believe I have produced a pretty interesting manuscript with no sort of help from anyone, but I am afraid it will be frowned upon by my past close collaborators and the PI of the project I am currently working on if I try to publish it.


texts: Etiquette of publishing (continued) research after graduation with an MS degree?

texts:
Situation
I am soon (maybe...) going to graduate with a thesis-based MS in a technical field. The past year and a half has been incredibly frustrating from a research perspective, as my advisor has insisted on telling me exactly what and how to research, essentially prohibiting me from exploring any of my ideas which are not approved by him.
I believe this is because I unfortunately chose a research area for my MS directly related to his PhD work from some time ago.
I have, for purposes of finishing my degree program, simply acquiesced to his requests in the hopes of finishing as this degree has dragged on for far longer than I want and my current goal is to simply be finished with school officially.
I am currently working full-time (after working in research on campus for ~2.5 years) and have no intent to pursue a PhD in the near future and if so, absolutely not with my current advisor.
Question
I do have personal interest in my research and can see myself exploring my own interests post-graduation, which could result in publishable material. I have no interest in giving my current advisor credit for any of this, should it happen. I also understand he likely would be pretty upset should I actually publish related to my MS work without his involvement.
Are there standard etiquette, unspoken rules, or things to be aware of, within either the academic world or research world which address this situation?
I am posting this anonymously but will be able to clarify


texts: When publication A cites B, should I cite A or B?

texts: Let's say publication A has a nice overview of a topic and cites B and C sources to back up a few important points. Should I cite A, since it provided me with B and C? Or do I have a responsibility to read these citations? What if B is a 40-page, esoteric paper that I am unlikely to read. This seems like a rabbit hole, and I'm not sure how far down my due diligence should take me.


texts: Correspondence articles, do you put them in the CV?

texts:
Some journals have correspondence articles that vary in size and format. More importantly, they can be peer-reviewed or not (even in the same journal, like Nature Genetics for instance).

Do you write these publications in the CV? If so, do you put them in a separate category or together with your regular academic publications?


texts: How to tell to my advisor that I want a co-advisor?

texts:
I am a 3rd year phd student.
I have a good human relation with my advisor, who generally leaves me a lot of freedom in deciding my work and my next steps.

However he recently started a personal business that is capturing all his time and interest. The consequences are:

He started skipping the scheduled meeting, being available more or less once each three weeks.
He rarely reads what I send him, and if he does, he does it in the minutes just before we meet.

In general I feel that he has lost any interest in my supervision, to which he dedicates just the time of our meetings.
This in generally reduces the quality of what I produce and of the directions that my research can take.

At this point, I am considering the possibility of propose him to add a co-advisor to my PhD. In fact we are having a good collaboration with another professor from a different department (biology, I am in Cs) who seems very interested to my research; but I have no idea if he might be interested in co-advising me.

Might this be a good solution? And how to propose this to him without even hurt the good relation that we have?


texts:
I just enrolled in my master's program and was fortunate enough to get into a lab.

After discussing research interest, I was offered to work on a project in collaboration with another lab. The first meeting was last week where I sat down with 2 professors to discuss the project.

I expected another meeting sometime this week (OP on Wednesday), but it's been pushed back to next Thursday. I understand this may be due to time conflicts or due to other matters.

Currently, I lack some of the domain knowledge required for the project and am trying to catch up in order to carry out the research. At what point should I start worrying about not being able to make progress on the project?

I personally would like to work on this project with decent results so that I can eventually transition over to PhD program.

Thank you.


texts: Does a research group actually review every applicant's documents in case of overwhelming number of applications?

texts:
It's like the response to my PhD application usually includes something like "The number of the applications we've received is so high that we can't accommodate all of the qualified applicants." It's like outnumbering applicants is the general reason of rejection.

Besides that, they seldom address other reasons. Some responses of this kind were due to my enquiry after application, rather than on their own initiative. Some of them didn't bother to respond even after my enquiry.

So I wonder whether a research group or school actually reviews every applicant's documents if they receive an overwhelming number of applications compared to the vacancy number. Maybe they have a way to pick some among the large number of applications — like using the filter function of a computer to pick documents containing some kind of keywords, which may not be completely faithful — to actually review to consider who to admit and that's why they don't bother to reply to all the applicants they don't admit.

For example, recently I found the reason I was not admitted for an application to a fundamental physics research group in Europe four months ago is eventually the funding is only available for a research project which is not my research interest; thus probably they even didn't review my application as they, saying they received an extraordinary number of applications, only picked those whose research interests involve that research project to review.


texts: How can one find a promising research project that doesn't just fall apart?

texts:
I'm just starting my second year of a master's program and hoping to apply to PhD programs, but I still haven't even submitted a paper for publication. I've worked on 3 research projects over the past 3 years, all of which have fallen apart for different reasons. [EDIT: They fell apart not because they didn't validate my hypothesis or something, but in two cases, because of advisor drama and in one case because another student found a significant flaw.) How can I choose my next project in such a way that minimizes the chances that it'll also just fall apart?

My experience with these abandoned projects has, I believe, taught me three things:

Vet potential advisors more thoroughly,
Don't waste time on a project you don't think is all that promising right from the get-go, and
Get on a project with a team, not one that you'll work on individually.

However, my experience has also shown me that:

It's really impossible to know what an advisor is like until you've already crashed and burned with them.
Good projects are hard, if not impossible, to come by. At the time that I worked on the projects that fell apart, they were basically my best options.
Having to find a team to work with puts you at the mercy of whether people a) have something you're even able to do, b) are actually good to work with, and c) want to work with you (unless, I guess, you're just assigned to the team by your advisor). I've already been shot down by one potential research partner.

Meanwhile, I know of an undergrad who worked on a project for one quarter and now has a publication at a major conference. Do I just have to face the fact that I'm not cut out for this research stuff? I'm starting to get the impression that I'm just a "quitter," but I feel that every time I've quit, I've done so for completely valid reasons, not just because the "going got tough."

Is there something I'm not thinking of or doing in order to find a good project and take it all the way through to completion?


texts: What are the current standards for plagiarism?

texts:
At the first day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Melania Trump gave a speech including these words:

  "From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise, that you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily lives. That is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son. And we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow. Because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them."

This seems strikingly similar to Michelle Obama's speech when her husband was nominated as the Presidential candidate about eight years earlier:

  "And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them.
  And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and to pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children -- and all children in this nation -- to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them."

Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort characterized the possibility of plagiarism as "crazy" and "just really absurd," an attempt by Clinton to "demean [Melania Trump], and take her down."  Apparently "what she did was use words that are common words;" "these were common words and values."  Gov. Christie said "There's no way that Melania Trump was plagiarizing Michelle Obama's speech." After all, most of the speech was not the same as Obama's (or Astley's).  The speaker herself claimed, "I wrote it ... with (as) little help as possible."

The campaign could have said something like "Yeah, we copied those bits; so what? Our party will unite the country behind those values this November and we can see they've got proven electoral success.  We're going to be winning so much,..."  Instead, they chose not to do that and took a strong position that this kind of copying is not plagiarism and is so far from it that even the suggestion is absurd.

In a situation unsettlingly common for modern American politics, it seems like people with opposing views don't even understand why there's any question here.  On the one hand, widely respected voices say there's no way this could even possibly be plagiarism, while others taking a different perspective think there's no way it isn't.  I wouldn't be surprised if folks from both sides vote to close this under the reasoning that there isn't even a real question about this topic, since their own view is so obviously the only right one.

Maybe standards have diverged so much because plagiarism is usually handled quietly and it's rare to have any large-scale public discussion or catalyzing event that would prompt such a discussion.  Here is such an opportunity.

If it's now "crazy" or "just really absurd" to think that this might be plagiarism, what are the standards?

They've apparently shifted (or gotten on a plane and flown halfway around the world) quite a bit since I learned them.  If I'm going to be writing, reviewing, and grading work of politically diverse authors, I need to learn the modern standards, quickly.

So, what are the standards, especially around reusing "common words and values," tweaks to original phrasings, and percentages of a work that's mostly original?
Are they a lot different with an audience tens of millions strong than when it's a handful of specialists?  If so, how?


texts:
I've been accepted to Scuola Matematica Interuniversitaria, Perugia, a summer school for graduate students in mathematics (received the acceptance email on the 5th of July).
I've sent them an email (on the 5th of July) asking about the financial details and the arrival date in order to be able to give my home university an estimate of the costs (they are partiality funding me).
I have received no answer from them. I cannot send the enrolment fee and buy my ticket until I am sure I will receive enough financial aid from my home university to afford attending the summer school and my home university can't tell me if they will be able to help if they don't know the costs.
I've asked the summer school about the costs immediately after sending my application and I've been answered that my e-mail has been forwarded to someone who can answer my questions but they never did. After getting accepted I asked again and now I am waiting.
Is there anything else I could do?

I want to add that I would really like to attend the summer school. I understand that is a good learning opportunity for graduate students (I am a second year undergraduate student).


texts: Would getting started in research in something outside my specific interest hurt my ability to research in that area later?

texts:
I'm a CS undergrad who wants to eventually do research in machine learning. My university has plenty of machine learning labs, but they are quite competitive. At the moment, I have a few opportunities to get started in research. One is a project in the electrical engineering department that involves optimization algorithms for Cyber Physical Systems. One is a bio lab looking for someone to work on software for analyzing signals of particular types of fish. Another is working on scientific computing for a physics lab.

I would not be opposed to getting my first shot at research in any of these places, but would getting too involved outside the CS department actually hurt my chances of getting a chance to research in Machine Learning later? Or would having some type of research experience raise my chances for these competitive labs?


texts: Re-posted faculty position. Worth waiting? (and two-body problem...)

texts:
I applied for a faculty position at a state research (not so intensive) school in June. Since the position requires both a clinical degree and a research degree, their application pool is not likely to be large.

Then, in mid-August, I emailed a search committee chair to update my CV with a new publication, and the person said he would be in touch soon...  At first, I got optimistic when I read his reply, but decided not to think much about it.

In late August, they re-posted the position on their website...  It was the same posting, so my application materials were still there...  I thought I would get at least a phone interview opportunity but haven't heard from them since I sent my updated CV.  It's likely that they think I am not good enough for their position or do not meet their requirements...? Or internal candidate? or preferred candidate?

I really want to get this position...and I don't know what to do at this point.  My spouse is also in academia, and this might be my only chance to live with him...  Is there a chance that I hear from them this month or November?  Or should I just stop hoping and try to find jobs out of state...


texts: What skills are needed to sustain a research group?

texts:
As a young academic, I am struggling to set up a research group that produces papers or proposals on a regular and sustainable basis. I had my share of PhD students, but nothing structured in a proper group or centre. I am also aware that when an academic starts collaborating with others, s/he sooner or later realises that several skills are needed to achieve a quality submission, and that not everyone can excel in all the needed skills.

What type of skills are needed in a cohesive academic group or research centre?


texts: Should arguments based on the proponent's gender be used in a grant proposal?

texts:
Recently I have reviewed a project from a female proponent. Among the scientific content there was a section about the under-representation of women in a specific field - saying that, on top of all the scientific justifications for the project, it should also be approved to support women in that field.

I know that in some countries, e.g. Germany, gender is often considered a tiebreaker as affirmative action in order to support women in science. However, in this case there is no such policy in the call guidelines.

Is this kind of argument appropriate in a grant proposal? Should it be a criterion to be taken into consideration?


texts: From a historical perspective, when did impact factors become so important?

texts:
This is a question on the historicity of impact factors for journals. There are hundreds of questions and websites on the impact factor of journals, or journal rankings (and fake rankings and impact factors).

I was wondering:

When did rankings and impact factors become so prominent in academia?
Was there a general and widely shared decision by national governments or scientific societies that now, impact factors are the most important aspect for research and publications?
Was there a lack of clarity or even dissatisfaction with journals, publishers etc. among academic scholars that they pushed for certain (quantitative) standards?

Any research study or own experience is very welcome!


texts: Is it a scientific misconduct to change a variable or a function name when citing a math paper? The standard name of a function is S, but the author called it E. I want to cite his work, while I use the standard S.


texts: How good is the idea to do MBA after an MS

texts: I am currently in my senior year of engineering in Computer Engineering from India. I plan to do a Master of Science (preferably non-thesis) in the field of Computer Engineering from the US this fall. In fact, I've secured admission at the University of Illinois, Chicago. I, however, was planning to do an MBA in Finance directly after my Masters, or maybe after gaining some work experience after the Masters, since I also like finance. How good or bad is the idea?


texts: Does anybody have some research papers writing advices?

texts: I am writing a biology research paper. My topic is related to organs transplantation (current issues, ethical problems etc). I have written a draft and showed it to my professor. She was satisfied with the content and research, but she told that I need to work on my writing. According to her, I didn't follow the structure, but I have no idea how am I supposed to build my research paper. Can somebody give me suggestions or recommend me articles about research paper writing?


texts: How to get letter of recommendation from current advisor if transferring PhD to another university for family reasons?

texts:
I've been in engineering PhD for 6 months and now considering transferring to another university. The reason is not academic, but family -- I'm in a long distance relationship with my boyfriend. We're both serious about this relationship and plan to get married. However if I keep doing my PhD in my current university, we'll be separated for many years

I am considering transferring my PhD to university closer to him. My questions are:

Should I contact the potential future advisor first before telling my boss I'm leaving?
When should I talk to current advisor and how (focus on my family reason?)
Is it possible to get his letter of recommendation, or I'll screw up this relationship entirely?
will it possible to transfer to an university better than my current one? (honestly getting to a higher place is not my purpose, believe or not, but around my BF's place are almost all very good universities (1 tier higher than my current one), which actually refused me when I applied them last time. So I'm very concerned if I could be able to enter them now)

One thing that comfort me is that because I work hard, my current advisor seems have good impression on me. But I don't know whether this will help. If anyone have any ideas, would you share your suggestion?


texts: Requesting feedback from a postdoctoral application

texts:
I have recently applied to a postdoctoral position, I reached the interview stage (which took place by video conferencing with the group leader and a postdoc), and was ultimately rejected.

I would like to ask for some brief feedback so that I might be able to improve my future applications, but the only email exchanges I have had were with the HR/recruitment people during the application process (it is a nameless 'recruitment' office that got back to me with the outcome of the application).

Which route would be best for asking for feedback: -

(i) email the HR/recruitment people to ask if the group leader would be willing to provide some brief feedback

(ii) email the group leader directly (as I have no previous email contact with them, I would need to find the email address from their website)

Some pitfalls I can see to asking the HR people are: (a) that they may just not pass on the message if they are busy; (b) it could be more work for the group leader if not done directly with them; (c) they could ask the group leader in person who then forgets; (d) I am also a little worried that the HR office may pass on the message in a not very kind way (e.g. "X candidate wants to know if you can send feedback" - rather than the more polite email I could send directly thanking them for their time); (e) if there is any policy of not allowing panels to provide feedback.

Some pitfalls I can see to asking the group leader directly are: (a) it may not be taken very well since there is an online system in place and a recruitment person who manages the application process; (b) they may be even more busy than usual and dislike the direct interruption; (c) as I don't have their email address I would have to find this online, which doesn't look very casual - I would prefer not to come across as someone angrily looking for an explanation for why they have been rejected, I am genuinely just trying to improve my future chances of finding a position.

I am sure there are many other factors I haven't considered.

Finally, please can someone suggest any tips they may have for writing a request for feedback? What format of email would be least irritating for an interviewer aside from just being brief? Does anyone have direct experience of this (from either side)? Even anecdotes of things you may have received in the past that were particularly good/bad may be helpful.


texts: Use of QR codes in academic publications

texts:
Modern academic publishing is based to a large extent on the use of the Internet, and many of us consult articles or even books mostly in PDF format rather than hard copy. URL links to both reference material, and data sets or complementary material the author makes available to the reader are becoming commonplace, and are easily accessed from within a document that is consulted in electronic form.

However, in some cases the document can only be accessed in paper, which makes following a URL awkward. Examples of this could be some editions of books available only in paper form, or CVs (as discussed in this question on SE: Is it advisable to have many hyperlinks in an academic CV?).

In similar circumstances, both the manufacturing industries and the marketing sector tend to use QR codes that are easily scannable from a mobile device, such as this one containing the URL of Academia on SE:

To date, I have personally never seen the use of QR codes in academia.

My question is therefore: what major factors make the use of this technology less likely to become commonplace in academic publishing - or more likely, as the case may be?

Edit: thanks to a comment below, my attention has been brought to some scientific books by Elsevier and O'Reilly that do contain QR-codes to enrich content with online material. In both cases, the field were Computer Science and Technology in Medicine.


texts: Graduate school needs my masters grade but I have no grades yet!

texts: I've started my graduate school applications for the next year. When I try to provide my university information I fill in a form with my grades. Since I am doing an Msc course this year I have not yet received any grades. I can't follow through the application without them though. Should I just insert 0 and explain that later?


texts: Do I point to mistakes in a paper if I cannot contact the authors?

texts:
I am about to submit a manuscript in which I point to some methodological errors that I found in some literature. The error may significantly change part of the results and conclusions if those papers.

I thought I should first contact the authors of those papers to discuss the issue with them. Especially, to check if they actually made that mistake or if their methods were not detailed enough.

However, most of the authors that I tried to contact did not answer back (I checked their actual email address) or did not remember the details of their analysis.

What should I do? Am I "allowed" to point to some papers that I repute wrong only on the base of the details given in their method section?


texts: Talking about career plans given short supply of academic jobs?

texts:
Context: I am asked for my career plans and aims for development after graduation if I were accepted into a PhD program in pure mathematics under government funding from Country A.

Dumb question: I want to go into academia after, but given that apparently academic jobs are in short supply especially in theoretical fields or something, how should I talk about my plans after the would-be PhD program?

I have 2 ideas with my anticipated pros and cons:

Idea 1:

Say only that I want to go into academia after.

Con: Might be seen as immature like I don't have any backup plans, and I'm not aware of academic job shortages.
Pro: Hopefully seen as committed to doing a PhD

Idea 2:

Say that I want to go into academia after but also [insert backup plan here which is based on my current career ever since I graduated master's in applied mathematics last year].

Con: Might be seen as not that committed to doing a PhD or even not that sure of what I want to do after assuming the former isn't an issue
Pro: Might be seen as mature like I'm aware of academic job shortages.
Another pro: How I would state the backup plan might help convince Country A government that I am very interested to pursue PhD studies in Country A (well, besides, being a local applicant)


texts: When and how should you talk to a professor if you think you deserve a different grade?

texts:
I recently was returned a midterm I wrote. One question I interpreted differently than what was intended. As a result I got 0.5/3 marks, which isn't a big deal but considering the test was only out of 15, it adds up. Due to timing conflicts I'm unable to meet the prof during office hours, but have scheduled to talk to him after next class.

I'm getting a bit stressed out, I'm uncertain what to say and what to ask for. If I had interpreted the question he intended it to, then I'm sure I could have gotten full marks. Any suggestions? This is the second time it happened but the first was only for 0.5 mark, so I let it slide.

The question had to do with output of a program and asked "what are all possible outputs of the program?" and I wrote down the correct answer, but what he was getting at was if the program was rerun the output may be in a different order so he wanted the answer to have all possible permutations.

Does anyone have recomendations on how many marks to ask for or have a policy on when to talk to the prof when you think you deserve more marks?


texts: What factors should I consider when deciding between a general MBA vs. a specialized MBA?

texts:
I'm currently in the process of applying to business schools and I notice that nearly all of them have general MBA degrees and MBA degrees with different areas of concentration or specialization. I currently work in the IT industry doing some project management and customer support, though I'm on the fence about whether the IT industry is where I'd like to stay.

I'm going back and forth between the general MBA and something like an MBA in IT Management, but I'm having trouble deciding. What are some things I can consider during this process so that I can make a good decision and not get a degree that's either too general to be useful or too specific to give me options?


texts: Is it necessary to double major with math to be considered for theor. physics grad school?

texts:
So here is my situation.

I'm an undergraduate physics major right now (second-year) at a moderately-good university. I've experienced a bit of analysis and algebra (and almost nothing in topology, which I should change), and I like it (I do study maths on my own time - I like [complex] analysis best). However, my style and preference gears me more towards physics than anything. I've experienced working under an experimental nuclear physics group for some time now, and I love it, but it has shown me that I'm probably better suited with theoretical physics. I'm not saying that because I've proven to some people to be a genius at mathematical physics [maybe I could become one :-) ], but rather because that's where my interests seem to lie.

But I've noticed something. A lot of smart students here and theoretical physics professors at various universities come from a double math & physics backgrounds (a few just from math), and I was wondering whether I should go down that same path. I've avoided it so far because I felt that with the topics I've learned on my own, I've gone more in depth and personal as compared with my classmates, and so I feel that it is in my best interest to continue to do so with my math courses. Also, I feel that getting the math degree will only take up time and my full-attention from my normally planned physics track.

On the other hand, I feel that I could probably learn quite a few things from my math classes that I wouldn't learn otherwise. Professors already know the material they're teaching, so they typically know what to teach you. On top of that, if I wanted to enter a theoretical physics program for graduate school, I might have more of a chance of being considered with that extra degree.

Does getting a double degree in mathematics and physics better increase your chances of being admitted to a graduate program in theoretical/mathematical physics?


texts:
I am posting here for the first time. I am Canadian 6th year grad student in USA. My adviser is rushing my graduation, which is a good thing. But, he is telling that he has ran out of funding and want me to graduate in February with whatever I have done so far. Also, he has clearly said that he does not have any funds to support me beyond February, but he will be happy to be my adviser, but cannot offer any financial support. This came as a bit of a surprise to me, that too this late. Also, because of the extreme pressure to finish the projects, graduate and find jobs, I am undergoing chronic depression, insomnia and anxiety disorder. With this medical condition, it has become even more difficult for me to focus on my thesis.

I am partly supported by a university fellowship of which only one semester is remaining, which will be applied for the Spring 2015 semester, if I continue with my current plan of graduation in February 2015.

At this point, I do not have any job offer, just started applying for jobs last week. With my wife and kid also living with me, it would be very hard to continue to stay in USA without any financial support. I have two options now:

Go ahead with finishing the thesis and aim for Feb-Apr 2015 graduation. Pros: If all goes well, I will get my degree in about 3-4 months for which I have toiled for the last 6 years; the duration of degree will be much shorter, a positive?. Cons: I do not know if I can get job in about 4-5 months in USA as I will have to worry about the OPT; will have to do a sloppy thesis; no time to publish 1-2 papers for which I have done 90% of the work; may have to spend some money out of my own pocket.
Due to medical condition, I can take medical leave for up to a year. So, take medical leave for the Spring 2015 semester, move back to Canada where I can cover my family living expenses without much hassle, use the summer to write up my thesis and defend in Fall 2015. Pros: I will get much more time to apply for jobs, will not be rushed due to OPT; can do some more good research and do a better thesis; write some more papers in the mean time, which will help me during job hunt; can better deal with stress and anxiety Cons: A delay in graduation, some costs of moving my family back and forth, the "unknown" factor which I am not able to account right now, which can hinder me from getting my degree.

By and large, what should go into my thesis is decided and I have talked clearly about it with my adviser. So, there is not much uncertainty about getting the thesis ready. Also, if I go on a medical leave, my one semester fellowship will be applied when I come back. Plus, if I have some job offer, I can also continue as a non-resident student and finish my degree as adviser is okay with being my adviser, just that he really does not have any funds right now.

I would like to get opinions from as many people as possible. Any input will be highly appreciated.


texts:
It just came to my mind, currently if one wants to obtain an
academic degree one must to do a thesis. This is a widely accepted
method to prove the knowledge of certain academic level, sort to say.
But my questions are, where this method was originated? Which historical
or social circumstances originated it? Is there any philosophical background?


texts: Habilitation in Germany as a nonresident

texts:
I am a young scholar about to complete my PhD. in Finance from an Asian country. I am interested to know whether it is possible to pursue Habilitation from Germany (or any other European country) while working as an Assitant Professor in my home country. I have the following subqueries:

Is it possible to do the Habilitation similar to a traditional part-time individual doctorate while working in the industry which provides a lot of flexibility?
I also came to know that Habilitation can be completed through a series of good publications in a specific field. Is this route possible while not working in Germany or any other European country?
Are publications during Postdoctoral Fellowships in Germany or any other European country (with funding usually lasting for 2/3 years) considered for Habilitation through cumulative publications route?

Although I want to pursue habilitation for its own sake, I am  also interested in permanent posts as a Professor in Germany. Apart from Habilitation, one way is to work as a Junior Professor, which is temporary in nature( usually lasting for 6 years). In my home country, it is much easier to get a permanent post as a Professor, usually promoted from Assistant Professor rank (also permanent in nature). Thanks


texts: How to politely turn down others' request for collaboration?

texts: When I first started my PhD, I would grab every opportunity to collaborate with others because there weren't many and I wanted to learn as much as possible. However, as I become a senior PhD student, more and more people invited me to collaborate with them which can be quite overwhelming sometimes and I found it hard to turn down these requests. I wonder if there is any way to politely turn down these requests, especially ones from researchers senior to me?


texts: My PI is publicly humiliating me: Why would a PI do this and what can I do to mitigate the damage from this?

texts:
My principal investigator (PI) and I tend to get along pretty well; however, he is often moody and has some quirks about him. Sometimes this means that he is in a bad mood and will take it out on me. He is also very gossipy about other people at the university. Nonetheless, he thinks I am doing very well in our lab and in the Biochemistry PhD program. I always keep my cool with him, even if he is stressing me the f*ck out.
However, there are times in which he really likes to pick on me in front of other students/faculty. It is almost exclusively when he has an audience. Sometimes it is benign - a funny joke, or something lighthearted. But other times, it really bothers me and I get extremely embarrassed. The times when it bothers me is when he makes a disparaging remark about something I said (even though he agrees with me), or will embarrass me when I am training an undergraduate research assistant on a protocol in our lab.
He has told me before that I am awkward, which makes me incredibly anxious to talk to him. He is one of those people with zero filter, but am I right in thinking that there has to be a limit to this? Again, he only really embarrasses me in front of other people. When we talk one-on-one, everything seems fine; he will even occasionally tell me that I am talented. I mean, he does talk over me at times, but it is perhaps not abnormal for a male superior-female subordinate mentorship. I am a pretty thick-skinned person, but these interactions are exhausting, anxiety-provoking, and incredibly distracting from how I want to be spending my time (i.e. on research/coursework).
Why is he acting like this? What could I do to mitigate the damage from this? Keep in mind that, ironically, he is very sensitive. I have addressed something with him before and he took it as a personal attack, which indicates that he is often anxious and paranoid himself. Thus, my options are literally to just deal with these feelings in private and push through. This is what I have been doing, but it is starting to get old.


texts: Do I need to tell my rec letter provider that I have language disorder?

texts:
This might be a weird question. But here we go.

I'm applying for business/data-related master programs.

I'm a stutter with a certified moderate language disorder.

Do I need to tell my professors (who provides recommendation letters) the fact of my disorder?

I'm afraid that the recommendation letter or the questions asked by the master programs require my professors to evaluate my oral English level. If they don't know this fact, they may attribute my stutter to my English (I'm an international student btw).

Added: is it common that the professors are required by master programs to evaluate the students' oral English skills in RL.


texts: How should I explain my gap year in graduate admissions?

texts:
I have a bachelors in physics and math (graduated in may of this year), and have been struggling within myself to figure out if I would like to pursue a graduate degree in physics or engineering.  During my time as an undergrad, my physics GRE scores were terrible.  I had so much work and found myself trying to get good grades that I didn't fully comprehend all of the material I was being taught; it was more of a study-and-get-the-grade kind of thing.  Not that i'm bad at physics, but the grade was important at the time and I felt swamped.

So I decided to not apply to grad schools until I could get my PGRE score up.  Fast forward to this summer, and my score has improved dramatically.  It is now at 800 which is fairly respectable as far as I can tell.  The problem is, I haven't really done anything during that time except study for that test and I am afraid the schools I am applying to for physics will think poorly of me for this.  I plan to apply to jobs and internships while waiting to hear back from these schools, however, so as not to waste away doing nothing and to get some work experience.

What should I put in my statement of purpose to improve the way those reading it view me, if anything?


texts: Is there a limit to the number of rounds in a peer-review process?

texts:
I was reading about what makes reasonable grounds for rejecting a paper and came across the following statement:

  ... two major revisions are not allowed.

Does it mean that only two rounds of review at the maximum are allowed? Is this always the case? I do remember recommending major revision twice, and indeed the editor stopped the review process and decided to accept the paper without the authors having to revise their paper the second time.


texts: In the absense of writing experience in my target field, how do I find assignments and evaluate them?

texts:
A while ago I posted a question wondering if a CS major would be accepted into a Political Science MSc programme and it turned out possible. I am starting next October.

My goal is now to get into an interdisciplinary PhD, I have already scoped some and most of my targets ask me to demonstrate my writing competency as part of their application process. I will also have to write research proposals.

I don't have high steem for my writing, as I have not produced many essays in my undergraduate program. The application deadlines are as early as December and a good proposal can take months to write.

What guidance can I follow to start writing? Especially when I have no assignents and I have to be self-driven. Should I aim to write for a specific online outlet? Even then, how can I get feedback so I can improve faster?

I'm not sure this is the right place to ask, but I don't know where else to turn.


texts:
Recently our paper was rejected in an journal.

Now, after two resubmissions a Reviewer was not satisfied and the editor sent it to an independent reviewer, who was satisfied with our previous revisions.

But now he asked a new set of comments and thereby the editor rejected it.
Our main objection is that the new comments were based on a comment bya  Reviewer and was already answered in the first resubmission.

So is there any chance for rebuttal as the editor already gave 2 chances for resubmission before? and as the independent reviewer has misunderstood the work and is asking the same question?


texts: Mixed use of titles in dissertation acknowledgment

texts:
I would of course use Prof. and Dr. in front of the names of committee members and other professors who I call by Prof. and Dr. in real life. But what about your “peers” who have doctorates?
For example, in the first paragraph I thank my advisor,  Prof. John Smith.... then in the next paragraph I mention specific people who helped me including Dr. Wang (a mentor at a different school) and Johny McLovin (who now has a PhD but worked with me as a grad student in the same lab). Then in the next paragraph I thank my friends and most of them have doctorates also but I’d just put their first names only. It kind of makes sense to me but the inconsistency bothers me. Most importantly, would it be rude to do this? Because in the same sentence I am referring to someone as a doctor and the other as not when both have doctorates purely based on my personal relationship.
On the other hand, I have read an acknowledgment that included titles in front of every single name (including Mr. and Ms.) and it bothered me a lot.
And no, I cannot just leave out the titles altogether because it’s something not culturally acceptable at my institution.
I have seen similar questions here before but none of them were directly applicable to my situation.


texts: Can individual sharing of a published article form a copyright violation?

texts:
It is very common for researchers to share published articles upon individual requests, and many copyright transfer statements explicitly allow this.

In the case that the copyright transfer statement does not explicitly allow sharing the published article in any form, is it allowed to share a published article upon request? So suppose that the copyright statement is completely mute on the topic, it simply transfers all copyright aspects to the publisher, except for intellectual property etc. In that case, as the author of the article, is it even forbidden to mail a version to a fellow researcher, or a co-author of the article?

Does this also hold for the pre-print version? For an early draft?


texts: Adjective order in academia: "Italian young adults"

texts:
It's always been my understanding that age precedes nationality in standard adjective order (see, for example, The Royal Order of Adjectives); thus, it should be "young Italian adults" rather than "Italian young adults".

However, I'm revising a demographic study and decided to double check this by searching Google Scholar. To my surprise, I found 539 uses of the latter vs. 217 of the former. Regular Google delivers 88,700(!) vs. 1830, and I get similar results with various nationalities and also from Google Books (though not from the news).

I don't think such a large discrepancy could be ascribed to overall misuse, and the "incorrect" order occurs mostly in academic texts. So, my questions:

Is there some reason why the order of age and origin adjectives
should be reversed in academic (specifically demographic) texts?
Is that really the standard?


texts: What should you do when your professor does not pay you for completed research work?

texts:
I had an oral agreement with a supervisor that I was to complete research work for him. We established how many hours I was to work, and my hourly rate, when the work was to be done, etc. I completed the work, sent it off to him, he gave me some feedback and asked me to correct some citations and so, I incorporated the feedback, made fixes to my citations and then never heard back from him.
I recently emailed him about not being paid; he told me that he was not able to use the work and instead offered to find me alternative funding opportunities in the future. When I insisted that I did the work and deserved to get paid for my time, he threatened to report me for academic integrity issues. I'm only a Master's student, and this is my first research assistant position. Is this normal? Who should I speak to about this?
I am not part of a union, and my supervisor approached me to do this work. I do have email correspondence that confirms we have an agreement, but not confirming the specific terms (e.g. he wrote emails where he told me, submit your work and your time/hour log and I will pay you). He later revealed he had used the grant money to pay a different student to do different work.
The oral contract was made in front of others. It was in a lab setting, so others definitely overheard. Another clarification was that another student was to take over the work I began because I was going on an exchange to a different school. So there is more proof of a contract existing between my supervisor and me. My #1 concern is the threat of reporting me for academic integrity. My #2 concern is getting paid. I've contacted my faculty and was advised to report this to the dean of my faculty, which I'll be doing shortly.


texts: Using initials to promote gender neutrality when publishing as a female?

texts:
As I work my way through my academic career (second-year PhD student), I am confronted with many stats and instances of gender bias in the publishing process (see references below). Of course for double-blind peer reviews, this is not an issue, but for others it may be. I’ve also seen stats that indicate that female first-authored papers receive fewer citations, even after taking into account the historical gender lag of fewer female publications.

So the question I’ve been pondering is: Should I use my initials (first and middle) when submitting papers as an attempt to introduce gender neutrality into my work? I am lucky that I have a relatively unique last name (nothing like Smith) so I’m not very worried about identity.

Is this a good idea? Are there any further pros and cons I may not have considered?

References

Michał Krawczyk and Magdalena Smyk – Author׳s gender affects rating of academic articles: Evidence from an incentivized, deception-free laboratory experiment
Erin Hengel – Publishing while Female. Are women held to higher standards? Evidence from peer review
Rachael Pells – Understanding the Extent of Gender Gap in Citations


texts: Retaking a Course in Phd that I Took During the Master

texts:
I took a course in my Master degree and I got (B). After I got my degree I applied to the Phd program in the same campus. When I started my Phd program I retook the course and got (A). I submitted my plan of study for the PhD and it was approved by my department. However, the grad school rejected my plan of study and wants me to use the old grade since it was used in the Master. They don't want me to use the new grade at all. The (B) will affect  my GPA and I'd have to take another course to meet the required GPA.

I want to know, why the grad school rejected the repeated course? and what should I do?


texts: What are the obligations of a principal investigator?

texts:
Obviously a Principal Investigator (PI) has many responsibilities toward his or her subordinates, including mentoring them, helping to direct their research, providing funding, and resolving difficulties.

But, in practice, it is often possible for a PI to avoid many of these responsibilities and "get away with it". By this I mean that failing to address these responsibilities has little effect on the PI's own career.

For example, it is often understood that a PI should have some input when PhD students are writing manuscripts. A PI with a large lab may have a policy of leaving students to fend for themselves in this regard. With some intelligent selection at the hiring stage, this PI may ensure that most of his or her students are already capable of writing papers with no assistance. The few that slip through will fail to have a productive PhD, but this will not directly impact the PIs career all that much.

Similarly, a PI may be unable to come up with good research ideas, but this can be compensated for by actively seeking out graduate students who do have good ideas. Since it is rare to explicitly state in science who had the idea for a project, the PIs CV will still look good thanks to the papers the students end up publishing.

However, an example of an obligation is applying for grants. If a PI is ineffective at securing grants, it is very unlikely that their career will not suffer. Students and junior lab personnel simply don't have the knowledge or experience needed to put together a good application, and while post-docs can secure their own funding, the majority of funds in a typical lab is brought in by the PI. If the PI decides to not bother himself with obtaining funding, the lab will become financially hamstrung, research will suffer, and even to a casual outside observer it will be obvious that the scientific output of the research group is appreciably constrained.

My question is, which responsibilities cannot be avoided by a PI without necessarily producing severe negative consequences? If after a cursory examination, a PI's career seems to be going well, which responsibilities can we be certain have not been neglected?


texts: Payment for publication after graduation

texts:
I recently finished my PhD and later a paper of mine (resulted from PhD work) got accepted. There are some charges for publishing, and my supervisor now wants me and other research collaborators to contribute to the payment equally.

Is this normal?

As far as I know, PhD students are not expected to pay for publication, neither are research collaborators.  Any experiences with similar situations?

Thank you

Edit:  Regarding collaboration, my research was not part of a collaborative project. In fact, I had a scholarship from the university and was doing my research with minimal supervision. At some stage, my supervisor wasn't able to help me, and then I had to establish collaboration with other institutions. My research collaborators contributed to my research more than my supervisor did and I find it odd to ask them to pay.


texts: Ethical nature of multiple post-doctoral applications

texts:
I am a student applying in different places for postdoctoral positions and asking various faculties for position. It happened that, due to limited resources, I am not getting much response. However more than one faculty (from different institutes all in Europe) gave positive responses. The caveat is, I have to jointly write a research proposal with them for grant application/some fellowships. Whatever be the outcome of the proposal(s), I am starting my collaboration with them soon.

My dilemma starts here. The fellowships each one suggested are very competitive. Those faculties themselves informed me that getting those fellowships became more difficult in the present financial situation. Now is it ethical to do apply for multiple funding agencies in this way? Fortunately, each of them suggested applying for different fellowships. I am slightly afraid of the morality of the whole issue (like: what if all of the projects get funding). Please help.


texts: Is it advisable to use formal citations in a statement of purpose?

texts: In my statement of purpose, I am using certain arguments by scholars of my field (IR). Will it be advisable to use referencing, or might it be to my disadvantage as an unnecessary attempt to boast on my knowledge in that field.


texts: How to cite a deck of powerpoint slides with two titles?

texts: I need to cite a deck of powerpoint slides (in APA style). However, the complication comes because the deck of slides which I found online is a compilation of two presentations - there are two titles, with two presenters on the title slide. Has anyone got any advice on citing this source?


texts: updating paper after conference/workshop

texts:
is it possible to update (minor edits) a paper after a conference/workshop before proceedings?

If that's not possible, why is that?, I'm just trying to understand the rationale, not critiquing.   Aren't workshops/conference mechanisms to get feedback?
The paper acceptance has already provided a peer review mechanism; but isn't the conference just another mechanism?  questions arising here, might provide means to clarify some concepts to a wider audience?  is this to avoid a loop of revision, and instead use the mechanism of a new paper?


texts: Is it appropriate to ask for letters of recommendation from professor on maternity leave?

texts:
A professor who knows me very well is currently on maternity leave (her baby arrived in late April).

This professor has known me for 4 years (since first semester of undergraduate career) and also advised my undergraduate thesis (2 semesters).  In addition I also did an independent study course with her, and she has provided me funding from her own grant money in the past in order to pay for me attending academic conferences.

I am planning to apply to several master's programs, possibly PhD, in addition to other things that require such letters (Teach for America, Summer School, etc.).  All of these things require letters of recommendation.

Is it appropriate to ask her for letters of recommendation on her maternity leave, and if so, how should the request be phrased in email?


texts: What are some specific benefits of having my name as a coauthor on a research paper as an undergrad?

texts:
I'm finishing up my B.S. in mathematics right now, and I was approached by a former professor with whom I've kept a good relationship, and she asked if I would be able/willing to help her and another professor in a research project they are working on.

My role is pretty purely computational, basically just implementing their mathematical work in code, but she said that it's enough to have me listed as a coauthor on the paper, considering that things don't go south (which, they aren't expected to).

Besides having Erdos number 4 (hey, pretty good for a fresh bachelor's degree), are there some actual benefits that would go along with having my name on a publication?

Just to be clear, this is not an undergrad research opportunity or project, nor do I think(?) it is considered a graduate paper. They are both published professors working on this as a team.

Could this help me get into a better grad school (rather-- master's program) than I would otherwise be able to (pretty average GPA, to be honest)? Help secure some funding? etc


texts: What can I do if I find errors in someone's thesis?

texts: I was browsing someone's thesis from a US university. I found several typos and missing (incomplete) sections. There was no plagiarism and dishonesty though. What would happen if I write to their advisor? Can some action be taken or is it a closed case once a thesis is accepted and signed.


texts: What concerns does a scientist have in studying their own data?

texts:
As a child, I participated in a longitudinal study. That study led me to the field I'm in now, and I have the opportunity to potentially work with a dataset that has a high probability of containing my data from back then.

Since I happen to know my own gender, birthdate, and disease status, I could well identify myself if I got access.

Note that the PI that would be providing me access is not the PI whom I participated with.

Are there any issues with this? Or, are there any perceived issues that might worry someone involved? Do I have any obligation to disclose this?


texts: How to demonstrate the ability to represent your university at international meetings? (postdoc application form)

texts:
I was applying for a postdoc position and I came across this sentence in the online supporting statement.

Ability to represent X University and the consortium at national and
international meetings related to the project.

I really don't know to answer this without being a bit repetitive. Does this mean I should talk about my past presentations at international conferences? Because I have already talked about this before. I was also a member of the organizing committee of many scientific events, but this highlights my ability to work collaboratively within a team. Any ideas?


texts: How to handle reviewer who is unhappy their recommendation wasn't followed?

texts:
Inspired by this incident.

The story is a long one, and it’s a bit complicated. The peer reviewer, based at the Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry, had served as a peer-reviewer for a poorly-handled review process earlier in 2015. He peer reviewed a manuscript and recommended that the paper be resubmitted after it was improved.
The paper went through two rounds of review and re-submit, but each time the paper’s scientific flaws were not addressed.
Next, the peer reviewer recommended that the paper be rejected. Following this, he received no communication from the journal or editor. Later, he discovered that [journal] had published the paper, in its original form, with the flaws unaddressed.
The peer reviewer asked to communicate with the other peer reviewers and the associate editor who accepted the paper for the journal, but [publisher] has so far refused to let him read the other reviews or provide contact information for the others.

(I obscured the name of the journal/publisher since it's irrelevant to the question)
In situations such as this one, should the journal:

Show the reviewer the other reviewers' reviews?
Reveal the identity of the other reviewers and/or associate editor to the reviewer and let them talk? (problem is the other people might not be very interested, since it is drama)
Serve as an intermediary between the reviewer and the other reviewers and/or associate editor while keeping the other people anonymous? (same problem as above)
Do nothing and suck up the reputational damage?

In this specific case, the reviewer has written (same source as above):

I regret that the authors of [paper] (some of who I do know not superficially) lost their reputation in (not only) my eyes subsequently. As to the lead author of [paper], Mr. [name], I cannot call him a scientist, as he betrays fundamental principles of Science.

Which makes me instinctively wary of dragging more people into the argument, but I don't see any other way to satisfy the reviewer.
Related: Why do editors sometimes accept a paper even if a reviewer recommends rejection?


texts: Can I use decompiled source code for research?

texts:
In my research field, software tools are considered a research outcome, and therefore it's normal that researchers build tools and make them publicly available. However, in many cases, the authors only make the executable for a tool available, without sharing the source code used to build the tool.

This makes things complicated for people who want to use or extend the tool: for example, they might be unable to run the tool, because it has a dependency to an outdated, flawed, or expensive commercial "baseline" tool. While they might have the programming skills to modify the tool so it can be run, this usually requires changes to the source code.

However, there is a kind of tool called decompiler which allows you to restore the original source code (or something similar) from the given executable. In some cases, you can work with the restored source code as good as if the authors had made the code available in the first place.

Assuming I want to use a particular tool for my research, and I have already unsuccessfully contacted the authors to obtain the source code in a consensual way.

Is it OK if I decompile the code to do my research? Yes
If yes, then how do I deal with the fact that I decompiled the tool in my paper? Would it be considered rude/sketchy to say that I did it?
Can I make the modified tool available to other researchers (and yes, as executables and/or source code)? No

Edit: Thanks everyone. For questions 1 and 3, the correct answers for my case are now clear to me (see above). I'm still not sure about question 2, though. Are there previous examples in literature where people did this? Would it be acceptable to not address the fact that I decompiled the source code, by treating it like an irrelevant detail? Reimplementing the complete tool is not an option in my case.


texts:
A title of my paper includes an accented character ě. I'm submitting it to a conference and arXiv. Unfortunately, arXiv does not support the accented character and turns it into \v{e}. It renders correctly in arXive, but such titles look weird when searched from Google (eg. Random Čech Complexes). The title is encoded correctly in the conference's submission form.

Several solutions come to mind:

Leave it as it is and accept the fact, that arXive will mess up the title.
Drop the accented character in the arXive form, leave all the rest, including the title in PDF.
Drop the accented character in the arXive and conference forms, but leave it in the title in PDF.
Drop the accented character everywhere.

I would like to avoid 1, as lots of other citation services (researchgate, semanticscholar, ...) are based on arXive and will thus mess up the encoding as well. Similarly, I would like to avoid 4, as it is the name of the newly introduced project. I'm leaning towards 3. as it seems to be the most elegant solution, but I don't know whether it is fine to have different form title and in-PDF rendered title.

It is still a week before the deadline, so I can still make changes.


texts: Is it realistic to prefer a non-tenure-track research position?

texts:
I am a PhD student in a biomedical field in the United States. After seeing professors' Google calendars and figures like this (link) about how limited the time tenure-track faculty get to spend on their research is and how many other demands on them there are, I am reconsidering whether or not that is something that I want to do.

The idea of being a "research professor" who is free from those other demands and has research as a primary focus appeals to me - but I am not sure whether this is a realistic option as a career choice. I have heard some people say soft money can be relatively stable as long as you are collaborative and don't put all your eggs in one basket, but I have also seen a lot of other people who think these positions are unstable and highly stressful and something you should only do for a few years while trying to get a tenure-track position.

So my questions are:

Is it realistic to hope to spend my career as a research professor, or is this usually something people only do short-term?
Can I have reasonable job stability doing this by working collaboratively?
Do research professors tend to be more or less stressed than tenure-track professors?
If you have experience with this career path (or know people who are in this career path) is it something that you would recommend to others? Why or why not?


texts: Is it unethical to get paid for the work and time invested in thesis?

texts:
I'm a student of a technical college. My MSc. final project supervisor liked my work, so he hired me for his company. Where I live, it's actually quite common (my bachelor thesis professor also hired me for a part time job, but that was after I've finished my bachelor's degree).

The thing is, that the research I'll be doing for the thesis is closely related to my work in the company: basically what I do in the company is just application of the research I do for my thesis. Is it ethically acceptable to claim hours I've spent on doing the research and experiments for my thesis and get paid for the time spent this way?

I think my supervisor is okay with that and he would pay me without blinking an eye, but how about the university? Is it ethical? And if not, where do I draw the line between my paid job and my thesis work if they are so closely related?


texts: What computer specs should be included in numerical results section, when, and why?

texts:
Generally in the numerical section for papers I read, they include (if at all) computer specs like how much RAM, CPU speed, or type of processor.  What kinds of computers specs should I include? When should I include them? Why? Some general scenarios when you don’t need to include the specs would be helpful. As I am writing an interdisciplinary paper, I would also like to know about a possible dependency on the field.

For this question I would especially like to know why.  I know the basic idea is reproducible research, but are there really any cases where it is imperative to know it was an i5 Intel processor?


texts: What is the difference between a review paper and a research paper?

texts: I have been working on a review paper. After publication, how will it add on my academic research profile? When I will apply for MS or PHD admission, will it count as publication?


texts: How to say no to more work as a PhD student so I can graduate

texts:
I am entering my 5th year as a PhD student. The "understanding" with my advisor is that I need three journal papers accepted to graduate. I think I have enough material (designs/ measurements/ analysis) to write the three papers now, but so far have only written one. In a normal situation, my next step would be to write the other two papers.

The issue is that my advisor received more short-term funding for my project, and he plans to ask me to do one more "design" before the grant expires. This "design" will extend my PhD by 1.5 years at the very least and I will have to delay my paper-writing to meet the incredibly ridiculous deadline associated with the short grant and design deadline.

Naturally, my advisor being who he is, he will use the fact that I do not have the three papers to impose more work on me instead of allowing me to actually write the papers I need. He does not have a problem hitting the maximum duration allowed by the Institute to keep a PhD student (6-7 years), even when the student has done enough.

This is further complicated by the fact that my advisor lacks experience in my specific field and only understand that "more designs = more papers".

I need advice on how to address this. How can I make a compelling case that I have done enough and I just need to focus on publishing so that I can graduate? I would really appreciate realistic advice.

Note: My advisor is very powerful in the department. This makes approaching the department unrealistic. I will be on the losing side if I approach the department. I am in a North American Institute.


texts: Is it good idea to put a slide about "National Teacher Appreciation Day" at the end of presentation slides at my masters defense?

texts:
Tomorrow I have my master's project defense. So, I will be presenting and defending on my project "Course Advising System".

I just noticed that tomorrow is a National Teacher Appreciation Day. Is it a good idea to put one slide after "Questions and Comments" section in the presentation?

I want to put this slide but I don't want to ruin anything either.


texts: Should I submit a paper to a journal whose staff I am challenging?

texts: I would like to submit a paper to a particular journal. The problem is that I am critiquing the analysis of several individuals who work for the journal or are on their editorial board...and I'm providing evidence that proves their theories were incorrect. I'd like to know how to handle this, as my paper challenges their theories (and the motives behind their theories). Would this create a conflict of interest for the journal? And would my critique harm my chances of having my paper accepted for publication?


texts: Is it typical for a candidate for a fixed-term, part-time postdoc to be flown long-distance for an interview?

texts:
I am a recent PhD in the US and applied for a part-time (65%), fixed-term (2 years) postdoc (official title: "Scientific Assistant") in Germany. They are willing to fly me out for a job talk and interview, paying for two nights lodging, and all transportation expenses.

This struck me as a lot of effort and expense on the part of the hiring institution for such a short-term, part-time position. I expected maybe a Skype interview and requests for reference letters. Is it typical for research institutions to do this for postdoctoral positions in general? Is there something about the nature of this position I'm missing?


texts: How much time to invest in reviewing a paper that is clearly below the bar?

texts:
There have been some discussions here on how long to spend on reviewing a paper (e.g., here).

This question is a bit different in that I'm wondering what are your thoughts about reviewing a paper that is not going to be accepted.

I recently got a request to review a journal paper for a leading IEEE journal.
From reading the abstract, introduction, and related work, it is clear that the authors are not aware of the progress that was done in recent years. The paper cites, evaluates, and compares against, 15-20 years old approaches that are far behind the current state of the art.

The problem now is that solution is quite involved and would take some significant time to understand and give feedback on.
The only way for the work to be publishable is for the authors to compare against modern techniques and show merit, so the current submission cannot possibly be accepted.

  Would you still spend the time in reviewing the proposed algorithm?
  Would a review that reads "please compare your solution with XX and YY before consider it" be reasonable?

I have mentioned that this is a significant journal since I know that in some journals showing yet-another-solution for an important problem may be published if the solution is reasonable (e.g., if it is simpler than the state of the art but not as effective).


texts:
Prior to initiating some research projects, researchers may be asked (e.g., by an Institutional Review Board) to complete research ethics / compliance training courses, such as CITI Program's Research Ethics and Compliance Training.

Does completing research ethics / compliance training courses reduce the incidence of ethics or compliance breaches?

I'm looking for studies/surveys, not guesses.


texts: How to find an editor for a statistics book?

texts:
I am writing and self-publishing a book on statistics. More specifically, it is titled "The general linear model: Assumptions, violations and remedies (or what to do wen your dependent variable won't behave).

I have a general editor, but she knows nothing about statistics. I'm looking for someone to edit the statistical part.


texts: NSF graduate fellowship: how specific should the statement of purpose be?

texts:
Several of the students who have come to my group as summer students are planning to submit NSF graduate fellowship applications in the coming weeks. However, one question that I am not sure about is how specific the statement of purpose needs to be.

When I applied for the NSF fellowship (going on fifteen years ago), I had absolutely no clue what I wanted to do as a student, other than it was computational rather than experimental. Therefore, my application was all over the place, talking about three different types of projects I might want to work on as a graduate student (and I ended up choosing none of them in the long run!).

However, I get the impression that today such an essay wouldn't be suitable for the application, and that a more narrowly tailored essay is required. At the same time, there's also the challenge of ensuring that the research problem can be done at the school one has chosen, and not narrowing things so specifically that the student is too "boxed in" or too opaque for a review panel to see the merits of.

So how should students thread the gap between vagueness and specificity in writing these and other fellowship applications?


texts: Where to add citation when having several paragraphs from the same source(s)?

texts: So, if I have three paragraphs, inspired and even having copied sections from the same source, do I add citation at the end of each paragraph or at the end of the third or where else?


texts:
Is there a web service that retrieves all of the ORCIDs for the authors associated with a DOI?  I've looked at crossref.org, but I can't seem to find information on how to do this with their service.

I am currently using their HTTP-based API to query information about a publication given its DOI.  It returns the names of the authors, but not their ORCIDs.

(An ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a unique identifier for an author of a publication.
A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is the same thing, but for the publication itself)


texts: Do Universities go through old assignmnets to check for plagiarism?

texts:
I am new University student, in software engineering program.
I was FALSLY accused in plagiarism in my second semester and it resulted in a 0 on the assignment of course. I believe a student copied my code while on an online study group I initiated, but because I was pregnant and gave birth a couple of days after the accusation, I didn't have it in me to fight it, as I needed to appeal and the whole process would have taken probably a couple of months and I couldn't take the stress.

So I just took the punishment and "admitted" I plagiarized. Needless to say, it was the most stressful, terrifying time in my life, I thought my academic career is over for good. Of course, I learned from my mistake and  I stopped helping people through study sessions all togather as I have my family I need to think about, and as I have two babies and I am exhausted all the time it is very easy for me to not pay attention to things. But since then, I am absolutely traumatized and can't stop trying to think whether or not this might have happened to me before and I just happned to not get caught and the thought about this possibility is absolutly killing me and I find my self up at night thinking about it and it is really starting to destroy my life.

My question is, and it's only an hypothetical question as I only started with the study sessions that semster and stopped immediatly after being accused, what happens if god forbid someone coppied my code in a different course before and we just were not caught for some reason? do universities usually go back to check old submittions for plagiarism?

I am absolutly terrified, so much so that I am considering dropping out.
I know my fear is not rational but I can't control my thoughts and it's driving me crazy, I need some reasurance. I am terrified to work so hard for my degree, just to have it revoked by the university at a later point.

By the way, I take full responsiblity for my mistake, I realize that I should have never put myself in a position where I was at risk to accidently share my code with another student.


texts: What is the purpose of getting good grades once in college?

texts: So, I understand good grades in high school, you use your GPA with your application to college. Once your in college, is there any reason, like putting your college GPA on your resume, to get anything greater than a C(unless to fulfill prerequisite grades)?


texts: Decline the PhD offer during the deferral

texts:
I've got a fully funded PhD offer from a US university. The department is open to deferral without any reason.
I want to go to work for one year before my PhD. If I feel satisfied with the job, I may decline the PhD offer and stay in the industry. Is this common in the US?
My concern is (1) if I decide to drop out one year later, my advisor may not have enough time to admit new students. This may negatively impact her tenure. (2) My break of offer may cause the department doesn't consider students from my country/undergrad school.


texts: How is the PhDs' (in Logics in Math) employment rate?

texts:
I am an undergraduate student who is majored in Math now. I plan to continue my phD degree in Logics in Math. My ultimate job plan is to be professor (I know instructor first). So I really want to learn the employment of PhDs in this major.

Thank you for your time.


texts:
I am a postdoc in the physical sciences. I have recently decided to start applying for some faculty positions. One open position in particular was recently brought to my attention, and I want to apply for it.

If I compare myself to other people I know in my field who are getting offered faculty positions, I'm a little bit on the young/inexperienced side but I do have a comparable publication record, so I would estimate my chances of landing this job are very low, but nonzero.

I discussed this with my former PhD supervisor when asking him for a reference, and he encouraged me to apply and advised me to send an informal enquiry to the head of department before preparing my application. I have seen similar advice elsewhere. My problem is that I don't really understand what kind of thing I should write in such an informal enquiry. Should I directly ask "would you like to me apply for this job"? Is it like a cover letter?

What is the style and content of a "good" informal enquiry for a faculty position?


texts: Can't handle the stress while being bombarded with questions during the presentation

texts:
I am a fashion designer student. I have given numerous presentations but one thing always bothers me: the level and frequency of questions by the questioners. By that I mean some folks in the class ask difficult questions sometimes which makes me a little nervous. And by frequency I mean repeatedly getting questions from folks esp. when teacher has left for a while and there is a mayhem in the hall.

I want an answer where those two things are addressed specifically.

Any good tips in handling such situation? Thanks.


texts: How to politely reject a request for a letter of recommendation for a professor

texts:
I am a student.

I received a request for a letter of recommendation to a professor for some award. I know for a fact that my letter will be directly used in the application for the award. [I have since graduated from this institution.] I haven't interacted with this particular person in about 3-4 years, and feel that I couldn't write the strongest one, since my interactions with this person were not much outside of classwork (two classes).

It looks like someone else is requesting these letters; how do I politely reject the request? I am particularly not interested in burning any bridges, since I may consider getting a career in academia in the future, but I haven't asked this particular professor for any recommendations (nor do I plan to do so in the future).

Update: I have decided to write the letter. Appreciate all of the feedback here.


texts: Graduate courses as undergrad vs master's degree

texts:
I am roughly in the following situation (field: physics/mathematics, location: Europe):
I have enough credits to finish my undergraduate degree this year if I want to. I can also choose to stay as an undergrad for another year.
I have done almost all undergraduate courses at my university that interest me, so I would be doing graduate courses 90% of the time.
With some extra work, I could obtain a master's degree at my university. However, I could also apply for a PhD program immediately after finishing undergrad next year, without getting a master's degree first.

Not counting research experience, is it advantageous to 'formalize' one's graduate courses by getting a master's degree, from the viewpoint of career opportunities?

I am not sure about this because on the one hand, a master's degree may give other people a better indication of one's ability, but on the other hand admissions committees and such may be more demanding from students with a master's degree.


texts: Repeat citation for consecutive sentences

texts:
When the next sentence in the paper or thesis shares the same citation with the previous one. Should cite one time only at the end of the 2end sentence or cite 2 times - one for each.

For example:

In the following paragraph, 2 sentences follow each other share same citation. Should I remove the 1st citation or not.

  Hybrid ... registration method. (Mani and Arivazhagan 2013) Combine
  the output of intensity method or f... method will be the input of another.
  (Mani and Arivazhagan 2013)


texts: Should ongoing business experience be mentioned in faculty job applications?

texts:
I am currently on the academic job market, have already sent and going to send a number of applications (mostly to US universities). My current institution, where I am a postdoc, is among the top in Europe and has a very strong startup culture and support. As a result, I have recently co-founded a tech startup in my field, together with my professor/supervisor and colleagues. For several personal and legal reasons, I mostly work on the research and technology side of the startup, not on the operation side (e.g., I help with but don't directly go to seek funding, meet investors). To me, the startup is more like a side project, an experiment. My dream career is still in academia.

In my faculty job applications, I mention my business experience (co-founder) in two places: in my CV and my cover letter (one sentence). I think it could be a positive point as it shows I have some industrial/business/practical experience outside academia, especially when the job ads say "industrial experience is a plus / preferred."

However, on reflection, I am now afraid that this could actually be a negative point from the academic view, that could hinder my applications. For example:

One may think there is a conflict of interest (although in my current institution, many profs involve directly or indirectly in startups).
They may question my commitment to academia, like: how can he focus on academic research and teaching if he will be involved in a startup, which often take an enormous amount of time? Especially when his company is in Europe while he works at our university in the US.
Similarly, they may think I am not serious in applying to faculty positions.

Do you think I made a mistake including my business experience in my applications? Since I still have quite a few applications to submit, should I remove the experience completely?