texts: Is it appropriate to ask the editor which changes he/she thinks is critical to the review?

texts:
After months of waiting, I finally received the reviews for a letter I submitted to a IEEE journal. It’s a 3 page letter, and the first reviewer just had some clarifications regarding a figure and said the paper needed minor revisions. The second reviewer also bought up the figure that the first reviewer mention, but also said he wants us to "do more experiments" without saying what experiments we should be doing, or more "direct simulation results" without stating what he means by "direct simulation results". I did provide "direct simulation results" (atleast as per my understanding of what he would mean by direct simulation results") in the paper which I am going to highlight in my comments to the editor.

When I go to the main website, the status of the paper reads as "needs minor revision", which I am guessing is the interpretation of the editor-in-charge. It would be almost impossible to do further experiments at this point, especially since we got a 2 week submission deadline 1 week back. The original letter from the editor-in-charge also mentions that I can ask for a extension, if I cant submit within 2 weeks.

All the other points that reviewer 1/reviewer 2 bought up can be handled, and I will address them individually. However I am not sure whether the editor-in-charge even considers the 2nd reviewers concerns about "needing major revisions" seriously, since the main website mentions that the paper needs "minor revisions".

Is it appropriate to clarify with the editor regarding what he thinks about the experimental section, and whether I need to address it, by informal email?

Or should I just address all points as is typically done in replying to a review (and provide justifications for why we are not providing additional experimental validation), and hope for the best?


texts: Getting LOR from mentor at an open source organisation

texts:
I have been involved with a particular open source organisation that works in the area that I'm interested in pursuing my PhD. Almost all my works at this organisation could be demonstrated as research works since research & developlment is one of key focus areas at this organisation.

However, my mentor has never met me in person. It has always been communication through emails or on IRC.

How would the admission committee look at such a guidance?
How much importance would the admission committee give to my mentor who is from an open source organisation?


texts: Submitting conference paper to Google Scholar when proceedings not available

texts:
I presented a paper at a conference but the conference never got around to publishing their proceedings. They kept saying it was going to happen "soon" but after six months, I have lost hope.

Is there any way to submit such a paper to Google Scholar? It's not hosted anywhere and Google is an indexing service, not a paper repository. That makes me think the answer is no. However, I know the minds here will have the answer.

The paper is in education so Arvix is not really a solution here.


texts: Conducting a Podcast with A Star Researcher In Our Field

texts:
I am doing a podcast on a voluntary basis with researchers in our field! I have been asked to try to reach the X star researcher in our field who is highly respected in the field. I feel excited, however, I am afraid that podcast could not go well which could leave a bad impression, the podcast would be through Skype, so I don't know how to start breaking the ice before the interview. I prefer to be in person, but in that case, Skype is the only option.

The question: How can I break the ice before the podcasting interview with a star researcher? I am afraid to do counterproductive actions that could affect my career due to the fact that we already in a very small research field.


texts: Can we detect plagiarism from/in a podcast?

texts:
Is there a way to match content

of an article from a podcast source,
of a podcast from an article source or
of a podcast from another podcast source?

I haven't heard of any tool that can check plagiarism from/in an audio source. If such a tool does exist, how efficient and reliable is it?
EDIT: There is no specific purpose for asking this question. It is just out of curiosity, since I am listening to a lot of podcasts nowadays.


texts: Crossref, e.g., charges thousands of dollars to assign DOIs, but are there any free DOI registration services? In other words: Is there a free service that will generate DOIs for me?


texts: How to study better when underprepared for grad level theory course

texts:
I am a 2nd year PhD student in the area of digital communication networks. I am taking an information theory class and we had our midterm last week, which was open book, open notes. I did poorly on it--I got a 68, while the class average was a 90 with a standard deviation of 16. This class is the theoretical foundations of a lot of communication, so obviously I'd like to do well and understand the material. A 68 when the rest of the class did so well means that I'm not understanding essential aspects of the subject.

The grading scheme in this class is weird, in that the midterm score is thrown away if I do better on the final. So I have the chance to redeem myself on the final...problem is given that I actually did study for this exam, I don't know how to do better.

The subject matter is inherently difficult for me. I have all the prerequisites (which is just 1-2 probability classes, I have taken two), but I have always struggled with more theoretical math.

I always go to lecture and do the homework. The homeworks take a long time because they are hard for me. I do each of the problems on my own, and then on the day the assignment is due, I go over my answers with a friend who is also taking the course. For this exam we were provided with 3 practice exams. I spent as much of the weekend studying as I could. We had a homework due on Saturday that I spent all Saturday finishing, and then I studied all Sunday and most of Monday. I managed to complete one and a half practice exams in that time.

My current style of studying worked well for undergrad and master's courses, but clearly my methods are not working here. Arguably I could have started studying for the exam earlier, but I actually spent the week before the exam working hard on the aforementioned homework assignment (at the expense of my own research). I did well on that homework, and I assumed spending time understanding material from the homework would be beneficial for the exam. That did not turn out to be true.

Is it reasonable to try and dedicate more time to the class? My preparation for the exam was already at the expense of doing nearly no research that week. Has anyone had an experience where they did poorly on a class like this at first, but then managed to recover? How did you do it?

Finally, the poor grade has made me feel unmotivated and want to avoid working on the material, which is probably the exact opposite of what I need right now! Any advice on getting over this psychological aversion?


texts: Under what circumstances is it beneficial for an advisor to seek sole authorship when their advisees deserve to be listed as co-authors?

texts:
I have seen several questions on this site which suggest that there are (presumably and hopefully rare) occasions where an advisor seeks to publish work as the sole author on a collaborative project that they are working on with their advisees.

Some questions which highlight these occurrences:

My advisor submitted a paper with my work without including me as an author
what do you do if your PhD advisor publishes a solo paper on your topic?

While there has been some discussion on this site (e.g., here) about whether the advisor should be listed as a co-author on a student's paper, in my field (in the U.S.), it is common for the advisor to be listed as a co-author on their student's papers. So, I'm writing this question to come to some understanding of the "opposite" problem:

  When it (rarely) occurs, what are the benefits for an advisor to seek sole authorship when their advisees deserve to be listed as co-authors?

In my (admittedly naive) view, it would seem that the advisor would benefit more from co-authoring papers with their advisees than trying to pass the work off as their own, if nothing more than to show (to, e.g., tenure/promotion committees) that they are actively engaging their student researchers in the research activities of the group. Perhaps an element of "ego trip" is involved here as well, but I wonder if I'm missing something more fundamental as to why this happens on those rare occasions.

Edited to add — I certainly do appreciate that there is variability in the ways that different departments/institutions in different parts of the world do things, and am attempting to gain some understanding about the not-so-obvious (from my perspective) motivators that lead an advisor down the road to the aforementioned behavior.


texts: Poor Grade in First Real Analysis Course

texts:
I'm currently a sophomore majoring in pure math with the hopes of going to graduate school to study applied math, specifically numerical analysis, machine learning, statistics. I have A's in my courses such as Linear Algebra, Discrete Math, Calculus, etc. Real Analysis is the first course that is giving me lots of trouble, and I think it is because I was not well-versed in writing proofs coming into the course. I received a B-/C+ on the first exam, and expect to receive a similar grade in the overall course.

How heavily will my grade in this course affect my chances of getting into a good graduate school for applied math (numerical analysis) if I receive A's/A-'s in my all of my progamming (up to an Advanced Algorihms course) and applied classes (PDE, Numerical, Complex Variables)?


texts: Correlation between personality type (MBTI or other) and success in academia?

texts:
When you meet new people entering the world of academic research, it is often tempting to try and guess what “sort” of researcher they'll be, based on their personality, character, known qualities, and defects, etc. You'll sometimes hear people say things like “he's not cut out to be a researcher”.

But I wonder: are there any studies that have probed the link between personality/character and success in academic life (and academic research in particular)?

The sort of studies I imagine would be possible are things like assessing researchers' personalities (e.g. by the well-known Myers-Briggs classification) and comparing the distribution against that of the general public… But I could not find anything serious through Google, though I imagine researchers in behavioral sciences, psychology, or other related fields must have tried to address this question.


texts: How to dress for visit to math phd program for accepted students?

texts:
How should I dress for my visits to math programs as an accepted student?  As if I were showing up to a job interview?  Shirt and tie?  Suit?

The visit seems nicely planned by the program - jam-packed with meetings and events with faculty and students.

(I'd guess that this visit would also be a great time to talk to faculty to see who could be a great match for me as an advisor.)


texts: Is it ethical/legal to publish Master thesis manuscript as a journal paper?

texts:
I have submitted my Master thesis manuscript to the university library. It is completely new work (never published before to any journal or conference). Now, I want to submit my Master thesis to a journal (as a paper) without modifying it much/anything. Is it ethical/legal to publish your Master thesis manuscript as a journal paper? Should I mention this to the editor of the journal? Because, in the journal guidelines, it says: we accept the manuscript only if it is not published before to any journal or conference. It does not mention anything about other publication sources (like: Master or PhD thesis submitted to the university library). Will I face any problem in future if I do so?

PS: I am thinking to submit it in IEEE Transactions on Computers journal. I talked with the university librarians. They told me they do not have any problem if it is published elsewhere. They just keep a copy in the university library (including online library - which I can also keep 'private'). I am asking if the journal has any problem or not? For my university, it does not really matter (since I have already given the manuscript to them and they have accepted it). My university is in Republic of Korea.


texts: What are the ways a professor in top R1 public universities can increase their salaries (through research)?

texts:
I understand that professors can pay themselves +2/9 of the 9-month salary to cover summer.
Are there other ways to use research grants (private or public) to increase salaries (working in research)? Here I am asking for top R1 public universities in the US.


texts:
What are the general merits and demerits of the post-PhD courses meant to groom junior faculty/researcher in finance/economics, similar to these?:

Advanced Studies Program In International Economic Policy Research

Max Weber Programme for Postdoctoral Studies

Are they any good compared to top-notch postdoctoral fellowships in finance/economics?


texts: Can I transition from 3 years out of school to a master's in computer science?

texts:
To erase any confusion, this question is geared entirely towards requirements and expectations of academicians. I am not asking for recommendations for universities or research topics, nor am I asking about preparation for a non-academic career. Additionally, I am speaking from a United States point of view.

Briefly, here is my backstory. A few years ago I graduated with a bachelor's in computer science. During that time I took a part-time adjunct instructor position with a local community college, where I quickly discovered that I loved teaching and the academic environment. In short, I have decided that I would like to make it a full-time career.

On to my question/concern... I am currently looking into research-focused masters degree programs so that one day I can pursue a doctoral degree. I have discovered that a lot of the computer science masters degree programs can require a certain level of mathematical knowledge or even taking research focused math classes.

Is there anything I need to do in order to prepare for my CS masters degree journey in terms of brushing up on mathematics, or other subject areas for that matter? Is it possible to sign up for a program anyway, and just go back through some of my books and notes on an "as needed" basis? I would prefer the second option, not sure if either is possible at this point!


texts: “Ability to solve problems through the standard application of theoretical principles” in a position description?

texts:
I am trying to apply for a job in a university research office, administering honour’s, master’s and PhD thesis submissions. The selection criteria are:

Demonstrated ability to apply theoretical knowledge, at degree level, in a straightforward way.

Ability to solve problems through the standard application of theoretical principles and techniques at degree level.

Can anyone tell me what they are asking for, and give examples of how one could  demonstrate these skills?


texts: Is using the description of an award as-is in a CV considered plagiarism?

texts:
When applying to graduate programs, most universities ask for a CV. If one has to provide the description of awards they received in their CV, will it be considered plagiarism if they use the official descriptions of the awards verbatim?

[The descriptions are just one sentence long, and rephrasing them too much tends to alter their meaning. The descriptions of these awards on the websites of the institutes granting them have been worded very carefully, which makes them seem to be the best way to convey the corresponding award's purpose.]

Edit: Would it be safer to include a footnote that says that these are the official descriptions, verbatim?


texts: Accidently gave essay notes to a classmate

texts: So at the last day of class a classmate asked if they could borrow some of my lecture notes for studying for the final (this was a history class). I said sure and sent them to their usb. Since it was near the end of class I was rushing to copy and paste my files and in that I think I also sent them my essay notes by mistake. I do not know their name and I have contacted the department head and my professor about the issue letting them know as I am worried they could use these notes in their paper. The notes are not my draft or final copy, they just summarise each article the professor gave for the essay, and the paper itself was well overdue at this point. The office told me I would not likely get in trouble but I still have worries as marking is ongoing. Have I done the right thing so far? Is there anything else I should do?


texts: Many a times, I study some topic or research paper and make my own notes (it could be figuring out the math in paper, or something else). But after say 7-8 months, these notes just pile up on table and when I look at them I don't think I will be using them for any future work. But I also feel like I'm trashing my study, and the effort was pointless if I dispose of it. Is it okay to dispose of them? What strategy do you have about disposing of written notes?


texts: I am interested in retracting my old journal articles. Would it have any negative effects on my academic career?

texts:
I managed to successfully publish my old bachelor thesis in a good quality national journal in my country. However, I am thinking of retracting the article due to certain circumstances. First, I felt really embarrassed by the low quality research methodology used in my bachelor thesis. I only used simple correlation in my research. After it was published, I realized that the journal editor team forgot to include a reference in that article because they were rushing me throughout the editing process. I informed them about their mistake and it seems that they have done nothing to fix the problem. I became a bit annoyed because the editor team has never made this problem in the past.

I felt that it would be better for me to simply ask for retraction to solve this issue, but I am a bit afraid of negative consequences in the future. Is it okay to do this? I am really interested of entering the academic world in the future.


texts: Is it beneficial for the applicant to mention other universities she is applying to?

texts:
Going through the application process for several Master's Degrees, I have come across universities that ask what other programmes I am applying to on their application forms. It has been already discussed that there is no obligation on the applicant's part to answer them, but what is the best thing to do from a strategic standpoint?

Do universities frown upon applications to a lot of other places because of the risk that a candidate they admit will accept another offer? Do they gauge the level of confidence/ambition based on how selective other programmes are? How does it affect one's chances? Are there any other considerations?


texts:
I recently received a rejection letter from one of my top colleges for graduate studies. In addition to the standard rejection letter(for Program 1), I got another note from the chair of another program(Program 2) at the same university, suggesting that I opt for that program.

The difference between the two programs is that Program 1(which I was rejected from) usually gives out funding while Program 2(while being identical in all other ways) strictly says no funding. Is this usual in US colleges? I always thought that if you're going to get an admit without funding, you will at-least get an admit letter or is there any other reasoning behind this?


texts: Can somebody explain to me what is the difference between contribution and motivation in any research paper?


texts: Guidlines for keeping adminstrative paperwork

texts:
I am not sure if this question is best here, workplace.sx, or someplace else ...

I would like to clean off my desk before the semester starts (I am lucky and still have a couple of weeks). My department is far from paperless and many things only get distributed in paper form. While I would love to be organized enough to file away the paperwork from each meeting as it happens, I don't. Instead I have a large pile of all of last years meetings on my desk. I feel like most of these meetings do not directly affect me. I have piles from previous years stuck in my file cabinet. Is it worth saving unorganized papers from meetings or should I just dump them. Is there a better strategy going forward (preferably one that only requires intervention twice a year.)?


texts: Is there a way to finding an author's H-index on Google Scholar if they have not created a profile?

texts:
There are quite a few professors at my school that do not have a Google Scholar profile at all. I may search them in Google Scholar's search engine and hope their most recent papers come up, but I am not able to access their h-index or any of the other metrics supplied by Google Scholar. If I search a paper by them, I can see it listed, but the author's name is not underlined and it doesn't seem as though they have a profile.
Microsoft Academic seems to create "profiles" for people and then allow them to claim it, letting others at least view data about the person in question even if they have not created an account. Is there any way to do this with Google Scholar?


texts: Career options for an astronomer outside of academia?

texts:
I know there are similar questions addressed on this site, but the answers are geared to a different skill set to what (I suspect) most astronomers/astrophysicist will have.

I'm currently halfway through a PhD in radio astrophysics (in India) and I'm not too sure that I want to stay in academics, so I'd like to explore what options I have outside of academics.

So my PhD is geared more toward data analysis, so I have a fair knowledge of C & Python for numerical processing but not for more general purpose computing (but I am trying to teach myself some of that).

I'm aware that this is a vague question, but what options do I have if I choose to leave? I understand that data analysis skills are quite valuable, and it would be nice to continue in a research-like climate because I really do enjoy research.


texts: Should I list people who are in competition with me as reviewers to exclude for "conflict of interest"?

texts:
I am submitting a a paper to a top conference and I need to determine the reviewers with conflicts of interests.

There is a big competition in having papers accepted at this conference, among people working in this area. Also, it is very likely that my paper goes to people who are in the same area for judgement. Particularly, some of these people are not very honest and they blindly reject other people's works, in order to publish their own papers. To myself, it has been proven the dishonesty of them.

Is it OK to put these people in my list of reviewers to exclude because of conflicts of interests? There are other researchers who can judge the quality of my paper honestly, because I am not putting everybody on that list. But is it right to do so?


texts: Request an unpublished paper owned by another (foreign) university

texts: I am a graduate student at a US university. One of the papers I need for my research is a Ph.D. thesis, owned by the University of Birmingham, U.K. (but this question is for a more general case). That thesis has never been published and is not available on the web. When searching for that paper on the University of Birmingham library website, they only have the hard copy of that paper in their library. Is there a way that I can obtain that paper?


texts: Best way to politely remove someone from paper authorship who planned to contribute but did not?

texts:
(There is a similar question but not exactly.)

When you write a paper, you need various views. So you invite collaborators and it often works well. But assume that out of 5 invited, for example, one or two, don't contribute to the paper much but are kept on the email thread with updated versions of the manuscript.

How do you politely remove them from the author list (paper) and how do you say that politely in email. Do you just send them a separate email or a general "authorship rules" email to everybody?


texts: Can I add a link to my ORCID Id in the statement of purpose?

texts:
Is it a good practice to add a link to the orcid ID in the statement of purpose for a PhD admission application?
Also can I add a link to my published paper? Can I include an abstract as well.


texts: How to avoid authorship drama in this situation?

texts:
There are so many posts regarding authorship disputes on this site.  How can my friend, A, avoid such a drama in the following situation?

A and another graduate student, B, are in the same PhD program in the US.
Even though B has just started the program, he completed a MSc program in Europe with research experiences, and he has a de-facto advisor C, who also supervises A.
A while ago, C wrote to A suggesting that A work on a project P, adding that B would work on another project Q.  P and Q are of the same nature but on different objects.  Q builds on B's MSc thesis.
A wished that C assigned him Q instead because Q was about the same object about which A's other project R was.  After working on P, A found that P has a rather trivial answer.
A realized that Q, if solved, gives some progress on R.  Upon telling this to C, A gets a recommendation from C that A talk about Q with B.
After being told about the idea, B told A that he had not completed Q and that he was happy to talk about Q with A.
A realized that his previous idea about the relationship between Q and R was wrong, but instead he came up with an another idea, which would solve Q.  A sent C an email explaining this idea.
While waiting an answer from C, A gets bored and wants to work on his idea.

Obviously, A does not want to be in the center of an authorship disputes.  How should he proceed?


texts: Should I reach out to my future advisor before accepting PhD admission?

texts:
I have been offered PhD admission which I have not accepted yet.I have already been assigned advisors though.

I want to reach out to my potential advisor to discuss future research and maybe even dissertation topics ? Was wondering if that is okay for to do ? i am little hesitant because I am not sure if this is the norm for how things are done ?


texts: The importance of finding potential mentor before applying for a postdoc

texts: I am going to apply for a competitive European research grant as a postdoc. How does finding a potential mentor in department help me to get postdoc position. Does it really increase my chance to give my application a priority?


texts: Does a reviewer get to know comments from previous reviewers?

texts:
Most journals during second revision try to send the articles to reviewers who had reviewed the article before. But, if in case one such reviewer responds with a message that he cannot review the article this time, usually a new reviewer is requested to review the article.

My question is will this new reviewer also get the reviewer comments from earlier reviewer along with the manuscript?


texts: Affiliation and connected responsibilities

texts:
My question is about German academic system, but I would also like to know the situation world-wide.

Any research/educational institution strives (at least in theory) to produce scientific output of high standards. This is the motivation to introduce some kind of internal review for all the papers produced there prior to the submission.

One example would be papers produced during the PhD study. Typically they would involve at least one senior author, typically a professor who has a function of a PhD adviser and who also shares an affiliation with the PhD student. This assures that the manuscript adheres to some minimal quality standards.

In some cases more stringent procedures are implemented, e.g., internal reviews in Max Planck Institutes.

It is quite clear that Professors at the Universities are independent researches and therefore do not need to undergo any internal reviews prior to submission (this post makes me wonder if it is really so). It is, of course, beneficial if they seek for the opinion of colleagues, but not required.

But what is the situation with scientific personal on the intermediate stages of their carrier? Can a Postdoc/Privat Dozent/Junior Prof. affiliate themselves with the university without being refereed internally by some Prof.? My guess would be that this is an individual policy of each university. However, it needs to follow some general rules which I would like to know. I anticipate following scenarios, partly discussed (in more general terms and not specific to a country) in other posts here:

1) One is free to publish without an affiliation. For many reasons it might be not a wise decision. Typically it would signal the editors that the author has some problem with his institution or has no job. This reduces chances of being accepted.

2) The author seeks for an informal internal review, gets the blessing from a professor and does not forget to acknowledge him/her. This seems to be an idealistic and not realistic situation: the prof. will most likely be pissed off having to do some job and not being on the authors list.

3) The author offers the “courtesy authorship" to the prof. However, this might be problematic if the work in not even remotely within research interests of the boss.

4) Being a coworker of the university is sufficient to use this affiliation on the papers. No internal review is required. This answer suggests that this might be the case even for undergraduate students, however, I greatly doubt it in the case of german universities.

The answer seems to be clear if some university equipment was used in order to produce the work. It is natural in this case that the head of the department is listed as an author. My question is mostly about the theoretical work that requires maximum a laptop.

In your answers, please, try to address

each of the aforementioned nonpermanent positions (Master/PhD students, Postdocs, Privat Dozents, Junior Prof., retired),
discuss cases of inter-institutional work (PhD student is not working in the same university as PhD advisor),  and
consider other kinds of intellectual output (such a writing books).
If you think that (3) is the right answer, please, elaborate if it implies restrictions to write papers, books, etc. as a sole author for anyone who is not holding a permanent position.
If you are inclined towards (4), please, provide some substantiation.

Here is a little cartoon and a historical remark in order to encourage your response.

To put my question in a historical perspective: famous Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote all his works while being associated with the University of Königsberg (MA, 1755; PhD, 1755; Dr. habil., 1770). For instance, in 1749, he published his first philosophical work, "Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces" (written in 1745–47) not even holding a PhD title and possibly unpaid. Does it mean that this and all subsequent works were internally refereed by some professors. What has changed since that time?


texts: Why do academics work only nine months of the year?

texts:
I'm wondering how best to respond to queries from non-academics along the lines of "Why should you be paid during the summer holidays?" This is the sort of question I hear a lot in this economic climate here in Ireland, though I strongly suspect that one encounters similar questions and opinions elsewhere.

There is a subtext that public money is scarce, that people in "real" jobs work themselves to the bone and pay high taxes, while some people get to spend a significant proportion of the year on a sun lounger at the tax payer's expense. I like to think that we academics do earn our crust, but as somebody paid public money I think it's a reasonable question, and one I would like to answer better.

There are a couple of obvious responses.

It's nothing like nine months, especially when you factor in exam marking and processing, dealing with appeals, Autumn repeat exams, lecture preparation for the following year etc.
Did I forget to mention research? That's a full-time job in itself! And there are secondary activities such as applying for grants, judging grant applications, and supervising (post-)graduate students.

However these points don't apply to all academics. For example, I work in an Institute of Technology, possibly akin to a liberal arts college in the US, where there are typically 18 teaching hours per week in term time, but research is a bonus activity, and we have 10 weeks' summer holidays. So the core point seems to be that it's near-universal practice to have a teaching break during the summer months (exactly when this break is, and its length vary of course). But why is this? Are there good reasons that might satisfy somebody who is not already steeped in the academic life?

It's tempting to say that teaching is particularly intense, and this period of estivation is needed to avoid burnout. But is this true of teachers and academics more than, say, junior hospital doctors or care workers?

Presumably this question is tied to the question of why school teachers have summer holidays: I realise that this latter question may be off-topic for this site, but to the extent that answers to it have a bearing on my question, I would like to hear them.

Finally I am aware that not all academics are paid during the summer months. Many have temporary contracts that don't span the summer vacation. I hope that this situation remains the (in my opinion, disgraceful) exception rather than the rule.

EDIT: Thanks to Oswald Veblen and Dave Clarke for pointing out the general practice in US academia of being paid for only 9/12 of the year. In Ireland, and I think in much of Europe, academics are usually paid for 12 months. So some of the motivation for this question ("Why are we paying you academics during the summer?") may not apply in the US, although the basic question still stands ("Why don't academics typically have to teach during the summer?" or, in the more provocative (and inaccurate) terms that this is sometimes put: "Why don't academics work during the summer?")


texts: PhD in Quantum Computing - useful outside of academia?

texts: I'm thinking of applying for a PhD in Quantum Computing at Oxford. Suppose I later on decided that academia wasn't right for me. Would such a title still be useful for looking for jobs in different fields or would it be a waste of 3 years that would make me 'overqualified'?


texts: Citing multiple references in one number

texts:
While reading papers I have found some paper where multiple papers are listed in a single reference:

In the text, this is woven in with “The Cornell group [3] …”. Other papers have something like this and then use “[3-5]” and have the three consecutive references.

Is this just another way to refer to multiple papers if they are not disambiguated within the paper?


texts:
I have been invited to be an external jury member for a PhD defense at a Belgian university. Apart from reimbursement of my travel expenses, am I going to be paid for this work? In UK (where I am based), there will be payment for external examiners. It would be embarrassing for me to ask them directly:)

Thanks for any info!


texts: How to cope with regret and shame about not fully utilizing opportunities during PhD?

texts:
I am currently writing my PhD thesis and I was feeling guilty about the things and skills I could have attained during this period but I didn't. I have worked hard towards my research and have simultaneously worked on my hobby of painting and drumming during my PhD. Not that I joined a club or a band, I just studied art books, YouTube videos and practiced in solitude.

A bit information about me. I am not a brilliant student. Being average, I have struggled a lot during my PhD research as compared to my colleagues. This has led to spending a longer time on my research than my colleagues. It will take me a little over 5 years to defend. My colleagues and friends have taken somewhere between 4-5 years for their PhD.

At the moment, my only skillsets are doing research (owing to my PhD), make somewhat okayish paintings,  drum somewhat, still love my hobbies and am a bit confident about presenting and public speaking owing to the conferences I have been to.

But, looking back, I feel like I should have invested my free time in meeting new people, learning more about public speaking, should have taken leadership positions and should have invested my time in doing things that would have improved my CV. In short, doing things outside my comfort zone.

How can I cope up with the regret about my failure of doing things that would have helped me academically and in industry? I am 30 years of age (fyi).


texts: Giving a Professor a Gift After They Inadvertently Suggested I Do So

texts:
I know it has been asked several times on here whether giving a professor a gift is appropriate or not. The general consensus seems to be that it is unethical to both give and receive the gift [1] [2] [3]. However, I have a bit of a nuance that I would like to inquire about.

This past fall semester I requested to meet with a professor who I both enjoyed and respected and ask them for advice about the graduate admissions process.

I asked, out of curiosity, if letter writers minded submitting ~8 letters or if the work would bother them. They answered (roughly), "No. We enjoy helping students. If you want to be nice, you can get them a starbucks gift card or something after they've submitted the letters."

At the time I had no intention of asking this professor for a letter of recommendation. However, it ended up that they were one of my 3 letter writers. I want to write each of my letter writers a thank you note, but now I am faced with the predicament of whether to follow their advice or not.

I have been thinking of reasons for either getting or not getting the gift.

Reasons to get gift:

I will never have this professor again for classes, so there would not be any thoughts of favoritism.
Buying a $10 gift card would not be a significant financial burden on me.
I would be going along with their advice.

Reasons to not get gift:

There is a slight chance I may ask this professor for another letter, so giving them something of monetary value could call into question any future letters they write for me.
It could still be seen in a negative light given some stigma around giving faculty gifts as a student.

I understand I am probably overthinking this. I would like to show my gratitude to this professor in an ethical and professional manner without burning any bridges in my young career at the same time. Should I still refrain from giving gifts to professors? If so, should I address their previous suggestion, or just ignore it?


texts: How can I proceed if my email is not working, and I am in the middle of creating proofs for my new accepted paper

texts:
I received an acceptance letter for my article and the letter said that the manuscript will be transferred to the production department and work will begin on the creation of the proof. They also said that if they need any additional information to create the proof they will let me know.

Now the problem is that my establishment email (the email that I was using to communicate) is not working because of problems with the university's servers, and I don't know how long it will take to solve the problem.

How can I proceed?


texts: PhD Application - if/where to explain reasons for poor GPA 10 years ago

texts:
This is a follow-up to my previous question. I'm currently in the process of applying for PhD programs. I finished college with a poor GPA 10 years ago; since then, I have become a successful scientist in industry.

Some of the applications have an interesting question, on the lines of - "does your academic transcript properly represent your abilities" - which I assume is a space to explain why a poor GPA happened in one's past and how one has moved on.

My top choice program, however, has no such question. I did email a prospective guide and had a quick phone call with him about my interests, where he agreed we would be a good match and asked me to add his name in my essays so my application would be routed to him.

I've read several articles on how a statement of purpose should highlight only one's strengths and not gloss over poor performances (especially since they were 10+ years ago), but I'm concerned that without an explanation my application wouldn't be given a second glance. In the best case, I would be invited for an interview and at that point I could explain what went wrong and how I've moved on from it.

So what would be my best bet here?

Mention nothing in my essays, focus only on the positives and hope that the other facets of my application would intrigue the adcom to a point where they'd ask me for an interview?
Add a short blurb as to what went wrong, but without going into the gory details?
Go all in and explain everything?


texts: How to ask for an academic agreement with a foreign faculty?

texts: In my current place of work we would like to offer our students the possibility to follow courses and do research in foreign universities, but I am a little bit dubious how our faculty would manage to do that. I mean, what is the procedure to follow to make this kind of academic agreements? Should one write directly to the Dean of the objective faculty of which we want to make the academic agreement? What would be catchy for them to agree to have an academic cooperation with us (related to exchange of students and lecturers for short periods of time)?


texts: What could be the affiliation if an author is currently not working anywhere?

texts: I would like to submit a manuscript which has 5 co-authors. But one of the co-author is presently not working anywhere. So what could be the affiliation of this author? Is it Okay, if I provide the author's last affiliation address?


texts:
I'm in a Ph.D program and feel like I'm trapped inside of a bubble most days.  Attending lectures, daily research seminars, meetings, etc is all very interesting to me and I really like what I do.  However, all the fancy models, theory, and discussions only pertain to those of us in the position to be talking about such ideas and can actually understand the concepts.  To a general audience it seems like a bunch of fancy equations that don't apply to the real world and I have a hard time explaining my side and why it is important.  In turn, I start doubting the importance of academic/non-academic research.  During my first year, I felt like my professors who were theoretical were just creating their own jobs;  of course you can prove that theorem because of those assumptions.

So my question is, what are some tangible (or non-tangible) benefits of academic research?  Why should research exist when most of the papers will only ever be read by academics, while a very select few will be accepted by the general public.

Disclaimer : please don't take this as an elitist post.  I wouldn't be able to understand a carpenters way of thinking.

Edit :

I want to add, what is the incentive to invest so much in research that doesn't go anywhere in hopes that decades down the road one paper will be recognized?  I'm having a hard time understanding the billions of dollars funded in research each year in hopes of a significant achievement.


texts: Choosing the professors to ask for recommendation letters

texts:
I'm applying to a Ph.D. program which asks for 3 to 5 recommendation letters. I have four professors strongly in mind who I'm sure will give me great recommendations, however I'm struggling to pick a fifth one. I can find people who can attest to my abilities (I graduated in top 1% and was my department's honoree), but they will either have to be from other departments or an internship supervisor.

Some of the questions I have are:

Do I need a fifth reference if the requirement is 3 to 5? Will not having it lower my chances?
I am applying for a Ph.D. program in film, however all my recommenders have either an M.F.A. or M.A. None of them have a Ph.D. themselves. Will that be an issue? M.F.A. is a terminal degree and most professors of film have it. In fact, I've never personally studied under a film professor with a Ph.D. I should also add that the program I'm applying for is a hybrid program which combines theory and production.
Before transferring to a 4-year university, I attended a community college. Should I ask my CC professors for a reference or would that somehow look bad for my application? I personally love my CC, but am aware of the stigma.

Thank you so much for responding!


texts: meeting with Executive VP for Academic Affairs during faculty interview

texts: This is a first for me. This will be at a SLAC for a TT position. This is in addition to a dean so do you have any idea of what to expect from this meeting with the Executive VP for Academic Affair?


texts: Should a lecturer be friendly with students?

texts:
I have been thinking about this question for a while and did a few googling here and there; but, didn't get anything good. Probably, academia could help.

I am early in my teaching career as a lecturer (I am just 25 now) and also working towards my PhD.

My classes are very interactive and I sometimes become very friendly with my students. Sometimes, I make difficult theory so simple for them to understand in their own language or sense. Maybe that is good for students. However, it kills a lot of my time inside the class.

Sometimes, I can feel that students are trying to take undue advantages of this friendly behavior of mine. They try to become very frank when the papers are evaluated. They just sometimes make my time horrible so that they get a better mark than they deserve. Is it the outcome of my style of teaching?

In general, should a young lecturer be friendly with his/her students, either inside a class or outside of class?

I have felt that here students are more focused on grades than learning something new. (I am making it generalized; however, ratio-wise it is true)


texts: Is it necessary to have only recommendations from Computer Science professors for an application to Computer Science grad program?

texts: Can I also have my finance/economics professor recommend me? I have a good relationship with her. Would it matter if she isn't from the CS department in my college?


texts: What should someone do if he/she found a very similar published paper to his/her thesis work?

texts: Assume while someone writing his/her master's thesis, he/she found that there was a very similar paper to his work (90% similarities) 3-5 years ago? Does that make a problem and how to tell your advisor about this?


texts: What is the UK equivalent of a PC 2 laboratory?

texts: In New Zealand and Australia we use the term 'physical containment' (PC) to describe structures and procedures designed to prevent the release of viable organisms into the environment. As far as I am aware, a PC 2 laboratory deals with microorganisms which would be considered human pathogens. Does anyone know what the equivalent laboratory would be called in the UK?


texts: Is it expected that a part-time masters student publish before transferring to a PhD?

texts:
After reading this question, I am curious as to the publication expectations for part-time students. I am a Mlitt Student (working full-time and studying part-time) and am in the process of switching from my (uncompleted) masters programme to a PhD programme. My own personal feeling is that if it is expected that a full time student publish before they get their PhD then the same should be applied for a part-time one. It may take me longer to do a PhD but should the same expectations to publish not be there?

As I'm in the process of changing to the PhD I'm not sure yet if there is a requirement to publish to gain it, which of course may make the decision anyway. I am aware as per the answers in the linked question that this can vary between different institutions and disciplines. I am in the Humanities.

I am mainly asking in the context that in my Mlitt it was expected that I write my research thesis and possibly present at a conference, but there appeared to be no real pressure to publish an article etc. If this is something that will change, I'll have to factor it into my work-plan.

Edit(additional info): When I originally posted this question I attempted to keep it a generic as possible so didn't include info from my own case. I think this example shows where there can be slight differences between what can be expected from a full-time and part-time student. In my university full-time students have to do a blended PhD(about 20% coursework, 80% Thesis) whereas due to working 9-5(or more) I'll be doing a traditional PhD of Thesis only (an option not allowed to full time students). Personally I don't think this should have major impact on expectations on students to publish but does highlight that as a part-time student I shall be getting(hopefully!) my PhD by way of a different process to full-time student so there may be different expectations.

The easy answer is 'Ask your supervisor' and I will but it would be great if someone was either a part-time PhD student or supervised one etc, could give some insight on if there is an expectation in academia that a part-time PhD student publish?


texts: Tips & Examples for Academic Video Making in CS and Related Fields?

texts:
Computer science conferences these days often ask authors to make short videos based on their papers. The short ones might be 30 secs in length. The longer ones might be about 5 min long.

These videos, if made well, can attract people to your talk during the conference, and also serve as a great introduction to your paper for future readers after the conference.

I'd appreciate some tips and advice on how to make these videos good. If you have a favorite example of such videos, I'd love to see it too!


texts: Should I accept the job offers before having the results for my grad schoold admissions?

texts: I currently have a bit of a conundrum - I would like to do a Masters right after undergrad and am currently applying to programs. However, I have several job offers. In case I do not get into the programs I want, should I accept the offer now? I'm not quite sure how to handle the situation.


texts: Admin/teaching workload in a UK university, compared to other research universities

texts:
I'm a junior faculty in a reasonably good UK university. It seems to me that the non-research workload is quite high, and more than I would wish/expected for.

I have two courses per year. Which is okay. And then there's some admin work.

Question 1: Is this a fair amount of workload? How would you characterize a standard amount of non-research oriented workload?

Further comments: I feel also that the admin concerning everything in the UK is very high in comparison to other higher education systems in the world.

For example, two courses and some admin seems fair, but the amount of bureaucracy and effort made in each of these tasks is overwhelming, in comparison to other places I've seen.

Question 2: Is my impression that UK has a high non-research related
workload correct? Or do most standard faculty members have quite
high non-research related workload? How would you compare it country
wise?


texts: How to find the most relevant publications in field/topic

texts:
What is the most reliable way of finding the most relevant publications in scientific field and particularly a specific topic?

Does Google Scholar citing results suffice?


texts: Can co-first authors’ positions be swapped in a CV?

texts:
Some papers have co-first authors, which are supposed to have contributed equally. However, there is still an order issue.

Imagine a paper co-authored by A, B, and C. The paper goes like:

                                     A Very Long Paper Title
                                         A*, B*, and C
Our work is good.
-----
* A and B contributed equally to the work.

In this case, is it acceptable for B to cite this paper as follows in his/her CV?

  B*, A*, and C. A Very Long Paper Title. Journal of Stack Exchange.
  Jan. 2015. (* indicates the co-first authorship)

Note the position swap.


texts: What did my referee mean by asking about my "Plan B"?

texts: I am applying for PhD this Fall. Came across one of my referees today, had a great conversation and then he asked if I had a plan B if I would not be admitted. Does it mean he thinks I'm not good enough?


texts: General guidelines for those who do not have college degree and are not students but they could publish an article?

texts:
I am amateur mathematician with some formal training but am not a student and did not get some college degree, but, much of the time (really really too much) I think about mathematics and mathematical tasks and problems and I expand my knowledge of and about mathematics.

Sometimes I am solving some (mostly) undergraduate exercises, and sometimes I even do try to settle some unsolved problems.

Of course, if I dwell onto and into some mathematical theory, I try to understand basics and then the more general results.

Now, there are some ideas and a few results on the papers next to me, but I am extremely non-motivated to do the research in the future because of lack of support.

I can expect that even if I prove something of major interest, or if I prove something known by some other methods, that my work will hardly be published, because of lack of support.

So, if really I have written some results which could be published in some journal, or if I prove in the future something worthy of publishing, what are your general guidelines of what to do?


texts: I want to be the sole student author on a poster, but my advisor wants to bring on other students

texts:
I am in my 2nd year of my Ph.D. program and I want to submit a poster to a conference that will be held this spring. I brought up this idea to my advisor; she agreed, however she wants me to ask a few members from the lab to join in and help me do the work. My advisor is very positive and nice, and believes in constant collaboration among all members of her lab.
The problem is that I came up with this idea myself (using my advisor's data that she shares with all lab students), and already wrote a full research paper on it for a class project when I was in my first year. I got significant results, and aced both the assignment and class. Everything is already done - the lit review, method, results, conclusion, discussion, abstract, references, tables, etc. Although I am the youngest (rank wise) student in her lab, I definitely have a lot of stats and research experience and feel that I am more than capable to do handle this on my own.
This will be my first poster, so since the work is done, I honestly just wanted my name and my advisor's name on it. She also knows that I did this for a class project. All the other students in the lab are older and have plenty of poster experience. Since I had a toxic Master's thesis advisor at my previous school, I'm always careful of giving my opinion. I don't see any benefit of adding authors to the poster, and I don't really believe in adding your name to something unless hard work was put into it. Even though my current advisor is not toxic, I'm not sure how to bring this up to her without her thinking that I don't care about others's success. Thanks for your help in advance.


texts: Someone copied my assignment without my knowledge but I am now accused of directly assisting them to copy my work

texts:
Someone copied my solution to an assignment without my knowledge, and now I'm accused of directly assisting them by allowing them to copy my work. I was given a formal written warning.

How do I prove that I did not give permission to anyone to copy my work?

I do not know the person. My lecturer held separate interviews with me and the unknown person.


texts:
I am aware that grants often only provide the earned money over a certain period of time. And if the money is not used up by the end of that period you lose access to it. Are there ways to effectively spend this money so it does not go completely to waste?

Note: A previous version of this question asked about setting up shell companies, which is why some answers address them. That part of the question was removed.


texts: Can't graduate Masters because of Low GPA. What can I do?

texts:
I messed up a semester and ended up with two Fs which drastically lowered my GPA. one of those Fs was in an obscure subject which was discontinued when the teacher that taught it left the university. I can't repeat that course now. My GPA is 2.37 with 30 credits and I needed 33 credits with 3.0 GPA to graduate.
I ran the numbers and even if I repeat one of the subjects that I got an F in and 3 more and get B+ in all of them(my highest grade so far), I end up with 2.83. Even if I get A- in all of them, I end up with 2.96 which is still less than 3.0.
Do I really have no option but to to spend a year or more taking useless classes to dilute those Fs? I'm not even sure if it's worth finishing it now.


texts: Can I mention my undergrad ranking in CV, when there is no official document about it?

texts: Our university doesn't announce any rank and it is not present in our transcripts but I know that my rank is 7 out of 60 in my department. Can I mention this rank? Since I dont have any proof of my rank I am not sure if I can mention it or not.


texts: I graduated but school is withholding my degree

texts: I graduated in 2016 for my Associates Degree. My college told me to enroll in history 11 over at a different college (they dropped me from the class by mistake and I couldn’t get back into it because it was full), that it’s equivalent to their 111 American History, so I did. I gave my college the transcripts, transcripts accepted it. Upon finishing my checklist counseling and admissions signed off my “petition to graduate” form. I walked the stage, paid for cap and gown, paid for my graduation pictures, and then as they gave everyone else their actual diploma months later, they informed me that they aren’t going to give me my degree because the other college does not match their American institution portion. I spoke to head of admissions and she was going to give it to me since I wasn’t going to use it to transfer, I’d just needed it for employers! (Degree in communications). Now, since she is now the Dean, she’s refusing to give it to me, even though THEY signed off. It has to go through several steps for the petition and still she is now blaming me for not taking their course too. I already took it at another college, what do I do now?


texts: What should I cut out from my SOP for master's programs?

texts:
I have written my Statement of Purpose (SOP) for the graduate programs that were Ph.D. or M.Sc.+Ph.D. (the American doctoral programs), but I am also applying for some only M.Sc. programs. They often require a shorter SOP, and even if they don't explicitly mention a word limit, my presumption is that they find a full 2-page SOP (just below 1200 words) to be too long. I am wondering what are the least important points for an M.Sc. application, so I can cut out those parts from my SOP.

Given the programs I'm applying to, it seems to me that they care a lot about the courses I've done, and not only a few important ones, but almost all relevant coursework. I also know that they don't really expect any research experience, but I thought my research experience is what could make my application stand out in the pool of applicants to those M.Sc. programs (a lot of whom have little to no research experience). There is also a part about my interest in the subject and my long-term plans, where I explain my research interest (since I'm definitely going to do a Ph.D. after my M.Sc. and pursue an academic career). I don't know how necessary it is, but I think they might care about why I wanna do a master's degree at all (this is separate from the part where I write about their program in particular). The rest of it is about my educational background and skills.

Which one of these parts do you think is the least important so I can exclude it?

(I list the paragraphs here: )

My interest + view on the subject + long-term goal
Background from college 1
Background from college 2 (I've
transferred from 1 to 2)
Skills and other important points about
my background
Research experience 1
Research Experience 2
(I've briefly described the project too.. is it necessary to do that
for Master's programs?! )
Short-term plans
Why this particular master's program


texts: What makes a research paper low-quality?

texts: As a reviewer, what are some obvious signs to you that a paper is low-quality?


texts:
I am currently undertaking my PhD in a very niche sub field of Artificial Intelligence. However, I have, what I consider, a strong background in programming and often contribute to many open source projects in my spare time. I have recently started an Open Source project which solves a very particular problem, but is outside the scope of my PhD research.

I wish to publish my hobby research and I doubt this is something my project supervisors, or university would be interested in. Should I go ahead and publish without their knowledge, or should I ethically bring it to their attention before I send it off? It should be noted, because it is my hobby project, I don't particularly want it influenced by an academic agenda.


texts: Is it ethical to publish a paper about porting an existing software package to another programming language?

texts:
In short:

I have ported a package in another programming environment, and I want to write a paper of my ported package. Would it be considered cheating?

In details:

I have implemented a package in Python, that is modeled after an R package, which means my package has the design and APIs similar to original's.

The authors of original R package has published an official paper about the package on Journal of Statistical Software. And now I want to write a paper about my python package.

The point is, since the design and APIs are similar, the structure and content of the my paper would be similar to that of the original package's paper. For example, in the original paper, the authors explained what Corpus class is, and in my paper, I would explain that my python-version Corpus has similar attributes.

The biggest differences are brought by the environments and dependence, and some language-specific details.

So, would it be considered cheating if I write the paper of ported software? Of course, the relative sections of my paper would include the comparisons between two packages and I would cite the original paper as appropriate as I can.


texts: How to react to a student proselytising during office hours?

texts:
A few weeks ago, a student asked me during my office hours whether I was religious or not. More specifically, he asked whether I believed in his religion, and was visibly disappointed when I replied negatively.

How should I react to a question such as this? Religion is a bit of a touchy subject, and even if I am a TA (i.e., not the instructor of the course - and more importantly, also a student), I don't want to be put in a similar situation again.

More generally speaking, how do I react to a situation in which I have to answer a question in a way that I know is likely to upset a student, without lying or making the situation worse?

edit: Some comments have pointed out that the student was never actually preaching, and I understand and somewhat agree. The reason I chose this phrasing over anything else was because he did try to make the conversation into something along the lines of "Do you want to learn about the ways of [religious figure]? There's always time, you know".

edit 2: I'm in computer science; there is no link whatsoever between religion and the contents of the class (or the whole program, really).


texts:
I am writing a (maths) paper that generalises an earlier work, and aplies it to something slightly different.

The problem is, I am literally having to step through the previous paper, and point out how the more general case would differ. My paper is therefore essentially entirely based on this work (though there are substantial chunks here and there whcih are original). I am not entirely sure how to approach this case. On other SE posts, it suggests to paraphrase. That is clearly not suitable in this case.


texts: Recruiting process time for assistant professor position in Japan?

texts: What time scale is typical for the evaluation of applications for an assistant professorship in Japan?


texts: If interviewing for a postdoc by Skype, how to get a feel for the lab culture?

texts:
I have recently applied for a postdoc in the USA, and because I am on a different continent any interview that I may be offered will almost certainly be by videoconference. I assume that at postdoc level, nobody is going to offer to pay for an intercontinental visit for a second interview (am I right?).

There is some good advice here on interviewing over Skype, and indeed this is something that I have my own past experience of. Something I've noticed before is that while the formal interview itself can work almost the same way in person or by VC, one misses out on the surrounding interactions - chatter before and after, perhaps walking around the building, and so forth - which helps one to form an impression of the people, the place, and whether one wants to work there.

Are there any ways to get a feel for these intangible aspects of culture and personalities without a visit?


texts: Is it possible for a high school student to conduct research into computer science?

texts: I am currently half way through year 10 and I am interested in conducting research into computer science. I am from a public high school in a small town in Australia. I want to go to Massachusetts Institute of technology but sadly my high school doesn't offer a lot of opportunities when it comes to technology but I have taught myself C, Python and currently learning C++. I am nearly through the basics of C++ and I will be learning networking in C++ soon, probably by the next to month or two. I am really really really really interested in conducting research in computer science and can't wait to get started. But i just don't know where to start......How can I get involved in research???


texts: Slow dissertation advisor: should I complain?

texts:
My doctoral advisor has regularly taken 3-4 weeks to respond to each round of my revisions on my doctoral dissertation draft.

Because of her lengthy response delays, I defended very late in the semester. (In contrast to her 3-4 weeks, I take 2-3 days to finish all of her requested revisions.) At the moment, it looks like I am going to run over to the next semester, which means I have to push back my conferral date and pay another semester's tuition since I am over the period where I received tuition compensation. (I had funding and a scholarship for four whole years, but my dissertation has run into a fifth year.)

My question is should I complain to her about her delays? I have already spoken a couple times to the graduate student advisor who works with the faculty, so I am sure my doctoral advisor knows I am anxious to finish up. Should I complain to the department chair about allowing faculty to take so long to respond to dissertations? If I have to enroll in another semester, I will officially be a whole year beyond the average time period of finishing a PhD in this program.

I still could have made this semester's conferral deadline, but my doctoral advisor yet again dropped the ball, and she hasn't looked at my final revisions for 4 days and the very last deadline for this conferral is today. I doubt I will meet the deadline today because she again took a long time in responding to my revisions even though I told her about this deadline several days ago. Should I complain to the department chair? Should I complain to anyone? Is there anything I can do besides paying for yet another semester's tuition?


texts: Nomenclatures and symbols expansion in text

texts:
In my thesis there are 7 chapters. Each chapter contains many nomenclatures and symbols.

Nomenclature:

Chapter 1

Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is wonderful. MC is a stochastic process.

Chapter 2/3/../7

Do I need to re-expand the nomenclatures at the beginning of each chapter or expanding at the chapter 1 (or first occurrence) is enough?

Symbol:
Same question applies for Symbols also. For example, Temperature (T)

(Note: Apart from the above, the list of abbreviations and symbols is a must in the thesis as per institute guideline.)


texts:
I am actually working for two different universities in my country, and the problem is that they do not give too much support to academic research. I mean for paying the costs of tickets, travel expenses or accommodation when one paper get accepted for a conference.

I usually work as an independent researcher, but the problem that I have is that if I put my author affiliation as Independent researcher maybe I will be not be considered "serious" enough for the reviewing program committee of the conferences that I plan to submit my work.

Now what should I do? should I put the name of one of the universities that I am working at random, and at the end change my affiliation and put the name of the university that will give me the funds for the travelling expenses of the presentation?

What would we the best way to act in this way? I remember that for one paper that I was submitting, the Dean of my past faculty told me that he could give me the money, but if I put him like a co-author. Actually it was his way to get publications to his name without working on them. Of course, I did not accept that.

Any suggestion would be of great help

Thanks


texts:
After asking this question,
I've realised I don't really have a good grasp on what exactly
the Chancellor does.

I know the Vice-Chancellor runs the university, but what does the Chancellor do?

I've been told it is something like:
If the Vice-Chancellor was the Prime-minister, then the the Chancellor would be the Queen.
Though that doesn't really say all that much.

Is it also similar to the corporate analogy of: the CEO and the Chairperson of the Board of Directors?


texts: What can be some strong reasons not doing a masters?

texts:
I am writing a motivation letter where I have to write why I am directly applying for a Ph.D. position without masters. What can I write so that it seems valid and convincing to the professor?
(The Ph.D. will take 4 years anyway for people who will apply from bachelor, the 1-year preliminary course then 3 years Ph.D.)


texts: Could teaching at community college for a few years harm my career?

texts: If one aspired to a traditional, research-based academic career in a major university, would teaching for a few years at a community college (say, after the Master's) be damaging to one's CV? I'm worried that it would create a record of affiliation with a low-ranked university that would make people see you as "from" that university, and thus be biased against hiring you. Is there any truth to this?


texts: Why do junior faculty serve on PhD admissions committees at American universities?

texts: I only have knowledge of American universities:  I know of junior faculty that serve on graduate admissions committees in the STEM fields -- at top schools such as Harvard.  The things that I hear from them are quite interesting, for instance, how strong the recommendation letters are from the undergraduate applicants at top schools - that virtually all letters say that those students are the "best" that those professors have ever had.  But why do junior faculty such as "Assistant Professors" or "Titled Instructor" serve on graduate admissions committees? To me, the admissions process for graduate STEM programs are so important that I feel the committee should consist of senior faculty instead.


texts: How to start a phd in algebraic geometry with an electrical engineering degree?

texts:
I graduated with a bachelor of electrical engineering and I like to start a phd program in algebraic geometry at Brown university or another similar university. During my undergraduate, in addition to engineering math courses, I have taken abstract algebra, real and complex analysis, differential equation, linear algebra, and vector calculus.

Given my background, how can I start a phd program in algebraic geometry? How should I transition to a phd program in algebraic geometry?

I know that my math background is very poor but I want to know what I need to do so I can do a phd in algebraic geometry?


texts: PhD scholarship in nanoporous material; how to advertise?

texts:
I would like to advertise some PhD scholarship positions located a Sydney, Australia in the fabrication of novel nanoporous material like mesoporous silica. I am finding that it is not straightforward to advertise locally and internally. Most of the big scholarship and general job  sites are expensive to post too.

What other options exist for finding candidates?


texts: How long to wait before sending a follow-up email asking for a letter of recommendation?

texts:
I am currently applying to graduate school and trying to gather some solid letters of recommendation.

During my undergraduate studies, I worked in a research lab and while I didn't get that close with the professor, I decided to take a shot and ask her for a letter of recommendation. I sent an email two weeks ago and she has not responded. How long should I wait before emailing again? How do I ask again without being pushy? My fear is that she barely remembers me and this is her way of saying no. Should I just ask someone else?


texts: Publishing papers seem natural to many, while I find it really hard to think novel stuff to pursue till publication. How to cope up with this?

texts:
I am a final year PhD student in materials science. My colleagues publish papers at a rate of 2-3 papers a year. By the end of their PhD, they would have around 8-10 papers (first authors) in their name. While I on the other hand, am struggling.... struggling hard.

How do people produce so many work in such a short time? I take around 3 months trying out some hypothesis and if it does work then I require at least 2 months to produce enough data. So, in all, it takes around 7 months to complete a work for a paper. Then it will get submitted and so on.

While my colleagues start a work and publish it within 7 months. Which means they conceptualize, run simulations, gather data and write a manuscript in 3 months! I am not able to comprehend this.

What am I doing wrong? How can one be so productive? I feel so inadequate and am thinking of quitting academia after my PhD. Probably, I am not fit for academic life. I love doing research, but I have realized late that, just loving research is not enough.

My advisor says my progress is good. But, having looked at my advisor's PhD thesis, she had 5 submitted papers towards the end of her PhD.


texts: Re-examinations: how common are they and what are they good for?

texts:
In my country, re-examinations are a common thing. Basically, if you miss your exam for whatever reason (or, if you do not pass), then you get an extra chance, under the same circumstances, and if you miss that one as well, you get one last chance.

My question is, is such a protocol normal? Are other countries also doing this? What are the benefits/drawbacks of such a policy?

My personal experience is that I can abuse this policy really easily. If I think I am going to do really badly on an exam, I may as well fail it on purpose (basically you hand in an empty piece of paper) and try to do better on my next attempt. Or, you can take the exam just to get a taste of how it's going to be like, what kind of questions you are going to be asked, and so on, and then you can fail it, and retake it this time being well-prepared. So is it really as 'bad' of a policy as I feel it is, and if so, what are the alternatives?


texts: Do two rounds of major revision lead to a better chance of getting the paper accepted?

texts: I submitted a paper to a prominent journal in my field. The reviewers all indicated that the paper would make a positive contrition to the field in the first round of review and asked me to make a major revision. I revised the manuscript according to their review and all reviewers indicated that they like my revision. However, one of the reviewers kept raising new issues and asked me to undertake another round of "major revision." Personally, I really feel that the new issues are not too difficult to address. However, I am wondering whether it is fair to keep raising new  (major) issues in each round of review. And, what is my chance of getting the paper accepted in the scenario described above (two rounds of major revision)? Thanks very much for your insight.


texts: Verbatim self-plagiarism in introductory sections

texts:
I'm reviewing an article where the authors are kind of experts of a particular subject and published several similar studies in the field, some even in the same journal.

This apparently leads them to reuse part of their own content between articles, sometimes self-citing sometimes not.

E.g. there are a couple of paragraphs in the Introduction that are a copied almost verbatim from a study from the same authors (which they don't cite). They maybe changed some comma or a word here and there.

What's the best practice in peer-review about this scenario? Is this ethical? Can this be considered a reason for rejection?

It's mostly in introduction and material and methods sections and the study overall is novel enough, so I'd be inclined to suggest a self-citation. But I'm curious if there is a consensus about how to handle such cases.


texts: Which ranked universities in the USA is easier to get a PhD admission with low cgpa and high research skills?

texts:
I want to apply for a Ph.D. position in the USA (departments related to health sciences) in the upcoming session. My bachelor's GPA is very low (below 3.00). I have worked hard to cover it up and now I have 3+ years of research experience with some good publications in peer-reviewed journals (2 as the first author). My professor from my research institute often says that the qualities I have now, are almost equal to a postdoc as I co-supervise students besides my own projects too. I am confused about what kind of universities I should go for? I don't dream of top-ranked ever and I think the middle-ranked universities are competitive. I mean they always want to choose the best students so that the ranking can be high eventually. Also, I have thought about 500-600 ranked universities but I think they also have the same case (correct me if I am wrong, I am just writing what I have heard from people around)
So my question is what kind of universities I should go for? Which kind of universities will focus more on research and less on GPA? I know universities vary but if I get some suggestions, it will help me to decide.


texts: Suggestions on how to organize a chair rotation

texts: I am suggesting a chair rotation for a department in sciences. I was wondering about pitfalls and advantages, things to watch out for, best practices and general advice. If you have organized such an an arrangement or have been part of one I would like to hear your recommendations.


texts: What should I do about a professor who got in my face and yelled at me?

texts:
I'm a lab assistant at my university and one day some of my coworkers who are underclassmen asked me about my experience with a professor I had taken a couple classes with. I told them that every class that professor teaches is hard and that one specific class, is a "flipped" course in which students have teach themselves the material and come to class ready to just answer questions and do classwork. I also mentioned that in that particular class the professor would get frustrated when students asked her questions during class time (so much so that she would yell at whoever asked her a question and in one instance became so frustrated that she stabbed the white board with her expo marker and could no longer write with the marker because the tip was completely sunken in). I also mentioned that this particular class put me under so much stress that it caused me to develop anxiety. Everything that I told my coworkers was my honest experience with said professor.

It is not the first time I've told others at work about my experience while taking classes with this professor as well as with any of my other professors (in fact, on that same day I had talked about many of my previous professors and my time in their classrooms). Somehow one professor who manages some of the labs found out that I was talking about that particular professor (I'm not sure what exactly she heard or how much of what I said she heard) and decided to get right in my face and yell at me to stop talking about said professor because she didn't like what I said. After having yelled at me she just briskly walked away. When she confronted me, I was standing right next to my coworker and I noticed that even my coworker had to pull her head back because of how loud and close the professor got to me/us. My ears were also ringing for a few moments.

I am not upset at the fact that whatever I said got out because I don't think I made any personal attacks, I simply talked about my experience in that particular professor's class. What upsets me is that the way the professor confronted me has really increased my stress levels and anxiety to the point that my blood pressure has risen. I am also experiencing dizzy spells, fatigue, and aches all over my body. I suspect that this is due to my anxiety. I have been stressing over this incident for the past couple of days and I'm not sure what to do.

For now I've decided to go speak with a counselor to try and calm down and seek a different perspective on the situation. I'm also going to discuss the situation with one of my superiors at work and ask her for advice as well as get her perspective on the situation. I don't want to make any rash decisions or actions based on poor judgement and wild emotions. I am not comfortable enough to talk to the professor who confronted me (at least not 1-on-1). Can anyone give me any suggestions on what I should do? Do I contact the Dean? (Is there even enough basis to do this?)


texts: Citations in graduate school applications

texts:
One of my graduate school application question asks me to analyze an economic/ social problem and give solutions. For this question, I need to use facts and statistics in my essay.
In such case, do i need to use citations in the essay? If so, do I need to use footnotes or in-text citations? As for reference page, since this is a grad school application form, there is no separate section for references.


texts: Citing article where listed author is pseudonym

texts:
If one wanted to cite an article where the listed author is a pseudonym and it is well-known that the name is a pseudonym then which name ought one use?

Normally I would just use the name listed on the paper, however there is the following situation that made me wonder: there is a paper by one Maurizio Boyarsky which is a pseudonym of one Bernard Dwork. It is somewhat 'well-known' that this is a pseudonym as it is listed in the Wikipedia article and in the MathSciNet review of the paper. However, in a certain textbook there is the line

  On the other hand, Dwork in [Bo]...

and the reference at the end of the book corresponding to [Bo] is the paper of Boyarsky.

So it made me wonder, should I follow the example in the textbook or not?

EDIT: to clarify, I am not debating the entry in the bibliography, I am debating whether one should write "On the other hand, Dwork in [Bo]" or "On the other hand, Boyarsky in [Bo]".


texts: Can I take a year off during a masters program?

texts:
I am a second year part-time masters degree student at NYU, with a full time job. My life is pretty simple and boring in NY. I was looking for opportunities, and yesterday it happened. I was accepted as an "intern" for one of Hillary Clinton's organizations in some other state. And there is this other organization that will be financially supporting me for 6 month. Later, I am expected to get a part/full time job there. This is life time opportunity, big adventure, lots of sacrifice and commitment..

My question is: Can I take a year off during grad school in order to be able to work full time in some other state?


texts: My problem about writing a technical/research report/paper

texts:
I have seen several questions on this forum that have similar things and some of them have been quite satisfying for my quest. But I want to mention my specific case and want to have some useful suggestions, so I am writing this, which maybe or may not be a redundant question.

In my work as a research associate, I always have this problem which irritates me a lot.

Every time at the start I have to study something, of course related to my area but a somewhat new for me (painful, but this is what anybody has to take it to get the job done), learn it and apply it (I would say the apply part is the sweet/joyful pain).

Suddenly the next demand comes as "Write down" and it is where the pain concern ends and I start feeling as if my hands are cut and my mind is blank and "ME" can never do it.

Sometimes the demand is "Write down and make it as long as you can and we will make it short later", the torture is, for God sake I do not have even a few words to write!

Problem as I feel it:

Even after doing everything by myself, I feel that I can not describe it in writing. While if it is about describing it orally I am confident that I am much better than many.

When it comes to writing, I never know what to include and what not, especially when the demand is about as long as you can. I have had read tens of writings and have had done the things practically by myself but no idea what makes my mind blank about writing technical things.

I feel myself really good at doing technical things and love it.

Finally, I think I am missing some steps involved in that writing and I never miss the steps of doing things practically making me successful in that.

If these are steps, what are these?

If these are not the steps, what else are these?

Many times I have got my office reputation damaged because of going blank even after many days/weeks given to me for writing. I want to get rid-off this problem and want it never happen again. I would love to be the researcher who satisfies the demand of as long as you can?

A foot note: In general I do not feel myself bad at writing, though my answers to most emails and my own emails are mostly brief but satisfy the receivers. One more thing to mention that might be useful to assess/suggest me is that it took me around an hour to complete this question completely.


texts: What to call someone that is currently studying for their PhD?

texts: I'm using a PhD student as a reference for an application, and I wonder what title I should use for her. She hasn't yet got her PhD title but is still writing her thesis. Is there a name for that position?


texts: Will an internship in biology benefit me when my major is not biology?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate majoring in chemistry. But I'm very much interested in the field of biology too.

Will an internship in biology benefit me, say when I apply for graduate school? I don't yet know what I'll be specialising in later on. If I decide to specialise in biology, then all's good. But what if I stick with something primarily chemistry? Then will it look like I don't have enough experience in chemistry?

Also, can I ask my department's HOD or any other chemistry professor for a recommendation letter while applying for the internship in biology? Since he's a chemistry professor, even if I did ask and he did write me one, will that count for much? After all, it's going to talk about my skills, etc. in chemistry, and not biology.

On the other hand, if I didn't ask him for a recommendation letter and I asked only some of the Life Sciences professors for it, will it be unethical, or would he take offence? ( I have no idea about etiquette regarding these things)
I don't want to do something that's going to get me in his bad books.


texts: Is possible cite an internet site (of an academical project) with the authors

texts:
I am writing a paper about a project.

I must cite the internet site of the project with the results.

Question: can I cite, not only the site, but also the authors in the references?

NOTE The site is of research team where I work and is an institutional site (linked to my university).


texts: How can I replicate a search strategy described in a publication?

texts:
I found a Cochrane Review from 2012. I would like to perform a new search with the same search strategy to see if there are an updates in this topic.
The search strategy is given at the bottom of this post.

Now my questions: Where can I input those keywords? Did they perform every line a whole new search, or are those keywords linked together via one search.

I have access to OVID and read/watched some tutorials but they didn't show me something similar.

The search strategy:

  Appendix 1. MEDLINE via OVID search strategy

  Molar, Third/
  (“third molar*” or “wisdom tooth” or “wisdom teeth” or “3rd molar*” or third-molar).mp.
  T ooth, impacted/
  ((tooth adj5 impact$) or (teeth adj5 impact$)).mp.
  T ooth, unerupted/
  unerupt$.mp.
  1 or 2
  3 or 4 or 5 or 6
  7 and 8
  T ooth extraction/
  (extract$ or remov$).mp.
  asymptom$.mp.
  (symptomless or symptom-free or “symptom free”).mp.
  (trouble-free or “trouble free”).mp.
  or/10-14
  9 and 15

  The above subject search was linked to the Cochrane Highly Sensitive Search Strategy (CHSSS) for identifying randomised
  trials in MEDLINE: sensitivity maximising version (2008 revision) as
  referenced in Chapter 6.4.11.1 and detailed in box 6.4.c of the
  Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions version
  5.1.0 (updated March 2011).

  randomized controlled trial.pt.
  controlled clinical trial.pt.
  randomized.ab.
  placebo.ab.
  drug therapy.fs.
  randomly.ab.
  trial.ab.
  groups.ab.
  or/1-8
  exp animals/ not humans.sh.
  9 not 10


texts: submitting pre-prints at Tenure-track faculty application

texts:
First time asking here, I hope my question will be clear.

Background:

I am applying for tenure-track faculty positions in psychology (at a not US/Europe but developed ("OECD") country with strong research overall, if its important to mention).

One of the requests in the application process for some TT positions (top universities in the country- "research-intensive") is a submission of published papers or pre-prints ("Please submit up to 3 prints/pre-prints").

I have 1 top-tier publication as a 1st author from my current post-doc (at top university in North America) and another preprint of a submitted paper from my post-doc.
I also have a single paper as 1st author and about a dozen of others as co-author (several co-authors on each paper) all from my PhD, done in the same field but different sub-field with very different methods than my post-doc.

However, I don't have a second pre-print from my post-doc yet. I do have some nice and interesting data I got from the new methods I learnt during my post-doc, which requires more work before it can be published. I wonder if I should arrange and submit these data as a pre-print to the committee although its currently "half-baked". I don't have enough time to do more experiments or do a very good editing of it (my English is reasonable but I'm not a native English speaker).

I assume the idea behind the committee request is to see one's most updated work and projects and not what one have achieved few years ago (as it can be seen in the CV).

My question is:

What is the best strategy for submission, for me and more generally - for one who submit papers/pre-prints to committees.

A) Submit only 2 files- recently published paper and the pre-print from my post-doc. (the request was  "Up to 3").

b) Submit 3 files- the 2 above + an old 1st author paper from my phd.

c) submit the 2 paper from option A + writing a pre-print of the data I already have even if its not a complete piece of work and not very well-edited.

I would be most interested to read answers from people who were/are members of committees, but also be happy to read others answers.

Thanks for your help


texts: In academic papers, is it really a bad thing to not report the relatively not good results?

texts:
I am going to submit a computer science paper to a conference. So the thing is fairly simple. On some datasets with 1:1 ratio, our model achieves really good performance. On datasets with 1:5 or 1:10 ratio, our models only reaches mediocre results.
I just want to report the results of datasets with 1:1 ratio in this case since they are pretty good. Putting a mediocre result (on the 1:5 or 1:10 ratio datasets) may extremely lead to a whole paper getting rejected. However, my PhD advisor told me that we have to put the mediocre result as well.
Meanwhile, the PhD advisor seems really angry about this behavior and disappointed about me, and I feel really sad because I didn't cheat, and I just not want to include the relatively mediocre results in my paper.
I think many other computer science papers do something like that, not reporting their results on some datasets if the result is bad, and reporting their results on some datasets if their result is good.
I don't get why my PhD advisor is so angry about that. Could someone tell me? I am really appreciated it.
Currently, I feel wrongly judged by my PhD advisor and afraid of the whole paper getting rejected because of this since we are going to submit to a top-tier conference.


texts: Would it be okay to reapply to a Ph.D. program after getting a Master's Degree elsewhere?

texts:
Let’s say person A has been accepted to a Ph.D. program at Harvard, MIT and Princeton. In addition to this, he has been accepted for a one-year Master’s Degree at Oxford University. If he decides to pursue the Master’s Degree because he wants to spend a year abroad in Europe, can he reapply to the Ph.D. programs he turned down?

How would an admissions committee react to this, given that the very same applicant applies one year after having been accepted, but didn’t accept the original admissions offer?

Note, that there are very similar question on stackexchange already. But they didn't ask for the situation I have described above.


texts: Advisor is moving. Issues with quitting PhD and settling for a MSc

texts:
I'm an international student. I have been in a PhD program in the US for 1 year and this is my second. My advisor informed me earlier this year that he is moving to another lower-ranked school. How to cope when PhD advisor quits midway deals with this issue. This is not what this question is about.

I have not been doing a lot of research and have been overwhelmed with coursework. By the time I finish my coursework, I'll be in my third year already. I also find that my advisor's work (after having spent some time with his group) does not interest me and is very different from what I thought I would be doing. I do research in a very specialized area. My advisor does work in a different area but is interested in how what I'm doing can be applied to what he's doing. However, we disagree on methodology.

I'm also not interested in research/teaching as a career and originally decided to do a PhD to gain more knowledge/training in this very specialized area that is not available in industry. My original plan was to finish my PhD and get a job. However, my advisor's move is making me reconsider this plan. Even though my advisor is moving, he will still advise me remotely until I satisfy my coursework requirements (and then I could move as a visiting student at this point).

By the end of the second year, I can quit my PhD and get a MSc but I see the following issues:

How should I handle this on my resume? Do I say that I'm doing a PhD or that I'm doing a MSc?

If I say I'm doing a PhD, how do I explain not getting it?
If I say I'm doing a MSc, does that violate an F1 student visa?

How should I handle my relationship with my advisor? At what point should I announce my plan to quit?
Will quitting reduce my chances of getting a job? If I say I'm doing a MSc, then chances are my employer will not seek a recommendation from my advisor but if I say I'm doing a PhD and decided to quit, then chances are my employer will do that and will seek an explanation.
Is it a good idea to get an internship this summer before quitting for a full-time position?

Oct 9 If you have an answer to only one or a few of these issues and not the others, please consider posting it.


texts: Is being featured on the front cover of a scientific journal an academic milestone?

texts:
I am a PhD candidate now writing my thesis.

I have recently submitted an article to a very good journal (for a particular yearly issue). Along with the article, authors were encouraged to send "cover images" for the issue. I enjoy drawing and illustrating, so I did. First the paper got accepted (with minor revisions) and a couple of weeks later I got an email from the editorial board saying my image was selected as the cover image of the issue.

I got really excited at first, but a couple of questions come to mind now:

Since authors are encouraged to send their cover images, is the selection based on paper quality or just image quality/beauty? I'm OK with being recognized as a scientist that can draw (ish), but I'd rather be a good scientist whose work "made it to the cover".
Does it have any academic value to be on the cover of an issue? Aside from being featured in the issue (which should generate a broader impact based on bigger exposure?), is it valuable/acceptable to add a line to my CV?