texts: How can TAs encourage institution to use different administrative software

texts:
I'm teaching in a university where many different types of administrative software are used. Many seem a bit clunky and badly designed, but I'm only interested in those relating to teaching. Some of these, like Blackboard, are pretty poor in terms of usability, efficiency and reliability. However, the use of some of these software platforms are mandatory within certain parts of the university.

The university started asking senior staff and students their opinions about some of this teaching software. However, most of the teaching staff (especially TAs and Tutors) were overlooked in relation to such questions, which is unfortunate as the majority of student grading that takes place in the university, using this software, is done by this cohort. Senior members of staff who outsource administrative responsibilities to their TAs will likely see no reason to change the software that currently is in use. While more senior TAs will almost certainly complain about the problems faced when using this software to their professors, it is unlikely that many of these complaints will be passed on to anybody with any authority, and even if they are, the actual specifics of the complaint will likely be garbled when subject to such dissemination.

What sort of steps can members of staff who have issues with the purchase of such  software take such that the institution can notice and potentially respond to these kind of issues (I am unsure even what department or people are responsible for such decisions, or how to even begin finding out!)


texts: What are good resources to read up on funding policies, especially pertaining to biology in the United States?

texts:
I am a biology PhD. student in the United States. I would like to know a little bit more on how to navigate the politics and processes that guide grant funding. In addition to this I am looking for good resources to keep up with news that might impact or change these policies. I guess in short, what are some reputable sites, blogs, news sources, literature or books to help with this?

By tracking policy I meant any good resources that track any legislature or incentives that are being passed that might impact the amount of money going into grant funding. I am also just genuinely interested in the grant funding process or any insightful resources on how to best navigate the whole process.


texts: How to better prepare myself for the application to masters degree programs in the U.S.?

texts:
I am an undergraduate student in China. I am currently a junior, majoring at Mathematical Economics and Mathematical Finance. My goal is to apply to a graduate school in the U.S. to learn Finance or Financial Engineering.

What can I do now to better prepare myself for the forthcoming application? How can I leave a good impression on the Admissions Committee? Except for higher GPA, GRE, Toefl, what else also make sense? To win a competition? To publishing papers? Or abundant internship experiences?

I know that the website of each school lists some requirements about the applicants, but those words are too general. Obviously there will be so many applicants who meet those requirements. What else need I show make myself outstanding, making them believe I am a good candidate? I am really puzzled.

Edit

I just want to obtain a master degree.

I also want to know that among GPA, GRE, TOEFL, competitions, publishing papers(if possible), good credible recommendation letters, etc, which ones deserve prior attention. It is unlikely for me to be that "superman".

End of edit


texts: How should a new professor sign their name in emails to students?

texts:
I just finished my PhD and am starting an adjunct position at a local community college.  I was responding to my first email from a student when I came across a problem I've never had before: I don't know how to sign my email.

Some options I've considered are:

First Name: this is how I've signed every academic email my whole life.
First Name Last Name: I have signed business, legal, or other official letters like this, and I suppose since this is my first job I could sign it the same way?
Professor Last Name: this makes the most sense because that's what I want to be addressed in the classroom, but I have never seen a professor write their title out like this.
Initials: I always thought professors signed their emails like this to shave precious seconds from their inbox time, but I'm now suspecting it has more to do with avoiding making the decision of how to sign.

I'm sure the best answer isn't going to be one of the above suggestions.  No matter what I pick, I want to be consistent, so there's no confusion as to how I should be addressed.

Edit: this is in the US.


texts: Is it unethical writing two papers addressing two aspects of the same research project

texts:
I am currently a master student working in robotics. In my research project, I have been building up a systematic framework for my research problem. I have collected a dataset in the process and experiment with it using some advanced algorithms I have proposed. And the paper 1 I have written address in detail how those advanced algorithms are defined and come in handy, while addressing the framework in less detail (more details are focused on the algorithms, making the scope of paper really large already. Only a simple logic procedure of the framework is briefly discussed). The first paper's already submitted in a computer science conference & is under review.

Then after some experiments, I have realized that, the systematic framework I have applied in Paper 1 can be a more generic framework, applying to different scenarios for different application purposes. In this case, the experiment I have in Paper 1 with the advanced algorithms can be seen as a complex extension to this generic framework & the advanced algorithms I have used for paper 1 experiments can be adapted or even simplified to better suit the framework. I have written another Paper 2 discussing this generality aspect of the framework, with the simplified yet slightly different experimental setting as a case study for the framework. A portion of the dataset originally proposed with Paper 1 is used. I have also discussed in depth how the generic framework can be applied for a completely different scenario, but I did not have the case study for it at the moment.

Also, while paper 1's still under review, I have submitted an ArXiv preprint. All similarities in paper 2 compared to paper 1 are properly cited, noted and discussed if necessary, when writing paper 2.

So the question is, is it OK to have this paper 2 submitted to another conference (an automation conference vs. the previous cs one) for review? Is paper 2 considered to be an "unethical salami slicing"?

Thank you!


texts: How was the Doctorate/PhD title awarded in Italy in the 1980s and now? when can someone apply for Post-doc?

texts:
One of the top Italian research centre for applied physics, the Area Science Park located in Trieste, just elected its new president.
The president's CV can be found here:
https://ginko.unipg.it/ws/sitopersonale/cv.php?humanid=caterina.petrillo&tipo=EV
By reading it, I discovered she got her Physics degree in 1984, starting in 1985 a post-doc bursary at an Italian institution.
Is it still possible to apply for post-doc bursaries&fundings in Italy without having completed a PhD?


texts: Is it common to have a mentor in academia?

texts:
At a recent networking workshop (not one of the "just don't be an introvert" ones, an actually helpful one with applicable ideas) I learned that it is supposedly very common to have a (career) mentor in academia.
This is not meaning a supervisor or a former supervisor you are still in contact with, but a person a few years further in their career than you, not necessarily exactly working in the same field but well established and experienced in some aspects of academia and academic careers where the mentee is in need of guidance (networking, public outreach, being from a similar minority, whatever is important to the mentee).

I promptly started to figure out what I would need in a mentor, who could be a good mentor and now how to approach them. But the questions come back nagging, because while this all makes sense and an online research came up with many tips and mentoring schemes I still have never met someone who said they had a mentor in this way.

So the question is: Do people have mentors in academia? If so, what are your experiences as a mentor/mentee? And would it be appropriate to ask someone who you have never met before for an informal conversation because you feel they might just be right for you?


texts: Looking for an endorser to publish on arxiv.org as well as other suggestions

texts:
My grandfather, a long since retired professor, recently finished a very long in the making paper, which tries to cover a lot of ground around physics and general nature science. He is very old-school, so he asked me to see if I can get his paper seen by people familiar with the field. I tried to publish on arxiv.org, but I need an endorser.

The author is 90 years old and has been out of academic circulation for over 30 years, long before arxiv and the internet.

I am posting a link to the paper here (29 pages), nothing huge, and I'm asking for anyone interested to comment as well as for advice on how to get endorsement, and about other locations I can post it at besides arxiv.org

https://app.box.com/s/2m4z6cfyaoje9zc3j3i0mx5sibfi5eaj

Thank you


texts: What niche is PRResearch supposed to fill that the other APS journals don’t already cover?

texts:
I read the description of the new journal PRResearch on the APS website, but I am still confused.
APS publishes specialized journals, including PRA/B/C/D/E, for each major branch of physics, and journals with a broader scope and large impact, such as PRL and PRX.
My main question is:
How is PRResearch standing in comparison with the specialized and lower impact PRA/B/C/D/E and the broader and higher impact PRL and PRX?
What niche is it supposed to fill?
On one hand, PRResearch is multidisciplinary as PRL/PRX, and both PRResearch and PRX are full open access with publication charges, whereas the other APS journals are not full open access but only have open access options.
On the other hand, as it is written on their website:

The acceptance criteria for PRResearch are aligned with those of other long-established journals in the family, such as Physical Review A, B, C, D, and E.


texts: How to apply for a research internship at the master's level?

texts:
I'm a master's student doing research in the field of the cognitive psychology of language and I would like to do an unpaid 4-month research internship in a different university. I am preparing cover letters to send to different professors within whose projects I would like to work. I want to include in my cover letter a description of what I plan to do during my short internship, so I want to know what research interns usually do. How can they contribute to an existing research project?  Also, can I say that I want to learn how to use a specific research technique (like for example a neuroimaging technique) even if I have no experience with it?

Do you have any general advice on how to best ask a professor to accept me as an intern within their research project?


texts: Poster about a published article (Poster session in physics conference)

texts:
What is the usual way to indicate on the poster that the poster is just a summary of an already published article?

I plan to give the reference as part of the poster title at the top, such as:

Interestic topic
J. of important Results, 2017, p1-23
Author, affiliation

Background (and why I have no idea): I am mathematician and will attend a physics conference. I have been encouraged by a member of the committee to present a poster about one of my results (actually my only result in physics so far, which was published in 2017 in the journal "Foundations of Physics"). I have no experience with posters (never presented one nor attended a poster session ever) nor with physics conferences. It seems that in many fields, posters are considered to be some form of publication? In any case, I would like to avoid misunderstandings or the impression of self-plagiarizing or whatever.


texts: What are the typical questions students are requested to respond during a teaching demonstration they attend during a faculty interview?

texts:
Disclaimer: There are other questions asking for general advice on a teaching demonstration during faculty interviews. My inquiry is more specific:

In the US, some colleges, which have a heavy focus on teaching, require candidates for a faculty position to give a teaching demonstration as part of the on-campus interview. This teaching demonstration is usually given to students. Typically, the students fill out a questionnaire after the teaching demonstration to evaluate the performance of the faculty candidate. I believe the questions on such questionnaires are different from a real teaching evaluation (the ones given to students at the end of a semester/quarter to evaluate the performance of their professors).

What are some examples of questions students are asked to answer during a teaching demonstration?


texts: There’s a lot of non-traditional ways to learn science without actually going to college. MOOC is the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear of free and certified learning. But are MOOCs worth anything? Can you even include free courses in your resume? Will you be able to pursue a graduate-level education by finishing a lot of free online courses that would give you solid foundation on a certain subject?


texts: Completing German master's programs in less than allotted time

texts:
I'm considering applying to master's programs in mathematics over in Germany (e.g. Bonn, Berlin Mathematical School). The stated time for these programs is two years.

Should I get accepted and attend, are there any issues (ethical or otherwise), with bailing after a year to attend a PhD program in the US? If so, is it possible to complete the program in a single year if I come in with some kind of advanced standing (i.e. having taken many graduate courses beforehand)?


texts: How does already having an academic scholarship affect graduate school admissions?

texts:
I'm currently applying to Grad school- mechanical engineering-and have a full academic scholarship to continue my education from the government.

Does this make it easier for me to gain acceptance to top schools like Stanford and Carnegie for masters? I'm doing the GRE in 3 weeks, but will I still need a 165+ in the math section to be admitted just like everyone else?
My GPA isn't stellar either. I guess the only stellar thing about my application is that I already secured funding.


texts: International standards relating to a professor publishing a student's thesis work without the student as co-author

texts:
I am looking for international standards that speak specifically of a professor taking the thesis work of an ex-student that they had supervised and publishing a journal paper on that work (and just that work) without the student's name.

This relates to a specific case that I am aware of where the official university finding essentially admits that the aforementioned incident did indeed take place (it is largely undeniable), and quotes some generic definitions and policies regarding plagiarism, but finds that the aforementioned incident does not imply plagiarism and/or academic misconduct (due mainly to a supposition that the student did nothing more than grunt work, which I don't believe to be true at all, which contradicts the university's own expectations for the academic title obtained by the student, etc.).

The finding is an obvious attempt to sweep the case under the carpet.

However, the fact that this is clearly a case of plagiarism is sort of "folklore" to me and I cannot find something authoritative to back it up (lots of blog posts, etc., but no statement that speaks specifically to this sort of case written by an authority that an official from a well-respected university would be reluctant to explicitly discount or contradict).

Aside from my gut, my question then is: does this sort of scenario constitute plagiarism and/or academic misconduct with respect to some specific international standard?

(I would very much appreciate answers with pointers to a statement from a well-known professional organisation, reputable university, high-profile journal, etc. The specific area is Computer Science, just in case.)


texts: Late followup for Internship Opportunity

texts: About a week and a half ago I received an email from a mentor with whom I'd previously inquired about internship opportunities, informing me of possible projects I could join. I accidentally let it slip for a bit and responded after 4 days. It's been almost a week since - how should I go about following up? I'm really punching myself in the gut, this was perhaps my "dream" work per se.


texts: How long does it typically take for editor's final decision after reviews are completed?

texts:
According to the reviewers, the paper I have submitted is now ready for publication.
How long I should wait to know the final decision of the editor-in-chief?


texts: What are the criteria for effective academic journal websites?

texts:
I'm looking for information on the criteria that could be employed in the development of a social sciences (including economics) academic journal open access website.  What visible (front-end) functions do academics prefer to use when looking up research content on an academic journal website?

For example:

Listings by year, author, publication type.
Search that allows you to modify the variables ("advanced search"), vs. search that lets you narrow down the results after a basic search ("faceted search").
What criteria do you usually (or would like to) use to narrow down search results?
Any examples of research content (academic journal) websites that work well?
Any functions that you wish were available to make searching for research content easier?

Background:  I'm a communications officer with a research institute that publishes its own research via its own website.  The website was redeveloped two years ago, with the aim of making the content more relevant, but lost some functions more relevant to academics in the process.  In an effort to redress this I would like to establish some criteria for evaluating functions that are needed in an academic journal website.


texts: Was there ever a time in American history when humanities PhDs were more sought after than STEM PhDs?

texts:
Was there ever a time in American history when there was greater interest in a humanities PhD, say, a PhD in Philosophy or Creative Writing, than a STEM PhD?

Perhaps during the period of time before computers were invented / widely used for computations?


texts: Should I apply to PhDs in the US (theoretical physics)?

texts:
I am a Cambridge Mathematics undergraduate (third year) and I want to be a theoretical physicist (I am taking the relevant courses, research experience, etc). I am confident I can get into Part III, but not sure if I could get accepted into an Oxbridge PhD. I would start my PhD in October 2021, so if I want to go to the States I should start thinking about GREs soon.

Should I consider applying to US top schools?
The application process would we quite time-consuming, but I am not sure I would end up going to the US over other European universities. Some points I am considering about grad school in the States are:

Longer (5-6 yrs) PhDs compared to Europe (3-4 yrs), it seems better to save 2 years. (Although I am young, so it may be good to have some stability before postdocs)
Coursework required may overlap with my Part III
Expensive (?)
If I do not get into an Oxbridge PhD, then I probably would not get into a top US school either. In that case, I think I would prefer a second-class European university than a second-class US university. And if get into Oxbridge, I would be more than happy to stay. Hence, with this reasoning, either way, I should not bother about applying to the US.

I think it is relevant to note that I would be 21 at the start of the PhD.

EDIT:
To clarify, my main question is not what are my chances of getting in, rather if it is worth doing a (longer) PhD in the US instead of somewhere in Europe (probably not Oxbridge).


texts: Why do some journals allow their papers to be open access for a short period of time after publication?

texts: Some journals upload their accepted papers for public viewing shortly after the papers were accepted, examples of this include J. Math. Phys and Cell Systems. What's the reason for doing this if the journal needs revenue?


texts: I'm currently a sophomore in undergraduate college who is just recently became a business administration major and I was undeclared for my freshman year and part of my sophomore year. Once my old advisor signed my paperwork about changing majors, I asked him when I would be graduating since I was genuinely curious and to reaffirm a fact that he said in an earlier appointment that I would graduate in the winter semester. However, he stated that I would need a fifth year and proceeded to harshly demand why I took classes in CJA, education, and had taken other gen ed's. When I reminded him that he did say I would graduate in the winter semester, he did not believe me and told me to give up on graduating in the spring with my other fellow classmates. I explained to my former advisor my reasons why I took said classes, because I was undeclared, yet he refused to believe me. To be honest, I was caught off guard by his behavior since in my last appointment with him, he was cordial and polite towards me. After my appointment with him, I began to lose self confidence in my choice for this major and I was confused by his harsh attitude towards me. After that harsh exchange, I transferred to a new advisor who is helpful and keeps me motivated but I am still bothered because I do not know why did my former advisor decide to say those harsh words to me. Any ideas behind my former advisor's behavior?


texts: I used a fork of a GitHub repository whose paper I cited – should I also cite the fork?

texts:
I want to cite a GitHub repository in scientific publications.
The repository that I used is a fork version of the original GitHub repository which is accompanied by a paper.
Both repositories are the same, but the fork has additional code for further calculations and plots.

I cited the paper to refer to the methodology.
But I did not use the original GitHub provided by the paper. Instead, I used the fork.

Should I cite the fork?


texts: How to force a journal to address an associate editor's scientific misconduct?

texts:
My manuscript, submitted to a high-rank and very respectable journal, has been rejected by a referee. From the referee's report one could make a conjecture that the referee is one of my competitors, whose results are far inferior to mine. A second referee also rejected my work by giving an absurd argument. It is not an emotional exaggeration, the absurdity of the second referee's argument should be obvious to anybody graduating a university. The editors agreed with such reports, despite the fact that all my arguments have been completely ignored by the referees. I appealed and my manuscript was considered by one of the associate editors. And now is the most interesting part.

The associate editor agreed with the referees and added his own argument against my work. But in this case his real name is known. He happened to be a very famous scientist. Knowing the name, it is very easy to find out his own works on the topic in question. Surprisingly, at the same time I submitted my manuscript, he (associate editor) published two papers in this and higher-rank journals where he stated exactly the opposite to what he wrote in his report to reject my work. Even after he had written his report, he continued to publish and give talks where he states the same point of view (which is the opposite to that of he wrote in his report). If my conjecture concerning the first referee's identity is correct, he is a coauthor of some of the associate editor's works and the associate editor just wants to help him to reject competing superior results.

I collected all these facts, presented them to the editors of the journal and accused that associate editor of scientific misconduct (because what he wrote in his report is a deliberate lie, supposedly in collusion with the referee, or even with both referees). After two months, I received a short message that the Editor in Chief will decide what to do in this case. Up to now there is no reply. It seems that the editors simply want to hush this incident up.

This journal is one of the oldest and most respectable journals in its field. Is there a way to change this situation and force the editors to report this incident and disclose the identities of the unfair referees?


texts: Why do people hang up papers on their doors?

texts:
This has been puzzling me for a long time, I have seen professors and other academic people hang up their research papers on their doors. What is the purpose of this?

My first guess was they were announcing some important papers related to a class they are lecturing, so students can look at them without disturbing professor. This doesn't feel right because there are not many papers studied in a typical class and there is internet to announce these things.

As the time passed I started thinking it is a way of advertising. But, this also doesn't make sense because web pages exists to serve this purpose and few people come to visit the office physically.

Maybe this practice is limited to my country, but any answer is appreciated.


texts: What is the purpose of an EngD degree (for example of Data Engineering) and what are its advantages over a PhD?


texts: Am I qualified enough to apply for a graduate scholarship?

texts:
I am a third year university student in Vietnam. My major is Computer Science. I focus on machine learning, especially deep learning for computer vision. I really want to have a master (or PhD) degree aboard but I'm not sure whether I am qualified for a scholarship or not. My family is not so rich that I can afford the tuition fee for a graduate program. The followings are description about my future direction and information about me.

About my future direction,

I want to study aboard and finally have a life there, my ideal destinations are Korea, Japan, the Europe (the Western and Northern), Australia or Canada.
I want to work on AI and machine learning, which expect employees to have master degree (at least)
I want to start my own business and apply my technical knowledge on that.

About my work experience and course work,

I study at Vietnam National University (1st rank university in Vietnam)
I got all A+ in mathematics-related subjects (e.g. Calculus, Linear algebra, Probs & Stats, Information theory, etc.). I also got a scholarship for excellent student given by my university (for a semester only).
My GPA is low (i.e. 3.25 / 4.0) due to low marks in non-mathematics-related subjects. As I estimated, I can reach about 3.3 or  3.4 if I get all A+ for the rest of my coursework.
I was high ranked (top < 10%) on several AI contests

Titanic contest and House price prediction are from Kaggle
A facial recognition contest held by a famous AI community in my country

I also worked on several AI projects, both in research (for my professor) and in the industry (for my company, which works on AI).
About my programming skills, I have worked with PyTorch, TensorFlow, Keras and a little bit GPU programming.

About comments from others who work with me,

I was highly qualified (currently) by my boss (at the company I'm working at).
My professor, who supervises at my university, told me that I was strong at mathematics but lack of algorithms-and-data-structure skills.

About my own thoughts,

I can read most of deep-learning-related research papers with almost no difficulty. I also write down my intuition for each of the paper I read.
I have strong mathematical intuition (as commented by my professor).

I am afraid of having low GPA (which is my biggest fear) when applying for graduate scholarships. Can anyone give my some advice ? Should I continue chasing graduate scholarships or work in the industry after graduation ?


texts: What is the significance of the Master thesis (topic and quality) when you apply for a job in the industry/academia?

texts:
Today this question came to my mind.

Currently I am a Master student enrolled in University. All my previous studies I have passed thinking that I am a fan of Telecommunication/Computer Networks and related topics.

However, recently due to the overload on these topics I feel like I have lost my interest in them. Honestly, I have not lost my interest, but I have come to a point where I feel disgusted. These topics are too technically oriented. There is not much to do with the human factor (in terms of interaction). I am aware that all the studies related to computer science, electrical engineering etc. are closer to the machines rather than the humans.
In daily bases the communication with machines is more often than with humans.

I was contemplating the possibility of switching from such an area, and work my thesis on Human Machine Interaction, where the human factor is considered a little bit more.

What is your opinion on this issue. Does the topic that you work on as a master thesis affect your future job if you apply to a position that is not that much related?

What about the academia?


texts: What to do (if something) when someone gets your paper wrong

texts:
What would be the best approach when a paper gets published referencing a work of yours, with a wrong explanation/assumption.

E.g.

  "The tube lines by [the Mayor of London, 1863] are OK, but can only
  used on Tuesday, so in this work we traveled by cab".

This is clearly a wrong statement, probably formulated due to lack of information. What should one do in these cases, if you were the Mayor of London?
My hunch says just ignore it, but I assume that for young researchers like me (unlike the Mayor of London) this can have a bigger impact, as if the first few references to our work are stating something wrong, people may actually stop using the tube.


texts:
This question is similar to the date of PhD award in France, but for the case of Oxbridge (maybe all of UK, but I don't know).
There is the date of the defense (behind closed doors), after which one may recieve no corrections, minor corrections, or major corrections (re-submit thesis). After the corrections are done the thesis is given to the University, and one can be "approved" for a PhD. But one only receives the certificate after a graduation ceremony, which may be years (typically weeks or months) later.
Which of these dates should I choose for fellowship applications etc? I have

Date I defended
Date I submitted the last version of the thesis
Date thesis was approved
Date I left the university to work elsewhere (become a postdoc)
Date I graduated. (This is on the official transcript.)

In this chronological order. I obviously don't care personally, but often there are requirements such as "this and that many years after your PhD".


texts: Will it cause problems if I publish under a different version of my name than I use in my future medical practice?

texts:
I'm a medical student who is also interested in research and scientific publishing.

Although my legal name is Asian, I go by an English name with peers and supervisors (which is not on my degrees/official school records). In the future, I will have to use just my Asian first name when I practice medicine (but this won't matter because I will just be Dr.LastName anyways).

I'm just wondering what I should be publishing under - I found that a lot of people on pubmed/GScholar share my Asian name...and with my supervisors I am known by EnglishName-AsianName LastName.

Will publishing under this hyphenated name pose future problems if I practice just under AsianName?

I'm thinking problems such as not being recognized in research communities, hospital affiliations with research-based hospitals, etc.


texts:
As this question mentions and as I know from my (limited) experience, some journals demand a high fee to make the articles you submit to be available as open-access. For example, a quote from JVSTB Info for contributors:

  There are no page charges required for publishing. Authors have the option during submission to indicate if they would
  like the article to publish as open access. There is a $2200 fee for open access.

I can't imagine every researcher to pay this from his own pocket. I can see some universities are willing to cover these fees. However, I am pretty sure that my own university will not pay for this. What other sources to cover open-access fees I can look for?


texts: Does google scholar rescan papers and update citations?

texts:
I have an in press paper (let's call it paper A) which is cited in another in press paper (paper B). The citation is complete (issue nr. etc.). The citing paper (B) was supposed to be published after the cited one (A), but it appears that one publisher is much faster, so B will be out before.

Does anyone know if Google Scholar citations will miss this citation? Or will it re-scan paper B and at some point add a citation to paper A?

Thanks!


texts: University making unreasonable demands with regards to external undergraduate research opportunity

texts:
Here's my situation: I'm a fourth-year undergraduate at an Asian university, and next semester, I'll be hoping to conducting research in order to publish a senior undergraduate thesis. Now, since my university doesn't really possess the facilities for research in the field I'm interested in, I applied to a lab in a university in the United States, and I've been accepted in and told that I can join up in February. It's a fantastic opportunity for me to gain relevant experience in a field I'm interested in, I can help out in a lab environment conducive for research in the field, and along the way, I can get my thesis done under a really brilliant professor as well. That's the good part.

The bad part is, I spoke to one of my university deans (the one in charge of coordinating senior undergraduate theses) earlier about this opportunity and my intentions to spend the next semester at that research lab, saying that this a fairly niche field, I'll be gaining a lot by spending a semester there and that I'll still be publishing my thesis here in my university.

He says that the new policy of the university administration is that they're unwilling to permit students to go out of the university and spend a semester abroad, and the reason behind this is that it's unfair for something like this to benefit just one student, and it has to help other students as well for them to sign off on something like this. The dean wants a formal understanding between the research lab and the faculty at my university, stating that the professor at the research lab would be willing to take qualified students from my university in upcoming semesters to work in his lab. There is apparently to be no communication between me and the professor in all this, and any potential trip of mine is to be entirely determined by my faculty.

Now, I get where the dean is coming from, considering it from the university's perspective. But opportunities like this don't come around very often, and I took immense efforts to obtain it. Why should my potential achievements be determined by how much they benefit other students? It's a bit like saying, if you want a job, everyone has to get a job as well.

More importantly, how could I possibly get the professor at the research lab to agree to this 'formal understanding'? He does not take undergraduate students very regularly in his lab, and to suddenly impose this proposal on him, would almost certainly make him hesitate about allowing me to spend a semester at his lab, all due to no fault of my own. How could he possibly agree to taking in other students in the future, when he doesn't know my university very well and the type of students in it?

At the same time, I don't want to antagonize the administration at my university either. What do I do, and where do I go from here?


texts: What does it take for a lower-ranked university to compete with a top-ranked one?

texts:
Let's take the Times Higher Education world rankings. Oxford is first, and the University of Bonn is 100th. (Nothing special about the THE - I just used it to pick examples of a top-ranked university and a lower-ranked one.)

Suppose I'm the rector of the University of Bonn and I want to make my university as prestigious as Oxford. What will I need?

If we assume that world university rankings are at least somewhat of a proxy for "prestige", then it seems that research output is a key determining factor for how prestigious a university is. To produce good research, presumably the most important ingredients are 1) research funding and 2) good faculty. Since good faculty can presumably be bought, does that mean that the most important factor is money? In other words, Oxford is much more prestigious than the University of Bonn because it is much richer, and if I can find $10+ billion and several years of time, I will be able to make my university one of the world's best?


texts: How can I move from chemical engineering into drug discovery?

texts:
My situation is as follows:

I have already obtained a master in chemical engineering and my thesis is about drug delivery. I would like to continue my graduate study for a PhD, but as time goes by, I find myself begin interested in the field of drug discovery especially drug design. Since my high school I am actually more interested in chemistry and I think I should do something to try to engage in drug design in my PhD before it is too late. I have thought of some options:

Try to approach some research groups to see if they allow me to work as a research assistant first, then after a year or so with some drug design experiences, apply PhD about drug design.
Purse another master program for drug design, work crazily hard to get good grades and apply PhD about drug design. (But some of them is quite expensive, this may be a financial issue but just want to make sure it is worth)
Directly apply some PhD about drug design. I am not sure anybody will accept someone with no background.

Something more about me:

My grade average in UG is really bad. Quite rebellious in my UG.
I do have some publications and patents but they are totally not related to drug design.
I actually did not take any course in my UG and PG related to drug, or pharmaceutical science.
My current professional connection is limited to my master supervisor. Here I mean really close communication and will support me.

I am sure I have the determination to start my research in drug design. It is not an impulse. Is there any advice on my situation? Any comment is welcome particular harsh comments.


texts: What leads to contentious tenure cases and can they be avoided?

texts:
After hearing about an incredibly contentious tenure case at my alma mater and several other contentious ones, I'm curious to hear how such issues come to be. Some issues that seem to be at play: personal animosity between faculty, dispute about the merits of the candidate's research, scarcity of resources and discrimination based on gender, sexuality, religion and other aspects of identity. Some of these are legitimate, while others are clearly not. For those curious as to how nasty things can get, I recommend reading here. The account is both appalling and fascinating.

Do faculty see these issues coming? Are there tell-tale signs they might miss? One person I talked to was quite surprised both by the animosity one fellow faculty member had towards him and by the degree of influence this brought to bare on his tenure case.

Once such issues have been identified, how can the candidate defend against them? At what point should he/she be prepared to defend against them? From the other side, what processes exist to prevent such biases from influencing the process? Are they functional, and to what degree? Are there better practices that could be implemented to avoid such discontent?


texts: Is it possible to get a research assistantship between undergraduate and masters degree, while not enrolled as a student?

texts:
I finished my undergrad in Electrical Engineering at the end of 2014, and since 2013 then I've been working on a startup that is soon going to fail.

I would like to apply for a Masters in 2017, and to strengthen my research profile in my resume, as well as earn letters of recommendation (which I sorely lack), I'm considering working under a professor/ at a lab for a year or so (in a research area similar to that I worked on at my startup).

However all research assistant/research associate positions seem to be advertised only towards students currently already studying in a graduate (masters/PhD) program.

Is it common/normal/acceptable for people to work in a university lab between their undergraduate and masters, like I wish to? If so, what are these positions usually called in the US/Europe, if not Research Assistantship?

To clarify, in addition to gaining experience, my main motivation would be to have a well known professor/someone at a well known lab recommend me, since I have a only one professor from my undergrad who would be willing to give me a strong letter of recommendation. I cannot expect anything from my present colleagues. Most applications seem to require 3 such letters.


texts: Lab colleague uses cracked software. Should I report it?

texts:
I've just (accidentally) found that one of our colleagues in the lab (who is a graduate student) uses a cracked piece of software on his personal laptop (We were talking near his station and a pop up went up and warned about the fake license of the software).

The software is an expensive one whose student version is freely available on our shared server; however, the student version's features are often not sufficient for our tasks. So I realize that he might have to do this to handle his job. I don't know if the supervisor is aware of this.

All in all, as it's not acceptable to ignore the copyright, should I report this issue to any responsible sector?


texts: Can one recommendation letter from professor and two from internships help in MS applications?

texts:
The university applications for MS in Computer Science requires 3 recommendation letters. I am confused between choosing my professors or industry mentors.

Potential people:

Assistant professor
Mentor at a remote research related project from a prestigious university
CEO of an internet based company
Other professors/ head of department

I have a professor under whom I did several important research projects and have, also, taken his classes and labs. He is very pleased with my performance and he eager to provide a recommendation letter. He is an assistant professor at my university.

In case of other professors, I have never worked on any research projects so, the recommendation letter will be average in my opinion, as they will talk about classes and labs I took under them. This, also, applies for the head of the department. For this reason, I do not prefer to take one from them.

I did two remote internships. One person is from a very prestigious university. I am not sure as he prefers to keep the letter confidential. I did some research related work under him and basically, managed several teams.

Another person is the CEO of a company and is expected to provide a strong letter as he is pleased with my performance.

I am confused regarding whom should I approach for the letter? As this will be an important deciding factor, kindly share your opinions.


texts: Is it possible to submit to Nature Toolbox?

texts:
Recently, I found this list of journals that accept articles describing open-source software. In the list, Nature Toolbox is mentioned. I looked it up and found that it is a category within Nature, but I have not found any information regarding the submission and publication process for this submission type.

Is it really possible to submit an article to Nature Toolbox or is this part commissioned-only?


texts: If my supervisor sugests a very specific addition to something, can I use it verbatim?

texts:
Say you send a document, it could be a report, or a literature review, or a draft paper, to your supervisor. They write back something along the lines of;

  Yes, looks good. You need to define the foobar and also add somthing
  to section 3 like;

  The demonstrates the fungability of baz in the context of high energy
  ice cream sundays. The delicious factor is an extreme motivator.

  Yours
  - Dr Sprinkles

They are clearly not asking for it to be put in as a quote, but is it expected that you would use some or all of it verbatim? That feels odd since it was written by someone else, but rewording it just for the sake of rewording it could result in something distinctly awkward.

Does the nature of the document make a difference?


texts: What do AHRS, EHRS, QHRS mean on a transcript?

texts:
What do the abbreviations AHRS, EHRS, and QHRS mean on a transcript?

My guess would be:

AHRS = "all hours"
EHRS = "earned hours"
QHRS = "quality(?) hours"

What are the differences between these things?


texts: What is the appropriate salutation for non-technical university staff in India?

texts:
There are issues in my living quarters provided by my university and I need to write a letter to the responding authority. The authority is a non-teaching staff.
As a research scholar, how should I salute them while sending an email or a letter.
I am confused between "Respected sir" and "Hello sir". Which one is appropriate among the both and is there any appropriate one other than these?


texts: Is it unethical for a professor to demand students buy their book then force autographing it before they can submit any work for the semester?

texts:
I realize that it is really not unethical or illegal for a university professor to assign their own book that they have published as the textbook for a class. However, is it unethical for a professor to assign an expensive book, then require the students to get the book personally autograph to the student, by the professor prior to the professor accepting any work from the student? This creates several issues for me:

Textbooks personally signed can not be sold back to bookstores.
Used books can be sold to other students but when they reach the class, they are penalized for not getting their own book to meet the requirement of "personal autograph" to that student, which forces them to purchase the book again.
Without getting the book signed, the professor will not accept work which results in a "0".
The professor would not allow students to take pictures of notes in other students books but MUST PURCHASE the book, explaining "because you are not paying me".
Essentially, this appears to be a "FOR PROFIT OF THE PROFESSOR" class. It isn't about the education of the student at all.

I feel it is unethical. Do you? What should a student do about this?


texts: Supervisor appears to have a different scientific attitude

texts:
I'm a first year PhD student in the life sciences. So far, my PhD has been going well. I meet my supervisor regularly and he is interested in the project and generally supportive.

A couple of months ago my supervisor encouraged me to start writing a draft for a paper, incorporating the results I have so far. We regularly meet to discuss parts of the draft, mainly figures and main statements.

The problem I noticed once we started working on the draft is that my supervisor has a different attitude towards the project. Very often I try to emphasize that I am uncertain about a statement, a method or whatever but I feel unheard and ignored. I feel as if my doubts are not taken into account when we work on the draft at all. It appears as if my supervisor has this grand idea already fleshed out in his head and appears unwilling to hear that some statements might have to be toned down a bit. I feel uncomfortable and depressed as of late, as it is me who is ultimately responsible for producing a piece of scientific work that adheres to the standards of scientific rigor that I think are correct. I feel pushed into doing something that is wrong.

Could it be that I overthink this? Are there different shades of scientific rigor? 'Selling your story' is part of the modern scientific world, right? Do young PhD students tend to be overly defensive and critical of their own work? Is this just 'how the game works'? Should I just trust my supervisor?


texts: Using fragments of online images in a paper

texts:
I am preparing a paper and want to include some images from historical maps. There are several online examples and I want to snip a fragment (no more than 10% of the total image area), maybe clean it up a little, and use it in my paper. The fact that I'm only using a small part of the image and it's undergoing some transformative process seem like very reasonable grounds for claiming this is covered by 'fair use' but IANAL. However, suitable journals where I'd send my paper (of course) want all image rights/copyrights cleared in advance with my submission.

The online digital images almost invariably come from vendor sites who would like to sell me a print of the map for £££ and they are not going to give permission, even for non-commercial use. Although I could buy copies of the prints and scan them myself I'd prefer any more cost-effective suggestions.

This is different from How to use copyrighted images in an article? (they wanted to use the whole images) and Academic fair use and using publication images in your thesis (the images had already been published in books/papers and there was a publisher to approach)


texts: Find papers authored by a specific number of authors

texts: For some concrete study, I need to find for some keywords, papers that have just one author. I used PubMed, Scopus and ISI Web of Science, but in any case, I could not find a way to filter bibliographic search results by a specific number of authors, or a number less than some exact number of authors. Anybody knows how to do this with mentioned tools (PubMed, Scopus and ISI Web of Science) or others?


texts:
I will be applying for a PhD program for mathematics this year. When graduate schools are considering applications, how much weight does a GRE score carry compared to research experience and grades acquired in undergraduate coursework? I have all A's in my math and physics course, with the exception of one A-, and two papers. Mind you, these are not papers based upon solutions to trivial undergraduate problems, but are problems of interest to professional mathematicians, especially those working in operator algebras.

My question is, if I were to get a less than fantastic score on the GRE, would I still be considered because of my grades, research experience, and two publishable papers?


texts: Does it make sense to list Ph.D.-level coursework in industry-focused CV?

texts:
I recently defended my Ph.D. dissertation (Information Systems) and now it's time to apply for some positions. While I would love to stay in academia, my current highest priority is to find a good job in IT and/or management consulting. Since I've designed my coursework with partial industry (consulting) focus in mind, most of the courses that I've taken during my Ph.D. program are very relevant to potential work in a consulting environment. I've read this related question, but it has only academic focus, hence my question.

Currently I'm working on converting my former resume into two CV variants: one, focused on industry/consulting (updated and improved resume), and another, focused on academia (CV per se). My strategy is to include (mention) the relevant (practically, full) Ph.D.-level coursework into the industry/consulting CV variant and exclude that information from the academic one. What do you think of this strategy? Also, I'm interested whether it is beneficial to include my master's level coursework into the industry-focused CV. Any other advice and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.


texts: How can I find the altmetrics for a specific paper?

texts:
Alternative metrics for a paper, include not just the citations in other academic journals, but also all Twitter mentions, citations in Wikipedia, citations across the Stack Exchange network, etc.
The company Altmetric is one of the companies that shows the altmetrics for papers, and it has been mentioned in the answer to this Academia.SE question: Finding all communication related to any research paper.
It used to be as simple as installing the Altmetric extension for your web browser, which creates a bookmarklet (a tiny icon at the top of the web browser) on which you can click to get all the altmetrics. I used this for many years and find out extremely useful. However what if I'm using a browser at, for example a library computer where a network administrator has blocked me from installing custom extensions? Is there a place where I can just copy and paste the URL for the paper's DOI and get the altmetric data, just like Google Scholar allows you to see which papers have cited your paper without installing any browser extension?
It seems that while Altmetric still offers this bookmarklet for free it's still just a bookmarklet that has to be installed, rather than just a place where you can copy and paste a URL of the paper. Furthermore they now seem to want the user's email address, which I'm sure many people will not be delighted to do, as they would certainly find themselves automatically subscribed to get emails which they may not desire.
How can altmetrics for a paper be found without installing anything and without giving away your email address?


texts: Is this level of citation acceptable in a dissertation?

texts:
Please can anybody reassure me that I am okay. I have been so distracted thesis that I’m behind in my revision for my finals.
Never once in my project did I take credit for something that wasn’t mine and I referenced all my sources of information and ideas.
However, instead of citing the same source over and over again I stated at the start of some chapters something like “the content of this chapter is mostly sourced from chapter X of book Y, but I add some details to proofs for clarity for the reader”.
I then go through my chapter and state the results and proofs I am interested in without further citation (unless I use a different source which I of course cite). I follow the proofs fairly closely and have my own extra details for clarity.
I submitted my project to TurnItIn which has highlighted in red a fairly substantial amount of material in some of the proofs. This is really freaking me out as I’m not trying to claim the proofs as mine or anything - I literally say at the start of the chapter where the material is sourced.


texts: How long it takes to hear from a APS journal

texts: I have submitted my paper to a reputed APS journal. It has been 65 days, and I still did not get any response. Should I contact the editor regarding this? I have two papers published in this journal and last two times it only took around 45-50 days. However, I am in a dilemma, if I contact the editor will he get mad at me. Hoping to hear useful thoughts from you.


texts: How to look past the fact that I probably have chosen the wrong research area?

texts:
I am a computational materials science researcher. I model additive manufacturing process using continuum modeling methods. Almost everyone who works in my field are part experimentalists and partly into computational modeling. Though with an experimental master's background, my PhD research was completely computational and not theoretically intensive (it was very straightforward if one knows the computational modeling tools and a bit of coding beforehand, more like clicking the right button and developing scripts to do some analysis).
I feel that I would have gotten better job prospects if I had an experimentalist and computational profile. Almost at the end of my PhD (about to defend), I have a postdoc offer with my current PhD advisor, which I will take because I don't want to move to a different place with covid-19 in other locations. But I dread job prospects in my limited experience and expertise. How to address the fact that I might have chosen wrong research area?


texts: How should I respond to full text requests from other researchers I don't know?

texts:
I am an early/mid-career academic in a science field and have enough publications where I sometimes get random other academics asking me for electronic copies of papers (published in non-open-access journals) where I am the corresponding author. These papers were done under the purview of NIH grants, which means full text becomes available after a one year embargo.

In the case where the request comes less than one year after publication, how should I respond to such requests? My impulse is just to send the paper without hesitation, but I am unsure if this is "bad form" with regard to the journal. I am seeking the advice of more experienced academics.

Thanks for any advice.


texts: How is extra exam time for disability accommodation perceived by professors, especially potential reference letter writers?

texts:
Some students with what is considered as academic disabilities receive 30 minutes of additional time for every hour of exam, which is a factor of 1.5 to the exam time.

How is this perceived by professors? Might some of them think that these students get an edge or advantage over other students unfairly?

If a student is looking forward to requesting a reference for grad school from a certain professor, would it generally be better for him/her not to request exam extensions for this professor's course?


texts: Is it appropriate to submit co-authored paper when asked for a writing sample when applying for an academic job?

texts: I'm a grad students on the academic job market (social sciences, US). Many postings ask for 1-2 writing samples. Is it ever appropriate to send in a paper that has a co-author? I do have other sole-authored products I can send in (book chapter, manuscript under review), but this is the only work that's been published in a well known journal in the field. (I was second author.) Would committees rather see co-authored published work or is there a large premium on sole authored writing samples?


texts:
I am in the USA. Did a BS and MS in Computer Science years ago.

Is it possible to do a PhD without enrolling in a formal program?

Currently I get small breaks of free time (between work and helping an elderly parent), and I'm using it to do self-directed programming projects to determine what I am truly interested in researching.

Any guidance is most appreciated.


texts: Etiquette: senior and junior professors co-advising

texts:
I'd like to ask two professors who work at my university to be the co-advisors of my Masters thesis (mathematics).

They work in the same research group on (almost) the same topic (which is well-aligned to my interests), although they actually never published together, and get along well.

The first one (A) is an Emeritus professor who has been for over 40 years one of the world leaders in my research area and is still very active; the second one (B) is younger (mid-forties) tenured professor  but has already established a very good research reputation; also, he is A's former student.

In my opinion they complement each other very well and working with the two of them will be an extremely instructive experience.

  Who should I contact first to talk about my research proposal to avoid being disrespectful to either of them?


texts: How do grad schools train grad students to be teaching assistants?

texts:
I am an international student and doing Ph.D. in Physics at a US university.

My teaching assistant (TA) duty is to tutor undergrad students. I am supposed to solve whatever problems undergrads bringing to me. The problem is that I do not know which problems they are having to prepare in advance. Every undergrad from every lab, class in the physics department can bring whatever homework they have to me to ask. Also, I am an International Student and when I was an undergrad, I did not use the textbook undergrad here in US use and many problems are totally strange to me. Sometimes I cannot solve their homework problems. I felt very embarrassed and sorry since I wasted their time, sitting there for 15 -20 minutes to wait for me to solve it.

I am not a terribly bad student, I consistently perform about 80 percent for all the courses as well as standard exams like GRE Physics. But I feel like I am not smart enough to pursue a Ph.D. Sometimes I can come up with very good solutions for grad problems but I am not a fast thinker to solve some undergrad problems which might be solved in a very simple way.

Do grad schools train grad students to be teaching assistants? I think the Ph.D. students need to be prepared to do good TA jobs, isn't it? For example, if someone teaches labs, they should know the content of the lab for that day to come in preparation? How can I become a better TA given my described task?


texts:
Can one be titled "Vising Student/Scholar" at a university if one is already graduated from another institute (with BSc/MSc) and is currently not affiliated with any university?
Does one have to pay registration fees, etc.?
In this case, can one be paid for as a TA/RA by the university?

Is it different in US and EU?


texts: Referring to the candidate in a recommendation letter

texts:
I'm writing a recommendation letter for a candidate that wants to pursue MSc program abroad. I've known the candidate since his first year of undergraduate studies and also I included him in some personal projects of mine. However, I wonder how should I address him in the letter. These are the options:

Address him by last name only:

  Mr. Doe was...

Address him as 'the candidate':

  The candidate's motivation...

Any opinions on which one is preferred?


texts: Transition from academia to the world of finance

texts:
I am a research associate in Pure Mathematics at one of the four best universities in the UK, with publication track record excelling most (all?) of my friends who are at a similar stage of their career. I am fairly known in my field (which is in pure maths, though), yet I was unable to secure an academic position for the next year.

I feel exhausted of the never-ending chase for non-existent academic positions and I am sure that this is the right moment to leave the academic community.

I have some vague insterest in banking and finance but for obvious reasons I have never studied it being too focused on high-quality research in Pure Maths. Hence my question:

  What are the most common places in the UK (companies, jobs, etc.) concerning finance/banking/audit where failed academic like myself often end up?

Do the big insitutions hire ex-acadmics or should I apply in the similar way as my former students (I was a temporary lecturer too)? This would be strange as in the past I was writing support statements for them. Who would write one for me?


texts: addition of physical address upon paper acceptance

texts: A paper was reviewed, sent back for revision and resubmitted. Is it allowed to add a new address (current) when a paper is just accepted?


texts: How to choose the appropriate graphic representation (plot) method for the results?

texts:
Do you use a rule of thumb when deciding the type of the chart/plot (box plot vs. scatter plot) you use when you want to represent the results of your research/simulations?

I would say the answer is "choose the one that represents the data best" but still there must be some type of rule where you surely don't use a given plotting method but use another one.

Or is my understanding of the purpose of plots completely wrong. Hope the more experienced scientists here provide some guidelines


texts: Should I pursue a good advisor-match or institutional prestige / pedigree?

texts:
I'm in a conundrum! Which one should I choose for my PhD in life sciences in the US: a great-fit advisor in a mediocre institution VS an OK (or potentially ill-fit) advisor in a prestigious institution?

I know it sounds obvious ---go with the good match (I also want this at heart)! BUT I also know that pedigree matters A LOT when applying for grants / conferences / publishing during and after PhD (unless you're back into a stellar institution for your post-doc* I guess?).

(*) I assume I can find a good-match advisor in my post-doc in a stellar institution, despite the mediocre PhD institution label on my CV, if I publish a couple high-impact papers with this good-match PhD advisor.

Background: I already have a master's from a super high-prestige institution in the US and I have a very specific research interest and goal** (so, I might be less malleable than a lot of fresh out-of-undergrads who are also applying for these PhD positions). My goal is to become a professor (I think it's an awesome job, you get paid for following your passion!).

(**) the well-match advisor is also on board and excited about this goal in particular, my vision in general. We chat multiple times on this topic; we really click well with her! Also people in her lab seem very happy and she is VERY passionate in her research, which is good because I am too!

Thanks for your help and insights in advance!


texts: Should I add references to conference presentations?

texts:
I am preparing a CS conference presentation and wondering how can I handle the references. I am thinking about three different possibilities:

Ignore them!
Just list them at the end of the presentation
List them and cite them within the presentation.

I chose the first option since anyone interested can go and check the whole set of references in the actual paper.

Does this mean not crediting the others for their work? How this is usually handled in CS conferences?


texts: Paid publish fees two years late, can journal reject my paper?

texts:
I submitted a paper to a journal. They finally accepted it and asked me to pay a fee. However, due to my economic condition, I was not able to pay the fee.

After 2 years, I finally payed the fee, but now they say the paper is two years old and they cannot publish it. Can they reject my paper after accepting it due to late fees?


texts:
Is there any possible penalty (from the educational institution) for the professor for disrespecting a student?
What can and cannot do a professor in terms of respect to a student?


texts: I dropped out of college a decade ago. How do I finish my graduation now? [Pune, India]

texts:
I was a student of Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) - Computer Engineering, from 2007 to 2010 in Pune, India in MIT AOE - Maharashtra Institute of Technology Academy of Engineering - http://www.mitaoe.ac.in. I dropped out of college after completing 3 out of 4 years of my degree program. I had 1 backlog (Mathematics 3) when I dropped out.

Since then, I have gained 7+ years of experience in the IT industry. I have had a successful career spanning 2 mid-sized companies, each of which I served in for 3+ years. I have also achieved several high-value IT certifications in many technologies.

What is the FASTEST way for me to complete my graduation WITHOUT leaving my job. The incomplete education is holding back my career. Please guide me in this endeavor.


texts: How to make a software documentation "officially" citable?

texts:
We are currently finishing the implementation of a scientific software library. It's the first project of this type for me and I'm curious, how to make the software citable in a similar way to Molpro or R?

I was thinking about writing a short paper introducing the library, which could be subsequently cited. But I'm not sure, how to deal with the different versions? I don't think it's possible to write just some "changelog" paper once a year to summarize new released version.


texts: Quality and quantity of contribution to a scientific field from an industry position

texts:
In general, is a position in academia the best way to contribute to a field of study?

In general, are contributions to a particular scientific field made from an industry position as impactful as contributions (to the same field) made from an academic position?

For example, say, you worked in one of the best teams/labs in industry for a given field (e.g. IBM or Google for a technology-related field). Can you produce work that rivals the work produced by some of the best academic groups/labs in that field (e.g. from MIT or Caltech for a technology-related field)?

Or is it that, although the people at these industry positions work with the latest ideas in the field, they don't (actively) contribute back to the field? I.e. they don't produce new ideas w.r.t. the field, but rather work on implementing the newest ideas in the field in commercial products?

Is it correct to assume that, in general, in a given field, a top researcher from industry has less understanding of the field (as a whole) compared to a top researcher from academia?

I realise that the question is perhaps a bit subjective, but as academics, if you were in an industry position, working on the same (or very similar) things you are working on now, do you think you could and would contribute as much to your respective field as you are contributing now?

The question is not about being active in academia from an industry position. I know that is possible. My question is, rather, about the quality, and to a lesser extent the quantity, of work.


texts:
I plan to stay as a visiting teachers in two UK universities (for teaching purpose), and made some agreements. However, I wish to personally visit the universities before final agreement.

Obviously, I need a one-year visa. If I enter the UK by visa waiver, can I obtain this visa/permission to stay within the UK? Or I must enter the UK with one-year visitor visa to be eligible for working in universities (not paid of course).


texts: Who is responsible for "blinding" a paper for double-blind review?

texts:
Is it my responsibility as author to remove author and affiliation before submitting the paper to a journal?

In my opinion it is, but then I read this blog article by an Editor-in-Chief of some Elsevier journal who lists several reasons for rejecting a paper, including:

  The manuscript is not complete; it may be lacking key elements such as the title, authors, affiliations, [..].

So my paper can be rejected if I prepared it for double-blind review myself? But how can I make sure that the paper is properly reviewed without my name and affiliation?


texts: Startup package, for assistant professor in USA: should I ask for a an extra PhD or an extra post-doc?

texts:
I got an offer for a tenure-track assistant professor position in USA, Department of Engineering. The university national ranking is between 35th and 65th at the US News website. I was offered a single PhD, fully supported for 2 years (partial support for the remaining 3 years) and then I was asked how much I need for equipment. I have two questions:

Should I ask for a second PhD or a post-doc (I think for 1 year)? Some people told me to get a PhD since supervising a post-doc does not really count much for getting Tenure, while it matters a lot if one is mentoring PhDs. Other people say: get a Post-doc, he/she will be much more productive and he/she will get you papers out fast, and your mentoring effort will be on the PhD. What is your suggestion?
I am actually also debating if I should also try to ask for a third person (in that case surely a PhD) since I am not asking too much money as for equipment (just computing cores in the supercomputer). And I need workforce since I have various good research ideas. Would I sound too greedy?

So basically, should I ask for a total of 3 persons (2 PhDs + 1 post-doc or rather 3 PhDs?) or 2 persons (2PhDs or rather 1 Phd + 1 Post-Doc?)?


texts: What to expect from a teaching commission?

texts:
I'm a student delegate and tomorrow, I am going to attend a teaching commission. I've never attended  one before, so I am a little bit scared. I have the right to give some remarks, ask questions and vote. I don't know what kind of question I can ask.
I  have also the right to give some remarks to my teachers, now  that all my courses are online, I think that the teachers in my university should put a little bit of effort and think about making it  a good experience for the students in this special semester. I do believe that the students should put some effort too. I don't know how to formalize my arguments.
The teaching commission is responsible for quality control of the teaching and the improvement of the cours offering and plan of studies.
We are to delegates to present our section in this commission and we have the right to vote just like all the memeber of the section direction .


texts: Will having a mediocre undergrad GPA ruin my chance getting into a PhD program

texts: I transferred from a four-year university into one of the UCs last year majoring in biological sciences. Unfortunately, my UC gpa is not as high as I wanted it to be. I used to have a 3.9 but can only get a 3.4 in UC. I am planning on applying for a biomedical PhD program this year as I am graduating next year but I am very worried about my gpa ruining my chance of getting in as PhD programs are highly competitive. I did okay on my major courses but I do have 2 B- in organic chemistry A and B, which I am really concerning about right now. With this kind of grade, will I stand a chance in the PhD application?


texts: How best to organize a review paper that includes some of my own data?

texts:
I have written a review article with a target journal in mind. The content focuses on a particular technique in biology, and in the paper I propose a data analysis approach to be used for future studies. To help explain the intuition behind the technique, I have produced some straight-forward simulated data, organized into a a handful of figures. The experimental results are not particularly novel, but they are most valuable to illustrate a point -- how different quantitative methods compare to each other.

How would you suggest I write a review that includes primary (but not novel) results, in the framework of a review? My current organization is an extended introduction > short methods > results > discussion and future perspectives. A trivial matter could be to move the methods to the end, but I wonder if having discrete results and discussion sections is appropriate.


texts: For Applied Maths / Engineering masters and PhDs transitioning into industry, do they still get to use MATLAB?

texts:
MATLAB seems to be the software of choice in applied math and engineering departments that I know of.  It is a very well-documented software, and so learning how to utilize it, whether it'd be for visualizing data or modeling differential equations, is extremely easy.

But what typically happens for people leaving school and transitioning into industry?  Is MATLAB used in industry at all, or is it more of an Academia thing?  One thing I've noticed is the enormous cost of purchasing MATLAB for personal / non-student usage.  It's like 3 or 4 thousand dollars for a license.  In comparison, a student license costed me $20 for a year.


texts: Using the names of the teachers in Personal Statement?

texts: Is it ok to use the names of my ex or recent professors in the personal statement? Of course in positive context (how they influenced me etc.) I am not from the USA and in my country it is quite uncommon to write essays like that, so I do not know if it would be ok to use the names.


texts: Etiquette of amending others' published work

texts: I would like to use a psychology framework that has been published by a third party but amend one aspect of it. I intend, of course, to reference and attribute the model and make it clear that the amendment is mine. Would that approach be in line with etiquette?


texts: How to critically review an article when one doesn't have proper background knowledge?

texts:
I am in talks with a PhD supervisor for admission to university who likes my profile but has given me an article to review. Although the article is related to my broader research area, there are some terminologies that I don't have proper background knowledge. I have read the article and have fair understanding of it. I have written a summary, problem statement, proposed solution and methodology  in review format provided by supervisor but I am stuck at critical review section as I don't have proper background knowledge. I want to know how to go about in this case? How should I review this critically?

Any help would be appreciated.


texts: How do you decide how much money to request?  Must you have a detailed list of costs?  How much money can be taken by the PI, for instance, for summer pay?  I really don't understand how the numbers are reached; they seem totally arbitrary to me.


texts: What is the most likely cause of short, quick, and useless reviews?

texts:
My theoretical computer-science paper that I submitted to an Australian (i.e., located in Australia this year) B-level (according to http://portal.core.edu.au/conf-ranks) DBLP-listed computer-science conference was accepted 4 weeks later, but the reviews are short:

5 sentences (accept)
2 sentences (accept)
3 sentences (reject)
3 introductory sentences + 3 sentences noting weak points + 3 sentences noting strong points (borderline)

All four reviews are superficial. They partially contradict each other. The buzzwords and phrases that occur there are: well organized, good presentation, minor format errors, sound results, no theorem proofs, highly relevant, well written, convincing, weak motivation, no empirical study, no clear justification of the contribution, only theoretical analysis, no explanation of contribution, no clear structure, results useful for practicioners and theoreticians.

There is nothing beyond these high-level claims in the reviews: no page numbers, no section numbers, no quotations, no citations, no related work, no examples/counterexamples. None of the reviews substantiates any of its claims.

It's the first time I get this kind of reviews. Usually, I get longer and deeper reviews that show that the reveiwers understood the technical contents of the submission at least a bit beyond the abstract and that elaborate on a technical level at least a little bit.

My questions are:

What is the likely cause of such short and useless reviews?
Is the conference really serious? (The paper submission site stayed open long after the formal submission deadline.)
Are my concerns groundless? Is what happened normal for B-level Australian conferences?
Is there any way to extract more information, say, by writing the PC chair(s)? If so, how do I formulate the message, or even what do I ask? Or is it better to keep silent and be satisfied with acceptance?

The proceedings will be handled by IEEE Conference Publishing Services.

I know that the exact answers might be hard to tell, so I'd be happy with answers based on well-informed guesses.


texts: Am I not meant to be a software developer?

texts: The first time I remember wanting to be a software developer was when I was in 8th grade doing a future career project. My first exposure to programming was in high school when I took AP computer science. I did horrible and failed the AP test, but I still wanted to pursue it in college. So I did. I am currently a junior in college with a 2.4 gpa and have done poorly in almost all my CS courses. It takes me much longer to complete programming assignments compared to my peers and I am always last to finish during programming labs. I wouldn't say that I enjoy programming, but I can tolerate it. I think about switching majors at least once a day since freshman year of college, but I could never bring myself to do it. There is nothing else I'm more interested in and there is just something in me that wants to be a successful programmer, but I constantly idealize how much easier it would be if I was doing something else. I am a believer in the notion that you have to be good at something by practicing it over and over before you can enjoy it, not the other way around. However, I am terrified that I will never improve as a programmer. Is the fact that I've done so poorly so far a sign that I should look into studying something else? Any thoughts will be appreciated.


texts: What does it mean to have figures included in conference abstract?

texts:
This is a respected conference. Reviewers accepted but commented this

  Novelty of the topic! Abstract could be better
  explained and have figures.

Ok, I understand that I need to highlight novelty and more info, but having the figure? what does that mean? Graphical abstract? graph from research results? I am ashamed to ask reviewers because they are well-known names in the field. ( H index over 50 and 30)


texts: Should I accept an invitation to give a talk from someone who might review my proposal?

texts: I submitted a grant application a few weeks ago where I was asked to list some potential reviewers. One of these potential reviewers just invited me to give a talk at their university. I would like this potential reviewer to be able to review my grant application because I feel that they are knowledgeable in the field and would have a favorable view of topic in my application. By accepting this invitation, would I be creating a conflict for this potential reviewer? Should I not accept the invitation? Should I give a talk on a different topic than my grant application so as not to bias the reviewer?


texts: Is it possible to protect a paper before publishing it?

texts:
In an answer to the question How to protect scientific open research from being patented? one reads

  ...if you publish your research, this protects from anyone subsequently filing a patent on it. Even if they had invented it previously, your publication would invalidate a future application.

Now, consider the field of Mathematics. Say a mathematician has obtained a nice result, but for whatever reason can't publish a paper on it momentarily.
Can they do anything to hold some kind of priority over anyone else that comes up with it and publishes it before them? If so, what happens in practice if someone else does indeed publish it before them?
The practical result of this "protection" should be the ability to make the journal take your paper (which you should quickly write) instead of the one by the researcher who published before.

In particular, would time-stamping work?


texts: Personal Statement(s) for two similar masters courses

texts:
I'm applying to two courses viz - Mathematical Physics MSc and Theoretical Physics MSc at the University of Edinburgh. I'm currently a final year bachelors student. From what I can gather post a decent amount of research, the two courses differ in the allocation of compulsory math courses. I've attached a description from the course website.

I'd like to know how similar the personal statement can be. Obviously I have included program specific components in the two separate statements, and I have also added different motivations behind applying to both courses. But fundamentally they are similar courses, and the parts of the SOP that involve my background or my interests towards physics/math physics will remain the same. I'm honestly worried that if the same admissions team receives both statements, they may not read whichever statement they read second, because of a similar narrative (introduction atleast, for the lack of better explanation).

Do I have to give an entirely different personal statement now?


texts: My paper is not shown in my Google Scholar profile

texts:
It has been a month since my paper was accepted and published. The paper is not yet assigned to any issue in the journal, but it is published and available via springer.com. The paper is in the Google Scholar list of papers for the corresponding author, but it is not yet shown in my list of papers. When I search for it, no result is returned

What is the problem?


texts: One of my student researchers is likely falsifying some results/data. What are the consequences?

texts:
Relevant info and background:

I'm an engineering Post Doc at an American university.  One of my roles is to basically function as a 'project manager' for a couple projects that have a number of Graduate-level RAs working on them.   I have a good relationship with all the RAs and all are hard-working.

I'm convinced that one of the graduate RAs is falsifying computational results/data (also called "rigging data" by many) in some cases.  Note that the individual appears to be doing this for only some cases, not all.  I have many reasons to believe this, but here is a few: (1) inability to replicate various results, (2) finishing the work at a pace I think is not feasible, (3) finishing his work at home where he surely does not have the software environment to actually complete the work.  There are also other reasons I believe this to be the case, but you get the point.  I'm also convinced this has occurred for over 1 semester, so I probably need to report this since I am responsible for overseeing all the work.  However, the student in general is a good person and hard worker. He has passed the preliminary exams and is finished with all classes - I'd hate to see him expelled from the university since he's this far into the program.

I have some questions:

What do you think could be the maximum punishment for this grad student/researcher?  I'd feel terrible if it resulted in expulsion.  I would think that you would have to receive at least one warning from the university before an expulsion, except in very extreme cases.  I'd be fine if this resulted in suspension, and even losing funding, but for anything more I'd feel bad.  What is the standard maximum punishment for these cases?  Also, what is the most likely punishment?
What is the punishment for me if I don't  report this problem?  For instance, say I just pretended ignorance.  It is extremely unlikely I would do this, but it's worth asking.
How common is this?  I would think this happens once in a while - a grad student decides to be lazy and fabricate a small portion of the overall results to avoid working the weekend or something.  An experienced professional would know this is seriously wrong, but not necessarily a mid-level PhD student.

Any advice from people with experience in this, professors, grad students, principle investigators, etc would be great


texts: Can a paper get rejected after acceptance due to incorporation of reviewer comments

texts:
Recently I got a paper accepted in a high impact journal. The acceptance letter came to me with a few reviewer comments, and it was recommended in the letter to take care of those comments. I submitted the final version with incorporating those revisions in the paper and due to one particular comment, I had to change a paragraph almost entirely.

But now after the proofreading, the journal says only formatting changes can be made, and other changes need further approval from Editor in Chief. Can this anyway jeopardize the paper and result in its rejection? Also, is there any way to communicate with the journal to settle this issue?


texts:
I'm a Korean student applying to math graduate schools this year. I'm mainly applying to American universities but I will also be applying to some schools in UK and Europe.

I wanted to know if it would be worth mentioning my subject GPA in the statement of purpose. My overall GPA is 3.7/4.3, but my math GPA is 4.14/4.3, so there is a significant discrepancy here. I heard before that admission team would look at my math courses separately, but tabulating grades from math courses out of a 4-year transcript seems like quite a chore for the admission team. Thus I thought it may be better to summarize it for them somewhere (lest they focus on my lower overall GPA instead).

Would it seem quite unnatural to bring up such scores in a SOP?

Thank you in advance.


texts: I wish to try out a technique which my supervisor does not want me to, because its not his expertise

texts:
As a part of my PhD work, I wish to try a technique which is upcoming and frequently in use. I am not sure if it will be successful, though I have a good feeling about it. My supervisor is simply against it because he does not understand it. And unfortunately he does not have sufficient Math background to understand it either. He is not interested in exploring such ideas and rather is interested in getting more publications in his chosen techniques - partly because he has friends in those conference committees and mostly because it seems he does not know anything else.

By the way, my PhD is funded by the university. I am not interested in looking for another supervisor. It's a headache! What should I do? The new method will at least need 1.5 months.


texts: Should I waive my right to view my recommendation letters?

texts:
Most graduate applications provide a choice for applicants to view their recommendation letters at a later date. There is a mention of some US mandate alongside.

Is it a better option to forgo this choice in the application? Will the recommending professor feel more secure then?
What is the procedure for the applicant to see his/her recommendation letters? Does the university readily show them when asked?
How ethical is it for the student to ask for the same, especially, for example, after being rejected from a program?


texts: I want to conduct research independently once done with school.  Where can I go to get IRB approval?  I know that some businesses have collaborated with universities to get IRB approval but want to know more.  What is the process? Do universities normally give IRB approval to non-university members?  Where else can I go?


texts: Ask the author of a paper for suggestions of where to publish replication results

texts:
I based my thesis on a published paper and ask its original author if he was interested in seeing the results. After approaching him (with your help provided: How to address an author showing replicated results from his paper? ) he replied

  Your application of the XXX method looks very good.  Congratulations,
  and thank you for sharing your work.

and made some recommendations about the bibliography.

Now, should I end this conversation with a thank you or can I insist a little bit more and ask him if he thinks it can be published somewhere or even if he can suggest where could I publish.
(It's a bachelor thesis so it's not something groundbreaking, it's more of a replication paper).


texts: If the name I used on the publication is different from my legal name, which one should I use in the copyright form?  Let's say the names are Joseph (legal name) and Joe (name in the paper), or even different last names.


texts: Is "party ranking" a genuine ranking system?

texts:
From some discussion here, I surprisingly found (by googling) that there are some ranking for top universities for partying. From USA Today and Time to Playboy, they list top universities for party and nightlife.

I understand that there are not quantitative factors to make such rankings, but are they genuine rankings or just practical jokes?

It is a fact that some students go to university to have fun, and care about such activities in their future university. Thus, such rankings can attract some students, which is still good for a university.

My question is: Do university take such ranking seriously? I mean, are top party universities proud of this feature and advertise to attract interested students?

Universities are proud of their athletic teams, and use their achievements for advertisement, but what about partying? (I ask because this is the first time I heard about naming top universities for party).

NOTE: I do NOT exclusively mean partying. I general mean any ranking considering extra-curricula activities, any ranking based on factors other than education and research.


texts: Why do some tests have a (nonzero) minimum score?

texts:
Some tests have minimums in their possible score range. Cisco's 300-1000 point range, and the SAT's 200-800 point per section range come to mind.

What purpose does this serve? I assume there is some statistical logic behind it. Maybe it would make more sense to me if I understood how they go about calculating the score from a given number of (in)correct questions.


texts: What is a professional student, in the context of a "Graduate and Professional Student Organization" in the United States (cf. this one)? How are they different than or similar to post-docs?


texts: Should I write that a student is a feminist in my recommendation letter?

texts:
I'm in the process of writing a recommendation letter for a female student to be admitted to some honors program within the university.

She is fantastic and I assume that she will get admitted with or without my help, so my question isn't necessarily specific to this particular letter, but I do remember feeling curious about this, so now's a good time to ask, I guess!

It's this one line in my letter that made me scratch my head a little bit. The line in question would like to say something like, "she is very interested in advancing women and other minorities in the STEM field," which is a quality that I approve of heartily.

The problem is, I am not sure if everyone in academia feels the same way about this as I do. Perhaps there is that one grumpy old professor from the Old Boys' Club who absolutely hates "feminists" and maybe I am inadvertently hurting her chances.

Sure, I could word it carefully so that it doesn't set off the feminist trigger in most people, but I still have that nagging feeling of "what if" in my head.

Just to make sure that I am not misunderstood, I also support gender equality, and I do not want to discourage anyone from saying so, but recommendation letters are a delicate thing that need to appeal to everyone, and I do not want to hurt anyone's chances, most of all not of these fantastic women that I want to brag about to everyone.


texts: How to differentiate between articles, conference proceedings, etc.?

texts:
I have many PDF files for some academic papers. I want to sort them into journal articles, conference proceedings, reports, etc.

How can I know which one is an article and which one is a conference proceedings and which one is ... (any other type of papers)?


texts: Is it bad practice to use examples from textbooks in your in-class teaching?

texts: When preparing lectures on problem solving related topics for undergraduate, I sometimes wonder if it is a bad practice to use examples from the textbooks. Will students think the instructor is lazy and merely follows steps written in the textbook? If it does create negative impression, does it make it a little better if we go through one or two  problems after explaining an example from the textbook?


texts: Which license should I choose on arxiv.org for later publication?

texts:
I wrote an opinion piece for a journal but it was rejected.
I would like to put it on arxiv.org because now I do not have time to rewrite it, but I would like to circulate it. And, there are more important things to do. But, at some point I would like to submit a rewritten version to another venue. Which license should I choose on Arxiv?
https://arxiv.org/help/license


texts: Is there any particular date when math postdoc results are typically announced?

texts:
The application for math postdoc at United States is the end  of every year. Want to know when it usually releases the results?
Has someone already got an offer or some shortlist notifications?


texts:
I am trying to develop a retrieval system for which a corpus is required. Since PubMed hosts many free articles, I decided to use it. However, now I found out that PubMed central has licensing restrictions.

Since my intention is to release the corpus formally along with my software (which obviously is not related to biology and I am not using the publications scientifically), I believe that any license will do. However, I don't want to take any chances. Can anyone tell me which license to use in PubMed?


texts: How to put multiple affiliations on a paper as the author?

texts: I work for a large company, I am also a student at a big school. My employer is supportive in terms of funding required for my studies. Although the research paper has more to do with my academic studies. What is a reasonable way to put both affiliations in the research paper? My primary affiliation is my employer and second affiliation is my school. Is it ok to put in the Author section both affiliations? And give a footnote with the details?


texts: How to inform/attract more candidates for a postdoctoral position?

texts:
When having fund for hiring postdoctoral fellow, it is tricky to find highly qualified applicants, since they can get aware of the opening position by chance. For almost any postdoctoral position (it should apply for any position, but more severe for post-doc), there are better candidates who were also interested, but did not hear about the opening.

Possible approaches are not very effective.

Spreading by word of mouth through colleagues is very limited.
A few applicants may browse research group websites for checking
opening positions. Moreover, search engines do not index and rank
them quickly to reach the deadline.
Posting on academic job websites is good, but most of them are paid
websites. For faculty positions, universities have enough fund to pay
for advertisement, but it is difficult to cover the advertisement cost
by the limited fund of a postdoctoral position.
Free job websites are not very common for academic positions.

How to find more effective ways to inform and encourage more potentials candidates to apply for a postdoctoral positions to have a better chance to select a highly qualified applicant?