texts: Should I report this infraction on Masters applications?

texts:
As an undergrad, I was accused of failing to paraphrase one sentence of a research paper correctly (though I cited the source I was getting the information from). The professor said he had no choice but to report me for violating academic integrity policy (and sent out an announcement to the class saying he had to do this to multiple people). I had a few points deducted from the paper because of that but nevertheless received an A in the class.
I never received any kind of communication from the Office of Academic Such and Such/Dean of Such and Such about this violation, and never had to attend a hearing or anything like that. School policy says that students are entitled to be contacted by these authorities if they are found to be in violation of the academic integrity policy. The only repercussions I ultimately faced were the point deduction.
Is this incident something I would need to report on a graduate school application when they ask about academic integrity? I am not even sure what my "disciplinary file" might contain, or whether I have one at all, since I was never contacted (and certainly never had a chance to "appeal" or "challenge" the claim, though I know due process is a foreign concept to many private universities).


texts: Should I test my algorithm using a standard dataset that I believe is flawed?

texts:
I am developing an algorithm for a type of classification problem that is a small-but-growing area of AI research. Until two years ago, there was no standard benchmark for this type of problem. In 2016, a benchmark dataset was made publically available to solve this issue and most subsequent papers in this area have used it to evaluate their algorithms.

However, the dataset is of poor quality. It is very small with <100 examples, many of which are slight variations on the same data. Also, the ground truth is dubious for several examples. This makes it hard to compare the performance of different published algorithms since they are nearly all within the margin of error.

I can think of four options:

Publish my algorithm using the flawed benchmark. Its apparent performance is comparable to other methods, and it has enough other advantages (fewer parameters, etc.) to be published this way, but probably not in a high-impact venue.
Publish my algorithm using a more robust benchmark that I create on my own. I could add legitimacy by implementing previously-published algorithms to compare on the new benchmark, but I feel like this would still give the impression of moving the goalposts.
Publish my algorithm using a more robust benchmark that I create on my own, in addition to the flawed benchmark. Many papers test their algorithms on additional custom datasets (though usually simulations) so this is not unusual. However, this would imply I consider the flawed benchmark valid and that would still be the results most people look at.
Separately publish a more robust benchmark dataset and validated criticism of the flawed benchmark. I could then cite this when I later publish my algorithm. However, this will delay publication of my algorithm and still depends on my new benchmark being well-received.

Because I am still a Ph.D. student and this would be my first work in this field, I am wary of bucking current practices too much. What should I do? Are there other factors I should consider?


texts: In academia, it's important to stay up to date with the latest 'hot' hypotheses in the your field. By 'hot', I mean the hypothesis that are most important/topical/relevant/popular. Perhaps the best way of staying up to date in a given field is by reading the literature. But  I'm wondering if there are any shortcuts? Are there any websites or papers that list the current most 'hot' hypotheses in each field? Google Scholar lists the most cited papers but I'm wondering if any resource goes one step further by listing topics?


texts: Can you give an example in a formal definition?

texts:
I would like to give an example in a formal definition. My concern is, by giving an example, I am implicitly demonstrating that the definition is not precise/clear enough.
Is it acceptable to give an example in a formal definition?


texts: I have written a blog post about an International event that I would like to publish in a think tank (I have three DC/London-based think tanks in mind), but none of them have submission section, and they haven't responded to my emails yet. Any advice? Or experience with think tanks? Thanks in advance!


texts: How should be your relationship with your PhD advisor

texts:
What kind of relation should one have with their supervisor ?
Could one talk informally with them ? would you get their phone number to discuss things on the phone ?
Thanks


texts: funding for current Master's students in the USA

texts: If one didn't obtain any funding before being admitted into a Master's program, is it hard to find funding in the middle of the Master's? Are RAs and TAs strictly reserved of PhDs? Any funding other than RAs and TAs?


texts: Mental calmness during timed test taking

texts:
I am preparing for a timed post-graduate test (for example, GRE, GMAT etc.). I get hung-up on questions where I don't immediately find a path, and then beat myself over not doing it fast enough while I am still on the question. This further increases my time on the question by taking focus away from the problem at hand.

Additionally, the above gets compounded with thoughts of inadequacy- "I am dumb" etc. etc. This adds to the time guilt and takes away from thinking clearly about problem solving.

If you've had a similar experience, what did you do during test taking to overcome it?


texts: What can I do if the terms of my adjunct contract are not what I was led to believe they would be?

texts:
The situation is as follows:

Once upon a time, the university where I have served as an adjunct decided to bring me on in a fixed-term role spanning a single academic year. This was to get them out of a low-manpower bind due to medical and retirement cases with some of our tenured faculty. The idea was a reasonable salary with benefits. So, classes start, and I have no contract. One pay period goes by, then two. Finally my contract comes through after much back-and-forth between the administration--which I'm to understand is heavily associated with our business school--and our department head. Result? Reduced from a single year to a single semester to avoid the benefits package, and reduced pay because they say they cannot retroactively pay someone who didn't have a contract during the intervening time. Given my history with this institution, I'm not at all surprised by this, but this is something of a new low. Yes, it makes good business sense to acquire labor for as cheaply as possible, but it also sends a bad long-term message that I am not valued as an employee. What, if anything, can I do about this?


texts: Is it acceptable for university to ask for detailed financial report?

texts:
I'm applying for a university in the USA and one of the section requires to enter up to five previous employees, their contacts, start/end dates, hours per week, and salary. I mean, that some of the previous aspects are considered personal in Europe.

Is it acceptable for university to ask for financial data and should one provide full, candid answers?


texts: Decision making paradigm for career planning

texts:
Despite receiving a job (post-doc) offer in January I have kept applying to other positions (post-doc and teaching track jobs). This was not a bad idea in retrospect, I suppose

This post doc job offer I received is in Europe (France) and required me to apply for a "long stay visa". I am currently a visiting faculty in a well known mid-western university in the USA. My citizenship is "Indian".

I did apply for a long stay visa and have not received it yet. In the mean time I have received a job offer for one teaching track (non-tenure but "long term" contract) job at my current university.

I have not been offered tenure track jobs anywhere since I have a backlog of publications right now.

Here is the problem:

My post doc job starts in 3 weeks time and I haven't received my visa yet. I have to make other arrangements too (air tickets, housing in Europe, other stuff for a trans-continental move).
I have been given 3 weeks to decide and confirm my availability for the teaching track job.
I prefer the post doc since it is a more appealing challenge. The downside is I have to exit the USA if I get my visa and go to Europe.
The teaching track job offers me stability, a full time employment and a salary that is difficult to beat in the post doc job and in my home country of India.  The downside is that teaching track lecturers are treated as "mules" in the USA and are burdened with courses that "tenure track" do not want. This would mean that any research aspirations I have go down the drain since I won't be afforded time to do research.
For me as a foreigner, it is not just working on my "passion" but also getting a lucrative position with which to support my family. I have to strike a balance between working on my passion and living in a developed country with a good salary.

I am confused as to what to do.

Here are options that occur to me (deferment of either position is not a possibility):

Wait for 3 weeks and irrespective of the visa decision, take a risk and say "no" to the teaching track job and take my chances with the European visa and miss an opportunity to have a full time job in the USA.
Wait for the next 3 weeks, if EU visa is not delivered to my house, just tell the lab that I cannot wait any longer since I have to make a career decision and take the teaching track job and miss a fantastic research opportunity for a great salary but a job that could very easily become flavorless.

Some more detail that I need to factor in:

I love to teach and have received some teaching awards for graduate and undergraduate courses I have taught as a visiting faculty.
However, I love research as well and understand that teaching and research are symbiotic activities and that the EU postdoc (which is a research position) allows me to do research and develop as a better teacher.

My question:

I am not asking this forum to make my decision for me; I just want to know how to weight this situation rationally and try and cut my losses if things go to pot. What are some of the decision making paradigms that one would use in such a situation?

If there are other details that may not have occured to me, would prove useful, do let me know via a comment below and I will try to include them.

Amendments to question:

"what is the likelihood that the visa will appear in the next three weeks, and what methods do you have to estimate this likelihood?"

The consulate tells me that it takes between 2 weeks and 2 months for a decision on "long stay visa" to be made. It is week 3 of my wait.

There would appear to be no way of estimating the likelihood other than tracking the status on a status page. All it says right now is: "Your application is under consideration". Contacting the consulate yielded the same answer.


texts: Personal repercussions for those who actively ignore review requests?

texts:
A colleague recently submitted an article to a reputable journal. The article went to 6 reviewers, one of which completed the review and the other 5 of which completely ignored the request. The ignored requests were not declined, they were ignored such that 3 weeks passed and the requests finally timed out in the system before new review requests were sent out by the editor.

To me, it seems unethical to ignore a request rather than to decline to review. Under a decline, the article can immediately go to new reviewers. Under an ignore, it must time out.

I realize that it is possible that all 5 ignores were passive ignores, where the ignoring person never even saw the request for whatever reason. However, let's assume that the requests were actively ignored. That is, each person saw the request and chose to ignore it.

This anecdote brings up the following hypothetical questions:

Putting aside the important fact that peer review is what keeps the scientific community running, are there any short term repercussions for those that ignore requests? For instance, if one of the reviewers who ignored my colleague's request were to submit an article today to the same journal and it were put on the same editor's desk, would there typically be any bias against it? Should there be?
If there are repercussions, will they depend on how well established the ignoring person is in their field?
What fraction of ignores are active ignores?


texts: As a discussant, should I discuss my points with the presenter beforehand?

texts:
There is a good question about how to be a discussant here, but it does not cover my question.

I was chosen to be a discussant for an upcoming seminar (actually, it was proposed to me by the same author I am discussing). I have several comments to make about the work, which I will put on slides. Should I talk the author through them before my presentation, or perhaps send him/her my slides beforehand? Or is it well understood that discussions are "surprises" and presenters should be able to address the discussion "on the spot"?

I have no intention to put the presenter into trouble, but perhaps, for the sake of the audience, it is better if I send the slides/discussion beforehand, so the quality of the answers might be higher. But I am not sure this is standard. Any ideas?


texts:
I want to include a plot in my thesis to highlight regional differences in bicycle collision outcomes. Now there are several plot visualizations I could use, and I am not sure which one could be the most appropriate. Having a "scale free" y axis better highlights the differences between each region, but it may also confuse the reader.

I am aware that there might not be an optimal solution to this, but I would appreciate to hear your thoughts.(If you have a completely other suggestion for an appropriate plot than the ones below, I would also be happy to hear those).

These are the plots I have made:

Plot 1

Plot 2

Plot 3

Plot 4


texts: Contacting editor-in-chief regarding delay ?

texts:
I have a paper in review in a prestigious applied math journal. The average time from first submission to final decision in that journal is about 8 months.

The first round of reviews took 7 months. After submitting revision in less that 2 months, we have been waiting for another 6 months.

The only point of contact available directly is the editorial staff, who reply promptly that "The tardy reviewer will soon send out their review". This has been going on for last 4 months. I do not know the identity of handling editor.

Can/should I contact editor-in-chief to help speed up the process ?
13 months of review is ridiculous in my field, and almost unheard of.


texts: PhD Application Consultants/ 'Services': Can US/EU professors/ admissions committee tell when someone uses these?

texts:
Disclaimer: I did not use these, but I have acquaintances who did.
I'm asking from the perspective of an international student.

These 'PhD/ MS Consultants' do the following (in ascending order of sketchiness):

Assist in CV/ Resume/ Visa Interviews
Provide a list of universities to apply to based on your CV strength
Write your SOP for you

My question is: Can admissions committees tell? Some people who used these got into pretty good universities (Ivy League), which seems rather weird.


texts:
I was wondering if there was a standard system, at some point in history, for academic positions in Latin.

What I mean is that today each country has a standard system that names each academic position, for example in England if you are the head of a university you will be called a "chancellor", regardless which university you head, as long as it is in England.

Different countries today use different words for different positions, some are derived from Latin, some are not. I was wondering if there ever was a standard of Latin-language academic position titles that have been used in the past at some point by several or more countries? Because I'd wager some countries had Latin titles but they were the only ones to use them.


texts: Masters application Financial Support question

texts:
I need financial support to join a specific university. There is a question in the Master's application that says "Will you be willing to join the program even if you didn't receive financial aid? "

If I answered No to this question, would that mean that if I got accepted in the university but without financial aid I would receive a rejection letter from the university?
If I answered Yes, would that decrease my chances in getting a financial aid?


texts:
I am doing an undergraduate project on matrix analysis which mostly involves functional analysis(but not a lot of heavy machinery) but I realize I don't really like the area very much and my work isn't particularly non-trivial. I have an excellent and patient guide.The alternative is that I can instead read a bunch of graduate texts in analysis over the next year.
Here are the pros and cons of quitting the project I could come up with:

Pros:
1. If I quit, I will be reading some graduate texts.
2. I will be reading something I like.

Cons:
1. I will lose out on valuable research experience. I am concerned that the lack of it will render my applications to graduate schools in the US rather ordinary. 2. I have an excellent relationship with my guide.I am a little concerned she might be disappointed with the switch.
(I can't work under someone else for various reasons.)
Any help is appreciated. Thank you.


texts: I am going to prepare a math research paper and one of my main and necessary references is an article on ArXiv. I do not know whether I continue to prepare my article or not. Since I have doubt with ArXivian papers and I think it is not good choice arxiv papers as a main part of a research work.


texts: How do non-LaTeX users handle citations?

texts:
There are plenty of questions asking about how exactly to cite certain things in certain citation styles. I tend to find these puzzling, as for me this is not something the author needs to care of, but something to be done automatically by BibTeX.

Now I am vaguely aware that some disciplines are not using LaTeX for their writing. I also know that there are citation tools outside LaTeX, but not quite how much these automate. This question however is about actual practise, not about what is possible.
Are these tools as widely used as BibTeX in the TeX community or are the tools more a niche thing and people actually cite "by hand" on a regular basis?
Is there a de facto standard?


texts: Is not being paid in an internship common in academia?

texts:
I'm a to-be third year Phyiscs and Mathematics student, and in the beginning of this summer, I was invited to do internship at the lab of one of the professors in the Physics department by that professor herself, and I accepted directly.

During this last 1 month, i.e since the beginning of my internship, I have basically invalidated the work of 2 master student, 1 Phd student and a undergrad student's joint work as a whole (the methods that they were using to analyse the data methodically insufficient and wrong, and I have shown this), and solved the problems that they couldn't solve, and got consistent results.Further, I have made suggestions for how we can improve our result about the experiment that the lab is conducting.

Now, this is my first internship that I have ever done, and I did (and I think I still do) not have any idea about internship in general, and I did not asked for any allowance for the work that I was going to do, and just interested with the job, and I have learned a lot of (literally a lot) things in this 1 month, and enjoyed with the work I was doing.

The thing is, I cannot take any course credit from an internship (this is a thing in my University), and I did not get paid; it is OK, I have learned a lot of things, but I'm asking just for the future internships, is this kind of situation common in academia in general ? Because, after some time the situation transformed from helping researchers in their research to doing the very work of those researchers that they cannot do properly while they still got paid.

Edit:

I'm in Turkey.


texts: What is the academic degree of medical school graduate after 6 years of study, plus 1 year intern?

texts:
What is the equivalent of medical degrees to Bachelor, Master and PhD?
Calculating points for Canadian Express Entry program. On education section, they have only these degrees - Bachelor, Master, PhD. Not sure which is the correct for Doctor of Medicine.


texts: Asking about how to minimize the effect of a not so good thesis due to abandoning by supervisor without even telling in Phd Application Form

texts:
A bit of background of the problem->

I am a masters 2nd year student( 4 th semester)in mathematics .During my masters degree I self studied 3 books of number theory because I was really interested in learning it and no faculty in my Institute is specialized in it( most people in my Institute are specialized in Applied Mathematics) . I am in an 3rd world country.

I want to do phd in number theory in Europe. So, for my Masters thesis I wrote to one of professors in a top Institute in my country and she said yes.I visited her Institute in January,2020 for 8 days but she abandoned me and didn't even bothered to tell as she didn't replied my e - mails and despite the fact that she gave me a research paper in January to study and after completing it I e-mail her on 20 Feb asking her to tell me which paper to study now/ problem to work and when should I visit her Institute again . I e mailed her on 29 Feb, 7 March, 25 March, 4April.

In between I began studying papers myself and complleted 2 papers while waiting for her reply. In April I realized she would not reply.

  The situation in my country is miraculously better than other countries in terms of Covid 19  and I am sure she is not suffering from it because I also contacted her PhD student and then her PhD student said that she is in campus in her office . Now, I have studied another research paper and now I will study another research paper if time permits.

Also I am 100% sure that she is not suffering from covid as when I asked her Phd student about her she said she was in office. ( it happended in March) .Then I asked her PhD student to give me her contact number the student refused furiously without giving any proper reason and straightly told me i am not her spokesperson or secretary.

  My Question is -> I am filling phd application forms of various Institutes in Europe so in what way I can tell the admission committee that it's not my fault and I have worked hard on project ( as much as I could) . I had  no guidence. How to present this situation in my CV's thesis part so that bad effect of it is minimized. I was hopeful of writing a really good thesis and ready to work hard, had necessary background but all of it has been nullified by that self centered and shameless professor. Clearly, it was not my fault and she could have told me when she decided to change her mind. Can anyone please tell how to write about it in a manner so that chances of my admission are not further hampered.


texts: What is exactly meant by "research experience" in grad application?

texts:
I'm confused by what the term "research experience" actually means in a PhD application. The following examples come into my mind:

working as research assistant with university professor
publishing research papers in conferences
work in R&D division of company (industry research)

Do all examples of the list above count as research experience? Or which ones do? If so, what are they?

Which ones are more important and provide competitive advantage for getting accepted to good university?


texts:
If I am creating lesson plans, do I need to cite the various websites I use for my work? It is for math, and the information I have used is found in thousands of sites. I have not taken any lesson plans, nor have I taken their math problems and claimed them as my own. I instead used the different websites and textbooks as a placeholder of "what do I talk about next". For example, I am on a site talking about multiplying whole numbers. The websites example is "256 times 5". I see that, and go okay how about "163 times 3".

Whether I do or do not cite, can I have my name on the lesson plans? So far, I have read if I use citations I can; "This work has been collected and combined by name".

Which brings me to my last question. If I do need to cite, can I create a work-cited page and put all my references on that page, or do I HAVE to put in-text citations? This is not for any kind of class; I am making this to help my fellow students.

Thank you for your time,

Samantha


texts: What do admission committees look for in a diversity essay?

texts:
I'm sitting here with my friend, who is in the process of applying to graduate school. She's come across a prompt that looks like this:

  If you are a member of a community that has historically been underrepresented in higher education and would like to tell us how this particular perspective adds to the value you will contribute to the diverse learning community we strive to create, please do so here.

My friend is a female, Latin American, previously financially-burdened immigrant, so there is certainly some diversity to speak of, but she's having trouble coming up with how this can answer the prompt. To her, she's never really considered it a struggle, but more of a challenge. She's never let it get her down, so she sees no reason to complain about it in an essay. She believes you should be judged based on your past and present performance, not your national origin, ethnicity, financial status, etc.

How do you even respond to a prompt like that? Also, why do universities ask you to speak about your diversity in the first place? What are they looking for?


texts: Thesis submitted, but not published – can I put the title on my CV?

texts:
My thesis was submitted, but not published by the library or online yet.

I would like to put its title on my CV. Is this OK? Or is it kind of risky?


texts: I prepared a course, but cancelled it due to lack of participants. How to describe in CV?

texts:
I prepared a course (more specifically, I created some material for the kick-off meeting and an outline for the contents that would have been addressed if the course would have taken place), but there were too few students participating in the kick-off meeting, so I cancelled the course.

How should I deal with this fact in my CV? Since I prepared the kick-off meeting and the outline, and was willing to give the course, it would be nice to receive some credit. Still, would I have to mention that the course was cancelled?


texts: If I write a really bad, but controversial, paper, can I increase my h-index?

texts:
Imagine that I write a paper about a controversial topic like global warming denial, the link between vaccines and autism, why different races have different IQ. After publication, the paper gets the attention of mass media, and as a counter measure, serious experts start explaining why the paper is completely wrong.

Would that count as citations towards a higher h-index?


texts: Co-author wants to put their current funding source in the acknowledgements section because they edited the paper

texts:
In this situation there is a co-author that wants their current funding source added to the acknowledgements section because they edited the paper that others wrote. The research in the paper is something the co-author worked on as a graduate student about 5 years ago, but they have since become an assistant professor elsewhere and no longer contribute to the paper's research.

The separate funding source they used several years ago to contribute to the data analysis for the paper is already listed in the acknowledgements.

The paper did not need major editing, but for the sake of scope - if the paper had needed major edits would that change the answer?

Never had this type of interaction before. I'm wondering if putting that acknowledgement would implicitly say that the co-author's current funding also funded the research in the paper. Maybe "Co-author was funded by Blank to edit the manuscript" is a middle ground?

The source of funding in question is the co-author's country's government - although unclear if it's a research grant or co-author's salary as a professor. In either case is it acceptable to "use" this money to edit manuscripts from previous work done and funded elsewhere?

First paper & graduate student, to finalize the context.


texts: How can I complete the prerequisites for MS in Computer Science? 2019 application

texts:
I have gone through: Similar question asked 4 years ago but this person had a lot of experience.

My Background: I am currently pursuing my bachelors in electrical engineering. I wish to pursue my Masters in Computer Science. I will graduate in 2019 (expected) with only 2 months of internship experience in Python (Data Science application).

Country of Residence: India

Countries of Interest for University Applications: US, Canada and EU.

Probable MS start date: Fall 2019 / 2020

I have noticed that there are prerequisites to get admitted to those programs. Specifically, I need to have completed courses in Data Structures, Algorithms, Operating Systems, Theory of Computation, Compilers and Computer Networks.

My undergraduate degree did have courses like C programming and OOPs, but nothing else. I took a computer course on Python at a local computer institute and interned during the vacation.

With my current qualifications I am unlikely to get any meaningful work in CS so I would like to use a masters degree to start a career in CS.

So here are my options to fulfill the prerequisites:-

1) PG Course in computer science (Expensive; only distance learning mode will work)

2) Computer Science courses on edX, Coursera

3) Professional certifications like CompTIA a+ / Network+ etc.

My major concern is whether Option 2 &/or 3 will be considered by admissions committees? These may showcase my aptitude for CS, but will I still have to take UG level courses before pursuing a Masters degree?


texts: Do letters of recommendation typically include a biography of the writer?

texts:
A student asked me to write a letter of recommendation for graduate school admission in London and the student insisted that I include a short biography describing my job title and qualifications. I find this information is a little out of place. First, my degree is in progress, so I do not have any impressive qualifications. Second, I think such letters are intended to introduce the applicant, not the writer.

Is this common practice to include a biography of the writer in letters of recommendation?
Where does this information typically appear in the document? In the opening paragraph? As a separate, attached document?


texts: How to be properly cited with a two-word last name

texts:
I have a two-word last name which gives as full name something like "Mike Adam Pince" (just an example) with "Mike" the first name and "Adam Pince" the last name (no middle name).

I have published few conference papers and I noted that Google scholar is referencing me (author's name in the results) as "MA Pince" which I'm sure other people would do too.

Now that I'm writing a journal paper I'm thinking of adding a hyphen to my last name "Adam-Pince" to avoid any confusion with others authors.

I wonder what's the common practice in such a situation.


texts: What order should authors be on arXiv.org for equal contribution authorships?

texts: If everyone made an equal contribution in effort to write the paper, but no on the team but myself decided to post the paper on arXiv and no one opposed my decision to arXiv post, should I myself, the poster, or the corresponding author be the first author, or should the authors be listed alphabetically? At this point there's not yet any monetary or power incentive to be first or last and I don't expect there to be any in the future.


texts: Have I given my PhD supervisor enough time to react to serious issues before raising it above their head?

texts:
I've been having doubts about the progress I've been making during the start of my PhD. About 2 weeks before I was due to go abroad for a placement at another lab I raised these concerns with my supervisor and they traveled the length of the country a week later to meet me in person to help with how I was feeling.

Now two months have passed (I'm still overseas), and my project is well overdue for a third party progress review within my department. This shook me again when it was brought to my attention, and I started to worry about the progress I've been making again. Adding to this, discussions with the experts at the overseas lab have made me question the value of my research as a whole, and whether or not anything I've done so far or will do for the next 8 months or so is actually worth anything - regardless of whether or not I'd made any real progress with it. (Which I haven't, but that's a whole topic in and of itself).

This has left me feeling terrible and I'm having thoughts of quitting my PhD. I told my supervisor how I was feeling again two weeks ago and they promised a phone call to talk about it, but they don't seem to have found the time. I'm so concerned that I want to raise the issues over their head, but I don't know whether I've given them enough time to respond. Part of this is because I'm out here to do an independent piece of work and not my PhD, so I wouldn't have noticed any changes that we could have implemented in my PhD project. I also haven't actively bugged them about how I'm feeling, as sending constant email reminders makes me feel even worse.

I could raise these issues with my third party project reviewer, as that's largely what they're there for, but I don't know if I've done enough myself to rectify the situation before raising the issue higher up in the 'chain of command'. Should I?


texts: Is it okay to use students as a reference when applying for a teaching position?

texts:
On one hand, this seems like the obvious thing to do:  no one is going to be able to better testify to your teaching ability than a previous student.  On the other hand, I've never heard of anybody ever doing this, and for some reason, it seems a bit silly.

So what does the academic community large think about this?  Is it okay to list previous students as references when applying for a teaching position in academia?


texts:
I'm a new assistant professor in the UK in Electrical engineering. I'm in the process of setting up my lab and I work in a "hot" area. Thus, I have the chance of getting good students funded by industry or funding bodies.

I know of professors with 10+ PhDs and others with 2-3. The group I did my PhD in was in the second category while my postdoc in the first.

However, I am wondering, what should be my target? Any studies have been made? Any personal experience?

I currently have three PhD students.


texts: What questions should I ask as a candidate during an interview for a tenure-track assistant professor position?

texts:
I will soon be at an on-campus interview
for a tenure-track assistant professor position.
I expect that in the course of the day,
I will be asked the question,
"Do you have any questions for us?"
What are good questions for me to ask
to show that I am interested in the department
and would very much like to join?


texts: When writing a paper what's the difference between contributions and objectives?

texts:
I'm currently writing up a study of a model which worked and had a clear statement of contributions.

A reviewer has asked me to clarify what the objectives were.

In the case of a project which went as expected, how are these different to the contributions? (I can see how if the results were unexpected they would differ).


texts: How can physicists help in theoretical biology, besides math and fresh perspectives?

texts:
By googling this keyword: "theoretical biology" and physics, I get many interesting pages, such as:

Physics meets biology: Bridging the culture gap
Biology is more theoretical than physics
Why physicists like models, and why biologists should
Biology is the new physics (note that this article's title is somewhat misleading in my opinion)

All pages I found mostly (or only, if I remember correctly) focus on the advantages of the physicists are their math background and being a neophyte so sometimes able to bring fresh perspectives to a problem. But that means a mathematician is also adequate to this.

My undergraduate dissertation is about biophysics, so I actually know that there are things that a physicist can help in biology. But mostly I see them in molecular biology. What else can physicists actually help with given their background?


texts:
I am a master student in Mathematics. I got a scholarship that would pay me a 1-year stay (including housing etc.) at Harvard University. All I need to do, is to apply for admission as a Special student at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (and be admitted of course).

Searching through the internet, some people indicated that admission as a special student is a: if you pay, you are in-system. Is this true? Or is admission as competitive as the one for regular students in the PhD programms?


texts: Differences in the culture of writing and publishing papers in various fields

texts: I have not published any papers yet, and I was wondering on the process of writing and publishing an academic papers on different fields, and their differences. I have seen some related posts here, but none that fully summarizes the steps one typically takes to write/publish a paper. I'd like to see how this process may differ in various fields.


texts: I am an undergraduate student pursuing a degree in Agricultural business. One of the course I will do is Research Methodology. What is academic research methodology course and what should I expect?


texts: Are there any Books/Guides to developing researching skills for academia

texts:
I will be doing an Honours in Commerce next year at a GO8 university.

This is essentially a stepping stone into a pathway to academia (or sometimes a resume booster for getting into industry).

It will be my first time getting an exposure to reading and researching academic articles, and I was wondering if there was some sort of guide or standard to researching and reading academic papers, particularly in finance and economics.

In essence, I was hoping to find something of a similar nature to this guide on studying university level mathematics.

I feel this question may be received as vague, thus I will give an example:

suppose I am looking for research inspiration, for instance. Then, in searching it would (perhaps obviously, or perhaps I am entirely wrong) not be the best idea to read articles and thoroughly understand every single detail of each and every one of them, but rather, read articles and see where there are knowledge gaps and potential for future research.

there is surely a methodology to roughly follow or guide or book out there which helps you become/build the skills to be a good/more efficient/effective researcher?

any help is appreciated.


texts: How to handle a colleague who hasn't pulled their weight

texts:
I'm working on a project with a partner that involves developing a mobile app and corresponding server. I won't bother with the specifics, but both involve a fair amount of work (both require some custom algorithms as well as thousands of lines of code). This project will serve as a final for one of our classes.

Originally, we agreed that I would write the server and he would write the mobile application. I stayed up for a couple nights straight and got together a working server in no time. He told me he was bogged down with papers/family life/etc., but he'd handle the client side.

About two weeks went by and still no progress had been made. I had some free time so I figured out how the app needs to be written (i.e. writing out the pseudocode and sketching wireframes). When another week went by and still no work had been done, I went ahead and wrote a good deal of the client code. My partner is also my friend and I trusted him when he told me he would do his part and he was just totally bogged down.

Now the project is due on Friday and I'm still the only one who's actually done anything. I find out today that he still has yet to write a single line of code because he's so busy (but not so busy that he couldn't go to a baseball game, a concert, and spend all of Friday night getting drunk).

I'm not sure how I want to approach the situation. Even if my partner finished the project on his own, I've still done 80%. I don't think its fair if he gets an A because I killed myself to do the work of two people. At the same time, if I tell the professor how little he's done, the professor will fail him (rightly so) and I will lose a friend.

How can I get the credit I deserve for my work without losing my friend? I feel like I have the Hobson's choice between getting credit for my work and keeping a friend.

EDIT: I did choose a specific answer as my accepted answer, but all of these answers are of really good quality. If you're having a problem similar to mine, I highly suggest reading through all of the answers here.


texts: Does affiliation on a paper without funding matter?

texts:
I graduated from my undergraduate program two years ago with a major in Computer Science. During my undergraduate studies, I did research with a professor, and published under the university's affiliation; (Department of Computer Science, Uni Name).
I am currently working in a company which I will refer to as G. I recently worked on a research idea during my weekends which led to an accepted paper in a conference. I would publish with G as an affiliation, except G has a ridiculous 3 month process to allow an employee to use them as an affiliation in a research paper, while the deadline for modifying personal information in the accepted paper is in a month.
My question is, can I add my undergraduate school as my affiliation? The work was in no way or form sponsored by G or my undergraduate school.


texts:
When does a PhD end? I know this is a very general question on this forum, but let us consider a CS-engineering group. What is the usual and primary consideration for letting the student finish officially?

Is it the number of years spent, when the professor feels nothing more useful will come out of working on the problem (or of the student!)?

Is it the logical conclusion of the problem and the thesis? A student works to complete a problem in 3 years and publishes a couple of journal papers, and finds there is no more to the problem. Will he be allowed to finish or forced to work on some tangential problem simply to prolong his PhD?


texts: Is it common to cite the numbers of results a search engine yields as evidence for the prevalence of something online?

texts:
Is it common in academia to include the number of results a Google search on a keyword yields as an evidence for the prevalence of something online?

I'm not intending to base my research paper on this evidence; it is just a supporting point in a paragraph.

For example, I'm writing a research paper on Stack Exchange; one of the paragraphs is about how popular Stack Exchange is in the internet.

In one of the paragraph, I would mention that a Google search on the keyword 'Stack Exchange' yielded about 49,600,000 results, which shows how popular it is among netizens.


texts: Is it an invasion of privacy to ask a lecturer for details on their LaTeX editor setup?

texts:
I (very) recently completed a Real Analysis course at my university. One day during the course I went to see my lecturer regarding an error I spotted in his notes.

The notes set for our course were written and typed up by our lecturer. Upon verifying this error my lecturer opened up the source .tex files for his notes and corrected the error and recompiled the notes in front of me (he was sitting down at his desk and I was standing next to him).

As someone who's used to typing up stuff in TexStudio I was very intrigued by what LaTeX editor he was using as it seemed like something I never saw before, and honestly it seemed like the ideal LaTeX editor setup at first glance. I thought of asking him at the time but I assumed that I would be crossing some boundary.

Fast forward to now, and I have quite a good relationship with this (now former) lecturer of mine, having completed his course just a few weeks ago.

Would it be frowned upon if I sent him an email asking him what his LaTeX editor setup is? (I'm assuming it's Emacs with auctex and with some sort of custom theme). Would any lecturer consider this as an invasion of privacy or crossing some boundary?


texts: Do universities favor experimentalists over theoreticians?

texts:
This question is based off the following chain of reasoning:

Universities employ professors, who write funding applications and win grants. The university then takes some fraction of the grant as "overheads" which counts as part of its "income".
Therefore universities prefer professors who win big grants (the number of grants matter less than the total amount of money won).
Experimentalists need more money than theoreticians. I would expect that theoreticians only need some software & computers, but experimentalists would need the equipment itself (MRI machines, vacuum chambers, etc) which are orders of magnitude more expensive than mere desktop computers.
Therefore experimentalists win bigger grants.
Therefore universities prefer experimentalists.

I'm wondering if this chain of reasoning is robust. It looks pretty convincing to me. Conceivably the university could have separate grant targets for theoreticians and experimentalists, but presumably some professors aren't easily classified into either theoretician or experimentalist, which would make this an easily-gamed metric.


texts:
I've been working on my teaching statement recently (for the mathematical sciences, but it shouldn't matter).  I'd really like to keep the main body to one page, because I personally wouldn't want to read anything longer than that, but there are several instances where I feel like I could include a little more information "for those inclined to read it".  Do you think it is appropriate to include these comments as endnotes, or is this somehow more irritating than having a slightly longer document with such comments incorporated inline? For instance, if I do something like this, I end up with one page of text followed by a half page of notes.

  I've had broad success1 using a modified Moore method to teach a
  graduate qualifying exam review course.

  ...

  Notes

  1 In the three years I have taught it, 22 students have taken the course, and 19/22 have passed at the PhD level first try; in contrast, the first-try PhD pass rate for the five years prior was only 50%.

If I incorporate such statements, I'm over my (entirely self-imposed) one page limit.


texts: Much work is put into constructing grant applications: sharing them would allow diffusing novel ideas faster, which I would expect it to be seen positively by researchers. Why aren't grant applications systematically published online, regardless of whether they are accepted?


texts: PhD admissions - (undergraduate) credit/no-credit influence on acceptance

texts:
I plan on doing a PhD in computational linguistics, which I intend to start in about 3 years. I have one more year of undergraduate study, and 5/6 of the courses remaining are for my minor in Applied Linguistics.

I plan on taking 2/6 of those classes as credit/no-credit (CR/NC) because I'm also working two jobs, and worst-case scenario I'll fall behind in these classes, but not so far behind that I wouldn't pass with 75% (and still receive credit).

aeismail says in one of her answers that:

  Admissions committees do not place as much weight on courses outside the major as courses in the major. If you are a physics major, for instance, a C in a US History course is not going to be as problematic as a C in electricity and magnetism.

These CR/NC courses are not in my majors (Computer Science and French), so I don't think that they would raise flags to admissions committees, but I also don't want admissions to think "oh he seriously slacked off his last year of undergrad!"

Do admissions committees care about CR/NC courses in undergrad?


texts: How much of my ongoing unpublished research should I disclose to others?

texts:
As part of my PhD, I have already published a paper and am working to expand it further. Recently, a PhD student (who I didn't know) from another university contacted me regarding my paper. He showed interest in the paper and the direction that I'm working on, wanted me to explain it further and, if possible, share the framework that I developed and used for experiment so that he could use it for his own research.

Although I like to help him as it will be nice if we can come up with some collaboration, I'm afraid that it might turn into an competition instead if he decides to pursue the same direction as mine alone. Since I'm still working on it without any concrete result, it is possible for him to solve it first and publish papers. I'm not saying that he might steal my ideas/tools since he can put my name in an acknowledgement.

So, my question is to what extent I should share or disclose my current research which is in progress.


texts: Applying for a postdoc with degree from different fields

texts:
I have a master and bachelor degree in Aerospace engineering. Master degree was from the most prestigious institute in my country (India).

Then I moved on to my Ph.D., but this time into a different field. Physical Chemistry. Particularly because I wanted to do fundamental science rather than engineering. I am doing pretty good in my Ph.D. (in terms of publication and progress)

Will having a degree from different fields be a trouble when I apply for a postdoc (in Physical chemistry) in top universities (like Cambridge or Princeton)? Also will this affect me when I try for a tenure track position?


texts:
I have an undergrad degree in linguistics, and a masters degree in natural language processing from a department of linguistics. I would like to continue research work in natural language processing, but change fields to computer science. How can I make this happen? Many say its not possible, but I'm willing to put in the work and do what it takes! Although continuing my research as a linguistics PhD would be easier, I am not interested in taking this route.

More about my background:

I am 25 year old female.
I currently have 2 publications: one is a publication on software that I developed, the other is a somewhat random bioinformatics publication.

Many more publications to come in the next year! I have worked at 1 research institute (where I developed and published my software), worked in a CS lab, and now I work in government R&D and am affiliated with an R1 university.
I have been involved in A LOT of digital literacy efforts, volunteered to help at women's hackathons, etc. and have given a lot of Data Science presentations to the public.

My plans:

GRE & GRE Math subject test.
CS self-studying. I'm comfortable about data types and learning more about algorithms.

Questions:

Do I have to get another masters? I can't afford it :(
Would community college classes actually help me get in? I'm afraid they won't be taken seriously...
Other ways to obtain/prove I have the necessary prerequisites for a CS degree?

I know some universities will simply not accept someone without a CS background, but some explicitly state in their CS admissions that they will (e.g. UWashington, UToronto)


texts:
I am in my second semester in a Post-Bachelors Doctorate of Nursing Practice program. The class is a graduate nursing informatics course. My instructor posted the following grading scale. My initial reaction is that it leaves little room to earn an A grade. Would it be appropriate or acceptable to raise the issue with the professor? My past experience has usually been that an A is mid 90s or above and that an A- has been low 90s.

A: 97% or above
A-: 93-96%
B+: 90-92%
B: 87-89%
B-: 83-86%
Anything else is considered failing.


texts: Relative or Absolute evaluation for academic positions?

texts:
When a committee is evaluating applicants for a permanent academic position (such as a Lecturer or Assistant Prof. position), do they select the best candidate in the absolute, or do they relativize with the corresponding experience?

Consider for instance two applicants, one who just graduated from her PhD, and the other with 10 years of postdoc experience (for the sake of the example, let's assume that both are "regular" applicants, i.e., none of them is a exceptionally good or bad). Clearly, in general, the second applicant will have many more publications, grants, etc, than the first one.
In that case, will the committee judge them by relativizing the CV of the second one by stating like only the number of publications per year counts, not the total one, or say that the second one has a better CV in the absolute, and therefore is better?


texts: What are the negative consequences of slacking off after attaining tenure?

texts:
As I was thinking about the question
Can I slack off and get a PhD?,
I realized that I wanted to say in my answer

  If you want to slack off,
  the best time to do so is after you have received tenure
  as a college professor,
  because at that point you can't be fired
  except for egregious offences.

I am not yet even an assistant professor,
so I don't know whether the statement above is really true.

Question:
What could the negative consequences be
for a professor who has just received tenure,
if he were to put in the bare minimum effort needed in teaching
just to achieve average teaching performance,
and were to just stop doing research and publishing papers?

Note:
I don't plan to slack off if I were in the future
able to get a tenured position,
but I am just curious what happens to those professors who do.


texts: Publishing journal articles based on dissertation

texts:
My dissertation is drafted in a paper format which consists of three papers that I am planning to publish in future. Can I submit the manuscript to journals in 'as is' condition or I will have to draft new manuscripts based on the old manuscripts.

Please advise.

Thank you.


texts: Including article unrelated to my area in CV

texts: I have been teaching economics in a university for the past 5 years and, before that, working in the area of economics for the past 15 or so years. 20 years ago, before I studied economics, I studied French literature. Recently, I dug up my master's thesis in literature, updated and polished it, and then submitted. One of the top journals (generally considered top 5) in the subject area accepted it. I am wondering now whether I should include the article on my CV when I apply for economics teaching jobs, or even on my profile page of my current institution. I am worried it might look weird. I have some good economics articles too, so it's not that I am lacking good publications. Any thoughts? Thank you.


texts: Ph.D. mathematics application: Disclosing course textbooks

texts:
More than one math Ph.D. program I am applying to has a section where I am to list relevant coursework. An example is as follows:

"Enter under each category list the two most advanced courses or course sequences you have had or will definitely take before you come to (School)."

Under each class title there is a blank line where I am to list a text or textbooks. (No other instruction)

My question is this: In a few of my courses, the professor has listed a textbook for the course, but whose lectures have not adhered to the structure or level of rigor of the book. The homework also did not come from the course book. If I chose to use another textbook to study out of should I list this one or the one listed in the course syllabus? My reasons for wanting to list the book I used are:

The book on the syllabus is not a good indication of the level of rigor at which the course was taught.
I haven't read a page of the textbook on the syllabus while the book I used is one I own and is the primary reference for the subject on my shelf.

Which book should I write in my application?


texts: Balancing between students who do homework and those who do not

texts:
This other question is about assigning videos as homework and this one is about what to do when students do not do their homework. However, there is another question to ask which is similar, but I think different, from these two.

If you have a class of 70 students and you assign some homework on which you will base the following class, and 40% of the students do not do the homework, that subsequent class becomes quite unmanageable. If you proceed as scheduled, the 40% will be lost, they cannot contribute, and eventually become distracting for the rest of the class.

If you do not run the class as scheduled, the students who did the homework the first time will see there is little benefit of doing the home and little cost of not doing it. For this reason, in the past, I have been quite strict. Students who did not do the homework get kicked out and marked absent (too many absences and they automatically fail the module). The problem with this approach is that kicking 40% out leaves me with a very high failure rate and in the end I just end up taking time which would otherwise be free for me to do as I wish and I must dedicate that time to these students who failed (for whatever reason).

So, I find myself in a difficult situation. Kicking students out hurts them but hurts me too. The problem is that I value my time much more than they value theirs so it ends up hurting me more than them. If I don't kick them out, my schedule gets destroyed.

How can one find balance in the classroom when a large percentage of students do not do the homework? Is there a way other than simply removing large chunks and failing them? Is thee a more enlightened way?

Important Note: In my modules grades are pass/fail - I do not have the option to simply lower their grade.


texts: How can I (and should I) approach a teacher with a difficult attitude in lessons?

texts:
She's not exactly a terrible teacher, but she doesn't relate to students well, and the way she teaches in class discourages us from participating. For example, when asking someone to translate a sentence, after someone spoke out and tried to translate, she interrupted the student saying words to the effect of "No, that's wrong, you've forgot about this." Obviously a valid point, but her tone and the way she cut across was rude, and when she asked the next question, none of us really wanted to give an answer. I could find other examples, but I don't think it's relevant: the point is, the way she teaches - not the content itself - is problematic because it creates a bad environment in class.

The first question is: is it a bad idea to approach her directly to talk about it? Should I bring it up with the department office, or the department head, instead? I figured it would be better to talk to her in person, rather than flag it up with the department, as it's not technically their business, and maybe it could get her into trouble. But I'd appreciate advice on this all the same.

The second question is: if I do talk to her about her teaching style, what's the best way to go about it? I was considering visiting during her office hours with 2 or 3 other students, and trying to explain why we're having issues with her teaching style. Again, if you think there's a better way, or would strongly advise against this, please let me know.


texts: What to expect when pursuing a second doctorate in an unrelated field

texts:
Long story short: I got a PhD a few years ago (let's say, in numerical methods for nonlinear PDEs).  I've since gotten experience with a couple post-docs and a variety of collaborators, but I'm not really satisfied with what I'm doing.  I feel out of place.

Earlier in life, I made a tough decision between science and humanities-- my other passion has always been, let's say, east Asian languages.  If my bachelors program had had better language courses or options for "hybrid" fields like computational linguistics, I probably would have gone that route, instead of fully focusing on math.

I've sought out collaborations that might help me bridge the gap between math and languages; I've also looked at postdocs to help make the transition.  I've reached out to leaders at research groups who do stuff I'm really interested in.  The common denominator is: I'd need a PhD in some kind of linguistics to research seriously what I want. So...

What key things should I take into consideration when pursuing a doctorate, given that I have a doctorate in an unrelated field?

Please consider the question within the following context: I'm not asking whether having two PhDs is good or bad (I frankly don't care), how to needlessly pad my name with titles, or how to get two PhDs simultaneously. (That is all to say: this post doesn't answer my question.)  I'm asking about what to expect when changing careers, specifically, if the source career is in one academic field and the target career is in another, unrelated field.  Assume I've 100% decided to leave my current field and pursue this second doctorate, for the purpose of changing careers. Assume also that I already have substantial content knowledge in the target field, as I have a bachelors degree in it already, and it's been an avid hobby for most of my life.

Some sub-questions that don't need to be specifically answered, but I think help narrow the question: in what way could my current PhD be a hindrance in getting into a new program?  Will my supervisors and colleagues see my past PhD as an asset, or as weird-looking mole they will try to politely ignore?  What are other questions should I ask myself to prepare for such a non-traditional career path?

Note: I've edited this question multiple times in a vain attempt to get the duplicate label removed. If you agree, please vote.


texts: Master thesis: should I say that some results are a novelty in the field?

texts:
I am nearly at the end of my master thesis and, according to my research, the last part of it deals with something that has not been treated before in any paper/book I have found.

To make things more clear: in my thesis I am applying a method well known in literature, which has been applied many times on simple structural elements built on purpose to validate the method. In my thesis I have started applying the method on simple structures too, to be sure I have implemented it correctly. Then, in the last part, I apply it on a real-world structure using real measurements (not numerical generated ones).

The problem is that I am not sure if I should underline this fact as a novelty in the method application. According to my literature research, this approach has not been tried yet, but I can speak only 2 languages, therefore I looked for books/papers written in those 2 languages only.

What if this thing has been already done by someone else on a paper written in another language? Then my results will not be a novelty anymore, so I should not mention it in my thesis and this will also affect the 'goodness' of my work too (because my thesis will not actually add any useful information to the already existing literature).

How can I deal with this situation?


texts: Should I accept review requests from dubious journals?

texts:
I'm a graduate student with, so far, one published article in a peer-reviewed journal.  Since the article came out, I've been receiving increasing amounts of "academic e-mail spam" from people wanting me to attend their conferences, publish in their (usually pay-to-publish) journals or order research supplies from them.  (The latter kind tend to be the easiest to filter out — even though my field is biomathematics, it doesn't mean I have any use for frozen mouse embryos whatsoever.)

Some time ago, an e-mail turned up asking me to review a manuscript, conveniently attached to the message, for a pay-to-publish open access journal in a somewhat related field.  Googling for the name of the publisher, I found them described as e.g. "a borderline vanity press".

At the time, I wasn't really sure how to react.  On one hand, I could think of several reasons to just go ahead and review the manuscript:

The main complaint about the publisher seems to be that their peer review is insufficient — a claim supported by the fact that they seem to be picking random grad students as reviewers.  Still, given that they're at least making some effort at peer review, surely I should encourage them in that?  After all, if nobody agreed to review manuscripts for them, how could they ever improve their review process?
Declining to review the manuscript might deprive the authors — who, if the journal is indeed a "scam", are presumably the victims here — of useful feedback.  Surely they at least deserve that much return for their time, efforts and money?
Also, if the manuscript did get published in a scientific journal, no matter how dubious or marginal, it would enter the body of scientific knowledge, and might be used as a reference by others.  Given that, surely it is my duty as a scientist to try, given the opportunity, to do what I can to ensure that it is at least correct?

Still, despite these arguments, I initially found the idea of willingly responding to spam to be deeply unsettling at a fundamental, almost visceral level.  Also, I felt concerned that, by doing volunteer work for a possibly unethical publisher, I'd be supporting their business model and perhaps lending them an undeserved appearance of legitimacy.
In particular, given that the subject of the manuscript wasn't that close to my own field, I worried that it might have errors that I would not be capable of spotting, and that, even if I made this clear in my review, the publisher might still use the review to support the publication of a possibly flawed article.

(Edit: Just to be clear, I wasn't worried that they'd reveal the names of reviewers, just that, even if I was the only one who sent back a review, they might still use it to claim that "yes, the paper was peer reviewed.")

In the end, the decision was actually rather easy: after a cursory glance at the manuscript, it became clear that there was no way I could support its publication as written, especially given that large fragments of it were clearly plagiarized, and I wrote back to the journal stating as much.

However, if I ever receive a similar request again (and I assume I probably will, sooner or later), what do you think I should do with it?


texts: Does a student need official permission to publish an independent research article with university affiliation?

texts:
When a junior student is doing research independently (for example theoretical), does s/he need official permission to publish a research article? In the article, s/he needs to introduce his/her affiliation. Normally, this affiliation is connected with the research funding.

Does studentship qualify him/her to use the university name as his own official affiliation, even if this affiliation has no connection with this independent research project?


texts: Is there a website that lists for a set of at least 1000 journals OpenAccess fees for publishing an article?

texts:
Many journals now are open access only and every article published (authors) must pay a fee.

Sometimes, this info can be hard to find. The journals does not put it visibly on the front page (next to impact factor).

If I want to compare 80 journals in the medical field and their charges - it is not easy.

Is there a site that would 'monitor' this and have data on many journals. (any list with 50+ journals and prices listed will be a good answer) (even if domain specific) (medicine domain is preferred)


texts: Why do people not seem to consider private grants in favor of small public ones?

texts:
I have now experienced multiple instances where a group of researchers involved me in a grant application where the total awarded funds were quite small compared to the number of researchers in the group. Thus I find the benefit of a successful application very small compared to the time spent writing the application (the awarded funds are likely going to be divided by the number of researchers in the group). I have also been quite good at getting funding from other partners or private entities (only a small share from companies), so I find it hard to stay motivated for these public grants. Yet, it remains mysterious to me why other researchers in the group stay motivated -- they would be better off doing their research than writing this complex grant application for an overall small sum. I must say I have quite a bit of experience in academia, and almost always got easy funding (not public funds) in the past. It looks like some researchers enjoy "winning" a grant regardless of how small the funds are.

Do you have thoughts on this? I feel odd that I'm not sharing their enthusiasm; and it looks like I'm missing some key element.


texts: After having published a paper, am I still free to use & distribute it as I wish?

texts:
Do I lose copyright if a journal accepts my paper and publishes it? Can I send my paper to colleagues, or is this technically illegal if they do not have access to the journal via their institution (or haven't bought it themselves)? (whether people do this anyways is a different question).

In short, is there anything I cannot do or that I would be restricted in doing after having published my paper in an academic journal?


texts: How to politely decline a postdoc job offer after signing the offer letter?

texts:
I recently was offered 2 researcher job offers in two different countries. The first one is from the USA and the second one is in Japan. The professor in USA prepared all the documents for a J-1 Visa and after receiving them I have been issued a visa for 2 years.

I have now been offered another, more suitable job in Japan (more related to my interest and higher salary). I am also very interested in living in Japan. Although I applied to both jobs at the same time, the selection process in Japan took a month longer than the US process.

I accepted and signed the offer letter from the USA professor. This is an agreement to the professor that I will join, moving forward the professor will issue the documents for J-1 Visa. I was also asked in the interview whether I am considering any other job positions somewhere else. I replied yes, but my first preference is this one (the USA one).

How can I politely decline or inform the US professor of my changed situation? How would the professor in the USA feel after everything is done and I decline at the last moment?


texts: Patents and papers out of my field of research

texts:
I am a Ph.D. candidate and my field of research is digital signal processing. But, from a lot of years I have two ideas:

A new technique useful in the biomedical field.
A paper or, better, an improvement of an unit of measure in physic.

This two things are completely off topic in my field of research.

The question is: there are ways for publishing, patenting in other topics?

Thank you in advance,
Giacomo


texts:
Can my surname under which I publish differ from the one on my passport?

I was thinking of publishing under "Miller-Hendrix" instead of just "Miller".


texts: Hiring a PhD student who left another PhD position

texts:
It's the first time I'm recruiting for a PhD student. I advertised the position and have received a dozen applications and there are still 2 weeks left on the 4 week announcement.
What caught my eye is that I have two applicants who are already PhD students at other (lower ranking) universities. They both have very strong CVs and even some good publications. However, they haven't included any references from their current university or the reason they want to leave from there. One is a second year PhD and the other a third year. Both have similar topics to the one I'm advertising for.

Is it OK if I ask them directly why they want to leave and why they haven't included any references from the place they have been for 2-3 years?

Should I try contacting their current supervisor and ask for info? I even know one of them personally. I don't know if I should (could land the student in trouble).

In these situations, don't you feel that this person could suddenly leave if he/she finds a better position? Can I really trust him/her to stick through a 4-year project?

P.S.: My wife switched to another supervisor 6 months into her PhD because she really couldn't get along with her 1st supervisor, so I understand these things happen. I want to give these candidates a fair chance, but I want to cover my bases as well.


texts: Repeating sections within the same paper

texts: I'm editing a PhD dissertation and found that the author reused sections of his paper such as Methodology in Chapter 1 and Chapter 4. It seems that his Chapter 1 is a synthesis of the succeeding 3 chapters, so parts from those chapters were just repeated in Chapter 1. Is this acceptable?


texts: Are there differences between SM, MS, MSc, MSci degrees?

texts: I have a Master of Science degree from the EECS department at MIT. From the website it is pretty clear they call it an SM degree. I think many US universities refer to a Master of Science degree as an MS degree. My UK department has offered for a long time a program that leads to a Master of Science degree that we call the MSc program, but next year we are introducing an MSci degree. Do the different abbreviations officially mean something? Is it dishonest to refer to my SM as an MSc in the UK? If not, is it helpful?


texts: Coauthorship across communities with differing standards

texts:
One of the PhD students in my department is writing a paper and has listed me as a coauthor. I'm not sure if I deserve to be a coauthor.

I have been loosely involved in the project. I attended meetings and made suggestions and I actively proof-read the manuscript. But I don't think I had any significant input beyond that.

The student is in a different subfield and it seems their community has different standards for coauthorship. (The paper combines both subfields.) In my community, I would definitely not deserve to be a coauthor. However, the other community is less strict. In fact, there are other coauthors listed (more senior people) who, as far as I can tell, contributed even less than me.

I said something vague along the lines of "I don't know if I deserve to be a coauthor" and the student and their supervisor brushed it off. So it seems to me that, from their perspective, there is no issue.

I'm wondering what I should do. Surely others have experience with this sort of cross-community coauthorship.

On one hand, I can just let them list me as a coauthor, as there does not appear to be any reason not to. On the other hand, if the situation were reversed, I as the lead author would not include so many coauthors.

Are there any potential downsides to being a coauthor? Do I have future obligations to reciprocate? Or am I overthinking this?


texts: How does score normalization among different graders work?

texts: In my university, in a class with several hundred students, there are teaching assistants who are assigned a small fraction of the students for assignments which they grade. I have heard that they normalize scores among these teaching assistants to make it fair. How does that work?


texts: Should I call professors on their office phone for inquiring about research internship opportunities?

texts: There are many established university research internship program, which ask to get an acceptance from a faculty to apply for the internship. I tried mailing them, but none of them responded. Should I call them over phone to ask about any opportunity? At least that would help me know where I am lacking so that I can prepare myself for the internship the next year. But I'm not sure if the researchers would view it favorably.


texts: Is it common to have peer teaching evaluation for tenured/tenure-track faculty every year?

texts: Is it common for US public universities to enforce peer teaching evaluations (have professors sit in each others' classes) for tenured faculty member every year? What about requiring evaluation twice a year for tenure-track faculty members?


texts: What to do when I’m not affiliated with an academic institution and submitting a manuscript?

texts:
I am seeking to re-establish my research career after a 7-year career break. The first step involves submitting a paper to a peer reviewed journal which reports a study that was conducted 7 years ago. In the cover letter to editors that I have prepared, I point out that the topic remains timely, and I provide relevant references to illustrate this (which have also been used to update the paper).
Because I am not currently affiliated with an academic institution, I don’t have a university address to provide in the contact information section during the manuscript submission process. Any thoughts on whether this will affect my acceptance chances? Should I provide my current home address instead?


texts: What does it mean "English proficiency" for a J-1 visa?

texts:
English is not my native language. Meanwhile,  sometimes  I should read and write in English due to various reasons and work duties. In most cases, I understand a lot of (approx 80% and more) from the newspapers and other articles without a dictionary. The main idea and specific moments understand without serious difficulties in listening to different conversations or TED talks. I don't know my exact CERF level because I have never passed the corresponding exams before. Meanwhile, I have passed through the interview with PI in a US university and got an offer, so my English is acceptable for them probably.  However, speaking fluently is difficult for me (I have not had enough practice for the last two years), especially when a topic does not link with work. Sometimes seem that the current speaking problem is due to a long break.
Now I am preparing for the J-1 visa interview, where "English proficiency" is one of the requirements, and I am a bit confused by this moment. What does it mean "proficiency" for an embassy officer? What should it be minimal CERF level?
Sometimes I am sure I will not have got the visa due to my English ((


texts: Should you cite a summary in the introduction that's based on information to come?

texts:
If a paper starts off by saying:

  "Technology X offers a number of advantages within Y, including A, B,
  C, D and E."

do benefits A-E have to be individually sourced if they are justified later in the paper? Should I try to find a review paper that supports the claim?


texts: Sign application cover letter with "PhD" or not?

texts:
For an application cover letter, is it better to sign it with just my name, or with "Ph.D." after my name?

What I am not sure of is that at the beginning of the letter, I do state when and where I got my PhD from. For reference, I am applying for positions in mathematics.


texts: Can a advance stage PhD student (without thesis subission) apply for post docs, or have to wait until the completion of final defence?

texts: I am interested to know, whether an advance stage PhD student (without thesis submission) can apply for post doc positions or not?


texts: What are some concerns professors at a research institutions might have when graduate students begin to form a union?

texts:
I'm curious to ways professors might support or resist efforts by gradate students to unionize. The only reason I can think of, is the concern that grant money could hire less students if they were paid more. Is this a valid concern?

What if the reasons for unionization aren't about pay? Are there any other reasons professors might not want a union forming? Are there any reasons why professors might prefer to work with a unionized student body?


texts: Practical Aspects of Workshop Organization

texts:
I'm surprised I couldn't find any similar question. Please mark as duplicate if you know one.

What are the practical aspects one should not overlook when organizing a (small) workshop?

Organizing a small (~ less than 50 participants, on one day) workshop includes taking care of a lot of small details that I feel are easy to forget, and yet crucial (easy Wifi access, parking spots, break room, collecting information during registration, etc.)

What is your "to-do" list when you're in charge of organizing a gathering of that kind? What are the nice finishing touches (having work room available, creating a web forum for the attendees, etc.)?


texts: What percentage of UK academic faculty are in UCU?

texts: Just wondering what the rough % of academic faculty (e.g. full time and part time teaching fellow/associates, lecturers, senior lecturers, readers, and professors) are in UCU? I've been invited to join, but the hefty fee is putting me off. And other than the negotiation regarding pay scale and pension, there doesn't seem to be other significant benefits (although one can argue that the negotiation on pay and pension is big enough).


texts: Is it important to include my supervisor name in research paper

texts: I have done a research paper with someone in industry, while doing a Phd. Is it important to include my supervisor name also in research paper. Will three names be a good thing or should i go with 2 names.


texts:
As an academic working at a university, is it wrong to (personally) accept money for your research outputs? Would this be a bargain you would be happy to take?
EXAMPLE: Suppose you are a Mathematician with valuable algorithms or expertise (e.g., quantum-era code breaking, fancy AI, ...) and you are offered a (secret) contract of $150,000+ in additional salary per year to give access to an external entity (e.g., company) all of your research before it is published. For example, your mathematical proofs and working computer codes. You give them the right to patent any results, to use the codes for their own purpose, and potentially veto the publication of any result they would like you to keep secret.


texts: Is it possible to do a part time MRes alongside a PhD?

texts:
In my university you are allowed to work 20 hours part time alongside your PhD. My PhD is in engineering but my background is maths and physics and I find the PhD relatively light work due to my background. I am still interested in mathematical physics and would want to take my career in that direction. I thought that if I enrol in an MRes degree in mathematical physics alongside my PhD in engineering it could make me a more competitive applicant, especially if I get some publications from the MRes.
Does my PhD supervisor need to know about this plan of mine? If you get a part-time job along-side your PhD for example, you are not required to disclose this information to them.
When applying for the MRes degree, would I need to say that I am currently doing a PhD and could this affect the decision?
Finally, how does a typical MRes work in terms of the logistics of meeting your supervisor? At the moment my PhD supervision meetings are all online and I do not need to go to campus at all. Could it be the same for the MRes?
Note: an MRes is a Master's of Research most typically found in UK universities. It differs from an MA or MSc in that the emphasis is on the student doing their own research rather than taking taught courses. It is therefore referred to as a "Master's by research" as opposed to a "taught Master's". For more information, see here: https://career-advice.jobs.ac.uk/studentship-advice/which-masters-degree-mres-or-ma-msc/


texts: Considerations When Serving on Thesis Committee

texts:
I am part of a masters student's thesis committee for the first time in my career, and am unsure what I should be doing be during the question session following the public presentation.  I have read the whole document and have made comments about edits and corrections I would like the student to make, and have prepared a list of questions I could ask the student.  However, I am unclear on a few things:

What criteria should I use to evaluate the student's work?  What is necessary to consider their work good enough to pass?
If there is a disagreement among committee members, how does that typically get resolved?
What should my goal be with the questions I ask?  I am already familiar with the theory and experimental design of the student's project, and could easily find myself digging into details or trying to test the student's overall knowledge of the field, but I'm not sure these would be useful ways to spend time. As the most junior person on the committee I expect I will be last, and unsure how much I'm expected to contribute to the examination.

For background, the student is at a different institution than I am, and my department does not have graduate students. We're both in the same city in the United States. I have talked to the student's advisor about the project itself, but I haven't gotten a clear sense of what I should be doing in the exam. The student's institution only lists administrative requirements for scheduling and submitting documents on their website, and doesn't seem to provide guidance for the contents of the thesis.


texts: Is there something like a "peer-review paper"?

texts:
Journals like CVPR (IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition) have a peer-reviewing process. Depending on the journal (or the publication published after a conference - is that also called a journal?) one might simply know that all articles were peer-reviewed.

However, those reviews are not publicly available as far as I know.

This is also a problem of arXiv / bad journals. They might have (many) good articles, but one has to check them. A work-around might be to look at citation counts / who cited the article, but citations are not necessarily positive.

Are there any typical / recommended ways to write reviews and make them publicly available?


texts: What is expected in a masters thesis for Phd admission in Europe by admission committee in Number Theory

texts:
Background of question ( Background is somewhat related to this question Asking about how to minimize the effect of a not so good thesis due to abandoning by supervisor without even telling in Phd Application Form  but question is entirely different)

I am a masters 2nd year student( 4 th semester)in mathematics .During my masters degree I self studied 3 books of number theory ( 1 elementary,2 analytic)because I was really interested in learning it and no faculty in my Institute is specialized in it( most people in my Institute are specialized in Applied Mathematics) . I am in an 3rd world country.

I want to do phd in number theory in Europe. So, for my Masters thesis I wrote to one of professors in a top Institute in my country and she said yes.I visited her Institute in January,2020 for 8 days but she abandoned me and didn't even bothered to tell as she didn't replied my e - mails and despite the fact that she gave me a research paper in January to study and after completing it I e-mail her on 20 Feb asking her to tell me which paper to study now/ problem to work and when should I visit her Institute again . I e mailed her on 29 Feb, 7 March, 25 March, 4April.( in between I read 2  papers to know a bit more about the work in the area).

Also I am 100% sure that she is not suffering from covid. So, I  talked to a professor in my institute and he took absolutely no interest in helping me and send prepare a report from the paper what you have studied and hung up.

  I have read 4 papers in analytic number theory till now( all are related to 1st paper given by professor) . And i am thinking of reading another research paper in analytic number theory but it's related to a different problem if time permits. But i have not done any original work like writing a research paper or proving a theorem.

  My questions are 1.what kind of work is expected in a Masters thesis by the Admission committees of European Institutes ?

2.Is is necessary to have a publication or original work like proving some results for applying to European Institutes  .

Please guide. I have no other sources of help. I wanted to work really nicely for the thesis but things changed completely due to negligence of that professor. Even the professor of my Institute didn't bothered.

  I am in desperate need of guidence.


texts:
Regarding
this question on when to ask about a manuscript's status in review
I wonder (since it is happening to me): What does it mean when a paper is "with editor" for two months after a first review?


texts: Pointing out language mistakes in a review

texts:
In one of the reviews I received from a journal on a paper I sent there, there was a complaint that the paper contained a lot of language mistakes, so serious, that they change meaning of phrases. But no examples of such mistakes were provided.

I am not claiming that language in the paper was perfect, though the paper had been reviewed before submission by four different people (PhD's) with a good level of English and also by a native English speaker (not a scientist though).

I am confused about this quite strong statement about the paper's language despite the reviewer having perfectly understood almost all the ideas in the paper.

Just wondering: is it really typical for reviewers to point out language mistakes in reviews in this way?
a
(P.S. Just in case, I am very grateful to the reviewer for his or her very valuable suggestions on other formal mistakes and for giving me some new ideas).


texts: Editor's comments differ from those of reviewers

texts:
I have recently received reviews for a journal paper I submitted a few months back. The verdict is a major revision (three out of four reviewers requested this, the fourth said accept with minor revisions).

Many of the reviewers felt like we did not justify our approach sufficiently, to which we agree and can improve upon. The editor; however, in their comments to us, stated that we should take a different (much more complicated) approach altogether (even though none of the reviewers suggested changing the entire approach, only to justify why we chose the approach we did).

Question: How should we proceed when the editor's comments seem much stronger than those of the reviewers?

It is not feasible to accommodate the editor's requests by the deadline. I'm unsure if the reviewers made (stronger) private comments to the editor requesting larger changes or if the editor interpreted the reviewers comments much differently than we did. The paper will go back to the reviewers after we make the requested changes.


texts: Reviewing demo papers, poster papers or extended abstracts

texts:
I have a fairly straightforward approach to reviewing papers: I start by figuring out the main claims the paper makes, and figure out how those claims are proved. From there I start "zooming in to the details". But the primary question is always: does the paper make a claim, and if so, is it proved?

However, some tracks of conferences do not require a full paper. Instead, they require short form papers or extended abstracts describing what the authors will do at the conference. For instance, describing a poster or a demo they will present.

What are some general criteria/strategies for reviewing such papers? How can I come to a well-reasoned decision to reject, if there are no "mortal sins" (like a flawed evaluation) for such papers?


texts: Making one of two Google Scholar accounts default with given email address

texts: I had a Google Scholar account with my full name with only 3 citations. Later I created another account with abbreviated name but same email address. Email was verified and most of my citations are here. Today I got an email to verify email of the old account and I did it. After that the old account has become my default with my email address. I want to make my other account with most citations default. Can anyone suggest me how to do it?


texts: Is it a good idea to include my professor who left academia as a reference in my PhD application?

texts: I contacted my professor to ask for a recommendation letter and I knew from him that he left my institution and asked me to use another e-mail address for him in the recommendation which is a Gmail. Will this affect the credibility of his recommendation in my application?


texts:
I have sent many emails to lecturers within the nuclear field and at different German universities for the sake of supervision. I have attached my CV and complete detailed PhD proposal related to nuclear engineering. I already have a PhD in laser engineering and would like to develop my knowledge in application of high power lasers in nuclear reactors.

Unfortunately I did not receive any reply, even negative ones. I have re-checked my PhD proposal and reviewed my email text, where both seem very good and professional.

I will be very grateful if you could advise me regarding this issue and how can I get German supervisor for the sake of admission requirements.


texts: I'm thinking about quitting my PhD program and seeking advice

texts:
I have completed part of my PhD program and am thinking about quitting- I'm looking for advice from someone who has had a similar experience or who has advice to offer. I took my comprehensive exams and passed. At this point I have a a proposal for my dissertation and am collecting data. However, the past 2 years, and especially this past year, have been emotionally draining for me. My anxiety has been through the roof, I'm irritable and my depression is weighing me down. I left my family and my fiance to move to the program.
My advisor is also making it difficult for me to find the motivation to continue. My advisor does not provide feedback, and offers very little guidance and later suggests major issues that will likely come up and prevent publication. Several students in my cohort have already graduated 1, 2 and even 3 semesters ago while I still have a while to go. I fear that my advisor is trying to drag out my stay in the program so that he has a GA.
On top of the above issues, I have come to find out that I dislike this field. I no longer have interest in working in this field or in academia in general. Given that I feel this way about the field, I don't think it is worth it for me to continue to make myself miserable by staying in the program. However, I don't think my program will let me leave with a Master's degree even though at this point I have fulfilled the necessary requirements. I worry about my family's reactions and about feeling ashamed if I do decide to quit.


texts: Why are there so few MOOCs for the core college curriculum for a BS in Math?

texts:
I've noticed that there are very few Massive Online Open Course (MOOCs) that cover the core college math curriculum, for example

Basic integral and differential calculus
ODE
PDE
Linear Algebra
Abstract Algebra
Probability
Statistics
Combinatorics
Symbolic logic
Complex Variables
Real Analysis

Anyone care to speculate what are the factors involved that make these bread-and-butter topics so much harder to MOOC-size or less easier to motivate professors to produce than Introduction to Water and Climate or Cybersecurity Fundamentals?  I.e. it seems that specialized niche topics receive far more pedagogical energy than basic ones.  But I know as a student that I would very much appreciate having the core fundamental topics available in MOOC form.


texts: PhD in theoretical physics after dropping out of PhD program in Engineering?

texts:
I am applying to US universities for PhD in theoretical physics (for Fall 2015). I was earlier an engineering undergraduate student from a reputed college in Asia with GPA of around 8.0 (on a scale of 10). Due to my research experience during undergraduate, I got scholarship to do my PhD in Europe at one of the top-30 universities in the world. But after two years into the graduate program and publishing one journal paper, I realized that I was only doing numerical methods which did not really suit me as I always wanted to do rigorous math and discover new physics. So I left this program (in good standing) to pursue theoretical physics research.

Immediately, I joined the topmost physics institute in my country for research in string theory, cosmology, general relativity. Within a year, I was able to produce three publications in top high energy physics journals like the Journal of High Energy Physics (JHEP) with my collaborators, who are well-known. So these collaborators have provided me good recommendations as well. Additionally, I have good GRE and GRE Physics scores.

My question is how an unconventional profile like mine will be seen by graduate admission committees at good US Universities. Would my engineering background (especially dropping out part) and lack of official physics coursework put me at disadvantage ? How much my four publications would help me in the process ?

Thanks


texts:
I'm a PhD student in the process of writing a manuscript. I have more than one supervisor and other collaborators for the project I'm writing up presently. I've also received very useful feedback from all supervisors. However, there's one problem. I often find that the feedback from one supervisor sometimes contradicts feedback from another. I try not to take sides but I'm not entirely sure how other researchers have dealt with this in the past.

So in summary, what do you do when you get conflicting feedback from your supervisors?

Note: my supervisors are my advisors and the manuscript is a part of my PhD-not the entire thesis.