texts: How to deal with slow peer reviewing process

texts:
I submitted a short (10 page long) manuscript to a math journal. It has been 9 months. Almost 4 months ago I emailed them to see what's going on. Their response was: "Your paper has been sent out to review but we haven't heard back".

What are the options at this point? The journal is one of the best in the field but at the same time I'm concerned thaat I might wait a long time just to receive a rejection letter.


texts: Should I alter personal holidays for a research visit?

texts:
The group of my professor and another professor from a distant Asian country have signed a cooperation agreement.

As part of the cooperation, me as a rookie graduate student have to visit the other professor. Unfortunately, the proposed days of the visit interfere with a few days of a personal holiday. On some other time-frames it is either too late or the host professor has deadlines to work on.

The only time-frame which fits all is the one which infers with my plans.

Both the host professor and my professor in their email communication asked explicitly whether the proposed date fits me. Of course it doesn't, but I don't know if I should say that or should I simply sacrifice my plans (a weekend + two bank holidays), lose a few days of personal traveling, and opt for the visit?


texts: Master's and PhD at different Japanese universities

texts:
I have just finished a BSc degree in maths at ETH Zurich and I am now planning to continue with an MSc and a PhD in Japan.

My question is this: is it possible to do an MSc at one university and then do the PhD at a different university?

In Europe this is not only socially acceptable but nothing unusual. But as far as I know, Japan is different; how different I don't know. I would very much like to apply to one university for the MSc and then relocate to somewhere else for my PhD. But I'm rather worried that this may mean that the professor supervising my MSc will lose face. And of course, I can't just ask them directly because they might not tell me the truth out of politeness.


texts: What to do when your supervisor is not really supervising you?

texts:
Context:
 I am a first year master student in mid-level university in North America. I started in September and I’ve almost finished all the required course works. My supervisor is very well-known in his field and he is currently supervising many graduate students.

Problem:
My supervisor is a nice guy and he’s very knowledgeable in his field, however, he’s too busy and does not have any time to actually supervise me(or other students in his lab). He is always traveling or busy doing other things and since his lab is huge, it’s not possible to see him more than few minutes a week.
Additionally, the area that I work in is a bit far from his expertise and I feel like I’m all by myself and I’m wasting my time and efforts.

Question:
Is there anything I can do to improve my experience in the graduate school?

Since no other professor in my department work in my field, changing the supervisor within the department is not an option.


texts: How to find an author biography as mentioned in papers?

texts:
Some papers include the authors' biographies. Given a researcher, how to quickly find his biography mentioned one of their papers? Is tedious to have to go through their papers one by one to try to find it.

Here is the kind of authors' biographies I'm referring to (fictive example, turned out to pop up first on Google):


texts: Is it possible to do a PhD with a Professor Emeritus?

texts:
The professor I want to work with for my PhD has recently changed status to Professor Emeritus. Would it still, in principle, be possible to do my PhD under his supervision or this just not possible?

Could I just email him and ask whether he still supervises PhD dissertations?

Or this regarded rude? I am not sure what exactly it means to be Emeritus I am afraid. How would I go about this?


texts: Submitting to a different journal after "Major Revisions"

texts:
This feels a bit like a grey area to me.

A student of mine has submitted a paper to a journal and has received a "major revisions" response. Instead of doing the revisions she wants to submit to a different, higher-impact journal. Is that ethical?

I understand that it may not be the best idea in terms of probability of acceptance, etc, etc, but she's approached me specifically to ask about the ethics of it, and I don't have a ready answer for her.


texts: Abbreviation of "number (of)" in a table heading

texts:
In a table, I would like to use abbreviate the word number. The column heading is namely:

  Number of items

In what is the correct abbreviation for the word “numbers”? both "No" and "#" are suggested as abbreviations.
The Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.) in §10.43 also suggests "No".
However, I am not sure these abbreviations are meant to be used with cardinal numbers.

Question: What is the correct abbreviation of number in this context?


texts: Emailing professors in the physics and mathematics departments

texts:
I'm an Economics and Mathematics major in college, but I have been studying both mathematics and physics in college. Since I wish to go on and specialize in mathematical physics, I'll be looking to apply for a PhD position under the supervision of a mathematical physicist. The problem is quite a lot people working in this field come from the mathematics department, while some also sit in the physics departments. At the end of the day, though, the content of their research matters, but it seems as if the majority of the people from this field sit in the mathematics departments.

Therefore, I'm confused as to which department should I apply to. I am thinking of apply to mathematics, wherewas my physics teachers etc. want me to apply to physics department, as they say you can do such work over there as well, though most people (as I said) sit in the mathematics departments.

Therefore, I'm looking forward to email quite a lot of such professors sitting in the mathematics/physics departments, with the hope of asking the following major question:

  Given I'd like to attend their college to specialize in the said field, should I apply to either the physics or the mathematics departments.

Withinin this question, I'd like to ask a couple of multiple sub-questions: the opportunities available in one department over the other in the said field, the difference in training that I'll get under the different departments etc.

Basically, I'm as of now in the stage of procuring advice, and it'd be great if I could get some from the relevant people working at the relevant departments in universities. In the long run, I'd also like to establish a contact with the said professors, before hopefully some day (in a year or two) heading off to graduate school.

  My question is: what is the best way I should structure and write the first email, listing my concerns/queries with the hope that the professors will reply? I suspect I'll mostly be bugging the professors with my confusing questions (math or physics departments etc.), but I find this to be a genuine concern for me as of yet. It'd be great if someone could advise on this issue, so I can initiate a channel of communication with some professors via email.


texts: What's Normal Distribution Time for SSRN?

texts:
I've submitted two papers to the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). One paper was approved within a week and the other has been In Process for two weeks. This isn't problematic, but I'm curious about what normal time is and whether there are certain things I could do to expedite. I couldn't find information with quick googling.

Is anyone aware of data on SSRN distribution time, or on general preprint server distribution time?


texts: What are the standard workloads for mathematics TAs at state and private universities in the US?

texts:
I am an international student, and now pursuing my Ph.D in pure Math in a not very good (ranking 70+) and relatively small state university in U.S.
As usual, I am a supported TA, and I am wondering whether the teaching load here is too heavy.
The department supports about 50 TAs in total. There are two types of TA here. For those who have not passed the Speak Test (which is another awful thing), they can only serve as graders, and are expected to work 12 hours in grading hws per week. For those who passed the Speak Test, they have to teach 3 or 4 sessions of recitation every semester.
Based on my experience, I feel so tired after a whole week's work as TA that I have little time or energy to do research. And I once heard that in some (private) universities, a typical TA job consists only teaching two recitations per academic year...
My questions are the following. (To be precise, I only care about a TA duty in math major.)

What does a typical TA duty (especially the working hours) look like in a state university and in a private university? Especially, is it true that a TA in a state university usually works longer in his/her TA duty than the one in the private university?

Is the TA duty here reasonable compared with other state universities?


texts: For a master-degree student, how influential a role do publications play in his phd applications?

texts:
I am a prospective student for phd programs in STEM. In my field F of study I have published a paper (unique author) in a journal included in the international F society, a paper (with a classmate of mine) in an annual conference of the representative local F society, and a paper (unique author) in a centenary conference about F. Besides, I have several manuscripts that are either under review or nearly done.

I am wondering:

1) How would an admission committee weigh these records? More specifically, would them weigh publications higher than other records?

2) How would an admission committee value manuscripts?

Though there are ''similar'' questions here in this SE, I still feel the need to ask this question. For these questions are subtly different in nature.


texts: Am I right to be frustrated that my professor does not actually teach?

texts:
This is a 101 philosophy class in an online format. Each week we have over 100 dense pages of a textbook to read as our sole source of information for the class. The teacher does not do any teaching and relies on the textbook.
Obviously a textbook is beneficial but especially for a 101 class, it is difficult to grasp these complex ideas without the input from your professor. Is this wrong? I am having a hard time understanding concepts and actually learning. No lectures or actual teaching. There are no actual in-class sessions: the work is posted at the beginning of the week and we submit by the end. Other classes I take in this format have provided lectures but this one does not. He only grades the work we did. Being paid to provide no expertise and guidance, only grade?
The assignments are discussions and quiz questions based on chapters in the text, that have to be usually 750 words or more. When he grades them he sometimes comments and says "yes that is true". It is one discussion with usually 2 open ended questions and 2 quiz questions that are long open ended each week.
Further remarks following the comments:

Typically, discussions for this class are not beneficial because most people don't actually engage and debate/ go back and forth. We do not have discussion it is solely our interpretation of the readings. Most just say "I agree with what you said and I like this part..". So it is not actually helping us learn and debate. But I cannot blame my classmates because the discussion we have to post are over 750 words so why would they want to read something similar to what they wrote. They can only do so much, they are not doing anything in this case except for grading which is frustrating to me.
There is only 21 people in the class. Obviously that is a lot of grading to do but he assigned it and could set the word count to be lower if he chose to. Most teachers reuse the same assignments and discussion questions each year or get them from the textbook. Every module/unit has been posted since September, so he is not lesson planning each week. He only has to grade each week, I am not denying that is a lot of reading but can you understand that it is frustrating for a student to not receive any actual instruction, but I am still spending a lot of money to take the course?


texts: Create google scholar account linking to a newly submitted arXiv article

texts:
I'm trying to create a google scholar profile for myself. In the process, it asks me to select any articles I have published. My recently submitted article on arXiv is not visible on google scholar. I read that it may take upto 6 months for a paper to appear on google scholar. I was hoping if there is a way for me to manually link to the arXiv paper...

I also read that there is an option to add manually on the author's google scholar profile. I can't use that since I'll be stuck in a loop. I can't create my profile until my paper appears on google scholar. I can't force google scholar to look my paper until I have a profile of my own!

Is there any option other than to wait for my paper to eventually show up on google scholar?
Any help is appreciated.


texts: How can I claim ownership of my idea without securing a patent?

texts:
I created a model for the pathogenesis of a neurodegenerative disorders that reveals a novel target for neurorestoration/neuroprotection. Can I patent the use of an existing compound for another purpose since I have reason to believe it would also act to target neurodegeneration in this disease?

To provide some background, I'm a recent Ivy League alum who hasn't been able to secure a long-term position in a lab (in grad school or as a job). I've done an extensive analysis of the literature and believe I've found a number of solid papers to support my claim but, of course, since my clout in research is nonexistent, I'm not sure what to do. My advisor who supervised this work is still saying we can publish the manuscript where I explained my model this summer but I'm afraid that if there's multiple people on the paper, some of whom are bigger names in the fields of biochemistry, neurodegeneration, and medicine than me, it'll look like it wasn't completely my idea.

Should I use a preprint server, a provisional patent (even though I can't afford the full $5000 patent that you need to protect your patent status.), or ask one of the potential co-authors directly what she thinks (she's huge in the field of neurodegeneration)? I'm not trying to sound self-important, I'm just really anxious to capitalize on my effort, which involved a lot of work, before someone else does. How important does someone have to be in molecular neurobiology for a new idea from them to be taken seriously?


texts: How can I determine whether a student has written an excellent paper themselves, or hired someone else to do it?

texts:
In class, over the course of a semester, I tend to build up a mental model of individual students' communication abilities. For example, one student might seem more or less eloquent than another when they speak. One might make more cogent points than another.

Occasionally, I will receive an essay which appears exceptionally eloquent and cogent, from students who seemed distinctly average. Of course, I make the cursory checks for plagiarism (searching certain unlikely phrases, etc.), but if nothing comes up, I sometimes still remain unconvinced that the work is the student's own.

Some sites offer to sell the services of trained academics and graduate students for menial essay writing, and often the questionable assignments look more like the quick and under-edited work of a master than the polished work of a novice. Of course, if the essays are paid for, and original, it's naturally very hard to prove it.

Are there any techniques I could use to determine whether an essay that I suspect was written by someone else, but not published elsewhere, is a student's own work? Are there any steps I can take to ensure I don't receive questionable essays in the first place?


texts: How do I decide whether I should do a Master Degree or not?

texts:
I am a computer science undergrad, graduating in a month's time, with a high-paying job in hand. However, I know that I want to learn and implement new things, explore more domains. I have done several internships and my profile is decent in terms of extra-curricular activities. My GPA is approximately 3.4.

I do not have specific interests as such but space exploration, AI and algorithms fascinate me. I want to know how to decide whether studying for a Masters Degree would be the right thing for me or not.


texts: What are the differences between PhD programs in the US and UK? (biology/bioinformatics)

texts:
A significant part of the PhD process in the US involves deciding on and doing the background research for your project.  Is it true that in the UK you basically get a predetermined project handed to you as you come in, and can skip the two years of trying to figure out what you're doing?  That sounds like it would fit my needs better.

Are there any other differences between the two countries I should be aware of?  In particular, grad school in the US is generally considered incredibly stressful and depressing and generally awful for your life balance and mental health - is the UK any better?  Links to other information on the UK grad school experience would also be useful.

Background/goals: My field is bioinformatics (which may be a separate department or part of biology, I'm not sure, it probably depends).  I currently have a BS from a very good US university plus several years of experience working in a lab (mostly doing analysis/programming/statistics for other people's projects). My future plans involve more of the same thing, not leading my own lab, so I don't feel like I need experience in coming up with a research project.


texts: Should I let my former undergraduate advisor know that my PhD advisor was abusive?

texts:
18 months into my PhD (after I had passed my quals), my advisor became so emotionally abusive and bullying that I had to take a semester off (I was already dealing with diagnosed depression). While I returned for six months, ultimately I was not able to make it work with my advisor (who went from bullying me to ignoring me) and have left the PhD program for industry.

I've kept in infrequent contact with my former undergraduate advisor, with whom I conducted about a year of research. She recently ran into a close friend at a conference and asked about me and how my PhD was going. While the friend did not disclose the specifics, he disclosed how my advisor was holding me back by requiring experimental work after withdrawing support/funds, at which point she said that based on my current work, it would be sufficient enough for a PhD with her (and that I should finish my PhD remotely with her).

Once I formally resigned my position (I have not officially "withdrawn" from the program till October), I emailed  my former advisor to let her know of my decision. She has seemed eager to reconnect now that we are in the same geographic area (2 hr). I'm planning on meeting with her to catch up, but struggling with how much I should disclose about my departure from my program. She is not a frequent collaborator with my advisor (they wrote a book together some years ago), but they very much travel in the same circles, are on the same committees, etc. Should I tell her what happened? Or will this just lead to gossip that won't help me personally or professionally? Both advisors are still closely tied to industry, fwiw.


texts: If a paper has 3 weak accepts (in all evaluations, a weak accept in each evaluation),  will it be published in the conference? If this is the case, what is the difference if it has 2 weak accepts and a strong accept or 3 strong accepts?


texts: Can I submit a paper to a journal that is already on arXiv under a public domain license?

texts:
Is there any problem in submitting a preprint to a journal while this preprint is already on arXiv with the public domain license (which was selected by mistake)?
If so, how can I solve this knowing that arXiv doesn't withdraw published papers?


texts: How to list online publications (e.g. blog posting, etc.)?

texts:
I am updating my CV. As for my own publications, I have the usual sections:

Journal articles
Book chapters
Conference proceedings

I would also like to include the articles I have posted on different blogs.

The question is: which heading would you use for such electronic articles? They are not really conventional, peer-reviewed articles, so frankly I don't see fair to include them under the "Journal articles" section.

I saw some people use "Other publications", but I would like to be more specific.


texts: where to find the year and conference of a scientific article?

texts: When writing the references at the end of my internship report, I needed to cite all the information that needs to be said about the scientific articles that I used while writing the report. But these articles, most of the time, do not mention the conference or journals in which they were presented nor their publication date. Is there a website in which one can have access to this kind of information about any scientific aticle? BTW, I am talking about the field of computer science.


texts: What are the best avenues for employment for a new Doctor of Management Information Systems Technology?

texts:
I will have my degree soon. I am waiting for QRF approval and preparing for my Oral Defense. Suddenly I feel a bit unsure about how I will make this degree pay for itself. I am not sure that my Doctorate will get me an advancement with my current employer and I want to have a path for applying what I have learned. I do like the research aspect of the title but I want to do more.

What are the best avenues for employment for a new Doctor of Management Information Systems Technology, for example, teaching or doing research for a university?


texts: Professor moving group project member in the middle of the quarter. What to do?

texts:
So I'm faced with an ethical dilemma and want some second opinions on how to approach this situation with a poorly calculated decision that my professor made.
So we have groups of 4 people for group projects which were created randomly by the professor. A new student joined the late (1-2 weeks after) and my team member volunteered to have her join our group when every group already had 4 members. However, it's been 3 weeks already since the group projects started and the professor decided to ask our main team member who has been our unofficial team lead to change groups because a student from another group is dropping the class at the last minute so that she can balance out the teams I'm guessing. She spoke to the team member whom she wanted to move privately before the weekend after class and then decided to inform the rest of the group that he's moving to another group. The person moving was the person who volunteered to add the new person into the group.
So naturally, I was infuriated in the manner in which she decided to supposedly balance out the head counts and that too a month into the quarter and also for choosing the group member who has been our primary facilitator.
I replied to her email saying that I wished she had talked over this with the whole group and suggested that she move the member who joined our team late since she invested less time and effort into the project than the rest of us. She replies to that email saying:

  I am disappointed to hear you call out another person in the group, asking her to be excused, without giving her an opportunity as well. Please see me after class next lecture.

Clearly I didn't want any member to leave, but I thought it made more sense to move the newer member to a different group as she would leave behind a lot less of her efforts and thus would be the least disruptive way to do it. I spoke with the rest of the group after this reply. 1 other member said that it should either be nobody leaving preferably, but if 1 must leave it should be the newer member which I agreed to 100%. Even the newer member was understanding of the situation and said that she's willing to let the professor know that she doesn't mind volunteering to leave, but hesitated when her reply said that her decision was final.

So I don't want a target on my back, but this professor is making my remarks seem more controversial than they really are. What would be the best way to further communicate about this with the professor?


texts:
My professor and I walk to and from for every class I have with her, I am a female senior student and my professor is in her 30's. I've gotten to know her really well, we even had a random dinner together. I go to her office hours everyday and share a coffee or cookie. I go to her for many incidents, including a man who has been harassing her and me. She has a partner who she mentions all the time and she even tells me about her family situations back home. We've had several meetings with the University officials and discuss them afterwards. We email constantly, I consider her a friend or a mentor.

I'm curious to know where the boundaries are between my Professor and me (student)? What is the difference between a Mentor and Friend for professors and does it apply to me?


texts: Write email to a professor who is recruiting new PhD students

texts: Should I send email to a professor who has said on his website that he is recruiting new PhD students through xxx program? Some people marked this as a duplicate of another question, but I don't really think that question can solve my problem.


texts: Interested in development sector but unsure about Ph.D

texts:
I have just completed an M.Sc. in Economics with a specialisation in Development Studies from a reputed university in India.

I am interested in eventually working in the development sector.
I have a reasonable level of interest in doing research in areas related to development economics.
I have an intermediate level of proficiency in mathematics and statistics.

However, I am unsure about doing a Ph.D in Economics.
What are some things I must consider and know before deciding to do a Ph.D in economics?


texts: In-text citation: what is the correct way of using both last name (i.e., \citeauthor ) and typical citation (i.e., \cite)

texts:
I am using plain citation style with biblatex and was wondering about the convention of using \citeauthor (and probably \citeyear) along with \cite

While writing sometimes I do the following:

  \citeauthor{johnTKDE} (\citeyear{johnTKDE}) proposed a method for
  ...etc

should I also use \cite at the end of the sentence when using \citeauthor ? what is the convention of using all these together? (Computer Science if the field matters).


texts: Would it be ethical to resubmit a research paper to a different conference, when the original venue gave false informations?

texts:
It has been asked before if it is ethical to withdraw from one journal, from which a paper has been accepted, and resubmit to another better journal. I believe that the situation here is a little bit different.
I submitted an article to a Computer Science conference in which the organizers stated that the proceedings were going to be published with publisher X, which is indexed by Scopus and Scimago. I personally checked up if that publisher was on those indexing sites, and it was true; so far so good. So I submit a research paper to that conference that got accepted and in the acceptance letter they put again that paper will be put on the proceedings published with publisher X.
A few days after my notification letter, I checked up again at the site and saw that "mysteriously" they have taken away the note saying that they will publish with publisher X, to put that they will be publishing with another publisher X. When I checked it up I saw that the publisher Y is not indexed on Scopus, or Scimago, but only by Google Scholar, DBLP, EBSCO, DOAJ, and ProQuest.
I have also seen in the webpage that publisher X has put the following message on their news site:

Please be aware that there are conferences claiming to be associated with X, despite having no relationship with us whatsoever.
X attaches the utmost importance to the standard and quality of publications.
If you are aware of any such conferences, or suspect their authenticity, please contact us at xxxxxxx.

Personally, I feel like being cheated. I mean, I have spent time and financial resources trying to reach the deadline, and now this conference has just changed the rules without giving a notification to anybody.
Long story short, I have seen other conferences that are really sponsored by publisher X; and the question that I have is if I should resubmit my research paper to these other venues? I have still not paid for the registration part, I only got the acceptance letter. Also, one funny thing is that this conference put a document of copyright transfer, which was the format of publisher X, but since publisher X has informed that they do not have any relationship with this conference I did not sign any document.
On the conference site they have put the following (I put it here for clarification purposes):

To be published in the XXXX Conference Proceedings and submitted to X,
an author of an accepted paper is required to register for the
conference at the full (member or non-member) rate and the paper must
be presented by an author of that paper at the conference unless the
Workshop Chair grants permission for a substitute presenter.

Actually, publisher X has put a list of conferences that are misusing their name (this was recently posted a few days ago), and that conference is pointed out in that list.


texts: After a PhD in biotechnology/engineering - more opportunities in industry or a postdoc positions?

texts: Currently, my fiancee are both currently pursuing our PhD's in bioengineering and materials science and engineering, respectively, at the same university. She wants to eventually have an industrial research position and I want to do a post-doc with the intention becoming a professor. We are ~3 years away from needing to have the serious version of this conversation, but which route of the two would be the bottleneck in our eventual decision? Are there more industrial jobs available than post-doc positions? Are there any other dual-academic-career couples out there with advice for us? I hope the content of this question is appropriate for this stackexchange. Thanks so much.


texts: Putting the cart before the horse: to state a claim without proof then prove it later or use a worse method?

texts:
I am a statistician working as an applied analyst on a paper. As I went through a set of analyses, I decided upon a detailed and thorough data analysis method using a regression model. Traditionally, that regression model is presented alongside a set of assumptions that one should check in the model approach. I had a gut feeling those assumptions didn't matter in a broad sense. I performed some simulation studies to show that that was the case. The results are interesting and we will attempt to publish a paper about those as well.

However, turning to the present analysis, should I present without proof the results of the "robust" interpretation where assumption checking is eschewed. Does it make sense to await a reviewer to raise a flag about this issue? There is a lot of pressure to publish this quickly... which is not unusual or surprising. Would it make more sense to include a sentence saying, "The authors will show in later work that the assumptions of the modeling approach can be relaxed when (blah blah blah)"?


texts: Should I contact the journal because I am not receiving a response after a year?

texts:
I have submitted a paper to a Springer mathematical journal. The reviewers asked for a revision, and after revising the paper, the editor's decision, alongside with the reviewers' one (of course), was to accept the paper. In the email that I have received it was stated: "You will receive an e-mail in due course regarding the production process". But after that, a whole year has passed and nothing happened. No info after that email. After logging into my author's account, on the main menu in section Completed I can only see:
 - Submissions with a decision: 1
 - Submissions with a production completed: 1.

Generally, what does production completed means? I read about MyPublication service on the Springer website but I never had a chance to see the questionnaire. Just to mention, I did not get any info, nor doi number, nor anything similar. Only that the paper is accepted, a year ago.
Should I write to the journal? To the Editor, the Editor-in-Chief, or some service to inquire about my paper?

There is a similar question (Springer special issue status) but it regards the special issue status. In my case it is a regular one. Also, the comments and answers on that thread were not helpful in my case.


texts: What should I do now when this conference first sends me an "accept", then a "reject"?

texts:
A little while back I had sent one of my works to an ACM conference -just a National level conference. I knew my work was not one of the best they were going to receive, but given the quality of the papers published in the conference in the previous years, I was almost sure of an "Accept", and sure enough, an "Accept" did arrive around a week ago. But reviewer practically tore my work to pieces, saying that the claim is not novel, the data sets are biased, etc. And I do agree with him on most of the points.

Since the reviewer had given a detailed review, I had been working all week long to improve the quality of the paper and address all the points mentioned by him.

But to my great surprise, today I receive a mail from the PC chairs stating -

  we had inadvertently sent an ACCEPT for your paper. After discussion with reviewers we have decided to not accept this paper.

This is, to say the least, unethical unprofessional. And my entire week of hard work in improving the paper just went down the drain I guess.

My questions here-

Should I put any endeavor in contacting the PC Chairs and ask them to explain this strange stand? Should I explain my stand that the work has been drastically changed and improved from what it was when submitted?
Does such a behavior make them accountable for any legal action from my side? And, is it worth for me to take such an action?

UPDATE:
Thank you all for your comments and answers. Posting this here just to make the story complete. My guide insisted that we should write to the PC chair, requesting an opportunity to resubmit since some of the previous review comments were not really justified and too harsh on us, and anyways our paper stands improved from what it was before.

So we did re-submit. And our improved paper was accepted as well! Rather having an unsatisfactory publication, I have a better paper at hand now!

So happy ending after all :)


texts: Is a Master's degree in Europe valid for a teaching career in the USA?

texts:
I'm currently an undergraduate student in the US but looking seriously into some master's programs at European universities for the international experience, cost difference in my field, and exposure to different styles of study. I'd also like to become a high school teacher someday at a public or private school, most probably in the United States.

I understand that each state has license requirements for public school teachers, but as far as where they get their higher degree, would it be disqualifying if the graduate university is outside the US? Does the type of accreditation matter (like if it is accredited in the US, or by the government of the country in which it is located, or another authority)?

For context, the universities I'm looking at are in EU countries and the UK and middle-to-well-ranked.

EDIT: For clarification, I am a US citizen by birth and will earn Bachelor's degrees in the US. And as far as why I mentioned I'm looking into US schools, I would totally be open to pursuing a career abroad but I know attaining second citizenship can be difficult and I have know idea what job markets are like abroad... the US just seemed like the more realistic option.


texts:
In a recent interview, I have been asked how to design assignments for an undergraduate course on computer science. Based on my previous TA experience, I did help my supervisor to design students assignments. My method is very simple --- because all the archived versions of this course in the past semesters are all on the server, I just need to use some of the past assignments as a mirror with some modifications.

However, when I told my above method to the interviewer, he looked very surprised and disappointed. Maybe my method is not right? If so, could someone give me any ideas on the correct way to design assignments? Thanks.


texts: Would it be rude or helpful to ask a foreign coworker if they'd like for me to correct their English when there are obvious mistakes?

texts:
I have a colleague who is very new to this country (USA). His English leaves a lot to be desired, to the point that it often actually hinders communication. I think he's trying to learn, but it's obviously hard.

Sometimes in an email, there will be a few mistakes that are fairly glaring, even if I get what they're trying to say. I was considering asking him (so as to not just give unsolicited advice), "would you like me to correct any errors in your writing I see when you email me? It could help you improve more quickly."

It could definitely help him learn, but I'm also aware that it could be embarrassing for him, as well as presumptuous on my part. Personally, I (like to) think I'd really like it if someone made me that offer if I were in that position, but of course I can't know for certain.

Is that a good idea, or is it better to just mind my own business?


texts: What is the meaning of “In Proceedings Of ...”?

texts:
I saw the phrase “In Proceedings Of ...” many times on Google Scholar. What is the meaning of that?

For example, “In Proceedings of the International Conference of ...”. Does that mean that you send this paper to that conference and they accept it?


texts: Do Physics grad schools accept non-physics students with good Physics GRE score?

texts:
These two questions https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/110303/is-a-good-gre-score-enough-for-a-non-math-graduate-to-be-accepted-in-a-decent-pu?rq=1&fb_source=message and https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/110303/is-a-good-gre-score-enough-for-a-non-math-graduate-to-be-accepted-in-a-decent-pu?rq=1 inspire me to ask this question.

Unlike Math GRE in Physics GRE, almost everything taught in first 3 years of undergrad is examined with almost equal percentage of total questions (Classical Mechanics 20%, EM 18%, QM 12%, Optics 9%) while in math, 50% can be scored only with good calculus skill.

Can one expect to be accepted in good physics grad schools if he has good Physics GRE score?
Another question is, can one go to theoretical physics grad school only with good score in Physics GRE?

I hope this is appropriate place to ask these questions.


texts: Will my exchange study grade influence my graduate school application?

texts:
I have a plan to apply for a computer science master's degree in the US. In my home institution my GPA is about 3.7/4.0; I have some research experience with a paper published. I was heading for a Top 30 or even a Top 10 university in the US.

However, during my exchange study (one semester) in the one of the Top 15 universities in the US, I didn't get very good grades, it was only around 3.3/4.0. (In one of the courses there was not even a single A in the class, just bad luck and some of my own reasons). Will it be really bad for my graduate school application? It kind of indicates that I can do well in my home university but not good in the US. Is there any way I can avoid the bad influence or can I not submit the transcript of the exchange university?


texts: Can I publish a survey as an academic article?

texts:
I am about to run a survey on large number of engineers in a specific field and ask them about a few specific methods they use for in their industry/research.

Like:

Are you a researcher/engineer/student?
Which of the following methods have you heard about? A B C D E
Which of the following methods have you used in your work? A B C D E
etc ...

I would like to know if such a survey has any academic value for being published in an engineering journal/conference such as IEEE or Elsevier?

Also, do you know examples of such papers?


texts: What should I (a professor) do if a student keeps answering other students' questions before I start explaining?

texts: I have a student who keeps answering other students' questions before I could even start explaining. What should I do in this case? Should I ask them to come meet with me? If so, how should I convey that it is not ok and it is not their job.


texts: How to prevent cheating on take-home exams

texts:
For certain undergrad classes, I assign a take-home exam, rather than the more familiar in-class exam. When I distribute the exam, I remind the students that this is an individual exam, and that they may not work in groups, and then I add "Believe me, I can tell when you cheat". This, however, is a bluff. Unless it is superobvious, I can't tell if students work together; I only tell them I can to scare them into honoring the rules.

Are there any ways, other than lying to the students, to prevent (or at least minimize) this type of cheating in take-home exams?


texts: I got kicked out from graduate school in the past. How do I include this on my CV?

texts:
I got kicked out from graduate school in the past. The reason was that I had very poor GPA, and I failed to meet the academic criteria (some administrative regulations, nothing personal like disciplinary action or anything). Actually I left before I got technically kicked out, but you get the idea.

So I do not know how to include this on my CV, because I believe it is too long a time frame to ignore - almost 2 years.

After getting kicked out, I managed to get into another program (THANK GOD), and I am getting back on my feet again. Obviously I need a CV, and I need some help with that.

In addition, I also had a decent scholarship there. Is it reasonable if I omit the university on "Education" section but include my scholarship in "Awards" section?

I have "Education" and "Experience" sections on my resume.

Option 1: Including it on the "Education" section as "Graduate student", and including it on "Experience" as "Research Assistant"

Option 2: Omitting it on "Education", and only including it on "Experience" as "Research Assistant".

Option 3: Your suggestions?


texts: How much does topic and supervisor matter for honours in computer science when the aim is ultimately to do a PhD?

texts:
I am about to go in to my honours year in computer science.

If I intend to apply for a PhD at another university when I finish, how much does it matter who my honours supervisor is? Will this make any difference when being assessed for entry at another university?

And as a general rule am I better choosing a pure (mathematical) or applied (programming/engineering) topic?


texts: Accessing a Google Scholar profile when I do not remember the e-mail account I used to create it

texts:
I have a scholar profile, but I do not remember the Gmail account with which I created it. Therefore, I cannot add publications to or correct errors in the profile.
I have created another account with another profile, but before completing it, I want to know if it is possible to delete the first profile, or if there is any way to know the Gmail account with which I created the first profile in order to update it. Thank you very much.


texts: Is "How good am I?" a reasonable question to ask a supervisor?

texts:
I have recently completed my undergraduate degree, in mathematics. As part of the final year, we had to complete a "project", which was effectively a 40-page (ish) dissertation on a topic of our choosing. This was done with the aid of a supervisor, one of the researchers in the department, for the duration of the year.

During the undertaking of this project, I felt like I developed a good relationship with my supervisor (who I met once a week, and who provided a reference for me for PhD applications).

At times, particularly when knee deep in PhD application stuff, I started to get a little negative/worried about my long-term prospects. This seems to be a fairly common problem, from what I read here. On more than one occasion, I was seriously tempted to ask my supervisor whether he honestly thought I was any good, had any reasonable prospects doing maths/a PhD/research, whether I should do something else, etc.

I never actually ended up doing that, because I always decided that it was a bit of an unfair question, and that I my supervisor quite possibly wouldn't know anyway.

My question is: In a scenario like the above, is that ever a question that one could expect a supervisor to answer/answer well? Is it easy to tell, from a supervisor's point of view, what a students prospects are in that field?


texts: Publication- rejection with advising to resubmit

texts:
I have received a decision letter from a Q1 journal with following remarks:

  Reviewers' comments on your work have now been received.  You will see
  that they are advising against publication of your work.  Therefore I
  must reject it.

  However, you may submit in the future better revision after resolving
  all these drawbacks mentioned by the reviewers, and as new revision

While a reviewer has mentioned "major revision", is this decision advising for resubmit after revising the paper? Does this mean "Reject and resubmit"?


texts: How to present apparent gap in employment CV, due to visiting research position that wasn’t formally employment?

texts:
In between two postdocs, I spent four months as a fully-funded participant of a research “special programme”.  In practise, this was much like my other postdoc positions: it was full time work on the same sort of research, at a comparably prestigious academic institution, and the “stipend for living expenses” was in the ballpark of a postdoc salary.  However, it was not formally an employed position, from an administrative/legal point of view.

How should I describe this, if at all, in the “Employment” section of my CV?  The application I’m currently making prescribes the CV format fairly strictly; so I can certainly list this under the “research visits” in a later section, but I’m not sure what to do in the “employment” section. Listing this as employment doesn’t quite feel appropriate (since it wasn’t, formally); omitting it entirely gives an unexplained gap in my employment history (which, according to conventional wisdom, looks bad); presumably the right thing to do is to not include it in the main list, but add a short note explaining the gap; but I can’t find a good concise phrasing to describe this situation.

(In the past, I’ve avoided this issue by listing my employment history like “2012–14: Postdoc, University A.  2014–17: Postdoc, University B.”  But this particular application specifies that employment dates must include months, so I can’t sweep it under the rug again.)


texts: Masters Degree vs Masters Certificate / Diploma in Canada

texts: I've seen prominent Canadian Universities (York and University of Toronto, for example) offer a Masters Certificate and Masters Diploma respectively in the subject of financial engineering. How do these differ from a masters degree (in the scope of Canada)?


texts:
Why do many journals and conference organizers use Editorial Express and the related Conference Maker (https://www.editorialexpress.com/)? The tools look like a relic from the 90s. And at least the manuscript submission tool contains a few bugs.
Is it a competitive pricing, an integration with related software, or potential disruptions associated with migrating to alternative platforms?
This question is not meant as a critique or an attack on the Editorial Express brand. I am just surprised whenever I use that tool.


texts: When to write response document in context of complex major revisions and collaboration?

texts:
The task of performing a revise and resubmit can vary greatly in complexity. In the simple case, the lead author can do the task mostly on their own. They might identify the points, work out an order to do them in, and then work through them one at a time, making changes in the document, and crafting the response document point by point.

However, more substantial revisions often involve a more fundamental restructuring of the paper. Thus, the first attempt at incorporating a response to a particular point might be further drafted and redrafted. Collaborators may review the manuscript and make further edits. Sometimes, you make a change to address point 1, and then as you are making changes to point 7, you realise that this going to slightly alter how you address point 1.

In these cases where you have complex major revisions and or collaborators who are providing substantive edits, it is tricky to know when to write the response document. This is particularly true if you are trying to make the response document relatively self-contained (e.g., quoting changes, deletions, inclusions, etc.)

Thus, my questions:

When preparing a response to a complex set of revisions, when should you write the response document: (a) while you are writing the response to each point, or (b) at the end, once all the points are made, or (c) rough draft initially that is reviewed at the end?
Relatedly, how important is it to have a clear strategy about how all the revisions will be handled before starting to make any revisions?
More generally, are there workflow tricks for dealing with the issue of ensuring that the response document stays consistent with the manuscript changes?


texts:
I got invited for a PhD interview to the University of Edinburgh. I was asked in the email to prepare a 10 mins presentation on a recent research I was involved in. I did a sandwich placement year and it just so happened that this week I just gave a presentation about my placement project. I was given 30mins, which was still barely enough to cover everything. Now with 10mins, I might struggle to convey everything. What's more, what should I focus on in such presentation? I believe it's not to manage to show everything possible within the given (I don't want to try to squeeze too much data and speak ridiculously fast), but is it perhaps to show that I can present in scientific way? That's what my university tutor has told me. What exactly does it mean? Should I show that I fully understand what I present (which I believe I do), explain well my graphs etc? Any tips? What are they looking for in this short presentation?

I struggle a lot with presenting/public speaking, which is why I might worry too much over it but then again, I need to prepare twice as much as a person who is good at presenting.

Many, many thanks for help!

Edit: I realise that I'm still a bit stuck in the format of presentations I have given at the university and I wanted to ask what I should change to make this 10mins presentation as good as possible.

The format that I usually follow is:

introduction to the topic --> should I make it as short and simple as possible?

aims/objectives

methods/materials --> I wonder if I should skip it or make it very short?

results --> I believe I need to select most relevant ones

discussion --> this part usually takes some time in presentations, maybe I could combine it with conclusion to prevent repetitions maybe?

conclusion

further experiments

acknowledgement

references


texts: Etiquette when continuing work on a research direction without involving former collaborators

texts:
I have collaborated on a certain topic with researchers A, B and C, where A is my PhD supervisor (I'm now a post-doc), and B and C are senior colleagues from different universities. The collaboration lead to a number of papers, in which I was the main author, while A, B and C made important contributions.

I'm now working on an idea that continues the research direction of this earlier work. Since I already got pretty far with the execution of my idea, I don't expect much additional benefit from involving A-C at this stage. In fact, I would prefer to publish this work without them, since I'm in a career stage where the common advice is to assert myself as an independent researcher.

However, I have the feeling that A-C might be disappointed if I don't involve them - I certainly would, if I was in their position. Is there an etiquette for tactfully dealing with this kind of situation?


texts: 3 3-hour exams in a row with no time in between. What can I do?

texts:
I am currently studying computer science in a University in Canada.

I have just received my Schedule for the semester, and I have noticed that, during the finals week, 3 of my 6 courses put their final exams in the same day.

Specifically, I have an exam from 12:30 to 15:20, another one from 15:30 to 18:20 and the last one is from 18:30 to 21:20. All three of those exams are Worth 35% or more of my grade, therefore are very likely to be decisive in my success or failure this semester.

This really seems unreasonable to me. I do not expect, no matter how much sleep I get and how much coffee I drink, to be able to perform at my best for 9 hours straight, without even a chance to eat dinner.

So I have two questions:
First, is this standard practice? I'm only starting my second semester, so maybe I just got Lucky the first time that all my exams were the only one of the day.

And Second, if this is not standard but rather a very unlucky setup, do I have any recourse? Is it rude to ask some of the professors or higher-ups in the school to change the Schedule a little?

It is also important to know that I am taking the classes in the standard path (? I am not a native English speaker, but I am referring to the grid thing telling me the recommended courses to take every semester in order to complete the program in the fewest number of semesters) for my program. I am not taking any special classes that are not expected to be taken at the same time. This means that a lot of people probably have this exact Schedule for this semester, and it's not just me because I made weird choices.

EDIT: Thank you all for your input. I will accept one of the answers now, but to be honest, they were all pretty enlightening. I had already sent an email to all concerned professors AND the faculty 5 days prior to asking this question, and I still haven't received an answer. I will probably forward the same email (it is as polite as possible, asking about what are my options in the context, etc) to some more administration adresses in the hopes that someone can give me the exact policy, or at least tell me who can.

I am very glad that everyone seems to agree that they can usually do something about it, this makes me less stressed. In the worst case, nothing changes, and as one answer mentioned, if lots of students have a worse grade because of this setup, then the playing field is even.


texts:
I am doing Master's of Research, and I am required to enrol in a number of compulsory coursework subjects for research candidates. In these subjects, I have submitted a number of assignments using Turnitin, which requires me to include the problem statement of my research.

Given that the problem statement hasn't changed every time I submit my assignments, am I supposed to write completely different problem statements every time I submit my assignments?


texts: Getting article type information [New Result / Confirmatory Result / Contradictory Result] from bioRxiv

texts:
The bioRxiv advanced search form lets one find articles by their type. Following are the three types:

New Result
Confirmatory Result
Contradictory Result

An RSS feed is also available here:
http://biorxiv.org/content/alertsrss

But I could not find any field in the entries for 'article type'. Is there a programmatic way of querying this information that I am missing ?

I could scrape the specific article page itself for this info. But that would not be too efficient. If anyone knows an API / RSS way of obtaining this information and shares it, it might be very useful.


texts: How to deal with the postdoc offer without a contract

texts: I was recently interviewed for a postdoctoral position at a top-three institution in the world. The PI has now offered me a position via email which does not include any form of contract. How do I ask politely for a proper offer letter/contract without sounding skeptical about the PI's email offer? I am an international student, and normally universities provide conditional offer letter to the international graduates contingent on the approval of the work permit by the government (which happens immediately after graduation). I will be graduating in May and would like to have a conditional offer letter signed to secure the position officially.


texts:
Can who you pick as "faculty members of interest" make-or-break your PhD application?
Question I:

If one happens to pick
only faculty who aren't taking in PhD students will that doom ones
application? If-not, will the PhD acceptance board try to pair you
with a faculty member you did not list – assuming the applicant is of high-quality?

I applied for a PhD program in Computer Science. I will be funded through a Think-Tank/Research-Institution – to which I am a full-time employee. I put this on my application. I did not think too deeply about the faculty of interest.
I considered also applying PhD program in Computer Science & Engineering. However, here's the catch. If I apply using the same "faculty members of interest" as the PhD in Computer Science application, I believe my chances of acceptance do not increase. I believe if those faculty members would not have accepted me into their labs as a PhD in Computer Science, they also would not have accepted me into their labs as a PhD in Computer Science & Engineering. However, filling out two
Question II:

Is filling out two PhD applications in similar domains with the
same "faculty members of interest" somewhat pointless?

Question III:

Is it worth reaching out to admissions to ask to change your "faculty members of interest" after submission if a better fit is found?


texts:
Suppose I was back at the beginning of my undergraduate career, and I decided that while I was willing to do human-subjects research, my real career goal was to sit on an IRB and guide lost souls who can't be trusted to figure out right from wrong.

Is there a typical or expected career path for IRB members? More specifically,

Would I be expected to first "make a name for myself" as a researcher in a field involving human subjects and then get additional ethics training (e.g. Advanced Introduction to Intermediate Best Practices in IRB Ethics for Geneticists)?
Would I be expected to concentrate my efforts on gaining a broad and deep education in ethics (majoring in philosophy, etc.), and then top that off with subject matter-specific training (e.g. Introduction to Genetics for Ethicists)?


texts: In layman's terms, what is the difference between OpenAthens and Shibboleth?

texts:
I Googled. I don't have Ph.D. computer science to understand What is the difference between Shibboleth and OpenAthens? Too many esoteric words! I  Googled SAML and found Security Assertion Markup Language, but  I don't have time to learn new computer  language! I already trouble English. English is not my first language.

Shibboleth is Open Source software that provides single sign-on infrastructure and supports the SAML standard, as well as other protocols. Shibboleth is usually installed and managed by an institution or publisher.
OpenAthens supports many of the same standards, including SAML but is delivered as a cloud-based solution, supported by a service desk and team of technical specialists who are on hand to assist with setup, integration, and operation. OpenAthens and Shibboleth can happily interoperate, as they are based on many of the same international standards.

Then I try second link on Google.  Hein Online

Now I baffled even more! Shibboleth "federations"? "metadata"?
Other sites list OpenAthens but not Shibboleth. Please explain all this like I'm 5?


texts: How will the academic boycot of Israel (BDS) influence my career if I get a PhD in Israel?

texts:
I'm considering doing a PhD in the social sciences at an Israeli university. My research will not be conflict-focused, and I'm not sure yet whether it will have a local component. I would likely do research that appeals to more left-wing academics (economically and socially), perhaps those who would be inclined to adopt a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) stance.

My question is: If I chose to obtain a PhD in Israel, will the boycott movement significantly affect my academic career? If so, how?

I've asked a few local scholars and have received mixed responses.


texts: Should I go for a PhD topic on which I have poor coursework grades?

texts:
I am a materials engineering master's student and have a poor track record with undergraduate level mathematics and mechanics. However, I like working on applied problems that involve these. For example, currently I find modeling 3D printing process interesting and want to work on the topic.
However, I am objectively poor in mathematics and mechanics. I enjoy the physics in play and have an intuitive sense, and my master's research was about using an existing tool to understand the parameters that influence a good 3Dprint. I have also published in a good journal. I am interested in a career in research (academia or industry).
I have got a PhD offer from a good university and good professor on the topic. It will involve some programming to develop geometries, but mostly use an open-source software to understand and predict the physics of 3D printing process.
Considering that this PhD is in UK and I won't be taking anymore classes than I have already taken. Should I go for this PhD? The group publishes regularly in decent journals.


texts: Does it make sense to get a second M.Sc. while pursuing a PhD?

texts:
The situation: You did your B.Sc. and M.Sc. in CS with focus on subfield X1 and are now pursuing a PhD in subfield X2. There is a Masters program in subfield X2 available where you do your PhD that offers courses that allow you to advance in this subfield (which is pretty new to you).

Does it make sense to get a second M.Sc. while pursuing a PhD if the courses of the Masters program will be beneficial to your PhD work?
Subquestion: Do you think it is even feasible to do this based on your experience?

The geographic context is Europe/Germany so a PhD does not include course work. A Masters (at a university of applied sciences) takes 3 semesters full time with the possibility to double that time when doing it part time.


texts:
A simple question:

  What qualifies as a research publication?

Two criteria spring to mind:

Peer-reviewed: The article has gone through some form of formal peer-review process.
Dead-tree proceedings: The article has been published in a bound collection of thin sheets of dead tree.

In terms of exceptions to 1., many book chapters do not rely on a formal peer-review process but are generally considered as research publications and listed in author bibliographies. Similarly, some may consider arXiv, etc., as publications and counting towards h-index counts.

In terms of exceptions to 2., various workshops (esp. in CS) publish on-line through systems like CEUR or informal web-site proceedings, are peer-reviewed and contain in-depth technical material. As online publishing becomes more commonplace, criterion 2 will grow weaker and weaker.

Is there something else I'm missing?


texts: Is repurposing money from companies easier than repurposing money from federal grants?

texts:
I wonder whether repurposing money from companies is easier than repurposing money from federal grants in the United States, and if so, why. If the field matters, I am mostly interested in computer science.

Example of repurposing: a student did some TA, and the money could be spent on computer hardware instead.


texts: Is it a normal process if all changes by "Track Change" function in Word of my revised manuscript are visible after being built in Elsevier?

texts:
I got a revision reply and the editor wanted me to use "track change" in Word to do changes in manuscript. I completed the revision for manuscript and responses to reviewers file. I re-submitted and got a PDF file (built through Elsevier system).

My revised manuscript showed full red lines and a disorder of lines and between revised figures and original figures. I am sure that the reviewers will be unable to see my revised part and get mad at me immediately.

If i do submit my Word revised manuscript which did accept all changes i implemented in manuscript.My revised manuscript is presented as final document. It will be good for reviewers to have a look on my revised paper. But how come the editor can see changes and modification in my manuscript?

If anyone coped with this process, please give me some advices and suggestion to built a correct PDF file based on Elsevier establishment.

Thank you very much.


texts: What does it mean to be on a short list?

texts: I recently applied for an academic job that did not request letters of recommendation at the time of application, but only a list of potential references. I just now received an email from the search committee chair that I had made it to the "short list" and to please contact my references to arrange for my letters to be sent.  I thought that a "short list" was the list of people who were going to be flown out for an in-person interview, but it seems that the "short list" in this context just means "the list of candidates whose letters of reference we'd like to see".  Is there an agreed-upon definition of "short list" that I'm missing?


texts: Graphing a paper's number of citations by year

texts:
The specific paper I'm interested in is Galton (1907), and one approach I worked out is to go to Galton's Google Scholar profile and then click on the paper in question, after which I can see the following histogram:

This is the kind of thing I want to create, but one problem is that it cuts off in 2005.

If I click on the article itself and look within citing articles I can see there are several citations before 2005, but it wasn't apparent to me that there was a way to count them without manually going through each page.

Is there a way for me to obtain data for the number of citations by year (including pre-2005) without manually going through the citing articles?

Galton, F. (1907). Vox populi. Nature, 75(7), 450-451.


texts:
I received a peer review of my research paper. I answered the question arises there in comments. I didn't find such details of the reviewer to give information about some question arises in peer review.

  Is there a way to communicate with peer reviewer?


texts: My prospective supervisors are not emailing back, should I just submit a PhD application anyway?

texts:
Context: I want to do my PhD in Hong Kong. Only one University there (University of Hong Kong) explicitly states you need to contact a supervisor and discuss a research proposal before you apply. The others, at least in my field, do not even require a research proposal for your application.

Regardless, I obviously am trying to get faculty members to agree to supervise me and discuss PhD topics to strengthen my application and ensure that a suitable supervisor is available.

The trouble I am facing is that only a few of those I have emailed have replied, and the ones that did reply said they already had too many PhD students or weren't taking students on at the moment. Looking at current PhD students, >95% of them are Chinese so I suspect part of this might be unwillingness to take on a foreign student (or just preference for Chinese students) despite Hong Kong being a very multicultural city.

I would like to live and work in Hong Kong after my studies, which is why I am set on doing my PhD there.

My question is this: How much does it hurt your chances of admission to not have a supervisor pre-arranged before you apply? I feel that my grades, references, experience are very competitive, but I am worried about this roadblock.


texts: Postdoc that refuses to follow the terms of her contract

texts:
I am supervising a research group. Each year, our institution offers several four years postdoc positions, and one year ago I told a friend of mine to apply to it because we work in very similar fields and I thought there would be a lot of synergy. She got the position, but after these 12 months she refuses to do almost anything I tell her to.

At the beginning I waited, since we are friends and I did not want to trouble our friendship, but at some point I realized that she uses our good relationship as an excuse for not doing anything at all, and from the other side, it is hard for me to tell her that she is doing wrong. Anyway, in the last 2 weeks we have had some words, and I told her that she must respect her work conditions and work in our projects. She says she has never done that, since she feels pressure, and that she works better starting and choosing all projects by herself without any indication from me or any other supervisor. In those projects she does not even count me in for co-authorship and sometimes never tells me what she is doing. In her project proposal it was stated "I will contribute to the group's research lines and adapt to it" and in her contract it was written the same. So it is clear to me that she is going against these conditions. I have talked with her about the situation but she refuses to agree and says that I am wrong and that she deserves respect since she feels like a very important scientist.

I want to solve this situation but I feel dialogue does not work here anymore. Scenarios I see are:

I set up a meeting with her and the head of the department; here she knows she will be in real trouble,
I forget about her completely to avoid headaches, but I am responsible for her and need to report her output from time to time, so I could be in trouble if she does nothing,
....

So, what would you suggest to do in this situation?

Thanks


texts: Should I give a talk about an insignificant result?

texts: I wrote a paper with some coauthors who are more senior than me (I am a grad student) and it got published although not in a top journal. I thought I understood it and followed the proof line by line but I have been asked to give a talk about it and now I realize that the paper is not very good. We claimed to improve a result of some other people and actually one of our main theorems that we spend lots of space proving is a trivial consequence of theirs just worded differently so I'm worried that giving a talk about this paper will make everyone in the audience just think I'm/we're stupid for not noticing this. I was specifically invited by someone interested in the topic so I can't even talk about anything else. What should I do? Pretending I don't know it's bad gives me more chance to get away with it but seems dishonest. Owning up to the problem sounds like career suicide. And I don't have a good reason to cancel the talk but I'm thinking of saying I'm sick and I can't make it because I really wish this paper doesn't exist.


texts: Is the author obliged to answer all emailed questions regarding his or her paper after it had been published?

texts: Is the author obliged to answer all emailed questions regarding the details of his or her paper after it had been published?


texts: How to resolve disagreement with project teammates over which professor to work with?

texts:
I would like some advice about a conflict I am having in a graduate course taught by two professors. I am pursuing a masters (MS) degree in Finance and for the capstone course in the program, each group (3-4) students is required to complete an individual research project.

The professors responsible for the course both have PhDs in Finance but in slightly different research areas. My team-mates both insist that we only work with the professor who is more specialized/knowledgeable in our area.

As the course is taught by both professors  equally, I feel it is important to keep both professors abreast of our progress. I feel fairly confident that both have equal weight in evaluating us and I don't want to slight either. How should I explain this fact to my team members as I am the leader of our team?

For additional background, my team members are all from China whose academic culture is wholly different from Western standards.


texts: Is it acceptable to publish a paper using an affiliation with a former employer?

texts: Recently I've changed jobs, and consequently the field of research has also changed. But I'm still getting proposals for publications in the previous field, and it is interesting for me to accept some of them. My concern is about which affiliation to use: on one hand I gain all the knowledge in that field while working on the previous employer, also I hope they can cover my expenses related to the publication. On the other hand, I do not work for them anymore, and my current company has very little interest in my old field of research, and probably will not support it financially, but I think it is wise to mention them as well. As a compromise I'm thinking to put the previous employer in the affiliation, and the name of my new employer in the footnote, something like "currently at XYZ". Surely I'll discuss this issue with both, although the opinion of the community is also very valuable.


texts: Is undergraduate research typically funded? Should it be?

texts:
Are undergraduate research positions typically funded? If yes, why so - given that undergraduates do not have a lot to offer in terms of research outcomes? Also, which type of research positions are funded?
I ask this because, one wouldn't expect mathematics research opportunities (other than REUs, I guess) for undergraduates to be funded, right? Undergrads do not put a lot on the table, and more than adding any substantial value to the field via research, it is about gaining useful experience and making connections with professors in order to secure future LoRs. Do I have the right idea here, or am I missing something?
If we think specifically about pure mathematics, then quite a bit of the initial process before even trying to do any research is essentially directed reading. I wouldn't expect being paid for that either, just doesn't make sense. For computer science, though, (eg. machine learning), one can ask undergrads to do coding jobs and perhaps pay them for that.
To summarize:
Which undergraduate research positions are typically funded? How about pure math, applied math, and computer science (theoretical or applied) fields in particular?
Why (and also which) should undergraduate research positions be funded in the first place, if at all?
Thanks for your valuable insights, in advance!
Clarification: By funded, I meant that the student researcher receives a monthly salary or stipend of some sort. Apologies if that wasn't the right term to use, but I hope that it's clearer now.


texts: Publishing previous results from a previous lab

texts:
I just looked over this article from Retraction Watch.

To make a long story short, a student used previous data from their former lab and then published it without the PI's permission or knowledge.

While the above is a rather extreme example of poor ethics, I'm curious where the line gets drawn regarding the ownership of research. I can understand if the data was produced in one environment and then get published in another. What about reagents (clones come to mind) that were produced in a previous lab and then were transported to a new lab? What about ideas that were developed in one lab and then taken to another?


texts: Can professors hire assistants from their own salary?

texts: Usually teaching assistants or research assistants will be hired by money from the department or grants, but can they be hired by a direct pay from a professor's salary?


texts: Optimal journal publications strategy (academic career)

texts:
Suppose that I've written 10 academic papers. Which CV is the best for academic appointments?

5 publications in mid-high ranked journals, 5 in low ranked (but nevertheless peer-reviewed) journals.
5 publications in mid-high ranked journals, 5 working papers that you disclose on your CV and publish on your website/University profile (assume that these could have been published in low-ranked journals but you chose not to).
5 publications in mid-high ranked journals, 5 papers that you've written that you file draw away when you figure out they you're not going to be able to publish them in a top quality journal (assume that these could have been published in low-ranked journals but you chose not to).

The third dot-point may be unethical, I'm not sure.

Feel free to play with the definition of "mid-high ranked" and "low ranked" in your response.

Feel free to do a scenario analysis where you consider PhD -> postdoc/assistant prof, postdoc/assistant prof -> tenure as separate cases requiring different analysis.

FYI this is for economics/finance/statistics, but also feel free to talk about your own areas where you've had the experience.

I started wondering about this when I came across some extremely high quality working papers that aren't published and that have hundreds of citations. This makes me suspect that the 1st option is not optimal.


texts: Should you get your masters degree from a different school then the one your received your bachelors from

texts:
I received an associates degree in computer science from a junior college and then transfered to an university to pursue my bachelors degree. I am almost finished with that and I plan on continuing towards a masters degree. A lot of classmates tell me that you should get your masters degree from a different school then the one your received your bachelors from. Is this true? Why? Should you get your PhD from the same school your got your masters?

EDIT:
Thank you all! This helps me a lot!


texts:
I completed my MS-by research (thesis) in US in EE (well-renowned university and advisors)  and unfortunately, I do not have any papers published.

At present, I am leading (read it as pitch idea, receive funding, setup lab, perform research) an international research collaboration in Industry. I have conceived this idea that has the potential to solve long-standing problems in this particular industry. What is that I am doing differently is application of this concept in this sector of Industry ( and of course solving the problem).

The only thing that is keeping me away from applying for P.hD. program is that I do not have a publication.

Is there a suggestion what I must do in the current research? Advisors under whom I want to work for PhD is top 5 in universities.


texts: Is it common and acceptable for a postdoc to leave before contract ends?

texts: Is it common and acceptable for a postdoc to leave before his/her contract ends, for whatever reason? How early should a prior notice be submitted in this case?


texts: Are Graduate Fellowships or Research assistants in state university considered a government employees in US?

texts:
I am applying for a post which asks me
you ever part of government entity like federal/state/local government entities including publicly funded universities.
I was a research assistant with fellowship in a department under the state university.
So is this an Yes?
There is question here: Are professors at a public university in the U.S. considered to be "employed by the U.S. government"?
but it concerns federal employees. Mine includes any level of government entities. Hence the question.


texts: Paths to specialize in antique book and manuscript conservation and handling

texts:
I am not sure whether this is the best place to field this question but I assume Academia is a reasonable fit. If someone is interested, initially as a hobby, in the collecting, cataloguing, rebinding, and conservation of old books and manuscripts what would be the best path to pursuing those activities in a more professional venue? How do people specialize in book handling and conservation?

From a hobbyist perspective say someone collects old Scandinavian Literature over 100-200 years old and engages in the study, preservation, and cataloguing of such books for posterity (these days one may do this individually with such digital online archiving projects as Project Gutenberg and Archive.org - sometimes accompanied with OCR for easy indexing of the text online). If such a person was interested in doing that more often in some formal capacity how would they pursue that?

Does one have to study Conservation Science and obtain a degree to handle documents for institutions that have rare and antique book collections, or say for museums that need periodic restoration of books from page yellowing and foxing? Could one alternately volunteer for a library that has a rare books department and enter in from that avenue? How does anyone end up being a manuscript conservation specialist? Surely the U.S. Library of Congress has people who do such things. And what title would they typically hold?


texts: Is it acceptable to setup a survey online (but not send to human subjects) before getting IRB approval?

texts:
I am doing a small survey-based research project, where I need to setup surveys online. I was wondering if I needed full IRB approval before I can setup the surveys online on Qualtrics/RedCap/Google forms? (I'll of course wait after approval before sharing the survey with any human subjects that would fill in the survey)

Addenum:
It's social science research, it's a few questions from a validated survey we will be using. I'm pretty sure the protocol will be accepted. There is a visiting student for the month here and to gain time I thought he could setup the questions on Qualtrics. Would this be acceptable?


texts: Delayed second review of a reputed journal

texts: I had submitted an article and I got first decision. I wrote answers and explanations to the reviewer comments and re submitted the article. After 2 months it sent to the same reviewer (as per info given at help section) and i am told that the reviewer has not accepted the invite. It is very surprising, why would the same reviewer who reviewed my article once would not accept the invite to see my answers. Or why would the editor wait for almost 2 months for the reviewer to just accept the invite the review.


texts: How to respond to my name being included in acknowledgements of incorrect/misleading paper whose authors ignored my recommendations?

texts:
My colleagues (grad student + their advisor) from my department approached me, a fourth year PhD student in STEM, for comments on a manuscript written on a topic related to my research.

In two iterations over email, I pointed out serious logical fallacies in their arguments, instances of misleading references and attempts to skirt crucial issues in the paper. Most of the issues in the manuscript are still unresolved but the authors have thanked me for my comments in the acknowledgement section. I'm uncomfortable with my name being included in the acknowledgement section of an incorrect and misleading paper submission.

Would it be wise to politely request for my name to be removed from the acknowledgements?


texts: Disclosing employment in acknowledgement of conference paper

texts: I'm a part time PhD student in computer science and work full time at an asset management firm. My paper was accepted into an IEEE conference. However, I have not used any of my work's resource for the paper (though my work could use some of my findings once it's published). Do I still need to disclose my work affiliation in the Acknowledgement section of the final submission and state that there's no conflict of interest?


texts: What post PhD path alternatives are there?

texts:
Progression in academia, in general, seems and feels extremely linear, i.e. you do your undergrad, then you do graduate studies, then you do a post-doc (or two, or three ... ) and eventually if you are good/persistent/well-connected/... enough you might get funded to start your own group and live the rest of your professional life in chasing grants, fighting with faculty and editors etc [yes, I am exaggerating], which I don't find particularly appealing.

Alternative to this scenario is to quit academia and go to the industry, often labeled as "selling out" by senior scientists I have personally met and discussed this subject with.

But life in general never gives a clear bisections, like you do either A or B, but there are typically a number of options to choose from. Thus I figure there should be some shades of gray in between the white and black. As a resource to other doctoral students I figured we could perhaps accumulate the possible career paths for people that have finished their PhDs, besides trying to climb up the ladder of academic ascension.

The ones I can think of are:

specialized (lab) technician: working for instance with complex instruments. I have noticed in our lab that having an experienced technician operating and maintaining the heavy instruments is invaluable for the group. Not only for the sake of projects going as smooth as possible, but also for teaching grad students how to properly use the instruments.
popular science author/editor: I have read quite a few popular science books by people with PhDs on fields that I know little about (here's a good example). Similarly, magazines such as Illustrated Science typically need a middle layer between cutting-edge science and interested (but not adequately educated) readers.
research position at industry: I am really going on a limb here, as I don't personally know anyone who is actively doing just that, but companies in several different fields actually do research; either in collaboration with universities, or in-house. I am inclined to think that such a position would include less grant-seeking, and publishing headaches (perhaps replaced with other types of headaches).
production position at industry: from what I understand this is the more typical scenario where people that go to industry after doing a PhD end up in. Based on my discussions with people (in academia) these positions typically include little to none intellectual development or acquisition of new skills. Thus not-so-desired or looked-down-upon by academics.

My question(s):

what other career paths are there, that I might have missed?
am I correct in my understand of the above 4 paths? are there any insights that you would like to add?


texts: Are there downsides to speculative applications for academic jobs?

texts:
Speculative applications, i.e. application without a job announcement being published, are common (well, at least normal) in non-academic jobs. But I am not sure the situation is the same in academia. Somebody has suggested me to send speculative applications to different departments for teaching or research jobs. I was thus considering the pros and cons of this type of applications.

The pros are almost evident (more exposure). However, I worry about potential downsides. In particular, how would potential employers look at such an application? Could it make me look bad? Is there any other downside I haven't thought of?


texts: Which authority regulates the conferring of degrees in South Africa?

texts:
In South Africa, is there a body that regulates the institutions that are permitted to confer degrees? If so, what is this entity?

Does it regulate:

The ability to confer academic degrees?
Which degrees may be conferred?
Which subjects may form part of that degree?
The content of the subjects?

There is a university in my country that confers a Bachelor of Science in Complementary Medicine, this degree includes subjects whose premises have little to no evidence for them.


texts: My paper was too revolutionary - reviewers at a top journal rejected it "by simply reading the title". What now?

texts:
Some days earlier, in the hour of contemplation, I made an extremely critical and paradigm-shifting breakthrough in my field and then, I started writing on it for a publishing and many times checked through the paper and finally submitted it after many days of proofreading.

The paper was committed to the biggest and most popular journal for my field, and I waited for a reply. And the reply was saddening, my paper was mysteriously rejected. As I contacted the reviewer, I was told that he and others "rejected it by simply reading the title".

And my title was very professional, in the sense that it was not something like "X proven wrong and Y revolutionized!".

Now I am confused on what I should do, this paper needs to be published. If not for myself, then atleast for the thousands of other researchers who have hopelessly comitted their lives to this field.

I must add here, as my advisor congratulated me and hugged me on this great discovery, he was skeptical of my paper being published because it is simply too outstanding to be true. And big journals who receive thousands of paper each day will most likely reject it in quickness, and this paper needs to be read with a lot of thought and concentration to be believed. He advised that I should submit it to a lesser known journal whose reviewers he is great friends with, so that he'll tell him to take a good thoughtful look at it. He assured me that my paper would be accepted there. However, I might have naively not considered this and simply went for the biggest journal out of extolment.

So what should I do now? And is rejecting a paper because it is too good even a valid reason?


texts: How does a PhD student go about doing a meta analysis of a research question?

texts:
I just thought that I would put this question out here because I am currently working on a meta analysis of a particular research question in my field (HCI/information science). Moreover, this question is new and has not been answered in very detail so far.

I have done most of the usual ways described in other resources as follows:

I have done a comprehensive review of the relevant literature pertaining to this particular research question. This is a new area and the number of directly relevant papers are ~<50. I have also compiled an exhaustive bibliography of the indirectly relevant papers in this area. That number is ~<150.
Out of this set of directly relevant literature, I have identified 23 quantitative empirical studies, 14 qualitative empirical studies and the rest are theoretical pieces/position pieces/framework papers.

The challenge I am currently facing is how to meta-analyze the data. In HCI, it is not common to freely distribute empirical datasets (although signs of change are imminent in the atmosphere. :)) and I have sent out polite emails to the relevant researchers inquiring if I could have some manner of access to these datasets. The rate of response is ~50% so far in responding to my email but only about ~5% want to actively share their datasets.

Therefore, the only other option (that I can see right now) is to compile, summarize and make sense of data and results already reported in the qualitative and quantitative papers.

I was wondering if any of you experienced (and also not-so-experienced :)) academicians/researchers had any insights into how to actually go about doing a meta analysis from the bottom up.

The main online resources which I have been using so far to tackle this problem is given

www.statistical-solutions-software.com/what-is-meta-analysis,
www.wilderdom.com/research/meta-analysis.html,
www.psychwiki.com/wiki/Meta-analysis and
echo.edres.org:8080/meta/.

Please do note that I am not expecting any detailed step-by-step "spoonfeeding" response. Pointing me to some helpful resources is fine. In addition, personal anecdotes or valuable experiences will be really appreciated.

Thank you for taking the time to read this question.


texts:
My advisor is a highly regarded scientist in his field. However, that also made him a very arrogant person. I have two things I desperately need help with:

Research projects
My advisor becomes more and more picky about research projects. He only wants to work on "important" projects and he only trust what is in his toolbox. New methods, new ideas, and trendy topics are usually considered either useless or non-essential to him, therefore I have never got a chance to work with him on anything that is trendy and more publishable. On the other hand, he is incapable of doing anything ground-breaking, as he would wish, at this point which push his students to work on their own.
Student management
My advisor really cherishes his time, therefore makes sure to never spend it too much on his students. And he hates to waste his time talking to people who are apparently not in his league. His students usually fall into this category. You can definitely tell when you go to talk to him and didn't prepare anything "interesting" or "important", he will put up this tired and impatient face. Therefore these days he chooses to collaborate with other professors not his students. Besides the science, he rarely helps student getting postdocs and couldn't care less about paper editing for his students.

I know most of you would suggest to switch, but is there a way or any soft skill to make this advisor-student relation work? Other than becoming an expert within his league in a short-period of time?


texts:
I recently won a 2-year postdoc fellowship in a prestigious EU university (funded by the university itself). I also applied a few months ago for a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship selecting as host istitution the same university.

If I would win the Marie Curie (I will get the notification in February), I would be in the position where I should decide whether to quit the current fellowship and take the Marie Curie, or to refuse the Marie Curie. (I could also decide to delay the acceptance of the University fellowship and decide in February). The salary of the University fellowship is a bit higher than the Marie Curie, but the rest would be pretty much the same, especially regarding the research team and research project.

I would like to analyze the pro and cons of such decisions. Namely:

Will the Marie Curie program offer me some benefit in terms of visibility, networking, etc...?
There will be differences in saying on the CV that I worked for 2 years funded by University X rather than by the EU Commission with a Marie Cure Individual Fellowship?
Isn't already a good thing saying that you won a Marie Curie (even if you refused the fundings?) Or there is any concrete difference for an evaluator between winning and taking the funding?
Could refusing the fundings be seen as a 'bad' thing by the EU commission?

It is quite likely that I will not get the Marie Curie, but it is better to start thinking beforehand how to deal with this situation if it will occur.


texts: Going to conferences: all the research team members together or everyone alone?

texts:
I have been discussing with friends and colleagues about the strategy to use to decide, in a research group, who has to go to a conference and with who.
The issue is: if someone in the research group submitted a scientific paper to a conference, and it was accepted, should he/she go all alone to the conference, or with other group members?

Basically, I found two different way of thoughts:

1) since money is always lacking, and it is important to broaden the scientific discoveries and to have new professional relationships, only the main author of the paper should go to the conference, all alone. If everyone goes to a different conference, the team works will better scatter, and they will get more visibility.

2) since to work as a group, it is important to think as a group and, above all, to team up (if there is enough money), all the paper authors or all the research group should go to the conference. This way the group will team up and personal relationships between the research group members will strengthen.

What do you think?
Which school of thoughts do you stand for?


texts: What is the meaning of "in residence" at a university?

texts:
I'm applying for readmission to UC Berkeley after taking a semester off.  In the Application for Readmission, one question asks, "Will you be in residence at Berkeley for the entire semester?"

Does "in residence at Berkeley" mean "using on-campus housing" or just "living in the vicinity of the university"?


texts: Thinking about leaving industry job and taking up a postdoc

texts:
This is a follow-up to the question I posted about a year ago: How much damage would I be incurring if I turn down an informal postdoc offer?

My situation: I moved to industry about 6 months ago after declining a postdoc offer because I wanted to have some money and geographic flexibility to take care  of a sick family member. However, moving to the industry has given me a huge identity crisis because I was passionate about my research and the scientific community I was part of. Now I am itching to just take the postdoc and I got to know that the professor is still looking. I am wondering how I would approach him or has the damage been done already? The word is out that I have transitioned to the dark side and folks that I knew in grad school (including my grad school advisor) have begun to treat me as an outsider. Not sure how taking up a postdoc position would affect me in terms of recommendations and academic relationships. Anyone ever done this? How did it go?

Edit: My PhD was in geoscience.


texts: Orientation of Table Headers in Science Report

texts:
Below are two examples of a table, with different orientations of the trial header.
The number of the trial represents the chronological order, but there is no relationship between all the Trial 1's, for example.

Which variation would be more preferable, and why?

If you have another, more preferable variation, please suggest it.


texts:
I came across yet another infogram, originating from this Nature article, showing the top-40 countries in terms of scientific publications produced for 2011.

The data are based on publications from Thompson Reuters/Web of Science. Similar data are available from Scimago (spanning 1996–2012).

Presented this way, there's some "bias" towards countries with a larger population. I was thus wondering if statistics on the number of scientific publications per capita was available for countries?

... just out of curiosity.