texts: How to convince a supervisor to accept me as PhD student although my master's is not in the same exact field?

texts:
I have a M.Sc. in optics and I want to acquire a Ph.D. in quantum photonics. Every time I apply for some position, the supervisor refuses because "I don't have a suitable scientific background", or something like this.
How I can convince him to accept me, and this knowledge gap can be overcome by reading before joining the lab?
P.S. 1: I'm talking about being accepted at European universities.
P.S. 2: I have published two papers in my field of study.


texts: "Send me your paper when you're done with it, I'd love to read it"

texts:
I noticed that at least in my field, sometimes professors say to students, "send me the [research] paper when you're done with it, I'd love to read it [and give comments]". That is usually taken as a compliment that the professor is interested in the student's work, especially if the professor is famous.

Is it appropriate for students to say that to professors, especially if they're genuinely interested in the professor's research? Or could it be seen as pretentious?

For context, I'm a social scientist, and my discipline is not grant-driven at all, so it is very common for students to not work with their advisors on particular projects (e.g. they work with other graduate students, or other professors who are not their advisor)


texts: Is there "rampant anti-male bigotry" in academia, and if yes, how does it manifest?

texts:
In an answer to another question, a user mentioned "rampant anti-male bigotry in academia". This sounds strange to me; I am a male and in academia (mathematics), and have observed no such bigotry. In fact, I see plenty of males in positions of high authority (full professors, rectors, etc.), and the two sexual harassment cases with which I am somewhat familiar both targeted non-male researchers. So, given what I have experienced and what I know, the claim sounds implausible.

But maybe (as in much of feminist literature) there is some kind of structural issue that might be hard to see for someone who is part of the system.

Since this issue is likely to be controversial, please cite reliable sources for any factual claims in your answer.

That given: Is there "anti-male bigotry" in academia? If yes, how precisely does it affect a male researcher?

Related: How is sexism unknowingly perpetrated in academia?


texts: Do professors actively seek postdoctoral students for projects?

texts:
Recently a colleague hired a postdoc from a pool of several candidates who applied. This candidate had the most suitable skills for the job but failed to acquire some other relevant skills, and the project is going nowhere fast. I think these stories are not rare at all.
Given the specificity of skills needed to complete certain projects, the importance of delivering results and the scarcity of funds, I wonder whether some faculty actively seek the right people instead of waiting for them to apply.
To make it clear, I don't mean universities hunting superstar faculty.


texts: How to proceed when a required math class is preventing me from graduation?

texts:
I started working on an AS degree in 2014. I took the required math class and failed it twice. I then passed all my other classes, but was told I would have to take the math AGAIN.

So the entire summer I studied, but I was told I could not take only one class for financial aid reasons. I was given a waiver to take the class alone, but after registering, I was then told I needed to re-apply as a new student. I debated this with many of the folks in financial aid and tried to explain I had a waiver to take the class. I had no choice so I reapplied.

I was then told my degree audit went from 95 percent done to 80 percent and that I had to retake classes I have already taken and passed. Fast forward, the school ignores me now. And now they have applied the Satisfactory Academia Progress (SAP) Rule to my account.

I’ve already talked to the entire financial aid department, every mathematics professor at the college, and the ones who run the entire school. I absolutely don’t know what to do anymore.


texts: Licence that converts to GPL after publication but is copyrighted prior to publication

texts:
I would like to post an repository on github that includes data and analysis code in R. The analysis and data forms part of a journal article submission. I'm happy for people to view the code and data prior to publication (in particular, it might be an easy way for reviewers to examine the code). However, I do not want anyone publishing  analyses of the data prior to acceptance and publication of the journal article. After publication, I want to encourage people to re-analyse, re-use, re-publish (e.g., with a GPL licence with an encouragement to attribute).

Obviously, I could just keep the data and analysis code a secret until after publication, but I thought an appropriately worded licence might be more appropriate. I thought about just writing in plain English that the work is copyrighted at this time, and will be converted to GPL at a later date following publication.

Is there a standard way of licensing data and code so that people cannot republish the data and code until the corresponding publication has been published?
Or is it better just to keep the data and code secret until after publication?

UPDATE: I suppose there is a legal perspective to this, but I know that academia has its own norms and conventions regarding attribution and respecting the wishes of authors. So I'd be particularly interested in answers framed in that context. I.e., My broader aim is to be the first to publish my own research, generally get attribution, but also allow others to build on that work. So I'd be interested also in what is considered good practice when you are in the situation of wanting to share data and code while an article is being peer reviewed, but not wanting to lose your right of first publication.


texts: Can I put my accepted-but-not-yet-on-IEEEXplore paper online?

texts:
I am currently hunting for research internships and going to apply for several positions. To make the admission officers accessible to my stories and experiences in further detail, I have created a personal Google Site showing those details and added the link into my CV.

Now it comes to my research part. I have one paper that is just informed to be accepted by a conference. However, since the conference is not held yet, the paper isn't available online.

I wish to make the paper accessible to the admission committee. How should I do that without harming my and my co-authors' interest?

Can I upload it to arXiv? Can I upload it to my own Google Site? Should I inform my co-authors of this? Does it really matter to them?


texts: Why do most U.S. Ph.D. programs accept fewer students with masters degrees?

texts: In the US, most Ph.D. programs accept far fewer students with master degrees compared to students who just graduate from college with a bachelor. Why is that the case since master students are supposed to have more background and maybe more research experience than students who just graduated from college?


texts:
I have noticed several special professor titles and I was wondering what are the exact details behind them. For example:

  Stan Franklin, W. Harry Feinstone Interdisciplinary Research Professor

I am guessing this is some sort of award but what type of awards come with a title like this? Are these internal or external? Does it last forever or is it tied to funding and then no longer applies?


texts: Article awaiting reviewer invitation 6 months after submission

texts:
I submitted a paper to an internationally reputed journal. Two months after submission I was asked to suggest possible reviewers, which I did after a couple of days reflection. Since then it has been 4 months and the paper is still "awaiting reviewer invitation." I sent an email to the editor-in-chief as this was the only contact information given for queries. It has been almost two weeks without any reply. The day before yesterday I emailed the managing editor to know if the paper is under review or still awaiting reviewer invitation, but still I have received no reply from either editor.

How should I get in contact with the journal regarding my paper's review status?


texts: Adding Arabic sources to my bibliography

texts: Should I dedicate a separate part in my bibliography for my Arabic sources and thus write them in Arabic letters, or should I transliterate them and include them within the whole bibliography like any other source. I've searched the latest version of MLA (8th. ed.) and found nothing relevant. Could anybody help me, please?


texts: Hiring a professor to review doctoral thesis

texts: Where can I find a professor to review my doctoral thesis? My current professor has a turnaround of 5 to 6 weeks before getting back to me with suggested revisions. I was hoping to hire someone to give me quicker feedback and reduce the time my professor needs to review my doc.


texts:
I received my bachelor's and master's degrees from university A. I was then supposed to do a PhD at university B in a different country but relocating did not work out (I did not start in the program). Some time later, I took a temporary research assistant position at university C. I was hoping to do a PhD also there but having considered the topic/group I think it is not a good fit for me.

I have discussed about returning to A but not signed a contract yet. Would it be disadvantageous to get all degrees from the same university?

I had very high expectation for the PhD since I was a very good student at A. However, I have now had two attempts going elsewhere and neither succeed. I am not sure how much support I would get for further applications.

Should I stay at A and try again after the PhD? The thing is, A is not very well-known university.


texts: How to prepare for a meeting regarding a Ph.D. program I'm wait listed on?

texts:
I am on the waiting list for a Ph.D. program I applied to. I sent an email indicating that the program in question is my top choice and that I am interested in discussing my qualifications.

In reply I received an email asking whom I see as potential advisors.

The reply also indicated that the department is looking in to some of the issues I discussed in my application, and that there are multiple things to consider including how well research interests match, funding and time constraints.

I've set up a meeting with the person to discuss these topics. I've already updated my list of potential advisors, but there was not sufficient time to contact them.

How should I prepare for this meeting?


texts:
I thought about writing a short bio, maybe 100 words, for the back cover of my thesis.

Should I do this? What to include in that case?


texts: What kind of administrative duties might a postdoctoral associate be expected to take on?

texts: Applying for a postdoctoral research role in the UK, the application says I should demonstrate willingness to take on administrative tasks. Can anyone tell me about what kind of administrative tasks a postdoctoral research associate might be expected to take on? Does anyone have any experience? I'm trying to tailor my application, but I don't want to go into depth on administrative experience that might not be relevant to the role.


texts: I have submitted a manuscript to a CS conference, and it was rejected but with decent scores given by the reviewers (just under the accept treshold). If I list the manuscript as a preprint in my CV, is it OK to mention that I submitted to that conference and it got rejected with those scores? This version of the CV would not be publicly accessible.


texts: Dullness vs. going overboard: Should I be calling people 'enfants terribles' in an academic paper?

texts:
I'm just about to finish my master's in law with only my dissertation left to handle. I'm being extremely cautious with the language that I'm using when writing as I've previously been told that my writing style is not academic enough for a UK institution. Although I agree with this criticism (and I've been working to improve my use of colloquial expressions) I do think that law papers tend to be dull and much too monotonous because of this constant pressure to make them sound as neutral as possible (while also capable of expressing your distinct opinions). This dullness must also be annoying for the person grading the paper, especially after reading multiple boring and similar dissertations.

I've previously experimented with structure when writing one of my course essays in order to build suspense before unraveling the finding of my research. Judging by the comments (and the grade that I got) the person grading it was really pleased with the final result. This gave me the confidence to be more imaginative when working on my dissertation, but at the same time I do not want to get too carried away.

It is not that I find calling a person enfant terrible to be  particularly  original, I just think it might lead to the person reading it to crack a smile. Apart from making it a more distinguishable paper it will also be beneficial for my argument, as I will have to spend less time debunking this particular person's theories by drawing the attention to the fact that although they are very popular and frequently quoted, they are widely considered to be too extreme by his peers.

What is your opinion? Where would you draw the line when trying to make a paper more interesting? (note that this question is not about finding creative ways to hide a weak argument)


texts:
Who should create contacts with other universities/departments/researchers during a PhD study?
The supervisor or the student?

How these contacts may affect the continuing of the academic carrer of the student? May be possible that a specific contact during the PhD will evolve in a post-doc position later on?

Should contacts always be made?


texts: How long it takes between email confirmation of submission and authors name indexing for a Conference?

texts:
From the date of the email confirmation of submission of a paper to a conference to the first indexing by Google of authors name, how long it takes ?
Thanks


texts: I have enrolled as a PhD student in one of the UK's universities. I have been received an email containing a list of different professors and secretaries in the department. I am a little worried since I don't know how to greet them and I don't know what to say. Could anyone please help me?


texts: Is it worth enrolling in a Ph.D. program without employment?

texts:
As I understand, European universities offer two types of Ph.D. programs:

Ph.D. without employment
Ph.D. with employment

As far as I understand, North American universities do not work in that way.

Is it worth enrolling in a Ph.D. program without employment (#1) careerwise if someone wants a job in academia in future?


texts: MLA: Do I have to cite the editors of a book for a research paper?

texts:
That's how the question was phrased in an English quiz I just took. The correct answer was 'yes'. Maybe the wording makes a difference, because the Purdue OWL has several example book citations with no mention of the author unless it's an anthology.

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/06/


texts: What to list as affiliation when work spans multiple institutions?

texts:
I began working on a paper during my undergraduate degree in the summer of 2014. I continued to work on the same paper into summer 2015, at which time I graduated and moved to a different university to pursue a graduate degree. However, all experiments failed and my collaborators and I were unable to produce any meaningful results. In fall 2015, while enrolled in graduate studies at the second university, I realized that the question at the centre of this paper could be answered using a completely different method. I contacted my collaborators and we have been able to produce some great results.

Now I am writing the paper and wondering what I should list as my affiliation, since the project was begun at one university but overhauled and completed at another. I see four options:

The old university
The new university
Both the old and new universities
The old university, with a “present address” note

What is standard practice in a situation like this, where work is begun in one lab but completed in another? Does the re-design of the project from the second university complicate the issue?


texts:
Would advisors and universities generally support Ph.D. students who have an applicable thesis, to make contracts with the public sector in the US?

And, will it bring a good share for the student and advisor or mostly the university?


texts:
I would like to have a professional academic webpage, and for different reasons, I don't want to use the website of my current workplace (mostly because due to some external factors, it's not currently possible where I work, but also because I consider changing affiliation in the future, and I'd like to avoid moving my webpage).

A possible solution I'm considering would be to rent a server somewhere, and to manage it myself, but I was wondering if it existed some dedicated solutions for academics, ideally coming for free (after all, I can archive my papers on arXiv for free, I have a free academic licence for Bitbucket, I use Dropbox with the free version, I can also use Mendeley and academia.edu for free, I currently have a free wordpress.com blog), with the constraint that I'd like to be able to write my own scripts (for instance to publish my personal list of publications Tool to manage and/or make available a list of my publications on the web? , or to manage a list of conferences I'm interested in).


texts: How to compensate students who face technical issues in online exams

texts:
I am teaching a college level course, and a few students had technical issues during exam 1 (held online) and where not able to complete various parts of the exam.  One option that I could think of is to use their grade from a future exam (also held online) as their exam 1 grade. Designing another complete exam 1 is not an option in our case.
But I am wondering if there are better alternatives.... could you share your experiences regarding dealing with such issues?


texts: I've recently published a paper. It's available online, but not published on hard copies yet. What should I do If I find out that there is a typo (repeated many times) in a recently published paper of mine at Elsevier?


texts: NSF letter of intent to collaborate w/ industry partner

texts:
Currently a university is pursuing an NSF grant with an industry partner, who might participate in a minor role. The university has jointly appointed faculty with the partner. These faculty would be working as unfunded collaborators on the grant, as would, potentially, some other members of their respective teams outside the university. The faculty cannot sign a letter of intent to collaborate on behalf of the partner(ship).
We'd like to include this letter of intent to collaborate, but using the NSF's suggested formatting is unlikely to pass the partner's legal checks and balances within the time remaining. (They likely will want to review the entire proposal, even though their duties are limited to a pre-existing collaboration agreement.) If we could replace the NSF's suggested language (see here) with language that specifically details the duties of the partner, making it self-contained, this would potentially not be an issue. Here, the NSF seems to insist that you must use their recommended format.
Has anyone had experience with a similar situation and, if so, was there any freedom to adjust the language?


texts: Humorous or famous dictum as motto for a scientific text - is it appropriate?

texts:
Every once in a while I stumble upon a scientific book or article with a «motto», that is, a brief aphorism or short humorous stanza at the beginning, usually separated by its layout from the body of the text. In a book, this can also be in front of each chapter.

But is it generally considered appropriate for scientific texts or rather not advisable? In particular, does it come across as pretentious (aphorism) or frivolous (humor)? Clearly, I am unsure how to evaluate it.


texts: Avoiding the appearance of name dropping in fellowship applications

texts:
When describing my research experience in fellowship applications, I will write something to the extent of "I began pursuing 'item X' under 'Professor Y'." Of course, I follow up with why I found the experience meaningful, and what my role was.

However, I have received feedback from at least two different sources saying that this name dropping is frowned upon, and that if I have a panelist who hates this, that it will torpedo my application.

In my mind, the person I am working with may be relevant if a panelist knows of their work. However, at the same time, a fellowship is about me. Is there a good reason to include the names of the PI's, and if so how can that be written? Or is it truly safer to just remove the names of PI's, especially if they are someone famous (e.g. an NAE/NAS member)?


texts: Hypotheses that cannot be sufficiently tested

texts:
My understanding is that a hypothesis is not scientific unless there is a way to sufficiently test it.

Is it ever acceptable to present a hypothesis that cannot be sufficiently tested?

I can imagine a situation where one has a hypothesis (A) that can be sufficiently tested via available research methods (e.g. a questionnaire) and another (B) that can only be sufficiently tested via other research methods that you do not have the resources to conduct (e.g. face-to-face interviews).

Would it be acceptable to partially test for hypothesis B and collect some preliminary data for it in this fictitious questionnaire, despite knowing that this would be an imperfect test? But then, if the testing method is imperfect, would this truly be considered a hypothesis or something else?


texts: Is it acceptable for a lecturer to refuse to allow their qualifications and work experience to be placed on a university website?

texts:
There are several universities which have a staff profile page on their websites. Lecturers usually list their academic qualifications, work experience, the modules they teach and the papers they have published there.

Since the page is public and qualifications and work experience are private information, can a lecturer refuse to provide this information?
Is a university allowed to disclose a lecturer's background to the public or other staff members without said lecturer's consent?


texts: How common is a must-pass-final requirement?

texts:
For a course with a final exam, is it more common to: (a) require that the final exam be passed to pass the course, or (b) allow for a student to fail the final exam and still pass the course?

How could we estimate the relative proportion of the two policies? If someone argued that case (a) was "rare" in higher education, how could we respond?

Edit: Consider restricting to mathematics classes at American universities, with a comprehensive final exam, if that's clarifying.


texts: Is it unethical to accept extra time on exams when I still do well?

texts:
I have ADHD (real, diagnosed ADHD, not just "I-say-I-have-ADHD-because-it's-trendy" ADHD). I have never taken the extended time exams that are offered for ADHD students, because I have never needed to, and it was diagnosed just a year ago. However, exams do stress me out and I am certain I would do better on them with some more time - but this is true for almost anyone, not just ADHD students. Thus, would it be unethical to make use of the ADHD services offered to me?

(Edit: You might ask - why would you want to / feel it is justified? Well, hypothetically say ADHD students only achieve 75% of their "non-ADHD" potential in a standard-time setting. Maybe, even though I am doing well, I would be doing even better if I did have the extended time or didn't have ADHD, i.e. due to my exhaustive preparation, even with the disadvantage of my ADHD I am still managing to get a high score. But, with a "level playing field" [extended time for me], I would be at the top of the class. However, I still don't know if this is logical / ethical.)


texts: Single author papers against my advisor's will?

texts:
I am a third year PhD student in an area of theoretical CS that would like advice for a difficult situation with my advisor.

My advisor is not involved in my research projects at all. In particular, I have come up with all of my paper ideas, and have executed the papers alone. However, she always insists on adding her name as a co-author. This has started to increasingly bother me, as I work very hard on my research and believe I should get credit for that. Note that in theoretical CS, there is no PI is always last author just because of funding tendency, all authors are considered equal and are ordered alphabetically. This makes it particularly bad to just add her, because it is completely ambiguous how much each of us has done.

For my most recent paper, I brought up how I didn't believe she was meeting the IEEE or ACM guidelines for authorship, and told her that I believed I should be sole author on my paper. She agreed that she shouldn't be an author, although she was visibly angry. She said that I was a "weirdo" for doing this, and said that everybody already knows that advisors take credit for their student's work and that publishing with your advisor is the same as publishing alone (this is absolutely untrue). But most importantly, she told me that she would not approve my proposal/dissertation if I did not add her name to several more top-tier papers because then I "have no ties to the university" since I am not working with a professor, and therefore cannot receive my PhD. She also made a lot of other threats, but that was the most relevant to me.

Obviously, I need a new advisor. However, there is really no one in my department in my research area. Switching research areas or departments are not options. So the remaining options are the following:

(1) Add her name to several more papers. I do not like this idea because it is unethical, and there is no guarantee that anything is even gained in this option. She could simply refuse to recommend me in the end after I got her a bunch of papers.

(2) Ignore her threats, and continue working towards my PhD, assuming that she will have to let me graduate. The reasons I don't believe she can stop me from graduating is because (a) I already have a good publication record and my papers are only getting better (b) I have funding independent of her through a fellowship and (c) our dept makes is difficult to kick out graduate students for no real reason. The downside of this is that she won't give me a letter of recommendation, but she doesn't have many connections anyways so this might not be too bad. On the positive side, I will have a bunch of single author papers.

(3) Try to convince a professor in an unrelated research area in my dept to be my advisor, emphasizing that I am independent and can do my work alone. There are a few theory professors in my dept, although they are totally different areas. I have no idea the chance of this working out.

I am also planning on talking to the chair about my situation. But I just wanted to get more of an opinion, what do you think I should do?


texts: What do the middle digits of course codes represent?

texts:
Take the course code PHYS 3054 or PHYS 354. The physics department doesn't offer 54 courses at the 300 or 3000 level.

I imagine some universities subscribe to a set of common best practices for course numbering. So I suspect that there might be an answer that applies to the numbering systems of a number of institutions.


texts:
I received a mail today from Academia.edu (a site I wasn't previously aware of), asking me to confirm that I co-authored a paper with a colleague.

Having looked into it a little it sounds like it might be a useful site - the idea of a "social network for scientists" is one I've seen the need for in the past. However, partly due to bad experiences with the seemingly similar ResearchGate, I'm also skeptical.* Without signing up for an academia.edu account the site doesn't offer much information, so I would like the following information:

What specific features does academia.edu offer to its users?
Is it genuinely useful for any of the following purposes (each of which seems genuinely needed)

as a platform for networking with academics
for discovering relevant research
as an effective system for post-publication peer review
for organising references among a small team of people working on a project

Will it send out mails to my colleagues without my express and explicit permission? (I.e. are the mails I received today the result of a deliberate action by my colleague, who is aware that I will be emailed and wishes me to join the site; or are they essentially spam from a social networking site aggressively trying to expand its user base?)
It's clear from its Wikipedia page that it's a private, venture-capital funded company. What is its business model?

In short, is this a site that has some genuine utility for academics, or should I just ignore it?

*I've never signed up for ResearchGate but I regularly receive spam from it purporting to be from my colleagues, who aren't aware that it's being sent on their behalf. I would be mortified if my senior colleagues received such mails claiming to be from me, so I won't touch it with a barge pole.


texts: Appropriate response to fellowship award notice via email

texts:
I received an email notifying that my colleague and I have been awarded a fellowship, sent by an administrator but signed by the director of the programme which is a professor. The institution in based in the US. The professor and another administrator are copied in that email. The only instruction in the email was to contact an administrator notifying them of my acceptance.
What is the appropriate response? Should I reply to the initial email thanking for the fellowship in addition to writing the administrator? Should I include the director of the programme?
Being based in northern Europe, my initial impression is that a "thank you" email sent to everyone's mailbox would be an annoyance, but I'm completely ignorant of etiquette in American academia. Would a lack of a thank you email be seen as a lack of gratitude?


texts: New author, independent research, scope of publishing

texts:
I have done my masters in Computer Science, but did not receive much support in the masters program to get the final project published. I am presently working as a software developer in the industry while also trying to perform independent research on a few topics which I have in mind when out of the office.

I have recently completed some research ad derived new method for data clustering based on a heuristic which is novel idea as far as I can tell. I have shown it to work better with respect to only one metric with a few other algorithms which is of the closest type.

I have been allowed to use my employer's organization address and email for correspondence, but my organization has told that there should be a disclaimer that my organization has nothing to do with this research. If I do not use this address, I need to give my current address. I am not sure if I can give my university address at this point, as the entire research was done after I graduated. At the university I had access to journal subscriptions for which appropriate acknowledgments are given.

Previously I have not published any peer-reviewed work anywhere and I am the only author of this manuscript. I am not sure how shall I proceed. Submitting to journal such as Elsevier will be single blind, and as I am trying to publish as a new independent author, will my submission be subject to biases based on my lack of previous publications? Or shall I go for a conference with double blind review process? Also the 7 ~ 10 page mark for conference is difficult to maintain without removing vital components.

Some information about the work. The work was not complex, but is unique and it is shown to work on several well known data-sets. The main topic is data clustering.

How should I proceed with publication?

Edit:

Adding information in reply to @Nahkk's comment.

I have no previous academic experience. I have shown this to one professor from a different research interest domain because none of the professors from the paper's domain were interested in this topic, surprisingly. I have also asked for suggestion from a person working in this field. One of them suggests to try for a journal and another suggests a conference first, then work and improve the algorithm do exhaustive tests and then go for a journal later.


texts: How to gain skills in project management?

texts:
So far, my master thesis had an initial plan, and I would keep in contact with the PI as I need. However, now that the academic course comes to an end, all the students in the lab (3) we have to finish our projects. He is also applying to grants that have tight deadlines and supervising 1 PhD thesis that will be presented in a month, together with addressing the reviewers of two papers and supervising a new one (with part of my work :). This is a lot of work (I am sure other people are more stressed though) and sometimes I feel I am not given all the advice I could due to poor project management of the lab and projects (yes, I tried more frequent meetings but they keep being postponed).

I would like to start a PhD soon, and later to have my own research team; what project management skills should I learn for a successful PhD/career?
Some skills I thought as important are:

Time management

I found useful answers here at the tag time-management
Multiple (parallel) projects management

My current project started as to analyze some data and ended up analyzing data and developing, testing and prove a new method. (That's another reason why I consider my project was poorly thought out.)
People management
?

And more importantly, how can I learn them through the master thesis and PhD?


texts: Is there a comprehensive system for identifying course objectives?

texts:
When planning my courses, I usually try to establish a variety of objectives, beyond the primary objective described in the course description, and layer many minor objectives into the lessons. Courses for freshmen tend to have more objectives, as they are often learning about the requirements of being a student at college.

As an example, in a course called "History of New Orleans", I would focus on these objectives:

content (e.g. know major events in New Orleans' history)
cultural understanding (e.g. develop affinity/understanding of the perspective of different peoples in New Orleans)
vocabulary (e.g. academic meta-vocabulary, terms specific to the content)
research skills (e.g. assessing bias in sources, writing a works cited)
practice with technological tools to assist (e.g. software for accessing historical records)
group work skills (e.g. effectively combining work)
academic behavior (e.g. learn that plagiarism is not welcome in college)

I have seen tools such as Bloom's Taxonomy, however, that seems too narrowly focused on the course topic and does not seem to broadly cover many of the skills I've listed above. I want to find some table/system/taxonomy to help me to identify and organize the objectives.

Is there a system to assist course instructors in selecting course objectives?


texts: Do media interviews enhance or potentially spoil academic reputations

texts:
During my research, asides from getting papers published, I have been interviewed for the radio and newspapers. My question is, are too many media 'appearances' a potential hindrance to someone early in their academic career?  Or is it also a case of 'all publicity is good'?

My main concern is being misquoted, which thankfully has not happened, though they exaggerated one (minor) point a tad.


texts: How do I acquire research experience for a PhD in Computer Science after I've started working in industry?

texts:
Here is my background: I was a high school teacher that transitioned into data science about 4 years ago. I've been a data scientist and software engineer for the past 3-4 years and made a pretty good career out of it, and am now managing a small team of analysts, data scientists, and data engineers myself. However, I'm realizing I'd like to do research, specifically within computer science and natural language processing for the rest of my career. It's something I'm constantly drawn to and passionate about, and something I spend my weekends doing reading textbooks anyways, and I feel like I've hit my limits within industry. I'd like to actually contribute new algorithms and architectures, specifically within NLP (natural language processing).
Here is my problem: I don't have formal research experience- no published papers, no internships at research labs. My BA was in History over 10 years ago. I've done research projects for my work as a data scientist and deployed machine learning models into production as a result of different statistical tests I've performed, but I'm pretty sure the academic world does not consider this "real research". I do have a Masters in Computer Science from Syracuse (and graduated with the top GPA from the program) and an MBA from UCLA, and have many research papers I wrote for my classes, but were never submitted for publishing and have ended up as more or less repositories on my Github profile. Even though I was in the business school at UCLA, I've taken almost a minors-worth of graduate and senior-level coursework in CS, and done pretty well grade-wise. I also moonlight as an adjunct professor teaching a graduate level NLP and text analytics course at a top 25 university. But no research experience. I know I can do research, because I've never been so passionate about interested in this topic - and at worst, if I can't actually do it, I need to find out.
Here's what I need help with: I've seen lots of posts on different forums asking "is research required for a top X program, etc." This is not one of them. I know I have to pay my dues. I know people put in countless hours of sweat and toil in research labs to earn the privilege to be admitted to a PhD program. I'm not asking to cut the line because somehow I have some random industry experience. I've saved up enough money to quit my job (if I need to) and self fund myself for an internship or volunteer position at a research lab somewhere. I just don't know where to start - how does a 32 year old begin to acquire research experience? Do I just start picking professors from websites that have similar interests to mine and cold emailing them asking if they have volunteeer opportunities? Do I look for some sort of post-bac program? Do I try to find some research opportunities at work and document those projects really well?
Any perspectives or advice would be extremely appreciated. Thanks in advance.


texts: Prepared for 40 Hour Research Internship - Changed to 20

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A bit of backstory- I'm a rising sophomore undergraduate student studying computer science who is strongly interested in urban planning as well. This spring, I put about 12 hours a week of work into conducting undergraduate research with a lab at my uni and was offered a funded research assistant internship with the same lab this summer.

As this is my first time getting a real job (outside of high school), I had assumed that I would be working full-time this summer without communicating with my professor that much. Obviously, this was wrong to assume, but I have since learned from that mistake and take full responsibility.

However, my professor recently wrote me an email saying that he expects me to be working 20 hours a week, even though I have worked 40 hours a week for the first week of my job. I contacted HR and they said I was down as a full-time employee, but that if my professor expects me to work 20 hours, then I should only work 20 hours. This is the first time we have ever really communicated about work hours at all.

To make matters worse, I had planned to write a paper this summer, but the timeline I composed had assumed I'd be working 40 hours a week. The paper's deadline is on August 1st, and I'm concerned I won't be able to complete research working just 20 hours a week.

I am really interested in working on this paper, so much that I am even willing to put in time outside of my job to work on it, if necessary. My prof is unwilling to negotiate hours with me until mid/late July, and I plan on getting another part-time job now. I'm also taking 2 summer courses (online and CLEP though, so not too bad).

Should I propose to drastically narrow the scope of my paper so that I can finish it with a 20 hour work-week, or should I bite the bullet and try to keep working on the paper as it stands outside of work (time permitting)?


texts: Citing a book vs citing the original paper

texts:
Books often have great overviews of topics and can cite dozens of papers in a single section or chapter and the book author typically cites the original discoveries of many others besides himself.

Is it ever appropriate to cite a book alone, or should I always cite the original papers?

Does it matter if my use of the the material is a brief reference to a broad topic I'm building on vs a specific paper?

Is the number of years that have passed, or perhaps how common the knowledge is in the field a factor when deciding to cite the book or the original paper?

Does the answer vary by field? If so, in my case I'm typically working with robotics and computer vision papers.


texts: What factors does an admissions commitee use when considering a non-degree candidate in grad school?

texts:
I have an interest in taking some very specific engineering classes at my local (very competitive) university. I already have an MSEE. As it is not close enough to my current career path, I am trying to get a better background in some areas and stay up-to-date in others. Since I don't really want a PhD, I had applied as a self-financed non-degree candidate. But, I was not accepted.

I'm wondering, is any consideration given to degree status during admissions? Is the admissions process typically identical to MS and PhD candidates?


texts: What should I expect from a non-academic interview for a PhD position?

texts:
I have applied for a PhD position in Physics. First I had Skype interview that they called "personal interview". They asked me about my family and stuff.

Now the University has called me for a face to face interview and they are calling it "non-academic interview".

I wonder what kind of questions should I expect from this interview?

Note: I had academic interview with my prospective supervisor, who's accepted me.

The university is KAUST (Saudi Arabia)


texts: What exactly the reviewers mean by saying "the contribution/novelty is limited"?

texts:
I sometimes receive a comment from 1-2 of my reviewers saying something similar to "the contributions and novelty of the work/method is limited".
Consider it in the context of CS where you develop methods and algorithms which increase the performance of the state-of-the-art in a specific problem/domain.

Of course in every paper, i state my contributions for the reader to understand, but when i receive a general comment like that i get puzzled. Especially when there is no mutual communication between the author and the reviewer to clarify the misunderstandings.

So, let's say, in what typical situation a reviewer might vote for a critism like that?


texts: How to turn down a Postdoc scholarship offer after signing a contract

texts:
How you as professors would prefer to be informed in this case? That is, how to turn down a Postdoc fellowship offer that you have already signed a contract.

The reason in my case is I get an even better offer at another fellowship foundation. But the fact that I contacted the professor, we applied for the fellowship together, I got it and accepted it, make me feel quite awkward...


texts: Search for StackExchange citations with Google Scholar

texts:
Is it possible to use Google Scholar to search for publications that cite StackExchange users, questions, or answers?

cf. my Meta StackExchange question "Publications that cite Stack Exchange" or "Academic papers using Stack Exchange data"


texts: References on how often finances are cited as a barrier to graduate study

texts:
I am looking for some pointers to research that addresses the question:

How frequently do students who have earned undergraduate degrees cite financial barriers as a major reason influencing their decision not to go on graduate study?

Anecdotally, I am personally aware of students who feel that financial considerations prevent them from pursuing graduate study (e.g., they have a family to support and they can't afford to live on a graduate student salary for so many years). I am interested in research1 that examines the prevalence of this kind of thing (subject to the usual limitations of this kind of survey research, of course).

I have come across studies on how often finances are cited as barriers facing would-be undergraduate students2, but I have not seen any equivalent research about graduate study.

1 I am not looking for answers from anecdotal evidence not supported by a study or citation. I am also not looking for answers explaining why such a study is unlikely to exist, or why it should not be trusted if it did

2 See e.g., Studies on Barriers to Higher Education in Texas, and University fees biggest barrier to wider access, research finds


texts: Conflict of Interest from previous employment as a graduate student

texts: I am currently working in industry with a pharmaceutical company on a one year contract (front-line sales role). Following this contract, I was hoping to complete my masters of Science in population and public health. If I am no longer affiliated with the company by the time I begin courses, and will not finish a masters thesis for 2 years (where the research is not related to my previous employment), is this a conflict of interest, and how is this managed?


texts: Understanding an abnormal grade distribution

texts:
I have three years of experience teaching as part of a team (many teachers, some with more experience, agreeing on a syllabus and preparing the tests together), but this year is the first time I am fully in charge of some courses.

After grading the mid-term exam for one of my class, I noticed I had a weird grade distribution:

(If this is useful, there are 24 grades, the set of grades is { 1.2, 1.4, 1.4, 1.9, 2.0, 2.3, 2.6, 2.6, 3.4, 4.2, 4.2, 4.3, 4.6, 4.6, 4.8, 4.8, 4.9, 5.3, 6.0, 6.2, 6.4, 7.1, 7.8, 7.8 }, the average is 4.25 and the standard deviation is 2.01.)

I have looked carefully at all my previous tests, and I can confirm I have never seen a curve like this before.

In my short experience, I have heard, read of reflected that a distribution with two curves would probably either mean that a) a large subgroup of students cheated or b) as a teacher I am mostly addressing the best students and letting the others down.

But this looks like there are actually three curves, and I am wondering which characteristic of my teaching or my students could explain that.

Besides, if someone is aware of any scholarly work on this subject, that would be lovely. I couldn't find anything myself.


texts: Where should be original quotations be type-set in a translation?

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I'm writing a scientific manuscript in German and since I want to give the German readers the opportunity to understand everything of it, I will include translations of all foreign quotes.
How would I do this? Let's assume the following hypothetical English text, where I want to include the original German quote (Es geht nicht um ein Stück vom Kuchen; es geht um die ganze Bäckerei.):

Most politicians will happily confirm what was already pointed by Dota Kehr and million others "it's not about the cake, it's about the whole bakery." [DK 2009]

The question is: Where do I put the original quote in German and do I have to point out that I translated it?
My current solution is as follows:

Most politicians will happily confirm what was already pointed by Dota Kehr and million others "it's not about the cake, it's about the whole bakery.¹" [DK 2009]
¹Original: Es geht nicht um ein Stück vom Kuchen; es geht um die ganze Bäckerei.


texts:
I was offered a post-doc position at 2 institutions where I was invited for an interview by a PI.
I am also invited for 2 more interviews the next couple of weeks at different institutions.
Both institutions who sent the offer letter are expecting an answer and I think they assume that I will accept the offer. This is what I got from the conversation.
I am really confused because I do not want to ruin my reputation if they get upset when I do not accept their offer. All what I did is that I showed interest during the interview. Is there any advice on how to professionally decline an offer without offending the PI. Also what is the best advice on how to choose between the 2 offers? Should I go to the 2 scheduled interviews or would I be confusing myself even more?


texts: If I do not meet the min. GRE score requirement, shall I apply to the school anyway?


texts: How can I improve undergraduate students' writing skills?

texts:
The fact: my students write badly. The source of the problem is, most likely, low quality primary and secondary education, with little emphasis on essays.
Long term solutions are beyond the scope of this question. My focus is on the short term, as a teacher of a course that asks for essays and reports. How can I help my students to improve their writing skills, even if just a little, during the course of a semester?
A potentially relevant fact: there is no awareness among students (and I would even say, among teachers) that good writing is important for their future.
Other context: I'm in a business department. My class has an average of 20 students. They come from high school. I'm new to the university so just getting to know the type of student.
This question (or its answers) seems focused on graduate students, with many examples from lab work or theses, which is not my case. This question is about us, academics. The focus here is on undergraduates who will not develop an academic career, but require such skill nonetheless, and unfortunately my university is not providing it, at least not systematically.


texts: What can I to improve my grades in MS in computer science and engineering, when they are poor because of inadequate background in math?

texts:
I am studying Graduate MSc in CSE. Due to inadequate knowledge in Statistics/Calculus, my grades are getting bad.

What would be the best way to save my grades?

I am considering, skipping this program, getting a diploma in Math and then coming back again.

Can you suggest any better option?


texts: Does failing the qualifying exam leave a record?

texts:
For a PhD student, is it common that failing a qualified exam and thus leaving the PhD program results in a termination record, which any future academic program (the student will apply to) will be interested in accessing after getting the student's permission?

For example, some can leave their PhD program with a clean record, according to this blog:

  The graduate committee chair who gave me the news reminded me that I could still apply to other programs and that it wouldn’t go on my record or anything so it will just look like I just left with my MS degree. If I ever want to, I can return to grad school in the future, and I will be better able to choose a department that fits me.

But if the student has received his masters way before his qualify exam, is there other way to write the record that looks better?


texts: Can a graduate school dean prevent you from attending a class?

texts:
One of my professors is bullying me, so I filed a complaint with the Dean of the graduate school.  He said, "While the investigation is in progress, you are not to attend class."  He said that I was still responsible for passing the class and completing all assignments and taking all exams, but to not attend the class.  I have a midterm in a week and this week, the study guide is being handed out.  How I am suppose to pass this class?  If I fail, I will lose all of my financial aid and will not be able to continue my education.  I do not know what to do.  The Dean also told me not to discuss my situation with anyone except him and he meant that I cannot even discuss this situation with family and friends and not to have any contact with the professor, including email contact.  So, how do I turn in my papers?

Update: I had a friend go to class to pick up the study guide and the professor had absolutely no idea why I was not attending class. In other words, the Dean never spoke with him.


texts: Teaching a very small class when the students have very uneven proficiency levels

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How should a teacher and student cope with a situation like this.

I've been studying spanish for about a year and enrolled in a successive course. However, the course starts really early and there is only one other student, who should probably be in a more advanced class. The other student has been studying spanish for probably twice as long as me and already knows most of the grammar to be covered during the trimester. Obviously, this puts some stress on me, as I don't feel good about interrupting each exercise asking for translations and slowing the class down. On the other hand, I would definitely be in the right if I did, but that isn't much help.

How can I and the teacher work together to make this situation acceptable for all parties? Honestly at this point I'm thinking about dropping from this trimester and taking the financial hit from tuition fee I will not get back.


texts: Are you allowed to copy text from your Master's thesis into your PhD thesis?

texts:
I wrote a Master's thesis a couple of years ago (which is available to view from my University's online service; so it's out there) and am now doing a PhD. Some passages from my Master's thesis is relevant to my PhD and could be used in my  PhD literature review. If it matters, the masters thesis is not published and I am studying in a UK university.

Am I allowed to copy chunks of text from my masters thesis into my PhD thesis?


texts: How to work authorship of software developed with another University

texts:
I am supervising a PhD student, enrolled at another University, where the co-supervisor is employed. We developed some useful software in her thesis and published 3 papers. In this development another member from the other university also participated. Now she will defend her thesis and leave, and it is not clear yet whether they will be interested in further development of this software.

I am really interested in this and I am the only one who knows how to use it in different contexts so I can foresee that I could get 30 publications with this tool in the next 5 years. I have the feeling (and I could obviously be wrong) that since the PhD student will leave, the colleagues from the other University will not work anymore on improving the software. But if I get new publications with the software, they have the right to be included as co-authors on all the papers even if they do not anything at all.

We are friends and we work together very well, but I think this is unfair. And I do not know how to present this situation to them. If I tell them exactly like this I feel they will get upset. So I am lost and I do not know what do here. Most optimal situation I can think is that on each new paper, tell them that I need to add some minor features to the paper (so that we work) and then I can feel they have the rights to be co authors of the paper. Are there better ways to handle this? I feel that we should have settled everything from the beginning, but it is now when I realize about this.


texts: How to locate most important literature in an unfamiliar area

texts:
I'm a pre-doctoral researcher (does it exist?) figuring out my true interests and learning the craft. When I start exploring a new (that is, unfamiliar) area, I try to find the most influential literature and scholars in that area through a haphazard and unsystematic process (such as starting with some highly-cited papers, consulting their list of references etc.). And because this is an unsystematic process, I'm never sure that I've not left unexplored some really important work.

I wonder if there's a more efficient process. How do you all go about this?

Also, (and this is a more specific question) what are some online forums where I can ask for more experienced researchers' opinion about what they consider to be the most important literature in a particular area?

Edit: To add some context, I work as a researcher in a US business school. My main area of work is entrepreneurship. Since this is an interdisciplinary subject, I have to consult literature in a wide variety of fields (some recent examples: psychology, complexity science, economics; of course, I access a very small part, the part that is the most relevant to my question). Entrepreneurship itself is in the process of defining its own scope and boundary.


texts:
I have submitted a paper to a Springer conference and it has been published. The publisher will charge 24.95$ to anyone who would eventually download my paper and 201 copies of my research sold by Springer official site.
How much percentage royalty do I get from Springer (as the paper's author) and how I can apply for royalty payment?


texts: When describing a joint effort, refer to colleague by name or by their title?

texts:
If another developer was involved in the research process for a task, should I say that "Bob and I worked on this" or that "another developer and I worked on this"?

Of course, others should be acknowledged in general, but I am asking about how to cite them in the context of the in-line text itself, rather than an explicit acknowledgements chapter.


texts: Co-authors either dismiss my ideas or don't understand them... and then dismiss them anyway

texts:
I'm a PhD student in computer science. I'm currently working with 2 co-authors in revising a paper for resubmission (I'm not the main author). They act very respectful and open to criticism, but they seem to dismiss my concerns without realizing that they are doing it. I'm going to use a fictional example to illustrate the spirit of our conversations:

Me: "I don't think 2+2=5 as you said."

Them: "But we've addressed that concern before. Maybe you should explain yourself better so that we can understand."

Me: "I've already explained it 10 times in different emails and in person. There was even a claim that said 2=1 that I refuted."

Them: "We're not doubting your arguments but we need some time to figure out if that's true. Now let's consider 2+2=5... Oh, yeah, if 2=1 turns out to be true, then..."

At that point, it would make sense to me to ask about how I refuted 2=1. They want it to be true, I'm saying it's false, but they go on with their own trains of thought, assuming it's true. If someone in your team has a piece of information that can be decisive for something you are very interested in knowing, why would you ignore it? I've been told I have to learn how to explain why something is important in order to get my message across, but in this case it is important for everyone (and they know that) and yet they are not willing to make an effort to understand. They have even told me that they have answered my questions when in fact they haven't, and then I have to explain what it is that they don't understand and why, and it's getting frustrating.

1) Am I doing something wrong? How can I tell if it's a lack of skill on my part or laziness on theirs?

2) How can I refuse to collaborate on future works with the same team? I have a feeling that they will ask me to prove that it's not my fault and will keep arguing that this "happens all the time when doing research".


texts: What are some good ways to keep students coming to lectures?

texts:
Having taught calculus for several semesters, I've noticed that the number of students attending lectures are gradually declining (especially for the 9am session). I would not be worried if they have learned the material by themselves so don't see the need of coming; However looking at their exam scores I concluded that a lot of them are not doing so well in the class when they miss lectures.

So what are some good ways to keep students coming to lectures?


texts: Manuscript status "Submitted to Journal" over a week in an Elsevier Journal

texts:
I submitted a manuscript to an Elsevier journal on 8 days ago. However, the "Current Status" of the manuscript is still "Submitted to Journal".

Is it common that the status "Submitted to Journal" lasts over a week?

When I click "Send E-mail" in the "Action Links", it shows that "This letter should not be used at this time. This submission is not in a status that would allow this letter to be sent to the intended recipient."

I cannot even withdraw this manuscript now because the Action Links do not contain "Withdraw" button. I submitted several manuscripts to this journal about three years ago. I checked the email at those moments. When I approved the submission of PDF files built by the submission system, I would receive a confirmation email from the editorial office. However, this time I did not receive any such email.

What should I do at this moment?


texts:
Alice (for argument's sake) is a postdoc in maths in an Australian University, but did her PhD in Europe. She is making two applications for funding. The first is to funding scheme A in her home country, the second is to funding scheme B in Australia. Scheme A is less prestigious and is worth less money than Scheme B. Alice's preferences are obvious: she prefers B to A, and A to whatever her next best option is.

Applications for Scheme A are due in November, the outcome is declared in April, the position begins in October. Applications for Scheme B are due in March, and the outcome is declared in November, the position begins in January. The application to Scheme A must be declared in the application to Scheme B. And, should Alice be accepted by Scheme A, she would have to notify Scheme B before they have made a decision on her application.

Question: Suppose Alice is offered Scheme A, how does she indicate this to Scheme B without prejudicing the outcome? Assume that Alice is willing to resign from Scheme A, say after six months or a year. Assume further that Alice stands a reasonable chance in both schemes. There is no guidance online about how this situation is resolved by the funding body for Scheme B.

TL;DR: What does one do if one receives a less prestigious offer while waiting for a decision on a more prestigious one?


texts: What is the term for intended consequences of an activity other than intended learning outcomes?

texts:
Question might be a bit strange.  I am looking at a series of activities that we run every year.  These activities have some intended learning outcomes (ILOs), but these outcomes are stated in terms of what students will know or be able to do at the end.  I'm trying to explain not just the ILOs but rather the intended experience that the students will have.  For example:

"Students will keep up with their homework and review course material throughout the semester, rather than cramming during exam times"

This isn't really an ILO, but it is an intended thing that students will do this due to the nature of the activity.  Is there a term for this type of thing in pedagogy? "Intended Student Experience", perhaps?


texts: My Supervisors are not helping in writing recommendations letters

texts:
Maybe they are helping and I am the one who does not know how things really work and that's why I am seeking help here.

I am about to finish my Master in Computer science (waiting for the oral exam). And this is the time to apply for as many as possible PhD programs. The problem is that many of PhD programs ask for at least two recommendation letters (sometimes three) and they do not accept general recommendation letter. Rather, they send to the referee's email and ask him/her to write. Therefore, for each of them my referees should write a separate evaluation. So far I got them to write for three applications (two got rejected already). However, I feel I am still at the beginning and there are so many programs I need to try. I am totally aware of the program suitability and I should not apply for a program that I'm not 100% sure I have good chance.

Now the problem is that I chase my referees to write one letter and sometimes I miss deadlines because they are busy or not responding.  I found only this question is very useful here but the issue is I follow all steps there to help them to write my recommendation letters, but they mostly do not. I am one of top 5% students of theirs and I published three papers with them.

I feel like I am stuck between the hammer and the rock here. My question is what is the best tactic I can follow at this stage? Cut down the number of programs I apply for? Or talk to the supervisor about the issue. What advice do you have for me? I really appreciate your advice.


texts: What habits should I build in the first part of my PhD?

texts:
I'm a first-year PhD student in a computer science department. As is usual at this school, my first three quarters are spent rotating with different professors, finding an adviser and a research fit that I like. However, unlike previous rotations, I can see myself working in this subfield for my PhD, and I've moved from wondering what subfield I'll be working in, to wondering how to get acclimated in this field.

I've always been a person to run an "outer loop" of self-reflection, advice-asking, and habit-forming. In undergrad, I followed a few blogs about making the most of college. However, it's been a lot harder for me to find useful advice about doing top-quality work in getting a PhD.

I hear that in the first part of your PhD, students are significantly less "productive" than in the fourth year and onward. That makes sense, and I'm becoming comfortable with the banging-head-against-wall feeling that is creeping up on me. However, I'd like to know what the three years of "unproductive" time teaches you to do, so I know what I should focus my energy on during these years.

I've heard it's important to read papers, develop a "taste" for useful problems, and hone in on a larger research question. However, each of those has a lot of follow-up questions that few people seem to talk about. Reading papers: how many? what about? what for? Taste: how do I get as many "data points" as possible in learning what's a useful problem?

Edit: I'm at school in the United States, and I'm unsure whether I'd want to go to academia, industry or run a startup. If I were to bet right now, I'd say 50% academia, 30% startup, 20% industry.


texts:
I am considering where to submit a recently finished preprint, and one of the best fits is a journal associated with the country where I'm working. That is, I'm a postdoc in one of main cities of X-land, and the jounal is called 'X-land Jounrnal of Mathematics'. Is the connection an argument in favour or against publishing there?

The arguemnts for publishing in XJM are, I think, quite natural: given that I'm working in X-land, I want other X-ians to be interested in my work, and they're perhaps fractionally more likely to have a look at XJM than YJM for Y != X. Assuming that publishing a paper in a journal is mutually beneficial, it stands to reason that I'd be happier to help XJM than a random other journal (even if infinitesimally so).

On the other hand, I have heard arguments in the opposite direction. The key worry is that the paper may be taken less seriously, and some slight academic nepotism might be suspected. That is, someone could see the publication and think it was just published because XJM looks more favourably on papers sent from X.

Are any of these concerns valid? If given a choice between publishing in a "local" journal, or an equally good "non-local" journal, which is a better idea? Or is it just the same, and I'm massively overthinking?

The field is pure mathematics. I don't want to name names, but the population of X is of the order of 10 mln. I realise the points "For" are very minor, and the arguments "Against" are probably minor too. I'm not originally from X, but would gladly hear how the answer would change if I were.


texts: Papers written with the sole purpose of finding flaws in someone else's paper

texts:
This question is based on a paper I came across a couple of years ago written by a famous professor who had developed a method to solve a certain problem. His method was not the first or the only method but it has some advantages and it is widely used in industry.

The paper I came across was written with sole purpose of finding flaws in a method for solving the same problem that someone else had published 15 years later.

Regardless of who was right, is this the proper way to deal with a flawed paper? This seems a bit weird to me. Do journals even normally publish such papers? Aside from citing the (presumably) flawed method, he also specifically named the authors in the abstract.

This worries me a bit because I plan to publish another method of solving the same problem soon, and although I have confidence in my work I don't think it's bullet-proof. I feel that if such a paper was written about my research it could have a significant negative impact on my future career if that was what popped up when you googled my name.


texts: Can my PhD main supervisor claim the "corresponding author" role for papers from my thesis even if he didn't provide much support during my study?

texts: I graduated last year and is now a postdoc in another university. My current boss (who was also in my PhD supervision team, but not the main supervisor) encouraged me to publish parts of my thesis as a journal paper. I wrote the paper during working hours and my current boss gave me guidance and advice. My plan was to include others who were in the supervision team as co-authors and have my current boss as the corresponding author. However, my main supervisor was pissed off when he learnt about it. He said he should be the corresponding authors for all the papers from my thesis. Is what he said correct? Is it a must? Actually the main supervisor gave me minimal support during my study and I don't think he deserves to be the corresponding author. The funding for my study was provided by the government.


texts: How to cite self-created images or pictures in thesis

texts:
When we put some images in a thesis, we provide a reference to its source where it’s located. If I have created my own images or pictures, how do I make it clear that they are my images and I did not copy and paste them from somewhere?.
So here is the scenario. I am comparing my application architecture with the existing architecture. Since it was a literature study, my architecture is quite different except for one or two components that share the idea with the other one.  I am showing both architectures. I explicitly mention the source of the other. But what about my own?
Is there a need to cite self-created images? If yes then how to cite them?


texts: Saying "After doing this work we learned..." in a paper

texts:
I have seen several math papers which end with a statement like "After completing the research in this paper, we learned that all the results are already known."  I wonder what are the situations in which such a comment is appropriate.

Such statements usually sound lazy to me, as though the author opted not to do a literature search at the outset, and after learning of previous work the author opted not to edit the paper (or withdraw it from submission for publication) beyond adding one sentence.  Putting the comment at the end of the paper seems especially questionable, in that the beginning of the paper gives the reader the impression that the results are new.  But I realize that mine is an extreme perspective which does not apply to all situations, and I would be interested to hear other perspectives.


texts: How to deal with a difficult team supervisor?

texts: I m in the fourth year of my PhD in veterinary sciences in North America. My Research project involves a lot of farm/team work. I have to work with technicians, farm staff, research associates and other students in the team as well as my advisory committee. I attended in many leadership workshops but still find it hard to deal with negativity, anger and control issues from one of my superiors. She in managing students as a research associate and has quite an influence on my advisor. She told me herself that she has chosen to be mean to people and has been humiliating others and me in various occasions. What should I do? How can I keep myself safe from anger, control issues and related stress?


texts: How strict are paper revision deadlines?

texts:
I recently received a "revise and resubmit" decision for a submission to an Elsevier journal, and the deadline to resubmit is in about 5 weeks. Since I have to consult with my coauthors for my revision, and one of them is a professor who's not exactly fast in replying emails, I'm worried whether I'll be able to get a revision ready in time.

Is the resubmit deadline strict? Once the deadline passes and I don't make a resubmission, is the paper immediately rejected? Is it usually possible to ask for an extension?


texts: Tools to help retain knowledge from coursework?

texts:
As second year undergraduate student, I've realized that I sometimes have a hard time recalling the core concepts from coursework in previous semesters. I imagine this would only gets worse as any student progresses through their academic career, so I want to take action early.

I'm wondering what tools exist to help students keep studying a course topic after the semester is over. This way students would constantly be applying knowledge they're interested in retaining, but without diving deep into a subject. For example, this could be something like a software solution that regularly quizzes me on course topics I've already covered.

Does something like this exist?


texts: What does it mean when a professor says that he'll pay me as a 'mission' for an internship?

texts: I applied for and got selected for a summer internship at a renowned research lab in Germany. The professor says they will try to fund all my expenses, but will pay me as a 'mission'. What does this mean? I have never heard of this phrase before.


texts: How much more does a recommendation letter from alumni help in PhD admissions?

texts:
Imagine a case where I wish to apply for MIT. I happened to work with a young assistant professor who finished her PhD in MIT. How much will her good words weigh in recommending me to MIT PhD program?

I am asking this because I am facing a choice in asking for recommendations:

A recommendation letter from a more experienced full professor OR
One from a young assistant professor who just came back from MIT?

I understand that what matters most is whether the professor knows me well or not. But for them two, I think they understand me roughly the same.


texts: Three papers came out on new technique at almost the same time. What order do I cite?

texts:
Three papers on a new technique came out at almost the same time. They are all similar and introduce a new method that I use in my research by providing a range of examples of that technique.

Below are the dates the journals record it as received, accepted, first available online, and then the year of the official citation.

 Paper#  Received     Accepted     Available    Citation Yr.
 P1      2011-11-29   2012-06-21   2012-08-11   2012
 P2      2011-12-12   2012-11-01   2012-11-08   2013
 P3      2012-01-09   2012-08-30   2012-09-05   2012

By order received: P1, P2, P3
By order accepted: P1, P3, P2
By citation year:  (P1 P3), P2

Q: Should I cite all of them? I assume so. In which case, which order?

I would like to cite all three, since all are in reputable journals and their submission dates were so close that I assume all three did independent work and are deserving of a proper citation. I am not sure what order to cite them in.


texts: What are some strategies for using automatic grading technologies to get students to express their reasoning?

texts:
We currently use an online quiz tool to give students questions in some of our engineering classes. These questions might be simple or very challenging, but at the end of all of them the students are required to put in "the answer" - a numeric value, or rarely a formula they've derived.  These quizzes are run every week, and are basically a sneaky way of getting students to do homework problems.  In that, they are very successful.  The quizzes are basically open-everything - they can google things, talk amongst themselves, ask us anything etc.

However, we are becoming aware that this type of quiz leads students to race to find the right equation, plug in the right numbers, and move on.  As an example, one of the questions from a recent circuits quiz was relatively straightforward in terms of the circuits concepts, but required careful planning of the math in order to avoid any errors.  We've been tracking the questions that we are asked during the quiz, and almost universally the students 100% understood the circuits concepts but were making math errors.  This is actually a good thing - we want to encourage students to learn to structure their reasoning in a careful, well-planned way, so we are OK with students struggling at it.  However, the question doesn't allow for any way to give feedback on it.   The answer either is or is not numerically correct.

Obviously we can have the students submit to us and we can evaluate them directly, but that isn't the point.  An automatic grading system isn't ever going to be able to give students the same level of feedback as a human TA, but I feel that we are not using it to its fullest potential to give students feedback on their process.

What are some strategies we can use for question design in automatically graded quizzes that might help here?


texts: How to get into IT industry/consulting work without forfeiting the academic duties

texts:
I am currently a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Computer Science/Information Technology. I like the academic job that I have been doing over last five years and I am comfortable with the teaching and research requirements. I will be going for the tenure this upcoming Fall. I also have prior extensive experience working in IT services industry, working over 15 years.

I am itching to get into IT industry/IT consulting full time during the Summer break and if possible  may be part time (10 to 20 hours per week) during regular semester practicing the concepts I teach / research. I am hoping to accomplish the IT work remotely with minimal travel. Maybe I can relocate just in the Summer (if needed).

Issue is though I have 15+ years IT industry experience, I have not worked in the IT industry for last 5+ years, though I have been teaching and researching on the skills that are very hot in the IT industry. I am not sure how to articulate my abilities to the potential client/employer, successfully clear the interview process and get the gig.

Please advise if this is possible and how to approach this, if you or someone you know are already successful in this aspect.


texts: What is being done to make the academic environment more women friendly?

texts: The number of women in some academia disciplines like computer science remains low despite the continuous efforts to increase it. What is being done to make academic careers in computer science (and related fields) more appealing to women? Are there any studies on the ways of improving the working conditions for women in academia?


texts: Reliable source for ranked courses on post-graduate level in epidemiology?

texts: Searching the internet reveals a number of available courses all over the world, but there are no obvious ways to rank them against each other or otherwise approach their quality.


texts: Can I take pictures from posters and slide presentations in a conference?

texts: If I do not ask for permission, is it acceptable to take pictures from posters and slide presentations in a conference by camera? Can I record a presentation?


texts: Invitation to visit a colleague's university, who usually provides support for this?

texts:
In the past year, colleagues or collaborators have informally extended an invitation to visit their University, maybe to meet potential collaborators and give a talk. In general, is it normal for the "host" institution to provide any support? Does one's "home" institution normally provide support to do so?

Note: I'm currently a graduate student and am primarily asking for potential opportunities.


texts: Is it necessary to get a masters degree for industry jobs in Machine Learning or AI?

texts:
I’m about to enter my ultimate year of a physics BSc at a top university in the UK, and have done a computational physics  internship with a research group at the university and am currently doing an internship at Harvard that requires strong machine learning skills. I was hoping this would be enough qualification to justify being able to get an entry level job in ML or AI and use that to one day lead myself into a job working with DeepMind, OpenAI, IBM Watson - places like these. I also have some fantasies about working in game design randomly, although I think that needs less a graduate degree and more a portfolio of coded games perhaps.

However, with those ML and AI jobs I was citing, does it behoove me to get a graduate degree if I want to one day get hired by them? I personally am quite drained from exam stresses and don’t think academia suits me as much as I used to think it does, but if it’s necessary for my goals in industry it might be worth considering.


texts: Course of action to change fields after a PhD?

texts:
A little introduction: I've done some research in interferometry during my MsC, and from then on, my MsC thesis was on optical fiber sensors, then I worked for two companies in sensorization with optical fibers, and now I am enrolling on a PhD on that very subject.

I like photonics, but I feel like I'd want to try something different. I had the option of getting a PhD in quantum optics but decided on this one, in the end (mostly for logistic reasons, and I liked both themes).

Now, I am not sure whether I will have trouble changing fields (within photonics) after specializing so much in one, especially being my research very engineer/application focused and not so much in slightly more fundamental, or even experimental physics.

I've seen similar questions from time to time, but my specific question would be:
Have I specialized too much to change my field after a phd, and what course of action should I start taking NOW in order to keep my doors open after a PhD?


texts: Arxiv Endorsement from Conference Moderator (for someone not from academia)

texts: I'm presenting some of my independent work (in industry) at an academic conference. My paper has been accepted to the conference, but since I am from outside of academia, I'm having difficulty posting it on Arxiv. Would it be appropriate to ask for an endorsement from the panel moderator?


texts: Can a paper directly be written on a new application developed rather then an algorithm from existing research results or algorithms?

texts:
Suppose we design a prototype for a new product that is indeed novel.

Would writing a paper on such a thing be useful as mostly the papers talk about new algorithms or their upgrades or some new theory ?

I am talking about just a new product that does something better than the existing ones but uses old algorithms and research.


texts: Reputable alternatives to The Conversation for science communication?

texts: What are some popular press alternatives to The Conversation that are perhaps more reputable than Medium or HuffPost that accept pitches from academics communicating their research for a general audience?


texts: Paper on project without any result - how to conclude

texts:
I'm reporting on an engineering project that is in its early phases. Therefore, there are no results, but there is already a quite detailed plan on how the problems in the project can be conquered. Now I was asked to present the project at a conference. I want to present the current state, but I'm not sure how to structure a conclusion as there is no result, and I can't evaulate, if the planned methods will be successful. Still I believe presenting the intended methods will bring value to the community.

How do you conclude a project presentation that doesn't have any results but already has a quite concrete and detailed plan? What content could I provide? Or can one just not provide a conclusion in a paper? That seems a bit unbalanced...


texts:
I am new to this forum. I am encountering a problem in my doctoral studies that I haven't been able to find in an existing thread so I wanted to ask here. Any advice on how to navigate this would be very welcome.

I'm 2.5 years into my doctoral studies (geography) working under two co-advisors. Their areas of expertise broadly overlap with my dissertation topic, but the topic is my own, and I know the study area better than both of them. One advisor has been pressing for me to conduct a certain methods for social data collection that I knew wouldn't work (research fatigue is high in this area, distrust towards scientists without existing connections in these communities is a huge - if not insurmountable - obstacle). I tried to explain that these issues would make this type of social data collection very hard to pull off. I suppose I failed at this communication, because he pressed for this method all the same (with the rebuttal "science is hard"). Because he's an advisor I assumed he knew something I didn't, and I wrote up a dissertation proposal with this approach being used to answer one of my research questions (in my program a "dissertation" consists of three publication-ready papers). I emailed a few groups engaged in work in these communities. The reply I got was what I expected: they strongly advised against attempting to collect household surveys for the reasons I had tried to explain to my advisor before. I just got this reply today, I have not yet discussed it with my advisors.

This does not sink my entire research proposal necessarily, but only a portion of it. There are other methods of data collection and analysis I'm still working on to answer the other research questions. Furthermore I spoke to my other co-advisor earlier in the fall (not a social scientist) asking what my recourse is if the social data collection component falls through for the reasons I feared. I was told not to worry necessarily, that we could figure out a way to work around it.

That being said, I'm still worried. I'm worried that the advisor who pushed for the an approach that was ultimately dead-on-arrival doesn't fully understand my research. He's suggested approaches in the past that have turned out to be dead ends too. I'm also worried that I wasn't able to recognize this as a problem until I am 2.5 years into my program. The heavy initial course-load (full graduate course-load for the first two years) and first few research dead ends had me seeing the individual trees, not the forest. I'm sure a lot of this is my fault; I should have communicated better, I should have been more clear on what the expectations were. But now that I'm waking up to the fact that this is a problem, I'm not sure what to do about it. I have (excuse the lack of modesty) a good topic, and I think there's still a lot of value in seeing it through. I suppose I will have a better idea of what to do about this when we all meet next week, but an outsider perspective would be really valuable to me right now.

Thank you in advance


texts: Can you do a masters in Canada with 3 years bachelor degree?

texts: Do all Canadian universities require a 4 year degree for masters?


texts:
I am writing a research paper (graduate level) on eating disorders. Many books have been written on this topic, ranging from pop culture type to scholarly works.

How do I know if a book is sufficiently reliable to use as a source in my paper? Am I looking for an author with a Masters degree? With clinical experience? With personal experience? Certain publishers? Or does anything go?


texts: Becoming a referee if authoring mostly in large collaborations

texts:
As we all know, in the average academic field a researcher who authored relevant papers in a field, may be asked to serve as journal referee. Relevance is typically judged by his contribution to the field - the number and quality of his/her papers (h-index) as metric for expertise, and direct submission to that journal as a metric of understanding publication dynamics and relevance for the journal.

But how does this work in large collaborations (hundreds or more) where authors are listed alphabetically, every author sign all papers (making h-index useless) and the paper submission is not performed by the key author(s) but rather handed over to a committee?


texts: How to motivate students to debug their work independently

texts:
For the last few semesters, I have taught a graduate-level course (mixture of Master's and PhD students) that has a very substantial data analysis component in which every assignment involves analyzing data based on what was covered in the prior 1-2 week's worth of lectures. The prerequisite is my university's introductory statistics course, which teaches students basic statistics (t-tests, z-tests, linear regression, etc). We recommend a particular statistical language to use and provide coding suggestions in that language, but students are also free to use whatever they feel most comfortable using.

Increasingly, I am finding that students in the course rely on me to solve every coding error or problem they encounter, and in many cases, the top hit of a Google search for the error/problem suggests more or less what I would have as well. Some students are "repeat offenders" in that even when I show them how to use Google to look for debugging help, they still come to me with Google-able questions.

I want to be sympathetic to students who may not have much statistical computing experience beyond the introductory statistics course we teach, but at the same time, I feel that graduate-level students need to be able to solve these sorts of questions on their own. In my field, you cannot survive without knowing how to write code to analyze data, and part of that is knowing how to debug your code when inevitable errors/bugs arise.

Has anyone run into this sort of issue before, and what, if anything, helped?


texts: Can I list my experience as independent researcher to my resume or CV?

texts: I have graduated from my master's last year. I am very much interested in doing an additional technical master's program and/or a Ph.D. in my field. So, I started applying for both the technical master's program and for the PhD program. In the meantime, I thought of not letting my research interest decay, I started working as an independent researcher. And luckily I got a collaboration offer from a foreign university professor who was a great scholar in my field of study. I collaborated with him from my home and did nearly 8 research articles within a period of 11 months. But at the same time, I was rejected by all the M.sc. and Ph.D. programs I applied. However, my independent research works were accepted and published in reputed IF international journals. Now, I am applying for the winter semester programs, in that case, can I please know whether I can add my experience as an independent researcher to my resume or Cv which I submit to the educational institutions? Please kindly help me in this regard. Thank you in advance.


texts: Asking for more than three letters of recommendation from four professors to reduce the risk of missing letters?

texts:
As we know, graduate schools usually require three letters of recommendation. Some require exactly three and some don't specify this(and even in such cases, it may be still better to submit only three).

Since missing one letter can be really disastrous to applications. I wonder if it is appropriate to filling the information of four professors to request four letters, just to reduce the risk of missing letters.

For example, in the application process, I will fill in four professors' names and email addresses but due to some unexpected situation, only three professors submitted their letters before the deadline. How would graduate school consider this situation?(I think they should have been aware that I have requested four letters)

Will they be happy with the three letters they have already received and never wait for the fourth one, or unhappy because I requested four but one of four professors hasn't submitted the letter?


texts: Suggesting reviewers for a very sectorial double-blind submission

texts:
The topic of suggesting reviewers to a journal has been covered here multiple times, for example on how to pick them or whether it is (always) good practice to actually follow the suggestion.

I have a different doubt that I do not find covered in other questions, that arise from the following conditions:

As I think very highly of my paper (who doesn't of their own!) I want to suggest very reputable and expert reviewers; I need 5 at least;
The topic of the paper is very sectorial, and adds to a very small community;
The paper has been previously presented at a conference with no proceedings;
The journal follows the double-blind review process.

As a result of this, I am at short of qualified reviewers to pick: most of the people I could indicate (which are several) already know about the paper (as they were at the conference, or I know for a fact that they already read it); these are not colleagues, and a review from them would not imply any "conflict of interest", but will certainly break blidness as they would know right away who wrote the paper.

It seems rather silly to include their names in the list of reviewers knowing that, was the editor to invite them, they would have to refuse to review it.

On the other hand, the list of highly qualified people that would make for an excellent reviewer is too short without any of those names included!

Should I:

Include them anyway and specify that they may know about the paper because of its presentation at conference X?
Suggest less qualified reviewers, accepting the risk that a) the suggest reviewer may dislike the paper or b) the reviewer may not necessarily "impress" the editor?
Submit the paper with less than the required number of reviewers, if the system allows me to?


texts: Include proof in bsc thesis that I couldn't do fully myself

texts:
I'm writing my BSc thesis in computer science right now, for which I'm implementing Fast Fourier Transforms. Now a really important paper on the topic is making a proof which I think I got what they are doing, but I probably could not replicate myself. Now I was wondering if there is a go-to way to cite the proof and especially use the result of the proof, without having to re-write it all by myself because going into all of the math would be beyond the scope of my thesis since it is more about the implementation, even so confirmed by my assistant.
The way I would go about it is to describe how they proof what in words, with a citation to the paper, e.g. like that:

"In [xy], yz show that equation a can be solved by doing ..."

Any hints are appreciated.


texts: Submitting to Journal: General prestige Versus Localized Focus

texts:
I am a Ph.D. student in applied math (graduating) with the following difficulty. I have recently completed a work by myself where I think it has decent potential impact. But the work is in a niche in applied math, and though interesting to anyone, much more likely to be meaningful to people in my field.

I am playing the game of deciding between general prestige and finding a niche. Say I pick a general, prestigious applied math journal X. Hiring committees might actually recognize the name and instantly light up.

However, a better fit (but less known) journal Y exists. In journal Y, the editorial board is loaded with people I recognize (who are well-cited). If I submit here, I am throwing myself in with the dogs in my field. If well-liked, there are many upsides: the possibility of conference invitations, networking, better chance of more citations, etc. If rejected, I gave a bad impression early on in my career to many big names. Note that journal Y is also open-access (a legit one).

On the other hand, journal X has less risk/reward within my field and more of a name for hiring committees. In your experience (especially considering my career stage), what would you pick between these two? For what it's worth, I think acceptance in Y is more likely than X. This could help me get a job, but would it hurt me for tenure later on?

In applied math, I see conflicting ideas. Some people want desperately for connections to applications to be made while others want profound generalizable claims with some regard for application. My work is right in the middle of this tug-of-war.

I realize anonymous people cannot decide my life for me, but I am wondering if the answer is obvious for some reasons I don't know yet. Based on the mentors (and my advisor) I have spoken to, they seem to think it's somewhat of a personal preference, as long as both journals are decent.


texts:
I had submitted a Manuscript in a good journal which has given me the reviews as " Accepted for publication pending revisions"? What does this review actually mean? Is it accepted?

FYI, I have created a response letter in which I have given justification for some concerns and also made the changes that were asked to be made in the figures.

Can anybody please help?


texts: Is an institution or a supervisor necessary to make a submission?

texts:
I am a motivated student and I had a well running project with a nice exposé presentation at a conference. I could do some more work on this and publish further papers, but eventually I would like to do this on my own after my studies as side project in my free time. Is it generally possible to make submissions to scientific conferences without a scientific supervisor or/and without a scientific institution?

If you know please tell if it depends on the conference or the research area.

Thoughts about if doing this makes sense to you can be placed here, too.

The research field is related to computer science, human computer interaction and music.

Thanks in advance!