texts: Is there any (comparative) statistics on h-indices of old scientists during their lives?

texts:
In my country (I live in Russia) the government puts in place some reforms in Education, and, in particular, the possibility for a person to have a position at a university now depends on his bibliometric rates. This causes numerous debates among academics because there is a difference between this bibliometry and the real value of a scientific research.

Since in the West this way to estimate the success of an academic is not new, I believe there are many investigations in this field, and, in particular, I think there must be some statistics on how the modern bibliometry evaluates the research of old scientists during their lives. Did anybody hear someting about this?

In other words,

  Does anybody know if there exist statistical researches on bibliometric rates (like h-index) of old scientists (like Karl Weierstrass) during their lives?

(I stress this "during their lives" since this is important in the debates I am talking about.)

I am a mathematician, that is why I am intrested first of all in the statistics on mathematics, but this is not necessary, I would appreciate any references. Of course, the more data  such a statistic would contain, the better.

P.S. Dear moderators, please, do not change the title. My question is not about a technical possibility to compute the bibliography, I wonder whether (and where) the statistics that I am talking about exists.


texts: PhD in Europe without scholarship from non-European homeland

texts:
I earned my bachelors in Computer Engineering from my home country. I am now enrolled in a Physics masters program in the same university. Next year I plan to find a different university in Europe in which to enroll in a Computer Engineering PhD program.

However I doubt that I'll receive any scholarships from my homeland's government when studying abroad. Can I survive if I start to live out of my own my pocket? Is that enough to live in Europe just for a half year. Are there any available funds that can supplement my income such as a TA/RA's salary?

My main question is:

How to survive if I want to study PhD in Europe without any scholarship from my home country?
Which country might provide sufficient support for a foreigner to study at graduate level?

I am interested to Germany and Finland but any European country would be acceptable!


texts: I think I may have violated academic integrity last year - what should I do?

texts:
I think I may be overthinking things, as I’m known to having a huge guilt complex.

As an undergraduate last year, we were given a coding assignment to complete that was worth 15% of our overall mark for the course. We often worked on it at computing practicals where students worked together in computer labs along with postgraduates who could assist you if needed.

Towards the end of it, I had managed to complete the first two parts of it, but struggled with the final portion, and there were no more opportunities to ask for help at the practicals.

Eventually, a friend of mine’s close friend (who I was still becoming closer with) figured out how to do it, and showed us a screenshot of his code. I initially copied it down so I can see what he did, and then spent some time reading it to understand how I was meant to go about answering it properly, and then tried to write up my answer knowing the right way to go about it, but it couldn’t be done in a way that didn’t look very similar to what my friend did. So I fear I copied.

I didn’t think anything of it at the time, and submitted it, and it was marked and that was it. I think there may had been a plagiarism checker but I can’t remember.

Recently, I’ve since been worried that I’ve breached good academic practice. I don’t know why I’ve never thought about it much until now.

As well, in a module I took last semester, I had worked together with friends on homework sheets that we handed in but people often completed in groups, which I think was perfectly permitted. I only worked in groups if I couldn’t solve anything, so there was a time last semester where I went to a friend who went over with me how to do the homework assignment (helping me through almost all of it) which allowed me to get a decent mark on it as I now knew how to do it with his help and instruction (they also were intentionally meant to help our understanding more than assess us apparently). I’ve also had trouble saying no to people who want to look at my homework for help, as I’m not very assertive.

I’ve figured out that this could be poor academic practice as I’ve aided and gotten aid for assigned work recently.

I just don’t want to think I’m an unworthy academic. What should I do? Should I contact someone? Should I just let it go? I’ve told myself for now on when asking for help from colleagues that I will never ask for answers but merely understanding, and to my knowledge I’ve not done anything else that’s improper other than this.

Should I be ashamed of myself?

Is this situation a common thing, even among academics? I’m going to be at an internship over the summer with very esteemed academics. Am I likely different from them in my academic scruples given this described past behavior? Should I look down upon others who’ve done minor things like this who don’t feel guilty about it?


texts: Double-blind review: submit a follow-up paper in a very short time

texts:
My colleagues and I are planning to submit to a conference which adopts double-blind review. The deadline of the conference is in 3 weeks. The work we plan to submit is built on our previous work that has just been accepted 2 weeks ago.

The first paper was actually submitted 6 months ago, but it was rejected at the first time. That's why there is only a very small gap of time between the two papers.

We need to cite the first paper, and its title together with the list of authors already appeared in the list of accepted papers on the conference website.

We can try to cite it as somebody else' work. However, any reviewers can conclude that this is the work of the same group. In this case, do we violate the double-blind review policy?

How should we proceed? We desperately want to submit to this conference, waiting should be the very last option.


texts: Access to good research communities without being in the university

texts:
I'm interested in research in the field of educational sciences. I may enroll in a Ph.D. course in the future. But right now, I'm not a student anywhere and I want to do research in my interested field even without being in the university.
I think one of the most important benefits of being a Ph.D. student is access to scientific community. You have access to professors and other students, and you can engage in a group scientific research work.
My question is that what are the possibilities for an independent researcher (in a developing country) to have access to scientific communities? To have discussions, get reviews, etc. ?


texts: Market research & consulting: perception and acdemic career perspectives

texts:
Those of you, who had a chance to read some of my questions on this site, are likely aware of my ongoing job search, which I am doing on both academia and industry fronts. Since, naturally, I am leaning toward research-focused work, recently I ran across some additional industry positions, which are also research-focused. Yes, you guessed it right: I'm talking about market research or research-intensive consulting jobs. With that in mind, I became curious about the following aspects in the context of long-term academic career perspectives:

What is the perception toward market research jobs (including a research & consulting mix positions, such as ones at Gartner, for example) and their temporary holders within the academia community?
If the perception is negative, is it to extent that it might prevent or significantly jeopardize one's career options (research & teaching) upon return to academia from stints at one or more of market research or "Big N" IT consulting companies?
Would negative perception, if any, and the corresponding career impact be decreased, depending on the organizational "brand" (i.e., Gartner vs. smaller market research firm)?

It is important to note that my discipline (Information Systems) is a multidisciplinary field of study, which combines various aspects from hard sciences, such as computer science, and ones from soft (social) sciences, such as management science (which market research as well as business and IT consulting are actually part of). Therefore, IMHO there is no significant disconnect between academia and industry in terms of knowledge domains and research streams. I thought that this information will clarify the situation and, potentially, will improve the above-mentioned perception.


texts: Difference between university/departmental service and extracurricular university service on CV

texts:
I'm a first year assistant professor and the service component of the CV is somewhat unfamiliar territory for me, since my previous jobs never required service. For the last few years, I've followed Karen Kelsky's rules of the academic CV, which distinguishes between "university/departmental service" and "extracurricular university service" as separate CV sections. Thus far, I've listed all of what I consider to be service activities under the former, but now I'm not sure if some of these activities fit better under the latter category, or even if some of these activities merit space on my CV.
Some specific examples of activities I have under the service section include coordinator/organizer roles (curricular development, study abroad, workshop series), committee work, advisor roles (student organizations), and other miscellaneous things like managing/creating content for departmental social media.
To me, all of these activities were/are time-consuming responsibilities that I've considered worth mentioning in my CV, but now I'm a little uncertain if they all belong there (is any of this CV padding?), and if they do - should they be in separate sections? (my thought is perhaps that distinction Dr. Kelsky makes is hierarchical in some way. For instance, is advising a student group not as highly regarded as committee work?).
And a more general question, if it's allowed, are there certain things you just don't list as service? For instance, I know I will be serving as an advisor to majors/minors soon, but that strikes me as something I should leave off my CV because that's something all TT faculty are expected to do.


texts: Thesis: including an information not officially accepted (legal issue)

texts:
In the preface of my thesis, I have written an information that involves me, my supervisor, and my university, in a project driven by a government agency. I say in the preface that I have designed the early plan of the project. This plan was crucial, as my expertise. The problem is that the agency fooled us: they took the plan and details associated to it (that I gave them), used it (I can prove it), fired us from the project, and made results of the project public (via online media, magazines, etc...); the public information only mention the agency, not my university.

Now, here is the thing. My supervisor do not want me to mention my involvement into this mess, although I want to mention it. It would be too long to explain why and all the details related to this story so here is my question:
What could be the consequences of claiming my participation to the project in the thesis?

The agency never includes us when they talk about the project. Officially, I (or we) are not included.


texts: How should I address a possible mistake to co-authors in a submitted paper

texts:
I am co-author of a submitted manuscript. I think I found a mistake in a methodological approach in our paper. But I am not sure if I am right. But if that mistake is really there, then some conclusions in this paper could be changed. It will not invalidate the whole paper, but some parts would have different meaning.

I already had some arguments on this paper, so I do not want to point some mistakes to my colleagues. I fear that if I will point to this possible mistake, my co-authors will get angry.

I don't even know when and how should I discuss this issue with co-authors? Some authors are reachable only by email and I don't know if I should ask about this mistake only the main author, or send the email to everybody. Or should I just briefly explain what I mean or send a proper document with explanation why I think I am right?

I am thinking of waiting until review; if reviewers do not point to that mistake I will raise it.

Edit: By mistake, I do not mean that we carried out our method of choice incorrectly; instead, I think we should have chosen a different (potentially more correct) method of analysis.


texts: Should I worry because I don't have Publications Yet?

texts:
Publish...Publish, I am worried about publications as I don't have any yet, I just have few in masters, but was not a good quality, now in Ph.D., I am working on a new topic and to get a significant and validated results it takes times, I focused on developing a model that could really explain the phenomena which are not explained yet by any researchers.

However, as I am apart of the project, all other members are getting papers so fast and every meeting they mention, how their methods are great, I feel low and less confident, maybe I am stupid as I take time.

According to the current situation, I didn't do any success which I think my career in academia is impossible, as I see all successful researchers have tons and tons of citations.

I don't know if I should give up, I bring this to my supervisor, however, he does not care so much, he is not recognized in the field, so it is not a big deal.

I am serious, feel low and lost because of the high competition and I did not have even one good paper yet.

Should I wait or withdraw from Ph.D., I really like research and my topic, what you recommend me to do in that case?

P.S. I am also getting psychotherapy as I am suffering from terrible OCD because of the past experience, I am doing my utter best and fight, but no one knows that in my lab. I am also so ambitious and hard worker, but not intelligent enough as peers that's why I am asking whether I am wasting time in the wrong direction maybe.


texts: How to deal with post-high-school gap in CV?

texts:
I am currently finishing my undergraduate degree, and I am working on my CV for graduate school applications. After High School, I spent ~1.5 years traveling, mostly by myself, and with no notable employment.

Do I write this in my CV? If so, should I just mention it or say anything further about it?


texts: Succes in research, awful in solving in basic things

texts:
I am a fourth-year Ph.D. student in pure mathematics. I am studying abroad. I need some advice.
Before getting through to my question, let me say something about myself. I am studying at a good university in Europe. I have 3 papers, which two of them are my own papers(without co-authors). I am planning to defend my thesis in the following summer. Moreover, I am applying for a postdoc position.

My Ph.D. story is a sad story. After two years, my Ph.D. supervisor informed the university that I do not know any things about math, and he could not work with me. Then, the university chose a co-supervisor for me. After 1year, I and my co-supervisor wrote a paper. To be honest, my co-supervisor had a lot of nice ideas and I wrote his idea in papers. I did not fill good because that was most of his idea, but my colleges told me we always did the same things. There was a lot of pressure on me because all of the people found out my problems with my supervisor and they thought I am weak and stupid.

Last summer, I wrote two papers in the area which I have been working since my Ph.D. Then, everything changed. My supervisor said hello to me every day( before he did not say) and behavior everyone changes to me. I got some emails from great mathematicians about my papers.

I have two big problems. First, I can not solve basic things in math. That makes me feel upset and worried. For instance, when I got up today, I was thinking the following statements are equal: For all x, there is y such that x+y=4& There is x, for all y such that x+y=4, but somethings in my heart was saying I am wrong. So I start to read a logic book. That is not shaming for a Ph.D. student? Is it? or, Why I do not remember Linear Algebra? and other whys?

These kinds of questions make me feel I got lucky to write two papers. Anyone get lucky. My supervisor might be right, I do not know any things from math. How I can pass PhD exam?


texts: Did my former supervisor steal my research proposal?

texts:
When I was a master student I worked in a PhD proposal with my master's supervisor. I applied with that proposal to obtain a scholarship from the university, however because I did not get the scholarship, and she didn't have money for paying the research expenses for the study I couldn't pursue the project.
Recently, checking the university page of my former supervisor, I saw advertised the same proposal I wrote and submitted for the scholarship application, exactly with the same words, same theoretical framework, same research questions, etc., she did not change a thing, and she is now advertising it as a "possible PhD project" for a new student that would like to apply for it (and probably get the money we needed for the research). Is that considered as stealing work? Can I report her somehow? I wrote all the proposal with constant feedback from her so I don't know if that gives her full authorship of it?


texts:
Can I use acronyms and abbreviations in the conclusion of a scientific paper or should I avoid them?

Even though the main idea of acronyms and abbreviations is to avoid repetition, my impression is that acronyms should be avoided as a conclusion should be somehow self explanatory.

Is there a consensus on something like that?


texts: What is a reliable accreditation to look for in British business schools?

texts:
When selecting an American business school, we look for certain accreditations specific to business schools, like ACBSP, AACSB, CHEA, , etc.

For European universities, we look for Equis, AMBA, etc.

What about British universities? (For pursuing a PhD in a UK business school.)


texts: Going to JMM (Joint Mathematics Meetings) for Jobs without interview invitations?

texts: Is it worth it (about $1000) to go to the JMM without any in-advanced-scheduled interview invitations?


texts: How to maximize performance in social science PhD program?

texts:
I am currently enrolled in a social science (management/information systems) PhD program, and I have spent a lot of time thinking/experimenting with how to maximize my performance. First I tried working 80 hours a week - this led to a hard time focusing, more time spent doing support activities (e.g. reading) rather than core activities (e.g. writing, coding etc.). Now I'm starting to settle more towards a 40-50 hour week that keeps me more energized the hours that I actually work.

I'm wondering, in your experience, what is the optimal balance of work/rest for graduate academic performance in the social sciences? Other factors that stimulate your academic performance?


texts: How much overlap is permitted between a submitted journal article and a thesis?

texts:
I'm currently writing a journal article to be published, and the work from this article is basically the entire work of my Master's thesis.

Clearly a thesis is usually more involved and fleshed out than a journal article, but how much direct copying is usually permitted?  Is it okay to directly copy-and-paste an entire chapter (or multiple chapters) of this article into my thesis, given that I wrote it anyway?  At what point am I plagiarising myself?


texts: Use logo of university in a presentation of work done elsewhere

texts:
As a part of a PhD application process I have to give a talk about a project that I did a couple of years ago for an institution I no longer colaborate with.

I was thinking of putting the logo of my current institution in the first of my slides as a support when introducing myself and explaining my background to the people who are going to listen to my talk.

Is this considered a good practice? I have doubts because the work I am going to talk about has no relation whatsoever with my current university.


texts: Is it proper to discuss unrelated subjects during class to increase interactivity?

texts:
It is common that students may experience monotony if the instructor continuously teaches. And there are many ways to grab attention.
I am particularly interested in knowing whether it is a proper step from the instructor side to moderate short debates (5 mins, 10 mins, etc.,), especially on (probably ongoing) politics, movies, religion.
The question is about the domains that are aliens to either of the three topics.
If no, what is the reason for it?


texts: How should I handle poor English in reviewing an article that claims to be proofread by two native English speakers?

texts:
I was asked to review an article written by non-native English speakers. I had never seen this before, but the manuscript includes a link to a certificate from a website called Textcheck that says:

  We hereby certify that Textcheck has checked and corrected the English
  in the manuscript named above.

  A specialist editor with suitable professional knowledge (M.Sc. or
  Ph.D./M.D.) reviewed and corrected the English. An English language
  specialist subsequently checked the paper again. The first language of
  both editors is English.

Unfortunately within the first few pages I'm already encountering clauses that make it obvious that this was not done to any depth. The issues are so blatant that even a quick glance by a native English speaker would catch them.

Should I point out major grammatical errors such as these in my review? Should I comment to the authors that they essentially got ripped off by this service (in more polite terms, obviously)? Should I comment to the editorial office?

EDIT: I also see that I can email Textcheck about the article. Should I do that? If so, what should I say/ask?


texts: Which grants to acknowledge, for papers written over a long period of time?

texts:
I often write papers (usually with coauthors) over long periods, say 5-10 years. (In mathematics, this is fairly typical.) Over this time period I've enjoyed a number of research grants, most of them fairly small.

How do I know which of them to acknowledge in my papers? A literal reading of the grant funders' rules seems to suggest that I should acknowledge all of them. However, this seems a bit over the top, and nobody seems to do this in practice.


texts: How do you judge the potential of a newer journal?

texts: I'm in a fairly niche field that is still in the process of organizing itself. As such, there are a number of existing professional societies that are spinning off journals along with newer societies that are getting into journal publication. Since some of the usual metrics for judging a predatory journal may not apply, how do you judge the potential of a newer journal so that the publication does not end up being a wasted effort?


texts: My paper is still with editor for about two months. Should I email the journal about that?

texts: My paper is still with editor for about two months. My field is engineering. the paper is not controversial. It is a review article. However, the IF of the journal is high (6.7). Is it normal, or should I email the journal about that?


texts: How to respond to a company that wants specific details on implementation of my PhD research?

texts:
A company approached me for an interview to explain my work, which has been published as part of my PhD. As I understand from their email, they want to understand my work so that they can use it. However, nowhere in the email they mentioned that I am going to be paid or involved in this project. How would you approach this?

I find this email strange because they are asking me to explain my work and give them information on how to implement it so that they can make money out of it without me having any role in their project. Is this normal? Should I ask to be paid?


texts: Emailing two professors who've co-authored papers I'm interested on working on

texts:
I'm interested in a graduate program, and I've identified a topic and idea that I have in mind for research. However, the related papers have been co-authored by two professors in the same department, who also head the related research labs together, as well. I want to contact them about research opportunities.

How would I go about emailing them? What's the right etiquette?

Email both of them individually
CC both of them in one intro email
Choose one of them and email only them

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!


texts: Is it okay to send my professor humorous material?

texts: I found a one-panel comic that is relevant to the content of a course I am taking. I think my professor would enjoy it. Is it socially acceptable to send him a hyperlink to it?


texts: Is it preferable to cite the dissertation or a publication based on the dissertation?

texts:
I'm currently in the process of writing a literature review for a methodology and I came across two relevant works by the same author. The first is their dissertation which includes expanded details about their research questions the methodology they developed to address the research questions. The second work is a publication that is based upon one research question and doesn't contain as much detail about they methodology. My instinct is to cite both,

  method is used by Author et al. (YYYY) in an evaluation of system, which is described in more detail in (Author YYYY).

but generally it seems like only the publication is cited if available. Is it preferable to cite the dissertation or a publication based on the dissertation, or both?


texts:
I received a response about a manuscript I reviewed earlier, and the authors write about the reviewer (i.e., me) and his concerns.  As a woman, I'm not so keen on this.

Obviously this isn't intentionally insulting or anything like that---it's a minor blip.  Nevertheless, it's a bit irksome, and the feminist in me is thinking that's not right; it's a microaggression (one of the everyday reminders that you don't belong here).

I could simply ignore it, but...

Question: Should I simply ignore it if authors assume that I'm male in their response to my review of their article?

There's no issues inside the manuscript: they thank the reviewers without using pronouns.

I'm particularly interested in if an editor would typically just groan and consider me a troublemaker for saying anything.  And probably not pass the message on to the authors anyway.


texts: When citing a paper on arXiv, how important is the category?

texts:
The arXiv documentation says that we should reference arXiv documents using references of the form:

arXiv:YYMM.NNNNv# [category]

e.g.:

arXiv:0706.1234v1 [math.FA]

However, most papers that I am aware of do not bother to include the category.  i.e. they have references of the form:

arXiv:YYMM.NNNNv#

Furthermore, I can't find a bibtex bibliography style which automatically includes the arXiv category (taken from the primaryClass in biblatex).

Also, the arXiv documentation page "Preparing TeX/LaTeX Papers for Submission" suggests that arXiv documents should be referenced using just the arXiv ID, e.g. arXiv:0705.1234  (i.e. without the category)

My question is: is it OK to produce a list of references without any arXiv categories (i.e. just arXiv:0705.1234)?


texts: how to be successful in CS field with inadequate background? Can just passion help for surviving grad school?

texts:
My background:
5 years ago, I did my undergrad from an Indian University and did some random jobs unrelated to my field of study.My undergraduate grade is 2.92/4.0. Now, I got admitted to grad school(in US) for CS and my grades are not well, I scored 2.80/4.0 for the course design and analysis of algorithms. BTW, I am still interested and feel passionate to complete masters.

My questions are:

How to survive grad school with bad grades and inadequate background knowledge.
How should I work to improve my programming skills? and what are the prerequisite skills in order to be successful in this field?
how to access myself if I am the right fit for grad school?

For now, I am trying to solve online coding challenges(project Euler, coder byte etc). Their easy level questions are a bit hard but I  am slowing trying to solve by myself. And want to utilize this summer break to fullest.

Please help me in figuring out things like, and what I should or shouldn't be doing both in my break and to survive grad school. Thanks!


texts: Does a bad paper get rejected very fast and if a paper is under review for long time, should one expect at least reasonable review?

texts: My question is regarding applied Math journals (for example SIAM). Is there such a thing that a bad paper gets rejected very fast? Also if a paper is under review for more than 6 months, then should one expect at least a reasonable review (Although it may get rejected at the end)?


texts: Is it okay to use somebody else’s methodology in my own paper (with proper citations) or is this plagiarism?

texts:
My research is a content analysis about portrayal of mental illness in films. The research I wanted to base my methodology is also about mental-illness representation. My research questions differ to the other researcher’s questions. We also have different sets of films to analyze.

I really want to know if it is okay if I use the same methodology? Or is it considered plagiarism?


texts: What is generally the correct procedure for publishing translations of my own work?

texts:
I am putting a paper out and would like to also put out a companion non-English language version. It will be identical, just a translation, and publishing the same content in another journal would be dishonest (or seems dishonest to me) and I don't want to do that. What is the procedure for this?
Currently, I think it best to just host the translated version on arXiv with a link to the original, but I wanted to solicit outside opinions.


texts:
I had my CV reviewed by an academic professor, and she advised me to put a timeline on my CV. The problem is that after I ended up my bachelor studies, I spent some years working because I was the only support for my family and I was also saving for my graduate studies. After that I followed some undergraduate courses in a foreign country, that was because I was rejected to do a master's degree; the reason was that the courses I followed in my bachelor degree were not 100% Computer Science oriented, but more to the IT field.

So after finishing that, I started back working in my country and after saving for some years; I finally managed to get accepted for MSc studies. The problem with this is that there are some overlaps like:

bachelor studies---work for saving for further studies---undergraduate courses in a foreign country in CS----work again for saving some more---MSc studies----working again

So it is some sort of a mess, so if somebody from a doctoral admission office sees my CV; he will be a little bit wondering about why I have those overlaps.

The question is pretty simple, how can I add a sort of timeline that could help the reader to have a quick view about my academic and working experience? and also how can I explain that in my CV? or should it be in my motivation letter?


texts: Is it okay for professors to completely copy another professors' notes, assignments, and exam questions word for word from another university?

texts:
I have a professor who used the same lecture notes, same assignments, and same exam questions word for word from from another professor at a different university (who posts his notes, assignments, and exams online). She mentions she "makes her own exams", however the questions are identical to the online past exam and assignment questions.

It's a masters level class and the exam questions are quite specific. We are given an abstract to read and then asked to perform calculations/analyze the abstract.

Is this common or "allowed"?


texts: Should you highlight an editorial written about your research article in your CV?

texts: Some journals invite well-known academics to write editorials about the "best" articles featured in that issue. I just had an editorial published alongside a paper I just put out. Should I highlight this somewhere in my CV? I didn't write the editorial and it's not exactly media coverage, but I'm a young academic, so I'll take anything I can get!


texts: Having trouble responding to professors' emails due to anxiety,

texts:
I have crippling anxiety around "authority figures", and I'm irrationally deathly afraid to the point where I will cry in a room when alone with them, likely due to my upbringing, namely, always being afraid of my verbally abusive, but very loving and well-intentioned, father.  And so I tend to leave very important and very kind emails from professors unanswered.  This is unprofessional of me, and so I was wondering what some of you here have successfully tried doing to counter this level of anxiety.

The authority figure can be a professor, a fireman / police officer looking to help me, my basketball coach.  I've experienced similar with all of these people.  I am sometimes just mute.

I see a doctor and take meds already, but I am looking for other ways to cope.

Is there a cool, fun strategy to try to implement, say, respond to emails within 5 minutes of reading them, even if my response is incomplete?  Aim for a one-sentence reply?

I don't know, I'm just thinking, but I know I need a lot of help.


texts: Should/Can I retract a paper that has fatal math error after this paper has been accepted, presented, and released in the proceeding?

texts:
This paper has been accepted, presented in the top conference of computer science, and released in the proceeding since last month. However, recently, other readers find a fatal and ridiculous error in the proof. For this fatal error, I think I cannot amend it. Even if it can be amended, some important claims and nearly all proof steps will become total different.

Something to stress:

1, My claims and other proofs are motivated by the wrong proof rather than the experiments.

2, I then used experiments to demonstrate the correctness of the claims.

How can I handle it?


texts: Am I obliged to share my most promising data?

texts:
I have just started a PhD along with another candidate. We are each looking at different aspects of the same subject. His data provide context for mine, while my data simply add value to his. As I will be asking him for some of his data, he has decided that he wants some of my data.  However, he is interested in using a particular part of my data which I think will be the most fruitful part of my PhD.

His data are quicker to prepare than mine, and he will undoubtedly write up his chapters/ publications before I get a chance.  I am worried that this will have a negative impact on my ability to publish my papers.

Do I have to give him my most promising data?  Is there any way around doing this? I would prefer to rely on older data from Honours students looking at this subject and not ask for his data, if this allows me to keep my own data.


texts: Official abbreviations for CS conferences

texts:
Some journals like to abbreviate journal names in the papers they publish, and the AMS maintains a list of abbreviated journal names for those who need them. Is there a similar resource for conferences (in computer science)?

EDIT: to clarify, I'm not looking for acronyms (SODA, STOC, ICALP), but rather for something like "Proc. 6th Ann. ACM-SIAM Symp. Discrete Algorithms".


texts: Is it research to just combine other people’s work?

texts:
I am currently a second-year undergraduate double-majoring in math and computer science. I am currently doing a joint research paper with one of the faculty in my university.

My advisor gave me research problem A. I thought about the problem for one week and managed to break problem A to sub-problems A₁, A₂, ..., An. Next, I started researching on A₁. After reading several papers, I found that an author had already solved problem A₁. I repeated this for A₂, ..., An and they have all been solved previously. Now I take the solutions for all of them, with proper citations of course, and piece them into a solution to my original problem. I write a paper and get it published.

Now here is my problem: I feel like a fraud. I have not personally solved any of the Ai. Heck, the only work I’ve done is to break down the problem, searched for solutions to the subproblems, and to combine other people’s solutions. Is this really what research is about? I really feel disheartened and want to know other people’s opinions. I feel like anybody can really do what I did.


texts: How to handle unresponsive ex-supervisor on the submission of an article?

texts:
During my master's, I had done a project which yielded some interesting results that I and my supervisor started to write up. I moved to a different university (and country) for my PhD and kept contact with the professor. He suggested some edits and I did them. But of late, he is neither replying to my emails nor proceeding with the article, although he promised that we should be able to submit the article quite soon.
I would completely understand if he doesn't want to go forward with the article, but I am confused. I even suggested indirectly that we not go forward and just put it on Arxiv.


texts: Do Machine Learning and Vision Labs outside the USA hire non-student,non-postdoc Research Assistants?

texts:
I am currently on a visiting research assistant position at a US university for a year. My visa will not allow me to start a similar position in the US after this stint is over, and I am looking for another yearlong research position before I start a Masters/PhD program from Fall 2015.

My current research involves Vision with Graphical Models. I am interested in pursuing research in Vision, or Computational Biology involving Graphical Models and Machine Learning methods.

So is it possible to work as a Research Assistant in this field, outside the USA, without a doctorate, and without being a student?


texts: How to adress failed PhD project from last year to gain admission at same University for Master's Degree?

texts:
I have the following issue with my application for a Master's Degree.

Last year, due to my families financial circumstances I dropped out of an PhD project.

Now I want to join the Univerisity under a Master's Degree.

In the admission papers it is stated I have to mention if I have previoulsy enrolled at the Univerisity and state the cirumstance and provide an explanation.

How can I respectufully adress this issue, and sincerely hope to gain re-admission? It was mainly due to financial issue in my family and as one family member deceased and my one of my parents lost employement.


texts: What does delegate registration mean in a conference?

texts:
I saw on a conference website that the "delegate registration is up to the end of March".
I'm wondering what that "delegate" really means?


texts: How to complain about a Ph.D student to a professor

texts:
I am a undergraduate student who also work as the systems administrator in the school. I also do research work under a professor. Recently, I had to work on this professor's lab to upgrade the older machines to newer machines. I literally got no help from any of the fellow lab mates. Though, I did it as part of my systems administrator work, the professor had instructed his Ph.D students to help me. However, I do not complain of this.

I have a very nagging girl who always wants to get her things done and couldn't even figure out some basic stuff from the Internet. She simply blames the installation and this pretty much annoys me. She is not thankful for what I am doing, and so I do not even feel like helping this girl. I want to report it to my professor in such a way that I do not offend him in any way. I never bothered him much so far. But I want to escalate this issue. How should I go about it?

P.S: I am not sure if this question belongs here or on The Workplace.


texts: Referencing opinions that are visible in Google search results?

texts:
I have this problem that I write:
"Image segmentation methods include region growing, region modelling and mathematical morphology"
These I can discover to exist in papers on image segmenting by doing a Google search. But I find it difficult to find a source that I could cite as for a "definition of image segmentation". And I'm not sure if this is even necessary. And if I would reference, say three papers just in order to prove that these are image segmentation methods, then it would seem overkill.


texts: Does the usage of Facebook and Twitter harm a professor's career?

texts:
Should they instead protect their tweets and Facebook posts and keep them private / Friends-only in their account settings?

Some profs' tweets / Facebook posts are great and inform the public of their new research, especially stuff in machine learning / data science, while other profs I have seen use much of their tweets and Facebook posts to rant about politics, e.g. rants about Donald Trump.  It seems dangerous for a professor to have all of his political feelings posted publicly on Twitter / Facebook.


texts: Can I submit a review paper to a journal without being invited?

texts: I am currently in the process of waiting for PhD verdict. I have submitted the thesis last 2 weeks for examination and I am thinking while waiting for PhD verdict, I want to write a review paper on my subject. The reason is because I have ran out results from my PhD study for publication and I reckon why not try on reviewing the subject I am studying. My area of research is biological science. My question is whether it is possible to write a review to journal without being invited to do so.


texts: Is it possible to submit a PhD thesis with two authors?

texts:
We are two students working in the same field under the supervision of the same professor within his chair and all of our publications are done together.

Hence I am curious: Is it generally possible in academia to submit a PhD thesis with two authors?


texts: What are acceptable “relationships with referees”?

texts:
I am applying for grad school and need to give referees, and their relationship with me. I am not sure how to phrase things. My referees are:

in my previous job, in-direct supervisor, who I had worked for on one project, I report the project to her
in my previous job, whom I worked with on one project, but he is the project lead

thanks


texts: What is the benefit of submitting to a special conference session instead of the regular track?

texts:
Assuming that I want to submit a paper related to the topic X to conference Y in CS, and there is a special session in that conference which covers the topic X; in that case, is the best choice to submit the paper to the special session?

Well, as far as I know, the special sessions have a small pool of submitted papers around similar themes, from which they need 5-6 papers to accept. So I was wondering if I would lower down my chances by submitting to a SS as the pool becomes more competitive for me?


texts: Students from Country A addressing me only by last name in emails

texts:
Question has been rewritten to fit purpose of Academia board

*Country name has been replaced with "Country A", which I should have done from the beginning.

*For anonymity, I will use "John Smith" to refer to myself.

For the past few years, I have noticed that students from Country "A" tend to address me with only my last name or full name without using any titles or honorifics when sending me emails, although they call me "sensei" in person. (It’s a Japanese university.)

The practice of starting an email to someone with "Dear Smith" or "Dear John Smith" with no honorifics (Mr./Ms. etc.) would be considered disrespectful in their language, and Japanese as well, so I am not sure where they picked up this habit, but they need to know that it is also not acceptable email etiquette in English either. These are law school students, and it would not reflect well if they were to send emails addressed in such a fashion to, say, a contact person at a major corporation who is working with us to organize a career seminar/symposium, or a client should they become lawyers in the future.

Now, it is not my job to teach students about proper English email-writing etiquette. However, the Japanese Ministry of Education has taken an interest in our program, and we already have a few alumni working in government positions related to international education and diplomatic affairs, so I'd really like to avoid getting a phone call from MEXT, or god forbid Country A's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and getting chewed out for hours for not training students in proper email etiquette ahead of time since they won't care who's in charge of what.

The problem here is that the professor in charge of the entire program simply doesn't care. He actively avoids doing anything if he can avoid it and relegates everything to me, which means he is often not available for phone calls and doesn't respond to emails. So I can't depend on him for any solutions, meaning I must make a decision as to how to handle this situation. I have thought of a few options:

Mass email to only students from Country A
Mass email to all students
Consult with the Academic Writing Center and arrange for a 1~2 hour seminar on proper business communication etiquette open to all students (I can't have it just for my students since the funding would have to come from the general education department) and tell all my students to attend, which would be a huge hassle and requires bickering and negotiating with several departments.

What do you think is the best solution?


texts: Are my expectations for undergraduate student support unrealistic?

texts:
I'm attending a Russel group university in the UK, and studying Computer Science in the 2nd year of an undergraduate degree.

I'm reasonably happy with the vast majority of the taught content, but sometimes certain parts of the syllabi trip me up or I'm not sure if I'm correctly understanding how to approach solving certain problems. At Sixth Form, if I was stuck I'd try and work it out myself and then ask the subject tutor if I wasn't getting anywhere.

At university, there appears to be a stark difference in the academic support offered. Many lecturers do not have regular office hours and are unresponsive when asked if an appointment could be scheduled. Questions sent via email aren't comprehensively addressed, even when it's clear that substantial independent work using external resources (content from other universities, various textbooks etc) has been done to try and tackle the problem (vs. simply asking for an answer with no work to show for it). There's little I can do other than consult my peers when I don't understand something - and if many of us are stuck we feel completely lost.

There also seems to be a difference in the support materials provided. Many modules don't publish example problems or solutions, provide any form of solutions to past exam questions or sign-post relevant textbook exercises. This differs greatly to previous exams prior to university, where the exam board would make marking schemes, model solutions and examiner reports available each year. I feel ill-prepared for most exams, because I find it difficult to verify my answers to practice problems are correct.

Is this the norm for undergraduate study, or are these signs of issues within my department? Are my expectations in terms of academic support unrealistic?


texts: solution to questions of lab equipments and funding search during faculty interview

texts: In a faculty interview, when asked about how to prepare for lab equipments and how to search for funding, how to answer, esp for postdocs having no experience in these things? This is spoken in a context of an engineering deparmtent whereas I do theory work only.


texts: How to prepare a ten-minute presentation for a PhD interview?

texts: I've got an interview for a Ph.D. position and I need to give a ten-minute presentation for my recent research. I have completed two projects and right now I am doing another research which has a close correlation to the advertised position. These three projects have no correlation. I would like to present the last project I am working on, but unfortunately, I have a few results to exhibit. So I do not know how to present an unfinished project. Should I follow the outline like background, purpose, methods, and results? And any tips or advice for the interview?


texts: How can my colleague use our joint results in his PhD thesis?

texts:
Over the past two years, I've been collaborating with a PhD student. He did experimental work, and I did modeling and data analysis based on his experiments. Now that my colleague is about to write up his PhD thesis, in which way can he ethically include the modeling and data analysis results in his thesis?

I don't need any of these results for a thesis on my own, and we are currently writing a paper on this together, so there are no worries from my side about misuse of these results.

There is the related question Are overlapping dissertations ethically acceptable?, but I am more explicitly asking about how my colleague can present the results which are more based on my work in a good way.


texts: Send reference letters from mathjobs to other positions

texts:
I am currently applying to several postdoc positions. My referees have uploaded their reference letters to Mathjobs, but I'm also applying to some positions out of Mathjobs. In order to avoid disturbing my referees again and again:

Question: Is there a way to send a reference letter uploaded on Mathjobs to a position out of Mathjobs?


texts: Importance of GRE for computer science PhD applicant

texts:
I am currently a prospective computer science Ph.D. applicant with a 3.75/4.00 GPA at an R1 CS school ranked in the top 30. I am considering applying to 15 schools roughly in the top 50. I have an extremely strong research background with one first author ML pub in a reputable IEEE conference and a second author applied ML/psychology journal article under review. My letters of rec will all likely be very strong and from well-known professors that I have worked under or with for at least 6 months. That said, I have a few questions about the application process:

I am not the best standardized test taker, and I currently am looking at quantitative GRE scores of around 75th-80th percentile with verbal scores in the same range. Will my subpar GRE scores likely prevent the comparatively stronger portion of my application from being reviewed at many schools? With this in mind, should I retake the GRE until I'm closer to the averages of the schools?
I am going to complete my undergraduate in 2.5 years and am hoping to enter a Ph.D. program directly after graduation. Will the reduced length of my undergraduate career reduce my chances of acceptance, or is this viewed somewhat favorably?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.


texts: How does one Harvard-style reference borrowed computer code?

texts:
I'm writing an academic (working) paper, and in the appendix I display a short program I wrote in Stata, a program used for statistical analysis. I wanted to highlight the syntax with colours, so I used Mauricio Caceres Bravo's Stata syntax highlighting markup code, used in LaTeX.
I want to cite his code, but I am not sure of the exact referencing rules for markup code. I have tried Googling this, but most sites simply copy what the University of Arkansas says. That advice doesn't give a list of "types" of code, so I'm not sure what to label Maurico's code (the guide only gives "computer program/source code" as two examples). The APA 7 Referencing Guide lists "Computer Software/Language/Program" as the types.
What type of code is Maurico's, a snippet of markup language, found on GitHub?


texts:
We have witnessed (heard or read) about the birth of new academic journals many times. I have a vague idea how that happens:

A scientist or a group of scientists recognize the need for an academic journal in a specific field or a new scientific society considers to publish a journal,
they choose a group of experts as founders and/or chief editors,
they determine a scope and some basic rules for the journal,
they decide about the number of issues in each year and similar things,
they find a publisher or decide to publish the journal entirely on web, they establish a web site for the journal,
and then they announce the new journal in the related scientific community.

Did I miss any stage? But I suspect there are lots of discussions, negotiations, arrangements and cooperations behind the curtain, which public (the rest of the related scientific community) doesn't know. So my questions are:

What is a typical procedure for establishing a respectful academic journal?
Do financial considerations play a key role?
Should the founders be top experts (to some degree) in the field?
Is it important the new journal be affiliated to a scientific society or be published by a recognized publisher?
Why are some new journals published only on-line?
What are the influential factors for the success of a new journal?
How do the founders choose the editors?
What else should one consider for initiating a new academic journal?

Please share your partial answers too if you don't have all the answers.

Disclaimer: I am just curious and I don't intend to initiate any new journals in the near future.;)


texts: Motivation and presentation not explained in the paper

texts:
My conference paper got conditionally accepted, but one of the remarks of the reviewer was: "The presentation and motivation are not explained." I'm not sure what to think about this. English is not my native language, so I'm not quite following what does this means.

What doeas "presentation" in the paper means? I was at the conference, and I have presented my work, but I guess that definitelly doesn't have anything to do with this review.

And about motivation, I'm not quite following how motivation is not explained? Can someone point to a few examples that explain this issue?

I hope I haven't done anything wrong quoting one sentece from the review. Also, I'm really sorry if it is something that happens quite often. Oh, I forgot to say that I'am a mathematician.:)


texts: Is it a good idea to send multiple GRE scores?

texts:
I have two GRE scores. The first one is V149+Q169+AW4 and the second one is V159+Q170+AW3.5. I'm applying for MSCS programs in some top universities. I've heard that admission officers don't care about AW scores, but some others said AW is more important than the verbal section (even for mscs programs). I will definitely send my second score but should I also send the first one to compensate my 3.5 AW in the second time? Some universities have the policy to accept the highest scores from each section. But I'm also worried that my 149 verbal score in the first time will hurt me if I send both.
Please help. Any advice is appreciated!


texts: Is it a bad idea to send an article under review as a writing sample? (faculty job application)

texts:
I have a manuscript that is under review in a major journal which is a main result out of a few recent years of my research. When applying for faculty positions, I would like to send the draft as a part of my writing sample. But since the material is not yet published, I am not sure if it is a good idea.

What are the foreseeable disadvantages of sending an article in review to the faculty search committee?

My area is neuroscience / biomedical engineering.

Update: The paper got into a high-profile journal, and I got a job at a different place which did not require a writing sample.


texts: How are grad.applicants selected after program qualifications are met?

texts: On another post of mine, someone said that the idea of a qualified candidate is "elusive" because there are always more qualified applicants than open spots in any program. I thought that was a valid point, and I wanted to ask how most programs select candidates once they've met or exceeded the minimum qualifications. I know research interests/match of faculty is a factor, but there still must be more applicants than any given advisor can take on. So once the "pile" is narrowed down to most "qualified" candidates, how are they chosen?


texts: How does one know that the field of research they are in is the best fit for them if they are average in it?

texts:
I love computational materials science. I was an experimentalist and involved in some Computational work during my masters degree. I did not not enjoy the experimental part. I did not enjoy the lab politics, the dependency on others. Also, I did not enjoy the significance of the work I was doing. Most of the time, it was just reporting the experimental data without trying hard to find a theoretical reasoning.

On the other hand, I was fascinated by computational research. The only limitation was I myself. Implementation of ideas, thinking about the fundamental physics that's occuring, and getting to theoretically predict the results was exciting. Thus, I was extremely determined to do a PhD in computational aspect of materials science for this particular reason.

Fast forward 4 years, I am done with my PhD. And I have published some papers on my research area. However, I did not do anything substantial during my PhD. I did not get any awards, nor my research got any media coverage, applying for grants with my advisor was always a nightmare. Contrarily, my colleagues who work on experimental aspect of the research, find it much easier to publish, gets multiple awards, easily gets grants approved, have media coverage for every "groundbreaking" stuff they develop.

Now that I have completed my PhD, I sort of envy the experimentalists and regret not being one. I feel that being average in computational materials science is disasterous as compared to being average in experimental research. I feel that I made a wrong choice 4 years ago when I decided to apply for a computational PhD than an experimental one.

My question is: How does one know that the field of research they are in is the best fit for them ? And how to be content with one own's research field and not feel resentment that probably I am not a good fit for this field?


texts: In some journals, "notes" are original research papers that are not significant enough to be a "regular contribution". If I've published a note, can I list it in my CV as if it is a regular publication (i.e., not mentioning that it is a note)? Could this be considered as dishonest?


texts: Getting into a PhD program with a low gpa but good profile

texts:
I am going to apply to few PhD programs in Microbiology (I'm particularly very interested in Microbial ecology) but I'm afraid my undergrad gpa (8.5/10 for the first 6 semester as I'm currently in my 7th semester) might hold me back (however I have scored 9/10 in all core biology subjects). But I have a lot of other aspects to my application. For e.g. :

I have co-authored 3 research papers which are published in peer reviewed journal.
I have co authored 6 book chapters (4 in peer reviewed journals like springer, Elsevier etc)
I have presented 4 of my papers in 3 different international conferences (2 of them I was the first author)
I received funding from ISRO-ASI scholarship (Indian Space Research Organisation- Astronautical Society of India)  to attend one of the aforementioned conferences.
One of my team projects received a funding of 38,000 USD from our college trust.
I have conducted 3 months full time research internship in a research laboratory Tsinghua University.
I have also done 2 company trainings of 10 day each.
Plus few extra curricular activities like I was in tedx team, entrepreneurship cell etc. And as part time job I also taught few high school kids.
By the way I should mention my college is well reputed  (best in the state) in my country (India) but is tier-2

I need your help! I have no idea as to which colleges I should target ( my dream College would be University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) because of this particular professor Bruce W Fouke. He's amazing!) But I don't know if I would be accepted. I'm also not very rich so I can only afford the application fee for 10 colleges. I need your advice! Do you guys think I should apply to M.S. first get good grades and then try out for PhD. What kind of colleges I should target? (I actually concentrate more on the laboratory and not on the affiliated University but the University would be the one screening my application).


texts:
I am a first-year postdoc and I am currently structuring my summer plans for travel/conferences/etc.

May already includes a 2 week international trip of a one-week workshop and two seminar talks. June includes 2 one-week conferences domestically. July includes a 2 week international jumbo conference. August includes at least a one-week international research visit. If I did all the conferences pencilled into my calendar, I would be gone for 3 weeks in September.

To top it all off, there's a few more invites that just occurred for a week long summer school in June and a colloquium invitation in August. Both international.

I have been told that "you do not say no until tenure," but this seems too much to handle. At some point I have to sit down and do research, keep up with collaborations, and recover from travel. To be fair, I love travel, I am single, and I do not have a child or pet, so I have no obligations for being home; however, I am fearful of burning out. I am in mathematics, so there's no need for a lab and could potentially do work on the road but I am much more efficient when with my collaborators at home or at their home institution (which is not where these things are).

So the chain of questions here:

At what point does one have too much travel? Should I just pack my bags and try to learn how to research on the road?
When can one say no?
Do people care about what conferences you have been to and if they are on the CV or just about speaking? Is there a point where more invited talks hits a point of diminishing returns?


texts: Would I need to cite explanation of linux command lines?

texts:
I am a bit confused about how I go about this, as the questions require me to search some commands and explain what they do, or in some cases the differences between the commands.

I've been trying to do that, but then I find that none of the actually knowledge ends up being mine. I'm just copying what others have said this command does, and what the differences between these two commands are, and possibly following it up with my own example.

I ended up with really just a reference after each one of my paragraphs.

Isn't there any way these commands and what they do could be considered common knowledge? In the end, many people are using them everyday and there are many websites explaining what they are for and how they differ from other commands. How would citation apply in this case?


texts: Are studies published in conference proceedings well-regarded in social sciences fields (e.g., psychology)?

texts:
First, a bit of context. I have a BA in psychology and an MSc in an interdisciplinary field (educational sciences/learning analytics) that is a combination of psychology, educational sciences and computer sciences. I am completing a PhD in this same interdisciplinary field with a research group that is technically under the Engineering and Computer Science faculty of our university. My supervisor and all my colleagues have degrees in psychology (i.e., none of us are computer scientists).

I am about to finish a cumulative dissertation made up of:

a literature review published in a high impact factor journal
an extension of the literature review published in the proceedings of the annual conference in our community.
a quasi-experiment that will be published in the proceedings of the annual conference in our community.

The international research community in rather small (about 300-400 people attend the annual conference). The acceptance rate to the annual conference is quite low (average 30% of 400 full paper submissions are accepted). I quite like that it's small and interdisciplinary, but it does raise a few questions as to what constitutes a proper publication. I have plenty of colleagues who consider themselves computer scientists and they consider conference proceedings to be publications. However, my psychologist colleagues tell me that journal articles are still much better than conference proceedings.

Does anyone have any insight on how well-regarded conference proceedings are in social sciences? More specifically, should I be worried about hurting my chances of getting a postdoc position in psychology-leaning research groups because I don't have any experiments published in an academic journal?


texts:
Do universities employ people simply to teach?

I come from a family of teachers, so teaching comes naturally to me. What worth would a university put on a person that is willing to take a large amount of the teaching load?

Would certain departments employ people who are willing and able to do the teaching, leaving other members of faculty to do other things or is teaching just simply not a big enough part of a university's work to justify employing people specifically for it?


texts: Is making non-culture-related exam questions culture-specific ever a good idea?

texts: So far I maintain the position that an exam question for a subject that is not related to culture should not be culture-specific. By that I mean a question should not contain any "jargon" only known mostly to the Americans. But I am not sure if it is just I am too cautious about such a topic that may possibly touch some discrimination issues.


texts: Do professors from different fields use the same data set in different ways?

texts:
I have no experience with data analysis but a data analysis project was offered to me in the past by one of my math professors.  It would have been a PCA project, where PCA means "Principle Component Analysis" -- equivalent to the "singular value decomposition" in linear algebra.

It was a biology data set.

My question is:  would a biologist professor use this data set in some different way?  If yes, then in what ways other than something linear algebraic?

What would / could a statistics professor do with this biology data set that would be different from what a mathematician and biologist does with it?

Thanks,


texts: Re-using text from a grant proposal in a paper (or vice versa)

texts:
I have a grant proposal that I'm ready to submit, and I would like to re-use a significant amount of the text (on the order of 5-8 pages) in a paper that I intend to submit to a journal for publication.  Is this considered self-plagiarism?

As I suggested in the title, I am also interested in the reverse direction of this.  Is it okay to take significant amounts of text from (e.g.) my own unpublished doctoral dissertation and use it in a grant proposal?

If this were an issue of paper-to-paper copying I know both of these would be clearly off-limits.  The key issue that I am wrestling with is whether the rules are different for unpublished works like dissertations and grant proposals.


texts: Reference-style in the cover letter for resubmission of a manuscript

texts:
I'm going to resubmit a 'major revisions'-paper to a journal. In the cover letter I describe changes I've made. Obviously, I mention some other papers in the debate:

"I developed and strengthened my criticism of XYZ(2010) in the following way..." etc.

Which reference-style should I use. (Reference section looks stupid at the end of a letter, doesn't it?) Or should I treat references in the manuscript itself as a reference section for the letter?


texts: How do I reply to a professor whether I accept his postdoc. offer?

texts: I have been applying for postdoc positions recently. Yesterday I got an offer from one professor, but I didn't reply to him whether I accept it or not. The reason is that I am waiting for another professor's reply, whose university is much better. But I am not sure the second professor can give me the job. So I am worried to lose all if I refuse the first professor right now. Could you please give me some suggestions to deal with such situations?


texts: Mentioning my published papers in the motivation letter for postdoc application

texts:
Is it ok if I mention one of my published papers in the motivation letter when applying for a postdoc position, in the following way:

I published an article "authors, title, journal, volume, issue..." where I used an approach which interfere with the research interests of the "name of research group of the employing institution".


texts: Writing a recommendation letter as an employer for a student applying to programs in a different field

texts: I have been asked to write a letter of recommendation for a student I formerly supervised at my place of employment (at university, but as a staff member). The graduate programs the student is applying to ask for a letter from an employer and I feel that I can write him a strong letter. However, the student is applying for MPH, a field I know little about. Is it important to directly connect my experience with the student to his intended field, or is it adequate to just state that I think the student can succeed in the field?


texts: Can I mention professors' names in the statement of purpose?

texts:
For PhD applications, I have mentioned that I am interested in some research areas. Besides, I am thinking about mentioning some professors' names, so that it shows I have read their websites and I am not just sending out generic statements applicable to many schools.

But is it good to mention some professors' names in the statement of purpose, if I don't know them personally? In what cases is it good, and in what cases it isn't?

For example, is it good to only mention

those whose research directions are aligned with my research interests, or/and
those whose books or notes I have heard of, or better, might have read some parts of, or/and
those who are already established and famous (such as having certain titles), or/and
those that are directing the PhD graduate programs, or/and
those that are heads of the departments?

What will other professors who are not mentioned think? How will you do, if it were you?


texts: Being asked to review a paper in conference one has submitted to

texts: As stated in the title (an IEEE conference). Does this create a conflict of interest antithetical to the reviewing process? Is it possible that accepting or refusing to review could jeopardise the chances of one's own paper being accepted?


texts: Could one become a successful researcher by writing some really good papers while being outside academia?

texts:
Would it still be possible today to go from relatively unknown to a respected figure in physics by writing some spectacular papers being outside the academia?
(Just like Einstein did)


texts:
I majored in math and minored in CS. My grades are excellent and I have coursework in all the core areas of CS except for Computer Systems/Computer Organization/Computer Architecture.
Is this going to really hurt me in admissions to (self-funded, US-based, terminal, thesis-based) MS CS programs?


texts: "Pushing" a search committee for an answer?

texts:
I had a job interview (Skype) for a post-doc at university A last Thursday, which I think went well. They say they would take 1 week to 10 days to get back to me.

I had applied to other positions before, and got a much less attractive offer from  university B. I just received an email from university B saying that they'd really need to close the hiring process by the end of this week and would expect an answer from me in the next couple of days.

Would it be too aggressive to send an e-mail to University A to inquire about my chances when it's only been a few days after the interview? On the other hand, it is pretty late in the job hunting season so I feel it would be understandable?


texts: I lost my students' quizzes due to a theft, what should I do?

texts: I am a teacher assistant for a big course and I am expected to conduct weekly quizzes. Last week, my bag containing a week's worth of quizzes got stolen. My question is what should I tell my students and is there a fair way to make it up to them?


texts: Why is manuscript review in mathematics taking so long (over 8 months)?

texts: I  submitted my paper on mathematics to a journal  8 months ago but I have no received any reports or comments yet. I sent an email to the editor asking him about the manuscript, he just replied that it is still under review. What shall I do?


texts: Risking declining a postdoc offer for a potentially better one

texts:
I have an offer of a good postdoc that I have until the end of tomorrow to accept or decline. It's a 2 year post at a decent UK institution, working on interesting applied interdisciplinary work. I know some people involved -- the PI and people they've worked with, and the previous research fellow who had the job is a friend (and I'd be working a % with them).

On the other hand, I have applied for another postdoc at a more exciting EU institution, doing more exciting theoretical work that is a very natural extension of my PhD. The PI there has commended my work, added an article of mine to the project's pre-launch bibliography, and said in a phonecall that I could be optimistic of my chances, based on my application. They also asked me not to accept the other one(!). The deadline for this is end October, so interviews would only take place in November. I also don't have any personal connections with the PI or other researchers (although I know the literature of course). The project starts next year, so the group is being built from scratch.

My dilemma is this: do I take the safe, good option, which is guaranteed but which involves an overlap with the PhD timeline, or do I risk "reaching for the stars" with the more exciting option which, because of its high profile, is likely to attract applications that may in the end be better than mine? If I decline the first one, but the applications for the second are stellar, I might end up with nothing.

My gut tells me to reach for the stars. But my wallet, in the months since my scholarship ended, says otherwise. I'm really torn!

Edit: some more detail -- the UK position is in a generic English midlands city that I am not inspired by at all, while the EU position is in a capital (indeed, the capital), and has a lot of draw because of that. I can't deny that the location is a big factor for me, not least because of Brexit.

Outcome: In the end I declined it to go with my gut instinct, which is to try for the other one. Time will tell if that was the right choice -- I may come out with neither, but for whatever reason that prospect doesn't frighten me (I will find something ultimately).

Outcome v2: I was offered the more exciting postdoc and will start there in 2019, so my instinct was correct


texts:
While looking for a new university position in Germany, I was contacted by a recruiting agency ("headhunter") for a position that is also advertised on the university internet page directly. It is a senior physician/researcher staff position, may translate as consultant.
What are the advantages/disadvantages of applying via a recruiting agency vs. applying directly? How does this affect the picture the university gets of such a candidate?
Another thought is: does the university have to pay a higher fee if they hire someone via the agency vs. directly, i.e. success-related payment vs. payment for service? Is this relevant at all, compared to the picture of the candidate"?


texts: I want to include the chemical change that occurs when calcium carbonate is heated within the background section of the thesis I'm writing. I've seen it included in other's work on the topic, but I don't see any formal citations of the formula. Do I need to cite it or is it more akin to general knowledge? If I do need to cite it, where would be a good place to do that from?


texts:
Is there a website where I can post my CV where potential academic employers can find me? To be more precise, I'm looking for postdoctoral position in the areas that uses differential geometry but could also use statistics, for example, computational neuroscience, computer vision, manifold learning etc.

P.S. this is my main question. But if you could answer the same question for industries for using the above topics and could access my CV online, that'd be well appreciated, because in case I don't get a postdoc, I'm keeping myself open to industry too.

Thanks in advance!


texts: I violated academic integrity unknowingly by sharing assignment resources with fellow student. What should I do?

texts:
So, before I tell my story, I'll qualify by saying I have a bit of a guilt complex and its possible I'm overthinking all of this.

I was looking through my university's honor code and I came upon "collusion," in which students are forbidden to work together on assignments unless explicitly authorized.  This caused me to realize that I had probably broken this rule last semester on a paper in one of my classes.  The class is over, I got an A on the paper and an A- in the class.

To be clear, I didn't see what I was doing as bad at the time.  We deliberately avoided sharing outlines with one another, and neither of us saw each other's paper.  What we did do, however, was work together for a few hours and compile a single google drive file of "paper ideas" in which we assembled references in the two texts (the paper was a comparison of two philosophers).  Neither of us had completely read both authors, so list of references and ideas was helpful.  Again, this wasn't an outline, just a long page of notes related to the authors, from which we separated and drew our own outlines and wrote our own papers.

I know ignorance is no excuse, and I feel pretty bad about this situation.  I'm wanting to go to my professor and explain the mistake, but I'm concerned about it because it was an honest mistake and I'm not sure I want to drag this other person into it.  She is graduating in two weeks while I have another year to go.

I'm just trying to get some feedback as to what I should ethically do as well as potential outcomes of this scenario.  I certainly recognize that I shouldn't do what I did again.


texts: How is a PhD student staying in their institution as a postdoc perceived by future employers?

texts:
I am finishing my Ph.D. very soon, with the only thing remaining is the thesis defence, which hopefully should go smoothly. My goal is to go into academia, so I started looking for postdoc opportunities. What I am looking for in this position is to have more publications so that I could eventually find a tenure-track position.
I recently got an offer from a university in a nearby city, and I was about to accept it. However, my advisor heard about this, and he suddenly wants to keep me as a postdoc himself after I finish. While I see some positives and negatives in both offers, I feel that there is a higher chance for me to produce publications if I stay with my current advisor. So I am considering staying.
I am just wondering that if I stay, will I be viewed in a negative light by future faculty selection committees, seeing that I stayed in the same place as a postdoc where I did my Ph.D. with the same advisor?


texts: Why do we not reinvent the journal system?

texts:
I am very surprised that I could not find any similar question here.

It seems to me that researchers from all universities are willing to write papers about their research for free and hand them into a journal to gain reputation. On the other hand, some other researcher do voluntary check the paper in order to examine if the paper is acceptable for the journal. Therefore, the main work is done by researches.

The remaining work for the journal is to offer a platform where researchers can communicate and making sure that the reviewer is selected anonymous and to bundle many articles to a journal.

Now everyone has to pay a huge amounts for the papers, they are not accessible for free to the general public, even though that most researchers are financed by taxes and only the journal is making profit.

Now I wonder, should it not be possible to create a network page for researchers which contains methods to imitate the review process of a paper? So that all papers can be downloaded at the website for free. I guess most researchers would be very happy if everyone could read their work. Also the money that is spend on journals by universities could be spend to this huge network page instead in order to keep it running.


texts: Type of non-university, research jobs suitable for a mathematician turned computational neuroscientist, with coding experience

texts:
I've asked the same question on Math Overflow

Background:

I'm a Ph.D. in pure mathematics (late '13, related to differential geometry, low dimensional topology) turned into computational neuroscientist as postdoc. I've been coding in matlab for the last 9 months, this being my only serious coding experience. I'm also doing some differential geometry and longitudinal statistics and have a minor in statistics. I'm neither an American nor EU citizen, but a research position in the European Union would be ideal (although I'm open to other options.)

My postdoc will not be extended beyond September. So, apart from searching other postdocs, which are the only university positions I can get at this moment, I am therefore also looking for non-university positions (it could be still academic, but the stress here is outside universities) in industry or research labs (e.g. MITRE), preferably permanent. I prefer a research position where I can do pure mathematics and continue coding.

Questions:

Which types of jobs are there?
Which role do the hired candidates play in them?
How can I find about their job advertisements?


texts: First try vs second try for PhD Qualifying Exam

texts:
For universities that give two tries for passing the PhD qualifying exams, are the two tries "equal"? In the sense that does the committee consider more carefully on the second and last try of the applicant before failing him/her?

Just an analogy: for driving tests, examiners are known to be more lenient on the second (and subsequent) attempt, and more strict on the first attempt. Not sure if it is true for PhD exams...

Just to ask any professors/students here who are more experienced in this matter.

Thanks!


texts: Is validating the results of an article important before citing such an article?

texts:
During writing my academic paper, I need to cite accuracy values of cited research paper.

I have been advised that if you will cite a paper, you need to read that paper entirely. But in this case, Do i need to validate results that they achieved.


texts: 'Awaiting recommendation' on Scholar One before any review process

texts: I submitted a manuscript to ScholarOne about 10 weeks ago. I'm aware of the typical workflow of a journal. There are two bullet points that have remained unchanged for about 8 weeks now - one saying 'awaiting reviewer scores' and the other saying 'awaiting recommendation'. From reading other posts, these don't seem to usually be said together - does it usually just say one or other? What does this mean?


texts: Erratum to correct a reference — will this technically work?

texts:
Hours after I approved the proofs, I noticed a key reference in my article was wrong.  Authors and title are correct, journal is wrong, and it's wrongly listed as in press.  The paper is now published (it's a fast journal, the status is now registering DOI), so the reference probably can't be changed anymore.  I could submit an erratum, but would this be "picked up" by services such as Scopus or Google Scholar?

Related from a different perspective: Miswritten reference in (in press) paper


texts: Should I pursue a math REU despite my hesitancy and lack of skills or am I kidding myself?

texts:
I wouldn't consider myself to be the best math student in my undergrad since I have always had trouble independently starting the homework and I'm constantly going to the professor for help in math. I started getting interested in math and fixing my study habits around my sophomore year of college and by then, I really had a weak foundation in Calculus. My grades are a B-/B range in math. My memory is bad  and I do have trouble reasoning but I work really hard but I'm really slow. I'm apprehensive about trying to apply to Math REU programs because there was an instance last summer a group and I did math programs and while everyone was figuring out simple algebraic problems I was behind and panicking.
But a part of me wants to continue studying math and adequately honing my understanding/skills in math after undergrad so I don't know. I really like the theory behind math and seeing how beautifully it comes together.


texts: Can a journal once removed from Scopus be reindexed in Scopus?

texts: If a journal indexing in Scopus is cancelled, can such journal be indexed in Scopus again?


texts: Is it possible for a cs undergrad like me to apply for a cs grad program and study computational biology?

texts:
I want to apply for an MS CS degree. However I want to study computational biology along with other subjects like AI, etc.
But many colleges have a separate department for computational biology(eg CMU) while others provide some courses to grad students of the cs department(eg Stanford).
Is it possible for me study computational biology at colleges which offer it as a separate program altogether?


texts: Revealing manuscript referees' identities after review: Why is this a bad idea?

texts:
Motivated by the How can an author get assurance that his work will not be stolen by journal staff or reviewers? question:

Authors submit their manuscripts to be reviewed by a journal or conference. Unless the submission is double-blind, the authors' names are listed on the submission, so the referees know who the authors are. Anonymizing referees during a review makes sense, since, for example, you don't want the authors contacting the referees while they are performing the review of the manuscript. But what about after the review has taken place?

  Why don't journals and conferences make available to authors the names
  of the referees who have reviewed the manuscript?

It really makes no sense to me.

Other questions on this site related to the present question:

What to do if a referee plagiarises the result after rejecting a paper?

Are the referees of a journal allowed to reveal the title of the papers they review after the review process?

(And there seem to be many more related questions...)

One common gripe in related questions seems to be the worry that referees can "steal" ideas presented in manuscripts. (I've personally not worried about this at all in my previous submissions.) A possible tactic to thwart "idea-stealing" is to post the manuscript on a pre-print server (e.g., arXiv); however, not all fields/sub-fields think it is kosher to do this.

Thus, given that the "post-manuscript-on-arXiv" solution is not applicable to everyone, this question seeks to determine what are the main, logical reasons why referees' identities are not revealed to authors post-manuscript review.


texts: Is there a convention on how to write pseudocode in scientific papers?

texts: I've found questions answering where or when to write pseudocode in scientific papers, but I haven't found any addressing any sort of convention for pseudocode, such as syntax, what type of symbols or notation to use and what they mean precisely, or any sort of 'formal' definition of pseudocode. I suppose that's the nature of pseudocode, it should be understandable and general no matter how you write it, but I wish there was some sort of guidance for how to structure and convey meanings across in a formal manner. Does this exist? For now I am purely imitating the CLRS pseudocode style.


texts: Are grad school acceptance rates skewed?

texts:
Take grad schools for instance. Their acceptance rate is 8%, or seems to be so. Basically, suppose you have 100 randomly selected across the USA grad school applicants. 50 don't know what to do with their lives, so really the acceptance rate goes up to 16%. Then the other 25 will be out for unusual circumstances, so roughly, there is a 33% chance, or 1 in 3 chance of getting in. (yes, even my numbers are a bit skewed, but reasonably better)

So is grad school really that hard to get into (If you are on top of your game)?


texts: Using substantial parts of a paper you authored in your thesis

texts:
IEEE is very slow to answer and I need some clarification rather soon. If I am writing a dissertation and want to use extensive parts (but not the full paper!) of one of my own papers that was previously published in an IEEE conference's proceedings, what do I need to state in the dissertation to satisfy the IEEE copyright regulations?

IEEE states that for thesis or dissertation reuse the following rules apply:

  Thesis / Dissertation Reuse

  The IEEE does not require individuals
  working on a thesis to obtain a formal reuse license, however, you may
  print out this statement to be used as a permission grant:

  Requirements to be followed when using any portion (e.g., figure,
  graph, table, or textual material) of an IEEE copyrighted paper in a
  thesis:

  1) In the case of textual material (e.g., using short quotes
  or referring to the work within these papers) users must give full
  credit to the original source (author, paper, publication) followed by
  the IEEE copyright line © 2017 IEEE.

  2) In the case of illustrations
  or tabular material, we require that the copyright line © [Year of
  original publication] IEEE appear prominently with each reprinted
  figure and/or table.

  3) If a substantial portion of the original paper
  is to be used, and if you are not the senior author, also obtain the
  senior author's approval.

  entire IEEE copyrighted paper in a thesis:

  1) The following IEEE
  copyright/ credit notice should be placed prominently in the
  references: © [year of original publication] IEEE. Reprinted, with
  permission, from [author names, paper title, IEEE publication title,
  and month/year of publication]

  2) Only the accepted version of an IEEE
  copyrighted paper can be used when posting the paper or your thesis
  on-line.

  3) In placing the thesis on the author's university website,
  please display the following message in a prominent place on the
  website: In reference to IEEE copyrighted material which is used with
  permission in this thesis, the IEEE does not endorse any of
  [university/educational entity's name goes here]'s products or
  services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. If
  interested in reprinting/republishing IEEE copyrighted material for
  advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective
  works for resale or redistribution, please go to
  http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/rights_link.html
  to learn how to obtain a License from RightsLink.

  If applicable,
  University Microfilms and/or ProQuest Library, or the Archives of Canada may supply single copies of the dissertation.

Am I correct in the assumption that for my case only the first case (marked bold) is relevant and I hence only need to a) cite the source and b) put a mark "(c) 2017 IEEE"?

Does anyone have any hands-on experience with such a case?


texts: Professor using student paper as an example of what not to do in class?

texts:
So a professor used a grad student's paper (anonymously) as an example of what not to do or what she doesn't want to see in the papers. The student was blindsided as the student wasn't notified that his paper would be used as an example, the student hasn't received a grade yet, and was not giving any corrections.
What would be a good way to handle this situation?


texts:
I know there are many posts out there geared towards requesting reference letters; I have a question (as a newly established PI) about writing them. I am based in Europe, and want to support one of my former student's grad school applications in the US.

US-based profs & PI's (specifically in cognitive science/neurosciences), what kind of information do you look for in rec letters for prospective grad students? I am relatively unfamiliar with the US grad school system (it's radically different here), but I know superlative praise is called for. Just, praise in what specifically? What are qualities you look for, or other things that make a reference letter informative to you? The student has a bit of a non-traditional cv and I want to make sure I highlight things that might be relevant.

Thanks!


texts: How to get professors to reply to my email of inquiry for research opportunities / Co-Advising

texts:
I am now in a thesis-track Master's program and will be applying to PhD next year. Now I want to do some research projects with some of the professors who have areas of interest that I am also interested in. There are only 2 (or 3 if you count in another one who only publish 2 papers in this area in the past 10 years) of them listed under my program right now as other people retired or moved. I already sent 3 emails (including follow-up emails) to these two professors respectively, and they don't seem to be replying at all. I don't know if I should continue to send more follow-up emails - I want to but I am worried that this might be annoying. I am sure that they are not on sabbatical nor stopped doing researches at the moment, so is there anything that I can do at this moment if not finding advisors in another area? Would attending the same conference with them, pretending that I bumped into them help, and then starting a dialogue be a good idea at all?
Also, how does co-advising really work? Is this some request that students actively make with two professors, or is this some request that professors make for students?


texts: Strategies for teaching with facial aphasia (inability to recognize faces aka prosopagnosia, face-blindness)

texts:
I'm a math grad student in my first year, which means that I have not yet taught a class (in my program first years grade or provide one-on-one tutoring for students who struggle in calculus). I have facial aphasia, which means that I am completely unable to recognize people's faces. After a while (upwards a year) I can reliably recognize someone based on how they move, dress, wear their hair and so on. Before that I will just have a vague feeling that I recognize someone, but I can't put a name to them . It happens that I can't recognize people I've lived with for several years, or, on a few memorable occasions, my own family members. This causes some problems on occasion, but nothing I haven't been able to work out. However, up until now the people I've been expected to learn to recognize have been friends, or coworkers I see every day that I can explain my problem with faces to. My question is:

How do I handle teaching when I can't recognize my students and it would take me a year minimum to learn their faces? I know from my own experience that good instructors / TAs learn their students' names and faces and this helps motivate the students to learn, because they notice that their teacher cares about them. How can I compensate for my facial aphasia?

EDIT: Thank you for all the great responses! I feel a lot more confident that I can do well as a TA with all these ideas to work with :)


texts:
I already have a BSc degree from an unknown school in outside the US. I have convinced a professor at a top US school to let me join his lab to work on a project that he will propose and conduct experiments at his lab. In return for learning and having access to the lab and working on a project, I am supposed to help the lab with programming their machines. However, there is no pay, that is my title would be "Volunteer". Therefore, I have to work in part-time or night jobs while working there (I have work permit).

Is this common in US, that is to work in a lab without getting paid and working on a part-time job outside the lab to pay for living expenses?


texts: Why dissertation has no score in GPA in United States?

texts:
I saw the PhD transcript of a colleague graduated from a US university. There was no score for the dissertation, just stated Pass with no effect on the cumulative GPA.

Is it common?

How the dissetation quality controls the final GPA?

Isn't the major academic credit (40 - 60%) of a PhD program its dissertation?


texts: Do reviewers of research proposals for a fellowship read the whole application, or only the scientific part?

texts:
If you are applying for some fellowships, there are many fields which you have to fill in. For example, what will be benefits for a host country, what will be the benefit for your home country, what will be the benefit for you or for your host supervisor, what will you learn, what have you learned yet, etc. There can be a scientific abstract, lay abstract or questions like what will be the impact of a fellowship on your future.

Who will read your whole application?

Scientific reviewers of your project will get only your research proposal, or is it their role to read all this fields?  Are these field kept just for cases, when there are two similar candidates to get support, and than these fields can be critical?


texts: Should I list my papers which are published in less known journals in my CV?

texts:
In preparing my academic vita for applications to PhD programs, I came across this question: Since I have some papers published in less known journals, should I list them or not to list them?

Will listing them instead hurt my applications?