texts: What's the difference between German TV-L and TVöD pay scales?

texts:
We've had a number of questions that ask about the details of German TV-L payment scales, which are common for PhD students.

I've noticed that some institutes use the TVöD payment scales for their employees. After looking things up a bit, to me TVöD seems to be very much like TV-L.

So my question is: What's the core difference between TV-L and TVöD?


texts: PhD dropping out and funding reimbursement

texts: What happens if one has a PhD scholarship and drops out in the second year of the PhD program? Should he pay back the money that he got in his first doctoral year?


texts: When and how do I start writing a conference paper?

texts:
In some areas, like Computer Science, peer reviewed conference are as important as Journal Papers.

Unlike most Journals, Conferences have hard deadlines to submit the papers as well as page limits.

So I have a few questions:

How early should I start writing a paper for a conference?
Is it reasonable to write and do experiments at the same time?
How many references should you check? one professor told me: check 200 use 30.


texts: Sex worker student offering her (lawful) services

texts:
One of my students is an escort/stripper and she has offered me (and other faculty in my department) her "services". I am pretty sure my initial reaction of "thanks for letting me know, now can you answer the question about how to calculate the standard deviation", may not have been the best reaction. The offers have continued. My head of school is aware of the issue, and has asked if I want him to do anything.

Is the student doing anything wrong by offering her services to me? For what it is worth, prostitution is legal in the UK. Is this any different then a student telling me she works in a restaurant?

What is the correct response in a situation like this?


texts: Is recycling your own phrasing with a citation but without explicit quotation self-plagiarism?

texts:
I have a research proposal for which I spent a lot of effort writing the introduction and background so that it was as informative and elegant as possible.  I would like to re-use this material simply because, to me, it's the best way of expressing these ideas.  To rephrase would be obviously redundant effort and I believe only detract from the quality of the writing.

Of course, I will cite my original proposal, but I am wondering whether I need to add awkward quotations of myself for almost every paragraph in my introduction or literature review sections.  This would significantly reduce the readability of those sections, which is of course the whole point of recycling the previous content.


texts: Is it acceptable to use personal experience when opening in presentation of my thesis?

texts:
Is it acceptable to use personal experience when opening in presentation of my thesis as long as it is relevant and contribute to the presentation of the literature, justification or methodology of thesis?

I do not intend to reference or cite any of my experiences as a source, but rather, I am seeking to use my experiences to begin with the research story.

For instance,

"...I experienced event X and I observed event Y, which may potentially be manifestations of the phenomenon described in the thesis theory, with event A being a possible example of B and event C being an example of D.".

Something to this extent.

I've witnessed various thesis defenses and seen many presentations on Youtube. They gave me an idea of adding a "personal touch" to the presentation.

Please note that I'm referring to my thesis defense rather than the thesis itself which focuses strictly on the hypothesis, methodology and findings in third persons.

English is not my mother tongue. Please forgive any misspelling and inconsistencies.

Thank you.


texts: Double major vs single major and multiple minors

texts:
I am currently enrolled at the engineering school of a large university (as a freshman).  I am set on majoring in Computer Science, and have been taking courses towards the requirements of that major.  In fact, I am so interested in CS so far that I suspect I will want to pursue graduate education in the field.  However, I have lots of other interests (mathematics, physics, mechanical engineering, robotics, and statistics), and have enough AP credit that I can either pursue a second major or multiple minors.

Besides mechanical engineering, pursuing a second major in any of my other listed interests would require that I satisfy the degree requirements for the school of arts and sciences (which I have determined to contain many courses that are probably interesting to some people, but are totally useless and uninteresting to me).

If the details of what were put on my degree did not matter, I would much prefer to simply take the courses in these various fields that would be most useful/interesting to me, and disregard any degree requirements other than those for my CS degree.  However, I have heard that minors generally don't add much to one's resume, and that a dual major/degree is much more valuable.

So how do I decide what to pursue?


texts: A confusing reply from potential supervisor

texts:
I emailed Professor X to express my interest in his research area and politely asked if he will be taking on new master students. First, I got a brief reply:

  Send me your transcript and any  papers/reports you have

So I emailed back to him with my transcript and some reports and he asked

  Did you apply for any external fellowship/scholarship or anything
  else?

I said I haven't applied for any fellowships. Then I haven't gotten a reply from the professor for a week. Why would Professor X ask the second question? Since I said I haven't applied for fellowships, could it possibly have changed his mind and decided to not take me as his student?


texts: Should I write an email to the professor I want to work with regarding my performance in the exam?

texts:
I am a masters student in one of the Swiss federal institutes. There is a professor I wish to work under as a PhD student after my masters. In fact, this was the entire reason I decided to join the masters program in this institute. After coming here, I did a semester-long project with this professor and took a course under the professor.

I think I did well in the project. Although I did not do anything original, I read a lot of difficult things and made a nice report. I asked the professor if there is a research position that I can apply to and continue working for the coming semester (it is very rare to get research positions in pure mathematics as a student) and I was told that it may be possible and more will be informed in a week.

However, this week the final exam of the course that I had taken under this professor was scheduled and I am not too hopeful about the performance in the exam (I think it was mostly because I spent too much time in the project and spent less time in my coursework). This professor is famous and can easily get students more capable than me.

Do you think I should write an email to the professor apologizing and explaining about this? What should I say?


texts: What should I do if the lab I am studying at uses a language that I do not understand?

texts:
The lab I am studying at is using a language which I completely do not understand at the current time. Almost all of the discussions and presentations are in this language. Sometimes the lab members explain what they are going to talk about before starting their presentations but is it extremely brief compared to what they present in their native language and I think I am missing a lot of knowledge because of this.

It is the official language of the country I am studying in. But because of the fact the the lab is researching at the area of computing and my supervisor and some of the lab members have participated in international conferences, I did not expect the communication gap to be this huge to the degree that is hard for me to understand the research environment at my lab.

I understand that I should learn the language my lab is using but it takes time and I am currently spending most of my time studying for my master degree (in computer engineering) and doing research and I think this has more priority than learning the language...

One of the reasons of joining labs is to get a chance to discuss things with people who have almost same research interests as yours and I feel this goal has not being accomplished because of the communication gap.


texts:
My employer is considering implementing Atira PURE to help manage grant applications and grant funding at the university level.
Seems like it might have some benefits... but could also add a costly and unnecessary layer of overhead.

Any experience with this or the equivalent?


texts: To what extent is reviewing work beneficial for young researcher's career?

texts:
I'm a recently minted postdoc working in an applied computer science field. Occasionally I get requests to review an article, or even to serve as a technical program committee member in various workshops.

Should I basically accept all of these requests as long as the papers to be reviewed are related to my subfield? Or is the opportunity cost too high? Will this community service be positively viewed when I apply for academic positions?

I typically don't learn much from reading the papers under review, as the workshops I'm invited to serve are not that high quality overall, and many submissions are plain bad.


texts:
Many times topics in courses are week-aligned, i.e., topic1 is studied on week1 (say in lecture1 on Monday/Wednesday and then in TA-section-1 on Friday), then topic 2 is studied on week2, etc.

Say the semester is 10 weeks long, and that there are 5 homework assignment (1st assignment covers topic1 and topic2, etc.)

I wonder what is the best strategy to schedule homework assignments, given that deadlines should be (at least) 2 weeks after publishing a new set of homework.

I see several options:

Option 1.
Publish homework 1 (topic1+2) at the end of week2, with deadline at the end of week 4.
[generaly, publish HW No. i on week 2i with deadline on week 2i+2]

Pros: An assignment is published only after the students saw all the relevant materials and have full two weeks to work on it.
Cons: Students usually work towards the deadline. Then, they actually work on the assignment only towards the end of week4, when topic1+2 are already stale in their minds.
(Another issue, of secondary importance, is that the last HW may interfere with finals.)

Option 2.
Publish homework 1 (topic1+2) at the end of week 1 with deadline at the end of week 3.
[generally, publish HW No. i on week 2i-1 with deadline on week 2i+1]

Pros: The students exercise topic1+2 immediately after seeing it.
Cons: They have only 1 week to do the assignment; Students that try to start the assignment early may get confused since some of the material haven't been covered yet in the lecture.

Option 3.
Care less, do whatever.

Would love to hear your advice.


texts: Is the postdoc salary negotiable in Canada?

texts:
I'm a statistician being offered 45k CAD for a postdoctoral position in Canada. I have a few questions:

Is this number negotiable at all?
Is it rude to ask for extra money to cover relocation expenses (US to Canada)?
The cost of a parking pass is 1000 CAD per year at this place (compared to 200 per year for faculty at my current university). Is it weird to ask for this to be compensated?


texts: How can a freelance writer supply recommendation letters?

texts:
Suppose, a BSc in Computer Science student has been doing online freelancing for the last 10 years. The teachers who knew him in his undergrad school are either retired, or dead, or doesn't have any contact with him.
Where can he collect recommendation letters if he wants to get enrolled in a graduate school?


texts: How to politely ask for feedback following a job interview

texts: I had a job interview three weeks back. To date I have not heard anything from them. Do I send them an email to seek feedback? What do I say to them?


texts: Who should be author in an application note

texts:
Work leading to the application note

During the c(o)urse of my PhD studies, I have written some analysis tools. I later collaborated with another PhD student to developed a proper analysis application. We then wrote an application note, to publish it in an journal. A third PhD student provided us with data, did an analysis using out tool and wrote the corresponding methods section in the application note.

The problem with authorship

By the rules of the journal, there should be three persons as authors: us three PhD students (Contributed work, and involved in draft). But as it is custom, is proposed an author list including us PhD student, the respective supervisors and the head of our research group/PI

However, my supervisor wants me to only include two PhDs and himself as last author. It seems quite important to him that the author list is short. Additionally, he wants to submit the paper himself to the journal. He has little knowledge about our work, nor does he understand the reasoning behind the analysis performed.

His sole contribution was to review the draft, so that all technical passages are now very understandable, as we explain our work to a scientific layman.

What I am asking myself currently

This is my first publication and I wonder if the demands oft my supervisor (him submitting to the journal, claiming to be the only "guest author") are justified, given the nature of his contribution?
Given this context, who should be author?

On a side note: While writing this, I also realize that the relation to my direct supervisor is quite toxic...

Edit:

We three PhD students are not in the same Departement.


texts: I wrote a new paper. Should I reapply for a postdoc at mathjobs?

texts:
About a month ago, when the deadlines for applying for postdoc positions at math at the US were approaching, I applied for several research universities via mathjobs.

In the time that passed since, I made a new discovery, and am now in the last stages of writing a paper about it.

Obviously, once the paper will be uploaded to the arXiv, my application will be improved.

However, for that to happen, I must update my c.v and my publication list, to include the new paper.

To do this in mathjobs, I will need to "reapply". Given that deadlines passed, will this be a good idea? Can reapplying now with my new c.v and my new publication list harm my application because of deadline issues?


texts: Should I mention a magazine article written about my research in my CV?

texts: How does getting into non-submission based magazines appear?  For instance, if R&D magazine took an article about my work (NOT an actual research paper) and published it in their magazine, would this be something I would want to mention on my CV/résumé or would I even bother listing it at all?


texts: Unsolicited CVs from grad school applicants - ignore or try to help?

texts:
I am a graduate student in physics and every other month or so I get an e-mail from someone who wants a grad school or even postdoc position. These e-mails often start out "Dear Professor (my name)," (I'm not a professor) and go on to explain that they are a motivated student looking to do a PhD with me, sometimes referring to a position that I am supposed to have advertised (I didn't). In the past I have often sent a reply in which I try to be disinterested but helpful, pointing them to the jobs section on our website which explains clearly who to contact.

I'm asking because today I got another one:

  I would be pleased to join for the PhD Studentship position into your institution for (field that has nothing to do with my institution) research.

Oddly specific and inaccurate at the same time. I don't mind just deleting it. However, I'd like to help if I can.

Why do people do this? To me, it seems counterproductive.
How can I help them onto the right track?


texts: How to get students to connect the pre-lab to the lab?

texts:
This is a very frustrating issue we are seeing with our students.  Students get access to the prelab one week in advance of the lab.  In the prelab, the students often have to use theory to predict a result in the lab.  Almost all students get the prelab correct, and they know that they are correct because it is an online quiz type thing, so they get immediate feedback*.

When they get to the lab, they are asked a question like "what is your expected voltage, and how does it compare to the measured voltage?"  A very large number of students, I'd say around 40%, will invariably ask "how do I know what my expected voltage is?"  However, this would come from the stuff they did in the prelab.

So, how do I get the students to recognize that the prelab isn't just an assignment, but is actually a vital part of the lab?

*OK, so realistically it's possible that the students are all just taking one person's answers and therefore aren't really thinking about it, but my experience with this class is that would be the exception, not the rule.


texts: Addressing a poor student-advisor relationship in job interview

texts:
I have a couple of interviews for research assistant vacancies in the next few days, but I didn't list the advisors of my undergraduate research project as my references, even though I added the project details and listed them as the advisors. I left them out of the references as the relationship I had with them wasn't that great. It was solely a case of a poor fit between a student and advisors; they had a particular way of providing feedback and comments that worked really well for some students but didn't work for a lot of students. I unfortunately fell into the latter camp.

I want to emphasize that they were not bad people, but simply because the fit, both professionally and personally, was probably quite poor to begin with. They've had students before that really blossomed under their supervision style, but it required a particular kind of student with solid coping mechanisms that I unfortunately did not cultivate at the time. They've also had much more personable relationships with other students as well, one which I did not have with them; we only talked about the thesis. Again, it wasn't their fault, and I can't emphasize that enough, but it was just a case of a really bad fit that I unfortunately did not see at the time.

With interviews for research assistant positions coming up, I'm not sure how to address this if it's asked. For example, 'Why weren't your advisors listed as reference?' or 'How was you're relationship with your advisors?'

Worse still, 'Would you be able to provide us with the contact details of your undergrad advisors?'

Has anyone else been in such a position before? Have you had a relationship that made you not want to list your advisors as a reference? Has it come up in interviews before, and if so, how did you address it?

If you're a PI for a lab, what would your initial thoughts be on this? Are all poor advisor-student relationships a red flag, or do you consider each circumstance on a case-by-case basis?


texts: Paper accepted subject to minor changes – should I comply if I do not consider them minor?

texts:
My paper met acceptance (through email notification from editor) with one reviewer requiring a minor change which is not minor according to my perception and would revise all my figures and results. The detail is:
Editor’s comments:
Your manuscript entitled "xxxxxxxxxxxx" has been accepted for publication in IEEE xxxxxxxxx.  The comments of the reviewers who reviewed your manuscript are included at the foot of this letter.  We ask that you make changes to your manuscript based on those comments, before uploading final files.
Reviewer 1 comments
Recommendation: Accept (minor edits)
Comments:
I  think the authors have either answered all my questions or made the relevant revision concerning the suggestions raised by the reviewer. I have no further comments
Additional Questions:
Does the paper contribute to the body of knowledge?: Yes
Is the paper technically sound?: Yes
Is the subject matter presented in a comprehensive manner?: Yes
Are the references provided applicable and sufficient?: Yes
Reviewer: 2

Recommendation: Accept (minor edits)
Comments:
The responses of the authors are satisfactory. But they can incorporate the sensing error parameter to bring more realistic scenario in their model.
Additional Questions:
Does the paper contribute to the body of knowledge?: Yes
Is the paper technically sound?: Yes
Is the subject matter presented in a comprehensive manner?: yes
Are the references provided applicable and sufficient?: Yes

Should I mention that I will undertake the recommendation in my future work? If I do so, can it lead to rejection of my paper after acceptance?


texts: Is there a difference between Top Tier and Second Tier graduate programs in Mathematics regarding tenure track?

texts:
I am unaware if this question has been asked anywhere on StackExchange before. However, I would like to know what is the major difference between a top 6 and a top 10 graduate school in Mathematics. Forex: Top 6 would include Princeton, Harvard etc. Top 10 would have a few more like Michigan or Columbia etc.
I know that it depends a lot upon quality of theses and advisor. But can a graduate from Michigan be better than someone from Princeton? Looking at the faculty of top schools this rarely happens. Usually, everyone at Princeton received their doctorates from Princeton itself or maybe Harvard. Harvard/MIT also have the same situation. So is it really difficult for a Michigan(or any top 10 school) graduate to get a tenure-track job at a very prestigious school like Princeton ?.


texts: Does a master's research project (not a thesis) count as a "publication" for PhD applications?

texts:
My master's in mathematical finance doesn't have a "thesis" exactly, but it has a research project where we helped a bank develop a model to help with credit risk by identifying which variables were more important in credit risk management (based on the particular data set we had which was the financial information, such as net income or return on assets, of the clients of the bank). This wasn't some report at the end of an internship, so our research project is somewhere in the middle of an internship and a thesis, I think.

My coauthors and I printed out a document that had an abstract, review of related literature, scope, methodology, etc which was then put in hard bounds and is now sitting on the shelves in the math department of my university.

We gave the first/a mock presentation to the risk management department and then the second/a real presentation to our "thesis" advisers.

The document is about the application of some articles, journals, papers, etc that led to us developing a model.

In a PhD application form, I'm asked for any publishing. Does the "thesis" count as a "publication" ? If so, is the "publisher" the university?

The options for type of publication are:

"Books/Book Chapter, Conference Paper, Journal Publications, Others"

The options for status of publication are:

"Published, Not yet - accepted in press, Not yet - Under review, Not yet - writing in progress"


texts: I've received interview for faculty position at one school but am interested in another school

texts:
I've just sent out job applications last week and only a few days later received a phone call for a phone interview at one school. I am interested in another school that the chair of that school is on my doctoral dissertation committee.
I've expressed my interest in a faculty position to him after he asked me if I would be interested. Since then, I haven't heard from him and my communication with him has been only about my dissertation. He provided me with a lot of compliments on my work and said directly that he is impressed by the amount and speed of work that I get done. However, I still didn't hear from him a call for interview or further discussion about the faculty position. Now that I am called for interviews, what shall I do?

Should I let him know that I have interviews. if I do he probably going to ask me which schools?.


texts: Can the GRE Sub in Psychology compensate for my low GPA?

texts:
I am a psychology student. My GPA is quite low: 3.6 for first 3 years but 2.8 for last 3 years ( I spent 6 years in undergrad because I transferred and lost 2 years of credits). However, I will have a publication in psychology and strong letters of recommendation from professors. The low GPA is my major weakness... I am wondering if a good score in GRE sub (like 95 percentile and above) would compensate for my GPA?

Thanks in advance!


texts:
Following a question on here, I also decided to reflect on my referencing skills. My style guide APA Harvard 6th wants names as Last, First. But with Chinese names I have this problem: do I reverse their name or has it already been reversed?

And do all Chinese authors follow this last name-first name convention, so because of this ambiguity is it correct to cite all Chinese names e.g. Xiu Ling, with the italics always being the last name?

  When writing academic articles or essays, espeically in the bibliography, I also have trouble deciphering which to use for Chinese authors and what I do is tend to reverse it, because I know authors would not be aware of the Last Name, First Name convention in the west ***, especially if the Chinese authors in question do not have a big online presence (a name format set out by the authors themselves). And espeically if the style guide wants it a certain way e.g. APA Harvard wants it: Last, First too even for Western names e.g. Julia Roberts. Roberts, Julia. etc.

*** and if Westerners cite the wrong format e.g. Xiu Ling and they have to write it in APA style they may write it as Ling, Xiu incorrectly.


texts: Advisor manipulated/threatened me into sharing my first authorship

texts:
My last Phd work was submitted to a high impact journal (IF >35). The manuscript came back for revision with 2 positive comments and 1 no-suggestion on my last day in his lab. Given its positive comments, I expected to go for next round of review as long as the comments are fully addressed. The comments requested simulations and experiments, which I supposedly would not be able to perform as I graduated and was leaving the next day. So my advisor threatened me on my last day to submit to IF (~5) journal or share my first authorship to someone (person X) who was not involved in the project at all. For the later, he reasoned that X needs to commit full-time ~ 4 months just for revision and stop all other works. Although I explained to go through comments first and discuss and that I can revise, he did not agree any of it. He asked me to choose 1 of his options, no negotiation (like giving co-first after X shows to put significant effort). I agreed to give X co-first authorship under the condition that major revisions will be done to address all reviewers' requests and convince them. Then my advisor privately told X will be the co-first and to revise none, minor, or major; choice is up to X. They spent 1.5 months only for quick revision, without addressing all comments. I told X about the problems with the revision, but no any reply. It was rejected directly by the editor. (At this point, they already broke the deal.)
Then they submitted to another journal, got rejected by the editor again.
Another journal (IF >10) finally passed the editor and came back for revisions. All 3 reviewers are positive. Yet the editor asked for all the comments/experiments to be fully addressed. My advisor did not even notify me about this decision. X told me that they wanted to submit to IF ~5 journal because too many experiments need to be done for the revision. X said need ~ a month or more to revise, and my advisor wants X to focus on looking for a job. So X asked if I am okay with this decision to submit to IF ~5 journal. (This is how I know there is a revision requested.) I am very mad because how X can deserve a co-first if they did not even put in effort and time! The revision comments are very positive, but they said they think it will not go through. (I am basically #w$%t&f?)
Similar things happened repeatedly during my PhD in his lab. I am very mad, but I am helpless. I used to hope this work would help my faculty job search if it gets published. This time, I did not want to "waste" this work while it originally even had the chance to go through IF>35 journal, but they messed it up since then.
Note: My advisor is a complete a**o who used to call/write bad recommendation letters for those who were against him.
Any suggestions on how to handle this?
UPDATE 1: So they agreed to submit a revision. Knowing that they will not treat it seriously like last time again, I revised the majority myself, incorporating old experimental data. There are still many simple experiments (~ 2 weeks worth of time) needed to be done. How can I make sure they will do the job and do it right?


texts: How much do letters of recommendation help in a statistics PhD program application?

texts:
I am an undergraduate mathematics student who is looking to apply to a Statistics PhD program. I asked a few professors how much letter of recommendation help a student get in to a PhD program and I was told the following.

  Not much. Often professors don't want to insult a student, so they write good letters. Lots of people get good letter, yours won't make a difference.

and

  Letters of recommendation are everything. They practically are your  application.

and

  They help some, but it depends on who it is from. If it is from a stat professor that is good. A math professor is OK too, but stat would be preferred. If they are not stat or math, they won't care at all.

As you can imagine, I am now even less clear of how much a good letter helps.

Is it true letters of practically make or break your application? Or are they simply a formality?


texts: Should I provide an opinion on a graduate school candidate without being asked by the candidate?

texts:
I've been contacted by email by another professor at a different institution, who is assessing a student for graduate school entry, for an informal opinion about the student's suitability. The student hasn't asked me directly for a recommendation or similar.

Is it ethical for me to provide that informal opinion without informing the student? Does whether the opinion would be positive or negative make a difference?

I'm reasonably sure there are no legal issues involved, so I'm just interested in the ethical considerations.


texts: Is it unethical to submit for review multiple articles which overlap in some respect?

texts:
I am well aware of the ethic guidelines in the academic publishing world regarding submission for publication of the same article to multiple journals: I know this is broadly considered unethical and creates a bad reputation for the author in question among the academic community (this eventually giving way to negative repercussions –presumably and informal, tacit type of ‘black listing’).

I have a slightly different problem here:

I am wondering what happens if I submit a series of articles, one different article to one different publisher, but all of them more or less at the same time: each of these articles would consist of a theoretical premise (a formula of principles according to which a text’s analysis will be conducted in the article), which is common to all the articles in object, and then the main body, different in every article: that would be the analysis itself (on the basis of the formula) of the works of an author –a different author in every article.

The field of research is humanities (literature). I am attempting to determine, on the basis of existing definitions of a literary trend (the aforementioned formula, which itself is a sum up of existing definitions of the literary trend, by other researchers), which authors and which works of theirs may be plausibly associable to the trend.

So, to sum it up, the formula of analysis (the definition of the trend) is the introductory part of each article. Conceptually speaking it is the same for all of them. I could change the exposition from one article to the other for the sake of not using the same exact text in all articles. The concept(the theoretic formula), however would remain the same: it would mostly not be my own original contribution, give or take a few corrections or specifications I am adding. The main body of the text –the original contribution to knowledge- is the analysis of the author’s text: this is the greatest part of the text and it is different for each article (one author for every article).

Much of this research has already been done in a draft form. Hopefully at some point in the future, and if these texts are published as articles, I’d be able to organize them (along with a few necessary additions) into a broader text to be submitted for publishing as a book.

So the question is: would this strategy be viewed by any reviewer/publisher/editor as a breach of ethic guidelines in the academic publishing sector? Would it cause me problems of reputation in it?


texts:
I gave my supervisor a paper draft today. They told me that I need to cut out the 5 pages of appendices that give all the equations (along with references of their original sources) needed for reproducing the results found in the main text.

My supervisor's argument was that papers should not be self-contained but rather that papers should direct readers to the different sources that came up with these equations. My supervisor went on to say that others might think I am trying to steal their future citations by attempting to have people cite my paper for a formula that someone else came up with (even though I provide attribution for the formula).

In my particular case, I am submitting to a journal with no page limits, albeit there are page charges that my supervisor will pay for.

Obviously, I am going to do what my advisor says for this paper. However, is this the general advice that I should carry with me throughout my career?


texts: Should the distinction between bibliography and reference be maintained when writing a paper?

texts:
There is a small difference between a bibliography and a reference: the former includes all works consulted and the latter only those that are cited in the paper. Should we maintain this technical distinction when writing a paper?

Some journal templates require the title of the last section to be 'References'. Does this mean all the references must necessarily be cited in the paper?


texts: current PhD applicant applying to another university

texts:
if a current PhD student applying to another university within the same country, is it required to expose the fact that he/she is currently enrolled in another university?
is it a right for the grad studies office to know my current status?  if yes; why? what is the difference?

Specially in case if the student does not want to transfer the credits he/she has taken in the previous university.


texts: Permited peer assistance in PhD and MSc thesis

texts:
Where I live, it's quite common for MSc students to seek help from "professionals" in this field. What they do varies from simple peer-review-like service and in the worst case they provide a full thesis with tuition i.e. spoon feeding.

It's amazing how many people teachers and teaching assistants are (unofficially) accused of getting this type of degrees. But this accusation in most of the time actually holds due to obvious lack of fundamental comprehension of the topics they are specialized in.

However:

Peer review is quite common and a prerequisite for papers to get published in a respected journal.
It's typical for a professor to have one or more teaching assistant to help him doing some part of the work for example some CS professors delegate the proof of concepts implementation to a teaching assistant.

Besides the two examples above what else is allowed and considered an acceptable academic activity by a peer:

Translation for thesis written in another language to English which is the required thesis language in that university.
Writing a proof of concept off the record i.e. without citing the PoC creator in the thesis officially.
Writing the (Related Work / Literature Review) given the student claims full knowledge of the papers but having no time for writing it.
Does the above changes when it's done as a service i.e. paid, instead free peer assistant?

Note 1: I do have my own view for this but I would like to hear yours. Also I will mention my view later in a answer for this question.

Note 2: I'm concerned with the STEM fields if that makes a difference.


texts: Colleague blames me for not spotting typos when I only reviewed the structure and content

texts:
I am a graduate student (PhD) in a STEM program.  A fellow lab mate of mine asked me to review a chapter (basically the background/history of their project) of their graduate thesis a couple months ago.  It was during my finals, I had conference papers due, along with the pandemic shutting everything down; it was a crazy time.  I informed this person I was really busy, but I would try. They sent it to me (in PDF format), and I read through it and made some suggestions on content, ideas, and presentation. It was in rough shape; there was a lot of work to be done, but their main concern was if the content made sense and had good logic flow.  I replied with my opinions. This was a favor from me without compensation. The thesis was in English and the lab mate was a native speaker.
Fast forward to now, this person defended their thesis this week and passed.
Yesterday I received a very passive aggressive text message from this person that stated the following (mostly paraphrasing):

The only real critique I had on my thesis was that the chapter I sent you had typos.  I went through this chapter again and found quite a few.  In the future when someone asks you to review a chapter you need to carefully check and find typos because it’s embarrassing to send a final thesis with a chapter filled with typos.  Its disappointing when you rely on someone and they screw you I hope in the future you do a better job.

The rest of the text chain did not go well.
Let me start off by admitting that I am able to see my fault in this.  I could’ve (should’ve) done a more thorough job in editing.  But my question is: Is it really my responsibility to find typos? It’s always been my view that you polish something as much as you can before sending it off to others. They sent it in a PDF which I can’t edit (also no indication of spelling mistakes, and its so easy to gloss over mistakes), and I informed them I was super busy, both excuses, but still a little relevant.  I also was dumbfounded that they didn’t do a single edit after mine.  I feel ultimately it is their graduate thesis and their responsibility for its contents.  I feel I can’t be blamed for this person literally not pressing the spell-check button.
In hindsight I should’ve been more assertive with this person by saying I didn’t have enough time to fully give myself to editing.  This is a lesson I’ve learned.  They are now removing me from their acknowledgements (I couldn’t care less), but what I do care about are the things they are telling other people about me (I screwed them; I’m lazy; etc.).  I replied to their texts expressing my view that the typos are not my fault, and it quickly turned into a blow out where I just ended up apologizing and asking not to discuss it further.
What could I have done better? What should I do now?  Am I justified in my opinions?
PS:  Thank you all for your responses and encouragements.  I was feeling pretty bad about the situation, but I feel a little vindicated now.  I’ve learned a lesson: I will focus on clear communication and setting expectations.


texts: Is verbatim copying several paragraphs of text with citation considered plagiarism?

texts: Is it plagiarism if I copy several paragraphs from another's source (let's say a CS paper) into my work and then footnote Source: ..., for example, as background information?


texts: What criteria is used by THE to determine whether a university gets a WUR ranking or not?

texts: Some universities in the world don't have Times Higher Education's WUR ranking. For example, this university here. On what basis does THE decide to allocate a ranking to a university?


texts: I have two advisors for phd from differnt countries. I recieved an email  from first professor. I just forwarded his email to second professor for his information. I used the native language of the second professor when I forwarded the email including one  general statement. Is forwarding with the native of second person is mistake?


texts: How to obtain research data about IT related subjects?

texts:
I'm doing a study which requires me to get data about which operating systems are used the most on mobile devices. Since I need to refer to the sources in the official document, those sources need to be confirmed. I've seen some researches, but I either can't confirm the source, or need to pay to see the survey/research.

Is there a way to obtain data on this subject? Or, preferably, on all IT-related matters?


texts: Do editors of other journals get asked to review papers?

texts: If editor of Journal A finds that the speciality of the editor of journal B is very close to the subject of a paper submitted to Journal A. Would the editor of journal A ask the editor of journal B to review the paper?


texts: Letter of recommendation from a professor who barely knows me

texts:
I  am having a situation. I am applying to America at the end of the year. Now I have 3 LoR from my department, 1 of which is not so strong (the professor barely knows me).

Anyway, this is why I want another LoR. Days ago I contacted a professor from one of the universities I am going to apply, sending him my thesis and asking to work under him in some project he may assign. He turned me down, but wanted me to contact him when I apply (could be a good sign).

Obviously he did, since he barely knows me and I am even not sure to accept the admission from his university (if I luckily get accepted). The fact that he turned me down makes me think. Should I contact more professors? I mean if he accepts me, gives me some project and ultimately I do not go to his university, would it make him angry? And is the chance of I having a LoR from a famous professor in this way high?

This leads me to another option. I can go to my current university and strengthen my research with a professor there to get a stronger LoR. One drawback is that he is not as good as professors I may contact via email and he works in a different area, so basically I have to learn from scratch (my area and his are both algebra, though).

The most important question I want to ask in this post is that: what should I choose between two options?

I hope you guys can read all and answer to all the questions here, I would really appreciate it


texts: Do we really need gold open access if publishers permit self-archiving and sharing?

texts:
Several well-established journals nowadays allow self-archiving or sharing of articles through an institutional repository. For instance, Elsevier allows immediate sharing of the accepted manuscript via the author’s non-commercial homepage and, after an embargo, through their institutional repository. Springer has similar rules. More in general you can check on Sherpa/Romeo for any journal’s policies.

So I am wondering: is it worth it paying for the open access option, when we can just choose our publisher wisely, and then prepare a nicely formatted version of our accepted articles to share them online?


texts: Can I still submit my work to a journal if a very similar paper was just posted on arXiv?

texts:
I am from an engineering field (EE, specifically signal processing), and I have been working on a paper since March 2014.

Back then, I spent a significant amount of time reviewing the literature and didn't find any existing work that discussed my topic. I actually finished the bulk of the paper several months ago (Jan 2015), but since then I have been editing and reviewing it with my coauthors before we planned to submit to journals.

I recently, however, found a similar paper that was "published" or posted on arXiv in April 2015. I believe that it is extremely similar (~80% of the ideas). I am not sure how much of an issue this is, as I have heard that arXiv is not a "legitimate" domain (in my field, almost everyone just uses the IEEE searching engine).

My original plan was to submit my work to journals soon. Do you think I can still submit my paper to a journal? How should I acknowledge of otherwise handle the existence of this similar arXiv publication?


texts: How do I write a compelling statement about my interest in diverse domains?

texts:
My primary interest is in Data Mining. Secondary interests are Intrusion Detection and Energy Efficient Buildings.

I have done projects in data mining approaches for intrusion detection. I have also done research in data analysis on energy consumption patterns in smart-buildings.

I will be applying for graduate school (MS) shortly. Now, how do I proceed writing my statement? Should I lay more emphasis on Data Mining? Which professors should I mention I want to work with? Ones doing data mining research, or the ones doing network security/sustainable energy research?

My main concern is finding potential advisers. I believe if I can find some before the application, I can find out their requirements and write a statement accordingly. This in-turn might help me get admission in the desired school as well.

My question here is whether I should look for researchers in data mining (which I have applied in my works) or intrusion detection/sustainable energy (the domain where data mining technique was applied)

I understand that chances of me finding advisers that share interest in both data mining and (intrusion detection/sustainable energy) is very less. So which advisers should I target?


texts: What versions of a paper do I still hold rights to?

texts:
I just had my first paper accepted for publication (hooray!), but I'm wondering how copyright works for the paper. I know that for this publication, the publishing house owns the copyright of the final version, but I'm wondering if that means that I still have rights to distribute earlier versions (e.g., on academia.edu).

If so, which version? I.e., how different does it have to be from the final version?


texts: Repositories of funded research projects in different countries?

texts:
I am looking for different national repositories (US, Canada, Australia, UK, etc.) of funded research projects, similar to what Cordis does in EU. Any suggestions?

I am after any repository that list funded research and some of the projects details, whether it is public, private or partnership...


texts: Academic or non Academic Journal as a professional?

texts:
I'm a professional game developer looking to write up and attempt to publish some graphics & game development related items and I've found two journals but am having trouble trying to decide which I should try for first.

One journal is ACM Transactions on Graphics, which is free to submit to, but readers have to pay to get access to the publications.

The second is the Journal of Computer Graphics Techniques which both free to submit to, as well as free for readers to get access to.

Since I'm in the private / professional world, and not the academic world, it doesn't seem like I have much to gain by submitting to acm, since it seems to be primarily for, and primarily read by, academic folk in academic institutions, despite it probably being more prestigious than JCGT.

JCGT on the other hand is free, which means fellow game developers will be more likely to be able to read it (doubtful that most other game devs will have access to for-pay academic journals).  They have a partnership with SIGGRAPH too which is intriguing, since it means the possibility of being able to present there.

Is there any angle I'm not considering that I ought to be, or for someone in my position, is JCGT the way to go?  I definitely don't see value in submitting to a journal that costs money to submit to, but it also seems like putting my paper behind a paywall would be detrimental as well.

For what it's worth, I'm a self taught game programmer so have no degree, but now have 15 years of experience and am at a pretty well known game development company.  Not sure if doing research and publishing it in academic journals can likely help one earn an honorary degree or not, but I guess that would be another item to consider, if that's within the realm of likelihood!

My main goal is just to explore and share some techniques, and contribute to my field for the betterment of science as well as my fellow game developers.


texts: Can I ask a professor (via e-mail) for a citation for a result presented in lecture notes?

texts:
A mathematical result is presented in a set of lecture notes by a professor, and I have not been able to locate any journal papers which include the result. Would it be appropriate to ask the professor, via e-mail, for a citation to a journal paper?

Note: I am not a student of the lecturer.


texts: How honest should I be in disclosing not-so-exciting results?

texts:
I'm a sociology undegrad working on an essay for a methods class. I'm also planning on submitting it as a sample for my application to grad school. I don't want to be too specific, but I believe that this work is quite original and my hypothesis would confirm previous literature, and all in all I think it would would make a good impression on the admissions committee.

So basically I've run the tests and I'm getting conflicting results. Using one dataset (which has more observations) gives me very significant results, while using another one (which would arguably be more accurate) doesn't give me anything. So here I am at a crossroads, and I've come up with three possible options as to what to do:

Only show the significant results. After all, this is just a ten-page essay, it's not supposed to be publishable or anything, right?
Only use the better dataset and admit that there just isn't much there - maybe blaming it on the small sample size or on the not-so-good dependent variable. Hopefully the committee would appreciate the honesty and the relatively advanced methods that I used.
Show results from both datasets, suggesting that the differences might be due to the sample size or maybe to chance.

As I type this I'm leaning more towards option 3, but I'd like to hear from people with more experience in academia. What should I do?


texts: How can my students learn to value the rules of academia?

texts:
I teach a course in academic writing covering the writing aspects, the very basics of research skills, such as referencing works, plus related college skills. At this point in the term, quite a number of foreign students have begun to express frustration:

Some wish they can organize their papers in more “creative” ways.
Some want to share their feelings and personal experiences.
Some see the style guide rules as overly pedantic or finicky.

They don't like the many “restrictions” dictating how they should gather information and organize and present their ideas.

I compiled a short list explaining why such strict conventions are necessary:

Predictably-organized writing helps readers to access information quickly.
The various research procedures generally raises the quality of the work, so others can benefit from the ideas presented.

Most of these students, however, have no intention of ever becoming “academics”, and maybe they don't care so much benefiting readers. They just want to get a degree and get a good job.

Can I help them to see some personal benefit to learning all of these conventions?


texts: Is there any degree for "intelligence studies" in Germany?

texts:
Intelligence studies is an interdisciplinary academic field that concerns intelligence assessment.

I have tried to find the relevant program in Germany, but i did not find anything.

Based on WikiPedia, every country might have its own standard for this field.

  In British universities, intelligence studies developed within
  international history departments, while in US institutions it became
  the preserve of political science, and even then the subject was
  approached in terms of public policy and decision-making rather than
  IR. Recently attempts to connect intelligence studies with
  international relations theory have emerged, such as Andrew Rathmell's
  work on a postmodern theory of intelligence.

The question is:

How is IS (intelligence study) in Germany?
Can you specify some links to the programms?


texts: Becoming a Professor in a Developing Country after a PhD in the US: Feasibility and Challenges

texts:
I'm applying for PhD programs and I'm thinking about what I'll do afterward. Specifically, I did my undergraduate in a well-respected US university and am applying to similar tier universities for a PhD in a STEM field.

From my undergraduate experience I know I like teaching and research- so I'm thinking of trying to go into Academia and be a professor. Turns out this is really competitive. It also turns out you don't get a lot of flexibility about where you live, which is quite important to me.

So I had a thought: what about trying to be a Professor in a developing country? I spent most of my childhood in a developing country and helping to improve education/opportunities in developing countries is something I've cared about for a while. Also, I'm not a US citizen, and I've spent little time living in the EU country I am a citizen of, so have fewer ties to the Western world than some.

So question 1: How easy is it to become a Professor in a developing country having a STEM PhD from a US university?

And since that question is quite broad, I'll say regions I'm interested in: Sub-Saharan Africa, China (if that's still considered a developing country), Indonesia.

Question 2: After getting in, what issues is one likely to have? (Academic culture, still being able to work competitively in interesting/cutting edge research, funding, etc). Especially if people have experiences of going from the US/EU to be professors in STEM fields in the aforementioned regions I'd be interested to hear about them.

Note: I am aware of this similar question but it seems to be more about short-term programs rather than becoming a longer-term professor.


texts: Publishing a work which is not related to the work done in the company

texts: I am working in a company after completing my PhD. When I get time, I carry out some research work related to my PhD work but not related to what I do in the company. I look forward to publish the work in journals/conferences as an independent author. I guess I should use the present affiliation in the article. Will this affect the chances of getting the article published?


texts: Regarding PDF copy of a book downloaded from reputed universities

texts:
For ethical reasons I try to avoid reading books downloaded from illegal and pirated websites.
I was self studying a topic by reading a certain book. Due to COVID-19 my nearby library is closed. I googled the book's details and I came across the full PDF version of the book on the websites of two reputed universities.
Is it it unethical to read the PDF downloaded from a university website? How the university is able to upload the PDF? Will it be unethical if I read from the PDF downloaded from the websites of these reputed universities?
Please help me in overcoming my confusion.


texts: Advice on conclusion of a purpose statement

texts:
I am currently applying to PhD programs in mathematics and need to complete a purpose statement as part of the application. There are several things I'd appreciate any advice you can give me on the following:

What is a good way to end the letter in a strong way? I wanted to say something along the lines of "I greatly look forward to further understanding the intricate theory of XYZ" but this seems a bit cliché.
I wanted to mention my specific  interest in school XYZ/professor XYZ, but I don't know enough about his/her research to say something intelligent or insightful about it. What should I do? Is it better to have some indication I did my research for this school than to say nothing at all? To be clear, I am interested in the field of these professors but my knowledge is too shallow to fully understand the impact of their work. How can I add something substantive but not sound like I'm making things up to sound smart?
For one of the schools I am applying to, a big reason I want to go there is due to their well funded program. Should I mention this or will it seem tacky?
What is a "smooth" way of mentioning I want to work with a professor? It seems too abrupt to just say "I want to work with professor XYZ". What if this person doesn't have any current students (or at least doesn't have them listed in his/her Web page). Should I take it that this person is not currently taking students?

Any and all advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance!


texts: Length and details of a personal statement in postdoc positions?

texts:
I am trying to apply for postdoc position in the UK. During the application process, I found that the personal statement is a required file and cv is an additional document. So, the personal statement is really important and I've never wrote one. There are those who say a personal statement shouldn't be longer than a paragraph with a few lines, and some people say it can longer if it's for a job in university.
When I applied to other positions, I wrote research statements and supporting statements but I think the structure of this one is different. So, how long is a personal statement and what questions should my personal statement answer? For instance, can I talk about my past research? research issues in the project I will be working on?
PS: I am looking for information that are related to postdoc positions. I believe the blogs I read talk about general jobs, grants, etc. But I didn't find a lot of information about research positions.


texts: Journal biographies: Presenting name, degree, university, etc

texts: I'm required to include a biography at the end of a journal article written by myself, John Doe, and my supervisor, John Smith. I'm a BSc candidate in Information Systems Engineering at Piled Higher and Deeper, where my supervisor is Research Director. My supervisor is also a Lecturer at Another University. How should I present that information in the biography?


texts: Is it fine to ask who are the search committee?

texts: I saw that some friends know who are the search committee members before their interviews. So would it be fine to ask the department who are they? And if it was fine, why the department didn't mention their names since the beginning? Could asking about their names be taken as negative thing?! A strong applicant could say that she doesn't care who are finalizing the list or interviewing her.


texts:
It occurs sometimes that I am in possession of a factoid for which I know all of the standard terminology and can express the factoid in that terminology, and also know that the factoid is prior knowledge, but do not have a reference for the factoid.  This is especially problematic in my field (machine learning) where the online resources for learning things are very good, and quite extensive.  However, citations are sometimes sparse in these blog-style articles, and I find myself knowing the subject matter, but not knowing the appropriate citation for it.  Note that the blog is not the appropriate citation, because they're just paraphrasing it from elsewhere.  It would be nice to lean on the experience of the community, but "Does anybody know a citation for fact X?" is generally an inappropriate question on stack exchange sites.

Surely this is a problem in other disciplines as well.  As such, I am mostly interested in general "citation reverse-search" skills, tips and tricks.  However, field-specific answers are also welcome.

NOTE:  This is specifically for situations where the problem is known to be a prior one, and where the terminology is known.  Linking disparate fields with differing terminology of basically the same concept is a known Hard Problem™, and I am not trying to solve it here, except insomuch as those same skills relate to "reverse-search" of problems with known terminology.

To reiterate for clarity:  What are handy tools, tricks tips etc for finding references for known facts?


texts: How can I fix or do after I made many big mistakes with my professor?

texts:
I am a new student in a college, the other company in my class is so quiet! (very rare questions and answers), and I am not very good at English (my professor is English).

I said negative comments about things that I disagree with such as "I don't think that because..", "I think it changed, this is old statistics..". I corrected his speech: "Sir, is it weather or climate?". I laughed and spoke in my language in the class so he thought that we are talking about him,

I actually feel shy when I speak in my language to my friends but it's difficult sometimes to change to English. I really feel like he is saying to himself "rude girl!"

In addition, I ask some ridiculous questions and talked too much, I just noticed how stupid I was. But the worst thing I did is when I suggested (by email) to come the class earlier because we are late, He thought that I am not interested  and I want to finish earlier. He spoke to me in front of class but I did not understand what he was talking about ( his voice was low and angry), At home I understood so I sent an email of explanation but I Still feel bad. I am really nervous and confused, what should I do? I feel like I want to leave the class.


texts: Are there tools to find a subset of references shared by two or more publications?

texts:
Doing a literature review on a topic that is new to me at the moment, I am especially interested in papers that are cited across several of the papers I'm currently focussing on.
I was wondering if there is a tool out there, which I can feed with a list of the papers I'm reading, and that will provide me with a set of shared references.
Looking into Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar, I couldn't find something resembling such an option, but maybe I have just overseen it.
Googling for a tool like this proved also difficult, maybe because I couldn't find the propper search terms.

I know that there is an api for Scopus, with which one could probably write a Python Script to perform such a task, but I rather not reinvent the wheel and waste time (although it'd probably be fun to check out the Scopus api).


texts: Ways to get free and legal access to research papers as a researcher

texts:
I’ve discovered that website like ResearchGate offer the possibility to ask the paper editor to provide his paper for free. Many are collaborating.

Are there any other ways for researchers to obtain free access to papers?


texts: Questions about contacting a professor for getting PhD

texts:
I have contacted a professor about the availability of a PhD position.
And I got the following responses:

  I would be interested to explore the opportunities for you to come and complete a PhD in the Precision Livestock Management group that I lead. I have attached a formal application form for you to complete. One of the issues that we will need to address is funding. I do not have any current direct funding, however, it is possible that depending on the project area I could seek some indirect support from the University to waive the overseas fees. We would still need to find funds to cover your living expenses. Do you have any opportunities for funding to support your PhD?

  I would also be interested to hear what areas of research you would more specifically like to focus on that might relate to precision livestock management?

My Response:

  Thanks for your message and consideration.

  Actually, as you may know finding the financial support is not simple, usually. Honestly, I am not so optimistic to find one. However, I will keep eyes to find any financial support.

  Herewith are the topics that I would prefer to do the research on them:
      .
      .
      .

  Besides, in the case you have any suggestion about a topic please let me know.

  To complete the application form I have to attach the research proposal. Thus, I would be grateful if I could have your confirmation for the topic.

Then, I sent him a required information and got the following answer:

  I will give some thought to possible project areas. In your initial application you will need to say that you are applying for a full fee-paying place. We can then explore options for securing funds for a project.

Actually, it is my first serious contact with a professor.
Does his response include any sign that I may get the position?
How serious is the position?
Should I count on this position?
He asked me to fill in the application form. Am I supposed to send the application form to him or the admission office?
He told me, he will give some thought to possible project areas. One of the required documents for application form is the research proposal. Should I wait for his thoughts and write a research proposal based on that? Should I follow up his thoughts?
Within which timeframe should this procedure usually be completed?


texts:
Suppose, a prospective PhD student doesn't have money to self-finance his PhD in the USA.

Is it possible for a PhD student to survive in the USA only on TA/RA money?


texts: Status change from Ready for Decision to under review

texts: I submitted a paper to Elsevier almost two months back. After 15 days I got a mail that Paper has been sent for Review but the status continued to remain "Editor Invited". After further one month, the status changed to "Reviewer Invited". After ten more days i.e around two months from the submission date, I got a mail stating "I have received all the required reviews, which I will now evaluate before making a decision " and the status changed to "Ready for Decision". After two more days the status changed to "Under Review." I am not able to understand the status of my paper. The mails I got were sent from EviseSupport@elsevier.com


texts: What title to put on a professional business card, for a person with a PhD

texts:
Is there a correct or preferred format for indicating 'Dr' or 'PhD' (or both) on a professional business card.

Background: I am employed in the industry and I have just earned my PhD (in social science). My company wants to update my business card.

The following are two options:

Dr Name, PhD, University Name
Name, PhD, University Name

I am told that it may be a sign of arrogance but I am also told that if you have earned it, you deserve it.


texts: Does a lecturer need to cite their teaching material?

texts: My lecturer uses powerpoints as a teaching material. During the first class she told me that we are using a book as resource for our class. But one day I realised that some parts are not from the book. So the question is: should she provide the reference she use? IMO, she should tell us what she is basing her teaching on.


texts:
I am a master student in computer science and am working on a static program analysis project as my thesis. I used existing platforms and frameworks along with existing approaches for static analysis of a program.

However my work would solve a problem in the area I am working in. In better words, for Android OS there is not yet a good work on static analysis of native binaries. This is what I am working on.

I think my work is not a good research work, because my work is all about implementation and dealing with existing tools. As far as I know, a good research work should not engage itself in implementation complexities and should be as abstract as it can be with a great degree of novelty.

In my opinion my work is novel, but it is not an abstract solution as it is mostly about technological stuff. So, I am in doubt if I am thinking right or not.

PS: By "good research work", I mean it can be published as a good research paper.


texts:
The following paper was published in Annals of Medicine and Surgery.

How to approach supervisors for research opportunities

It has nothing to do with medicine or surgery.

How can one think of submitting a paper like that (to such a journal)? And how can one accept a paper like that?


texts: Can you decide to not publish your research at the present stage as the first author?

texts:
I have a three-part question:
First, if I am the first author of a research manuscript, as previously discussed with, and agreed by, both the second author and corresponding author(s), then due to some concerns about the paper content, am I legally allowed to unilaterally decide to delay publication (to edit the results presented in the paper), or in the worst case scenario, to not publish if I am not satisfied with the new results obtained?
This question arises when both the second author and the principal investigator hope to rush with the publication, despite my objection to the current manuscript. For this specific paper, my contribution is in running simulations and obtaining the data, while the second author's contribution lies in part of the paper-writing, including explaining the graphs and data I've obtained. This essentially means the research cannot be split in half, where the second author publishes his/her part and I publish mine separately.
Secondly, in response to my attempt to delay the publication until the manuscript is edited to a satisfactory standard, the principal investigator, my professor, asked/threatened to have me removed from the position of the first author, and instead make me the second author, if I delay publication. In doing so, both my professor and second author plan to bypass me in the publication process. Is this legally allowed? My professor's official reasoning is that, after a thorough examination, he found my contribution to be insufficient to be the first author. My problem with this explanation is that three months ago, I still hold the position of the first author, but three months later, when the second author presses for publication, somehow my work is deemed insufficient.
Lastly, any suggestions on my course of action when both aforementioned situations arise?
Update/further questions:
My principal investigator has tried to remove me from the position of the first author (as previously agreed to) to simply "acknowledging" my effort. Is this allowed, and just research malpractice? My guess is the PI really wants to have the paper published, and if I get to veto as an author, then I can't be an author anymore. What should I do in this case?


texts: Is scientific misconduct relatively normalised in some countries or academic cultures?

texts:
My question was provoked by this comment, and the fairly popular responses to it. I've seen similar sentiment expressed before, though always as asides rather than any direct 'accusation'.

In my country (UK) and perhaps the West overall, academic dishonesty is a cardinal sin - whether committed by students or especially by researchers. As a completing PhD student who returned from industry I can see why: the whole system depends on trust to a degree that frankly surprised me a little initially*. The threat to one's name and career that dishonesty would pose looms far larger than any potential benefits.

Are academic cultures from other countries more lax on this point? Are researchers from these countries more likely to prioritise "getting ahead at all costs" over the validity of their work? Do the comments I've seen reflect informal prejudice (perhaps widely held but nonetheless anecdotal), or an objectively evidenced phenomena?

Surely the scientific output from such a culture would be completely bankrupt? At minimum I cannot see how such a system (which serves to keep scientists in jobs more than producing new knowledge) would interface with the West's: on an individual level at least, once someone is outed as a charlatan many potential employers and collaborators will not touch them with a barge pole.

To reiterate, I am asking whether there is evidence that some countries or academic cultures take a more relaxed view on dishonesty. I'm also interested in what the consequences are for the international standing of those cultures and their scientists.

*Industry benefits from the natural selection of frequently reused ideas by high, proximal cost of failure. The scientific equivalent should in theory be replication...


texts: Are the number of citations and number of published articles the most important criteria for a tenure promotion?

texts:
Recently I had a conversation with a very well known scientist in my working field about the most important indicators to get a tenured academic position. This person is 80 years old and has been a member of selection committees several times during his career. During our conversation I told to him my opinion that I think that the ''research quality'' must be the most important indicator on being selected for a tenure position. After I told him my opinion he commented like this: ''yes I agree with you that it should be like that but at the end the committee mostly looks at the number of papers and the number of citations''.

The response of this scientist surprised me a lot since when I read similar topics on internet about these issues it is always concluded that the research quality is the most important factor. I also had a similar conversation with another scientist and she confirmed to me the same as the person which initially spoke with. Based on these two my experiences I have the following question:

Is the commonly said statement that ''quality is the most important factor on being selected for a tenured academic position'' only superficial?


texts: Google Scholar has indexed the arXiv version and publisher version of my paper - but lists arXiv over the publisher. How to fix this?

texts:
I published a paper in Nature. (Not really, but just an example.) I put the preprint of the article up on arXiv. Now on Google Scholar it shows:

A definitive proof that P=NP when N=1
R Dodecahedron
arXiv preprint arXiv:3141.59265 12  2017

When I click the article, it says "Cited by 20    Related articles    All 6 versions". When I click All 6 versions, the Nature bibliographic information is listed there. How do I get that to be listed as default, instead of the preprint version, on my Scholar profile? As the article was published two years ago, I do not think the problem will fix itself at this point.


texts: Applying for a graduate course not related to my previous research experience

texts:
I did research on drug delivery for my masters degree and it has been published. But in the end I knew that I had no interest in it at all. Actually my interest was computational drug design, which I couldn't find a professor specialized in that in my school. Now that I want to apply for a graduate school, I'd like to work in a computational field. Although I know a lot about it, I have no published experience.
My question is: Is it a wise decision? I mean, having no published experience would lower my chances of getting admitted in that course, but on the other hand, if I chose drug delivery, I might have not much motives to improve due to the lack of interest.


texts: Are possibly outdated and damaging studies being taught in universities, and should I be worried?

texts:
As someone who is soon to be going to an online university for a degree in Psychology, I have been reading a lot of criticism on the academic field being inundated with "outdated" and click bait style studies being cited as solid fact with little ground to stand on. Some have even said the published studies were more for a paycheck than furthering the field.

Is this just a horrible misconception or does this field have a problem that still needs to be addressed? And as a new student, should I be worried?


texts: Applying for PhD as a transferred undergraduate: do I need transcripts from my previous institution?

texts:
I am an undergraduate student planning to apply for Ph.D.
The thing is that I spent the first year of my undergraduate at another university. I did transfer some credits but I didn't transfer any major credits. The question is - do I need to include my transcript for the first year in the application? Or could it be based on the institute I am applying to? The GPA of my first year is not bad but getting the transcript is a little bit tricky since the institue is in another country.
I really appreciate your input!


texts: How are DOIs managed for ongoing time-series?

texts:
I'm familiar with DOIs been allocated to historic time series, to give academics a unique, citable identifier for datasets. Similar to how a DOI is allocated to a specific journal article.

As the International DOI Foundation says:

  A DOI name provides a means of
  persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related
  current data in a structured extensible way.

What's the procedure for DOIs for datasets that continue to grow: for example, a time-series of external temperature data for an airport? Is one DOI allocated to the ever-growing time-series. Is there a DOI for each year's worth of archived data? Something else?


texts: Suggestions needed in my tricky PhD situation

texts:
I am a PhD student and I hate my supervisors. they are bossy, do not allow me to explore my ideas because they have their own agenda and vision. Force me to publish in mediocre conference. Force me to cite all their friends and other students even if their work is irrelevant. They do research to further their academic careers rather than the love for science.

I have followed them and have finished 2/3 of my PhD life successfully. They have given me good feedback in recent yearly reports.

But I suddenly realise that this is not for what I started my PhD. I started my PhD to learn and explore Science. Gave up a top position in a company as a scientist to educate myself more and see myself stuck doing nonsense.

Now I am considering leaving my supervisors and alter my direction of study with someone else. Which implies I might have to work doubly harder and spend more time and probably eat up all my savings.

Should I live the hateful life and just get done with my PhD or should I take a bold step and do what I am passionate about. I have no interest in academia. I want to work in industry. I have come here to learn.


texts: Archiving papers, simulation and experimental data, etc?

texts:
Archiving of papers and projects is very important for most of the people, and everyone has a method of it.

I, personally, try to have different folders for different papers. In the folder of each paper, in addition to my manuscript, I keep my simulation files, experimental data, program codes, etc, in different subfolders. Also, I try to keep track of my revisions on the paper, reviewer comments, my response to reviewers in different subfolders. My method has the advantage of all the related material for a paper are together, and I can quickly track the whole process from initial submission to the final proofreading. However, this usually leads to duplicated files.

I work with both my office desktop and my personal Laptop. I transfer my files between these systems by a flash memory. I agree maybe cloud technology is a better choice in this age, but I postponed it because of my poor internet connection at home.

I am curious to know how others approach to archive their works. I also hope to find some methods more efficient than mine, or get some tips to improve my method.

Edit at 2 Apr 13:
Thanks to these great answers, it is almost a month that I use Git for my version control. Also, I manage my repositories in the Bitbucket, which gives me unlimited storage for unlimited number of projects.


texts: Is it weird to display ads on an academic website?

texts:
I have never seen (or realized) an example of an academic website which displays ads.
I am thinking of a website not hosted by the institute, but as a personal website, paid by the faculty member.
Does it look weird/unethical/unacceptable if a person uses a service similar to AdSense for their website?


texts: What if the school asks the students to submit the letters themselves?

texts:
I have been applying to a bunch of grad programs recently and I have noticed that some schools, specially those based in the UK, ask students to upload the reference letters themselves to the application platform, instead of sending an e-mail to the nominated referees.
This puts me in an awkward position because the point of the letters is to be confidential and asking the professors to send them to me would mean that they would either refuse or send me a "plain" letter, as I have heard from colleagues that those are the replies they have been getting.
What is the proper way to proceed in this situation? How do I ask a professor to send me a decent letter that they would not mind me seeing?


texts: What should be put in the final slide when preparing teaching presentations?

texts:
When preparing my PowerPoint slides for a lecture, I often find myself wondering what to put as the final slide.

For presentations in industry, when not in a university setting, I often have a final slide which simply says "Thank you." The intent is to thank the audience for attending the presentation. However, this feels a little out of place in a university setting, especially where students may not have a choice of attending (well, the choice is attend or definitely fail).

So, I started using a final slide that says "Questions?" However, I recently read something indicating that a teacher should not ask if students have questions (the teacher should either ask a probing question to check for understanding or the teacher should simply expect the students to speak up without prompting).

It seems the final slide should somehow indicate that the slides are done and doing that with a content slide does not seem right either. I recently started using a final slide indicating what homework was expected of the students before the next class session (sometimes the slide simply says 'no homework'). This works several sessions into the semester once students see that every time the homework slide appears it is the final slide; however, it does not really work well at the start of the semester.

Returning to my question, what should I put as the last slide?


texts: ACM in-text citations for specific locations in a lengthy referenced work?

texts:
I'm using the ACM citation style format for my paper.  In the text of that paper, I wish to cite particular passages in a 50-page reference, so the reader will not have to wade through the entire thing just to find the relevant material.  How does that work?  For example, would the following be proper?

We could, of course, compute its value to at least five decimal places, using Algorithm 3.1 on page 39 of [1].

(Several paragraphs later:)

From Definition 2.1 on page 12 of [1], a foo-representable thingy is a thingy that can be exactly represented by a Foo of finite length.

Or should each location have its own entry in the bibliography?


texts: Where do research labs get their funding?

texts:
I'm just starting out in research and about to finish my BSc. If I stay in research I'm wondering about the economics of it: where does the money come from? I am passionate about a specific field and I want to be able to do research in that area - but I imagine to support that research I'd have to find a lab that has been specifically funded and has projects related to that field, right? And how does the funding for these labs work? Is it mostly project based with 1-2 year length after which the lab has the pressure to submit another proposal to find another project, or does it have less pressure because the lab is also funded by the university?

In essence I'm just wondering about the money flow that is keeping a research lab alive: if I want to do research in X, I'd have to find a lab that has the money to support X right?


texts: What criteria to use when evaluating an invitation to be an editor from a legitimate publisher?

texts:
Some academics receive invitations to join editorial boards or to act as a managing editor for a book or journal special issue frequently. Most of these invitations are spam, and many come from Beall's list publishers. When they come from legitimate publishers, however, what are your criteria for whether to accept? So far, I have:

Is it a journal I'd publish in myself?
Is it a book that I'd buy myself?
Do I have time?
Is it a topic I'm passionate about?
Have they committed to a print run (vs. eBooks only, which to me suggests a lack of commitment on the part of the publisher)?

Is there anything else that you consider?


texts: Should I use the recommended environment in a programming course, if it's not mandatory?

texts:
I'm a first year Physics  MSc student. This semester I'll attend to a practical course where we learn to use Python for scientific computing. The course is beginner-level. We will work on our own laptop, not institutional devices, and are expected to install all necessary software.

Yesterday, at the first lesson, the teacher informed us about the recommended environment and code editor (Anaconda and Spyder). He also told us, however, that, if one wishes to, he's free to use any other environment of his choice - only the teacher will have a harder time helping him.

The thing is, I already am a somewhat experienced Python coder. Of course I still have a lot to learn, but e.g. part of my BSc thesis was writing (and debugging) a 1500 line complex data processing Python program. While I wrote this, and other codes since, I got really used to a different environment (bare Python installation with Pip, and VS Code). If only for my convenience, I'd use this.

On the other hand, this is a beginner level course, and I'm sure a measurable deal of time will be spent learning the environment itself – so it's a good opportunity to learn something new. Also, if I get stuck and need the teacher's help, it'd be more convenient for him to use the environment he knows. And it's not my aim to get him frustrated... On the other hand, I think I'd be faster and more powerful using the editor I got used to, and that would be an advantage in time-critical tasks (like tests). Also, though I never used Spyder, from what I found online there's nothing it can do that VS Code couldn't – actually, VS Code seems to be the superior to me – so there may be no advantage in learning this environment.

Should I use the recommended environment, or is it okey if I use a different one? I'm sure the majority (maybe all) of my classmates will go with the recommended one, as they have no former experience with Python.

I'd like to get some point of view from educators. How big a trouble does a wayward student like me cause, may it annoy the teacher in the long run, even if he doesn't believe it now?

[I'm not really familiar with the tags here, I'd be grateful if someone more experienced could check them.]


texts: Substantial changes to manuscript in the revision process

texts:
Is this acceptable to revise a manuscript more than what reviewers suggested? In fact, due to some issue, the authors may find out that there are some issues even reviewers could not address, so they decided to extend the revision border.

P.s. What about imposing changes so that affect the title, abstract and a large portion of  manuscript. In an advise to a friend of mine, I warned him of doing so because it results in a new paper not a standard revised version. Nonetheless, I told him that is the case of such comprehensive revision he should carefully explain reasons behind that decision. Can such rational explanation convince the reviewers to consider another round of review?


texts: What to do when a professor agrees to write a recommendation letter but doesn’t?

texts: I’m applying to grad school and two weeks ago I asked three people for recommendation letters, two from employers and one from the professor. There’s no specific deadline, but I’m hoping to get accepted quickly in order to be eligible to start classes in the fall. Now, my entire application is complete, except for the one recommendation from my professor. I sent a follow-up email, to which she said that she’ll complete it in the next two days, which was great. But it’s now been a week since that email, and nothing’s been submitted. I sent an email responding to that saying thank you and offering more info if necessary, and have not heard anything back. What should I do? Should I wait, email her again, or ask someone else? I have some other people I can ask, but the problem is that I have no way of accessing the link as the university sends out the link with the application. I don’t mind waiting at all, but my concern is that if the professor decided to back out of it and I have to ask someone else, I want to give the new person as much time as possible by sending them info now. Help?


texts: Is there any service that can i use or rent supercomputer for an hour or two?

texts: I would like to use an supercomputer to run my big data project to test it speed. I google the service & see that only this is available for free but it closed last year? Could anybody with experience in using supercomputer know to get access to this kind of hardware?


texts: Have chosen a field without thinking much

texts: I am pursuing Masters of Human Resource Management and will complete it within a few months. But it always bugs me that I have not chosen the right field. I went with what everyone was doing. I also think that this seat could have been gone to a deserving candidate who actually wanted to do this course. Such thoughts bother me. Can you please help me out with this, both the issues? I just want peace related to it.


texts: What is the impact of using complex words on the paper acceptance probability?

texts:
Oppenheimer, Daniel M. "Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: Problems with using long words needlessly." Applied Cognitive Psychology 20, no. 2 (2006): 139-156. looked at the impact of using complex words on the graduate admission probability.

Is there any research/study/survey that looked at the impact of using complex words on the paper acceptance probability?

I am most interested in the field of computer science, and English-speaking venues.


texts: How should I present my under-review works in my CV and profile?

texts:
I'm searching for postdoc positions in CS and sending my CV to here and there trying for different opportunities. However, I do not know how to present my under-review works. For instance, should I add them in my CV as under-review papers and mention the conferences to which I submitted?
Then, should I also include the pre-prints in my postdoc applications?

Also, these conferences have double-blind review processes. Hence, I'm not sure whether to include these works in my home-page or not. I like to add them to my CV and profile as they are extracted from the last part of my Ph.D.

Besides, would they (postdoc employers) take these works seriously knowing that they have not been published yet?


texts:
Is mathematics becoming more applied, while engineering is becoming more math-y?

I’m seeing curriculum changes at our school that has pretty good math, physics, and engineering departments, and it seems that the vision is that soon math majors will be taking courses in both the mathematics and engineering departments.  And likewise, it seems that some engineering research will be done collaboratively with mathematicians.  So I'm wondering if this is a general trend that is happening, at least for universities in the U.S.

Are there any references that support or oppose this trend? For example:

Bibliometric studies.
Publications of professional societies.
Official statements by departments, faculties, or universities.


texts: How can I credit an Original Image on my thesis?

texts:
I'm writing my master's thesis (in physics) in which I included a drawing that a friend of mine made for me using Adobe Illustrator. I would like to cite him as an author.

Usually, for reproducible images found on papers or books I write:
Authors, Title of the Work (Date of Publication)\cite{Link to bibliography}

How can I credit an image that has never been published?


texts:
I originally posted this on math.stackexchange but was recommended to post here.

I have been admitted to two Master's Programs in math (both with funding). One is 1 year long and the other is 2 years long. I plan on obtaining a PhD directly afterwards.

The 1 year option lets me save one year. But I would have to apply to PhD programs within the first semester and it seems I would not have time to get good recommendation letters or make a strong impression from my Master's Program. The 2 years option would give me more chance to demonstrate what I've done.

If they are comparable programs, which would be the better choice?


texts: Changing Citation after acceptance of an article

texts:
We submitted an article to a SCI journal 5 months ago. In the article there is a section which is based on a patent which we had submitted to our institute's internal  patent system. We cited the patent application in manuscript as under review patent. However, our institute has rejected our patent application so we converted patent application into an article and published into an international conference. Meanwhile, we received the acceptance letter for our SCI journal article.
As the cited patent application has been rejected and we already published a conference paper based on patent application. Now should we replace the patent application citation with the published conference paper? and do we need to report about this issue to editor?


texts: Appropriateness of a second-authored article in external review file for tenure

texts:
I am wondering what others thought of including a second-authored article being included in an external reviewer file for tenure review in the health sciences. This is my second tenure review, since I transferred institutions, and my tenure did not transfer from my original institution where I was granted tenure.

I can include five articles in my external review application. For one of my main areas of research, my collaborator and I provide equal leadership, so we generally switch between first and second authors. The article from our work that I would like to include has me as the second author, not first. Do others believe that it would be strange for a reviewer to see a second-authors publication included in a file?


texts: Will rejecting more papers than I accept reflect negatively on me as a reviewer?

texts:
I made a little statistics about my review decisions. I found out that I reject way more papers than I accept. I honestly try to accept the reviewed papers, I read them carefully and my review are always long. But most papers I review are low quality (in my opinion). Some colleagues told me that I should be more gentle in my review, as this will affect my profile somehow (negatively of course). Is that true ?

Also: should I adapt the toughness of my review to the quality of the journal/conference I am reviewing for?


texts: Is there a website for rating and reviewing journals openly?

texts:
I always found remarkable that whilst the job of all my colleagues boils down to publishing papers, everyone seems so reserved and hesitant when it comes to discussing journals openly.

For instance, rather recently a website was created with exactly that objective, named Journalysis.org. Apparently it seems to have been shut down, as the link doesn't work from my side.

http://www.nature.com/news/rate-that-journal-1.17225

Some specific academic spheres have forums about this, e.g. https://journalreviews.princeton.edu/ranking-peer-reviewed-journals/

Please, can you give me examples of some broader websites or discussion Forums to openly discuss science journals?


texts: How can one when not affiliated to an institution get access to very common piece of equipment for a subject?

texts:
I am working on my next geology research project, after recent publication, that has no affiliation to a research institute (e.g. I am conducting research in my spare time). I am now thinking how I might be able to access a petrographic microscope and a point counter, two commonly available pieces of equipment found in any geology department at a university.

I would like to get try and get access to the resources free of charge offering acknowledgement space on what I hope to be published work. If it is possible to gain access with a small payment it would be interesting to hear.

I believe there are two ways of approaching this:

Approach a researcher directly about the project and propose it as work to be associated with that researcher perhaps through coauthorship
Approach a university about the project and propose acknowledgement of the university in the paper

Coming from a point of ignorance about gaining access to university resources can anyone advise how should one go about this?

I am working in the UK and most convenient places for me to get to institutions is in London or the South East of England.


texts: I have some (possibly) original results and advisor cannot help, how should I proceed?

texts: I am a master student in mathematics. I developed a new notion and did calculations for some examples. I believe it is original because I can't find it in literature. Now I want to publish my results, but I don't know if they are publishable or not. I have already asked my advisor but he said he doesn't have the ability to supervise me in that field. Should I just find an expert to talk with? The question is I don't have relations between any experts and me. Because of pandemic, it is also not a good idea to find them personally, so the only remaining idea will be cold email them. But it does not seems a good idea as well, so what should I do?


texts: How many reference letters requests is considered too many?

texts:
The problem with me is that I applied to 4 programs and I didn't get in in any of them. The last program which was almost guaranteed admission (because I already found a researcher willing to accept me); I emailed my undergrad thesis supervisor for, what I called at the time of the email "my last reference letter request ever to make". Unfortunately, I wasn't accepted to the program and now I'm applying again to a different school.
The problem is I feel so weird about emailing him again for another reference letter. Other than the generic email, how can I go about emailing him? I am sure he remembers me , but I don't know how to justify the amount of requests that I've sent him so far !

Any idea on how I should approach the issue?