texts: Should I cancel an interview if I already have a preferable offer?

texts:
I've been on the US tenure-track job market. I finally got an offer
(let's call it A) that I am happy with.

However, I have another interview scheduled (let's call it B). I think
it is unlikely that I would prefer B over A. They are comparable in
terms of academic strength, but there are strong non-academic reasons
to prefer A.

I'm wondering if I should cancel my interview at B. On one hand, I
feel like I should go ahead with the planned interview and it would be
rude to cancel. On the other hand, it's potentially a waste of time
(also rude) given that I am unlikely to take up a potential offer from
them.

Of course, it's theoretically possible for me to pick B over A. For
example, if the details of the offer from A aren't good (still waiting
for those) and B really impresses me. But it seems unlikely given what
I know.

What is the best course of action? If I do decide to cancel, how do I
go about cancelling? What reason do I give?


texts: Addressing a faculty member I interviewed

texts:
I know there are other questions about how to address faculty members, but this situation is a bit unusual, so hear me out:

I'm in my last year at an undergraduate institution. My department head is very conscientious about using titles, but has for some time now used his first name and the first names of other faculty members when speaking and corresponding with me (not something he usually does). He recently asked me to conduct interviews with candidates for a new position in our department, and introduced all the candidates to me using first names. We've now hired one of these candidates, and I need to get in touch with this person via email for the first time.

How should I address the new hire? Using "Dr X" feels artificial given our prior interactions (plus, I need to mention this person's spouse, who's also Dr. X), but I don't want to assume a level of familiarity with which the new hire is not comfortable. Of course I can ask about it in the email, but I've got to get past the initial salutation and welcome-interlude first!


texts: Permissions to reproduce an image while writing review papers

texts:
I've seen some review papers use images from other articles under the 'adapted from [ref]' description while most others use the standard 'reproduced with permission from [ref]'. Does the former not require asking for permissions from the original publisher? If I redraw images myself, is it sufficient to simply cite the reference at the correct places and not ask for permissions?

If I ask for the permissions to reproduce a large set of images from a variety of different publishers for my review paper which is to be published in a particular journal X, and for some reason they reject the review; do I need to ask for the permissions again before sending the manuscript to another journal Y?


texts: Writing a paper about a conceptual idea, that might not be possible, basically theoretical fiction

texts:
Curious if there are certain outlets to distribute a paper pertaining to conceptual ideals regarding future technological topics and or method advancements in physics or computer programming, science. I understand how science is provable and routed in a nonfictional foundation, but sometimes imagination is a great outlet. I understand a simple answer would be publishing a fiction novel, but it seems somewhere in my lifetime I have read or learned about how many incredibly smart people ponder ideas that are inconceivable to be proven mathematically, and publish a paper somewhere. This is in the hope that maybe it sparks a future interest and research to actually prove if something is possible.
What is this correctly referred to as in regards to the topic of science, if it is even legitimate? And how is the proper way to maybe title a paper such as this without coming across as completely academic and accurate? I know this may prompt an answer stating that it all depends on how you explain what you are describing in your paper, but it is more about if this type of paper is allowed and accepted to certain outlets.
Maybe a great example would be writing a paper about if this world we live in is a simulation.


texts: Telling letter writers who already submitted that I am not applying to graduate school

texts:
Summary of question

I've been getting ready to apply to grad school, and now I have good reasons for not doing so. My letter writers have already uploaded their letters. Basically, it's the last minute, and I'm changing my mind, and not applying. How do I (a) thank them, (b) tactfully tell them I'm not applying, and (c) ask that they still write me a letter next year or the following year?

Details

For some months, I have been preparing to apply to graduate school. I have readied my test scores, research experience, and mostly finished my statements. It is December 1st, and I have already submitted some applications for fellowships. Over the past three weeks, I've sent emails for recommendation letters, which were uploaded by my recommenders (they were written last month, and the prior month). However one thing has happened this week: I realized that I had neglected to research the PhD students recently admitted to the programs to which I have applied. After doing so, I now understand that I am woefully under-prepared for graduate school relative to last year's cohort--even at my safety schools, which are around #50 on various popular ranking sites (I only mention rankings to demonstrate that I was not being overly arrogant in my school selection--though clearly, perhaps I was a little!).

Unfortunately, now, I have an even bigger problem: even if I got into a great grad school, I don't think I could rise to the occasion like everyone around me would, and would probably be very demoralized by this. After much deliberation, I am considering applying next year. Over this year, I will work part-time, attempt to gain experience through personal projects (I am in computer science, and have research ideas, so this is feasible) and teach myself more advanced subjects, and then apply to work in a lab, or apply for a research-based master's degree, in one or two years. I went to a relatively unknown school with few courses in my area of interest, so I think the time will be well spent and increase my confidence and knowledge. I don't think I'm falling prey to imposter syndrome, because, well, the major conference publications, master's degrees at elite universities, and impressive resumes of the PhD students at my safety schools are rather objective measures of my relative inexperience.

Here is my question: how can I tactfully notify my letter writers that I am planning on not applying, while still thanking them for their recommendation, and letting them know that I would still appreciate their letter when I apply next year or the year after that? And faculty, if you were in this position, how would you feel about the student? I really don't want to anger my recommenders. They're excellent, hard-working, wonderful people, and I already feel guilty that I might be letting them down.


texts: Can I withdraw my accepted journal paper due to data confidentiality issues?

texts:
My question actually is complicated. A company provided me data for my thesis. They allowed me to use the data in my thesis. But I need get their permission if I want to publish my thesis. The thing is, my thesis can be googled at school's database. So I am not sure if this means "publish."

I thought I do not need to get their permission since my thesis is already online and everyone can download it. Therefore, I submitted the paper (not cover everything in my thesis) to a journal and get accepted.

Recently I found out that the company refuses to let the paper be published. So I want to withdraw my paper from the journal.

I am the first author of the paper, and another person is the second author. I am not sure if I can decide the withdraw thing or I should let the second author know first? Also, how should I email the editor?


texts: Lecturer giving automatic top mark to the first person to submit

texts:
A friend of mine is studying biology at a UK university and told me about this situation that happened last semester.

An assignment was set on one of her courses, and as the deadline date approached, the lecturer sent out an email stating that the first person to submit their assignment would be guaranteed an automatic first (the top mark available).

She felt this was unfair (what if the first person to submit rushed their work and completed the questions poorly, yet were rewarded for their haste?) but due to the intimidating nature of this particular lecturer, she did not say anything.

My questions are:

Is rewarding the first submission purely because it was the fastest common practice in UK universities (or elsewhere)?

and

What can be done by the student to prevent this situation happening again?


texts: How much editing can one ethically accept from one's advisor on a fellowship proposal (e.g. NSF/NDSEG/etc.)

texts:
I'm applying for graduate fellowships right now (I am a first-year graduate student in a STEM field), and am preparing to submit the application. My advisor has been helping me out with it for a while, and at one point, he took my draft of my research proposal and made some somewhat significant edits to it. He added several paragraphs, deleted some of my wording, added some sources, and so on. Altogether, at least half of the text in the proposal—a lot of it is figures—has been written or edited by him, while half the text is still mine (and I made the figures and the general outline of the proposal).

For obvious reasons, I'm uncomfortable asking him whether or not his contributions are too substantial (I don't want to say "I think you did too much of it, so I'm going to change it back" or to do so behind his back), but at the same time, I'm cautious about whether or not it's unethical to receive that kind of help on the proposal for my fellowship application, because I'm not sure how these things typically work.

So, is this something that typically happens with these kinds of applications, and is it unethical/immoral on my part to use such a proposal (i.e. something that gives me any kind of unfair advantage)? Or, am I thinking of this too much like a competition that requires solely my efforts for my submission?

Edit I just want to stress that when I say about half the text was written by my advisor, I mean that I initially wrote the paragraphs in question, but they were substantially edited to get the idea across in a better way.

On that note, would it be appropriate for me to further edit his edits? At that point, though, I feel as though I'd be editing it just to avoid acting unethically, not to improve the proposal. Basically, what action would I take in order to ensure I'm not acting unethically here?


texts: Applying to state-side Graduate programs with European degree(s)

texts:
So I'm a bit confused because the structure of higher education is different in America than it is here. In the States the typical undergraduate degree (for example in physics) is around 4 years. From what I heard, most students who end up getting a doctorate go straight to "grad school" after their undergrad degree. However in Europe, according to the Bologna Process , the 3 year Bachelors is usually followed by a 1-2 year Masters program before enrolling in a Phd program.

The question is, how are these 2 systems of education compatible? Let's say I want to do my physics Phd in the U.S., would I need to have both my Bachelors and Masters degrees before applying to a "Grad School", or would a bachelors suffice?


texts:
Recently I have some experiences in mistakes in the others' papers. One instance was that the formula was simply wrong, and another instance was that the method was numerically impossible to implement. Since both works have been officially published, I am wondering how often do this occur in published papers.

Do people really believe that published works are error-free?


texts: Should co-first authors be listed in alphabetical order?

texts:
The field of research is the biological sciences.

Graduate student B worked on the project for 2 years: he did experiments to gather genome-wide data and analyzed part of that data. He defined the direction and feasibility of the project, and developed the methodology; if it were not to him, there wouldn't be a paper.

Post-doc A picked up the project for 1 year after graduate student B left the lab, analyzed the data, wrote the paper, contributed 4 key figures (exactly half of the figures) and at least half of the scientific conclusions.

It was agreed upon that A and B would be co-first authors, but currently they are listed as B, A, et al.

Do you think A would be entitled to feel some kind of injustice at not having his name listed in alphabetical order? Is there a consensus that co-first authors should be in alphabetical order and is the editor likely to point this out?

[edit] Additional information:
In this field, you can specify 'co-first authors' at the time of submission, and it is written as such under the author's list on the final publication as "X an Y have contributed equally to this work". Which of course is a big source of conflict.

Thanks :)


texts:
This is a question of pure curiosity: just like there exists polyglots who speak dozens of languages, are there any cases of people obtaining at least four PhDs? (It is okay if topics are fairly close, e.g. Maths, stats, cs, theor phys).
Note, I am specifically not asking about whether doing multiple PhDs is advisible.


texts: Journal unsatisfied with revisions after acceptance, author proofs and copyright

texts:
We recently had a c.s. theory / networks paper accepted at a special issue after addressing a major revision.  After we got the letter of acceptance, author proofs, signed the copyright release, etc., we got a letter saying

  the paper was inadvertently marked as "Accepted" which was not the decision of the guest editors of the special issue. Apologies for the confusion.

They then ask us to strengthen our revisions to the same reports we responded to before:

  Please understand that although we believe that you made a considerable effort in revising your manuscript, we think that reviewers' comments 5, 8, 9, and 11 require further attention.

But they misinterpret what the referees want in those points.  One example is that the referee originally asks

  Why not use testbed experiment to evaluate it?

(we have given reasons in our paper why testbed experiments are not necessary) but the editor writes

  the reviewers ask to perform testbed experiments

They close with

  If the paper is successfully revised and the reviews are positive, then it could be accepted and appear in a later addendum to the special issue.

In short, the editors claim to have accidentally pressed "accept" and then forgotten about our paper for 2 months while it went through the editorial and publishing process, and that we have not met the reviewer's demands, which the editor has clearly misinterpreted.

How do we proceed in a way that ensures our fair treatment and, ultimately, the publication of our paper at this journal?


texts: Electrical Engineering freshman want to pursue PhD in Theoretical Computer Science

texts:
I'm a freshman in electrical engineering and have always interested in mathematics and researching. But I came to realize by the time I learn EE that it doesn't involve much math as I expected (something abstract like algebra or topology, not the same computational kind as calculus). I feel that EE is not motivated enough to commit my life to. I enjoyed learning Computer Science in my free time and found that Theoretical Computer Science fit me perfectly. Therefore I want to pursue higher education in this field. I intend to minor in Computer Science.

What can I do to prepare myself for this path? Which courses should I take and which books should I read to go ahead in this field? Is there any field in EE that have a close relation to Theoretical Computer Science (or abstract mathematics)? And should I get a MSc in Math or Computer Science after BSc in EE?


texts: Should I participate in a contest even If I don't want the prize

texts:
I've been preparing this week for a Physics contest a local university is organizing. The prize is a full scholarship for a Physics degree (100% during the 5 years term).

I believe I can win, but the problem is that I do not want to study physics, I want to study Computer Science, yet I want to participate in the contest to achieve a personal win (perhaps for my ego :P).

I'm aware that if I win and decline the prize, it will be given to the 2nd place.

Now, I've been having some problems with my relatives. They say it's time lost for me, that there's no point participating if even if I win I'll decline the prize, etc. Yet I still want to.

What am I doing is wrong, shall I listen to them and not participate?

I'd like to know everyone's opinion because I've been doubting recently whether I should participate or not.

Thanks a lot!


texts: How to add citation for a whole paragraph?

texts:
If I write a report and a whole paragraph is based on one source but not cited verbally it seems unnecessary to include the reference after every sentence:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua (source 1). Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat (source 1).

Now I found a Phd thesis that puts the reference after the last dot of the paragraph to indicate that it is based on this very source:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. (source 1)

Is this a common practice? Is it generally understood? What are other ways to add the reference for a whole paragraph?


texts: Why would professors pay to publish in a good journal?

texts:
The journal that I think of specifically is Physical Review Letters.  I've heard that professors pay pretty high amounts to get published in this journal, which is considered a good, if not top-tier, journal.

When then would profs use their funding to pay for this?  If the work is good enough for a good journal, why not just submit it elsewhere, where there are no fees?


texts: Would taking up an associate's degree after finishing your bachelor's harm your resume?


texts: Can I write a book based on my own published papers?

texts: I have published several research papers, from my PhD thesis, in varied journals and proceedings of international conferences. Now I wish to publish a book that shall be utilising the majority of the contents of these papers. Would it be called plagiarism?


texts: What to do if an audience member refuses to let you answer their question?

texts:
I was reading this question about famous people asking rude questions in talks, and it reminded me of a situation which happened at the end of my academic career. I would really like some advice on how I should have handled it.

I was giving a short talk at a conference and at the end the session chair asked for questions or comments. An eminent Belgian professor said "I really think you should look at X from 197y" and, since I had looked at X, I began to reply, and then the professor interrupted my reply with

  "That wasn't a question. That was a comment."

I was speechless. This is Treppenwitz as it was several years ago, but what would have been a good comeback?


texts: Citing supplementary material as a reference?

texts:
I am about to submit a paper to https://www.siam.org/Conferences/CM/Main/sdm19 (deadline is today) and I have supplementary material contains further evidence, proofs, examples and the like.

I want to reference my supplementary material, like this:

  ... however, we found that the runtime is polynomial [24] and that ...

and then in the references:

  [24] A. Uther, This One Paper - Supplementary material. www.github.com/asdf/wer

I found no guideline regarding this. Can I simply put my reference material on a website (e.g. github), put the link into the References section and cite the reference in the text? I have not seen this in any other paper, but I want to cite the supplementary material several times and using a footnote might be confusing: If I put the footnote at the first page I need to cite (e.g. page 3) and I need to cite it at page 9 the last time, people will be confused where to find this footnote.

Note: The conference is NOT double-blind, but only single-blind. (I don't know their names, but they know my name.)


texts:
I would like to ask if there is some algorithm how to arrange courses to timetable. I study at the university and we can choose a few different lesson times for each subject.

The problem is how to coordinate all subjects with student's requirements, for example to have school only 2 days a week and/or to select some hours based on capacity.

One subject - you have to select one from the first table and one from the second table (it's lecture and seminar). There can be only one table to select from (only seminar/only lecture):


texts: Revamping Paper Authorship, *or* Should Papers Roll Credits

texts:
A junior researcher with no reputation (as we've dropped the facade of double-blind review, reputation counts) may benefit from coauthoring with a senior researcher of established reputation, and may accept such a co-authorship with no more than a nominal contribution.

Surely if a senior researcher comes up with the idea, sends the junior researcher off to get his data, provides fruitful advice on where to look, critiques the data gathering methods proposed and refines it if necessary, reviews early to late drafts of the write up, indisputably that senior researcher deserves recognition of coauthorship despite never having directly given voice to the document.

How much advice does a professor have to give before he becomes an coauthor? Isn't the below image's last author listing wrong? Isn't it academic dishonesty on the parts of all of the authors to take and give credit where it is not due? Isn't it misleading to the readers of these papers?

Further, are these semantically unordered? Maybe this indicates we can drop that facade as well, since order apparently does have meaning (unless explicitly ordered alphabetically).

If we really care about people rightfully getting credit, perhaps a paper should list credits in the same way that a movie does.

Perhaps something like:

The Prestigious Journal of Import                    Vol XLVI No 2, June 1992

                            A Paper We Wrote

                      Primary Author: Sap, P. S.
                     Primary Advisor: Oliveira, L.
                           Reviewers: Lee, E. F., Nichols, S. T.,
                             Figures: Michael, C.
                          Dept Chair: Smith, B. S.

                                 Abstract
    The time has come, to talk of many things, of shoes, of ships, of sealing
...

Question:

Do we need to revamp how authorships are credited, do papers need to roll credits, a'la Hollywood? Or is all of this inferred by our list order, and it doesn't really matter who did what, all authors signed off on it, so current practice is equivalent to as if each of them contributed equally and in kind?


texts: Is it acceptable to author a paper just because you established collaboration with university that developed a product involved in the paper?

texts:
I’m a PhD student.
An associate professor in my department has established a collaboration with another university. This other university has people who have developed a product. The professor does not own the product, but is one of the collaborators with the university.

I recently made an article that involves this product, and included authors who helped produce this work. The professor in question is not an author, because he was neither invited to the paper, nor did he contribute. I simply did not need him for this paper. On the day the paper was camera-ready, I received an email from the professor stating his disappointment that he has not been involved with this publication.

This person is not involved in my supervision team whatsoever. It seems to me that he expects any publication that is related to the product to have his name on it.

Is this acceptable?


texts: After what period of time does a PhD position count towards the two possible attempts in Germany?

texts: I am not sure if this holds true everywhere, but here in Germany you only get two attemps at getting your PhD. I am currently wondering at which point it counts towards those two attempts. If I were to start a position and quit during the first few weeks, would it still count?


texts: How to approach my PhD advisor after failing a qualifiying exam?

texts:
I'm a first-year Ph.D. student in STEM who recently took their qualifying exams, in which we take two.  I absolutely failed one and passed the other with flying colors (according to a faculty member).  Luckily, in my department, I only have to take the one I did not pass. In terms of why I failed, it was a combination of choking and being deficient in one course which I thought could be remedied by self-studying, however, I did not put in the time. In that regard, I absolutely take the blame.
I am stressed about the future because I believe I embarrassed my advisor* by performing quite poorly. As such, he may have revaluated his opinion of me, which could lead to possible termination. After getting the results, he has not spoken to me about what happened.  Without trying to come off as a narcissist, I was recruited by him given my strong research background and graduate coursework from my bachelor's, which allowed me to start doing research the first semester of my doctoral program.  As such, from the very start, I believe there was a lot of pressure to pass the exams with ease.
Given that I am unsure what he is thinking, would it be appropriate to contact him to clear the air?  I assumed he would bring it up, but I can now see two things happening: We don't speak of it or he will approach me at a later time.  This summer interim it was planned I would continue with research.
TLDR: I failed one of two qualifying exams and am unsure of my future with my advisor given that I have already started research.  Should I approach him about it, and how should I continue forward?
*I apologize if this concern comes off as silly, however, I was raised in a household where honor, integrity, and face are extremely important.


texts: How to read textbooks like you listen a lecture?

texts:
When I hear a lecture, If the instructor is the kind I like, then I can easily understand what part of what I'm learning is important and the true crux of the ideas. Like I can pick it up from how the varying their tone , how loudly they speak and how many times they repeat an idea.
However when I read a book, I don't get that same effect. Each idea is stated only once and I have a hard time figuring out what is significant from what is not.
So, when self studying from a book, how do you know which part of a book is significant and important? Or is the described above just a feature of lectures?
Context subjects: Physics and Mathematics


texts: Can I do experiments on humans without a degree?

texts:
I have several ideas for research that I believe would advance our understanding of psychological priming. It won't involve anything extreme - just reading non-offensive words on a screen.

But I have only a bachelor's degree. Will that preclude me in anyway from doing research of this type, and publishing?

I know I'll have a greater challenge finding participants, and designing the experiment, and correctly formatting my paper without guidance, etc. I can work with that.

But is it even possible to get IRB approval without being affiliated with a university?

Is there any way that my current affiliation status will formally prevent me from going forward?


texts:
A research proposal for funding suffers the risk of outright rejection when read by panel members who are not familiar with the subject of the proposal. Are there any strategies one must bear in mind when preparing proposals to decrease the chance of it being misunderstood? Or, is there nothing we can do at all to influence this, apart from resubmitting if it is rejected, with the hope that it will fall into the hands of reviewers who will look at it favourably? Someone told me that as many as 50% of Nobel prize winners had their Nobel prize-winning research proposals rejected in the first place.

I am preparing my first proposal (it is actually the second, but I withdrew the first, so this one is technically my first), which will hopefully go through the whole process of review and acceptance/rejection.


texts: Referee report ignored and not sent to authors

texts:
I am early in my career (postdoc) and don't get many papers to review. Thus when I do, I try to put in the work, do a good job, and write a constructive report that is actually useful to the authors. This is the story of how a report I wrote got ignored.

A while ago I was asked to review a paper. I had 3 weeks to do it.  Partly due to my own fault and partly due to a lot of work coming up around the review deadline, I was not able to finish on time.  Before the deadline, I sent an email to the editor and asked for two more days to finish the review. There was no response to this. Two days later I submitted the review, as I promised.  I repeated most of the calculations in the paper (something I don't expect most reviewers do in this field) and found some – fixable – mistakes that affect the result.

Since I was interested in this paper, I checked its status in the editorial system several times, and it always said "under review".

Then about 6 weeks after submitting the report, I got a new request, with a revised version of the paper.  Surprisingly, the authors were clearly responding to only a single reviewer who only recommended fixing typos ... it was obvious that they have never seen my report.

Thus I contacted the editor and asked if there was a mistake and if the report was sent to the authors.  Just to be clear, at this point my report was still clearly shown as submitted in the editorial system and could still be downloaded.  I got back a (probably canned) response from the editor within an hour, saying that: (1) they asked me to review a paper but they never received a response from me (2) due to time constraints they decided to make a decision without my input.  At the same time, my access to the manuscript in the editorial system was revoked.

I wrote back again, explaining that I did in fact send a report – which was confirmed received by their automated system –, and offered to send it again.  The editor never responded after this.

Questions:

I am extremely disappointed because of the time I put into this and because of what I see as dismissive treatment by the editor.  It's really hard to let this go.

Should I keep pushing this and write again, or just let it go?  I want at least an acknowledgement and and explanation of why the report wasn't sent out.
Is being two days late with the report (though giving advance notice before the deadline) a serious offence?
I am worried that the misunderstanding that I never sent a report will leave a permanent black mark on my record with the publisher.  Is this possible?  This is another reason why I want to push it.
At this point I am quite tempted to just send the report to the paper's authors privately. While I would have preferred to remain anonymous, I would rather reveal myself than let it all go to waste. I made an effort to keep a constructive tone throughout the report. I do think they will find it useful, whether they will act on it or not. Is it a bad idea to do this?

I posted this question because I am upset and want to do something about the situation but I am worried that I might end up doing something stupid that will damage my career.  Some comments from people who are themselves editors will be helpful.

In the end I am thinking of just giving the report to the authors privately with a short explanation and not bother with the publisher any more.

Update:  In the meantime the problem got resolved.  It turned out to be caused by an editorial system problem, and the rest can be explained with the editor being busy, as many people suggested.  The moral is to always have good faith ...


texts: Prospective PhD contacts potential supervisor but receives no answer after 2-3 emails, what to do?

texts:
Say a prospective PhD has a high reply rate (90-95%) to first contact emails with potential superviors. He/She has a well thought out e-mail, but a particular professor (here: USA) that is in the top preferences does not reply after two to three e-mails that were sent within a time frame of three months. I also followed the instructions on the professor personal website in the section "prospective PhD students". The student has already contacted some of the advisor students and has received positive feedback about the professor.

Should the student just give up and move on? Should the student keep trying?

Aside from the obvious "I have too many incoming e-mails to answer" or "I am out in the field", what could create a no response behavior from the professor?

I have seen the simplistic answer "move on, bad advisor, doesn't have time, etc". But this seems a contradiction in this case. The PhD students like the professor and say he/she is personable and no e-mail response after a few well written emails.


texts: How to teach an undergraduate course without having taken that course formally before?

texts:
I am in the final year of my PhD. My work was on using Finite element method to study tribology. It was completely modeling based. I developed various models and have gained quite expertise in modeling with the commercially available finite element code.

However, I come from materials engineering background and I don't have any formal education on statics, dynamics, continuum mechanics or finite element method. I had taken some advanced courses on mechanics. But, they did not cover the undergrad stuff and straightaway went for the modeling part or some applied stuff.

Whatever theoretical I have learnt during my PhD, I have done that myself. So, it's neither structured or formalized. I read books, online videos, and I only concentrated on portions applicable for my research. As a result, I know how to model my problem statement which involves dynamic and transient behaviors. But know nothing about statics or quasi-static behaviors.

Now, I am asked to teach a short summer finite element analysis course to mechanical engineering undergrads from July to September (8 lectures ~ 12 hours). and I have no idea what and how to teach them. I have to teach theory and introduce modeling. How do I teach students who have more formal education than me on topics like statics, dynamics, continuum mechanics?


texts: Is it rude to forward an email to someone left out of the email?

texts:
I've emailed a professor/TA and cced my peers or also a different professor/TA and cced another professor/TA. However, sometimes I get emailed back only to my email, not the person cced, would it be rude to forward the email to the person cced?
I'm not sure in some cases I'm not sure why they would respond only to me when the question for example was relevant to all my group members, or as well, when I email a professor (A) a question on a project I'm working on with another professor (B) but professor A only replies to me instead of professor B cced.
I want to forward the email but I'm not sure what the person cced would think of my trustworthiness, especially considering she's my professor/supervisor.


texts: Am I taking a wrong approach while looking for an academic position in applied areas - brutal criticisms appreciated!

texts:
After a PhD in pure mathematic, I wanted to do work in applied areas where I could bring in my pure math expertise. So I did two postdocs in computational medical imaging where I could apply my pure math knowledge coupled with machine learning (which I also liked because of my pure math background). But the reason I wanted to do computational medical imaging were:
1) I felt the market for pure math would be hard, and it'd be difficult to obtain a permanent position. However, if I worked in imaging, then my CV would show that I was capable of doing both pure and applied stuff, hence would keep my options open to industry as well.
2) I looked through some papers in medical imaging, and what attracted me was the mathematical tools that they used in these papers, but I didn't pay much attention to the actual unsolved problems in medical imaging. It was definitely not like I didn't care about these problems in imaging, but they were not the main reason I got attracted to it. But I went ahead with the postdoc anyway, but worked mostly on problems that were of somewhat general nature (e.g. problems at the confluence of differential geometry and machine learning, of interest in imaging. I didn't really work with raw images, rather some heavily processed images that'd fit my differential geometric model).
After finishing these two postdocs, I tried to continue in medical imaging, but for reasons that were not under my control, I couldn't, and thereafter, I tried to switch to industry and worked unsuccessfully in several companies for short times, and currently I'm again looking to move back to academia.
The reason I ask this question here is that, I recently had a long talk with a friend of mine who's also a PhD and successfully transitioned into industrial R&D from applied math/machine learning to autonomous driving. He told me that I took a wrong approach to working in applied areas. The reason to work in applied areas should be "I want to solve this problem in this applied area (in my case medical imaging)" as opposed to "This applied area uses this and that tools, which I'm already familiar with and like using, hence I must like that applied area as well". The second one was my approach, and I'd like to know if I were wrong? Even to this day, what principally excites me in an applied area is the underlying math I can bring in to solve the problems there, hence in a project, I seek to stay on the theoretical side, rather than the practical one. For example, I'm definitely more at ease with pen and paper, but I can and do code for a problem that requires machine learning, but I'm no fan of e.g. keep tuning parameters to obtain the optimal model like they do in data scientist positions (I had some, didn't feel passionate about and was unsuccessful) - I rather like to write an algorithm, prove its convergence if needed, and test it on small and gradually bigger datasets. MY QUESTION: Am I being wrong in my approach? Please be brutally honest! Is there a middle ground that I can take, and how? Thanks in advance!!


texts: Consequences for a tenured person of not getting grants

texts:
As far as I heard in (some of) the universities a person having a tenure track position who fails to get grants may not get tenure.

  I am wondering what might be consequences of not getting grants for a tenured professor. (Say may he or she get more teaching load? more administrative load? What will happen if he or she will not agree for that?)

In your answers please indicate about what country are you talking about.


texts: Impact of student suicide on PhD advisor’s tenure prospects

texts: If a PhD student kills himself, how does that affect the advisor?  Does it count against him for tenure purposes?


texts: Does this tool exist: Literature search citation filter?

texts:
I'm wondering if a tool/website to do a specific task exists:

Suppose I have a set of papers (which we'll say for simplicity are hosted on the arxiv), S. I want to keep track of all the papers that are posted on the Arxiv that cite any element of S. Ideally I could then see the papers in chronological order such that I make sure I don't miss anything.

The idea is that S contains the seminal/landmark papers in my field, which are almost always cited by new papers in this field. The hope is that I'll be able to more easily surf the arxiv and not let new paper slip past me.

Before I decide whether or not I want to devote some energy to building such a tool, I'm wondering if it already exists, or if even a hacky solution exists.


texts: Is it ethical to use another university's journal subscription if yours doesn't have access?

texts: As a graduate student, sometimes I really could use access to journals or databases of tables that for some reason my university doesn't subscribe to.  I have friends at other Universities that do subscribe to these journals and it would be very helpful to have the data.  Is it acceptable to ask them to retrieve the data?  I don't really want to start this if it's going to run me afoul of the rules.


texts: Bibliographic entry for a pseudymous work with known real author

texts:
This question is the bibliographic pendant to this question.

Let us suppose I write an academic paper where I cite the well known paper English sentences without overt grammatical subject  (pdf), written by James d. McCawley under the pseudonym Quang Phúc Đông. What is the bes way to format the bibliography?

[1] Đông Q. P., “English sentences without overt grammatical subject”, doi: 10.1075/z.63.06don. Actually written by McCawlay, J.D. under pseudonym
[2] Đông Q. P. (alias McCawlay, J.D.), “English sentences without overt grammatical subject”, doi: 10.1075/z.63.06don.
[3] McCawlay, J.D. (as Đông Q. P.), “English sentences without overt grammatical subject”, doi: 10.1075/z.63.06don.
Something else ?

I want to make both the name and pseudonym appear in the bibliography.

Bonus question: Once the “academically correct” solution is known, how to implement it in a bibtex bibliography?


texts: Submitting a paper that contains the researcher name to a conference that employs double blind reviewing

texts:
Me and my co-researchers is submitting a paper regarding speech recognition to a conference that is held by the university where we study. In this study, we, strictly for the purpose of trolling, included our co-researchers name into the dictionary for speech recognition. Curiously, the performance of the speech recognition at recognizing the researcher's name has generated interesting insight for analysis. The analysis works by breaking down the phonetic of the researcher's name. The usage of the researcher's name is crucial since the researcher's name provides the best example.

Unfortunately, the conference that we're submitting employs a double-blind peer reviewing system and my researcher whose name is in question is widely known in the university for his achievements and trolling so it's very likely the reviewer knows him.

Is there anything I can do to mitigate this besides submitting to a different conference?


texts: Why do some departments not offer master's degrees anymore?

texts:
I am a bachelor's student currently in my junior year; and I am looking for a graduate program in mathematics, in either UCLA, or UC Berkeley.

However, both websites say they only admit PhD applicants, and no longer master's applications, and this worries me a bit.
Does that only mean that the master's applications are closed as of this year, and that they will open again during fall?

I'm just a bit unfamiliar with the American system!


texts: "Cold-calling" for a post-doc position in a group that cites you

texts:
I know that "cold-calling" for positions is considered very poor etiquette in the academic community. But is this the case if one "cold-calls" a group which is familiar with your work? By familiar I mean the group cited (one or more of) your paper(s), but you don't know anyone in the group personally?

If this practice is somewhat acceptable in the academic community what would be the best option for inquiring about a post-doc position?


texts: What happens if I get a grant for my PhD project but I decide to quit and start another PhD somewhere else?

texts:
My PhD is self-funded and I probably change in 2016. Can I apply for a grant now and then change my PhD later?

Does it legally or ethically force me to stay and finish the project?

Or my Prof can hire another PhD student after me to continue working on that project?

UPDATE

Let's put it this way: I have a self funded position and everybody including my Prof know that I'll most probably leave next year but I want to get some money as long as I'm here (before changing).

Can I apply for a for example 2-year research grant and quit after a year or it obligates me to stay and finish the project?


texts: Offering of a grad class rescinded for incomprehensible reason

texts:
A course came up that I was interested in (C*algebras). It's a grad class but was offered to a select group of undergrads including myself. I accepted the offer but then once the class started I received an email saying the following:

"Dear XXX,

I have just noticed that you have not completed Math 311. I think it would be a terrible idea for you to be doing the operator algebra course before completing that. It would also be irresponsible of me to let you do it. This isn't really dependent on why you didn't complete the course. The appearance alone would make me look bad.

Best, XXX"

I replied that I have 100% on all but one assignment and an A+ on the midterm. I haven't yet taken the final but it will be scheduled by the end of the semester. (I couldn't take the exam for health reasons that he knows of.)

He knows I am an A+ student and has given me 2 A+'s in the 2 classes I have taken with him. I tried speaking with the instructor of the Math 311 course and asked him to speak with said prof to see if he could convince him that I know the material but I'm not sure how that will go.

I don't know why this prof would rescind the invitation when we seemed to have previously had a good rapport. The prof does know that this would be my 6th class for the term which may be a contributing factor. (4th at 4th year or above)

Is there anything else I can do to increase my chance of getting into this class?

Also I don't want to damage my relationship with this prof further as I hoped to ask them to do a summer research project.


texts: Is it possible to obtain feedback from a declined NSF postdoctoral fellowship?

texts:
I applied for a NSF post doctoral fellowship in mathematics last fall...and I got rejected.

Is it possible to obtain any feedback from NSF or from the reviewers?


texts:
I am working on research in the field of renewable energy and technology transfer. The research methodology that I have applied in my study is called the “Technology Foresight”, where I am using methodologies such as STEEPV analysis, Delphi surveys and scenario building and so on. My question is with relevant to the conferences. With the literature survey that I did at the initial stage of my studies I came up with a technology Foresight model that can be applied to my study. This is sort of a unique model which my supervisors suggest me to publish it in a conference. The reason they asked me to do so, is to network with other research community who are very much familiar with this methodology “Technology Foresight”.

But I have no idea as how to find good conferences which consider “technology Foresight” as one of their main them. My supervisors are also not that familiar with this methodology as they are from the renewable energy and technology transfer fields. I would really appreciate if you can suggest me good conferences in the field of “Technology Foresight”.


texts:
Context: I work for a small private company in the US energy sector. Recently, my colleague found an application opportunity for the tool I developed as my PhD dissertation. We tested it out with a public utility to great success, and it's getting some press. There is a high likelihood of future business.

Lack of citation: The company is trying to represent the work as a "Company Project" and they have removed all citations and mentions of me individually. I am worried that if I leave the company at some point, they will continue using my science, continue not crediting me, and I will feel cheated, even though I brought up the idea of using it while working here.

Lack of public voice: In addition, I was told all press contact must go through our Marketing department, even though I have been contacted independently by journalists that saw me present this project / my science at conferences earlier this year. I am not supposed to speak with them, and instead redirect them to our Marketing group. I find this very odd.

Question: On one hand, I am an employee of this company where the project was carried out. On the other hand, I did not develop the tool while in this role - I developed it as a PhD student five years earlier. I feel that because of this, I should receive due credit. The company doesn't own my dissertation knowledge - or do they? What should I do?


texts: Should I tell my recommendation writers about my self-studying since graduating? Should I also mention my illness and depression?

texts:
I completed my masters in mathematics in my home country in June 2020. I didn't had success in 4th semester of my masters with PhD Applications. So, I thought I would try next year in both my home country and abroad (Europe). I didn't apply earlier to any of my home country's universities.
So, I started studying  for the qualifying exam in my home country while side by side studying some more mathematics to apply for PhD programmes abroad. But I fell in depression and wasted 1 month and 1 week in stomach infection till now.
The depression problem: I took the exam for PhD admission in my home country in December and received the result in early January. The result was lower than I had hoped for, although I don't yet know if I've been accepted.
My father is using this to make cruel comments to me, hurting my mental health. This contributed to me being depressed and missing several application deadlines for European universities. I completed only one application on time. Since then I have received medical help for my mental health problems and for 1 week I could not study due to pretty bad stomachache.
Question 1: Should I email the professors which will be sending letter of recommendation, and tell them what I have been doing since I completed my masters in June 2020? It would be only list of topics I have studied till now.
Question 2: If so, should I also include episodes of depression along with stomach infection?
Question 3: If so, should I also describe the reason behind the depression?


texts: Insulting email from another graduate student

texts:
I'm first year international graduate student in US and recently I have received an insulting email (for example including "be thankful and keep your mouth shut") from a domestic student who is my teammate in a class project. The email was a follow up to my debate with another teammate, however there wasn't any context for anything like that (I consider all of university email as public records and I'm careful about what I write), and initial conflict was going to be resolved with few email exchange. When I brought up the issue to the class professor, he (the student) claimed that he was angry because of my position in the debate and he was defending the other team member, but overall he (the student) defended his email. The professor tried to calm us down and avoid escalating the conflict.

I have experienced similar but milder situation with other domestic students and in one case a young professor as well. The general hostility pattern is that, they expect me to keep my mouth shut and be second class citizen. I have heard from other international students that our small city/university is not a good place regarding this issue. My question is, can I do anything about it?


texts: Given a downloaded PDF of a publication, is there any way to detect if it's a journal or conference paper?

texts: I have some downloaded papers and I am going to store journals and conferences in separate folders. My problem is that by having a simple look at the PDF file, I cannot detect if that paper is journal or conference. Some papers mention it. However, how to detect the others?


texts: How to get the most out of a period in another university during PhD?

texts:
Many PhD programs envisage for every candidate a period (3, 6 months or more) in another university, in order to carry on research in another institution, acquire new skills and (maybe) lay the foundations for a postdoctoral fellowship.

The task could be useful, but involves some problems, too. Often the PhD student is not able to familiarize with the new scientific environment and start working efficiently with the new group. Also, it is often difficult to find a research group that suites one's scientific fields and projects.

More over, sometimes the supervisor from the hosting institution agrees in welcoming a PhD student from outside (also to get his/her lab more international), but he/she has no time to dedicate to him/her...

For all these reasons, and more, sometimes a period abroad for a PhD could be very useless and ineffectual.

What do you think makes a period abroad successful?

Do you have any advice for PhD students going to face this career phase?


texts: How to know if my work is worth a paper?

texts:
I work in a computer science research lab as an engineer. I work in field A, but I got really fascinated by field B and I worked in my free time on an idea in field B.

I want to pursue a PhD in the end of my contract so I'm thinking about publishing results. So far, I have zero publication. I may get a chance to write a paper in field A, but if I can also in field B, I'd have better chances to get a PhD I like.

My question is : how do I get opinions about my work in field B?

I implemented a software which works, does not beat state of the art but has exciting potential in my opinion. I combine an old idea with a brand new idea. It's quite a lot of work and effort. I was thinking about presenting it in a blog and publishing the code in order to get feedback and become a bit more known (i'm done with all the figures and experiments). If it is a success, I wanted to write a paper (and publish in arXiv) straight after. I'm afraid that if the idea is good, I will be potentially missing out on citations which could help me become more known. Also, if I don't write a paper and just publish stuff on my blog, I don't prove that I "play by the rules" and that I can write properly, edit LaTeX, submit papers, etc... A third possibility would be to ask a researcher which is concerned by my project, show him what I did and talk with him before taking any initiative.

I don't want anything to interfere with my current work so I have not talked with the team here about my side work. We have been delayed quite a bit and I don't want to give the false impression that it's because of my side work.

What do you think?

edit: MJeffryes commented that arXiv is not a journal. Yes, I thought that at least, publishing in arXiv allows to get citations (whereas a blog cannot be cited, I guess), and then submit it to conferences/journals.


texts: Applying to Graduate School with misdemeanor charge?

texts:
I am currently a 3rd year undergraduate student at a large public university. I am a music performance major. I'm very interested in applying to graduate school for either performance or music technology, which I am receiving a minor in. My biggest concern is that at the end of my freshman year I received a misdemeanor possession of marijuana  charge. I paid the fine and have been done with it for a while. Unfortunately, I can feel it haunting me still and the closer and closer I get to graduation and applying to graduate school the more I feel it creeping up on me. In my state nothing is offered to "remove" it from your record such as some states have diversion class.

So my questions are:

Is this something I should be extremely concerned about?

Will a university or conservatory completely disregard my application because of this reason? Or will affect their decision on my acceptance?

I didn't lose my scholarship because of it (and actually I have received more money from the school of music after applying for other scholarships) but will I be ineligible in the future?

Anything helps.

Thanks.


texts: Does waiting a few years before pursuing a PhD affect chances of getting admitted?

texts:
This is a somewhat long question. I hope you can take the time to read it carefully.
I obtained my bachelor's degree in physics in June 2019. I decided I wanted to go to physics graduate school in the USA after finishing my undergraduate degree, however I noticed I was not going to be a strong candidate because I only had one letter of recommendation, had very little experience doing research, and had never published a paper. Hence, I decided to postpone my application and work with physicists to do research. Since I come from a place where research opportunities are scarce, I decided to contact researchers from the USA to work with them. It was really hard to get a response from them, but finally I got a response from two very good physicists from UC Santa Cruz and Georgetown. I am currently working with one of them and there's a possibility to publish an article by the end of this year's  Fall. The other physicist advised me not to work with the two of them at the same time, as I might become overwhelmed by the amount of work from both projects. So he told me that it was my decision if I wanted to apply this year or wait until the next year. He said to me that if I waited one more year to apply, we would work together on a project and he claimed that we would publish a paper together by the end of Fall 2021.
My dilemma is that if I wait one more year I would be older and when I start my phd, three years will have passed since I graduated from college. However, if I wait one more year I will have one more letter of recommendation and one more paper published (which would probably make me a stronger candidate).
My question is the following: is it a better idea to wait one more year considering that I can get all the things I mentioned before? Or, does waiting this amount of time affect my chances of being admitted?
I graduated from a 4-year physics program at the age of 22 (I'm 23 now).


texts: Progress to Ph.D. delayed due to COVID-19: How to convince advisor to let me finish degree without taking an extra year?

texts:
I’m doing my Ph.D. research in cognitive development using in-person experiments with children, which has stopped indefinitely due to COVID-19. I passed my preliminary exam last month, so I only need to propose and defend my dissertation.

I want to propose this spring/summer and defend by fall 2021 so I can stay in this city and get an industry job, but my advisor keeps pushing me to take a 6th year so I can publish and be more competitive for academia, despite me telling her many times that I want to leave academia. Now that in-person studies have stopped, my advisor is basically forcing me to take a 6th year and wants to push my dissertation proposal to this fall (which would give me unsatisfactory progress, thus possibly eliminating my funding). I asked about proposing a partially online experiment so I could gather data this summer, but she refuses to let me do any online data collection for my dissertation. I really don’t want to take a 6th year of a low stipend when I could be financially stable with an industry job, and I don’t want to possibly spend next year unfunded.

Is there any way I can negotiate with her so I can finish this degree sooner rather than later?


texts:
When I'm teaching an advanced graduate class where the source material is drawn primarily from current research papers, there isn't a canonical text per se, and a typical lecture, while loosely structured, also involves discussion that might help clarify the papers.

In such a setting, asking students to scribe lectures serves a useful purpose. Students hopefully remember the material better after writing it down, and are forced to be more precise. And classroom discussion can be captured for posterity.

But I don't think I've found a way to implement this effectively. My current mechanics include:

students are assigned as scribes between a week in advance, and on the day of the lecture
I provide a latex style file, and also an example or two of prior scribe notes.
students are expected to produce a first draft within a few days of the lecture (lectures are once a week), and the hope is that a good version of the notes is on the website a week after the lecture.
these are "seminar" classes: they are 1-credit, and the only work the student needs to do to earn a grade is one or more scribes and (sometimes) one lecture.

What happens is that the initial draft is usually abysmal, and it either takes me a really long time to wrestle the document into shape with the student, or I give up and do it myself, which also takes a lot of time.

Are there useful practices that can improve this workflow ? Is my timeline unrealistic ?

  p.s To avoid confusion, when I say scribe (which is common
  parlance in my area) I don't mean a literal recording of minutes but a
  synthesis of material that if well done becomes something resembling
  lecture notes.


texts:
I am a college sophomore and I am debating transferring out of my current school, Hunter college. My GPA is 3.56 and I am a CS and psychology major, concentration of behavioral neuroscience.

Now, I have always been interested in research but the resources in my school seems very tight and my overall experience has been very unsatisfying. My ultimate goal is to try out for MD/PhD program with a background in BCI (Brain computer interface) but my school offers no program in any close proximation.

So, should I transfer out or hold on until the end of my 4 years? And also is my GPA reasonable to transfer into better schools like NYU or WakeForest University?

Should I focus on graduating from my current school or plan to transfer to a more prestigious school?


texts: Should I list talks on my CV given by co-authors?

texts:
On my CV, I have a few talks listed where I was not the presenting author (though I am a co-author on the work).

I have left them on my CV because as a graduate student, my CV is pretty slim. However the work in question was recently published in a journal, which now appears on my CV.

Should I delete all the talks where I was not presenting author? I'm not sure adding length to my CV is really appropriate since the information is fairly redundant (all the same line of research and similar talk titles, just different conferences).


texts: Why do errors exist in peer reviewed publications?

texts: I found a mistake (not a misprint) in an article which has been published in a very good math journal. According the available data, the article was in peer-review process for more than 8 months. But I do not know why the referee(s) did not notice that. What are reasons for this kind of articles?


texts: Asking a commitee to replace a letter of recommendation?

texts:
I have asked one of my thesis committee members for a letter of recommendation for a position I was applying to. He is a well-known and well-connected figure in my field, we have a good relationship and he has written me letters in the past which I am fairly certain were very good.

The only problem is that he is quite busy, and therefore unreliable: During my latest job search he submitted a letter two months late and forgot to submit another one.

The position I applied to was very important to me and I did not want to risk applying with a missing letter, so as the deadline approached and I still hadn't received a letter, I asked another, lesser-known colleague to write me a recommendation instead.

The deadline has now passed a couple of days ago and I just received my committee's member's letter on Interfolio today. I already submitted my application and I can not amend it anymore through the online application service.

Should I try contacting the search committee directly and ask if I can get the letter replaced?

I'm afraid it might sound disrespectful toward the colleague that nicely wrote me the last-minute letter, but on the other hand I think the new letter would go a long way in helping my application...


texts:
I have written a few reference letters to students for US universities in this recruiting season, and just got an email from a colleague in a university a student of mine was applying to, asking why am I not as enthusiastic about that student.
Here's the thing - I really was enthusiastic about them. I wrote what I thought was a very supportive letter, but I guess that my academic upbringing encouraged less overt use of superlatives. For context, my PhD advisor is an East European mathematician, so she's perhaps not the best role model in terms of showing enthusiasm (as an example, she referred to my first paper submission as a "50% chance of rejection"; that paper got a best paper award).
I realize that my reference letters are not as enthusiastic as my North American counterparts', and that's a cause for concern - this is a potential disservice to my perfectly good candidates.
My question is - what language would you use to describe outstanding students?


texts: US grad school rankings based on graduate students' satisfaction

texts:
Is there any US grad school ranking based on graduate students' satisfaction? (satisfaction while in grad school of after graduation)

If department-specific I am mostly interested in computer science departments.


texts: Congratulating professor to having moved to a new university?

texts:
I want to get back in touch with a former professor of mine, who has now recently moved to a different institution. Would I, in my email, congratulate her for having moved to the new institution or should I just not mention it at all?

I am worried it could be understood the wrong way.

For what it matters: both the old & the new university are top 20 in the world, the new university is top 3 (in the relevant field).


texts: Co-author submitted new data post-review without my (first author) consent

texts:
I am the first author of a manuscript that was recently "accepted in principle". The submission, peer review and revisions of this manuscript happened after I left the laboratory of the corresponding author where I was a postdoc. I was actively involved in the revisions (by email)and guided the graduate student who did the revisions. Following peer review and revisions, the corresponding author wanted to include data (obtained by the graduate student) which I did not approve of. This data was then not included in the revised manuscript or the rebuttal letter. After we received the "accepted in principle" email, the corresponding author again informed me that he wanted to include this data. I objected again. But it appears that he has submitted this data (which was not part of the peer review and has not been seen by the reviewers) without my consent. I would like to write to the editors of the journal asking them to stall the publication of this manuscript since I did not consent to the content and since it includes unreviewed data. Am I correct in doing so?

Update from the OP:

I have an update on my issue and would appreciate more inputs. I made more attempts to convince the lead author to not include this data, but he did not agree. I finally contacted the journal editor. She sent a rather timid email to the lead author saying very clearly that it was okay to add in data after peer review since manuscripts are not "frozen" after they are accepted in principle. She said she was willing to include this data if it strengthened the manuscript and asked the lead author to contact all co-authors and obtain their consent before the final submission.

The lead author is still refusing to change his decision. He told me that he will easily get all other co-authors to consent to this. In which case, he said that it will appear that I am trying to suppress useful data. I feel bullied here since I cannot match up to his seniority and his relations with the co-authors. He has so far not provided any clear scientific reason for including this data.

Any guesses on what decision the journal will take if both I and the lead author continue to disagree, and I am the only one not giving consent?


texts: Publishing work in areas you're no longer interested in

texts: If one obtains results in one area of a field (say during an MSc thesis) before deciding that one is not interested in making a career in that area, should one take the time (as a PhD student) to get make those results publishable, or is it better to focus on the new area?


texts: Giving my article the same title as a published book by another author

texts:
I'm about to submit an article to a journal for review. There is a published book (about 5 years old) that has the same title as my working paper. As you might guess, the paper and book are in the same subfield of study. The shared title is cute variation on the name of a prominent organization (which honestly fits my paper better than the book).

Do I need to change the title of my paper? Another thing to consider is that the author of the book is a likely candidate to be selected as a reviewer for the article.


texts: Rejection because the paper is too specialised

texts: I submitted a manuscript into a (maths) journal a while ago. Today I received a decision e-mail saying that they have to reject my paper because it is too specialised for their journal. I belive this is fine after 1-2 weeks of receiving my submission, but I got this answer 3 months + 1 week after I submitted my paper. Is there anything I can do in such a situation or I just have to accept that perhaps someone forgot about my manuscript for a while?


texts: What's the equivalent of this degree in Europe and USA?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate student in mathematics at the University of Buenos Aires. The name of the degree is "licenciatura en Matemática", which is a 5 year long degree. To graduate you must make a small work called "thesis".
Now while the degree is about mathematics, you can choose between two orientations, in the third year: pure and applied.

If you understand spanish: http://cms.dm.uba.ar/academico/carreras/licenciatura/


texts:
At the weekly seminars in my department, for any professor who's flying in to town this semester, there's typically a professor from our department that is the "host" for this seminar speaker.
And each week, there is a different host, for different seminar speakers coming to town.
What is the typical responsibilities of a host?
For instance, do they arrange for social activity (dinners?) for the seminar speaker, before and after their talk?
This is in reference to U.S. universities, math departments.


texts: I used a solution that I happened to already have on my laptop on an exam. Did I cheat?

texts:
In a programming in-class test, one of the problems was to write up a certain famous program in Maple. However, I had already written up this program prior to the test just as a hobby, and it was in a folder on my desktop [we were using our own laptops, no internet access]. I just copied that code into a new file, cleaned it up, and uploaded this file to the course website. I left an hour before anybody else [the exam lasted 2 hours, and I sat around pretending to be busy for 45 minutes before I left the class and went to the canteen].

Question: Is this cheating? Self-plagiarism? Have I done anything wrong here?
Should I admit this to my TA?


texts: Can a professor ask you to get a medical clearance from your doctor

texts: My professor asked me to get a medical clearance from my dictor stating that I am free from my medical ailment. Can a professor do that?


texts: How do I keep my tenure track job search confidential?

texts:
I work as a research scientist for a tech company. I publish frequently in top venues in my area and, at the same time, I've been adjuncting at well-known universities to teach classes.

I don't feel I've ever left academia, as I keep collaborating and publishing with people from academic institutions, but I want to apply to a few (e.g., 10) tenure track positions in computer science, for a number of reasons that are not relevant to this question.

How do I ensure that my search/applications stay private?

My manager is well connected with the academic world (despite not being a researcher), and I do not want them to know that I applied and where I applied. Note that I do not need a recommendation letter from them, as I have multiple well-known researchers (faculty members in different universities) who will write one for me.


texts: What to do if a paper by respected authors has obvious problems, and I have told them so already?

texts:
I have recently found a paper of a very respected research group in my field. In this paper, they have some theoretical calculations, and they are obviously completely wrong. Not in the sense that the results are wrong - the formulae themselves have nothing to do with what they want to describe. Imagine something equivalent to a paper in which they want to use the Poisson distribution, but their theoretical derivation is that of a Gaussian distribution, while in the text they claim that this is how the Poisson distribution is derived. It makes no sense if you know about it, but is still close enough that readers might not realize the difference. (Personally, I am really wondering how it got through the review process, but that's a different topic.)

What is interesting, however, is that the results they show are correct, i.e. they behave as if they had actually used (the equivalent of) the Poisson distribution instead of the equations they actually wrote down. It's possible that the actual work was done by someone else than the person writing the paper (who is the senior researcher), or maybe they tortured the wrong formulae until they behaved similarly to the correct ones, it's hard to say. But the experimental results are fitted correctly by their simulations, so technically one could argue that everything is fine.

However, recently the same authors published a review paper in which they basically copied the whole theoretical part of the old paper. Of course, it is wrong again. And I am really worried about this idea that completely wrong formulae get through the review process again and again, just because the author is well-known or the review process is a sham.

So I have contacted the authors and told them that I think there is a mistake there (of course I also suggested that I might have misunderstood something, but I know that I did not misunderstand anything). The response that I received had nothing to do with my original points, however. I replied again and emphasized that I believe that there is a mistake there, and the next response was very brief and did not really give a straight answer again. I feel like any further correspondence would only make them angry at me, if they aren't already.

So what should I do now? The papers are not widely cited, but my field is also something of a niche. They might still have some impact and might mislead others. The journal does not have a clear guideline with regards to errata, and since the fits are correct and only the theoretical derivation is wrong, I am also not sure how "relevant" this really is. For me, something like this is really important and annoying, but the journal might brush it off as unimportant details.

By the way, I do not actually want to start a fight with these researchers. If I write the journal now, and the journal then contacts them, I'm pretty sure they can put one and one together. This kind of bothers me. But this is not the most important point. For me, the death of science starts in the small things, and if I find an error, I want to do something about it.

(I should also mention that, yes, I did read the other questions that were similar. The answers were not satisfactory I thought, because they mostly assumed that the person asking the question might have misunderstood something. The questions were also about errors that invalidate the whole paper, while mine is a bit more subtle. The results are fine, but the foundation that is given is shaky, and they keep using that foundation in all their papers.)


texts: Should PhD students pay out of pocket for their PhD expenses?

texts:
Say a PhD student has a salary paid through a RA/TA or a fellowships but said student has no money for conferences, lab experiments, or to visit another lab for a few months to develop an important part of the thesis.

Should the student pay for these expenses out of his personal money? Is this acceptable, or should the student cut down on the project or change project to accommodate with the budget restrictions?

EDIT: Think of students from small departments and from countries where research money is little to non existent


texts: What to do when PhD approval takes so long?

texts:
I am a PhD student in mathematics in Israel. I still have a couple of years until I graduate, so I am asking this question mostly out of curiosity.

I've recently learned that at least in my university, and at least in mathematics, there is no thesis defense for PhD students. The approval process for a PhD dissertation is very different than the process in the US: Once your advisor decides the thesis is complete, you submit it to the university. A committee (which does NOT include your advisor) then chooses two non-Israeli reviewers, send them the written manuscript and ask them to review it (anonymously). The reviewers send their reports, and then the committee decides whether to approve the thesis. Finally, the university senate should vote to approve the committee's decision, but this is basically a formality.

The main point is that this process is a long one. Once the advisor approves the thesis and it is submitted, the student is no longer considered a PhD student and stops receiving a fellowship. For this reason, most students submit their work in August, near the end of the academic year. However, it can easily take 6 more months for the PhD to be formally approved - the reviewers can pretty much take as long as they like to review the work, and it also takes time for the two committees to convene.

I was wondering if such a process exists in other countries as well. In particular, are American universities aware of the fact that sometimes a PhD graduate will not actually hold a PhD for many months after beginning his postdoc? Does this cause any problems?

Since many Israeli students graduate every year, and many of them find a postdoc in elite American universities, I assume there is no real problem. But I am curious as to how this process works in practice. Will universities in the US let you teach classes and hold the title "Professor" without a formal approval of your PhD?


texts: How to arrange reading for a literature review and writing it?

texts:
I am a studying for a master of management. It is the first time that I will write a thesis.
I found the literature review difficult: I found several articles, but I do not know how I will do next.
Should I read the articles and highlight what seems interesting to me and then re-read them and start writing, or should I read each article and start writing in parallel?


texts: Why do some universities not allow dissertations to be publicly available?

texts:
After reading a comment (now deleted) saying

  My university's policies does not allow me to share my thesis PDF file completely.

I was wondering why some universities do not allow dissertations to be publicly available over the web? (by any means - free or through subscription)

This seems a fundamental right to the students (to share their dissertations) and to the community in general.

Thus, I thought I may get some inputs/examples, from different academic cultures, for possible reasons to not to have dissertations over the web (i.e. top secret?).

Update: The user whose comment prompted this discussion mentioned in a comment on this thread:

  I consulted one of the professors at my university and he told me there is no prohibition on sharing my thesis's PDF file. It was my own mis-understanding of the copyright statement on the copyright page.


texts: How should I address a potential FERPA violation by a professor?

texts:
In the United States, federal law prohibits professors from releasing any student's grades to any party other than the student and any party whom the student authorizes to receive the grades.

One of my professors appears to be violating this law by uploading each student's lab grades in one file, which is accessible to anyone who is enrolled in the class.

Here is my proposed plan of action:

Ask the professor - in private - to post the grades using the online management system the professor already uses for other things.
If the professor doesn't fix this privacy violation, inform the professor that the method by which he/she post grades is a violation of federal law.
As a last resort, contact the department dean.


texts: Suppose one of my papers is published by journal A and I upload it in addition to my university repository B. When people cite this paper, would some cite the paper in A and some the one in B? Or is it ensured somehow that people will only cite the one in the journal?


texts: How to fill application form with no last name?

texts:
I'm trying to fill application forms for colleges in the USA. The last name field is mandatory. My last name field in my passport is empty and all these websites say fill according to passport, but as you can see I can't do that here. The DS-160 FAQs say that in this case I should fill my first name as 'FNU' and my last name with my full given name, 'Arjun Mohan'

Is this the protocol to follow?


texts: How to prepare a presentation if there is a visually impaired person in the audience?

texts:
When preparing a presentation, I usually avoid putting a lot of text and then read the slides. To me, the best presentation contains very good figures with presenter explaining them, and not reading what is already written. Thus, I prefer using little to no text and use only figures if possible.

While I was helping a group of collegues for their project presentation, they mentioned that there is a visually impaired student in the classroom. Although I encouraged them to present the topic using figures and drawings (the topic was very suitable for this), I wonder now whether it is the best practice.

Moreover, I realized that this might also be the case during a conference talk, for which we do not have the prior knowledge of the presence of a visually impaired person.

So, my question is for the ones who have visual disability, who know such people, or who had similar experience. What is the best way to prepare a presentation? What to think and what not to overthink?


texts: Why publish a research paper when a blog post or a lecture slide can have more citation count than a journal paper?

texts:
I am quite surprised to find that a lecture slide for a course has 133 citations from highly reputable researchers across the world. The main contribution of the lecture slides (which seems to be the reason for the citations) appears in 1 line on 1 page of the slide out of 30 slides. (Citation count according to Google Scholar)

Another set of random course notes from lecture 12 of a course just happens to have over 100 citations, Reinforcement Learning and Control - CS229
This 8 page course note has 200 citations, which is more than many of actual research papers
Also, another summary of a blog post (less than 14 pages) has over 700 citations (From the paper: This paper originally appeared as a blog post on 19 January 2016.)

Citation count from Google Scholar. This paper isn't even published anywhere aside from Arxiv.

What is the point of even publishing a paper and going through the painstaking process of peer review and editing if you can just write some blog post or a lecture slide on some hot topic and accumulate citation counts (which is crucial for securing funding, etc.)?


texts:
I am trying to work out if I should release slides for my lectures before or after the actual lectures. I don't think the projectors for the lectures are very good, and I think it would also be nice for students to follow along and also get an idea of the structure of the lecture with slides they can download. On the other hand I'm concerned that having these slides may promote disengagement. The slides are a somewhat cut-down version of the full lecture and won't contain all the details that the live version possesses: this might make the lecture a bit harder to follow along with downloaded slides... but on the other hand it will be clear what details are not going to be included in the downloadable version (so whether or not students need to take notes on such would be clear at the time).

The two approaches are mutually exclusive, so I'm struggling to work out which is the preferred option.


texts: Is it easy to change your major after starting your PhD or masters, if it is necessary?

texts:
I’m a mechanical engineering student and I am about to apply for a PhD.  I am certain about my desire to pursue advanced studies.   However, I have serious doubts in what I want to pursue my studies on.

I have done research on structural health monitoring and power electronics.  At some point I thought that I had interest in electrical engineering and after some research I got interested in mathematical physics and then in applied mathematics.

I started doing undergraduate research when I was a sophomore in the area of structural health monitoring. However my job was to write an algorithm to implement the methodology.     I realize now that what interested me was not structural health monitoring, but to study the origin and derivation of the theoretical equations.  I saw the profiles of various faculty in applied mathematics and I found some of their research interesting.
Doubts about applying:

Although I have a GPA above 3.60 some programs require certain number of courses in mathematics.  I only have the mathematics included in the mechanical engineering program and one course of elementary statistics.  I have taken 5 courses in mathematics.  However I don’t show strength because out of the 5 courses, in 2 of them I got B when I was a freshman.  I think that the taking the elementary statistic course last semester was not a good idea.  I should have taken a more advanced course.
I have not taking any advanced course in mathematics.
The application to the program requires the GRE, TOEFL and subject test in math.  Some graduate programs say that the GRE math are not mandatory but not taking it puts you in disadvantage.  I am not sure I will have time to prepare for it and as a result I don't know if I will do well.
I have research experience, but it is not in this area.  In addition, the reference letters will be made by engineering professors and not math professors.
Since I am about to finish next semester, I don’t have much time to take more courses or do research in the area.

I looked at a few topics that I found interesting in applied mathematics but I haven’t done research in them.  As a result I don’t know if I will get tired or if I will change my mind once I start on the program.  If I were to apply for this program and I change my mind would it be easier to change even if it means going to other department?


texts: Should I use both surnames when addressing a Spanish professor as 'Dr' in an email?

texts:
I'm writing my professor. She has two surnames. So far, I've been using only her first surname; however, I'm curious whether that's, generally, how I should address a professor with two surnames. I don't know whether the addressee's culture affects the answer, but the professor is from Spanish South-America. (I've noticed that some Spanish people use only the first of both last names, but most English people who take two names ask others to use both names.) Also, I don't whether familiarity matters but we communicate frequently enough that I begin my emails with 'Hi Dr...' instead of 'Dear Dr...'.

Thank you


texts: Applying to religion affiliated universities: how to write Statement of contribution to mission

texts:
There is an opening for an assistant professor position at a US university, that I really want to apply to. However, it is a Catholic university and the application requires a "Statement of Contribution to Mission." I have read the university's mission statement which, besides the usual academic missions, includes quite a few religious missions. I am not Christian; in fact, I am an atheist. From the answers to this related question, and that the job posting states clearly Equal Opportunity, I understand that I can still apply to this position. But I have no idea how I should write such a statement. Of course I won't lie in the statement to pretend that I'm Christian. But having no clue and personal connection to those religious values, tradition, and missions, I find it impossible to write even one word.

Is there any suggestion for writing such a statement? Or should I not apply?


texts: The best way to thank my research supervisor?

texts: A few weeks ago, I finished my undergraduate research project. I had 2 supervisors for the project: One supervisor signed off on everything I did and gave me the opportunity to work on the project. He was my official supervisor. The second supervisor oversaw all of my work, assigned tasks, and graded my work. I would like to thank both of them since this was an incredible opportunity, especially when applying to graduate school. I also plan to keep in contact and use them both as references in the future. How should I go about thanking them and what should I say?


texts: What is the role and format of the qualifying exam in CS/ECE programs where the exam is not in the form of a comprehensive written exam?

texts:
I realize there are different forms that a qualifying exam can take in CS / ECE PhD programs.

In departments where this does not take the form of a comprehensive written exam:

What is the role that the qualifying exam fulfills in the PhD program in your department?
What is the approach taken in your department?
What are the perceived advantages / weaknesses of the approach?


texts: In a thesis, which comes first - Abstract or Acknowledgements?

texts:
I am writing my masters thesis now. I saw some theses with the acknowledgement chapter after the abstract, in other cases it's the other way around.

I think the acknowledgement chapter is not related to the scientific work in the thesis, and thus should not be put between the abstract and the introduction. An abstract could be nice in the beginning if we're looking at a paper for example, but for a thesis (usually >80 pages) the reader would have to turn the pages anyway.


texts: Is using the relatives’ friend’s recommendation inappropriate?

texts:
When applying for my postgraduate position, I browsed my future advisor’s web page in detail and surprisingly found that one of my relatives’ friend co-authored a paper with him. Then we reached out to the friend and asked whether he could give me a recommendation. He agreed and gave me a recommendation. Since I used to intern at his lab, the process went quite smoothly. And I got and took the offer.

However, I stupidly posted this process online and omitted some important details myself. Under the question, “how did you get your admission?” I answered using my alias:

  My friend and my relatives’ friend both gave me a strong recommendation to my advisor. And of course, I excelled in the interview. So the connection is very important.

This alias was recognized by someone in the lab and accused me of being “cheating” during the admission. The professor punished me for damaging his reputation and making the lab unstable by spreading the rumor.

I want to figure out whether I was acting inappropriately or not.


texts: How should I include a list of links in my thesis?

texts:
In my thesis, I would like to refer to a set of links. These are tools/calculators/etc. related to my subject, included to show that there is an interest in society at large in this topic.

I'm wondering what the best way would be to include them. Options include:

all (15+) in the running text is cumbersome;
a table with only one column looks just plain weird;
as references [1,3-5,76] breaks the flow of reading, and mixes them up with formal, cited literature sources. I would not suggest that these links are quality sources of anything, their simple existence is the point;
as an appendix diminishes their impact.


texts: How much time do I have after drop out to come back to my country?

texts: I am a full funded international student of PhD grade in US. I like to know if I drop out the study, how much time do I have to stay in US before come back to my country?


texts: Catching small errors in lecture materials

texts:
I'm a Ph.D. student in linguistics and a relatively new course instructor. My understanding of the material is not in doubt. But I'm doing a really poor job of catching small errors. Even when I check my lecture slides afterwards, I don't find them all. Almost every week, I'm having to email my students at least once telling them that diagram X was mislabeled or example Y was in the wrong place or I said something completely backwards. I don't want to end up overapologizing, but I feel like my teaching is unacceptably sloppy. I do put a lot of time and effort into considering/rehearsing how to teach things, and I compare my approaches to materials from several previous instructors of the same courses. This does not seem to have been enough.

I normally take pride in getting details right. Heck, I used to work as a proofreader and built up quite a stellar reputation! I know that teaching a course is a big job and that I have the instincts of a perfectionist. Nonetheless, I'm doing a much poorer job than usual when it comes to getting things right. If I were one of my own students, I think I'd be rolling my eyes at myself by now.

What sorts of strategies do others use in order to catch errors in their own teaching ahead of time? I'm very urgently wanting this to be less of a problem. There's no need for these little disruptions and I'm irritated with myself for confusing my students so much.

Thank you!


texts: Style guide for academic conference talks

texts:
Is there a comprehensive style guide aimed at academic slideshow-type talks?  Googling has given me random style suggestions from various sources of dubious credibility. Most give obvious information, like opt for effective pictures over text.  Most seem aimed at business presentations, so might compare the virtues of pie charts and bar graphs.

The issue that sent me finally looking for a style guide is looking for the best practices on "uncovering" information on a slide piecemeal.  Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't, but I've never used a thoughtful decision process.  I would appreciate suggestions about this in particular.

You can, of course, avoid "uncovering" just by putting the uncovered information on its own later slide.  So related to uncovering, I'm also interested in ideas about when two pieces of information should be separated into different slides or when it is best to put them on the same slide.

If one exists, I'd like a reference made by an organization known for this sort of thing, e.g. something like AP, MLA, a university committee, or an discipline-specific academic organization.  I'm also interested in the general thoughts of practicing academics, whose credibility will be clear from their experience and from upvoting of their answers.


texts: How to "keep in touch" with a potential advisor?

texts:
I contacted a professor by email in order to introduce myself to him and ask for a research position in his group at some point in the future. He expressed interest in me, but, when we finished our email discussions, he said "keep in touch."

I'm confused about what this means. Specifically, I mean, what should I talk to him about prior to me getting any kind of offer, etc.? How often should I contact him? Basically, I would like to know:

  How do I "keep in touch" with a potential advisor prior to getting any kind of research offer?


texts: Is it OK to have one of my letters of recommendation written by a Postdoc?

texts:
I am a Master's student in Mathematics who is planning to apply to a PhD program.

During my research I have been closely working with a Postdoc of my advisor, who is now leaving for another Postdoc position in Europe, and it is not likely he will have a permanent position by the time I need to send the recommendation letters.

Would having him write one of 3 letters of recommendation put me at a significant disadvantage comparing to a case where the author of said letter is a tenured professor who is however less familiar with my research abilities (e.g someone I have taken a course with, or someone who has read my thesis/papers but haven't had significant interaction with me in person)?


texts: Health aspects of White board vs black board

texts:
I am wondering about the health aspects of black boards and white boards.

Black boards have now been around for centuries. Their only detrimental health effect is the chalk dust. Some senior colleagues tell me that they are having breathing issues after several years of teaching. Then again, it's just chalk, which is chemically fairly well-understood.

White boards are a rather recent fad in academia. They do not -seem- to produce dust as much as blackboards, but nevertheless there is a mess over time with ink dripping down onto the floor, and you need replace the erasers regularly. Last but not least, I have no clue about the ink used in those pens and their health effects.

Do you have practical advice how to handle black boards and white boards, and do you know about medical research about them?


texts: What is the point in publishing a paper in a workshop rather than in a conference?

texts:
At first glance seems more interesting to submit your work to a conference, but a lot of people are still interested in workshops.
Which is their motivation?

I have also heard that to use your new material in a workshop paper is "a waste". How true is that?

Which are your criteria to choose your paper target?

Thank you.