texts: How do I politely and concisely ask for an external reference? And how long should I wait on a non-response before moving on?

texts:
For two fellowship applications, I need to ask an external referee, so an academic I don't know or don't know well, to independently evaluate my research proposal and background. I'm working on designing an e-mail to this effect, and was wondering if anyone had any thoughts or suggestions on the below? Secondly, how long should I wait with no response before asking someone else? (First deadline is Aug. 13.)
Thanks!

Dear Dr. X,
My  name is X -- I'm a PhD candidate in X at X where my research focuses on [insert 10 words or so]. I hope this message finds you well.
I'm in the process of developing two fellowship applications (X and X) that would allow me to work with X at the University of X on a project related to [insert 10 words or so]. I'm writing to ask whether you might  consider writing a reference letter as an arm's-length referee (i.e., no  professional affiliation with applicant or proposed supervisor) as part of these two applications. With some slight variation, referees are asked to evaluate the applicant's [lists couple things]. Accordingly, with some minor changes, the same letter could  be used for both applications.
I  would be thrilled to have your participation as a referee not least because of your long-standing expertise in and contributions to my current and proposed areas of research. From [article name] to [article name], your work has helped inform my understanding of issues integral to my emerging research agenda such as [X, X, and X]. For that reason, I believe that you may be especially well-placed to comment on the potential contributions of my proposed study and my research background broadly. Simply for your reference, the deadlines for these letters are X and X.
If this might be something you’re available and open to take on right now, I would be delighted to send you my research proposal and CV for your further consideration.
Thank you very much for your time,


texts: Should I send my mediocre test scores if it's not compulsory to do so?

texts: I want to apply for a scholarship, but my TOEFL score is 81 and I think it is not good enough. Sending language proficiency scores is not compulsory for scholarship application but it is encouraged. I am indecisive to send it. What is your idea?


texts: How to cite information obtained from Google Maps Area Calculator Tool?

texts:
In my research, I measured an area with the aid of Google Maps Area Calculator Tool.

How should I site the information I have obtained. And what should I include? Should I include a screen-shot of it? Does the app let us export a picture of the area we want? Can I cite it with software like EndNote?


texts: Is it unethical to edit grammatical errors in a letter of recommendation?

texts: I have worked at a processing facility for three years as the head of the shipping department. Last week, when my time with the company came to a close, my supervisor wrote a letter of recommendation and asked me to refer any future employers to him. He assured me that he would give them glowing reviews, etc. I'm very appreciative of his kindness and his generosity, but there are three or four grammatical errors in the letter. Is it unethical to edit those errors? Would it be considered "edgy"? It's nothing but awkwardly placed commas and a single typo.


texts: Applying to a PhD with a weak masters thesis

texts:
I am working on my masters thesis which is the first time that I have ever really taken part in research activities. Throughout the experience I have learned a lot and I think that I would like to pursue a PhD in the field that I am currently working in right now. However, I feel that when all is said and done with my masters thesis, the end product will not be that great. There are a number of factors that I think contribute to this - the first being that it's my first time doing original research and second I am the first student of my supervisor, so we are experiencing the student-supervisor relationship both for the first time. But given that, I think it is primarily a function of my introduction to research. A similar analogy would be a first year undergraduate student that doesn't do well, but finds their groove in the last couple years of the program.

My concern, however, is that if I produce a low quality thesis that I might actually be disadvantaged compared to a recently graduated undergraduate student. For example, my undergrad/grad GPA's were (3.5/3.8) and assume that the undergraduate also had a GPA of 3.5-3.8, but I can foresee that a committee might view my weak thesis as an inability to do research in contrast to the undergraduate does not have any published research either, but doesn't show signs of being a "weak researcher" by nature of not having done any.

So the question really becomes whether or not somebodies MSc experience is a good predictor of how they would fair out as a PhD student, and whether somebody applying to a program with an MSc can actually be disadvantaged.

Edit: Perhaps mentioning my perspective on the MSc experience in my SOP might be of benefit? Unless, all of this might be moot if entrance committees might not even read your MSc thesis.


texts: What advice would you give students applying for graduate school in mathematics?

texts:
I work in the mathematics department of a university that has a new, small, mathematics bachelor's degree program, and no graduate mathematics programs.  Some of our students are looking for advice on how to successfully apply for graduate school.  I don't know what to tell them.  Everyone in my department (myself included) applied to graduate school so long ago that I think our advice may not be relevant.  I don't think anyone else who works for my university knows more than my department colleagues do.

What are good things for students at a small school to do to get into graduate school in mathematics?  In particular, what are some things that might not be obvious to mathematics professors who've been out of graduate school for a few decades?

EDIT: In response to this question being put on hold for being "too broad", here is my modified question: What advice would you give students applying for graduate school in mathematics in 2014 that you would not have given them a decade or two ago? In other words, how would the advice differ?  I am thinking both about what students have to do as undergrads and about the application process itself (which I assume is done online nowadays).


texts: What to do with research results while being in high school?

texts:
I have written a math paper on combinatorics (a generalization of a math olympiad problem) and am looking to get it published. I believe I have discovered something new (although I don't claim it is "important" in the sense of being a breakthrough or anything) and want to get credit for it. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find anyone to endorse me to publish on arxiv, so I'm trying to get it published in another (less popular) repository that doesn't need endorsement.

Any suggestions? Things I have looked at so far:

academia.edu - apparently this isn't safe enough for protecting your work.
hal archives ouvertes - I tried searching about this one but there's no information regarding how trustworthy it is, etc.
github - this seems to be for computer science.
vixra - looked promising at first considering the "everything gets accepted" rule, but then the downside is that people have started viewing it as an arxiv for crackpots, so it doesn't seem like a good idea to publish there, but this being my first paper I'm not so sure.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this and any advice you can give.

Note: I'm not prepared to send my paper to any journals so that is out of the question at the moment.


texts: The meaning of "if any" in journal print charges description

texts:
I saw the following in a journal homepage at  http://www.pphmj.com/journals/jpanta_author_information.htm

  Print Charges:
  To defray the publication cost, authors are requested to arrange print charges of their accepted papers at the rate of US$ 40 per page from their institutions/research grants, if any.

I don't understand the meaning of if any in the above sentences. I have a paper with no grant. Should I pay any thing?


texts:
I would like to follow articles that cite several researchers in my field.
I created a google scholar alert on those researchers, however, I'm getting around 70 emails per week and most of them contain duplications (if the same article cites two of the researchers, I'll get two emails).

I would be happy to hear about a way to filter the duplication. Some possible approaches:

A way to export those alerts into google spreadsheet automatically.
A way to parse those emails using python or other tools.
A different tool that gives a list of recent papers that relate to those researchers (e.g., using Zotero or Mendeley)

(Parseur.com did not work for those emails, for some reason).

Many thanks!


texts: When applying to graduate school, is it a good idea to email professors to express interest in joining their research labs?

texts: I live in US and I am applying to graduate school.I wonder if it is a good idea to send an email to graduate school professors and mention that you like their research and would like to join their research labs?


texts: Good questions for a student-advisor compatibility test

texts:
There are online a good amount of tests aimed to assess "compatibility" between two persons in a given life or work commitment situation; for instance, between coworkers, roommates, lovers, dungeons'n'dragons players.

Basically, the idea is asking questions to which there is no true correct answer, but different possible viewpoints based on personality, opinions and general attitude. Two people can check easily if they are on the same page on a number of controversial points, and early discussion helps identifying possible reasons for disagreement.

It would be interesting to come up with similar questions for the phd student/advisor relationship. For example,

  A good advisor should:

  a. provide detailed guidance and tell their student what to investigate in great detail, even on a day-by-day basis.

  b. leave their student free to choose their work agenda, but arrange regular meetings to check on their status and make sure they don't go astray.

  c. give their student a problem and tell them to come back when they have an interesting result, even if it is months later.

I would like to gather several specific questions of this kind as answers to a community wiki question.


texts: Conference presentation of a weak paper to an expert audience.

texts:
As a part of my research project, I am almost finished a first paper. I was proud of myself because of the contributions: I was able to take some ideas that has been used in the field for some years now, and I provided a unified point of view. However, as it turned out, some of those results had been already obtained before. Nevertheless, this results seems to be unknown yet in the community of the field.

A very important conference is coming up, in which the main leaders on the topic will be present. My supervisor wants me to give a talk about my results in this event. Given the fact that a few of these results had been already obtained (and of course, I am not taking credit for this), the paper with only my contributions (discarding what was done before) is not a strong paper. Although my supervisor thinks it is OK, I am afraid that giving this talk in front of these experts will result in them not taking me seriously as a researcher in the future. What are your thoughts on that?


texts: Results Presented in Conferences and Their Publication

texts:
I'm planning to go a large Earth Science conference (couple thousand attendees expected) that does not result in refereed publications. Some other fields (like Computer Science) have conferences that result in publications, but I'm in Earth Science and it's extremely rare our conferences result in publications. Only journal publications really count.

Questions:

As a student, I have unpublished results that I wish to obtain feedback/input on from experts in the field. But if I present unpublished results, what's to stop someone from stealing my work and publishing it in a journal?
For a different project I'm working on, I published my results in a paper, but I wish to obtain feedback for further work. However, when I submit a conference abstract, I need specify what percentage has been presented or published elsewhere. I hear that if 100% is specified, the abstract will likely be rejected. So it seems presenting published results is unfeasible, while presenting unpublished results is risky (Question 1). So now I'm confused: what do most researchers do?


texts: List dollar amount of small grants on C.V.?

texts:
This is related to this question, but I don't believe a duplicate since the dollar amount there was impressive, whereas mine are not.

I have been awarded several intra-University small grants ($2-4k each), about one a year, during my Ph.D.  These were funds to cover research expenses, rather than to cover my stipend, and I believe I've used them productively.

Should I list the dollar amounts of these on my C.V.?  On the one hand, listing them shows they're not just honorary amounts.  On the other, the amounts are not enormous either, and there are all the usual disadvantages of listing (setting the wrong tone, etc.).  Plus it just makes me a little uneasy.

Background here is: headed into a soft money position eventually, and my stipend is fully covered without conditions, so I've had no need to apply for any of the big extramural grants.


texts: Status of "Reviews Completed" in a springer journal

texts: We had submitted to a springer journal (field: Bioinformatics). Two reviewers reviewed the paper and both strongly and unequivocally recommended publication after a few minor changes, e.g., grammatical, a few small clarifications and change of background colors (from black to white for printing purposes). The editor seemed to be very happy about the reviews as well. However, in the tracking site it displayed 'Major Revision' probably as a norm - though frankly there was nothing major in the suggested revisions and both reviewers actually used the term 'minor' in their reports ! It took us no more than two days to do all suggested changes and resubmit. The second round of review has now taken little more than a month, out of which the status was 'under review' for last two weeks and 'Reviews Completed' from last two days. I have never encountered this status before elsewhere so wonder what it means ! Is it similar to 'Pending decision' or indicative of something more than that ? This is my first communication as a corresponding author, so, not to mention, am a bit tensed.


texts: We want to start working in a new research direction. How to proceed as the first student in the group?

texts:
I'm a graduate (Master's) student in Engineering/Applied Physics (EE, specifically). A few months ago when I wanted to choose my specific research topic, my advisor got especially interested in one of my suggestions and, even though no one in our department had worked on that topic before, she insisted that I pick this as my dissertation topic (I think because of the novelty and hotness of the topic, besides my own interest). She told me that, starting the next year, she will ask the new students to work on this same topic. I accepted and started my studies.

Now since it's my first experience doing research as a member of a research group, I'm a little confused about how we (the group) should proceed about starting a whole new research direction. There are some new basic materials (like unfamiliar/unconventional math and physics for EE students) that are actually needed to be learned, besides the leading-edge research papers.

From my own perspective, this is my dream topic to work on as I'm going to get back into serious Physics after some unpleasant engineering years, and I think in long-term this is going to be great for me as a researcher, as I'm getting familiar with a field while still being in its dawn. For PhD, I'm planning to move to one of the leading research groups in the field. What are some advice for me, as the first student working on this new topic in the group with no one having any prior experience in it, to make the best outcome in short-term (publications, PhD admissions) and therefore being able to prove my competence in research?

(Also as a side-question, from the group's perspective: How do research groups, especially small ones, embark on a new research direction? Does it start with an enthusiastic student convincing the advisor to start working on the topic, or with an interested professor finding a enthusiastic student? What are the student's and the advisor's responsibilities in each case, as both have near zero experience in the field?)


texts: Going to study PhD abroad with weak economic backing?

texts:
I really desire to go study Ph.D. in the United States and my resume is good enough to secure a scholarship in the designated university, which it will grant full tuition and fees and will give me a small stipend.

But my economic situation is a mess and I'm currently living in a third world country which highest salaries here are equal to $200. I'm also married.

I'm horrified right now and I have no Idea what to do. Can we live there without any self-funding?


texts: Dealing with a PhD student reneging on an agreement to appear in social media

texts:
Inspired by this question, I have a similar but somehow different problem.

I recently assumed a tenure-track position. One of my strategies for a visible start is to have a strong presence in social media. We have a youtube channel in which students regularly explain their achievements. Or sometimes we post short educational materials. We also prepare brief videos for each publication as some publishers promote the videos.

However, one of my PhD students refuse to cooperate. I specifically asked him in the interview (both video chat and email questionnaire) if he is willing and ready to prepare such video materials for the group, and he firmly answered YES. Now, he claims it is not part of the job description for a PhD.

I first preferred to ignore this conflict, but now other students are reluctant to do so. Now it is more a matter of my authority.

Since I am new, I do not want to take the case to the department head or other officials.


texts: How is feedback process done after submitting an article to arXiv?

texts:
Another arXiv related question...

In several posts I have seen people talking about getting feedback after submitting article to arXiv

I have never submitted anything to arXiv before, so I have no clue how this is done. Is this just an informal procedure whereby other researchers in your field email you about your article?

Or is there a formal feedback process submitted through arXiv? Is this for available for public viewing or discussion?

How exactly is this done? Thanks!


texts: Is it reasonable for a new PhD student to take a week to read two papers?

texts:
I have just started my PhD (first semester) in electrical engineering and my adviser is concerned with my progress. My supervisor requires me to present at least one paper every three days. How do I go about handling that? Reading one paper in only three days is a struggle, and most of the time I don't do that well on the presentations, as it is hard to remember the details of the paper.

What is the normal pace of reading research articles when you are new to the field?


texts: How to gain research experience after master program?

texts:
I just finished an MBA in the UK. It included a research dissertation (about 18,000 words) and a research methods module and adviser to go with it. However, my adviser made it clear during my research that it was my project and my responsibility and not his. It was clear that he was happy to mark my dissertation but didn't want to be bothered by actually helping me to learn much about research.

In the end, I did the research on my own and got distinction on the paper, which I was happy about. However, now I'm thinking more and more about pursuing a PhD, perhaps in intercultural management, and I feel like a highly respectable school would not consider me because I do not have much research experience.

So, my question is: What can I do  to gain research experience, now that I've finished my MBA, with an eye towards getting into a good school for a PhD?

As I have read, publications will help a lot but I feel like I don't have the experience to do the kind of research to get into a good publications. I really think I need to build my research skills...and would like to know how to do that.

Another related problems is when doing business research (I get the feeling most people here are from the science/math side of academia) is gaining access to companies (to gather data) and I'm not sure how to do that without an adviser.

I have read this, this, and this question but I think my question is different from each of them.


texts: Asking my advisor about our lab’s funding situation

texts:
It seems like funding in the lab in which I am working is getting tight. Since I usually end up spending a fair amount of said funding to buy supplies for the lab and my coworkers, it’d be nice to have an accurate picture of the lab’s financial situation so that I can make more informed decisions.

I’ve pretty directly indicated to my adviser that I’m interested in more details about how the funding situation in the lab is, but it seems my adviser doesn’t want to talk about it. On the couple cases I’ve mentioned it, they’ve avoided directly talking about it or have given me very vague and not very useful responses. I'm sure there's always a great deal of uncertainty in the future of the funding situation, but it would feel helpful to know where we stand at the present moment if nothing else.

I’m currently self-funded, so I’m not particularly concerned about losing my job or anything. I’m sure my adviser would tell me before things got too crazy bad, but I’d just rather not be so in the dark about these things. How unusual is it for advisers to hide this info from their students? Would it be appropriate / inappropriate for me to push further? I realize that funding is probably a somewhat sore and frustrating subject for many professors.


texts: Are reviewers allowed to discuss their review with each other?

texts:
Suppose you find out that someone you know well or work with is reviewing the same journal paper you are reviewing (i.e., finding out this information on your own, and not via the journal or editor, assuming a blind process).

Can you discuss the paper? Can you discuss your reviews?


texts: Is it a good practice to point out errors (politely) in a previously published paper in a review response

texts: Is it a good practice to point out errors (politely) in a previously published paper (from which I have borrowed idea) if the reviewers explicitly asks to do so in a review response. I mean the reviewer has asked "why you have made this strong assumption, this was something weak in the published paper". In this situation, I think I have no option other than pointing out the errors for which I have enough mathematical evidence, I even asked the author of the published paper about that, he also agreed about that.


texts: How can I clear myself of emotional attachment when reading reviewer feedback?

texts:
I have received feedback from reviewers on my latest conference paper (this is in Computer Science).
It was an acceptance, which is nice.

I feel I really need to consider in depth the reviewer feedback.

I have consciously noticed I have a emotional reaction.
Which is not rational, practical, or useful.

How can I clear myself from it, and handle the review on a factual basis?

Is it better to sleep on it? Perhaps it would help to strip the acceptance from it. Or maybe to rewrite it in my words as if I were reviewing the paper?

Overall I guess I should feel happy, but of course the written reviewer feedback only points at the weaknesses in the work. Which is reasonable, since they can indicate it was generally good with their accept statement. (At the end of the day, an accept is an accept, right?)


texts: How to decide which recommender to ask for LOR?

texts:
I have found a few similar questions on this issue, but none that have solved my dilemma.

I am currently applying to PhD programs (US, natural sciences). I need three letters of recommendation for most programs. I have already decided to ask an advisor I spent a summer doing research with, and my current research advisor (I've only completed the research proposal so far, but I've had several classes with her as well and she knows me well.)

For my final recommendation, I'm trying to decide whether to ask my academic advisor or my supervisor from my industry job.
I've had many classes with my advisor, and discussed my plans to go to grad school with him. I think he would write me a very positive letter, but would probably say things that are similar to what my current research advisor would say.

I've worked at my current job which is related to the field I'm going into for only about 5 months now (3.5 months full time, the rest part time). In that time though, I've gone above the duties expected for interns because I am a fast learner. I also worked overtime almost every week while I was working full-time, was asked to give a presentation to the whole company at a monthly meeting (usually only supervisors give these presentations), and have helped to train new employees. I feel that I would get a very positive LOR, but I worry that admissions committees will not be interested because my recommender only has a BS degree and my job is not research-based.


texts: Is it a faux pas to offer a favor to a professor who has written you a letter of recommendation / served as a reference?

texts:
I have a long and very good relationship with a previous professor of mine. I took two of his/her courses in college, got A+'s in both, and spent hours chatting with him/her on various academic topics even outside the scope of those classes. In addition, he/she has written me two letters of recommendation, both of which have served me very well in my career, and functioned as a reference for several jobs I've applied for (and for all of which I was given an offer).

This professor recently again agreed to function as a reference for a job application, and in our email exchanged asked me if I could recommend any resources for him/her to use when making a new website. I provided said resources, and also offered to make the site for him/her if they wished (I have several years of experience as a full stack web developer and would be able to make them a high quality site in a relatively short amount of time).

My question is this: did I put this professor in an awkward situation by offering to make the website for him/her? I understand that writing letters of recommendation and serving as a reference is an expected part of a professor's job, and I am worried that by offering my services free of charge, I may be putting the professor in a potentially questionable ethical position (i.e. making it look like writing me a letter of rec was a quid pro quo). Of course, the reality is that I'm just happy to help someone whom I greatly respect and consider a friend, but I'm worried that it may not be perceived as such.


texts:
In my thesis I have several photographs, which have captions in the form of

Photograph of building X, taken on date by the author of this thesis

Citations to referenced papers follow the [1] (BibTeX plain) format. My supervisor suggested to cite my own photos by using the following caption format:

Building X (my name, year)

This however follows a different reference style (APA style) and may be confused with a reference to a paper. What are the recommended styles to follow for own made photographs while making sure that I am the actual producer of the photos (as I've seen theses that commonly take photographs from other sources without actually referencing the source)?


texts: Ideal contents of a reference letter for PhDs seeking industry jobs

texts: The majority of PhD holders do not stay on in academia, but rather move on to jobs in industry far away from the area of their PhDs. Given that the content of the PhD is not directly relevant (the common wisdom is that a PhD holder has "learned how to learn"), what should one include in reference letters for an academic applying for industry jobs? What qualities are those in industry looking for? Does the answer vary for newly minted PhDs vs more experienced researchers?


texts: My research paper filed as a patent in China by my Chinese supervisor without me as inventor

texts:
I completed my PhD 3 years ago from a university in the UK. Today I was looking for some papers in google scholar. I found a patent in China. The patent was written in Chinese however, all diagrams/figures and equations were exactly same as one of my PhD research papers, which was also part of my PhD thesis.

I translated Chinese text to English I found that work is exactly....same as my PhD thesis and research paper. My research paper was published 1 year before the patent was filed. When I translated the inventors name. I found one of the inventors is my PhD supervisor, who is Chinese but works in a UK university. I couldn't believe it. This patent was filed by a power company in China with my PhD supervisor as one of the inventors.

I am fully aware that the research paper is an open source idea anybody can use it. However, this is the case of copyright infringement. I have full right on text, diagrams, figure and tables in my research paper and my PhD thesis. They have copy-pasted diagrams as well. These diagrams are scientific diagrams nobody can reproduce them without the data.

Now, I am not sure, where should I complain?

should I first confront my supervisor directly as he is one of the inventors? or
complain to the university, because if this paper is a patent then only the university has first right over it before a power company in China. I never gave any consent to sell my research work or file a patent of my work without me being the inventor.
Another issue is that I did research at a UK university. This patent is filed in China. What actions I can take?


texts: Advice for a career in healthcare management

texts:
I have a bachelor's degree in Applied Nutrition and Dietetics and an MBA from a AACSB accredited university. I have about four years of work experience in the field of healthcare management. I have worked in corporate (pharmaceutical) and government (health) sectors. I am interested to further my education to sharpen skills specific to healthcare management. Is it a right career choice to go for a second Master's degree in Healthcare Administration (MHA)? or is it advisable to go for a Ph.D program in healthcare management? What would be the pluses and minuses of getting a second Master's degree (MHA) after MBA in terms of more employ-ability?
Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!


texts: Which is better for PhD application: research-based BS thesis somewhat related to interests, or extra courses + standard thesis in area of interest?

texts:
I am studying applied math. My bachelor's thesis is coming up next semester and I've got a dilemma.

I was originally planning to do a standard project (most of them seem very soft to be honest) and then take an extra course (I got permission to take a PHD level course in information theory) or two simultaneously.

But then a project involving a fairly novel part of control theory popped up, novel enough that it might be possible to get something interesting published from the project. It seemed like a fairly interesting problem and the possibility of co-authoring a paper at this stage is very appealing as I have an eye on a PHD after my masters degree.

Control theory itself doesn't interest me that much, but the tangential mathematical subjects do (optimization, algorithms, information theory, etc). The problem is that it's probably going to be a lot more time consuming than a normal project and I don't know if I'd benefit more from it than just taking another course in an area I'm actually interested in.

I'm nervous it's going to be a stressful spring without much to show for it if we don't manage to get any interesting results at all. On the other hand, I suppose any research experience is positive even if it's not in my main interest area.

So, the question is: for a PhD application, should I complete a research-based thesis tangentially related to areas of interest, or normal thesis focused on my areas of interest plus additional courses in my areas of interest?

(edit: I'd probably drop a PDE course in favor of this project)


texts: Ws on transcript affecting admission to engineering masters?

texts:
I have a 3.67 GPA at Rutgers in Materials Engineering and I plan on going to UConn for a masters in Mechanical Engineering since my job after graduation is more aerospace and mechanical engineering ( I am working for Pratt & Whitney) and I am more interested in the crossovers between MechE and MSE. However I have some W's on my transcript. One was a Matlab course my freshmen year I took that I hated and dropped a week after the withdrawal deadline (wasn't needed for my major). Another was during my junior year when I did a full time internship and this was an elective in industrial engineering for systems and reliability engineering. The course was in the evening but at a horrible time after work and I disliked it by the middle of the semester and I didn't have an interest in the material anyway. I also withdrew from 2 major classes because of courseload problems one semester my senior year but I took them the next semester and got an A in both. I dropped a graduate level MSE class in thermo recently because the course subject matter was dry (I don't like phase diagrams and chemical thermo too much) so I dropped it; I took the class originally to see if I would like MSE at the graduate level despite my career path moving towards mechanical engineering just to get a feel for things.
I anticipate doing well on the GRE and I can have many letters of recommendation.
Will these W's hurt my chances of being accepted into the UConn engineering masters program?


texts: Accessing scientific research papers post university

texts:
As part of my coping mechanism for leaving university and accepting the inevitable loss of scientific knowledge post university, I am considering subscribing to a scientific journal so that I can continue to learn and not completely lose touch.

However, there is not much on how I should best approach this. How does one chose the best journal? There are many out there and the subscriptions are not that clear on how they work.

I’ve looked online and some websites quote figures of over £1000 a year which is not feasible.

  So what is the best way to access scientific research (i) online and (ii) in hard-copy form as an individual with no affiliation to an institute.


texts: How can I pass my PhD thesis defense when nothing has been successful?

texts:
For reasons I had very little influence on, most of the projects I participated in over the course of my PhD did not produce reasonable results. I managed to get involved in small side projects and publish at least something, but those are not very novel in itself and not "on the edge of knowledge".
The edge of knowledge I pushed is what could go wrong when you are a lone representative of a "service science" in a collaboration, who is asked for input in the beginning, but later overthrown. And in the end, we look at the data together and establish we can't do what we wanted with it. And part of the problem is in fact that my input was not that valued by decision makers.
This take-home message is more of a meta-topic and for sure not the main result of my thesis though.

In my thesis, I will (with a heavy heart) go through those projects and discuss them. Discuss what happened, what we did and what we should have done and could have done. This writing process is a very hard piece of work to do and is taking a toll on me right now. But I am doing it and trying to detach myself from the thoughts of how these failures could end up killing my dreams of an academic career.

In my defense, I am supposed to paint a picture-perfect representation of at least one major project. I don't have any options for this. I got caught in doing small "services" to help my collaborators and starting new projects ("we will do better this time") which always ran into a roadblock (mostly before I even got significantly involved).

I do not want to whine about science in my defense. I do not want to explain what went wrong, to the people who did it sitting in the room with a plan to cheer me through my presentation. But what can I do?
People usually find one "example" of what they did that worked out well and then "blow this up" to be the main point of their defense, while it might only be a small part of the work they did over the years. But I cannot find a single interesting topic with nice results. They are either trivial or failed.

Has anybody done a "fully failed" PhD defense ... and passed? How would one do this?


texts: Should limitations of a methodology with proposed solutions be discussed in the Limitations Section?

texts:
My methodology is online ethnography. This methodology has certain limitations such as identity play, falsification, and artificiality of data.
However, its proponents have suggested some strategies for coping with these limitations and my study is based on them.

I am confused because I think the limitations section is concerned with limitations of a study that were not solved or accounted for, and that are to be avoided in future research.

So, should I discuss these limitations, that have alternative approaches or proposed solutions, in the limitations section?
Thank you


texts: Significant new developments since rejected paper -- do I still try to publish the original one?

texts:
I'm working on a topic in engineering and submit a paper to a journal about 6 months ago (which I also posted on ArXiV).  The paper was recently rejected.  Since the original submission, I've made significant progress on the problem, and I've written that progress and additional developments, into another paper which I plan to submit to a conference at the end of the month.  I had originally been planning to cite the earlier paper, but in fact a lot of what was in the original paper is made essentially obsolete by my new developments.
To try to summarize the situation: paper 1 does "X and Y", is on ArXiV, and was rejected by a journal.  Paper 2 does "X++ and Z", and I'm planning to submit this to a conference soon.  Content "Y" is not significant enough to be it's own paper, but contains some important information that needs to be referred to in order for "Z" to make sense.
Should I still try to publish the original paper somewhere?  Should I combine that paper with the new developments and publish that (i.e., publish "X++, Y, and Z")?  Or, should I just leave the original one standing on ArXiV and forget about getting it through peer review?


texts: Is it okay to talk about a topic you want to research in but haven't done anything beforehand in your sop?

texts:
Background
I am writing my sop for PhD Admissions. (Currently an undergraduate)
I want to mention a prof's name because I am really interested in his research but the issue is that I don't have any published work (or pre-prints) in his specific domain of research. I just have one project with very minor novelty.
But, I do have some good work done (around 4 pre-prints, 2 good conference papers, a few good projects) which aligns with his domain in a broad sense.
To clarify,

Profs domain: self-supervised learning
Majority of my papers: Supervised learning

Both are under "Deep Learning for computer vision". Self-supervised learning is category which falls under Supervised Learning.
My question: Would it be okay to mention that "I want to work with him because I am highly interested in his field of work?"


texts: will lack of experience make it impossible to change my subject of study?

texts:
I'm 33 years old and I have my master's in physics from a relatively good university in my country.

I have 6 years working experience as a foreign commercial executive which I hated every minute of it, but I needed to make some money. I have to add that I have visited different factories in different countries during the missions I went.

About two years ago, I resigned and diligently went for learning everything about electronics and microelectronics which were always my desire. Now, I feel quite confident in embedded systems programming and everyday I study so hard whatever related to digital electronics but I have not yet applied for a job in this field.

I know this is what I always wanted.
I have average grades in university and good GRE.

What are my chances to get admission for PhD in electronic engineering in one of US universities?


texts: Evidence for/against practical exams and their "added stress"

texts:
Numerous science course labs (especially anatomy labs) incorporate "practical exams" into their lab assessment. These exams involve having students visit multiple stations containing various visual components (e.g., models or specimens) for short time periods.

Students have to identify or answer questions pertaining to the object at each station in only a few minutes (or less).

Are these types of exams actually good? Specifically, I'm wondering about the added stress component that is associated with these types of exams.

These exams almost always bring about more student stress/anxiety due to a myriad of factors -- is this stress unnecessary or necessary to the practical's utility?

From my own schooling, I feel as though the stress associated with practical exams is positive as it trains you for real world scenarios in which you need to think on your feet. I have heard others, however, state just the opposite: that the stress of answering a question in <1min is not at all realistic and causes undue stress.

I wonder if this is just one of those "well we had to go through it, so so should you" type of things without any actual support?
The department I teach for has "heard the cries of the students", and has continuously tried to make the exams "less stressful." This includes:

Replacing a beeping watch "deemed too stressful" with a calm spoken phrase such as "change" or "move" during station shifts.
Providing clues at stations to focus students that are freaking out and struggling to focus
Providing numerous example test questions and "walk-throughs" prior to exams to prepare the students for what they will see.
Etc.

My Question: is the added stress associated with practical exams both inherent to this exam type and, more importantly, is that added stress pedagogically supported? Alternatively, should we continue to make testing less stressful for students?

I want hard evidence: please answer only with cited materials discussing this topic.

Opinions and anecdotes are welcome, but please save them for the comments or chat only, thanks.


texts: Changing some part of the paper after getting accepted for a conference

texts:
My paper got accepted in an A* CS conference, however, the reviewers criticized several points and suggested many others. They suggested improving the method by adopting and involving other approaches which need implementation and other further evaluations.

I agree with the reviewers on some points and I believe this would make the paper better. Consequently, the paper will be really different from the original submission. Since it is a conference and there are no further review rounds, I am wondering whether I should modify the paper (part of the method, result and maybe conclusion) based on the comments of the reviewers.


texts: As a lecturer, can I use the same problems used in another course in my own course?

texts:
I will be teaching a new course for the first time.
Fortunately,
I found a massive open online course (MOOC) on edX
which is similar to the course that I want to teach.
However, the difficulty of the MOOC is significantly higher than
the level of the students at my institution.
Consequently, I will be teaching
4 basic topics which I will develop own my own,
in addition to 4 topics which I will adapt from the MOOC.

For the 4 topics which are covered both in the MOOC and my course,
I am thinking of using some of the same or similar material
(e.g., ideas + slides + assignments) from the MOOC.
There are two advantage's of this approach:
It will lessen my workload,
but also reduce the chance that something will go wrong.

Are there any (copyright / ethical / other) issues with this?

Edited in response to comments

[Karl] claims that "There's surely nothing wrong with borrowing some problems like you say in your original question, but just using a complete existing course is very low. How big do you think the chances are you will have time next year to put more work into it?"

I have edited my question to make it more clear that
I am adapting the existing MOOC rather than copying wholesale.
However, is there a problem with using very similar material
for the topics which are covered in both the MOOC and my course?
Brian Borchers
mentioned one potential problem which is
"that students can find solutions to the problems in the MOOC and submit them in response to your assignments. Mixing up the sources of your questions is one way to stop this kind of cheating."

To complete the assignments,
I will ask the students to submit both the code as well as the answers.
I could also change some of the problem parameters
so the answers are not found directly in the MOOC.


texts: Should I address an EiC by his given name after he undersigned an email with it?

texts: An EiC very politely answered an enquire of mine via e-mail. He signed with his given name. In case I write to him again, should I keep greeting him as "Prof. [His surname]"? That strikes me as perhaps a little too stiff. On the other hand, calling him by his given name sounds way too familiar to me. What is the etiquette in this type of cases?


texts: Is this a good way to finish a PhD current status conference?

texts:
First of all sorry if I commit any mistake in this question, I read all the instructions but it´s my first one on this useful site:

I am finishing some diapositives for a PhD current status conference, and I thought about these image as the last one:

                                     **Thank you and...**

I know it is a good technique to end a conference by saying something intelligent, funny or nice in order to give the audience one last "good feeling" so a good impression is left, but I don´t want it to be seen as immature.

Thanks in advance to everyone.


texts: Should I discourage using messaging apps for research group communication?

texts:
I've seen a growing trend in later years: graduate students discussing research questions through Facebook or Whatsapp like it was the standard channel to solve all kind of issues (Could you send me script x? Where are the data y? How did you perform analysis z?)

These questions are at center of research reproducibility and I'm worried  using tools as ephemeral as Facebook messenger may cause me headaches in the future. What if the conversations are deleted and later I can't track a important exchange? (or worst case scenario, dig a case of scientific misconduct, like purposefully obscuring the origin of data?). Emails and other utilities like Google forums provide, in my opinion, a better platform to report issues, get them rolling until they are solved, and finally keep a record of the exchange. On the other hand, Facebook Messenger seems linear and messy, unsuited for this kind of purpose.

Maybe I'm getting old too quick, but should I discourage this practice? For instance, by promoting other tools like Google forums. Has anyone had a bad research experience because someone used Facebook or WhatsApp for scientific communication? How did you address the issue?


texts:
I am an undergraduate and am about to begin the last year of my degree. I live in a country with very limited research opportunities for undergraduate students, and wish to gain research experience for a stronger application to universities abroad.
I wish to carry out a study on my own. I do not wish to include any supervisors as the faculty in my college isn't great and I don't trust them to have any valuable inputs. Frankly, including them would delay the process and involve a lot of back-and-forth and awkwardness around telling them I simply don't agree with how they want to do things. I have a couple questions.

Is it possible for me to send a paper for publication if I don't have a degree yet?
Will my research be seen as credible standing by itself with an undergraduate as its sole author, or would you suggest I include a professor's name in it as well?
Is it better if I have other co-authors, such as another peer in my class?

Finally, if anyone has any suggestions for how I could possibly gain research experience, I would appreciate that as well. I cannot approach my supervisors to include me in any research they're carrying out, and there aren't any research labs where I could intern.


texts: Is it possible to get a master's in speech language pathology online or part-time?

texts: I am currently looking into a possible career change as a speech language pathologist. Is it possible to get a masters in SLP online? Or are there any part time programs that would allow me time for work?


texts: Should I post a response to reviewers online?

texts:
I usually spent an incredible amount of time answering the questions raised by reviewers when submitting research manuscripts to a journal. The length of the response is often longer than the paper itself. Such a process, albeit time consuming, has significantly improved the quality of the work.

Since there are many thoughts that can not be delivered in the paper, which are elaborated in the response of the reviewers, I am wondering whether it is good to upload the response online along with the paper? (e.g., research profile page) I think this will benefit the readers but am not sure what might be the consequences resulting from that? Do note that I don't have any clue as to the reviewers' identities.


texts: How to increase my chance for being admitted to a PhD if my MSc is in a different topic?

texts:
I have a MSc degree in Computer Science from a well known university, but the problem is that my degree is, for example in Computer Graphics. Now I would like to study PhD in computer Science, but related to another topic such as Green Computing.

How I can convince the admission committee or the Professor in charge of the research group that I can be a good student in his group?

One friend told me that one important thing is the motivation letter others about the research proposal (which for me is somewhat not so clear, because for what I know one do a research proposal only when one is inside a group)

Any help will be valuable? I have applied to a lot of PhD positions and the frustration is getting higher with each rejection.


texts: What does "contributed paper session" mean?

texts:
It may be a silly question, but what it the general definition of the "contributed paper session" (especially in the mathematics community)? In particular, I am not sure of the following:

If I register for a contributed paper session, can I register with the paper that has already been published before in a journal (I am the author of the paper)?
Can I use my paper that has not been published yet?
Does the title/abstract of such a talk need to be the same as the title/abstract of the paper the talk is based on?
If I am not the only author of the paper, but I am the only speaker at the conference, should I list only myself as the author of the abstract?

These questions came up when I decided that I wanted to give a talk at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Baltimore, 2019.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.


texts: Can a student be a provider of letter of recommendation for research based MS - USA

texts:
I belong to an environment where gaining a valuable/ meaningful Letter of Recommendation (LoR) is difficult. There exist various reasons, from they themselves not being researchers to fake letters; but that is not the region of interest for this question.

I have been working in the industry for couple of years, where I had the opportunity to work with a Masters student. I mentored her, worked on a project, and we have proposed a new algorithm. That is pending a review, but we have put a pre-print on arXiv. A notable thing is, there was no other project guide. I, and my student, we both believe and agree to the fact that I led the project and saw it to the succession, be it the underlying mathematics or drafting a paper.

I am applying to US universities for MS degree in Computer Science. As mentioned above, running out of quality recommendations.

So the question is: will it be considered a quality letter if my student writes it? The thought of doing so occurred to me while reading that, in the application, review committee looks out for the direct proofs that persons is capable of conducting a quality research. I felt that this project is my biggest evident proof.

I already agree that from person to person, the scenario would differ. But objectively, are there solid reasons? Have you witnessed such a case in the past? If yes, did it have a positive impact?


texts: What is the right approach to publish papers in top conferences?

texts:
I am a PhD student works in Algorithms. I am thinking about the research styles of different people. There are are two set of researchers which I have seen

One who solves the problems in cases they work on some leftover cases of other researchers. Their results normally gets published in middle level conferences with lots of effort. For example improving the runtime of other algorithms. They have to understand the previous results deeply and fruits in this side seems less.I have observed that working on small cases is hard and also it is not fruitful many times.
Those who apply techniques in other problems for example, some one gave an algorithm for some graph x problem then they will think if we can solve problem y using the same technique. If they are able to solve it then it will get published in the venue comparable to the work they have used.

If I tell you that I want to be productive and want to publish my results in top conferences like FOCS and SODA which of the method do you think will be more effective? I am asking simply what is the research style of researchers who publish in top venue.


texts: Offer for a pre-PhD visit, how to handle the situation with other PhD applications in the queue?

texts:
I have received an offer to visit a lab for 4/5 months that could lead into a fully funded PhD. In the meantime I have other applications in the pipeline from which I will hear back in either a few weeks or a couple of months (just different educational systems).

I am excited about going to this lab but I want to wait to have all my offers on the table before commiting to a program. Also I am not sure yet if I will be able to develop in this lab the project I have in mind. However the PI of the lab is highly regarded in the field.

If I were to leave the lab I would want to leave in the best note possible not to burn my bridges with this person and institution.

I am sure the PI knows I might have applied elsewhere and also although it is likely that this visit will turn into a PhD there is also a small chance it will not.

What would be the best way to handle this situation in an ethical and correct way, and not disappointed anybody?

PS: I will get paid in this period but not as much as PhD student. Let me know if more information is needed.

EDIT: So apparently by the end of the visit I will present a PhD proposal, so I hope that at that point it will not be too late to answer other offers.


texts: What is a “capstone track” in a Master’s program?

texts:
I've read in this other question:

  The Master's program (Software Engineering) I'm enrolled in offers both a thesis track and capstone track.

I'm somewhat familiar with the overall US academic system, but I've never heard of a “capstone track” before. I web-searched it, and found quite a few institutions that offer it, it seems a sort of more practice-oriented or business-oriented way of completing a given degree. It does not appear to be universal.

So: what is a “capstone track” in general, and how is it different from a Master of Engineering degree?


texts: My professor never answered my email. What should I do?

texts: I'm having trouble submitting an assignment into turnit in and my professor never replied back to my email. The assignment had 3 different parts to it and I was only able to submit one of the parts because I tried to submit them separately instead of together. I asked my professor if I could just email him the other 2 parts of the assignment and he never answered back. I emailed him 4 days ago.


texts: If I notice an error in a figure after manuscript submission, could I be accused of falsification of data during review stage?

texts:
I have submitted a paper to a reputed journal (computer science; computer vision to be specific). While i was keenly waiting for the reviews, they were getting delayed. So I began working on an extension of the work.

During that I realized that one of the qualitative figures in the submitted paper might be slightly wrong (a few pixels yet noticeable) due to miscalculation while generating the image. However, the final interpretation and the description of it in the paper still would not change. But, when I critically view the image I think the reviewer may conclude that it could be photoshopped. I checked on the journal tracking system that the reviews have been received.
My questions are:

(i) I am ready for a rejection, but could such a mistake may lead to public shaming or ban from future publications?

(ii) Would it be advisable to write to the editor that I have found a mistake in the submitted paper and explain that it does not impact the discussion. Or should I wait and correct them in the next version?


texts: Gap Year before Mathematics PhD Programs

texts:
How does the gap year process work for math PhD admissions? For reference I am a student at a top 5 undergrad department in the US, applying to pure math programs. I would like to take a year off before attending a PhD program in mathematics to work in quantitative finance for a bit. My main interest is in Stochastic processes and mathematical analysis, but I doubt this matters for the question I ask.

As far as I see it, I feel like I have two options if I want to take a gap year between now and graduate school.

The first: Apply now, get accepted somewhere, and tell them I am coming next year. (This is also contingent on whether the school even allows me to do this)

The second: apply next year, get accepted and attend like normal.

Now, there are a number of tradeoffs to evaluate. First, if I apply next year, I have more time to take more courses and increase my GPA, giving me a slightly more competitive application. Although I have already registered for the GRE, I would also have more time to study for it in case I don't do as well as I'd like. However, I won't be able to enjoy my senior year of college, because I'd need to not slack off and take demanding courses.

The only issue I have with the above is the uncertainty: I'd have to apply to grad school while out of school, whereas if I applied first and deferred later, I'd have a guaranteed spot, and be able to enjoy my gap year without worrying about applications and the GRE. Also, funding would be weird. I spoke to NSF GRFP people, who said that I can't apply for the fellowship and wait a year to start grad school. I'd instead have to apply the year immediately before I start.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do? My GPA is not the best (3.65, with mathematics GPA 3.73), but I have taken some very challenging classes, and my LORs will all be pretty strong.


texts: Having students grade each other on group projects?

texts: I'm planning to have my students do a group project this semester. What are the pros and cons of having them rate how well their groupmates contributed to the project?


texts: Applying same graduation school with my girlfriend, is it ethical?

texts:
Me and my girlfriend are currently studying in the same university and same department. We both applied couple of master's degree programs abroad.

One of the programs is in both our interest and she already got accepted for that program. I want to apply for the same program too but there is no question regarding your spouse / girlfriend etc. Should I notify the program about this in my application?


texts: Can a PhD student who preps animals for study, but didn't collect data, claim co-authorship?

texts:
I am a Phd student in immunology. I was the first student of my supervisor.  4 months after my arrival to the lab, another phd student started to work with us. We work with samples that we obtain from mice (bone marrow, blood, etc.). My supervisor wanted me to work in breeding, weaning, genotyping and handling (injections etc) our mice for the whole laboratory in addition to my project.

Although it was absolutely fine at the beginning, she did not want the other phd student to do any mouse work for 3.5 years. She told me that it would be considered as co-authorship. But when his paper was submitted, she excluded me even from ackowledgement. My supervisor blamed this on the student as he did not want to write my name. Then later told me it was just a help not a contribution. It is not a piece of data that i can claim in the paper. However, if this work was not done, paper would not be out. What would you advise?


texts: Publishing an idea that came up on a conference?

texts:
Some weeks ago I went to a conference with some of the leading minds in my field of research. One of the speakers (professor A) mentioned a problem that bothered him and that was unsolved up to that point. After the talk (when most had already left the room to get coffee) professor B mentioned a possible algorithm to A to solve these kind of problems (myself and some others followed the discussion with interest).

Out of interest in the topic and motivated by the prospect of a novel algorithm, I spent some time working on this question myself - combined the suggestion of professor B with some of my own ideas and indeed found an algorithm that solves the problem. I can even proof convergence, error bounds, etc. The suggestion of professor B was enough for a working algorithm, but I think that convergence and correctness proofs are only possible with the addition of my ideas.

The question is how to proceed now. If I had thought of the initial idea myself it would be obvious that I should write it up and get it published. As it stands I obviously have to get in touch with professor B (and professor A?) though.

Is it too presumptuous to propose a collaborative paper to professor B? Should I also contact professor A? I can assume that he at least also worked on the same problem these past few weeks...
I could just mention them in the acknowledgment part of the paper - but that would still feel like I stole their idea.

I could just write them, what my ideas are on the topic - but I would feel more comfortable doing so if they already communicated a will to collaborate with me. As it stands they don't even know I worked on the issue...
On the other hand if I write something along the line of "I have found something. If you are willing to collaborate I will share it with you." it feels somewhat like extortion...

Is there some etiquette how to handle this situation or is it just "first come first serve", and I should see that I get the results published? (OK, the latter is definitely rude - but still...)


texts:
One of my papers is online published with volume, issue, and page number. The journal is published by IEEE and SCI-indexed with high impact factor. I need a report from Web-of-Science to obtain the results that indicates that my paper is SCI indexed. But, unfortunately, Web-of-Science does not able to search the paper. The paper is online on October. It is non-trivial to estimate the time.

Possible duplicate: Here

Is there any other way to say that my paper is SCI-indexed?
Any expected time?
Any help from IEEE or Web-of-Science?


texts: Should I mention in a PhD application statement of purpose that I earn a large income from a business I created?

texts:
I am UK national applying for a PhD (microbiology) in the USA. The application process requires a statement of purpose which includes, among other things, a section on recent / current work activities that are relevant to the application.

I am a Master's student and have plenty of relevant details to talk about from an academic perspective (there is a separate section for this), but I also run a successful IT business and the transferable skills that I have learned from this form a core part of my relevant work experience for this section.

To illustrate my motivation and potential for success at graduate level, I was going to mention that I essentially started my business from scratch a few years ago and now earn a six-figure income. However, I am worried that the selection committee might view this unfavorably (talking about income is quite a taboo subject here in the UK), or worse they might question my commitment to a graduate program if they think I have a comfortable job to fall back on.

I should also mention that the PhD program I am applying to is fully-funded, but the cost of living in the area is notoriously high and most grad students have to supplement their income by teaching. I wouldn't need to do this as I have enough savings to be financially secure for the duration of the program.

Should I mention my income to demonstrate my aptitude, or will it do more harm than good?


texts: Do professors ever befriend former students?

texts:
A couple semesters ago I had a professor that had a pretty big impact on my academic career as well as my personal life. Through a series of events the professor came to know this and also come to know a lot about me and I her. We have a lot of common interests despite a shared interest in her subject matter, and we get along in a friendly way with no weird undertones. I'm wondering how common it is for professors to befriend students and in what circumstances they happen under.
It would be lovely to have a professor I could talk to and look up to as I move through grad school.


texts: How to normalize scores of abstracts across different reviewers at an interdisciplinary symposium?

texts:
For an interdisciplinary symposium: is it more fair to the participants to:

Average scores of submitted abstracts across different reviewers?
Estimate the overlap of the scientific domains between a participant and the reviewers, and weight different reviews accordingly? (which may introduce some bias)

(A detailed examination of reviewers is not possible. Reviewers are quite mixed, and come from different domains. Reviewers should be capable to judge most abstracts.)


texts: How can I enter name as author(even after work)in a govt level research without affiliation with an institution?

texts: This question is particularly aimed to target researchers with many years experience in this field.I have done bachelors in Bioinformatics and got an unofficial/voluntary opportunity to work with United nations on a research via local government organization.Although I would be doing the work myself and even document the paper but my superviser says that as I am not affiliated with any institution right now so I cant be put into authors section.But I have heard people work and write papers even after graduation.I want to know how is that done and what am I supposed to write in affiliation part if I want to get the research published.please tell the process in detail.Also, is it possible if I can be associated with thay phd scholar or something without being affiliated with institution?Any information regarding it will be helpful with details please.


texts:
For the purpose of curiosity, I was wondering what set of courses undergraduate math students take if they're on the track to apply for a PhD in Pure Mathematics vs. Applied Mathematics? Let me try to elaborate as best as I can. I mean at my current university, I've known several people who have gone through the track of going for a PhD in Pure Math and they have taken lots of Grad level Math courses and gotten into top US universities for a PhD in Pure Math where research experience in relevant fields is a plus (I think).

But my question is for undergraduate students trying to prepare for a PhD in Applied Math. What sort of coursework do they go through? I mean research experience (I believe) becomes important and taking graduate courses in Pure Mathematics is not so. I do not know much people who went for a PhD in applied math at my school.

I would appreciate it if anyone who can comment on the relevance of pure math grad courses for such students who aspire or strive in applying for a PhD in applied math. Any other comments pertaining to this is welcomed ;)


texts: Were International Students discouraged from applying to the US this year?

texts: This is out of curiously - were there many international applicants were planning to apply to the US this past admissions cycle but chose not to because of the current administration/political climate?


texts: Conference management software (preferably open source) with custom fields

texts:
I've been told to set up software to organize a workshop. Is there (preferably an open source) conference solution that allows for:

Abstract Submission
Event Planning
Arbitrary user data-fields

Apparently managing "dietary requirements" is a really big deal for the organizers.


texts: Should I include salary information on my CV?

texts:
I am about to graduate with a PhD. I have an accomplished advisor (whose advice I value very much) who told me that I should always include the salary of my previous and current job in my CV when applying for jobs.  Her argument is that the academic job market is very competitive and university administrators want to see at first glance how much money you will cost them should they choose to hire you.

I did this without any question several months ago and was able to find a decent job, but I want to get a second opinion on this idea. Many of my peers thought I was crazy for listing pay on my CV, and received the opposite advice from their mentors.

It worked for me this time, but is this standard practice?


texts:
I've successfully defended my bachelor thesis.

After some months I've been curious to see if there are any other thesis with the same topic that I've chosen. I found some that are similar to mine (from previous years at universities from other countries). The topic was about, to test a set of algorithms againts specific input.

Is it bad that my thesis is really similar to these other theses ? Basically the only difference is that, in my thesis I tested the algorithms with different inputs / input sizes, also most of the algorithms that I've chosen matches the algorithms in the other theses, with the exception of 2.


texts: Referencing future ideas in abstract of a research paper

texts: Is it bad to reference ideas which have not yet been defined in detail within the abstract for a research paper? For example, if I have a section (lets say section 4) in my paper that defines a new concept such as "The Quadrilateral Optimization", within my abstract, would it be acceptable to write "The Quadrilateral Optimization (§4) excels specifically with points that are randomly generated."


texts: How might being disciplined for participating in a non-violent protest on a public college affect my academic career?

texts:
I go to a government-owned school that has certain policies regarding a student's speech, namely:

That speech shall not be discriminatory/offensive.
That on-campus protests take place only at a "Hyde Park" location in the student center.

Suppose I decide to form a protest and violate rule #2, and perhaps unintentionally violate rule #1, incurring a disciplinary action of record. How would my doing so affect my ability to pursue a degree at a different school?


texts: How often to meet for successful supervision of Master theses?

texts:
Currently, I am in the process of finishing my PhD and starting a PostDoc position. Part of this position will be the supervision of Master theses.

I have little teaching experience, and no supervising experience except for "passive" experiences of being supervised myself when writing a Master's thesis myself. An added difficulty is that my workplace and the university where the students are studying are 150 km / 2 hour train ride apart, so I can't just have "open office doors" and meetings have to be pre-arranged.

What frequencies of meetings with students under supervision do you find helpful or too much? This will surely depend on the student, but how do I figure out what is right for a student I have never met before?


texts: What scale should I use to measure the test results for my research?

texts:
I posted this question in the Stack Exchange for Statistics last night and so far, no one has answered yet. Please read and tell me if there's any other tag I can use for my question.

I would like to know what statistical tool I can use for my research. I am a student of Bachelor of Arts in English. I am proposing research topics, which require me to give my respondents grammar and vocabulary tests. Both tests have 25 items and the passing score is 50%. My professor requires me to have a scale for the test results. She said that it is "Any statistical tool that you can use and fits your study."

The topics I'm proposing, which require tests, are the following:
1. A Comparative Analysis of Grammar Competence between "a school I will not name" 12th Grade Students Who Watch Lucifer and Who Don’t Watch English Series to Discern Whether TV Viewing Should Be a Regular Learning Approach
2. A Comparative Analysis between "a school I will not name" 12th Grade Students Who Listen to Songs with Vocabulary Words and Who Only Memorize Meanings to Discern Whether Song Listening Should Be a Regular Learning Approach
3. A Comparative Analysis between "a school I will not name" 12th Grade Students Who Watch Video Clips with Vocabulary Words and Who Only Read Sample Sentences to Discern Whether Video Watching Should Be a Regular Learning Approach

I need to have at least 30 respondents who will answer my multiple-choice grammar and vocabulary test. I need to prove that there is a problem in either grammar or vocabulary in the 12th grade of the school. What scale should I use to measure the results? My professor gave the Likert scale as an example. I just know that this is used to measure the intensity of an answer. Can this be also used to measure test results?

I already have 30 respondents and 12 of them failed the vocabulary test. What statistical tool can be used to show that the problem in vocabulary is significant? The mean, median, and mode scores for the test are a passing score so I can't use any of the three as the tool. I tried using z-score but it only made the number of those who got 50% of the score lower.


texts: Is there any evidence of a benefit to distributing documents to students vs taking notes?

texts:
Suppose you teach a course in which you display slides. Two approaches exists:

distribute the slides (or any document that summarizes the content of the slides);
rely on students to take notes.

[EDIT: When I say "distribute the slides", it does not imply that taking additional notes is forbidden. It simply means that the documents are available for students if they need them. The question is whether this policy encourage student to rely more on the slides than they should (reasoning "I can read the course whenever I want, so I don't need to listen carefully in class").]

Is there any evidence of which is better. I am searching for evidence that could solve the following situations (list not exhaustive) without relying on personnal taste/preferences:

you don't have a lot of experience in teaching and you want to build an opinion on the subject
you share a class with an other professor, and one of you think slides should be distributed, the other not

Suppose that there is no problem of copyright, etc.. Class level may be a parameter (e.g. undergrad vs grad).

The question here is related, but no answer seem to provide evidence other than experience or testimony, which are not strong evidences. A study from education sciences, pedagogy or something similar would be much better. I suppose such study exist, yet I can't find such a study on google scholar or similar sites.


texts: How/Whether to correct a wrong paper published in a prestigious journal

texts:
There are several publications which I was advised to read by my supervisor, and work on during my master thesis. At some point I tried re-deriving the presented statements formally, and found that there are major mistakes that make the publications wrong in a very large part. I have had several people re-derive the same results and arrive at the same conclusions as me since. The issue seems to have started with two publications which used informal (and wrong) logic to argue about the correctness of their main statements. This has been cited over a period of almost a decade and various formalizations and analyses have been done on top of that (including PhD theses) - most of which will turn out to be irrelevant if the results on which those are based are shown to be wrong. A lot of the follow up publications have been published in some of the most prestigious journals in the field.

I tried talking with my supervisor (which is a co-author in some of those) about the issue. Initially he wanted me to find cases in which the statements in the publications hold, however it turns out there are no such cases. Since I notified him of this fact, he has been dodging the issue, even when I suggested that we should at least contact the authors.

How should I proceed with this issue? The publications in question keep being cited and have resulted in even more wrong publications in the last years, as well as wrong conclusions in mainly correct publications.


texts: Underscore in place of author in references

texts:
I have recently seen author’s names being replaced with underscores in the references of two different works. For instance in Andrew Wiles’ Modular elliptic curves and Fermat’s last theorem:

In this case Ralph Greenberg is the author of On the structure of certain Galois groups. Why has his name been omitted?


texts:
One of my close collaborators passed away last year and since then I have become curious about the question of attributing work to deceased authors. Each journal has its rules but there doesn't seem to be any consensus what the ethical ground of these decisions is. Recently a different collaborator of mine published a paper with a co-author who passed away 3-4 years ago, which struck me as strange.

On the one hand, work should always be attributed. If someone contributed ideas, funding, manual labor, or wrote the manuscript, they should be mentioned somehow. On the other hand, most journals ask to confirm that all authors have seen the final version of the paper.

Of course, in reality contributors are often over- or underrepresented. For instance, should someone who edited the manuscript be a co-author or appear in an acknowledgement? Does it depend on whether their edits change the content of the paper or just the presentation? On the other hand, if a deceased author contributed the main ideas of a paper but was not around to edit the manuscript, who can decide whether they would not object to the content of the paper?

As there are different reasons for citing a deceased collaborator, I think there are (at least) two questions here: (1) what should an honest person do to honor their collaborators, without adding to their name papers they may have disagreed with; (2) what should a dishonest person be prevented from doing in terms of citing deceased collaborators as a form of name dropping (even if there is some justification for adding them).


texts: Is the promotion of meditation activities by my university a form of religious discrimination?

texts:
My university constantly promotes activities of meditation, mindfulness and other "new age" activities inspired from some eastern spiritualities (particularly Hinduism and Buddhism). The university is secular and would surely not widely promote Christian, Jewish, Muslim or other religions' activities, calls for prayers and the like. Is this a form of discrimination in favour of certain spiritualities?
I wonder what your experience is about this.


texts: Academic changing universities: How to negotiate start date to minimise problems with leaving previous university with little notice?

texts: I have an offer at another university.  It is late June, just got it.  They want me asap.  I have asked to not go until after the fall semester as we have an accreditation site visit as well as a faculty member coming back for their first semester after cancer treatment.  I don't want to stress out the department with a job search now and to go through the site visit without me.  I literally have my current university's contract in my hand and have not returned it.  I would like to ask them if I can accept for just the fall semester.  That would give us time to get through our very important site visit, and the fall semester.  It would also provide 5 months for them to fill my position.  My fear is if I ask they could say no.  If I don't ask, I'm not sure what if any penalties there would be.  I want to do the right thing but not sure what to do.  Suggestions?


texts: Can publications in which I am not the first author be used for tenure-track faculty applications?

texts: I am applying for tenure track position. In application form, we are asked to upload several publications. Some of my works are with experimentalists (I am more in theory side myself) and have been published in very prestigious journals. But I am 2nd author in some of them. Can I use them or I should be 1st author? What about papers which I am 2nd name but with same contribution?


texts: What to wear for a PhD/ MSc thesis defense?

texts: Is it better to wear formal clothes for a PhD or MSc thesis defense or can we wear something as simple as a T-shirt?


texts: Should I talk about my single "failed" course in SOP (failed due to a disturbing reason)?

texts:
Background

I failed a course in one of the last few semesters of my undergrad. I had poor grades in most courses in that particular semester.
In the summer just prior to that semester, I had a disturbing experience in a foreign country (sexual assault by a guy, against my will and sexual orientation). It affected me very much while I was there, but assumed that I was alright after I came back to my home country.

However, in retrospect, I think #2 was indirectly responsible for #1. My grades were much better in all previous semesters and they recovered after that one.
I have already graduated from university and now wish to apply for PhD in the US/Europe (including few top univs).
Overall, my GPA is 8.9 on scale of 0-10, I have one conference presentation (conducted by top scientific society in my field) and one journal paper. However, the course in which I failed is important for my PhD field.
Question
I know that a fail grade is a huge red flag in PhD admissions, so I really wish to address it in my statement of purpose (SOP). But due to the disturbing nature of my reason, I am afraid that it might make my SOP "controversial" or just too "negative". I am also slightly afraid that it may be interpreted as seeking sympathy.
Most importantly, I'm afraid of bringing the fail grade into focus, which might have gone unnoticed otherwise.
Should I address my fail grade in the SOP or just let it be? Will transcripts be thoroughly checked?


texts: Professor not responding to LOR email after initially agreeing

texts:
My situation is a bit tricky, and I'm not sure if I'm reading too much into it.

I asked for a letter of recommendation from two professors at my university. They both replied yes to the initial email. After about a month, I sent them another email with my personal statement and resume attached, and told them the deadline. I asked them to let me know if they received everything, and if there's anything else they need. One professor responded immediately saying he got my email, but the other professor still hasn't responded 5 days later.

I am worried, because the second professor usually responds very fast. Also, the email I sent necessitates a response, so it doesn't make sense for him to not respond to it. I don't know if I'm overthinking this, but I accidentally called this second professor "Professor" in my email even though he's technically a lecturer so I always address him as "Dr. So-and-so" in my emails. I copied and pasted the email content from the first professor's so I forgot to change the title from "Professor" to "Dr." I'm not sure if he would necessarily take offense at this?

Any recommendations? Please let me know your thoughts! And thanks in advance!


texts: Old PI's coauthorship on a paper after finishing the postdoc, a preliminary idea developed then but rejected by him

texts:
I understand that according the ethical rules, obtaining the funding does not automatically entitle the principal investigator (PI) for authorship. But I don't understand the unwritten rules.

I was on a postdoc. During the postdoc, I was paid from a grant obtained by the PI. At the beginning, he told me to find a good research topic and write a paper ("this will be your child"). I spent some time on literature search and very preliminary computations. I presented my idea to the PI but he told he doesn't want me to continue this topic. He even repeated this several times, on different occasions. He said my idea was too losely connected to what his group was doing. So I gave up that topic and did not do it any longer. Finally, I published a paper on quite different topic, together with the group members, and the PI was also a co-author.

One day I talked to a colleague from that group and I mentioned my old research idea. I said I would like to develop it anyway, when I finish the current postdoc. He told me that the PI should still be a co-author because I spent some time working on this idea in his group and I was paid by his money.

Now, it's been a couple of years since I finished that postdoc. I have independence and I can publish myself as the corresponding author. I would like to publish a paper on the idea I once had. Should I somehow credit the old PI? (And his grant? It's over already.)

The whole idea of the research is mine. The PI did not contribute whatsoever to it. I feel that crediting someone just for his funding is not ethical. The more so that he rejected my idea. But I understand the words of that colleague as a sort of a warning because he has been working with the PI for a long time and probably he knows his attitide. And that guy (the old PI) is quite well-known person in the community. Do you think I should somehow negotiate with him? Or stick at nothing and just publish the paper as entirely mine?


texts: Duration of postdoctoral positions in pure math

texts: I'm curious as to how long postdoc positions in math usually last for. I'm far away from thinking much about this myself but all my grad student friends seem to be telling me they only last a year or two. Now I know people don't want a postdoctoral position that's too long, but I'm getting the sense that postdocs in math are both less common and generally shorter than post docs in other areas. I'm wondering if this is true or if I'm just getting the wrong idea as an undergrad from a relatively small pool of graduate students. Primarily I'm just curious as to how long these positions usually last in mathematics.


texts: Asking professor to provide feedback on academic articles?

texts: I sent an email to a potential supervisor whether I fit for him, he said yes, then I replied whether he ll be able to provide feedback on a paper I am writing on a topic of his interest, he didn't reply, was that a good move from my side?


texts:
I am starting a permanent position this year, and while I am very happy here, the admin part seems a bit overbearing. I know from my previous positions as a postdoc, that other places are not that bad.
And it made me think about changing universities in some ten years or so. But that raises the obvious question. If I were to look for a new job now (not that there are any, with the global recession), I'd just apply like everyone else, and go through the usual hiring process.
How do senior faculty change universities? Do you apply for a job ad, or do you talk to your colleagues at another university, or does the department hear that you're unhappy and they make you an offer directly? Do you need to get recommendation letters at all (I know mostly these things happen "in secret until they're public") or would that be just a formality at the end?
I've seen a handful of people change universities immediately after being tenured, or even when they were full professors. And I always found it a bit odd.


texts: Quitting Physics PhD to become engineer?

texts:
After a couple of years in a decent grad school, passing quals, many times thinking about quitting (the usual: impostor syndrome, stress etc), and one paper. I feel like I have a clear head to make this decision. I do not want continue with a career path in academia, I want to be an engineer (or other technical field). In short, I will be happier that way and need to support my family with a better income.

I love physics and it will always be a part of my life and would love to still work with it. Currently, I work in experimental condensed matter: know a lot of fabrication techniques, studied lots of mechanics, can build circuits and perform fairly complicated electronic measurements, written programs for analysis (mostly Matlab, but some C in the past). The list can go on... I feel like the transition with this track record shouldn't be hard - but I don't want to be misinformed or get too "cocky".

What can I do to be a competitive applicant that will have to contend with people that have engineering degrees and training?


texts: For early researchers, how does the ranking of a university relate to future career in high ranked universities?

texts:
I am a longtime user of SE but posting as anonymous for the (not so) obvious reasons.

I am an early academic researcher (though I have been working in industry for a while prior to academia), and my PhD is in Information Technology, from a fairly high ranked university (Top 100 in my area). I have been offered two tenure track positions.

Position A: Large, established, and high ranked research intensive university (research focus but limited options)

Position B: Small, young, and low ranked university (some alignment with my existing research, university is not research intensive but teaching load is attractive, some interesting research projects going on).

Salary, benefits, and package in general is almost equal. I have a good publication pipeline, and both universities are aware that I will focus mostly on my research.

My main question is, for early researchers, how does the ranking of a university where one begins the career relates to a future career in high ranked universities?

If I accept position B, would my affiliation with the low rank university affect my future progress?

Another related question is, are there any pros and cons of joining a small and young university (for early researchers such as myself)?

UPDATE: This is supposed to be comment.
I don't strictly intend to use a tenure track job as a stepping stone to a more prestigious school, but as an early academic, in the initial two years if there are opportunities in more prestigious school then I would like to move (I know many people do, I don't see why this is seen as a negative thing)


texts: What are the potential pitfalls of having a PhD?

texts:
This question follow's JeffE's comment here:

  In most industries, a PhD has negative value.

I am curious about what potential negatives there may be with having a PhD, particularly in industries.  For example, my PhD has applications for image sensors, and the potential of working in that field is appealing—would having a PhD be a potential barrier? Would it be a case of how explicit the practicalities of the PhD can be made?  Would this make any difference?


texts: What are the major ethical concerns with private tutoring?

texts:
I'm currently a computer science graduate student on a low stipend, and have started spending a few hours per week tutoring undergraduates to help make ends meet. I love teaching and want to be a help to students, but I also want to make sure that I don't personally cross any ethical boundaries in doing so, or be complicit in students doing so.

Some obvious transgressions are tutoring for a class for which I am also a TA (conflict of interest), and writing code or otherwise outright doing work for students (plagiarism), but what other ethical considerations do I need to keep in mind to remain above-board in doing this?

Students sometimes ask me questions about their assignments. How much help is too much help? If a student is asked a "trick" or unclear question, is it appropriate for me to clarify it? If they're having trouble debugging a program, can I help them localize the issue to a few lines of code, or do I need to remain very general about things? Can I review code they've already submitted to help them improve by, for example, showing a better way of managing memory in C, or showing how to optimize or shorten their programs? Can I write short code snippets illustrate a point in a lesson?

I've also noticed that some questions on homework assignments are very basic. For example, in our systems course, the students were asked "True or False: a register is a small location in RAM". The answer was in the lecture slides. It makes me nervous to not be able to distinguish a request for a basic fact from a request for a homework answer. The assignments are only visible to students during the term, so I can't tell unless they show me (as was the case here). Should I give an indirect answer like "I can't just tell you that; did you review the lecture notes on CPU architecture?" as I did this time? Was doing that unethical?


texts: what is Matching Funding in grant application?

texts:
I am filling my project Grant Application
There is one section in that application that i do not know what is it and what to write there.
14. Matching Funding
What is it? and what to write there?


texts:
I am about to submit my first article to a peer-reviewed journal.  I have basically already decided which one, but I have a shortlist and am still in principle considering my options.  One of the questions I have is about the timetable for eventual publication.  What should I expect?  (In the long run, it probably won't make a large difference, but for me, right now, it would be nice to get something out the door this side of New Year if it is at all possible.)

I am puzzled by the lack of information about timetables and deadlines on the sites of these journals.  I have looked at journals from related fields in the past and they all seem to be very secretive (or undecided?) about these things.  Is this on purpose?

I guess I can infer something from previous publication dates -- a biannual which was last published in May might be slated for a next issue in November and probably have a deadline several weeks before that, which I probably won't make (it is now late August and the review process would apparently take several months).  But why don't they simply put a date up front so authors won't have to fret?

Would it be out of line to email the editor of the journal and ask about the planned deadlines for the next couple of issues?


texts: Having worked in industry for a few years, do I need someone from the industry to recommend me when applying for MS in CS by thesis?

texts:
During my undergraduate studies, I published a paper and gained some experience in research. Unfortunately, I didn't take up my higher education immediately but instead worked in the software industry for 3 years straight.

At work, my nature of job did not involve any research. However, I became passionate about solving a group of problems which I encountered and discovered that there are several active fronts in research. I have decided to go back to academia and apply for a MS in CS by thesis program.

As letters of recommendation are an important component to gain the admission into a good university, I have been sceptical about getting a recommendation from someone in industry since it is for a thesis based program. Will an admission committee of a university be interested in reading a recommendation from someone from the industry or would it be advisable to get all my recommendations from my professors (it's been 3 years since they worked with me)?


texts: I take my courses in a very specific sequence which I believe maximizes my learning potential and enjoyment. Unfortunately, that means that some key 'checkbox' courses I am to take might be put off until senior year. Will grad schools assume that I'm just not taking them at all? Or will it be OK to take them even as I'm applying?


texts: When do you expect to hear back from NSF (DMS)?

texts: It's nearing a six-month mark since I've submitted my proposal, and I haven't heard anything from them. Does this mean that I'm probably not getting the grant? When do people expect to hear back? There seems to be almost no resources online in this, which I find to be surprising.