texts: The rationale behind academic and industry salary difference

texts:
This question is not about PhD students, but about professionals with PhD degrees. To narrow down the scope even further, let my subject be a computer science PhD seeking a job in Europe. (I'd include the USA as well, but I'm afraid the dynamics are not the same. However, feel free to include relevant comparisons and data in the answers when needed.)

The salary of such a professional, if they stayed in academia, will be probably lower than if they chose to get a job in industry.

What is the economic incentive behind the university policy to not have higher, more competitive salaries when compared to industry?

I know that state institutions are (at least partially) on the government budget, so they arguably have little say in the matter. However, private institutions are significantly more independent in their organization. Basically, isn't it in the institutions' best interest to have the "best pick" of PhD graduates, instead of competing against the lure of a higher pay?


texts: Should I mention PhD in the header of my industrial résumé to catch the recruiters' attention?

texts: I've recently left academia and am looking for a job in industry, mostly in R&D, in the areas of machine learning, computer vision, data science etc. Should I mention in the header "John Doe, PhD" instead of just "John Doe" to catch immediate attention of recruiters?


texts: Very Short Papers in Mathematical Journals

texts:
Are there mathematical journals like American Mathematical Monthly that publish very short papers like mathbits?

Mathbits are generally a proof of an old theorem or results.


texts: How do I ask for a reference letter from a professor I do not want to work with?

texts:
I'm a fourth year undergraduate student planning on applying to grad programs this fall. I will mainly be applying to PhD and research thesis master programs in machine learning and computer architecture. They would fall under the computer science or electrical/computer engineering departments.

I did part time research under a professor this school year. It was something I initiated/approached him about, asking for something interesting I could work on. We eventually co-authored a paper together and successfully published it.

Because of this being a positive experience, I plan on asking this professor for a reference letter for grad school.

He was an incredible supervisor, and I really enjoyed the work, however I don't see myself spending my life working in his field, so I'm not particularly interested in going to grad school for it.

He's obviously not a kid and I highly doubt he'll take it personally, so I'm not worried about him being insulted. However, as I mentioned before, I approached him at the beginning of the year saying his work looked interesting. Additionally, he was happy with my work so he decided to pay me for it. My main concern is that he will be annoyed that I made him invest so much time and money in me only for me to then claim I'm not really interested in his work. I did find the work interesting, but not interesting enough to spend years working in it. His field is signal processing algorithms, so fairly different from the machine learning and computer architecture programs I'll be applying to.


texts: Appropriate way to discuss genetic conditions in a large lecture?

texts:
I want to cover the topic of achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism, in a large introductory biology lecture. How can I discuss it in an appropriately sensitive way, one that respects people who have the condition or are close to people with the condition? I'm used to lecturing about sensitive but biologically relevant topics like race, incest, and "extra-pair copulation" [mating outside of a socially monogamous pair, which would be adultery in a human context], but these are topics that are applicable to a broad audience. In this case I'm more worried about offending or annoying particular individuals. (I may be feeling particularly sensitive about this because I've had a little person in a couple of my other classes in the last few terms.)

the talk page for the Wikipedia article mentions that what to call achondroplasia ["a medical condition, disorder, disease, disability, or none of the above"] is controversial; "condition" feels most neutral to me.
the online FAQ for the Little People of America doesn't say much more than

  Such terms as dwarf, little person, LP, and person of short stature are all acceptable, but most people would rather be referred to by their name than by a label.

(this is in a section explaining that "midget" is considered offensive).

For what it's worth, I'm going to be discussing the rate of mutation in the gene responsible for the condition; the strength of natural selection against the condition; and how we can calculate the expected frequency of the condition in the population from this information. This does raise some potentially problematic topics (such as the lower probability of survival and reproduction). In the past when I've covered this topic, I have mentioned Peter Dinklage, a little person who has been both professionally (Emmy-award-winning) and reproductively (he has a child) successful.

The reason it's worth discussing achondroplasia in class is that it's a surprising example of a deleterious, autosomal dominant genetic condition that's maintained by pure mutation-selection balance (i.e., we don't know of any counterbalancing selective advantages that would have caused it to stay in the population).

Any suggestions?


texts: Likelihood of an undergrad publishing from home

texts:
I am interested to know what the likelihood is that an undergraduate would be able to publish an academic paper (particularly in a STEM field) from home. For the sake of argument, assume they are an advanced student, and work independently of any supervisor.

Is this something that is frequently done?
Would this look any better or worse on a CV than doing it under a supervisor?
Is this something that is likely to happen, in a reasonable time frame, if the student stayed committed?


texts:
Am I allowed to sort data in tables?

Say in my notebook, I recorded the following:

Distance (cm)    Time (s)
± 0.01 cm        ± 0.02 s

100.00           10.00
  0.00            0.00
 10.00            1.00
 50.00            5.00
 25.00            2.50

Can I sort the data (for a formal report) into the following?

Distance (cm)    Time (s)
± 0.01 cm        ± 0.02 s

  0.00            0.00
 10.00            1.00
 25.00            2.50
 50.00            5.00
100.00           10.00

I haven't modified the data, but only the order in which they were taken, therefore, I think I am allowed.


texts:
I'm interested in applying to pharmacy school and programs for a PhD in chemistry. The PhD programs only admit less than 10 people a year and it's more likely that I won't get in to one of these compared to pharmacy school. The issue is that the pharmacy programs provide admissions offers earlier than when the PhD interviews start.

Is it acceptable to accept an admission from the pharmacy school and then later reject that offer in favor of an offer from a PhD program? I feel bad for potentially taking up one of the spots in a pharmacy program if I won't be going there.


texts: Is preparing for a lawsuit a valid reason to defer an exam?

texts:
An employer owes me wages and I have not been able to get them to comply without escalating matters. As a result, I have been preparing to take them to court, but I have an exam for my masters that I have not been able to focus on at all due to the substantial stress and uncertainty caused by dealing with this employer.

Does a UK university accept defering an exam due to legal matters as a vaild reason for deferrement especially when the missing payment comes at a time when it is really needed?


texts: My paper's content is slightly changed from the abstract I have submitted to a conference, can I edit the accepted abstract on my poster?

texts:
I'm fairly early on in my PhD research. A few months ago I submitted an abstract to a conference, which was accepted. The conference is coming up soon, and my research has taken a slight turn away from my accepted abstract (still same field, collaborators, etc...--just asking slightly different questions and taking a slightly different approach).

My question is, am I obligated to put the program-accepted abstract on my poster? If I am, should I try to tie my poster content as closely to that accepted abstract as possible? Or can I present poster content that would've been more appropriate for a different abstract?

Or can I use a different abstract on my poster, and thus tie the content more closely to what my current research path is?

What about keeping the original abstract in its entirely, but appending it?

EDIT: I'm in the field of astrobiology (probably most similar to the fields of geology or astronomy if I had to relate it to a more conventional field)


texts:
I apologize if this has already been asked; I can't find this exact question.

Suppose author X writes a paper, and in this paper, they prove a result that is a very small part of their paper. However, the result has a mistake. Based on personal judgement, it appears the mistake is an innocent mistake that does not disrupt the intellectual flow of the paper. i.e. it is very reasonable to believe the author X had the ability themselves to get the proof right. In fact, it may have been simply a typo. Nonetheless, it is unarguably incorrect.

Author Y comes along and builds other results off of the (corrected) ideas by author X. Author Y wants to (for good reason) cite author X, as their results would not have been obtained without author X.

What is the correct way to do this in a paper? The way I see it, there are 2 possible actions for author Y:

1) Pretend like author X didn't make a mistake at all and give them full authority on their theorem.
2) Say something like ... "the results are based off the ideas by author X" but don't give as much of a "these are author X's results" flavor. Author Y then after mentioning author X, proves the theorem themselves.

Action 2) seems to be the most reasonable in the sense that it is intellectual honest and doesn't shame author X for no reason. However, is it considered plagiarism to be somewhat vague about what author X did?

Thank you.

EDIT: I realize another option is to allow author X to correct their mistake and then do action 1. But with how slowly paper publishing occurs, this seems unjustly detrimental to author Y so I don't consider it a real option.


texts: How to indicate deleted text in manuscript when using highlighted text as opposed to tracked changes

texts:
I have the chance to submit a revised manuscript to a journal, and they have specifically asked to highlight the changes using highlighted text, as opposed to tracked changes. I am using Microsoft word.

I have always used tracked changes, so I am not sure of the normal procedure when using highlighted text to mark changes, specifically when deleting text. If there is a sentence to be deleted, how do you indicate this using highlighted text, as there is no text remaining. Should I just delete and then reference the line at which this happened in the response to editors and reviewers? Or should I highlight the 'space' where the line used to be?

Many thanks


texts: What does "This question is left for future research" imply?

texts:
In computer science, and probably other disciplines as well, it is common to end every paper with a "future research" section. I always wondered what is the utility of this section. In particular:

A. How common is it, that a question from a "future research" section is actually researched by the same research group?

B. How common is it, that a question from a "future research" section inspires future research by other research groups?

Both these questions can be studied quantitatively, even semi-automatically, by comparing the contents of "future research" sections to the titles and abstracts of papers published in a later date. Has such a research been done?


texts: Is a postdoc-interview presentation a norm?

texts:
I have been invited for a postdoc interview. After reading some questions and answers, I noted that sometimes the applicant is required to give a presentation/talk. In my invitation, nothing is mentioned about a presentation or talk during the interview. Now I am not sure: should I prepare a presentation because it is the norm?

(Of course I have some presentations from my previous talks/conferences. I just have to review it and do some changes.)

Edit: after a short email, they replied that presentation is not needed


texts: Long Interview for Visiting Assistant Professorship

texts: I'm having my second interview for a VAP position so I'm looking to see what the Deans might ask and what I might ask them. The position is in photojournalism and I'm teaching my first class at present at another university, while still working in the field. What questions do Deans focus on and want to hear from the candidate about. I know each field is different, just trying to get a general feel. Thanks!


texts: Is it appropriate to ask for a $220k piece of equipment on an ESI R01 application to the NIH?

texts:
I'm an early stage investigator (ESI) working on an NIH-R01 application where I am proposing a good amount of experiments that necessitate this piece of equipment that costs $220,000. This piece of equipment exists on my campus, but it's located a couple of miles away from my lab, which requires me or someone from my lab to carry cells by car or on public transit. Since the equipment is used to measure cellular metabolic function, I've always been wary about carrying my cells all the way there. Anyhow, I'd like to buy this piece of equipment in my first year of the R01.
The good thing is that adding the $220k to my year 1 budget doesn't exceed the $500k limit/year.
Now I'm wondering if it's appropriate to request such an expensive piece of equipment as an early stage investigator. I am thinking that the reviewers may comment on the fact that I already collected a significant amount of prelim data in collaboration with another lab... so why not continue to do so? Why the need to purchase the equipment?
Do you think such request could tank a grant application?
Thanks for your input!


texts: Research partner switching authorship before publishing to Arxiv?

texts:
We’re currently publishing a preview of a paper we’ve just gotten accepted to a conference and of the five of us, one member started an Arxiv submission application first. This means that the rest of us were not able to submit an application in lieu of his, even though he did not have the final version of the paper. In submitting the work to Arxiv, he actually switched the originally alphabetical authorship so that his name went first.

How can you force someone to remove their submission? We keep texting him, but he is ignoring us, and if this continues, this falsely authored version will be what is published and out there, but different from the legitimate version of the paper.


texts: Possibly, quick acceptance for publication

texts:
Two days ago, a physics journal received my manuscript and today they informed me that the editor and reviewer accepted my manuscript for publication. this is the first time for me publishing a manuscript, but two days, isn't that quick?
and they told me that I will pay around 700 Euros for the first installment.
I really need your advice here, I am afraid of getting screwed.


texts: Is there any real demonstrated benefit to the Dutch break out of the academic year?

texts:
Dutch universities have an arguably peculiar academic calendar: each semester breaks down in two blocks (actually 3, but only 2 are teaching blocks) so 4 blocks in total. Each full course is block-long (around 32-36 hours per block, usually 7 teaching weeks with 4-6 hours per week) which might seems short and "rushed". Each such course is 4-6 ECTS.

When I am talking with some other Dutch colleagues, they are not exactly able to justify this but they claim that "is about quality, not quantity". Sure, but how can you teach, for example, Calculus in 34 hours total including tutorials etc.? (I am using the example of calculus because they try to fit in such a course single and multi-variate calculus, series, differential equations etc.).

Anyway, I am wondering if there exists any particular study or report that argues that is more beneficial to have more blocks with fewer hours per block/course than the traditional break-out of the academic calendar.

I am not sure if other countries have similar systems, Netherlands is the only one I know so it might be country-specific.


texts: Can one give a conference talk on a topic already published in a journal?

texts: Let's say I wrote a paper and got it accepted in a journal. Can I then give a talk on that paper at a conference? What are the relevant factors here?


texts: How should I deal with critical comment that may affect on my research path?

texts:
A few days ago I posted a question on specific paper on RG. Another researcher says this is insulated paper that really shocked me because it is central to my research.

After I saw this comment I contact this person to get more explanation that may guide me but he didn't respond.

The paper name is "Multimodal Registration of Remotely Sensed Images Based on Jeffrey’s Divergence, 2016" and my interest is multimodal image registration, below you will find a screenshot for the discussion.

I post this question to get some advice from senior researchers that may pass through a situation.

Update: How can Q1 journal accept to publish insulated work?

Thanks


texts: How to find the money for an Open Access publication fee, if you're a postdoc and you don't have any funds?

texts:
Last year I finished my PhD in Europe and now I'm a postdoc in North America. I work on computer science.

An year ago I wrote a paper with my former Europen supervisor and a former colleague, and submitted it to a conference. My former supervisor presented the work at the conference.

Now we just discovered that the steering committee selected our paper for a post-conference supplement in a Open Access BMC journal. We're very happy for this selection (they chose 5 papers out of 52) but there's a problem: we don't have funding to pay the ~2,000 euros publication fee for the journal.

My former supervisor has no funding at the moment; my former colleague is still a PhD student and he's broke; myself I'm a postdoc with no research funding and I'm not going to ask to my current supervisor to pay (because I don't think it's fair and anyway he'd refuse).

What should I do?

That journal publication would be very important for my career, and quite useful for our scientific community. This supplement is a very unique occasion.


texts: Can a grad student take undergrad classes?

texts: Maybe a dumb question, but for example: say I'm doing a PhD in Theoretical Physics (I'm not) but I need to have taken certain undergrad math courses to understand the material, which I never took in undergrad. Do grad students ever end up in undergrad classes for this reason, or do they just learn the material themselves out of books?


texts: Is it okay to include a simplified and easy version of a result already proved?

texts:
I am preparing to write an article. For that, I got an easier proof of the already published result. My result is very simple to prove. Is it ethical to include this result in my
article after citing the other author's work that we are improving their result?
Kindly help. Thanks a lot.


texts: Is a IEEE student member counted as a member in a submission to a transaction?

texts: I am going to submit a paper to a IEEE transaction. I am a student member of IEEE. In the auther line of the paper, do I append "IEEE, Member", "IEEE, Student Member" or nothing after my name?


texts: Are there any examples for an ArXiv publication nurturing or preventing plagiarism?

texts:
First of all, this is about plagiarism in the sense of stealing ideas. Copy-and-paste plagiarism is included but not likely to happen in the cases relevant for this question.

Considering the publication of a paper prior to peer-reviewed publication on the ArXiv (or another preprint server), there are usually two main positions considering a possible theft of the idea (or somebody coming up with the same idea):

If somebody manages to publish your idea in a peer-reviewed journal before you do, you can prove that you came up with the idea first or at least independently if you have published your paper on the ArXiv. Therefore it is a good idea to publish papers on the ArXiv before they have been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
If you publish your paper on ArXiv before it is published in a peer-reviewed journal, others may steal your work and publish it peer-reviewed before you do and thus take the scientific credit. It’s difficult to attack those people since the ArXiv is not peer-reviewed. Somebody could make a living of plagiarising ArXiv papers. Therefore it is a bad idea to publish papers on the ArXiv before they have been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Are there any example cases (or even studies) supporting either of these statements? Such examples would include, but are not limited to:

Has a peer-reviewed journal ever withdrawn a paper because it plagiarised an ArXiv paper?
Are there well-known cases of “unpunished” plagiarism of ArXiv papers?
Has anybody ever successfully resolved a priority dispute with a publication on ArXiv?
Has anybody ever accused somebody of plagiarising an ArXiv article (with the fact that the plagiarised article was published on ArXiv affecting the outcome).

Note that it is really examples and not a theoretical analysis of the statements, I am looking for. (Neither of the two positions fully reflect my opinion and some of the soft premises¹ are debatable. However, debating about these viewpoints on a theoretical basis or attacking some of the premises is usually futile.)

¹ e.g., that scientific credit is only decided by peer-reviewed publication


texts: Is it a good idea to mention previous rejection and subsequent improvement in motivation letter?

texts:
I am applying to a Master's degree in Finland. Last year I applied to the same programme and unfortunately I was not accepted.

While I am writing my motivation letter I wonder if it would be a good idea to mention that I was not accepted last year but now I have improved as a professional during last year, so I can tell that I am a better prospect now.


texts: use of "carrier" for affected individuals

texts:
I'm the process of paper drafting and stumbled upon the question, what's the appropriate name for individuals, who are affected by a disease, which is likely due to a mutation.

I was using the term "carriers" until now (like in: group one constists out of mutational carriers, group two is a control group).

Now I've read that the word "carrier" is just short for hereditary carrier (Wikipedia: has inherited a recessive allele for a genetic trait or mutation but does not display that trait)

So how do I refer to patients that are affected by the mutation. I've thought about "patients", but the control group consists out of patients, too.

Is there a correct word for this?


texts: Should a statement of purpose for a PhD application be single or double spaced?

texts: I'm applying to several math PhD programs for the next fall term, and they all require a statement of purpose of 1-2 pages. However, none of them seem to give concrete spacing requirements. My statement is too long to fit under double spacing, but meets the requirement under single spacing. I've looked up this question but I've gotten mixed messages.


texts: I have received both the NSF and another major fellowship (non-federal). Both stipends cover more than my departmental funding; do I get the sum of the stipends?


texts: In a paper, how would you name a part that describes the big picture before the technical details

texts:
I have been struggling with finding the right title for a section in a scientific paper (in computer science but I think it can apply to many other fields). I know it's not the first time I encounter this problem, so I guess it's worth asking the question.

For now the outline of the paper resembles something like this:

Introduction: where I describe the problem and the outline of the paper
Background/Related work: where I describe what the state-of-the art is in the field
Big picture: where I describe where we want to go and how we will go there from a high level standpoint (more detailed than the intro, but less detailed than what follows)
[... Implementation ... Technical Details ... Application ... etc]: the body of the article
Conclusion

I'm struggling with the title of the third part Big picture. I want a title that conveys the idea of a high level description of what will follow so that the reader does not get lost in the technical details and keep in mind what the general plan is. Things I had in mind so far: big picture description, methodology, strategy, overview, plan of attack, ... However, none of these section title conveys exactly what I want.

Is there a common practice for the title of such a section of a paper?

What could be a good fit?


texts: What does it mean to be "former PhD student"?

texts: I saw the term "former Ph.D. student" in some article -- does it suggests someone accepted in a PhD program but did not get his/her PhD degree eventually?


texts: Is there a reference managing software that shows/extracts content of highlights?

texts:
I'm mostly using Mendeley, but after reading lots of ebooks with the Kindle app, I've noticed that I really like the feature that shows me the content of all highlights and the ability to jump to the relevant section.
Is there any software for reference/paper organization, reading and note taking like Mendeley which has this feature?

As an example, for those who don't know this feature from e.g. Kindle, if the text above was part of a paper and the bold part was my highlight, I want to have a list that shows:

I really like the feature that shows me the content of all highlights
the ability to jump to the relevant section

and clicking on one of them should bring me to the respective section of the paper.

Any pointer much appreciated!


texts: Finish previous work during current position

texts:
I will soon change of lab, moving from a PhD student position to post-doc position. During the last months of my contract as a PhD student, I tried to finish everything I started but I still have a few projects in progress. These projects include collaborative paper with other groups, so I am not the only one involved.

I was wondering what was the general agreement when changing position with unfinished project.  I see three main possibilities here:

At the beginning of the new contract, I spend all my time finishing the previous project so I do not have to worry about them for too long (but I do not start right away to work for my new boss)
I spend one day per week (for instance) working for the past project and the rest for the current one
I do not work at all on the previous project during office hours, but rather after work and during the week-end (which I would prefer not to do)

I have to precise that my future boss is not involved in the project I would need to finish. I also plan to ask him the question directly when I start the new position, but I thought a little background about what is commonly done could be beneficial before starting this discussion.

NB: this question is different from this one since it does not concern the ownership of the research, but rather on how to spend the time in the lab.


texts: Is a business card necessary for a graduate student?

texts:
I know some PhD students have their own business cards, but I don't know if it is a standard practice for PhD students to have their own business cards. I think a business card can be useful for networking in conference or collaborating with some industrial partners. So, is are business cards necessary for a PhD student or other graduate students attending conferences?

PS: in case it is field-specific, I would like to know the different practices in different fields


texts: Is it better to present a bad paper at a conference or cancel?

texts: I'm a PhD student who recently had an abstract accepted for a conference. It was based on a survey that was scheduled to take place before the conference, but external issues caused the survey to be delayed. I don't have the data I thought I would. I've tried to rework a paper that is more theory-based and introduces some descriptive data from another data set, but it's not a strong paper. Should I cancel late notice or just suck it up? It would be my first conference.


texts: Difference between tenure-track/tenured positions in universities and research scientist positions in national labs

texts:
I am trying to evaluate pros and cons for working at universities as tenure-track (and eventually, hopefully, tenured) and research scientist at national labs. I realize that not much is discussed on what it means by working at national labs (except a few specific questions such as Are faculty positions more competitive than government research lab positions?), unlike working at universities. I wish to start by asking about job security, salary (US universities usually pay 9-monthly and expect profs to cover the remaining 3 months from the prof's grants. Is there any such thing at national labs), any other things? Working with research students (all the way to completion of their degrees, as opposed to as your interns for a few months) is of course rewarding at universities. But probably too much teaching and administrative work may be negatives at universities too - any comparison with national lab jobs?

I know that this may be slightly broader question, and a bit subjective too, but I believe answers from different perspectives would help researchers like me who are at critical juncture at their career and need to decide one way or another.

Edit-1: I also came to know that some research labs in the US may have different classifications. e.g., is National Renewable Energy Laboratory same as NASA etc.?

Edit-2: How about 'redundancies'? Can these labs use 'lack of budget' or some other (non-disciplinary) excuse to remove the permanent staff?


texts: Why is it called an "abstract" if it is 10 pages long?

texts:
A conference I have submitted to asks for an "extended abstract" of up to 10 pages, which amounts to pretty much a full paper. Why is it then called "abstract"?

The conference is in the crossing between computer science, biology, and mathematics, so it may be following any of their traditions.


texts: What makes you keep on reading articles in your non-English native language, while the same information might be published in English?

texts:
As a future French PhD student (in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning) that legally HAS TO write his thesis in French, I am a bit concerned about the fact that less people would be able to read it and it got me thinking: why do you keep reading articles in your native language, when some ideas you find might also be published in English?

To those who are not English native speakers, do you read articles in your native language?
If so, what is it that you find in these articles compared to English-written ones? Are you just looking for useful information for your own research or are you motivated by something else?
How would you cite these articles in your own English-written paper?

I understand that using one's own native language can be justified for some fields such as social sciences, but here I am asking about "exact" and computer sciences.


texts: Helping TA's creativity when writing exercise sheets

texts:
Teaching assistants (TAs) often have the task to compile exercise sheets for the students and need to come up with new problems for such sheets.

Let's assume that in the lecture, two methods for a certain use case were presented, and a TA is supposed to write a problem that should make the students use the second method. The first one should be cumbersome to use, so that the students can figure out themselves that the second method is the one to use in this case. Also, the problem should be somewhat motivated by an arbitrary problem from practice, so that solving the exercise sheet problem also teaches the students that the second method has its use in practice.

Now some TAs will be naturally good at such tasks, and others do not know where to start, despite knowing all of the relevant scientific results. How to teach TAs the creative skills to performing such tasks?

Note: This is a follow-up question to an earlier question on a related topic, which went without answer ideas. This new question may be of more universal interest, and I suspect that if good answers can be given, they are the same in both cases anyway.


texts: Authorship dispute after author was removed without their knowledge

texts:
My supervisor, two other students (C and G) and I were invited to write a paper for a journal. The paper was about a project in which we were all involved.

(C) though, never engaged into any writing activity, even after multiple messages from us. When I asked (C) if he still wanted to be an author, clearly expecting either no answer or an honest "no", (C) replied saying he knew he didn't do much for the paper, but volunteering to proof read and review the final draft. I sent the document to him but we never heard back.

It was decided that (C) didn't do enough to be granted authorship and we submitted without him, but due to a misunderstanding no-one notified him that he had been removed.

Because of this, (C) is now accusing us of having plagiarized his work and of scientific misconduct and fraud, and requests that the article is retracted.

(G) and I still agree that (C) should not have been granted authorship and can produce all the evidence we have to show that (C) didn't contribute to anything substantial in the paper and is not worth authorship (emails, previous publications, etc). (C) continues to threaten to report us to the university for fraud (it is not clear if he plans to report the supervisor as well).

I am confident of my good standing but at the same time I am afraid this dispute could spiral out of control.

What could I do to defend myself in case (C) reports us? Should I get in touch with the editors and explain the situation?


texts: Applying to work at an acquaintence's school

texts:
Background: I'm a mathematics student in the US who plans to finish my PhD this year, and I'm currently applying for jobs at small liberal arts colleges throughout the country.  I already have some acquaintances throughout the math world, either from grad school, REUs, conferences, etc, and some of these people are at schools to which I'm applying.  They would definitely remember me, but I would be surprised if they knew/remembered anything about my work.

There seems to be relative agreement that knowing someone at a school to which one is applying for a job is a good thing, but I have a few questions related to that situation.

How do you go about telling such an acquaintance that I am planning to or have already applied?  Is it acceptable for me to simply drop them an email?  Is there anything specific I should tell them?
Most schools list a designated contact person within the department.  Would it then be inappropriate for me to ask my acquaintance questions about the school or position?
One of these acquaintances works at a school that is far from the region I would like to end up living someday, and I believe that they are aware of this.  How will this impact my chances at that school?  Would it still be beneficial to make them aware of my application?

I am aware that a similar question already exists, but I was hoping to get more general information than what was discussed there. Any advice or insight is most appreciated.


texts: Can I upload other peoples old tech reports to ResearchGate?

texts: I have a bunch of old tech reports I copied when a grad student written by other people.  I want to throw them out but would rather scan them into ResearchGate first.  For example, INRIA tech reports on various unification methods.  Is this OK or should only an author of a report scan it in?  I'm not claiming it as my own, I would tag it to the authors.   I just think they are a shame to throw away completely.


texts: How might a PhD-holding physicist submit independent research after leaving academia, without appearing to be a crackpot?

texts: There is a no dearth of crackpottery in the world of amateur physics research, nor in the world of independent research done by PhD-holding physicists. If I want to continue physics research in my own time after graduating and moving on to industry, what would be the best way to share my research with the physics community?


texts: Any recourse for testing on material not mentioned in the class syllabus?

texts:
In one particular university class, many people stopped attending after about half the semester was over as the professor was "confusing" as many people phrased it and opted to instead study from the textbook. The course syllabus outlines the chapters in the textbook that would be subject to testing.
The class does not have an attendance policy. It is not recorded, though powerpoints are posted, and you would not get a rundown of what occurred in class in case of absence since the textbook and powerpoints are available.

Near the end of the course, a new topic not found in the lecture slides or textbook was brought up for approximately 10 minutes(each lecture is 1.5hours). I was not in attendance that day. The topic was not mentioned in the syllabus, no online announcement was made that an extra topic was added.

This topic was then put on the final exam as a question of its own. Later, on group pages, students who attended class mentioned that the topic was not explained well at the time, but the professor did say "at least you'll have an advantage on the final over the absent students". Many people sent e-mails to the prof and none have heard back yet.

Is there any recourse now in terms of marks or having the question removed in your opinion? Furthermore, could you provide on brief response as to whether you think the prof was justified in doing this?


texts: Should I thank thesis committee before defense?

texts:
I want to email a copy of my thesis to the thesis committee, should I thank them that they are serving on my thesis/dissertation committee? and how should I thank them?
(it is before my defense))


texts: Ways to spend gap year/semester before applying to mathematics PhD

texts:
I was just reading in the answers to some other questions (here and here) that it's not necessarily disadvantageous (and it may even be advantageous) to take a year or semester off after finishing my bachelor's degree before applying to math PhD programs, but I'm not really sure what to do during that year. If the below section is too long, the TL;DR version is: What are my options?

I honestly hadn't looked into any other options since I was planning on going straight to math PhD programs after I earn my Bachelor's degree in May of 2016, but this fall while I was dealing with some personal issues I ended up dropping one of the two graduate math classes I was enrolled in and I missed the September GRE math subject test (as well as the deadline for the October subject test).

While I'm planning this spring to take the GRE math subject test (for real this time) and enroll in another one or two graduate math classes, it's looking like I might have a better chance at PhD program admissions if I wait to apply for admission in the Spring or Fall of 2017, rather than the Fall of 2016. I might apply to a couple of PhD programs for Fall 2016 admission, but I don't want to spend a lot of money on application fees when my application isn't as strong as it could be.

If I do end up taking a semester or a full year off, I want to figure out something productive to do so that the time won't be wasted. I came up with a few options: applying to PhD programs abroad that don't require the GRE (I speak English and Russian, so Canada, England, and Russia), applying to less competitive US PhD programs, or working a full- or part-time job (teaching? computer science?) and using that money to pay for simultaneously taking one or two graduate math classes.

However, I'm not sure if it's kosher to apply for a PhD program if I only plan on staying for a semester or a year. On the other hand, I don't know how feasible it is to both work and take graduate math classes, so I'm pretty uncertain about what to do. Does anyone have advice about the options I have?


texts: What are the differences between these kinds of articles: original, review, letter, and short communication?

texts:
I am interested in knowing, what are the differences between  Original Paper, Review Paper, Letter and Short/ Rapid/ Brief Communication paper?

Thanks to everyone for reading and taking the time for the great responses.


texts: A long gap between BSc and MSc when applying for PhD

texts:
My BSc was in physics and graduated with GPA 2.46/4.00 about 12 years ago. I am 33 years old now and I have got an admission to a master program in mathematics in Armenia (as an international student). The department didn't care about that my BSc that was in another field, that my GPA is very low and there is a 12-year gap between my BSc and MSc. [my low GPA is mainly due to not being present in the classes and also missing some midterm exams and quizzes; my grades are normally either near 4.0 (when attending was not mandatory with one exam assessment) or between 1.0-2.0 (for otherwise) and rarely between 2.1-3.7.]

My story is that I loved physics since childhood and even used to study university books when I was in highschool. However suddenly everything changed when I 16 when my father died so I had to take the responsibility to support my family. Nonetheless at the same time tried and tried to keep my dream of becoming a great physicist alongside of spending lots of time working to support my family (we don't get any money from the government in my country); and that extreme desire for becoming a ('the') great physicist when the circumstances were the worst caused me a severe mental break down and being hospitalized too (it was about 5 years ago)..

Afterwards I couldn't think about physics anymore because it was making me sick. It took me a few years my mind to be repaired (=being recovered) and I started studying mathematics instead but this time I had a much better financial circumstances and I could finished by self-learning all BSc and MSc books that I would need to know them in my studies in MSc.

After finishing my MSc I want to continue my studies in top universities esp. in Canada. I have a strong belief that I will have a high GPA and good research results in my MSc; however my low GPA in BSc and a huge gap between BSc and MSc and also being my BSc in physics irrelevant to mathematics that I want to study in PhD makes things less hopeful when I want to apply for PhD especially if I desire to get an admission with scholarship.

If I write about my strong enthusiasm for science then I have to say my period of mental breakdown too and if I don't say about my enthusiasm they should probably consider someone who has started and finished young with better and relevant BSc.. I am sure that some universities in Canada ask for BSc transcripts as well as MSc when applying for PhD.

Please help me what should I do when there is much less hope even if I can show a dramatic results in MSc. Thanks!


texts: What tools do you use to manage writing co-authored papers?

texts:
What tools do you use to manage co-authored papers? This is similar to questions active 4 years ago and 5 years ago. I assume tech has changed since then.

Co-authored projects I have been on have used Dropbox to share files or shared files through many emails. This does not seem particularly efficient.

Update: In my field, almost everyone uses MS Word.

I use Trello for solo-authored work. It has the option of inviting collaborators but I have not tried it. I am also interested in reproducible workflow and have some of my code on Github. I am exploring the Open Science framework, too, but have not used it to manage an entire co-authored project.


texts: Reference letter from third world country

texts:
I hold a 5 years "specialist degree" from a university in Belarus and I'm going to apply to a Ph. D. program in engineering in US. I have several problems regarding my reference letters.

The professor who was my Engineering Project adviser and who taught several important courses in my group for two years can give me strong a reference because my project was the best in the department. However:

He doesn't know English.
He is currently retired.
Professors in Belarus seldom have personal e-mail addressed and neither does he.
He doesn't have publications in English.

Any ideas how to solve these problems? Translate the reference, put it into an envelope and then ask the professor to sign envelope as required? Will the reference be even opened and taken into account?


texts: Citation Style (CSL) with angular quotation marks?

texts:
I'm writing a chapter to go in a book produced in South America, and they want us to use angular quotation marks. Two example formats I have look like:

Klaveren, Alberto van. «Doscientos años de la política exterior de Chile: de Hobbes a Grocio». Artaza, Mario y César Ross (eds.), La política exterior de Chile, 1990-2009. Del aislamiento a la integración global, USACH-RIL editores, 2012, pp. 51-69.

Witker, Iván. «La anarquía latinoamericana desde una perspectiva neorrealista», en Estudios Avanzados 12, diciembre 2009, pp. 23-41.

I tried using the CSL Search By Example page, but nothing with angle-quotes appeared in the search results.  Furthermore all the examples found put the year in the wrong place (they put it near the beginning and I need it near the end).
Can anyone suggest an appropriate CSL format and where to find it, or else how can I modify a "similar" CSL file to meet my requirements? (I still find the Visual Editor super-confusing.) Thanks.
(Writing in Google Docs, with citations managed by Zotero and its Google Docs connector.)


texts: What percentage of PhD theses are rejected nowadays?

texts: What percentage of PhD theses (e.g., physics ones) are rejected nowadays? And why?


texts: Decision time on a postdoc offer while applying for other positions

texts:
I have recently applied for several postdoctoral positions as well as a lecturing position. A week ago I had an interview for one of the postdoctoral positions and I should know the outcome of this interview by the end of next week. During the interview I was asked if I was applying for other positions, to which I said yes and briefly described what these were.

The project is a very interesting one but I also want to consider the other positions I applied for (especially the lecturing one) if I were to be the preferred candidate. However, I will have to wait until the end of February or so to hear about these other positions.

So, if I was chosen for this postdoc I was interviewed for, I was wondering how long it is acceptable/customary to make them wait until I give them a final response.

I'm sure they would be ok with a couple of weeks, 1. because moving overseas can be a bit of a change from a personal perspective and 2. because considering other potentially interesting opportunities makes sense at this stage in my career, but I was wondering if making them wait for a month or so was too long.That being said, I heard about people making an employer wait four months or so but I would find it rather impolite.

Thanks for your input!


texts:
I'm a teacher in a Vocational Education school in Spain. In our Vocational Education system, we have two different levels:

Vocational High School (post compulsory secondary school)
Community College (this is considered Higher Education)

It's hard for me to establish equivalence with the US System, but I guess you might have similar levels.

In Spain, students with a Vocational High School diploma can't enroll directly in Community College, they need to sit a test first (a sort of SAT test, but not so hard as SAT).

I would like to know how it goes in the US. Is there also some kind of test for entering a Community College if you come from Vocational High School? In that case, could you tell me how this test is called, please?


texts: Costs for colored figures in Chemistry - A European Journal

texts: I am planning to submit a Chemistry - A European Journal "full paper" article. However, it contains many colored figures. The FAQ does not really answer the question if colored figures will lead to additional costs. Also, I have no idea of what costs to expect, i.e. 20 Euro, 1500 Euro? How is the situation in other journals?


texts: Years ago, a professor agreed to write a LOR, but never sent it. Therefore, I'm not accepted in any school. What can I do?

texts:
Years ago, a professor agreed to write me a recommendation letter.  So I applied to many grad schools indicating him as one of my referees.  However, I didn't find out until later that he didn't write the letter.  Thus, none of my applications were completed, and there were also substantial financial losses due to application fees. I was poor, so it was a big loss for me.

What can I do in this case?  Could I find any justice anywhere?  I just felt hopeless when a tenured professor does something unethical (not criminal conduct); there is nothing a student can do.

[added the following on June 24, 2014]

He recently became a faculty at the university where I am a student (He was at a different university before). I want to forget about what happened, but the damage was too much for me to ignore. And I feel anger whenever I think about what happened.

One remedy would be he takes me on as a PhD student, or provides funding so another professor can supervise me. However, my application was rejected.

I raised my concerns with the dean of faculty of graduate studies, and will meet one of the assistant deans soon. How should I approach this with him/her?


texts: NSF Guidelines on Postdoc Salary for Grants Hosted by an Institution/PI

texts:
I'm looking for guidelines the NSF may have on minimum salary paid to a postdoc under grants to an institution/PI. These are grants that, for example, I would write which then get awarded to me/my host institution, not the family of NSF-funded postdoc grants. I have not been successful in finding these guidelines, if they exist, but lack of evidence is not evidence of lacking.

What I did find is that NIH and NSF issued a joint statement to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act of 2016. NIH says that PDs should be paid a minimum of $50,004 in 2019 (https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-19-036.html). But this is not the same as NSF saying the same.

In case you're wondering, no, I'm not trying to see how little I can pay my postdocs. Rather, I want to use NSF as a benchmark so I can march to my HR department and get my postdocs paid what they're worth. (As an institution grants we get are from NSF or similar sources, much less so than NIH, which they could more easily dismiss as "Oh, of course it's high. That's for biomed".)


texts: Is it more difficult to publish a paper that demands reviewers with knowledge from many different areas of mathematics?

texts:
I have got an article the making, and presented it to my PhD advisor one month ago. The article emerged from my master thesis at a different university.

A week ago, he told me the draft is good, albeit difficult to understand, but he remarked that it contained too many new ideas to be published at once. The problem is that no journal will be able to find a reviewer. Furthermore, I am just some unknown PhD student to them, so there won't be a "rubber-stamp" for me.

The draft contributes to an active mathematical research area which leads previously unrelated topics together - in particular, very different mathematical communities. My draft contributes by another bridge between communities. I am convinced that people will find the result noteworthy and interesting, but I also agree that the combination demands (basic) knowledge from many different mathematical areas.

It is a disturbing but possibly realistic perspective that researchers keep the same old soup at low temperature on the cooker. But isn't that too pessimistic? There are so many mini results published, why should I cut down on at least trying?

Are the concerns of my advisor well-founded in practices of the mathematical community?


texts: Should a letter of recommendation be customised for each university when applying for a masters program?

texts:
I've just graduated in Brazil and I plan to apply in some different Master courses in US. I plan to apply to different universities and I did not want to ask my professors to write many different letters.

Should the letter of recommendation be specific to the university I am applying to or  can I use a generic letter for all applications?


texts: In what ways can a PHD student who asks me to do some of her work give me due credit for my work?

texts:
A PHD (in Computational Biology) student asked me to do some programming for a software application she is developing as a part of her work for her PHD. To be more clear, she is not asking for any help in the design part, but rather in the implementation.

The PHD student I am talking about was my teacher in my undergrad. She taught me a software related course in my undergrad, and was generally a very nice teacher. She taught well, and she was polite, cooperative and kind.

She called me yesterday and told me that she is doing her PHD. The mobile application she wants to develop is only a small part of her work. She asked me to help her with it. There are two kinds of help that she mentioned:

She wants me to guide her on how to go about learning mobile application development. I am fine with that.
She said that she is very busy and if her schedule gets tighter, she will like me to complete the application. The application has not been started yet, and she told me about already being very busy, which tells me that she wants me to write a considerable amount of code for the application.

From my web search, I found out that doing this is permissible, if the work of the external person is acknowledged.

So, if she does want to acknowledge and give me due credit if I do some work (that is if I actually write some code for her application), in what ways can she do that?


texts: How long decision in process normally takes?

texts: I have submitted a manuscript to a journal on September after few days the status changed to under review and after 5 months the it changed to all required reviews are completed and immediately to decision in process. It has been 3 weeks that the paper status stuck at decision in process. How long this stage normally takes ?  is it too early to ask the editor (?) about the status of my paper?


texts: What happens to surplus referee reports?

texts:
As far as I understand, it is commonplace for editors to invite M reviewers when N < M would suffice. After N reports arrive, they take a decision and inform the authors. What happens to the N+1st, N+2nd, ... referee reports that arrive after the decision has been taken?

As a referee, I have only been told “thanks, we won’t need your report anymore” a very small number of times, and as an author I’ve never been told “look, there’s one more report for you”. So I wonder what happens in practice.

EDIT: I have in mind journals, not conferences. A conference is more driven by deadlines, probably.


texts:
Is it okay to publish my thesis when it was done 2 yrs ago?

I defended my master's thesis in February 2016 but the data gathering was done in October 2015 and the final revision was submitted to my university in March 2016.

I thought of submitting my thesis for journal publication. Do you think they would still accept it when it's been done 2 yrs ago? I had been very busy after graduation and I never had the chance to submit my research paper for publication.

Hope for your enlightenment

Follow-up:

Thank you for taking time in answering my query. My field of study is in Psychology. It's a causal, experimental research. After I defended my thesis, I got the highest grade in my final defense. I was told by my adviser to submit my paper for journal publication and present it on the upcoming convention (that year) but I had been extremely busy because I focused on the licensure exam that time. It's not totally an original study because I adopted the intervention from the US. My study was to try it in the Philippine setting but there were some modification on the approach to suit with the respondents. I'm concerned about the originality, if you send your paper for publication, does it really have to be fully original especially the intervention? I really want to have it published so I can teach this intervention to others  (to my community) especially to financially incapable families who can't afford to pay for a behavioral therapist or psychologist. Since the intervention is a cost-effective approach.


texts: Applying for both assistant and associate professor position at the same university

texts:
I'm an established, normal, non-stellar postdoc in computer science, several years after my PhD defense, and am going now for higher-rank academic positions. A particular university in the US offers both assistant and associate professor positions in my subfield. These are two different positions, but the announcements are copy-and-pasted with small adaptations. I would like to apply for both, since I wish to maximize my chances at a small additional cost (about an hour of adapting the cover letter and submitting).

Is it normal to apply for two positions simultaneously?
Is there anything particular to be paid attention to in the application documents (cover letter, research statement, teaching statement, reference list, publication list)?
What are the typical pitfalls of job seekers in such a case?


texts: How do you describe your Research Support (part D of NIH's biosketch) if you've never been a named member of a grant?  For junior researchers, NIH provides helpful guidance here on parts A (personal statement) and C (contribution to science).  Certain applicants can skip the Research Support section (high school students, applicants for predoctoral or postdoctoral fellowships, applicants for dissertation grants), but what if you're none of those?  I don't want to leave it entirely blank, but I don't want to mislead reviewers.


texts: A problem with reference letters for faculty position

texts: I have applied for a faculty position through mathjobs.org. I talked with my references and informed them about my application one month ago, then by using mathjobs I sent them request emails for uploading their letters. One of letters has not been uploaded yet and a few days remain to the deadline of uploading letter. What can I do in this point? Can I send an email to professor and ask him again? Is it possible emails from mathjobs.org go to spam folder? Need to say, the website of mathjob.org has an option which shows the delivery status of request emails, and it shows that the request email from Mathjob to my reference has been delivered.


texts: Why might professors in an online masters program give fewer assignments and less feedback than those in an in-person program?

texts:
When I was a graduate business student some 20 years ago in a major state university in south central US, my general impression was that almost all professors, with very few exception, were spending lots of time with the students' learning, in that they were behaving the same way as if they were teaching undergraduate students.

Now I am taking a second master degree in math with another state university, but this time around I am taking it online. My general impression here is the exact opposite of my past experience. Almost all teachers are spending less time with teaching, meaning that they passed out only class notes, rarely (if at all) gave assignments, and much less returned them with feedback.

For your info, my school is a non flag-ship school in the state university system, almost all students are HS math teachers whose only goal is getting master degree in math for job purpose, and I suspect lots of them do not even have enough math prerequisite. I am also a HS teacher but I think I am the only one who have middle name in math. I am not venting here but here is my question:

  Is there any hardship or predicament on the professors' side that the public are not aware of, that cause them to behave the way they did?

Thank you for your time and effort.


texts: How has academic research on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) improved MOOCs?

texts: It seems that the number of more academic papers on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) surpasses the number of MOOCs. Is there any indication that academic research on MOOCs has actually improved MOOCs? And if so, in what way?


texts:
I left University early (during the final year) and was only awarded an associates degree (one level below a full bachelors) in Computer Science.

I've been an IT professional for a few years now (development and consulting) and I'm looking to fix my broken educational record.

At this point, I could enter a bachelors programme in the final year and upgrade my associates degree to a full bachelors OR I can go straight into a Master's degree. Several Universities have offered me entry to their part time Master's degree in computing off the back of my associates degree and work experience.

I'm at a loss as to what I should do?

I've always wanted to do a PhD in software engineering project methods or maybe something more comp sci based but I fear that a masters without a bachelors won't be good enough to be accepted anywhere.

What do you think?

Thanks


texts: When did English come to lead in published research?

texts:
As any modern student knows, nearly all published research these days is in English. That's just the way of the world. But it didn't used to be that way. Many of the most pivotal pieces of scientific literature in the world, like the writings of Riemann, Cantor, Einstein, Galois, Schrödinger, (Gregor) Mandel, Linnaeus and many, many others were written in German, French or Latin. These days, publishing in a language other than English hurts your credibility, and is largely discouraged.

When did English become necessary for publishing scientific literature?


texts: Is it unethical to not give feedback on final exams or assignments?

texts:
In this question a person working as a TA was asking if and how he should try to persuade a lecturer to change her practice, in which she gave grades for final assignments but not detailed feedback. Many of the comments there expressed sentiments such as this being an "injustice", "reprehensible", "unethical behavior", "moral duty", "refusing to do her job", and "worth firing for".

Now, I must admit that I was somewhat surprised by these reactions. My experience throughout my academic career is that this is usually infeasible for a number of reasons, e.g.:

The institution may collect and impound all final exams after a day or two.
Final exams may be given on an institutional computerized platform, for which no per-item feedback is available to either students or instructors.
Students don't usually have time to come back to campus after finals are given.
I don't think I ever received final exams back throughout my undergraduate days.
I didn't get comprehensive exams back or feedback from the end of my Master's.

I think there's even an argument to be made vis-a-vis the formative vs. summative assessment distinction that final grades and feedback should not be overlapped, and that doing so is actually not helpful to students. (E.g.: "Summative assessments happen too far down the learning path to provide information at the classroom level and to make instructional adjustments and interventions during the learning process." Link.) In that sense, one could conceivably give copious feedback early in the semester with no grade, and then a course grade only from a final assignment at the end, after one is done with all feedback cycles.

Personally, I try to find ways to give final feedback to students if they are in critical need of it (usually by email), but I actually have to wrestle against my institution's procedures to make that happen. (I'm at a large urban community college in the U.S.) But my intuition was that it's at least a judgement call, and most common to not expect to see feedback from a final.

So: Is there consensus that not giving feedback on final exams/assignments is obviously unethical? (Side question: Are there any statistics on how common it is one way or the other?)


texts: Is it OK to contact conference chairs and volunteer to review (specific to Data Science Conferences)?

texts:
I am a final year Ph.D. student. I work in the area of Applied Data Mining and Visualization. I have published at both KDD and IEEE VIS. I primarily work in the area of Natural Language Processing, Social Media Analysis, Information Extraction and Data Visualization.

However, I have still not received any opportunity to review papers.

As per the suggestions on other questions on this forum (How to become a reviewer for an engineering journal?, How do you earn opportunites to review journals or conference papers?, How to show interest to serve as a TPC or reviewer in top conferences?, etc) there are two ways I could get an opportunity to review papers:

Publish papers (I have published three papers at KDD, 1 as first author and 2 as co-author but have not yet received an invitation)
Contact the Chairs and volunteer to be a reviewer

Question: Since I have still not received an invitation to review, is it OK to contact the chair or PC and volunteer to be a reviewer? Do you as a chair, frown upon such emails?

Note: This question is specifically for people who has served as PC / Chair for one of the top Data Science and/or Data Visualization conferences (or workshop) like KDD, ICML, ICDM, PKDD, CIKM, WSDM, IEEE VIS, CHI, etc.


texts: Does suggesting potential reviewers for one's submitted paper increase the likelihood of the paper being accepted?

texts:
Some journals propose authors to suggest potential reviewers for their submitted papers.

Is there any research/study/survey that tried to quantify to what extent  suggesting potential reviewers for one's submitted paper impacts the likelihood of the paper being accepted?


texts: Is the journal "The Winnower" scientifically trustworthy?

texts:
The Winnower is a journal that offers a post-publication peer review, meaning that reviews of people can be written after online publication. There is no classical peer-review by a scientific committee prior to publication. If there are reviews to an article posted, we cannot know whether it is a "normal" person with no scientific background or a prof. Only upvotes and downvotes can be made.

After a long search in Google Scholar I found articles in this journal that were cited by other authors.

Is this journal trustworthy?


texts: Scoring GRE analytical writing practice essays

texts: I took the GRE and my analytical writing score wasn't what I hoped for. During the exam, I thought my answer was good. Having read about argumentation and practiced writing, I wonder if there is a reputable service that will score essays and give feedback?


texts: Do I have to request permission from a website to use an image that they use to promote their product on their site?

texts:
I am currently checking proofs for a Springer article. The editor has asked us to provide permission details for all figures.

One of the figures is a screenshot from a software product, as found in the front page of the product's website. We use it to exemplify typical interfaces found in these types of products, and cite the site that it was taken from. With a bit of work we could re-generate the same image by downloading the product (its free, but supported by a for-profit company) and adding in sample data.

Since the screenshot is promotional material by the company, must I contact the company to request permission to use it in our paper, given that attribution is already correct, or can I already claim fair use due to its status as "promotional"? Re-creating the screenshot would also rely on fair use, according to this answer.


texts: How many on-campus interviews (for a tenure track math position) do you typically need to get one offer?

texts: I was wondering, on average, how many on-campus interviews one needs to get one offer? For those who landed a tenure-tack job, could you please share your information?


texts: How do I reconcile with a vindictive professor, or at least protect my grade?

texts:
I (foolishly) corrected my physics professor as he was about to teach fifty students a blatantly wrong simplification, and since then he's been out to get me. I get grades of 20% or lower on tests where I get all the answers right, but don't solve the problems in precisely the way he wants.

He answers all my questions with banal truisms ("Just use the provided equations and pick a decent reference frame and you'll get the right answer"), and even makes an effort to leave before collecting my assignments.

I'm afraid to complain, because he has a lot of political connections on campus, but I'm terrified that he's going to blemish my perfect GPA. Also, I can't withdraw from the class without falling behind in my coursework and needing to stay an extra semester.

What course of action would best protect my grades, and my future, from a vindictive professor?


texts: Writing a function name in a normal paragraph in my dissertation

texts:
I want to mention the name of an specific function (or method) that I used in a experiment in a normal paragraph in my dissertation. What is the best way to do it? Considering that the official dissertation format that my teachers gave me doesn't mention how to do it.

For example:

  "... with the Java programming language we can use System.nanoTime ..."


texts: How to mention a course that you haven't taken yet in an application

texts:
I am preparing to apply for an internship that strongly favors people with CUDA-programming skills. There is a course in exactly this that I won't have taken by the time I apply for the internship, but that I will have taken before the internship starts. I don't have any experience with CUDA-programming at this point.

What are the best ways, if any, of bringing up courses that haven't yet been completed?

Note: There is a similar question on how detrimental this is, but I am seeking advice on how to handle this problem. Hope this constitutes a different question.


texts: Will I be too old to apply for Ph.D. at the age of 30

texts:
I have completed my master's degree year ago and took a gap of 2-3 years before committing to the Ph.D. Right now my financial condition is worse and I don't want to make any decision in any urgency. My peers are getting enrolled for Ph.D. and I am getting worried by watching them. I am 27 right now and planning to collect enough money and build my resume strong to get into a decent Ph.D. program in Europe or Asia. Is my decision wrong? I need some advice from experienced peoples.

Thank you.


texts: Consequences of applying to both research and staff positions at the same school simultaneously

texts:
There are some well-known universities, which I considered applying for several positions at each school (as a recent Ph.D. graduate). The potential problem is that, at each school, some of the positions of my interest are true research positions (either postdoctoral, or research associate), but some are staff positions, despite being closely related to teaching and/or research, i.e., teaching and research assistant (or manager) for education technology platforms (course development), graduate program institutional research (which includes data analysis) and some others.

While I certainly would strongly prefer a true research position, today's tight competitive environment forces me to approach the situation pragmatically, rather than with cautious optimism (my circumstances additionally push me in that direction - I don't have time to apply first to research ones and wait for response, before applying to the staff ones). Therefore, I am thinking about applying to all positions that I see fit, regardless of whether they are true research of staff ones.

Questions:

1) are there any significant reasons against applying to both types of positions simultaneously;

2) will simultaneous applications hurt my chances to be hired on pure research positions?


texts: Is it appropriate to buy a “thank you” gift for a MSc supervisor?

texts:
I'm about to finish my Master of Science and I was just wondering around this forum and the question "Is it appropriate to buy a “thank you” gift for a PhD supervisor?" inspired me for this question.

Is a gift appropriate for a MSc thesis supervisor? If so, what gift is more appropriate?

Note: PhD != MSc, avoid marking as duplicate please


texts: Deferred admission but funding not guaranteed

texts:
I received an offer from a top US school for PhD this March and accepted their offer. Due to some family circumstances, I would not be able to join the program this year. I am an international student, and I have to remain in my country due to some personal and family reasons.

I asked the program about possibility of deferring admission. After hearing my reason, they have decided to defer my admission, but I am not guaranteed funding. Basically, I need to compete with the next batch of applicants for funding (fellowship, TA, RA, or none). I agreed to the same, and I would be getting an offer sometime before April of next year along with funding allotment (if any).

In this context, my questions is: Can I apply to more programs to make sure I have a funded PhD offer for next year?

I realize that there is a certain commitment when deferring an offer, however does the same hold true even when funding is not guaranteed. When I asked the program about my chances of funding, they replied that it is "likely" but "not guaranteed". I am not sure if I can take a "likely" and live with that. What if I don't get any funding (which is basically a rejection) and don't have any other offers? That will be a very sad scenario.

I would like some advice, IMO it is shrewd to apply to more programs, but is it ethical? I don't want to explicitly ask the program this question, since there is a likelihood that they may ask me to simply reapply, which I don't want to. I got off a wait-list, hence not very confident of my chances! Also, since funding is not guaranteed, do I even need to ask permission for applying to more programs? I mean, do they honestly expect a student to commit to a program without the program committing to financial support? I think that is asking a bit too much, and gives the program a complete hold over the student.

Also note that there is one other program (call Y) that I was admitted to this year, which I really liked. I had a very hard time choosing between the two offers, and had I not got into the program that I have accepted and deferred (call X), I would have gone to Y. I think I can get into Y again next year if I apply, since they tried hard to recruit me, but in the end I chose X because of better location (both were equally strong in research). So if X doesn't give me funding next year (effectively reject), I would like to go to Y.

Please share your thoughts. Thank you.


texts: What to do with what I've learned when writing my research proposal?

texts:
During the time to prepare for my application to applying to grad school, I have learned a lot of new knowledge. They are from various sources: scientific papers from insiders in the field, blog posts from them or other individuals, articles explaining the ideas for popular audience, Wikipedia, YouTube, etc. While they help me a lot to understand what the field is so that I can write a good research proposal, after having one I have basically nothing to do with them, except to answer my friends' question: "So, what do you do?", which I can only provide a small fraction of what I really know and want to say.

I think the knowledge has a better potential to help me go further in my career, so I am thinking to turn it into a real article/paper. There will be an international conference in my country in which my field is one topic of it and my furthest goal is to write the article good enough so that I can submit a poster in there. The deadline to submit is before I starting grad school so I guess that I will have to write it by myself. Although I always want to put my best effort to every product I make, I don't want to spend more than one month on writing this in order to move on to my next project. Popular readers will be my audience of course.

Q: The first and foremost question is: is this worth? Are there other alternative ways to do with what I've learned? If making it as an article is indeed worth to do, I still don't know how to maximize the benefit that it will bring to me. I have some more things to consider:

Language: What language should I use? If I write it in English, I can reach more readers and hope that I will find grant easier. However if I write in my native language, I would be the first one to write detailly about this and therefore having an advantage of being the first one, though I admit I don't know what to do next with this advantage in this stage of my career.
Place to publish: Where should I publish this article? Of course I can always post it in my blog, but can it be published elsewhere? If I should write in English, can you suggest some journals/magazines that will accept my work? If it's in my native language, I have two options of where to submit and I don't know which one is better. The first one is an old reputable magazine among researchers in my country. It's a kind of dicussion board where topic can range from introducing new discovery or science news to critics about government policy in science. The other one is a new young but promising science journal that available in both languages, founded by a young researcher. Its focus is narrower, only introduction of actual research of my country researchers in hard science/technology.

Thank you so much for your time to reading this far.


texts: What is the most common way to change fields in academia?

texts:
If you are a young scientist, how can you change fields? Is it better to make one big leap and apply directly to a new job or postdoc or trying to make small consecutive steps during your current job? What should be those small steps?

Just for explanation - in this case it is not like a change from literature to rocket science. The change would be in one broader field and some theoretical and statistical background would remain the same. What would be the best strategy, if you have some good papers in top journals in your field, but you do not have any papers from a field where you would like to move? And there is no such laboratory in your country, so there is no personal contact.


texts: Should I include impact factors / number of citations in publication list?

texts:
I am writing a grant application for a post-doctoral fellowship, and I need to provide a publication list. In the list of papers published in peer-reviewed journals, I wonder if I should include the following information:

Impact factors of the journal?
Number of citations the paper actually raised?

One of the papers raised a pretty large number of citations (several hundreds) despite being published in a low IF, so I wonder how to carry this information...


texts: What is a good way to proofread for a journal article?

texts: What is a good way to proofread a journal article before you submit it? I would like to do more than just spellcheck.


texts: Losing focus in an exam, how does it affect my goal - grad school

texts:
So I'll explain my self briefly, I've just finished my first semester in my undergrad program and my goal is to move on to masters in the US in Stanford or near that area.

So obviously grades are very important and here's the problem, I'm putting the hours in throughout all the semester (easily 10 hours a day, sometimes longer) and I don't have  issues with understanding nor with executing what was learned but come the day of the exam and I do TERRIBLY and I can't explain why, I don't know whether it's because of stress  or something else and I feel lost as everyone I score a B instead of an A I feel like my grad school goal is only getting further away from me.

I'd appreciate any tips or ideas with how to deal with this.
I'm currently retaking all the tests to improve my grades but it's exhausting because the material is not the problem...

In case it matters, I'm talking about computer science.

if the title is inappropriate please let me know how to change it

Thank you

Edit: my topic is different from the one  mwhombat linked to because where I live you don't get to pick your courses I can't focus on project based courses some have then but most don't so I HAVE to get better at test taking


texts: What author affiliation to put when you work for one university and study at another?

texts: I am an author on a poster, but I am unsure of what to put for my affiliation. I am a graduate  student, but the poster and corresponding project is in no way connected with my university. I work for another university and the project relates to materials from that university, however they are not sponsoring the project. Any suggestions?


texts: What are the guidelines for minimum "implementation/proof-of-concept" requirements in computer science research?

texts: Some aspects of computer science research requires some form of implementation and an according evaluation. I have not yet seen where the minimum level of implementation expected for an academic paper is defined. For example, if   a "novel" work requires a persistence layer and a researcher uses a file based method e.g. csv. Will that be wrong? Will his architecture point to a database or a file system ?


texts: How helpful is a Latin honors designation (cum laude, magna cum laude) for admission to PhD programs?

texts: I have the option of graduating from my university (U.S.) a semester early, and if I do so, I would receive the lowest honors designation of cum laude. However, if I do not graduate early, I will be able to receive the highest honors designation of summa cum laude. How important is this designation for graduate school admissions, and is there a major difference between these two? My GPA would remain unchanged, the only difference is completion of other honors program requirements.


texts: How should I interpret advisor overly positive feedbacks?

texts:
I am currently in the writing phase of my master thesis in a US-based university. Almost all of the feedback I am receiving from my advisor is either linguistic suggestions or just positive supportive kinda of a language. I am the primary investigator from my thesis.

How should I interpret this positive feedback and lack of critical comments? Could it indicate that the work is so weak and not even worth corrections? How can I direct their responses to be more critical?


texts:
I have a classroom (as opposed to online) course for which I set the date of the first exam about a week before the last date a student can withdraw without penalty, such that I can have grades returned before the withdrawal date.  The date was in the syllabus, released on the first day of classes.  A student has asked to take a makeup exam at a later date or to take the exam remotely.  I generally allow makeup exams when there exigent reasons, and in the United States some conditions, such as military deployment, impose a legal obligation to accommodate the student. So, I asked why.

The student replied that he would be "on vacation" in connection with a later work-related trip.  In other words, his job is sending him someplace nice and he wants to go early to allow some play time with the travel paid by the job.

My students, who think I am Darth Vader, would never believe it, but I am torn about this request.  The university's rules tell me when I must allow a make-up exam, not when I may.  I have decided that if I do allow such an exam, it will be before, not after the scheduled time.  Allowing a makeup exam will, as usual I think, be modestly inconvenient for me.  I believe I need to consider the appearance of fairness to the other students, and a precedent I may set that would affect other faculty.

Are there general rules or best practices about when professors should/would allow makeup exams?  What should one do in the case where a student's absence is clearly voluntary, but which is a "nice" opportunity for the student?


texts: How to inform a student about my appreciation of his/her original solutions

texts:
In the final exam of a course, a student has solved some problems in a really ingenious way.
He gets perfect score anyway.
What is the appropriate way to inform him about my appreciation of his solutions?
(Also what if I don't have the occasion to meet him again?)


texts: I wonder: everyone in academia handles a lot of email, on all aspects of their work. I mean, emails about conferences, emails about journals and papers, emails about research, teaching, supervized students, and so on. So if you have a big announcement to send to many people (eg seminar or conference) does it matter WHEN you send it? I mean, is it better to send it on Wednesday afternoon (middle of the week) rather than Saturday evening (middle of week end)? I imagine if people receive the email at time they are busy they possibly will overlook it.


texts: Emphasis on new terminology in technical paper: title, abstract and body

texts:
I have two new terms that I introduce in my paper: resource security and CerberOS (the second is the name of the system). I use these terms in the title, abstract and body. How and where is emphasis best placed?

For the title, I use title case:

  CerberOS: Resource Security and Sharing for IoT Devices

For the abstract, at the moment, I’m italicizing but not capitalizing resource security at first usage, i.e.:

  bla bla bla ... resource security.

I am italicizing CerberOS on first usage, i.e.:

  We made CerberOS.

I was thinking of doing the same for the body.

Is this too aggressive with the emphasis for the abstract? I was also thinking of capitalizing, but that is even more emphasis. Perhaps only capitalize resource security in the body?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What systems are most effective for monitoring student attendance?

I'm looking for a simple software package, or online service, whereby teachers can record any students that are late/absent for any of their classes throughout the day. I'm not after a daily attendance system, I need a system that can be easy and quick for teachers to log attendance of students to their classes. Is there any such thing? If not, what do you recommend? a wiki? or something else?


texts: What makes papers publishable in top-tier journals?

texts:
What are some factors that enable some papers to be published in top-tier journals while others (apparently similar) cannot?

For example, in the field of control theory, there are so many papers with complicated mathematics. Some paper is related to a very similar topic, but some get published in a top-tier journal while others not.

This question is important because knowing this, then I know which journal my paper might be submitted to that is possible to be accepted in the end.


texts: What are good platforms for collaborative writing with multiple senior authors with limited technical background?

texts:
I am taking part in a project that involves several authors with so many back and forth in writing. I am curious to know what usually are digital platforms or role of thumbs in term of managing writing, edits, and comments by several authors who do not have a vast technical background and do not have time to learn new things such as GIT or LateX?

Do you prefer google documents for example or what?


texts: How to reject an advisor for master's thessis?

texts:
(I could not find the same question. If this has been asked before please let me know.)
I wrote an e-mail to a professor to be his student and he responded with his area of interests. Then I wrote for further information but he did not respond for couple of days. So I contacted another advisor and we agreed to work together.
Few hours later the first advisor replied saying he could give me something to work.
How can I let him know that I agreed to work with another professor? Did I do a mistake by not waiting more for his response and contacting other advisor?
Thank you.


texts: How to find out if I will really like academia?

texts:
To start I love learning and I love my field I am working in.  I also have enjoyed the limited number of times I have been able to teach.

I have an MS in Computer Science and I have been working full time now for 10+ years.  I am considering a future career in Academia as a teacher and/or research.  Does anyone have suggestions of things I could do on my own to help decide on whether or not this route really is for me?

Also, I have looked through questions, but I have not seen this particular question answered well.

Is it possible to pursue a PHD while working full time?

I completed my MS online through Drexel University, so I believe I have the personal motivation.


texts: How does someone who holds two doctoral degrees sign their name?

texts: If just received second doctoral degree, how does one sign their name at the end of an email or other correspondence.  Would it just stay Dr. So and So or be Dr. Dr. So and So?


texts: Are NSF RUI proposals evaluated separately or are they evaluated against the general pool for that program/division/directorate?

texts:
I am preparing to write and submit a grant proposal to the US National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Research at Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) program. This will be my first submission to this program.

From my understanding, proposals submitted through RUI are sent to the appropriate program in the appropriate division and directorate. Since my project involves synthetic chemistry in alternative reaction media, my proposal would probably go to the Chemical Synthesis (SYN) program in the Division of Chemistry under the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

My colleagues, both in chemistry and in other disciplines, have shared conflicting reports about how RUI proposals are evaluated. Will my proposal be evaluated against the entire pool of proposals in the SYN program from all institutions? Or, are RUI proposals evaluated separately?

I am hoping that RUI proposals are evaluated separately, since I do not have access to the same research infrastructure that someone at a research institution does.


texts: When is it appropriate to ask whether relocation costs would be covered?

texts: For one who has accepted a faculty position overseas, when is it appropriate to ask whether relocation costs would be reimbursed?


texts: What is the best way to deal with cranks?

texts:
Imagine you are minding your own business when you receive an email from someone who claims to have discovered the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. He provides some "details" about his theory, then says he wants to meet you and / or arrange a time for a phone conservation to discuss it. What should you do?
The only thing I've seen is this 1983 article by Underwood Dudley about what to do when the trisector comes. Dudley says not to examine the trisector's proof, and also not to direct the trisector to the proof that trisection is impossible. Instead one should send computer-generated results showing that the trisection is imperfect. Problem with this is that it only works for questions that can be attacked by computers - there was a recent question here on Academia SE challenging conservation of angular momentum which this won't work for.
What are some general guidelines for dealing with these situations?
Edit: ignoring an email is easy, but what if the crank calls or visits in person?


texts: Display well-roundedness in letters for Grad school applications

texts:
Many students have asked for a letter of recommendation to support their grad school applications at US universities. Most of them aim for business schools, but many also go for science.

Now, admission committees to American undergraduate programs consider not only the prospective student's school performance but also their "well-roundedness". But how does that matter for graduate programs? Should I appeal to that in a letter of recommendation and if yes, how should I do that? One student actually asked to write a letter that makes him appear more well-rounded.

How much does this weigh in for grad school admissions? Are there differences between scientific disciplines to consider?


texts: How to respond to a citation request which is not relevant?

texts:
Often, as soon as I submit a pre-submission paper on the arxiv, I receive a couple of emails from other researchers pointing out their previous relevant work, which in their words is connected with mine and deserve citations.

Sometimes, it happens that their work is really connected with my work, and perhaps even anticipating it. For some reason I was not aware of that, my fault. In these cases, I usually add the citation and even refer to the work in a more extensive way.

However, most of the emails just point to works that are indeed on the same topic, perhaps also very important works in the field, but which are not even similar nor related to my work. In this cases, I really don't know what to do.
I could inflate the reference of the paper, giving credits to papers which really did not contribute in any way to my work. Or I could just ignore it, with the hope that one of the authors of that papers will not end up to be one of my referees...

What is the common practice in this cases?

(see also this question for another point of view)


texts: how to quote text in IEEE Access Journal

texts:
Suppose we are supposed to follow the following MS Word template for IEEE Access Journal: https://typeset.io/formats/ieee/ieee-access/b8ddcc27ee434f391d0df476a8e17ffd

Magnetic encoders use a combination of permanent magnets and magnetic
sensors to detect movement and position. A typical construction uses
magnets placed around the edge of a rotor disc attached to a shaft and
positioned so the sensor detects changes in the magnetic field as the
alternating poles of the magnet pass over it.
The simplest configuration would have a single magnet, with its north
and south poles on opposite edges of the rotor, and a single sensor.
Such a device would produce a sine wave output with a frequency equal
to the rotational speed of the shaft.
Source: https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/components/article/21798142/understanding-resolution-in-optical-and-magnetic-encoders

Suppose I want to quote the above information in a paper. How do I do it? Is the way I've done it below correct? I couldn't find the answer in the template. Please note that I've added the phrase "[Hall effect or]" at the beginning. Thanks in advance!
"[Hall effect or] Magnetic encoders use a combination of permanent magnets and magnetic sensors to detect movement and position. A typical construction uses magnets placed around the edge of a rotor disc attached to a shaft and positioned so the sensor detects changes in the magnetic field as the alternating poles of the magnet pass over it.
The simplest configuration would have a single magnet, with its north and south poles on opposite edges of the rotor, and a single sensor. Such a device would produce a sine wave output with a frequency equal to the rotational speed of the shaft." [1]
REFERENCES
[1] G. Monari, "Understanding Resolution In Optical And Magnetic Encoders," [Online]. Available: https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/components/article/21798142/understanding-resolution-in-optical-and-magnetic-encoders.
[Accessed 18 11 2020].


texts:
Several years ago, my colleagues and I attempted to get a small paper published, it was rejected and we ran out of time - and as it was a 'side-project' type of paper, we left it at that.  We thought that was the end of it - this was not the case.

One of the reviewers who made themselves known to us wrote some pretty terse messages to us about his disagreement with what was a relatively minor point.  We graciously took his feedback as he is an established (published) researcher in that field. We moved on to different fields - which this reviewer has no published work in.

What has been happening since is that he will write an email questioning every single paper that I get published, not deliberately being insulting - but not offering anything constructive nor asking for clarification of the content etc.  He has admitted that what I research is beyond his area of expertise - examples of his questions are (remember, these papers are collaborative and peer reviewed):

"Are you sure you know how to use (equipment)?" - when the paper stated a previously published (by a separate author) protocol has been followed.

"Are you sure you did enough trials?" - this would be fine as criticism, except the next email stated "That many trials seems like overkill" referring to the same paper.

One particularly unhelpful comment from him was "Did you actually pass high school English?"

Criticism is fine, and is sought for any and all work that we do, but when the statements do not offer anything substantial, are contradictory or just rude - this is not criticism, it is unhelpful noise -especially when it is posted publicly where we display links to the work (he deletes his comments soon after most of the time)

How do I deal with this persistent 'academic stalking' while at the same time, not make a 'fuss'?