texts: Affiliation on the papers extracted from the thesis

texts:
I graduated from PhD almost 2 years ago and I am a full time assistant professor in another country.

A paper of mine was accepted recently (main paper of the thesis).

1- Now my supervisor asks me to use my old affiliation (i.e. the university I studied) because she thinks I have completed the thesis while I was there. I received financial help for my PhD which I have acknowledged in the paper. I responded that I am legally bound to my new university and I could not do that. Am I supposed to do that?

Btw. both my supervisors are included as co-authors (with their affiliation which matches my old university).

2- Now again she asks me to at least put my old university's name first. I am the main author (and honestly have done all of the work. My two supervisors read my work, gave comments and possibly corrected English mistakes).

If I am the main author, the correct format requires me to mention my own university first. If I just change the order of affiliations list (a. old university, b. my university) and still keep my name as first author (my name *b), is that acceptable?

3- What is your suggestion for the remaining papers that come out of the thesis?


texts: How to handle the fact that the advisor is disappointed?

texts:
I am a first year master student and I am working as a student research assistant with one of my professors. He is nice and very competent. Moreover, I am supervised by a Post-Doc. A few months ago they asked me to do some things related to my work since what I had done was not completely correct. I was upset but went over it since it was the very beginning and what I am doing is completely new to me. Today I had another meeting with them and it seems to me that I disappointed them again since I have to start over again (more or less) and the professor asked the Post-Doc to supervise me more during this phase of the project.

Have you ever been in such a situation? Being wrong in more than one occasion even if the advisor asked you to do something (somehow guided you)?


texts: Doing Bachelors degree in Maths as distant education for Phd in Mathematics after regular Master's in Optics

texts:
I finished my masters in Optics(5 years bachelors+masters together) recently. In the course I had to study subjects like Classical mechanics, Statistical Mechanics,Electrodynamics, Quantum physics and advanced mathematical courses during the first 2 years of the syllabus, just after schooling. These subjects are usually taught in Masters. I even undertaken 2 projects, only to get exposed myself that my ability to do problems are hardly improved during the course it was not how the course was designed. At the end of everything I truly feel that my fundamentals in both physics and mathematics are extremely poor.

It is essential that I improve my maths, I even feel like it is more of my area of interest rather than physics, so I was thinking of switching my field by taking a bachelors degree in pure mathematics(not permissible to directly to get admitted to Master’s in maths
after Master’s in Optics in my country), via distant education as regular classes are possible for me. But mostly I am advised not to do it as I was told doing bachelors degree after my Masters will not be considered in a good way by the admission committee.

The things that I am particularly concerned are:

By the time I finish my Master’s in Mathematics I’ll be 32 and without any prior project experience in the field, so will that adversely affect my chances of getting into a funded PhD program ?
As I am doing or planning to do maths degree as distant education, will it affect getting into a funded PhD program ?
If I could only do my bachelor’s and for some reason I could not do master’s, how will it affect if I try to apply for a PhD program in mathematics or in theoretical physics ?

See it is better to work in theoretical physics with whatever knowledge I have than being stuck by doing mathematics bachelors or masters degree in Mathematics. So that's what I am seriously concerned about as I really don't want to meet a dead end by trying to switch my field.

Or If I am going ahead with this plan, is there any way I can improve my chances of getting into a funded doctoral program in Europe, like taking foreign language or GRE subject ?

Note: I have attached a copy of the email I have sent enquiring my problem to one of my senior. I am truly sorry, Its bit long but I couldn't make it any shorter, atleast reading 1,2 paragraphs would give an idea about what I am confused about.

link


texts: What incentives does an advisor have to help PhD students graduate in a timely manner?

texts:
I've heard it suggested several times on this site that advisors (especially in experimental fields where the PI may benefit from a cheap, highly skilled workforce) have an incentive to prevent their PhD students from graduating in a timely manner, or at least that they have no incentive to actively promote graduation when the student is "ready." (Whatever "ready" means for that particular student.)

For example, user47148 says

  You are the only one who cares if you finish. To your advisor you are cheap labor.

bfoste01 says

  I often wonder if keeping highly-skilled cheap labor around to do something with the data that a PI is collecting from a high-profile grant is often an implicit factor that impacts students' trajectories. In which case it is not uncommon to see students in their 6th or 7th year of the program receive funding.

and grandmah77 refers to

  keeping your advisor from keeping you there forever as cheap labor.

I am interested in learning more about the opposite: what incentives do advisors have to help their students graduate as soon as they're ready?

This question discusses incentives for advisors to increase their PhD completion rate. Presumably this is part of the answer, because a student who isn't allowed to graduate in a timely manner might just drop out instead.

But besides for that, what incentives (if any) does an advisor have to help students graduate when they are ready, rather than dragging out the length of their degree?

(In some programs, there are policies that limit the duration of PhD funding. I'm asking about programs where PhD students can potentially hang on for several years past the mean time-to-degree.)

P.S. answers supported by references to actual data would be amazing.


texts: I submitted a paper five months ago. Should I wait a little bit more for a response?

texts:
I submitted a paper to a journal five months ago. The status of the paper was 'With Editor' for the first three months. After three months from my submission, I sent the journal a polite enquiry about my submission. I did not receive any reply, however, the status of the paper changed from 'With Editor' to 'Under Review' less than 24 hours after I sent my enquiry.

It has been two more months now, and I still have not received anything back. What should I do? I am assuming that the editor has forgotten about my paper, then when he or she received the reminder, sent it to a few people for review. In which case, I was going to wait another month, then enquire about my paper again. Is this too conservative? I would love to get a reply, as this paper is part of my forthcoming PhD thesis which I'm about to submit soon.


texts: Why does the copy editor want Nature to be “Nature (London)”?

texts:
I have noticed that the copy editors of at least two publishers (the American Institute for Physics and American Physical Society) do something weird when they copy-edit my submitted papers. For all references to papers in Nature, which I include in my references as such:

  J. W. Doe, Nature 197, 412 (1974)

they replace “Nature” by “Nature (London)”:

  J. W. Doe, Nature (London) 197, 412 (1974)

I do not understand why they do that! I know it is customary in they style for books to have a city next to the publisher name (though I don't think it is very relevant in this day and age), but why do it for journals? Are there multiple different editions of Nature?


texts: What is a good length for the statement of purpose in a U.S. PhD application?

texts:
Certain schools give you specific details about their statement of purpose. For example a maximum of a certain number of words, double spaced, two pages maximum, etc. If a school does not provide any of the above-mentioned details, what would be a good lenght in terms of number of words to engage the admission committee? Is a single space statement of purpose too compressed, or is it acceptable?

I know that brevity and conciseness are important, but I find it hard to fit all the information they want in a one page. And I have to list relevant experiences, future goals, research interests, and which people I would like to work with in the department.


texts: Can advisor list a former PhD student, who changed advisors, in his/her CV?

texts: I found that my former PhD advisor was still listing me as his student and he was the chair of my committee. I changed advisors a few years ago and left him. He didn't remain in my committee. It is true that he was my advisor to that point. But I feel it's not fair to my current advisor, who actually supported me and guided me to dissertation and graduation. Since I didn't graduate under the former one, my name doesn't have graduation year in his CV, which looks like I dropped out. If a professor was an advisor of a student at some point, can he list the student as his student forever?


texts: Are professors at a public university in the U.S. considered to be "employed by the U.S. government"?

texts:
Also, is a grad student who is being funded by an NSF grant considered to be "employed by the U.S. government"?

I ask because I'm submitting a paper, and I have to state whether or not all authors are "employed by the U.S. government".


texts: Benefits to home country while pursuing Masters in pure Mathematics abroad

texts:
I am a senior undergrad from India applying for Masters in Pure Mathematics in the UK. Due to my weak financial condition, my masters depends on a scholarship that I will be interviewed for in a month. The scholarship is called Commonwealth Master's Scholarship and it is highly competitive.

  While applying for this scholarship, there is a section about how my study in the UK will benefit my home country once I am back, and what developments can be initiated. This is easier to write when one goes for courses like Resources Management, Bio-chemistry, Bio-technology etc. Such fields require sophisticated labs and modern technology which India lacks. Students specific to these courses can learn these key attributes and then implement the scheme, once they are back. But what should a pure mathematician write in this case, given that, my research interests are mostly Measure theory and Functional Analysis and they bear no significance to the market or to the lives of common people, at least as of now.

I am not certain if this platform allows for such personal questions, but given the stake is my career, I decided to seek advice from here. In case this is irrelevant, please comment below.

Thank you.


texts: What to do when a thesis adviser refuses to recommend me?

texts:
After I completed my PhD program, during which I published one refereed paper, I applied for several academic positions.
For a while, my two main thesis advisers agreed to write letters of recommendation, but after a few couple of years, one of them told me he would no longer recommend me because I had not published enough. He even admitted that it was not his job to judge my publication record -- potential employers could do that -- but until I published again, he wouldn't recommend me.

I do admit that I should have published more during my PhD program, but I was always under the impression that my publishing would begin after I had got a relevant job. During the period between graduation and being refused a recommendation, I'd been a consultant, a college teacher and unemployed. I could have published on my own but, after the delay, I felt hindered by being unemployed and rather "burned out" after the thesis writing process. Catch-22? Even more ironic is the fact that I had asked my thesis advisers if I could submit my thesis in the form of a series of published papers (this was allowed under the rules), instead of as an unpublished monograph, and both said no!

Don't thesis advisers have a duty to both encourage candidates to publish and to recommend them for academic positions? At the same time, is it right that universities expect job applicants to already have publications before they arrive? What could I have done, other than publish as an independent after the fact? It is hard not to feel very bitter about the whole PhD process.

Addendum
Since it was not yet listed, I add How to handle not having my PhD advisor as a reference? is a related question.


texts: Why does academia.edu reserve the right to sell, modify, and "exploit" my papers if I post them there?

texts:
In academia.edu's terms of service, it says

  By making available any Member Content on or through the Site or Services, you hereby grant to Academia.edu a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license, with the right to sublicense, to use, view, copy, adapt, modify, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, stream, broadcast and otherwise exploit such Member Content only on, through or by means of the Site or Services.

This seems crazy, and posting anything there would clearly violate even the most lenient publisher agreement (for instance, many math publishers allow me to post the final paper on the internet, but not to sell it).  Furthermore, these terms seem potentially very harmful to the users.  What is their rationale for employing such terms?  And why would anyone in their right mind even consider posting a paper there?

Note (as of July 2016): this part of the terms of service have changed and seems slightly less horrific.  Though other parts seem more insane, and also in contradiction with each other, like they own all your intellectual property rights.


texts: How to determine which textbook problems are the most useful when studying?

texts:
If I have to study for an exam, like organic chemistry, I know that I should be studying my notes and, most importantly, practice problems.

However, when you have to review for final that is cumulative, you have to go through potentially hundreds of problems assigned. I understand the best case scenario is that you budget your time throughout the weeks to do them all, but some problems are just repeats of a very simple concept (sometimes with a nuanced variation).

My question is: how do you determine out of all the problems assigned which ones would be the most effective to study for the final/an exam?


texts: Why do people do postdoc(s) when they can already do research as a professor?

texts: I think PhD is the first time, mostly, when a person does original new work and in this process they gain the skills to do research. So, I was wondering why do people do postdoc(s) when they already have those research capabilities which they can practice even being a Professor or in Industries. Is there something else left to be learned?


texts: Student dissatisfied with exam grade: what to watch out for?

texts:
A student who has trained hard for my exam got a just-passing grade. They are dissatisfied with it, and have mailed me to ask to have a look at my corrections. Naturally, I agreed to this. In the mail, they are already calling into question my corrections and the exam content. Is there anything in particular I can do at this point to minimize the chances of a dragged-out discussion or procedure with the exam committee?

Crucial info:

The course I gave was extracurricular, and planned to be pass/fail based on participation. I only added the exam after this student asked for it, because they needed a grade for some administrative reason. The exam was taken by a very small number of other students (inadequate comparison material).
At that point, I asked the student if they aimed for a particular grade, and the answer was 'no'.
The student got all knowledge-based questions right, and flunked almost all applied knowledge questions.
As the course was extracurricular and covered an advanced topic, I made sure to cover the basics, but on top of that I covered a lot of content quickly, allowing advanced students to learn additional things if they wanted to.
I suspect this student simply missed the bulk of that information, partly due to a language barrier.
During correction, I already scrapped one question from the exam that no-one got right and that strongly seemed like I had mentioned it too passingly during the course.
After calculating the grade based on a linear transformation of the point score, I felt that the best grade (which was moderate) did not give credit to that person's understanding; besides, the student discussed here would have received a fail grade. I added two point-increments to the final grade, fixing both of these issues.


texts: can I take parts from my thesis (different language) to be used in a paper without paraphrasing?

texts: My PhD thesis is in French, can I take parts from it, just translate them to English (without any paraphrasing) and use them in my next paper? would this cause any plagiarism issues?


texts: How to politely turn down an on-site faculty interview offer

texts: I have decided to accept a tenure-track assistant professor offer. But at this moment, I still have a virtual on-campus interview with a different university. It is now the time to inform the university that I won't be able to participate in the interview. Three days ago when I was still waiting for a pending offer, I told them that I would attend the interview. I want to seek some suggestions about turning down the interview invite in a professional manner.


texts: When are reference letters requested during applications for a professorship (W1/W2/W3) in Germany?

texts: When applying for a professorship (W1/W2/W3) in Germany one always has to list three and sometimes more previous employers/supervisors who are willing to write a reference letter. At which stage of the application process are these people ususally contacted and asked to write this reference letter? Before the applicants are invited, after the invitations are sent or after the visits/talks of the applicants?


texts: Academically dismissed from grad school but want to reapply

texts:
Back in the Fall of 2013, I attended a masters program straight out of college. Turned out to be extremely overwhelming relocating to NYC, living on my own and starting grad school. I knew I was in the right field but my anxiety got the best of me and I struggled speaking up in class which of course negatively impacted my grades. By the second semester I already knew I needed to leave and recuperate before I could return just to work on my anxiety problem. The problem was that it was too late for me to withdraw and I ended up trying my best to complete the semester even though a huge part of me did not want to be there anymore, especially since my teachers felt I was not ready for the program given my lack of contribution in the class discussions. By the end of the semester I decided that I did not want to return to the school (was not thrilled with the program there or the faculty) but later on found out I had been academically dismissed since my GPA fell below 3.0 to 2.96.
Since last Fall (2014), I have been just focusing on work and working on my anxiety with a therapist but have been thinking about applying to the same field (mental health counseling) at another school for the fall of 2016. Would I have a fair shot at being admitted into another school in the same field given that I was dismissed from my previous program? Just wondering if anyone else has been in a similar situation.
Thank you in advance for your feedback.


texts: Best way to apply for position as a teaching assistant

texts:
Soon, I'll start my last year of undergraduate studies in physics.
At my university it is possible (but not too common for undergraduates) to be employed as a teaching assistant for a first year's course. In order to get some work experience and do what I really enjoy, namely explaining physics-stuff to other students, I would be ecstatic if I got such a position. However, on the university website, there is no information given about how to apply, or whether they aleady have enough teaching assistants for the next semester.
Therefore, I plan to directly "apply" to the lecturer of the course I would enjoy getting involved in the most, and ask her if she would employ me as a teaching assistant. I'm planning to include the following things in the application e-mail I'm sending her:

A cv (created using LaTeX, to show I'm capable of using LaTeX)
My grades (that aren't too bad, especially the ones of when I took this course myself)
A well-designed guide I created in LaTeX, which describes how she could use the video communication software Zoom's "breakout rooms" as a system to host the otherwise in-person question time each week, in the likely case the university doesn't allow attendance classes

Now, my question is about if the above listed attachments will be effective in making a good impression and persuading her to consider me for the position.
I'm especially unsure whether including this "guide for doing the question time in Zoom" is any good, as I might leave an impression of being overly controlling, or she might feel obliged to use this guide if he employs me, and, thus, won't do it in the first place. On the other hand, including it would show her that I am highly motivated and have a lot of initiative.
I highly appreciate your answers and advice. Getting this position would mean a whole lot to me.


texts: I have found a mistake on someone's code published online: what is the protocol?

texts:
I have been using an econometrics toolbox for around 2 years and it is great, very useful. It is available from someone's personal website.

I have found a mistake in one piece of code which has set me back for a considerable amount of time. It is a small change but with vast consequences. Instead of questioning the code, I did my idea.

Now that I have found the problem, what is the protocol for highlighting this? Is emailing the author necessary?


texts: How many courses should I discuss in an academic video interview?

texts:
One of the questions some academic hiring committees sometimes ask job candidates during the interview process is, "What courses would you like to develop and teach?"

How should a candidate respond if asked that question?

How many courses should they describe?
How detailed should their description of each course be? (Is the title sufficient, or should there be 2–3 sentences describing the content?)
Should they mention courses they could potentially develop -- but might not be an area of direct expertise -- given sufficient interest/demand?
Should they be prepared to discuss the curriculum of these courses in detail, or is it okay to leave that level of planning to the future?

I am the job candidate, and the institution emphasizes teaching. I have already started planning one course that I would love to teach, I have thoughts about another I'd love to develop, and could list another one or two that could be useful to their department and that I could develop and teach, given sufficient time to prepare them. I expect that I should try to answer this question in less than 90 seconds.


texts: Professor didn't write a letter because I didn't waive my right to view it. How to let him know that I have changed this?

texts:
I'm applying to UIUC and have asked 3 of my professors to write me recommendation letters. One professor, who I discussed my application with before extensively, wrote back to me after I was done with everything that he doesn't write a LOR to students who do not waive their right to view the letter at a later date, because if I don't trust my professors, I shouldn't be asking for their help.

I'm pretty dumbfounded by this, considering that he never mentioned this before and that I've never come across a situation like this. It's not even a trust issue! It's pure feedback. Why would you keep feedback from someone anyway?

So I waived my right to view his letter, but now I'm not sure how to write back to him. I don't want to write an uncomfortable email to the department I'm applying to - UIUC procedure - as to why I have to switch professors if he still refuses to write one. Is there a polite, apologetic way to say to him that I had not intended to convey any feelings of mistrust, and that it was to see what were my strengths and weaknesses from a professor's perspective? Or should I take the weird route and change professors, because he'll write me something less-than-glowing now?


texts: How do I give credit to some image I included in my paper?

texts:
I recreated an image from a paper I liked (didn't use the same image to get out of the asking permission which could take a while). Now the reviewer asked us to give credit to the original paper. How do I do that? Is it okay to write that my image was 'inspired' from this other paper, as I didn't copy the image but used the image as a reference to create my own?

Its a drawing of blood vessels (with appropriate details related to our work).


texts: Why do most scientists think Brexit is bad for British science?

texts:
From what I've seen in the media, almost all British scientists think Brexit is bad for British science. However I don't understand why. Some of the most common reasons I've seen are:

Loss of funding - UK researchers receive lots of funds from EU grants, and these would not last once the UK leaves. But since the UK pays the EU more than it receives in benefits, the UK could simply redirect some of that money into science. It could be that the UK does not actually redirect the money, but that would be because the UK as a whole decided that science isn't worth it, in which case it would be democracy in action and one can't really complain.

Isolation - this seems to be based on the idea that Brexit makes the UK a less attractive place to work in. However the US didn't seem to suffer a similar brain drain after the 2016 elections, so it's not obvious to me that the UK will. Individuals might leave, but there's apparently no shortage of people wanting to move to the UK anyway (e.g. there were record numbers of international applicants to British universities in spite of Brexit).

Loss of collaborations - it's not clear to me why this would happen. The EU presumably doesn't have a "you may only collaborate with other EU researchers" rule, since there're lots of countries that are not part of the EU. But if they don't have such a rule then presumably collaborations can persist whether or not the UK is within the EU. Further, the EU would be incentivized to keep such collaborations because they're presumably win-win. Finally, even if EU collaborations are jeopardized, there's still the rest of the world. There are scientific powerhouses like the US that aren't part of the EU either.

Other reasons I've seen, like "there's no clarity on what we can or cannot do", should be temporary. They might be causing problems now, but five years in the future they should be resolved also.

Is there anything about Brexit that is fundamentally injurious to British science? If not, why do UK scientists so universally regard Brexit as grim?


texts: What to say to one PhD offer when still waiting to hear the result of a different and preferred PhD application?

texts:
I have had two PhD interviews. One of the position (position A) I like more than the other (position B).

Now, I have gotton a reply from position B saying that they will offer me the PhD. However, before replying yes/no, I would like to know what the response is from position A.

Will it be good practice to let position B know that I will answer them once I know what the status is of my other application? Or is this sharing too much information?


texts: Waiving library costs if the student has own access

texts:
Costs of print and electronic resources including access to journals and books are usually part of tuition fees for PhD and MSc programmes.

Are there universities which waive such costs if the student doesn't need them, e.g., has his/her own or external adequate resources?


texts: Dissertation formatting: should foreign words and Latin abbreviations be italicized?

texts:
In English language non-fiction books, it used to be common that foreign words were italicized, including abbreviated Latin words and phrases: op. cit., et al., ceteris paribus, ex post, and so on.  In books published in the last 20 years, I notice that this convention is less common and, instead, most books use plain text for foreign words.

Question: Should foreign words be italicized in a dissertation (field: Computational Social Science)?  Can you think of a good reason for not doing it?

In my opinion, using italics for these is both helpful to readers and appropriate for a dissertation.  I'm inclined to adopt this convention.  Since I'm using LaTeX, it is easy for me to do, so there is no issue of extra work or inconsistency.

Our university formatting requirements for dissertations are silent on this and many other detailed issues.  My adviser has no opinion, other than that he wants 100% consistency.

Context: I am already going above and beyond the minimal dissertation formatting requirements.  All my cross-references are active hyperlinks.  I have a full glossary. I have customized URL formatting so that the are visually nice and don't distract from surrounding text (e.g., in bibliography).  In this context, italicizing foreign words is a very small matter.  I'm posting a question here because I'm genuinely curious about what other people do and their opinion of whether this formatting convention adds value to any reader, not just my committee.


texts: How to effectively get a post-doc position

texts:
The question is really an attempt to ask for help and advice from academic staff members, industrial research staff or anyone who has had personal experience with Post-doc job applications.

Obviously there are lots of websites that list post-doc positions, and some are dedicated just for that. However in reality these positions have a lot of hidden intricacies that might lead you down a path that has been a dead end for a long time. The applicant however learns about this just at the very end of the process.

This is somewhat frustrating since most of the people I know about looking for a postdoc are in the final stages of their PhD and really cannot afford to waste too much time on the wrong thing.

Some ideas that raise my concern into the straightforwardness of a postdoc application are:

Many Post-Doc positions are advertised just for the sake of advertising the position, however sometimes the successful candidate had been chosen already, even before the position was open !
A lot of advise I get is that i should contact the concerned Professor/person directly and not wait for a position to be open, being proactive
Some positions are just out of reach for fresh PhD graduates because other previous post-docs are also applying for the same position and so the competition becomes unfair

I am hoping that this question leads into real world, clear and effective advice for people looking to get a Post-doc position


texts: Where do new ideas come from in research?

texts:
I am a PhD student working in computational theory which includes some amount of mathematics. I am currently in the middle stage. I have read a few research papers and have been working on some problem. I wonder how new idea's come into mind? I spend most of my time thinking about research problems again re-reading the problem statement and many times I try to read related works. I have been able to come up with new ideas but not something which is something like whole research paper. I try to focus as much as possible but still not focus is not working. I am wondering how researchers come up with new idea.

Question: How to to come up with new ideas or approach for research as a PhD student?

Some advice I have got is read-read and write and repeat but does not work for me.


texts: Entering PhD with bad masters grades and no thesis

texts:
I am a foreign national who came to the US to pursue my Master and now working at a robotics startup company. I had pretty good grades and awards from my bachelor's degree. But, after coming to the US, because of not eating well and having financial issues, I could not concentrate well on my master's degree and ended up getting just passing grade which is 3.0 out of 4.0. I did not do any thesis in my master. I really thought that this was the end and I would not pursue a PhD or come near academics at all in my life.

Lately, after working at my company, I feel like learning and knowing more about it. I am doing some online courses and learning constantly. But, I would like to pursue a PhD in the near future. My problems are, I don’t really have good connections with anyone to write me recommendation letters and I didn’t do a thesis in my master and moreover, I had just passing GPA and no research papers with my name. I don’t know how to revive myself from this situation. Please help. Thanks!


texts: How can I know if I am able to pursue a PhD?

texts:
I am a 3rd-year computer engineering student at a mid-tier state school with a high GPA (3.97/4.0), top of my class, and 1 semester worth of research. I am also currently participating in a very prestigious REU program, so I do have a decent amount of research experience. I have also taken the GRE and done pretty well (mid 80s) percentile in verb/quant and 99th percentile in AWA. I've also basically narrowed down my research interests to 2 fields, so I have a general idea of what I'd like to specialize in. My goal is to become a Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and I'm starting to contemplate applying to grad schools. I really want a PhD because I know that it is absolutely necessary for my goals.

My only problem is that I am afraid of doing the PhD, because I feel that I won't remember everything (or a good amount) of everything from undergrad. This especially scares me because despite my successes in undergrad, I'm not sure that I could pass the qualifying exams. I guess I'm just afraid of the unknown; do you think that I should just go for it?

Thanks, sorry if my question comes off as rambling; I really want to earn a PhD so I can be a professor or faculty member at some point and knowing that I could fail is very scary.


texts: Is there a good alternative to the CRAAP test?

texts: I want to teach and post posters for the CRAAP test (Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose), however, some colleagues, unfamiliar with this, aren't amused by the acronym. Is there a good alternative that is commonly used in academia, that won't make people assume this is some form of immaturity on my part?


texts: On the ethics of continuing current project with another advisor

texts:
I have been trying to work with a certain professor for a year, since the time I joined PhD. I wasn't paid by her, rather, funded by TAships.

This past quarter, I did a project for a class I took with her. Her student, who was the TA for the course, was super super super helpful, and was basically the driving force for the project.

The thing is, I really like this topic and want to continue working on it. Unfortunately, this professor has still not warmed up to me. She still gives me a very unclear response of whether or not she wants to take me as a student and has told me she'll tell me in a couple of weeks. Since summer is approaching, I really want to finalize an advisor ASAP, or at least someone who would supervise at least one research project for me. I am sick of not having a supervisor for research, as despite having topics that interest me, I am unable to find specific problems to work on.

Anyway, my question is - I have given up on this professor saying yes to me at all, so I am writing to other professors; would it be ethical for me to continue my current project with whoever agrees to supervise me? I am, of course, assuming here that someone will agree to do that, but just in case that happens, is it okay for me to do this?

The project was for a class project, was not funded by this professor Iam trying to impress,but it was a very theoretical one, and the idea, the methods, everything was her student's (who was the TA for the class).


texts: How to immediately show group answers onscreen?

texts: I teach at a university, and during lectures I would like to pose a question to all the students in which each student types their answer into their laptop, submits to me, and I can show all the answers on my screen at the front of the room. I will be able to see the names on my computer, but on the shared screen the students will not be able to. Is there any technology that does this?


texts: Where does the money earned by universities in the USA from sports activities go?

texts:
In the USA, professional sports is big at many universities. Many, if not all, get a lot of money from such events (e.g., broadcasting rights to ESPN, or from different sportsware/equipment companies for brand endorsements, etc.). Does any of this money go to educational and research activities of the university? Or only sports department of the university utilizes it, e.g., in paying the coach and other staff?

Edit: I know that the above question is related to this question: American universities - where does all the money go? in some sense but mine is narrower.


texts: Is it acceptable to take some exercises directly from the text book when preparing exercise sheets?

texts: I want to prepare some exercise sheets for a course. I am wondering whether or not it is OK to take some exercises directly from the textbook.


texts: What does "awaiting EIC decision" mean when it occurs immediately after "awaiting reviewer selection"?

texts: I submitted a paper to a top journal last week. At first, the status showed "awaiting AE recommendation". A few days ago, it was changed to "awaiting reviewer selection". So I thought it passed the associate editor's evaluation and now they were looking for reviewers. Even yesterday the status was still "awaiting reviewer selection", but today it was changed to "awaiting EIC decision". What does this mean? Does this mean that the AE changed his/her mind and recommended to desk reject my paper and put forth his/her recommendation to the editor?


texts: Is it okay to upload the PDF of my non-open access papers in academia.edu or research gate?

texts:
Is it legal to upload a PDF of my non-open-access papers to research networks, such as ResearchGATE and Academia.edu?

I am pretty sure that it could cause some problems, because normally people should buy them from the publisher. But I have seen many researchers put the PDF of their (non-open access) papers for free there so as to get more citations.


texts:
How does Google Scholar generate the citation information of articles? (in different styles like MLS,APA,etc). Do authors have to enter it themselves?
Asking because I want to know how authentic this is and whether I can directly copy the citation as it is. without reading any style guide myself.


texts: Is there any source where to find samples of Research Proposals?

texts: I am going to apply to Statistics PhD but I am not deeply aware of the opportunities of research because of my different background. Is there any source of past research proposals or mock ones (maybe already provided by other programs) to get an idea of what it should be like? It would be nice to understand clearly how to structure it and how deep into the research it should actually go.


texts: Is it appropriate to guess page numbers of a book from its translated version?

texts:
Short: It's easy to find bibliographical info, but how to guess page numbers?

I'm writing a paper in English. I want to cite certain book, originally published in French. It is translated to English and Russian. I own a Russian translation. I'd like to reference English translation. I don't have access to other language versions and I'm not going to purchase them.


texts: Discussing with university professors before being undergraduate

texts:
I have applied for a computer science course at more universities, but one of them really convinced me with a very welcoming attitude. Even if I have not confirmed my place, I have a tutor and he introduced me to some professors in the university to discuss about some topics that I am interested in. But, I find myself in a rather delicate situation. I have just some basic knowledge in their subject, so a discussion with them wouldn't be so entertaining for them, I guess.

Of course, there are a lot of things that I would like to learn, and so many questions to ask, and they seem willingly to answer (actually, ever they do not know that, I will go to their university), so, to what extent may I ask them?


texts: Is there any anonymous website that authors can rate journal submission experience?

texts:
Yet again one of my papers is just stuck in limbo at a journal for over 6 months now. One referee has seemingly returned his review and the second referee is playing truant.

I knew this after a polite email to the administrative secretary 3 months after submission. She promised to send an email to nudge the late referee.

Now, after 6 months, I write to the editor in chief to get to know what is going on and he has not bothered to reply for over 2 weeks now.

When I review for this same journal, all of my reviews are returned in time. I setup a google calender reminder 2 weeks prior to my the deadline that I accept and then push everything aside for those 2 weeks to turn in a high quality report. I am going to politely decline any more invitations to review from this journal. The journal is prestigious but there are other less prestigious journals that offer faster review times. At some point in time, the prestige of the journal has to make way for faster dissemination of important results.

I also suspect that the journal is clubby. I have seen rotten articles written by folks in "elite" universities while I have had rejections from that journal even though I proved more theoretical results on a problem (I am an operations researcher) that was published in the same journal. I suspect the journal worries about the authors' zipcode. I published this article in a different journal eventually.

Is there any website where one can anonymously record such experiences for various journals? Once the website gains sufficient traffic, the editorial board of the journals would hopefully be forced to take notice and set right some of the rotten processes.

Frustrated_researcher.


texts: How to judge the quality of my own paper?

texts: I am a B.Tech student in my final year, and am interested in publishing a paper. I have read a few articles in IEEE transactions and ACM transactions on my topic of interest, Software Engineering, and thought I can also produce such an idea. This semester I worked on a project under a professor in my institute, and I have written a paper based on my findings. My question is how can I judge the quality of the paper I have written? I want to find the perfect place to publish it, but don't want get demoralized by sending it to a top publisher and getting rejected. I should add that I don't think that my professor will be much help in determining the quality of the paper because I fear the professor knowledge is very  old and outdated and doesn't have any idea of current research.


texts:
We have a system in which, to get accepted in the program, you have to have a published research because that will add some points to your application and you will have priority.
Anyway, some investigators started to grant authorship on such publications for money, gathering a number of people and write their names on the paper as co-authors in return those people paying them.

I was naïve and I paid for such a thing. Please don’t judge me. Now I know it is academic misconduct, so I want my name to be dropped from that publication. How can I do this?


texts: What is the best way to tell a professor that my research interests are not limited to a specific topic?

texts:
I want to write to a professor and tell him about my research interests. What is the best way to say that my research interests include, but are not limited to X?
Is the following sentence a good choice?
"My main research area is X, but I am open to other subjects as well. "


texts: How does a 'quasi-tenured' hire work in practice?

texts:
I'm posting to help out a friend. The operational parameters are US + research university + computer science, so I'm looking for information primarily in that context, though the question is not computer science-specific.

He's tenured at one university and applying to another place. The latter has a funny kind of tenure option. In addition to regular tenured hires, they can make a rapid hiring decision based on just a small number of letters (say 3-4) into a quasi-tenured position. When this happens, after the person joins they go through a proper tenure review. So in principle, you could be hired to a "tenured" position but then later find you don't have tenure after all.

It seems to be neither the traditional "enter with tenure" model nor "enter with abbreviated tenure clock" model, but some new thing entirely. Someone I spoke to said this is increasingly common, and he'd heard of other departments that did this too. I have never heard of it before and find it rather strange.

Do you know of departments that do this? How does it work in practice?


texts: When writing multiple papers from the same dataset, how do you handle the methods section?

texts:
I am planning on publishing two distinct papers based on the same dataset – one is looking at policy implications and the other is a more traditional academic article. The methods sections for both papers are largely the same (minus the statistical analyses, which are different) but the survey design, implementation, etc. are, of course, the same.

Can I use the exact same language for the methods section in both papers or does that fall under self-plagiarism and/or copyright issues? It seems crazy to figure out a completely different way of wording something when obviously it’s the same study, but I’m not actually sure what to do.


texts:
As a researcher in industry, I am interested in pursuing personal projects in my field (computer science) in order to improve my potential employability. With that objective in mind, I'd like to publish updates about the state of these personal projects (including partial results, and maybe code) on several social networks.

Now, lets assume that this work could eventually lead to publishable results in my field.

My question is: is keeping a portfolio of personal projects compatible with publishing papers about these projects? Which steps should I follow in order to avoid others to take advantage of my ideas, and in order to avoid problems during the eventual blind peer review process?


texts: Is it frowned upon to obtain a recommendation letter from a recent Ph.D. graduate?

texts:
Like many other students in a lab where interaction with the lead Professor is very limited, most of my time is spent with the graduate student who is working on their dissertation/publication project.

This student is a Ph.D. candidate (Ph.C.) and will have their degree by the time I apply to graduate school. Whether they will secure a faculty position or post-doc somewhere is unknown, but my question is whether it is okay to ask them for a recommendation letter since they will have earned their doctorate degree by then, despite having worked under them when they, themselves, were still students.

Will this be frowned upon by the admissions committee?

*This is for Social Sciences


texts: What is the most efficient way of deducing the culture of a lab during graduate recruitment days?

texts:
I am amidst the recruiting season for engineering PhD programs. Fortunately, I  have made it to the interview stage for some (YAY!). I have been reading a lot about how crucial fit is to a person's success in a program. I am stuck wondering how can you ascertain fit when you are on campus only one day. In the program's I applied to you are admitted to the group not the program.

These recruitment events are the only face time I will have and given the itinerary pacing,  my free time will be limited.  I also assume it is unlikely I will get a senior student to open up to a complete stranger nor is it feasible to directly ask the PI what is the real culture of the lab.

So my question is what are good strategies to make the most of my time on campus?


texts: IEEE referencing : Acceptable reference format for personal work log

texts:
I’m writing an academic document and I can’t seem to find any specific mention of how to refer to a personal work log. Work logs are essentially to be published journals documenting what happened when in a computing project (but not published in an official journal).

The closest thing according to IEEE referencing style guide from the University of York is possibly a weblog. What is the best citation type for such a work log?


texts: How much does college name matter for doctoral program application?

texts:
I wanted to know how much weight the college someone got a master's from matters while applying for a doctoral program?
So for instance, if a person is enrolled in a college which is not well known and his application is great in terms of research projects, CPI score, TOEFL, GRE scores etc., then would that person's application be considered worse than a person who is doing master's from a very good college (well-known)?
In particular, I wanted to ask this because I have heard that those Indian students are preferred for PhD programs in Physics in good colleges in US who have done Master's from a top IITs like IIT Kanpur or IIT Madras and students who apply from a lower ranked IIT get frequently rejected.
P.S: Those who have no idea about IITs can take the question in a general context from my first paragraph.


texts: Computer Science Original Position Paper Questions

texts:
I am submitting a research paper to a conference for the first time. I will be submitting an 'original position paper'. I believe this is what the paper should consist of:

50% background research (literature survey - summarizing the previous works/pointing out their drawbacks or areas not covered by them)
20% my new idea
30% implications of my idea and future work

Is this approach correct?


texts:
A colleague of mine has recently asked me about an uncomfortable dilemma that he faces. Some years ago, a rather problematic student of his requested a recommendation letter. My colleague indicated that it would not be a good recommendation, but the student insisted. Accordingly, my colleague provided a not-very-supportive letter containing only completely non-disputable facts, basically saying "This student met the requirements for graduation."

My colleague has recently been approached by a potential employer of the student who wants to have an in-depth discussion about the student. Given the nature of the student, my colleague does not want to get drawn back into dealing with anything to do with them.

What would you recommend as an ethical and appropriate way to deal with this situation?


texts: Is it worth going to preview event for accepted students?

texts:
I've been admitted as a grad student to a US university. There's a preevent for admitted students, which seems to be a weekend of introductions and minor social events (I don't have that much information yet).

Is it worth traveling from Europe to such an event? Do you have a feeling for how important these events are for building social relations with students/faculty?


texts: Is it too late to contact prospective PI's at grad schools I applied to?

texts:
I applied to several grad schools and have heard back from two - rejected (somewhat expected) and waitlisted. I had other things going on and (stupidly) did not contact prospective PI's at the other two schools (well I contacted one and received a form response and thought maybe I should just wait to hear back from schools before talking to more prospective PI's).

Is it too late to contact prospective PI's? Most admissions committees have already started going though applicants and setting up interviews so at this point I'm not even sure what I'd say. If I had emailed when I should have (before applying), I would have said I was thinking about applying to that university and was interested in their work then asked what projects a new graduate student might work on.


texts: Is "Advances in Engineering" a predatory platform?

texts:
I have received an e-mail from "Advances in Engineering". Is it a predatory-platform? Is it reputable?

...

Dear Dr. XYZ,

We are pleased to inform you that Advances in Engineering selection committee identified your paper “Another XYZ” as a key scientific article contributing to research excellence. We would like to write a feature about your paper and highlight it in our next edition of Advances in engineering news series.

AIE highlight papers of exceptional scientific importance to a broad science and engineering audience (for the latest edition https://advancesENG.com). The feature is intended to globally disseminate research excellence across academia and in the wider community, and to inspire new research directions.

AIE reaches a global audience of 850,000 professors and scientists per month who seek the key research news and accomplishments in engineering. Papers featured at AIE gain extensive visibility and increased citations.

If you accept our special invitation, our professional writers will write a high quality feature draft about your research paper (significance of the work done) and then share it with you for final approval.

AIE is not-for-profit focused on serving research excellence. However, there is a small nominal fee for featuring key scientific articles at AIE ($75 USD total fee) to cover AIE writers’ time in preparing the feature. We can send you an official invoice and we will feature your research within 14 days.

At AIE, we highlight the researchers work at the cutting edge of science, those who are developing the innovations that will lead to a brighter tomorrow. I look forward to hearing from you.

Respectfully,

ZYX

ZYX, PhD MBA
VP Scientific affairs, Advances in Engineering

38 Auriga Drive, Suite 200. Ottawa, ON K2E 8A5, Canada


texts: Marie-Curie individual felowship - current organization

texts:
is there any problem if I don't work at an European University as a Postdoctoral fellow (just back from the USA) at the time that I submit the Marie-Curie fellowship (2-3 months without job)?

thank you


texts: How to explain to my supervisor that her style of input is hindering my progress?

texts:
I am in the fourth year of a part-time PhD. I have at least another couple of years left, the next two years are for writing up and this year was supposed to be for data collection.
I hit problems with research and data collection because of COVID, a lot of us did. But one of the things that has come to my realisation is that it is my supervisor who chiefly hindered my progress.
I cannot blame her for this, she is just doing her job and she is very respected in her field. I do like her. The main problems came in November 2020. I had a tutorial and I said, "I want to do X this way", she came back with "why don't you do it this other way?" I initially agreed but then, a few hours after the tutorial, I felt like the wind had been taken out of my sails. I didn't know it at the time, or understand it, but she had totally killed my enthusiasm, not only for the piece I was working on, but for the project. This has been going on since November and I have found it very hard to produce anything. In fact I haven't written anything since November apart from one piece.
The crunch time came a few days ago. I wrote a paper plan for her, something that I was interested and intrigued to get on with. The same thing happened again, she wrote back and said, "this is too broad, remove this [very interesting] part and focus on this [not so interesting but practical] part". Try as I might I could not muster the enthusiasm to continue and the paper has been shelved.
I had a discussion with her yesterday and we have agreed for me to take three months off. It occurred to me after our talk yesterday that the problem is that I am not given enough freedom to do my work how I want. YES she is the supervisor, and I am here to learn, I understand that, but this is not working for me this way. I now have three months 'off' but I am thinking of not not doing any work but doing things how I want to do them: I have enthusiasm again for the PhD and am starting to get filled with ideas. I have a research blog which I haven't updated for months because she wanted to vet anything I put on there, but, I asked her yesterday if I can put things up there ANYWAY in the next few months regardless of her input and she said yes.
I am worried that, after these three months, I will have put entries on the blog - much of the content/themes of which I want to put in the final thesis - but we will just go back to doing things the old way and she will say a lot of the stuff I wrote isn't that relevant and she will want me to focus on authors I am not interested in and for me to remove ideas I had.
How do I explain I need more freedom and her management style/suggestions are not working for me? Or should I not say that at all? I respect her and want to put this point across in the best way. Or do I just do three months of work my way and then, when she sees how effective a more hands-off approach is, she will agree to do things that way?


texts:
I am having a hard time deciding if I should go on for a PhD program after my current Master's program. I'm struggling with this a lot and hope to get some suggestions here.

So my situation: I'm doing a second Master's degree in mathematics after finishing my first Master's degree in Engineering. My current university doesn't have a very good ranking, so I'm considering a PhD offer from a university ranked around 160. I want to do research, but my biggest concern is that I'm 29 y/o, after finishing my PhD degree, I would be around 33-34. And I don't have a girlfriend. So by the time I finish my PhD degree, I would have no money, no girlfriend and not clear future, I might be single forever. This sounds so miserable. But the bright side is that I will have a PhD degree from a better university. And this might open more doors for me, I might even be able to go to Google with this PhD degree after graduation. And since I will work on hot CS topics, the professor said he is confident I will have many opportunities in both industry and academy after graduation. But of course there is no guarantee for anything. Though it's somewhat reasonable because I only have two years' background in computing, all my previous background is in civil engineering, I don't know how far I can go in computer science industry without a real degree in CS. On the other hand, if I decide to get a job instead, I can make some money first. And when I have money, I can secure myself and will have more chances to get a girlfriend, and financially easier to get married. Also since I will then have relevant working experience, it might even be easier for me to apply for many more top-tired American PhD programs? But of course this is only my imagination, I might end up losing this valuable PhD offer and not be able to get a better one by then?

Thanks a lot for your time and hope to get some kind advises!


texts: I am a PhD student and I would like to do an internship at an American university or institute. How should I proceed?


texts: Do German professors in a Master’s program respond to students who email them interested in their research work?

texts:
I’m currently receiving my bachelor’s degree in Sociology from am American university and have no clue how the process for applying to Master’s programs in Germany works. I’m not sure if it’s okay to email professors directly about their research as it would be here. I guess my questions are:

Are they generally okay with responding to international students who want to work with them on their research (I do intend to clearly state that if it’s some kind of process- like an application- I would gladly apply)?
Is it appropriate to request a meeting with them (or with the department manager) to get a tour of the department/meet some of the professors and/or students?
How would I address this professor in an email? Her webpage says “Prof. Dr.” so should I use that title? I saw somewhere that Herr might be appropriate? In America, we just say “Dr.” or “Professor” that’s why I’m asking.

In America, there’s this unspoken rule that asking for meetings/ reaching out via email will help your chances when applying. At least, the professor will remember your name/face, especially if your research interests coincide with theirs. Also. This program is in English, so there’s no worry about proficiency in German (yet).


texts: Remote writing of master's thesis vs. taking a course

texts:
I am currently writing a masters thesis (in mathematics). I began a month ago, but I have been stuck to the point of feeling like I'm wasting my time. I don't have good grasp of the fundamentals needed for the problem I'm tackling and worst thing is they aren't even written anywhere because it's somewhat obscure. And all information I find that looks germane, seems to assume a lot of knowledge I don't have. My advisor helps a lot but we only see each other for two hours once a week and it being online it's a lot more difficult to communicate and ask and interrupt than usual. Additionally, with everybody stuck at home it's also not easy to get help from peers, as setting up a call is much harder than running into somebody on the hall and having to email and email back is a lot more work than just oral interaction so people are less up for it.
On the other hand, my institution allows one to replace a master's thesis with an additional advanced class. Actually this is what most students do, because generally it's thought that an advanced course is time better spent unless you have a clear path towards solving a problem in an area you're comfortable in (I don't know why for a moment I thought it would be a good idea to go against the grain on this one, during a pandemic at that). I'm finding this option attractive because following a class that has a guiding book would be a lot easier in the basically self-learning environment we currently inhabit than scrambling for readable material that doesn't really exist, and also because I think I could get a recommendation letter from the professor from that course while my current thesis advisor has already taught me a couple of classes I think he already would be able and willing to right me a recommendation letter.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure how badly my advisor would take if I suggest this. I'm not sure if he will intetpret it as me "giving up at the first sight of trouble" (which I don't think I am, I truly have worked my a** off for a month and have felt basically no advances in my understanding of this because I think I'm missing some fundamental prerequisites).. . I'm not sure if this would weaken the rec letter that he would write for me.
But I do feel like for my growth as a mathematician, and perhaps to avoid needles s frustration and burnout, the present circumstances make the class a better use of my time. (And also, I really need 1 more rec letter from somebody else).
What do you think I should do? Do you think my advisor would understand this position? Do you think I am in fact being weak? Or do you think my points towards taking the class instead do make sense, as I feel they do?


texts: What are factors leading to rising tuition costs over time?

texts:
Is there any published work that quantifies the roles of different factors on rising tuition in the U.S. over the past half-century?

I've heard a number of explanations bandied about, such as:

increases in admin overhead
IT infrastructure costs
Baumol's cost disease
more expensive facilities
reductions in state funding over time (public institutions)

What I'm looking for is some quantitative analysis that tries to estimate how much each of these different factors contributes to the average increases in tuition over time.


texts: Is it possible to become a professor in a field where you don't have a PhD degree?

texts:
I am a economics major student who will be applying for PhD programmes pretty soon. I am quite interested in economics, but I find myself even more interested things related to probability theory, such as stochastic processes. And if I ever get into a econ PhD programme, I'm pretty sure that I should be looking for co-advising from the math/statistics department if allowed.

So I am curious about what happens in academia if you ever find yourself more interested in a topic that you don't have a degree on. If you can write some good papers during your PhD, can you find good career opportunities in that field in academia even if you did not start out as a "professional" scholar in that field?

Any idea would be very much appreciated!!


texts: Student reported me for cheating when I did not

texts: Two classmates have reported me for cheating on a quiz, I don't know their intentions why but I did not cheat. They told the professor I was using my computer to Google questions as the quiz was online. The next class the professor supervised me while I did the quiz and I got the same result. Now I have to meet with the student conduct to defend myself, only thing I can say is that I did not cheat, even though the two anonymous other classmates said I did. The Professor said he believed them more than me, but can the school really do a decision based on word against word? It is a classic "he said - she said" case, only real hard evidence they have is that I got the exact same result while being supervised.


texts:
As part of the introduction of a paper I want to write some critique on previous research which was published at some reputable conference. It basically amounts to their research methodology being invalid. Their results are useless, because they did some things which basically amounts to cheating their scores. However they claim to be state-of-the-art. Now it takes a couple of paragraphs to explain what was all wrong with their work, which might clutter the introduction. The audience of the paper may not be familiar with the reason. My intention of the paper is to present something with a correct methodology.

The main point is: if you have some critique on related work, how do you include this in the paper? How polite should you be about the previous work?


texts: Reputation of 1 Year Master's in Comp. Sc. in the UK

texts:
I'm currently studying for my Bachelor's degree in Computer Science in Germany.
I've noticed that UK Master's programs, even at such prestigious universities as Oxford or Edinburgh, only offer 1 year Master's programs for full time study.
In Germany, on the other hand, Master's are usually 2 years / 4 semesters.

I was wondering how this is perceived in academia. Say for a professor in the US offering a PhD position, would he expect people from the German two-year program to be better at their subject? (Assuming grades are similar).


texts: Why are many funded PhD programmes in the UK not open for non-EU applicants?

texts:
I once wanted to do a PhD in the UK, but found out that the opportunities were limited for those coming from outside Europe (I did my PhD in Norway instead). I think it is still the case today. I am wondering why this is so.

EDIT:

Additional thought: I am wondering, for instance, if the vacancy were open to anyone in the world, would it not increase the chance of getting the best applicants? Also, what differences are there in the UK system compared to other countries (e.g. Norway) which open their PhD vacancies to anyone?


texts: Should I ask for generic reference letter?

texts:
I was given advice to apply for multiple PhD programs because it is difficult to get in.

Some programs require reference letter from professors or supervisors.
I don’t believe that professors have time and will to give me multiple reference letters for each school I apply to.

I have considered asking them for a generic reference letter.

How would a generic reference letter be received by a graduate school committee?


texts: How to stand out in mathematics PhD admissions as a student from an online school, with no research or opportunities to get strong recommendations?

texts:
After reading some the posts here about graduate admissions for PhD/masters in mathematics in different countries, it seems like the requirements are quite a lot higher than what I have in my country. Just for clarification, in my university (the Open University of Israel), there's no undergraduate research besides one undergraduate seminar. I've never heard of anyone from my university writing a paper in mathematics while attending the Open University of Israel. I've already read the ways to stand out in admissions on this site, and for me, research cannot be one of them.

In addition, since my school is an online school, none of my recommendations will be personal, and none of my teachers writing the recommendations are well known in their field, since they all only teach and don't do any research. I suppose that in this sense my university is the equivalent of an American community college.

Therefore, based on my readings here, the best ways for me to stand out for graduate admissions are on the Cover Letter (which I need to write), GPA (currently around 88% average, when the average for mathematics in my university is around 65%), and TOEFL/GRE (TOEFL, I may not need to do, since I'm a native English speaker, and the GRE's I still need to decide if I want to do, since I'm not yet sure that I want to apply in the United States). In addition, I'm graduating in a year and a half, so until then, I'm planning to fly to different universities around the world once every six months to meet with the graduate math program coordinators (I've already met with the coordinator for the math program at Bonn University and I've set up a meeting at Trinity College Dublin already) to get information and to also start making connections.

Given these specific circumstances that cannot be changed (graduating without a single paper from an unrated university, with weak recommendations), are there any other creative or unusual ways (which I will really need), besides improving the GPA, getting excellent GRE grades, and working on a great cover letter to stand out in graduate admissions for universities in the United States, Europe, and Canada? If I can't get accepted after graduation to a university abroad, my alternate plan is to do a masters here in Israel, and then do a PhD abroad.


texts:
I'm a Math professor. I teach a face-to-face calculus course, and I'm in the habit of distributing handwritten quiz keys online.

I'm informed by a colleague that she believes that this style of distributing quiz keys (posting handwritten keys online) is not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Can anybody confirm this, or weigh in on it, or let me know what they do in order to be compliant? I really don't want to stop posting keys, but I also want to (read, must) comply with the ADA.


texts: Better to cite github project or web page of unpublished software?

texts:
In my research, I am using several compression algorithms that do not have a related publication. For example Facebook's lzfse. Would it better to cite it's active github project (e.g., https://github.com/lzfse/lzfse) or blog or other web content introducing this utility (e.g., https://developer.apple.com/reference/compression/data_compression)?

I guess I am concerned with the amount of time this will stay active online as well as relevance.


texts: Is it okay to post textbook solutions online?

texts:
It seems to me, based on two previous stack exchange questions (1, 2) that this is legal, but I'm wondering more if it's "okay," i.e. what do academics/professors think of this?

I'm interested in posting (my own) solutions to textbook problems (that I find interesting) online, as I self-study them. I'd guess some problems may be of interest to others, I get to possibly have discussions about them (maybe I mess up), and I get to practice explaining technical concepts through text (I'm interested in pedagogy). For what it's worth, I'm an undergrad (though soon to be grad) student. Ideally I'd want to do something similar to physicspages.com, though I doubt I'd have the same rigour. I'd be working on a textbook myself and using this as a sort of "learning by teaching" approach.

On the other hand, I know many professors use textbook problems as homework, and a publicly displayed website with textbook solutions might be easy to find on a search engine (so students may just copy). Would instructors think this is inappropriate?

In case it matters, I intend to start with Topological Insulators and Topological Superconductors by Bernevig since this is likely to be related to my PhD topic. (Though this could change on a whim)


texts:
In my institution I am required to pass a first year assessment for my PhD, which I have done so successfully and without any remedial action required.

However, the examiners report is quite critical. For example, it states that my talk was overly-technical for the audience and that my report assumed knowledge from the reader of many field specific terms. It also stated that I focused too much on my own theoretical interests and the report did not have a wide enough scope. It also listed several improvements that could be made to the report, although these were minor imo.

Some areas were good, for example my viva performance was quite satisfactory and apparently I'm a highly motivated and creative student. However, the amount of space given to criticism was proportionally much higher.

Should I be worried about this?


texts: What are the advantages and downsides of a broad PhD thesis?

texts:
A previous version of this question focused too much on my personal situation. The current one aims at being more generic.
The main question boils down to what are the advantages and disadvantages of having a broader PhD thesis?
In the context of a PhD student possibly working in a interdisciplinary field, what are the consequences of working on two (or more) projects, both related to the overall field but each project not directly related to each other? This is assuming there are no major concerns about graduating, the thesis committee accepting or being able to produce quality research.
More in particular, what are the (academic) career consequences of that? I would imagine it can make it easier to find a postdoc position, since the range topics you've worked with is larger, but how is it perceived?
I assume one of the major downsides is possibly the lack of focus. If it is still possible to achieve good research results in both areas (but clearly having fewer papers published in each subfield), are there other problems? Is it usually frowned upon?


texts: Can I publish open access articles on my personal website?

texts:
I have written a couple of articles for a print journal which I found, at the time of publication, were available online for free as Open Access. This was around two years ago. Can I also publish them on my personal website?
I also have pre-prints of a couple of other published papers [for a different journal]. I uploaded these to Researchgate. Can I put these on my site as well without incurring the journal's disgruntlement?


texts: Is withdrawing from two courses in my PhD bad for my future?

texts: I am a 2nd year PhD student. So far, I've taken 5 courses, 3 of which I got A and the other two I withdrew from. The reason was mainly it was not until the 6th session that I understood those two courses were not particularly relavant and helpful towards my thesis. My question is how bad is my situation regarding gettting a post doc, faculty position, or a position in industry, in the future?


texts: Trying to volunteer as a research assistant post-Master's and not having any success so far

texts:
I'm an MS in CompSci grad who wants to do a PhD someday. The one thing I don't have from my time in undergrad and MS is significant research experience. Of course, I did undergrad research but was never published in any papers. I make a lot as a professional and want to volunteer(read, free) part-time doing research for a professor or lab post-graduation, but I have no idea how to approach this or even find interest amongst professors or labs. Any ideas?

Edit: Undiagnosed disability crippled my undergraduate performance. I was unmedicated, untreated, and had no idea on how to cope. I really managed to redeem myself through my graduate performance and am basically looking for a second chance. If anyone has disability-specific resources as well, that would be great.


texts: Is it professionally viable to leave an American math PhD program for a Master's in Germany?

texts:
Background

I'm an American who will be starting a pure math PhD at a relatively prestigious US public university later this month (I realize that it might seem pointless ask a question about a program I haven't yet begun; however, I think that my question is basically independent of these concerns.)

Moving to Europe is one of my goals in life (just to clarify, it has been since before 2016), and while applying to grad schools I seriously contemplated studying in Germany. However, friends and former professors, as well as professors from my current PhD program, with whom I spoke while visiting, advised me that it would likely be much easier to find a research job if I completed a PhD from an American university. Based on this advice, I accepted the offer from my current program.

It seems to me now, however, that this advice is likely false—while I have heard that German academia is considered to be quite closed to outsiders, it seems that there are quite a few mathematicians with PhDs from German universities who have acquired desirable research positions outside of Germany, and my impression is that a PhD from a well-regarded German university is quite competitive on the international and the European job market. Moreover, it seems questionable to me that a PhD from a moderately/relatively prestigious American university would give one an edge in the academic job market outside the US (perhaps I'm wrong, here, though).

Given this situation, I am considering applying to a Master's program at a certain German university which is quite strong in my area of interest, and
 which also seems to have some connections with my current program (in terms of research collaboration), with the intention of completing a PhD at the same university afterward. In terms of personal preference, I would (based on prior experience) much prefer to be residing in Germany, so continuing on at my current program doesn't seem appealing if it's not likely to be more advantageous in terms of finding a job in Europe after finishing my PhD.

Questions

Is it likely that leaving my PhD program for a Master's in Germany after a year would damage my career prospects?
In this or a similar set of circumstances, is it possible to leave one's PhD program without burning bridges completely?


texts: Acceptance in PhD Program With Unfortunate Background

texts: So here is my situation: I am applying for a PhD for Fall 2022. Not too long I found ago that my ex boyfriend had used my name online to post all kinds of crap. This includes revenge porn, as well as racist and anti-semitic comments. I have filed police reports, but all of this is still attached to my name (which is a very rare name btw) and available online, and probably will never go away. I am so scared of not being admitted because of this. Is there anything I can do?


texts: What are the career prospects of doing a theoretical computer science PhD.?

texts:
I am a 27 year old (ex-)physics graduate student and I am quitting this graduate program to enter a new PhD. program in theoretical CS. As for mathematics background - I have always been interested in geometry and have done graduate level courses in Riemannian/algebraic geometry and I have research experience of using harmonic analysis.

In my few months of experience of studying theoretical CS I have become increasingly drawn towards subjects like graph theory, spectral graph theory, unique games, complexity and especially quantum complexity theory.

Is there anything I need to be cautious of while taking this plunge?

How good are the career prospects in this subject?


texts: About adding a new master's thesis supervisor

texts:
I have just submitted my dissertation Proposed research proposal form to my supervisor. I also saw a plan to provide guidance documents to students at one of the artificial intelligence sites. In this regard, the question I had is as follows:
If I want to use the above support thesis in addition to my current supervisor, is it possible to suggest a new supervisor for the existing project if the proposal is approved in the our department group?
Also, if possible, provide guidance on the possible reaction of the current tutor to the existing plan to add a new tutor and what is important to him in such a situation.
Thanks.


texts: How to follow up with a master's advisor who abandoned me?

texts:
I was recently awarded my master's degree. This was a very difficult process since my master's thesis advisor completely abandoned me halfway through. She literally did not answer my e-mails . No -one in my institute was specialized in the branch I wanted to write thesis so , I wrote to a professor of another institute in my country and she agreed . I visited her institute for 7 days in January , 2020 and she gave me a research paper to study . After completely understanding the paper in mid February , when I emailed her on how I should proceed she didn't replied .  I e-mailed her 4-5 times in February-March and got no reply.I ended up finishing the work on my own and the committee approved my thesis without her involvement.( but didn't evaluated thesis of any student due to pendamic( thesis were not even asked for submission, the evaluation was done on the basis of presentation done in mid february) More details in my previous post.
My concern is that no one has reviewed my thesis. One other professor gave very generic comments (grammar) and simply said I wrote a nice thesis. I want to apply to PhD positions in Europe, so I think my thesis should be carefully reviewed by an expert before I apply.
Question: How can I get my (former) advisor to review my thesis?   . Should I write in email that a this was not expected  as she had said yes to me and even I visited her institute  and  I was left for thesis without any advisor?
Or there should not be any complaints in e-mail and I should just request her ?
Do writing these things and expressing my displeasure will further diminish chances of her replying to my e-mail . But certainly due to her I went through very much anxiety and had to spend a lot more of time on project by myself ( and whose output is till not known although I tried to give my best ). I am sure she was not suffering through covid-19 and I saw her name as one of the speakers at  various seminars taking place in my country amid pandemic( at different points of time).
She didn't replied. It is a weird thing how professors wield such great power in Academia that students can't do anything.


texts: Paid twice by university for "same" research: how to proceed?

texts:
I'm a graduate student doing research in physics. Through this month, I had an NIH grant through the Engineering department. I was also covered by my advisor's NIH grant in physics, with possible backup from the Physics department in case of a shortfall.

This month, I was paid twice, for different amounts—once, apparently, from the the Engineering grant for work done in Engineering, and once from the Physics department for physics research. The problem is that, effectively, they're the same research. I wasn't doing twice as much research, although there were minor additional projects and requirements for the engineering grant. This is the last month of the engineering grant, which may explain the overlap.

How should I proceed?

Keep the money? Could the university demand it be returned at a later date? Might I not get paid next month?
Keep only one of the payments, and try to get the other back to the university? Which one?
Return them both and try to get paid again?
Something else?


texts:
I have completed some work that I believe could well be worth a Ph.D. I have been working completely in private, with no affiliation with any academic institution.

I would like to use this work to start a career in academia. What should I do with it next? (In case it's relevant in any way, I am a mature professional in business and IT and 53 years old).

In particular I'm wondering about the following options:

Attempt to publish it as a paper (a fairly long one, around 50 pages).
Use it as my thesis for acquiring a doctorate degree.

My questions are:

Can I do both? If not why not?
If not, which of the two is preferable and what are the pros and cons?
Are there alternatives from the above two that I could pursue to achieve my goal?


texts:
Abit about my background first: I'm currently undertaking a PhD but have previously worked in healthcare for around 4-5 years. During this time I developed a suite of code to produce results from clinical sequencing data (a NGS pipeline plus filtering steps).

Recently while looking for example PhD theses to use as the basis for my own write up I came across a recent PhD thesis that contained a reference to a github account, which contained code I had written.

The code in the repo is over 97% direct copy of code that I had produced while working in my previous employment - the remaining 3% appears to be a cut and paste of lines from my original pipeline into a popular pipeline management system.

edit I should note here that this remaining 3% had previously been submitted by another ex-colleague as part of an external qualification - for which I was the internal assessor, this person claimed sole authorship at the time.

edit I should have noted that development of this code started a year before entering the employment that I mentioned, as part of a postgraduate qualification that I completed, submitted ironically - along with prototypes of the discussed code - to the same university. Just to clarify the IP issue, the university in question assigns ownership to the student in these cases.

There is no direct reference to my own Github repo which contains the original code (with GNU public license) and no acknowledgment of my authorship (I am mentioned indirectly as a maintainer of the code elsewhere in the thesis). I had no knowledge that the author of thesis was using my code as part of their thesis.

The author of the thesis was in the same department as me, however was at no point involved in the development of the code while I was present. They have since submitted and passed their PhD and are now employed as a PostDoc in the same department.

I can show continuous development of the code over a period of 4 years previously via my Github logs. The author of the thesis has only a single commit and no history in the github logs.

The person in question has essentially written a PhD chapter based on analysis of sequencing data that I did. The code is just part of the story, since the person also claimed that in addition to writing the code they used the code to produce the results in that chapter. They didn't - since I know that I ran the batches in question (this was around 2 years of work).

What steps should I take (if any)!


texts: Should I cite the latest edition of a book?

texts: Before publication, if a new edition of a source is released, should I try and find the new edition or keep a citation based on the old?


texts:
We performed some bioinformatic work during thesis. Output of these analysis are more than 10 tables with 2000 rows each. We cannot add these in the printed version of the thesis, so we thought about:

link to the online version, since paper containing this data was published.
give a CD-ROM with the thesis, but for me this physical format is obsolete.

Maybe you have a better alternative or agree with the first one like me.


texts: Is it acceptable to criticise papers when writing a related work section

texts:
When writing a paper it is important to discuss related work. I am working on a problem where two research fields meet. When I did a literature review I noticed that related papers often omit important information or write important information ambiguously. I can understand that this is a problem where two research field meet and that there are two sides of the problem. I believe that in most of these papers relevant information is only given for research field "A" but not "B". Nevertheless methods from research field "B" are used for which the information is not (clearly)  given and thus I would never be able to reproduce the results. Therefore when writing my related literature section I was wondering if it is acceptable if I mention these problems for the papers I discuss ?

To be clear, this is not about confidential information, so the authors always choose to do it this way, or are not aware of what they are doing.


texts: What would be the potential consequences of offering to fund your own graduate degree?

texts:
I am aware that being funded by a grant greatly improves your chances of receiving a master's degree, however, hypothetically what would be the potential consequences of offering to fund your own? If the negative consequences are minimal, how does one go about offering this to a potential supervisor without under-selling themselves?

I'm applying to programs in Canada.


texts: Is there any recognized online portal where anyone can publish articles without being associated with any university or organization?

texts: Suppose some working person has interest in physics and mathematics and he want to publish a paper either review or research, so is there anyway he can publish? Obviously person is not associated with any university so he can not name that.


texts: Why do non-governmental organizations tend to publish non peer-reviewed "grey" literature?

texts:
Is there any reason why most non-governmental organizations (NGOs) tend to publish non-peer reviewed literature? I have seen some NGO scientists as co-authors, even in some important papers, but most of their production is reports which are not peer-reviewed. While it is true that most NGOs do not do basic research, some of their reports could easily be converted to reviews, and some of their projects to applied research.

Do they want to avoid peer review for political reasons in order to be able to convey the message they want? In my view their message would be much stronger if it came from a peer-reviewed article. Is it also a matter of time as peer-reviewed articles take a long time to get published?


texts: Is it inappropriate to ask for a salary specification when interviewing for a postdoc position?

texts:
I am in the last year of my PhD (neuroscience/biomed research) in Italy and I have applied for an interesting postdoc position in Perth, Australia, at a neuroscience research centre affiliated with the UWA.

The call that I have applied for is describe as “founded”, although without any hint about the actual salary. During the interviews and the few further emails with the new PI he has never mentioned the income, just stating that it would be provided “from internal sources” (so independently for grant funding) for the two years-contract. Btw he also offered me to help with visa, accommodation, etc, in case of hiring.

I haven’t pushed this topic any further and I am still waiting for their final decision. Do you think it would be inappropriate to ask the amount of my salary and how should I approach it? I am very excited about the idea  to have a postdoc experience overseas, but I am sure that relocate completely will be a quite big deal and I am not familiar with the Australian cost of life, so knowing the actual income could help me a little to evaluate the whole thing.


texts: How to study for the exams which are mathematical in approach but subjective in nature?

texts: Predominantly whenever we are to face objective questions we generally tend to practice more and more objective question papers and sort of "remember the mistakes that we make while solving them".  However when it comes to subjective papers this approach doesn't seem to work for me anymore.  The more subjective questions I study the more I tend to deviate from whatever I need to retain for the approach.  Any suggestion about this will be highly appreciated.  I am particularly speaking with regard to semester examination of an Undergrad/Postgraduate course in Material Science & Engineering.


texts: Reject a paper based on relevant but pointless research direction

texts:
Disclaimer: this is a hypothetical question, not (immediately) related to any concrete past, present or future reviewed paper.
My context is the no-fly zone between Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. In my opinion, there are some research directions within this field that are pointless. Roughly speaking, papers can be either theoretical or applicative. The former provide insight on formal concepts, model interesting physical phenomena, analyze significant properties of an algorithm, and so on. The latter build algorithms to solve real-world applications, or at least provide preliminary results on contrived problems that promise future performance enhancements. In summary, I am very tolerant as to which is my field of research, and I find interesting results almost everywhere.
However, I observe that there appear more and more papers that suffer from the syndrome of the "parameter change": a model—typically an algorithm—is built that can solve toy problems, but no large-scale application is proved or foreseen; there are no fundamental theoretical problems in either Mathematics or Computer Science (or Physics, Biology, or other fields) involved; then, a second paper changes a minor parameter or adds a light generalization, but still no real applicability is shown; then a third paper. Note that I am not talking about marginal papers, I estimate that half the papers of a top journal (ISI indexed, impact factor, serious publisher...) fall within this description.
Now, my particular problem: I am assigned a paper for review. I am a bit prejudiced by the title and the abstract, but nonetheless I bite the bullet and go through pages and pages of equations, crowned by some computer simulations that allegedly prove the superiority of the algorithm (marginal superiority in an uninteresting toy problem). I am unable to point out any particular error, which is hardly surprising, since what is proved is rather obvious, usually some disguised version of the Stone-Weierstrass theorem or the Lyapunov Stability criterion.
What do you think should be my stance? Some possibilities:

Next time, think better and decline the review because you are prejudiced and unable to produce a fair review.

Well, the paper is correct, isn't it? Judge exclusively by the content.

The editor has asked for your opinion and you think that the paper should not be published. Say so: "It is correct but this line of research is pointless. Yes, I know that there are hundreds of papers within this line, but those are not my business and I am currently reviewing this paper".

What about consequences of the somewhat quixotic answer 3? It looks like my opinion is minority and probably not shared with editors themselves. Could I be berated or blacklisted by the editor?


texts: What does "Awaiting Assignment to Batch" mean?

texts: My paper was accepted a week ago, at that time the status in the ScholarOne manuscript center changed from "accept" to "awaiting production checklist". They also said I would receive an email regarding the proof check. However, till today I haven't received any email. Today the status again changed to "Awaiting Assignment to Batch". I am curious what is this mean? According to the journal, it takes 2 weeks(on average) to get published "online pre-print" from the acceptance date. I am just worried if I am missing something.


texts: Error in master's thesis, I do not know what to do

texts:
I successfully defended my master's thesis last December.
 I had 18/20 and it went well. However, my adviser invited me to carry out research in the area, which I accepted.

When I was writing the first paper, I noticed a big error in the data analysis. This does not affect the conclusions and the values of the estimates are very similar (with and without the error) the question is what do I do now? I'm afraid to tell my advisor and they cancel my master's degree. What do you think? My ethics does not allow me to write the paper again with the error, but if correct my advisor will find ..

Any suggestions? I'm sure no one will notice the error, but I do not know.
I´m very afraid of this
Thank You


texts: In-text citations - First and subsequent citations - AMA

texts:
Am new to writing research article. While I am following the guidelines here
Am I right to understand that whenever we refer to a source, we cite them in-text.
Let's say my paragraph has 100 lines.
I refer the source for the first time in L10. So, I write xxxx[superscript 1]
I refer the source again in L25... Should I again use the [superscript 1] here?
Basically, should we use in-text citation whenever I refer/mention about the source?
Or just in-text citation for just the 1st mention is enough (and we don't have to in-text cite the subsequent mentions)?