texts: Funding after getting an Integrated Masters Degree

texts: Im going to get my Integrated Masters Degree in Production Engineering and Management in about 6 months.My next goal is to take another Master's Degree in Artificial Intelligence.The country I want to study is the UK.So will i be eligible for a postgraduate student loan even though I have an integrated master's degree ?


texts:
Is the word "iff", meaning "if and only if", recognized outside of logic?
In particular, is it appropriate for a physics text?  Or is this kind of abbreviation frowned upon?


texts: coauthor removed other author's name after reviews

texts: I have discovered that a co-author has submitted a book chapter to a major publisher omitting my name of co-author list without me knowing. I was included in the first submissions, but corresponding author made an executive decision to not include me, based on unknown grounds. I have substantially and creatively contributed to the work, in design, datacollection and analysis. What are my options now to get credit where credit is due? technically it is plagiarism, I think.


texts:
I'm a PhD student in my third year (4-6 is common in my country) and seriously consider abandoning my current topic.
The new topic is in the same general field (CS related), yet in a vastly different domain and would need a quite different methods. My advisor suggested this switch, he could keep me funded in both cases, yet probably better with the new topic.

Arguments for switching are both personal interest in the new topic (it's recently trending, I was interested from the beginning, yet few positions were available) and lack of progress in the current area:

I could produce some publications, yet not up to my advisors expectations (should be easier with the new topic, given the impact factors of the journals my advisor suggested)
For the last 6-8 month I made barely any progress (lots of failed experiments)
I would probably have to abandon my current methods anyway due to 1./2., so half a year or so will be lost learning new methods no matter how I decide

Yet I shy away from switching, mainly due to already being quite old (combination of personal problems and a switch of my major as an undergraduate) and fearing how my C.V. would look if I did take about a year longer and had this second switch...

Thanks for any input.


texts: Professor just gave an exam that was way outside of the scope of the class, various other issues with assignments, what should the class do?

texts:
80% of the exam was super in-depth questions about a topic glossed over for fifteen minutes about six weeks ago, with no prior warning. Its a relatively large class and most students are very perturbed.

There have been other issues with this professor including mistake-filled assignments, assignments given out late, reducing the amount of time students had to work on them. The instructor is very disorganized and does everything at the last minute, and consequently so are the TAs.

Who should the students go to first?


texts: Letting another author know I'm using one of their results

texts:
Let's say I write a paper and use a result from someone that is rarely cited. Would it be polite/acceptable/unacceptable to email them and let them know of my application of their result before publishing my paper?

This would be primarily self-serving on my part, as I'd want to know if they see any other applications of their work to mine.  But I don't want to come across as someone who's trying to leach ideas off of them. I'm open to collaboration.

What would be your reaction if you received an email saying something to the effect of:

  Hey, I used result X from your paper from 10 years ago to show Y.  Do you think other applications of your related work could apply to mine?  Here are some of my questions, etc...


texts: How do you deal with aggressive and rude (irrelevant) questions in a conference?

texts:
I was at a conference recently as a member of the audience and during the Q & A segment, an audience member (unsolicited) jumped up and said that the presentation was 'absolutely wrong' quite aggressively. The presenter (junior scholar) was mortified.

Can I ask if you have a particular way of responding to questions that are aggressive or ad hominem attacks without being seen as defensive particularly if the person asking the question is someone senior and respected?


texts: How could one best go about research in Pure Mathematics, whilst holding a full/part-time job?

texts:
I am still working towards an undergraduate degree in Mathematics, however I don't believe it's possible to think about research too early. I'm thinking about going in the direction of Pure Mathematics - possibly in the area of Number Theory and Logic.

I have edited the above title, as I think it reflects more the question I was trying to ask.

I was really wondering if anyone firstly has an answer to my above question, and also if anyone could recommend good places online where one could follow current research activity in the area of Pure Mathematics. Number Theory, Logic, and Foundations of Mathematics particularly interest me.

Thanks in advance.


texts: How to include research done for masters thesis on CV?

texts:
I am 3 semesters into a MS/PhD program (2 years MS + 3 years on PhD) currently working on my masters thesis based on research work. My research with my advisor is currently unpaid. It is also not for academic credit (besides the resulting thesis). I have been doing research for 9 months now.

How do I include this information on a CV for internship applications? This is not paid employment, nor is it strictly coursework, yet it is the most significant effort I've put in for the better part of a year.

Should it fall under Work Experience? Personal projects? I did a couple of research internships as an undergraduate. Should I lump this and them together under Research? Or should I overlook it altogether (albeit reluctantly)?


texts: How to work efficiently under loose supervision during graduate studies?

texts:
I work in a very cross-disciplinary field, which has caused me some headache* over the past couple of years, partly due to the fact that my supervisor isn't very knowledgeable regarding the day to day (technical) details of my projects. He typically leaves any mathematical, or CS, aspect of the projects to me to figure out, and provides guidance when I have questions regarding the biology or biochemistry, as those are his fields of expertise.

From what I hear, he's similarly loose in supervision even with the other grad students who are less cross-disciplinary and more aligned with his expertise. While I see the point in the supervisor providing the freedom to the grad student to develop as he/she likes, in my experience it can be troubling at times, allow me to explain:

I often have extensive periods where I don't have concrete goals to work with, but only vague ideas. Similarly, since I don't get a lot of technical guidance there are often weeks-long periods where I don't "produce" anything but instead trying to dig information out on publications, CS blogs or StackOverflow, in order to solve a problem I encounter.

It's at times like these my daily concerns (stuff usually unrelated to work) take precedence over what I am actually trying to figure out. I find myself browsing for gadgets, or looking over my savings or reading the news etc. I have no illusions that this amounts to procrastination no matter how you look at it. Since I don't really need to report anything to my supervisor on a regular basis, these periods can be extensive which often leads to frustration. And having realised this, I would like to be more productive even when I am stuck at my project, hopefully minimise the time it takes until I come up with a solution to whatever it is that's hindering progress.

So my question boils down to: how can I make sure I work efficiently, i.e. I don't get distracted or succumb to procrastination, when I am stuck and only get very loose supervision?

* See relevant questions:

Is it possible to measure/evaluate one's progress or development in quantitative terms?
Ways of developing non-core skills during PhD studies?


texts: Language of application and CV for Junior Professorship in Germany

texts: I am in the process of applying for a Junior professorship in Germany (see also this earlier question here. If the job listing is in German, and does not explicitely state a language requirement, should the application be in German, or can it be in English? Further, does the same apply to the required "CV"?


texts: Has anyone failed coursework requirement and got terminated from PhD program?

texts:
I'm doing a PhD in Economics, a 3-year program. I am required to do 4 coursework and receive a grade of B+. The thing is I didn't meet the grade requirement of all four courses, although I didn't fail the courses. I have a very good research proposal (in my opinion). I've got all the data on hand. I have discussed about this with my supervisor and he said I might get terminated; it depends on the research committee after I defend my proposal. I think it would be very unfair if I've got a justifiable proposal but still got terminated because I didn't meet the coursework requirement. The university regulation does not say clearly what would happen if someone fails the coursework requirement.

So, I was wondering if there is anyone out there who is/was in my position. Did you get terminated from the school?


texts:
Often researchers publish their work incrementally. Abstractly speaking, let's say, in 2010 the researcher publishes version 1.0 of his algorithm/system/framework. Two years later, he publishes an improved version 2.0 of the same algorithm/system/framework.

If I want to cite his work, should I

a) cite his oldest work (advantage: typically, older works have more citations),

b) cite his newest work (advantage: my readers will be directed to the most uptodate version of the author's work), or

c) cite both?


texts: Best workflow for publication-quality figures with multiple subplots?

texts:
What’s the best way to create full publication-quality (i.e. vector) figures from multiple subplots, from various sources? For example, I want to include a TIFF microscopy image and an EPS plot exported from Matlab in the same figure. A friend suggested PowerPoint, but it no longer supports EPS plots. Loading and exporting the full figures from Matlab is an option. I haven't used LaTeX – if this is suggested, what packages would be required?

My journal requires figures to be in EPS or TIFF format.


texts: What are some differences between a Masters' Research Thesis versus a PhD Thesis for STEM fields? From program websites, I learned that a Masters thesis is not as "rigorous, broad, deep" as a PhD thesis, so I get the general idea that a Masters Research Thesis is "easier" than a PhD one. However, I find the description vague. In what specific ways are they different? How are the expectations different? Does a PhD thesis have to be "ground breaking", while a Masters one does not have to be? Can anyone who has written both types share their observations on the differences?


texts: How to gracefully leave a research lab (due to major change)?

texts:
I'm a freshman electrical engineering student who has been working in a research lab for the past year. I decided a few months ago that I am going to change my major to computer science, and that I will be leaving the lab I'm still working at.

How can I gracefully leave this lab without burning bridges (I may want to use this job as a reference in the future)? Should I tell them I'm changing majors or will it be easier to not let them know that?


texts: At conferences, why are there usually a few days delay between decisions and notifications?

texts:
At conferences, there is often a delay of a few days between decisions and notifications. In a particular case, the decisions were made on a Sunday (according to a reviewer who tweeted details about the decision process) while the publicly announced notification day was a Thursday.

Notifications at this conference do not include any additional information on top of the reviews that would justify additional processing time.

As an impatient person, I wonder if there is a reason for having this delay, rather than sending out the notifications immediately.


texts: Advisor suggesting a change in the PhD research direction resulting in less theoretically intensive thesis. I am worrying about the implications

texts:
I joined for my PhD in mechanical engineering in a Canadian university almost 3 years back. I had completed the necessary coursework and preliminary exam last July. My advisor had approved my research proposal to develop a numerical procedure to predict the damage behavior of composities during a complex loading condition. It is a really challenging topic and I wanted to give my best in solving the problem. My committee members were also satisfied with my research proposal and projected timelines.

Howevever, till now, I have not been able to get any substantial progress on the research topic. I am facing a lot of theoretical issues and my research topic is very loosely related to the expertise of my advisor. As a result his technical suggestions are not quite relevant and helpful. There's no one in the department who can help me in this regard.

Last week, my advisor suggested to change my research topic to a different one within the realm of the grants objectives. The modified researh area won't require the development any numerical procedure. Instead I will be using a commercial software with inbuilt procedures to get the results. I won't be able to publish in a reputed numerical or theoretical journals and  will have to settle for decent application oriented journals. I don't want my PhD to just be one where I pressed some buttons to get the answer. I wanted it to be rigorous.

I am not sure what would be the implications if I accept to my advisors suggestion. On one hand the modified direction would guarantee atleast 3 decent publications. On the other hand, I don't know if I will be able to solve the theoretical problem soon enough to generate results. But if solved, will lead to a theoretically intensive paper and a lot of learning opportunity as a researcher.

What should I do? I will be funded for 5 years. And I would like to stay in academia in the future.


texts: Attending job talks when you are leaving the department

texts: I am leaving my current department in the next few weeks. We are currently in the mist of our hiring season and have 12 job talks and campus visits schedule before I leave. None of the positions we are currently trying to fill are explicitly the replacement position to mine and the areas of expertise of the candidates are pretty far removed from mine. We are a large enough department, that there will still be a reasonable sized audience and enough people for the candidates to talk to. Is it inappropriate to skip the job talks and not meet the candidates, unless they specifically ask to meet with me?


texts: How to refer to a source with "minor" typos in the title?

texts:
This questions supplements the existing: how to refer to a source with typos in the title, where OP spotted grammar mistakes in the title of papers mentioned in the reference list and wondered whether or not they should correct them.

As a major con:

  The purpose of references is to help readers locate your sources as easily as possible. Correcting titles might give the impression that you are referring to another work.

But what about mistakes that have little to no influence on search engines or paper identity such as, for example, punctuation and missing accents?

In my specific case, an important keyword features an en-dash and the french circumflex accent. I find it written in four different ways in the titles of my bibliography.


texts: Applying for NSF (Math Fellowship) before being accepted to a university. How to find a Sponsor?

texts:
I am in the process of applying to graduate schools this Fall 2017 (both in the US and in Europe). I do not yet know what institution I may go to nor do I know any researcher who would be willing to make such early plans. I am wondering whether or not my case matches the requirements of the NSF (Math Fellowship)? I have read the FAQs but found nothing that answers my concern.

From the description for Sponsoring Scientist, I read

The sponsoring scientist's statement is meant to
show how the host and host institution will provide a vibrant and
supportive environment for the Fellow's proposed research and
training activities and provide a basis for the Fellow's future
independent research career.

The above makes me think that this Fellowship is only appropriate for enrolled students. Is this right?

If not and it is indeed possible/appropriate for me to apply for NSF (Math Fellowship), then how should I go about finding a Sponsoring Scientist? Is it appropriate to approach/email some researchers in some schools that I will be applying to?


texts: How to implement flipped classroom for 18 year olds?

texts:
I teach an introductory programming course at university where 99% of my students are 18-20 years old. They are used to the old and boring education system they know from high school, so they are not precisely "motivated" about learning. And since we have to have exams (I'm with a team of teachers where most of them tend to "keep things as they are and don't make me work extra") the kids' goal is usually to pass that exam with the least effort, regardless of whether they learn to code or not.

Our teaching materials are organized so that one teacher presents the theory to students and then I explain whatever they didn't understand and present them with exercises.

As they are just beginners, they don't know enough to create cool programs yet (I'm teaching the very basics of control flows, some data storage in memory and command line programming). So I'm trying to make them motivated and would like to try flipped classroom methodologies.

However, I'm not sure about how to implement it. Let's say I make videos explaining the topics so they can dedicate my whole class to practice their coding skills. I've tried making videos before (both short and longer ones) and about 5% of the students watch them, as they feel they don't have time to waste given that there are so many other exams they need to pass (other subjects). Also, since this is about programming, there isn't much to be discussed, it's like math: you sit down and get your hands onto code.

How can I best bring in any new motivational tools like flipping my classroom?


texts: What is the necessary entity that cannot be done by professor without physical classroom with assembled students?

texts:
I want to know whether there is any necessary entity (quality/property) in the traditional classroom teaching that cannot be done without a physical classroom with intended students. Please keep aside the administrative responsibilities such as minimum teaching hours in classroom, availability in office, maintaining attendance of students etc.,

Afaik, most of the tasks that a professor (any lecturer) can do in the classroom can also be done without classroom with assembled students, nowadays, with high availability.

For lecture, a professor can publish her recorded video lectures to students. For query solving or interaction, she can use the Q&A site for her students. Announcements can also be streamed in a similar way. I'm referring to the sites such as Google classroom, piazza, slack, etc.,

In such a case, I'm getting the doubt whether there exists a necessary entity that a professor cannot provide without (her direct presence) a classroom teaching.

If such an entity exists, then what is that?


texts:
When giving research presentations, I don't use outline slides since I am normally telling a story and believe that it is a poor use of time (hopefully I'm not instigating a debate, I just wanted to see if my logic extends to lectures)

However, I'm tempted to start including them in lectures so that students know what to expect and have an idea of the concepts being presented. I'm also thinking about the style where you periodically recall the outline to help keep the big picture.

When doing chalkboard lectures, if the answer is "yes" to the above, I would assume the same holds there. Probably a good use of time at the beginning, right?


texts: What are the main reasons why academics leave academia? (Looking for references, not personal opinions)

texts:
Is there any research/study/survey that looked at the main reasons why academics leave academia?

I did read a few articles explaining why some particular academics left academia, but I would like to have some statistics to see what are the most common reasons invoked.

I mostly interested in the computer science field (machine learning) in the US, but curious about other fields and locations as well.


texts: Is it common to provide digital notes (slides or handwritten) for students?

texts:
I am preparing a lecture course for this semester and I am planning to teach from slides. I will consider these slides my notes for the course. However, the following points may also apply to handwritten notes that a lecturer might use as a reference.

I can see several advantages and disadvantages associated with providing the students with the notes for a given lecture prior to that lecture:

Advantages:

Students have to write less (because the core of the material is already present), so more material can be covered;

Disadvantages:

Students may lose focus more easily when they have digital notes because they do not have to copy everything down (this was my experience as an undergrad);
Students may choose not to attend class because notes are available elsewhere (of course, they may choose to do so anyways...).

One alternative I have considered is to distribute all of the notes relevant to an exam some suitable time period prior to that exam. However, this may reduce the effectiveness of the advantage, although it will mitigate to a certain extent the disadvantages. So, my question is as in the title: Is it common for professors to distribute digital notes to the class? If so, what methods are common?


texts: How do I determine which of two International Conference on Web Services (ICWS 2018) is genuine?

texts:
International Conference on Web Services (ICWS) is one of the top conferences for web service researchers. But this year (2018), I find there are two ICWS websites:

http://icws.org/2018 (this one is the old website for ICWS 2017, 2016..)
http://conferences.computer.org/icws/2018/ (this one is sponsored by IEEE)

How can I determine which conference is genuine? And as I'm a Chinese researcher, another thing I care about is that which one is recognized as the B-level conference by CCF (China Computer Federation)?


texts: How would an undergrad fund a conference trip with a single author paper?

texts:
I am considering submitting a single author paper to a computer science conference that would be very expensive for me to attend based on travel costs alone. If accepted, is it realistic to expect that I could find some grant or other means of covering the entirety of the cost? I really cannot afford it on my own. The conference has a student volunteer position which I will definitely apply for, but it does not cover travel costs, only registration costs.

Also, the project is not quite finished – I anticipate a couple more months of work.


texts: How to find out the average duration of the peer-review process for a given journal?

texts:
I have a mathematics paper ready for publishing, but I can't decide to which journal should I publish it.

The main thing based on which I want to publish the paper to a specific journal is its short period of peer-review process (because I need to publish it as soon as possible).

Suppose I have a list of journals I want to publish the paper. How should I know the average period of peer-review process for each of them?


texts: Recommending venues and organizations in a paper

texts:
Some co-authors and I are currently writing a position paper that aims to introduce Community A to a set of problems in Community B, in which collaboration between Communities A and B is likely to be helpful.  This paper is intended for submission to a peer-reviewed special issue that has invited such position papers.

There are already some meeting series that are intended to help foster such collaborations, but they are not very widely known.  In our concluding recommendations, we are thinking of including a list of them (perhaps as a table), as an aid for readers who are motivated by our paper to seek out A/B collaborations.

Is such "advertisement" appropriate for a peer-reviewed publication, particularly given that some of the authors are involved in organization of some of the meetings?


texts:
My brother did a Bachelor of Science degree, Psychology Major, at the University of Manitoba.

I am curious if it is common for Psychology to be offered through Science and Arts faculties as opposed to just Arts. Do most Universities offer this?


texts: How do judges evaluate presentations at an undergraduate conference?

texts:
I'm giving a presentation at an undergraduate conference. There are awards given for the best talks. The focus of each talk is what the student has been working on for their research project.

What, in general, do the conference judges look for when they evaluate a talk? Is it the general quality of the presentation? The significance of the results? The way the presenter answers questions from the audience?

For context, it is a physics conference and the talks are short (10 min). In the past, the judges have been graduate students or physics professors at different universities.


texts: Should I choose a research field that I'm not really good at, but have strong interest?

texts:
I'm a first year masters student. Currently I'm doing coursework but I'll have research in second year. I find all subjects interesting. I feel better when I'm doing subjects including a bit of mathematics and rigorous thinking. Algorithms in particular.
But I'm not really good at it. I try hard but it's just not happening. Still if I'm given opportunity I want to do research in Algorithms.
This will obviously require mathematical thinking.

Is it good to pursue research career in a subject which I'm interested in ignoring the fact that I do not have strong base and understanding of it? Or should I choose something easier based on my abilities?


texts: Is a software developer entitled to participate to paper?

texts:
I'm an external consultant who has been brought to develop a software suite to collect, analyze and reduce data for a project (with oral assurance that I would participate to any paper to come from this project).

Since then, the IT engineer assigned to the project has filed a complaint arguing that hiring me was a waste of lab resources (even if the suite was provided on time with no overcost) which resulted being in not being hired for the follow-up to this project.

Drama aside, I know that a publication resulting from the data processed through the suite I developed is underway. I tried to voice my right to examine, but was denied, again on the IT engineer's (who is participating to the paper) good word: he argues that I have no right to participate as developing software is neither original nor a research task.

From my point of view, this is simply not true: The software I've developed was tailor-made for this project and incorporate elements based on the state of the art in both data collection and analysis.

I know that what qualifies someone to be included in the authors of a paper varies widely among fields of work (my previous experience is a Ph.D. in solid-state physics, I'm talking about medical research here). Am I justified in wanting to be included in the paper?

I can see several reasons why it's important to me:

I want to validate the interpretation done.
Getting a paper for this project was for me a mean to prove my proficiency to further clients in this field of study.
Pride, also ? :)


texts: Changing the thesis topic and supervisor

texts:
I am currently doing my Master's degree in Computer Science. So far, I am at the very beginning of my work, just started with the research. My supervisor is the same person who supervised me during my Bachelor's. I was very satisfied with collaboration with him. The idea for my Master's was to build on the grounds of the application that was build during my Bachelor's. That was planned from the start of our collaboration during my Bachelor's.

To be honest, I was not very satisfied with the application created for Bachelor's thesis, because I was working and doing double degrees at the same time and created it in a big hurry. Furthermore, I believe that I was able to defend my thesis on time hugely because of my promise to improve the application further during my Master's.

Here comes the problem - I am no longer interested in my Master's thesis topic that much. I came up with another idea, which would include changing the field of research, hence, changing my supervisor. The new idea makes me way more excited, because it is associated with my hobby. I believe that changing the topic would dramatically increase my motivation resulting with a better outcome. All of that makes the decision quite tough for me.

To sum up - is it okay to abandon my supervisor and the improvement of my application written for my Bachelor's despite the promise? Thank you very much in advance.


texts:
While using a search engine for student theses I noticed a footnote at the bottom of page saying

After a thesis is published on the HSE website, it obtains the status
of an online publication.

So what is precisely an online publication and how it differs from a "real" publication or a preprint? Can you include it in your CV? Is it going to be treated seriously?


texts: Is it ok to list reviewing experience in a resume when you don't have a PhD?

texts: A friend of mine is has an appointment as research staff without any postgraduate degree, let alone a PhD. However, she has years of research experience and has single-handedly reviewed impact factor 8 journals due to her extreme specialization. I told her she cannot claim any experience as her boss may have delegated it from his own refereeing work. She is looking for jobs in academia/industry. Can she claim to have reviewed for these journals on her resume/CV?


texts: Why is Howard University still predominantly black?

texts:
Today, I read the name “Howard University” on a list, and since I had no idea where it was, I looked it up. I was amazed from their website because, well, most people on the photos there are black!

Since I assume it does not reflect the ethnicity of the local environment (Washington DC), I went to search for an explanation. Wikipedia says it's a “historically black university”:

  established before 1964 with the intention of serving the black community

So, I understand that segregation-era black universities might have a predominantly African American faculty and student body after the end of segregation, but it's now almost 50 years ago. So, what factors explain how an institution such as Howard University didn't get more ethnically/racially diverse, while multiculturalism seems an important part of academic way of life?


texts: First time being in an applied math lab - what are some tips to overcome shyness?

texts:
This will be my first semester in an applied math lab.  After spending a couple of years taking all theoretical math courses, essentially working in isolation the entire time, and finishing a thesis, essentially only interacting in person with my advisor, I will now be part of a group doing some experimental work for a semester.  We are expected to write journal-style papers (not too long, less than 10 pages), following a journal of the professor's choice.

I found this setting to be extremely uncomfortable.  I felt that I was the only one who had to ask things such as, "what is viscosity?."

What are some tips to overcome this feeling of holding myself back from having an active dialogue with my lab professor?  How did you guys do it, when you first started at a lab?  I feel utterly inept with interacting in a group setting.

The professor is super cool and very informal and speaks very intuitively, so as not to scare off the first-timers, I think.


texts: Should I change a graduate class grade to pass/fail? Will it harm my PHD applications?

texts:
I am an MS student in machine learning just finished my first semester at a U.S. university, and I plan to apply to PhD programs in computer science in electrical engineering or operations research for next year (also for machine learning and optimization).
I took three STEM advanced graduate courses this semester (two EE, one math course), did well on the engineering courses but only got a B on the math course (measure theory) because of a bad final. Even though B is not exactly a disastrous grade, but it is not good at our school because the graduate courses are heavily curved. My school offers an option this year to get a special Pass/Fail grade, where they will mention something like "pass/fail because of the global pandemic". This past semester was indeed hard for me as I was living in a different time zone because of travel restrictions and the classes usually took place at 1-3 a.m.
I am still thinking whether I should use this option. On one hand, I have heard multiple times that graduate schools frown upon P/F grades, but on the other hand, this course is not directly related to my research area (may be useful one day, though). I would appreciate any advice!


texts:
I used tools from another field to get results in economics.
I can see other preprints doing that, but none get published.

Anyone in a similar situation?
You mixed two fields, and now each field thinks you are an alien.
How did you get out of this?

My paper usually boomerang with: "interesting but more suited to a specialized journal".
(whether the journal was specialized or not)
(no matter if I rewrote with the journal in mind or not)


texts: Is overlapping of two dissertations in TCS acceptable?

texts:
Me and my friend in initial stages of our PhD worked on same research problems in theoretical computer science (TCS) under the same supervisor. Is it ethically acceptable in TCS community to have almost identical (50%) dissertations containing identical chapters?

Note: This question was originally asked here.


texts: As a reviewer, what steps can I take after paper is published despite major scientific and ethical concerns, with no explanation from editor?

texts:
I recently reviewed a manuscript for a journal I didn't know very well, but which was indexed on Pubmed and Scopus and seemed to be legitimate. In my review, I recommended rejection based on what I considered to be substantial flaws in methodology, data analysis, and interpretation. In addition, I had ethical concerns about the manuscript, including suspicions of self-plagiarism and possible copyright infringement. It seemed that the authors had inappropriately reused text, data, and figures from an article that they had previously published in another journal. I detailed all of these concerns in my report to the editor.

After an automated response from the editor acknowledging receipt of my review, I heard nothing from the journal for 3-4 months. Out of curiosity, I looked online and was surprised to find that the manuscript was already in print! In fact, it had been published less than 2 months after I submitted my review, and the published version is essentially identical to the draft version I reviewed.

I have since made multiple attempts to contact the editor, but have received no response. To be clear, I certainly understand that the editorial team may not agree with my review, but I have been quite disappointed to have received no response to address the scientific and ethical issues I raised. If nothing else, in my experience (and I realize this may be a niche-specific expectation) an editor for any reputable journal will keep reviewers apprised of the editorial progress of manuscripts they have reviewed.

Some readers have asked whether this is an online open-access journal with article processing charges, but instead it is a subscription-based journal. Thus, the journal and publisher are not eligible for inclusion on Beall's List (scholarlyoa.com).

Are there any other steps I can or should take? Anyhow, if I continue to be ignored by the editor, I am considering sharing this information with the editorial board of the journal that published the original paper (the one that I think may have been self-plagiarized).


texts: How to mention about my university's MOU with the university in which I'm applying for Research Internship?

texts:
My university has an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with certain universities in which I am interested in applying for the position of research intern.
As I will be mailing professors of my domain of those universities for the internship, how should I mention in the mail that my university has an MOU with their university?
PS: My university's International Programme and Collaborations Department said, while applying to a university, if the student mentions the existence of an MoU, it may increase his/her chances to receive an acceptance from the university.


texts: Why do computer science conferences (usually) not reveal the number of submissions?

texts:
In the conferences I've experienced, each paper gets a serial number that can tell its authors how many submissions were made prior to theirs.

Many conferences have a fixed number of tracks (and days), and thus the number of accepted papers cannot vary too much. (The organizers do have some flexibility, but it is rather limited.)

Thus, knowing the number of submissions can help one assess his chance of being accepted to the conference, which might tempt him to submit at the very last moment just to figure out the submission count.

Obviously, not everyone can do this. Why don't the organizers simply post it on the website after the submission date is due?


texts: Is it taboo to disclose info to 3rd parties about the review status of a paper of other authors?

texts:
I was under the following situation and I'm not sure which would have been the right way to handle it.

I was refereeing a paper. I suggested that the authors could cite a very recent paper which was uploaded on a repository (so, not official publication but publicly available nevertheless) that could have solved one of the conjectures they mentioned.

They respond that they do not want to cite unofficial publications that have not been fully verified yet (as indicated in their opinion by acceptance on one of the venues). This respond is somewhat understandable.

But they went an extra step and they said that the mentioned pre-print probably has mistakes (no reference) since it was submitted to XX venue and was rejected thus they do not want to cite it.

  Is it normal that they disclosed to me some private information about a submission of a paper and its status?

I felt uncomfortable about this disclosure of private information. How could they know that it was indeed submitted? How could they know why it was rejected? Even if they know (for example by communication with the authors) what gives them the right to announce this to me (an anonymous referee-maybe I'm one of the authors of that preprint). Note that the two papers have disjoint sets of authors.

  Question: What would be the most appropriate way to handle this situation? I let it be, but I feel that the authors have crossed many lines with their responses and I still feel somewhat uncomfortable for this.


texts: What are the arguments for and against Open Access?

texts: As a relative newbie in academia, I understand that there is a rather controversial debate raging about the benefits and negatives of Open Access policies.  Is it possible to summarize some of the arguments for and against Open Access?


texts: How common is flipped classroom type teaching?

texts:
Flipped classroom teaching has become gradually more popular and studies show that the effectiveness of learning is better than in traditional lecture type courses. I've tried to give feedback to my own university after courses that this should be pursued, but so far there has been no changes here.

I'd like to know what percentage of courses are using flipped classrooms and how it varies between geographical location and subject/field. I would assume that fields with complex systems to learn would have greater benefits using flipped type compared to traditional lectures.


texts: How do I thank a professor for choosing me as his PhD student (via email)?

texts:
I emailed my potential supervisor to express my interest in her works. We talked once and I was encouraged to apply to the university. Recently, I emailed her to inform her that I have submitted my application. I got a response from my potential supervisor that I am admitted. How should I thank her for admitting me?

Also, one of my recommendation letters is not submitted yet. Does that mean I am definitely admitted? Because I have to ask about financial aid and scholarships and I have no idea when or how to do so...


texts: Should i restrict the scope of my work according to the conference theme?

texts:
I'm writing a paper for a good conference in computer science with specific themes in Data mining. I checked their scope of topics and their programs for the last 3 cycles of the conference, and i noticed they always have a session related to "Topic-X" (time-series) which is also mentioned in their CP's themes.

Well, i used my work (classification algorithm) to solve the problem regarding "Topic-X", but i also found that it is applicable to a much broader range of problems rather than only "Topic-X". But the conference does not have a session for a broad topic like that, although it is included in their CP's themes.

So i'm thinking:

1- If i write and name the paper related to "Topic-X" there is a high chance to get accepted there as they have a session for that. However, then i'd deliberately restrict the application scope of my method.

2- If I use it in the general case while also including "Topic-X" in the experiments, it may not directly fit the conference's session-X and may lose its chance to get accepted there.

3- If go with plan 1 but also include other types of problems in the experiments, I'm afraid it may sound awkward or out of the scope of the paper.

Should i ask the conference chair or is it more awkward?!


texts: Position and prominence of 'Acknowledgements' in a publication

texts:
What is the appropiate position for the 'Acknowledgements' in a paper? Are there policies by (mathematical) journals where to put them?

Furthermore, is it common to make acknowledgements a \paragraph (in Latex), rather than a \subsection or a final \section?


texts: In what ways would co-authoring a graduate research paper as an undergraduate help me?

texts:
I have been working on a graduate level research project, with the bonus of being listed as a co-author if I make a significant contribution (which I likely will). I am still an undergraduate, but have significant experience (professional and educational) in the field.

My question is: Is this a big deal? If I go to grad school in that field, would this allow me to obtain a PhD quicker?

What if I don't go to grad school, but choose to work in the field, would being listed as co-author on a research project of this level hold enough weight to warrant listing on my resume?


texts: A paper split in two parts - how to cite it in CV?

texts:
I recently cowrote a paper which came out somewhat long: 40+ pages. We uploaded it to arXiv in this form, but afterwards decided that it would be preferable to publish it as a series of two papers. (It was a natural decision given the length and the fact that it naturally splits into two weakly interacting parts. On the other hand, there is arguably some added value in having a combined version of the paper available somewhere.) At this moment, one of these parts has been submitted to a journal, the other one is still work in progress (the introductory sections need to be written almost from scratch).

What is the best way to record this on a CV/publication list at this point? Of course, it goes without saying that arXiv preprints are not nearly as important as published papers, but it seems it would be honest to own up to all of my writings in some form.

Options I see:
a) Just reference the preprint on arXiv, and worry about the rest when the other papers are accepted,
b) Mention both the preprint and the submitted paper with an awkward note explaining what is going on (perhaps this should also involve uploading the half-paper to arXiv).

(If relevant, my field is pure mathematics, I'm a PhD student about to graduate. I do need an up-to-date CV.)


texts: How to ask someone (outside the department) to be on the thesis committee

texts:
I have to request a faculty member outside of my department to be on my thesis committee and I was wondering how I should go about doing this. To be frank, I don't really see why someone would be willing to be on the thesis committee for someone outside their department and even field - apart from the altruism of wanting to help others in academia and all, but I assume professors are busy! Therefore, I imagine that it's hard to convince someone to do this?

In any case, I was wondering:

  what information about myself should I aim to include in an email request to a potential thesis committee member outside my department?

In addition, while I need to find someone to file my candidacy papers, but I have only a vague idea of what my final thesis will look like (I know the field, but not the particular question it will address.)

Some things I have come up with include:

a rough description of the subject area
'expected' graduation date and number of years spent in graduate school so far
if they have been on the thesis committee for someone else with a similar thesis (by looking at the thesis committees of former students who worked with my advisor)


texts: I was wondering if any could give me some pointers on the issue of having students working on software that's being developed in the lab. What's the standard procedure on this issue? Is there some sort of agreement that's better for the student to sign before he/she starts contributing to this software? Are there any standard conditions that I can use to set up the agreement?


texts: What resources should a PhD student expect their advisor to have?

texts:
I am contemplating changing PhD advisors and wanted opinions as to whether I am being too critical and if there is any basis to my concerns.
I am a little over a year into the PhD program and am with an advisor who is known within the department for having diverse research interest, a jack of many trades. In my opinion this has significantly limited my advisor's ability to advise the work of the PhD students in the lab beyond an introductory level. Nor has this provided my advisor with any significant level of resources such as ideas, publications, or people in any one area of research.
In the time I have been in the lab I have published three first author papers. These were all ideas I originated with no assistance from my advisor; I used none of the resources in the lab; I ran the experiments and wrote the manuscripts; I found the journals to publish the papers in; and I responded to and submitted all the edits. In all cases there was no publishing fee because my advisor has no funding.
I sometimes feel like the only duty my advisor exists for is simply to sign on the dotted line in cases where I need somebody to testify I have met the program's degree requirements as I progress though the program. I do not want, or expect, an advisor to hold my hand through my PhD. Nor do I expect my advisor to know everything about what I am doing. What would I be contributing to science if someone else already knew everything about what I was researching? I did however assume an advisor would be someone who could judge and debate the intellectual scope and merit of the research their advisees are performing beyond a introductory level. I also assumed an advisor would have resources I could use to propel my research forward.
I fear that my current trajectory could easily lead me towards earning a PhD with mediocre research and publications unless I exercise extreme vigilance. I feel like my advisor is ill equipped to provide ideas, publications, people, and/or other resources to contribute towards strengthening my research. I fear this could significantly hurt my ability to be competitive for positions after my PhD.
Are my fears warranted? Am I being too critical of my advisor? Are my expectations unrealistic about the resources an advisor should be able to provide? How common is this among advisors and I would be just as likely to run into these same issues if switched to a new advisor?
Thank you!


texts: Thesis: What are the requirements before saying "There is no research on that" and how to phrase it?

texts:
I'm writing my masters thesis in computer science and I haven't found a good source for evaluation criteria of the protocols I'm looking at in my thesis.

What are the requirements before I can say "There is nothing on evaluation criteria in the literature."

Is the fact that I couldn't find any enough? When do I know that I put enough effort into searching?


texts: Is submitting a video on my research paper for ICCT 2017 conference beneficial?

texts:
I have submitted my paper here, http://www.iacst.org/iacst/Confe...

They waived my fee and asked me to submit a video file representing my paper. They also told me that
“ Journal recommendation is for oral or poster presentation authors.”
I am wondering, is it beneficial? The Paper is on my semester project.


texts: Should each chapter in an extensive paper start with an overview of the chapter's contents?

texts:
I'm working on a extensive paper for my study. It's about some computational stuff, has 5 chapters and will be - all in all - roughly 60 pages long. Reading some papers and theses I noticed, that often people start each chapter with some kind of an overview, describing what's going to happen next. Though on the one hand, I find this helpful sometimes, on the other hand it pulls me out off the flow of the actual work. In some papers, it seems even that certain things, which are going to come up are announced repeatedly and I feel a bit over-informed of the papers structure.

Therefore I'd like to know: Should each chapter start with such an overview and - if yes -, when and to what extent?


texts: Institute affiliation link in google scholar

texts:
As you may have seen, in google scholar, there is no link for some institutes in the profile page of researchers. I wonder why this is so. After a great deal of searches I figured out that the main reason could be not having a verified email, however it seems to be not. A sample institute without link in profile of its researchers is as follow:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&view_op=search_authors&mauthors=GSK+company&btnG=

I would be grateful if you could help me to figure this out.


texts: Measuring daily/weekly productivity in academia

texts:
One of the things I struggle with in academia is measuring my daily/weekly productivity. Before academia, I worked in various fields and always felt productive because I could measure my productivity, i.e. cash on hand after a shift of waiting tables. Since being in academia (currently a post-doc) I struggle with measuring productivity because it comes in the form of years, not days/weeks. I set goals each week and keep a running timer on my desk when I am working -- not meetings or seminars, straight research -- and still have a hard time measuring productivity. I realize this is the nature of the profession I am in but am hoping for some advice.

Question: How do you measure your short-run productivity?


texts: How many emails do professors get every day?

texts:
When I was in academic publishing, I received about 50? emails a day. The bulk of these (~60-70%) would be semi-automated emails of the form "so-and-so has agreed to review this paper" or "the first proofs of so-and-so paper are now available at this internal link". There'd be a few (<5) internal emails about e.g. meetings, new hires/resignations, policies, and so on. There's the occasional promotional email sent by other publishers or conference organizers (I have no idea why they would email me, but not mine to reason why), and finally there are actionable emails: author corrections, complaints, questions, initiatives, replies from acquisition attempts, and so on (usually more than 1, but less than 10, of these every day).

What does it look like for professors? I've had one professor tell me that his inbox resembles a black hole, and I'm curious how black is black in this case.


texts: What is the relationship between impact factor and journal ranking

texts:
As a second year graduate student, it's become increasingly difficult for me to figure out what journals are the most prestigious.  My research is very interdisciplinary, and so journals from many different fields would be suitable for my work.

Initially, I took Impact Factor as a good proxy for journal ranking.  However, I've come to learn that IF doesn't necessarily reflect the whole story.  It seems that number of citations (for an individual publication), regardless of journal, appears to be the most important metric.

However, barring that, I assume most people (in the interest of career success), would still like to publish in the best journal they can get in.

Consider a journal like Physical Review Letters.  It has an impact factor of 7.7.  However, a relatively new journal like Advanced Energy Materials has an impact factor of 14.3, almost double that of PRL.  However, I've always heard that PRL is one of the best physics journals that you can publish in (heck, Einstein's EPR experiment was published there).  So if I had an article that would be appropriate for submission to both, which would be the better one to get in?

Then there's something like Nature Physics, with its 20.6 Impact Factor, which suggests getting in here would be a more significant achievement that either of the other two.  But by how much?  Surely not by three times?

(Part of the problem is that Research Gate gives you a total IF score for all your publications, which I think biases that number more than it should be.)


texts: Uploading assignment answers - for prospective employers?

texts:
This question is similar to: 'Sharing assignments with a potential employer'
However, it is not quite the same, and does not answer my query fully.
My question is: I have been thinking about ways of sharing my course assignment work with prospective employers. The rationale is that, if I just write 'statistics 70%' on my resume, it is difficult for the employer to know what that means, in high resolution. The employer really doesn't know the level of questions asked, how lenient the marking was, which bits I got wrong, and how that affects my suitability for the job. If I could signpost my interviewer to a collection of work I have produced, they can look in detail at what I understand and don't understand.
However, this has implications for my university, in that (depending upon how I upload the assignments) they might be easier for future students to access and therefore make plagriarism easier.
Could I upload the files to the cloud with password protection and offer to provide the password at the request of the interviewer?
I know this system still isn't perfect, since once the prospective employer has access to the files, there is no way of knowing if they will reproduce them elsewhere on the web or what they will do with them.


texts: How to find graduate programs in chemistry based on my research interests

texts:
I am final year Chemistry undergraduate. I have worked in areas of laser spectroscopy and astrochemistry. I would like to apply to grad schools along this line especially spectroscopy. However, I know that my specific research interests may make this question not extendable to what others may want.

  The best answer to this question is one that explain how you can search for graduate programs in chemistry where there are professors that are doing certain kinds of research, whatever that research might be.


texts: Contacting my undergraduate supervisor after an extended period of time to ask for help?

texts:
I worked with a graduate professor at my undergraduate university (which I just graduated from this year) on a couple of projects in my final year. On one of the projects, I worked with him as a paid research assistant. I used the other project as my 4th year research project for course credit (so did not get paid) and that project is being submitted for publication. Although, I was just one member of a team of about 10 people on that project. My supervisor was very nice and helped me out a lot. Actually, on my first contact with him he offered to discuss my future plans with me and offer some advice (which he did and was very helpful).

I had my last contact with him in May via email, just after we finished the second project, when I thanked him for the opportunities he provided me. We exchanged a couple of brief emails back-and-forth, and that was the last time I spoke with him. I have spent the past 6 months trying to figure out what I would like to study in graduate school (I was stuck deciding between 2 programs). Now I believe I know where I want to go and what I want to study.

Earlier this year, my supervisor mentioned that he knows some people at the school I would like to apply to (for this program, I need to contact potential advisors ahead of time). He briefly mentioned some names that I had since forgotten.

I would like to get in contact with my supervisor again and ask:

for the names of the researchers he mentioned; and
to use him as a reference in my applications.

However, since it has been so many months since we've spoken, I am worried that this would be considered "rude" as I am only contacting him to get something from him.

How should I go about contacting him and how should I frame my email as to not sound greedy or selfish?


texts: If I haven't had a response to a request for recommendation letter a month before applications are due, should I contact someone else?

texts:
I have two profs that would make great references for me since I worked closely with them on some research. I emailed them 2 weeks ago (which was nearly 6 weeks before the application deadline). I heard back from one of them immediately but still haven’t heard back from the other. To be fair, it was the day before the holidays. I sent him a follow up a couple of hours ago. This is a professor who has always responded back to me within a few minutes. Still haven’t heard back. The application is due in less than a month and I’m really panicking I’m running out of time! If I need to find someone else, I don’t want to give them short notice. So should I contact someone else today?

Another question, I’m not really sure if this other person would be an appropriate reference. I worked with her on a research project (the same project I worked with the other professors on). She’s not a professor (which is fine) but I didn’t work all that closely with her on the project. I helped her out with a few specific tasks, but the other references would definitely be better able to evaluate me. I know you can’t tell me if she would give me a good reference, but does anyone else have a similar experience with getting a reference from someone you only worked with briefly on a project?

If I do ask her, what should I say in the email on such short notice (and since we aren’t that close)?


texts:
It may sound an insincere question but bear with me, please.

I am just starting to write my thesis. I got some good publications along the way, and I have a couple under review which I hope will get accepted in tier 1 journals. So the question is, does the thesis in itself add a lot of value to my Ph.D.? Or is it necessary just as part of the formalities?

Also, two related questions are

How do the thesis reviewers' expectation/judgement differ from the journal reviewers' expectation? Obviously, it is the same people usually. But when you (as a faculty) review a thesis, do you look for the same elements as when you review for a Tier I journal?
If the candidate has good publications, does that make you, in want of a better word, go somewhat easy on the thesis?

My professor is, of course, not letting me take it somewhat lightly. I understand where is he coming from since his colleagues will ultimately examine the thesis. But off the record, how critical is the thesis for my career after the defence is over?


texts: When should I ask questions about a paper?

texts:
Short intro: I am a masters student, and doing my master thesis in physics.
Currently I am working on a numerical physics project, and for calculating a formula I want to use an algorithm proposed in a recent paper. Unfortunately I am not able to fully understand and reproduce the algorithm, either because I am lacking some information, and I am also not sure if my implementation is correct at all (I am working with a numerical approximation method, they wrote, that their error changed while calculating (and therefore they had to implement a intelligent error algorithm), but my error never changes.
I am currently the person with the biggest knowledge both in numerical computation and in solving the GNLSE at my chair, so my supervisor can't help me, either.
So, when should I write the responsible author a mail and ask him about the missing parts in the paper? I don't want to annoy him with stuff like "oh look, I forgot a bracket", or similar things which I never saw. Is there a line to draw? How do I check if my questions are "clever" enough to ask?


texts: Is it okay to print an ebook downloaded online?

texts:
Good day everyone. Today's era allows us to download an ebook of some books easily using a search engine such as google.

I just need your help about the question: Is it okay to print an ebook downloaded online for reference purposes?

Thanks for your help.


texts: Proper way of referencing ranges of chapters

texts:
When I need to cite a range of pages in a source, I (well, LaTeX) write:

  See Smith (2010:30–34)

Similarly, when I need to reference a range of sections, I write:

  See Smith (2010:§§3.1–3.4)

For a reference of a single chapter:

  See Smith (2010:ch. 3)

But today, for the first time ever, I need to reference a range of chapters. What is the proper way of doing this? My first instinct was to go with

  See Smith (2010:chs. 3–6)

But then I realized that I had never seen chs. as an abbreviation of chapters, so I tried

  See Smith (2010:ch. 3-6)

Which is weird because it looks like I’m talking about just one chapter. And then

  See chapters 3 through 6 of Smith (2010)

Just looks unwieldy. So the questions are:

Is there a convention for this particular type of citation?
If not, what looks best to you, personally?


texts:
I wrote a paper a few months ago, which I submitted to a journal and is currently under review. My field is mathematics.

Lately I have been thinking about a few things with a colleague and we came up with a small project which uses the results of my paper. The new paper is already written, and we are planning to submit it to a journal (not the same one).

The results from my paper, while obviously original, are not unexpected, and they extend previous (published) results to more general situations. This means that, at least for experts, the results themselves should be correct, so it's not something suspicious.

Is it acceptable to submit our new paper and cite the relevant results from my previous, still under review, paper? I don't think I want to wait for acceptance since it could still take a few more months and job application time is getting closer.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that my paper is available online, both on my home page and the arXiv.

EDIT: In Citing a paper under review in 2 different conferences there is a somewhat similar situation. I think mine is different in two aspects:

1) the fields, and hence the common practices, are generally different.
2) the second paper in question is with a second coauthor. It's out of the question to consider merging both papers into one, for example.


texts: “Percent” in chart title and on axis – redundant?

texts:
Consider the chart below:

When writing percent in the title, and % on the axis marks, is this redundant? Is the word amount preferable?

I haven’t seen this addressed in any style guides such as the APA guidelines.


texts: Referee wants me to add a plot – because the paper has none

texts:
Referee comments for my paper have just arrived:  while one makes some circumstantial and useful observations, the other asks me to add a plot:

  The paper still does not contain a single plot. I encourage the author to present some of their results in graphical form, which will greatly enhance the impact of this paper.

My paper regards some study of the flux of gravitational waves emitted in binary systems and is full of mathematical formulas.

While there may be a way to add a very cool and colorful plot to my paper, I don’t think it is necessary; it would be complicated to read and so I should add more text to explain how to read it.

I don’t want to add a plot. How should I respond to the referee?


texts:
Due to having a thesis advisor,Y, that did not reply my e-mails at the beginning of the process of choosing a topic, I had approached to another professor in the department, X to change my advisor. She rejected my request as saying she was too busy. (But I somehow feel this as an excuse because maybe she did not want to takeover Y's student, as they are quite close friends in the deparment..)
We had continued with advisor Y, but it's time to determine my jury members. The professor X's research topic was too close that of mine and my thesis, would it be awkward to invite her? I know my advisor Y will invite her and he mentioned that once (plus he doesn't know of course that once I approached her to change my advisor..). I think X would accept being my jury member but would it be a weird situation to call her, as once she rejected being my new advisor..


texts: PhD project ownership conflict after changing university

texts:
Student starts a PhD at University A, the student is offered a project conceived by University A supervisor. Then student transfers to University B in agreement with University A supervisor that they will keep working on the project together. Student expands and develops the project and after 9 months at University B the external advisor at University A pulls out of the collaboration due to lack of time to properly supervise student. Student wants to keep working on the project independently given the time and money investment (salary from University B) and the interest for the topic but University A supervisor claims the ownership of the project. Student offers maximum flexibility to A supervisor to try to keep the supervisor involved in the project with little time commitment. Student has now developed a sense of ownership to the project.

How should the student handle the situation? Who owns the project? And what happens if the student keeps working on the project even if A supervisor has not given the green light?


texts: asking professor to fund Master's student

texts:
I am a graduate Masters student from one of the top-tier universities in the US. I have been working closely with a Professor and two of his Ph.D students on a Research Project for the past two months. I approached the Professor out of my interest, hoping to gain some research experience. I have plans of pursuing a Ph.D. in the near future, and I am totally enjoying this research experience under his supervision.  Quite recently he told me that he would add me as one of the co-authors if I completed an analysis for the work I have been working on.

It's a well-known fact in my university that usually Masters students are not funded. I expressed my interest to continue working with him right through the next few semesters, and he replied back saying he was glad to supervise me, adding that he has been enjoying my enthusiasm and productivity. On an average, I spend ~30 hours every week on Research and to my knowledge, my Professor has a lot of funding. I was just wondering if I could request him for any possible funding, such as a standard 20-hour student worker position, if not a tuition waiver because it's very expensive here. Doing other on-campus job besides all this to manage my monthly living expenses, might get too hectic (heavy coursework next semester+research+20 hours on-campus job). I am so hesitant to ask him this, fearing that he might start thinking I have been doing all this for the sake of getting funded, which has not been my intention.

Should I just refrain from asking him about funding as a Masters student to maintain this healthy student-supervisor relationship that I have with him, or is it ok to ask him about funding me?


texts: Is it feasible to take an unsure PhD topic?

texts:
I was working towards converting to a PhD but was unsure of what research I would do. Suddenly an idea striked my mind and I discussed it with my advisor. He doesn't have much experience in that exact field but has been in the area for around 6 months.

He said that he thinks that idea is feasible but doesn't know what would be the approach, and not sure whether the results would be positive in terms of PhD because there several parallel domains. Moreover, literature doesn't have much details on that exact topic. And my literature survey (pretty limited though) has only enhanced my confusion. Probably because my idea deals with application of a recent class of techniques to optimize a problem.

Is it worth to convert to a PhD with such an idea ?


texts: Clear explanation of Conflict of Interest with examples in journal articles

texts:
Some journals require you to state the conflicts of interests (if any). According to the Wikipedia definition,

  A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial interest, or otherwise, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation of the individual or organization.

What exactly is a conflict of interest in the context of journals? How does it affect the publication process? All papers I've read so far has the declaration "The authors declare they have no conflict of interests" in that section. Could anyone give some sample published papers which has a notable conflict of interest in it?


texts: What is the next step after received acceptance from the Editor

texts:
I received an acceptance from the Editor by email, but when I checked the status of my manuscript in the journal website it is "Editor Decision", even after week of receiving the email.

what does that mean? and should I talk to the Editor?


texts: Is there any ways to document Google search results in a research paper?

texts: I'm about to write a paper that includes extensive searches on google with different queries. Is there any ways for me to show in my paper that this search provided these results at the time being?


texts: Over-taking notes due to: 1) copying sentences in textbook + 2) trying to fit new understandings in previous notes which just makes things messy

texts:
So I've been having issues lately on note-taking. Written below is a slight stream of consciousness on what I have been doing, my struggles, and potential solutions (I'd like to know about your opinions regarding whether my solutions are good or if you have any solutions of your own)
Currently, I am self-learning my High School Economics textbook in order to have a full review done before my online college classes begin.
Basically, I read the section I want to take notes on. After that, I try to summarize it the best I can bolded words here and there. However, one issue is that I tend to still sort of copy information into my notes. Thus, my notes get a bit lengthy and crammed. I don't want to copy, but many times many of the sentences are worded really well. I think I seem to get stuck into the "better be safe than sorry" mode where I'm unsure if the specific wording is important to memorize in order for me to re-explain it in those specific words for a possible future test. This also inevitably occurs when it comes to taking notes on lecture-slides. If I can kill two birds(copying nicely worded might-be-on-test information on textbooks and/or powerpoints) with one stone, that would be awesome, but at least hoping to fix the textbook note-taking problem first..... Solution: Perhaps I should read the section multiple times, and force myself to summarize in my own words on a separate sheet of paper, and then re-look what I missed/what specific wordings I feel I should use, and then officially write proper notes in an official notebook?
Usually, when I take notes, after reading the section I go straight to writing my notes into my official notebook. After writing all those notes, I'll realize that when reviewing through these notes later I'll make new connections or realize I'm vague or after going into sections some new information will make me re-think the way I've written past notes. Unfortunately, I have this giant block of written text from this section, and trying to draw little arrows to add my insight in order to 'correct' my already-written notes is really hard to do and aesthetically unpleasant. I just get left with this mess. Going onto the next page and making all these symbols to reference certain sentences of passages of my previously-written notes is also messy and unfulfilling.
Solution: Perhaps similar to above I need to avoid going straight into my official notebook and instead let myself just do summaries on random pieces of scratch paper. I need to be patient and possibly do this for the whole unit. Then I go back re-read all the sections, re-read my scratch-paper summaries, and try and write my official notes with any new insights and connections I've made along the way.
Note: When I say 'official notebook' I mean more like my 'main' notebook where it is ago to resource for my notes and where everything I've written should preferably be organized, clear, and not vague. The problems that are occurring above are sort of degrading the quality of the official/main notebook that just make future-reviewing hard or the satisfaction that I have everything clearly written in one single-burst impossible.
I see all these note-taking methods of taking beautiful notes, but for me time is of the essence as I hope to finish reviewing my Economics textbook before college starts. To me the problem is not the aesthetic design of how I take notes.. I don't need the Cornell Method or Mind-mapping.. I'm just trying to fix some fundamental problems that prevent me from taking good notes that I can then use to leapfrog into spaced-repetition, voice recording myself discussing my notes, etc to truly get them in my memory/head and diminish the need for the notes overall (since I hate having piles and piles of un-reviewed notes that I hardly review)
Sorry for this extremely long question and post. I'm really stuck on this and it would mean the world to get some help. If you believe I have posted this question in the wrong place, please let me know. Thank you!


texts: How common is it to outsource tedious research tasks to undergrads?

texts:
How ethical or common is it for grad students to actively hire undergrads into their lab for the sole purpose of outsourcing tedious labour?

Is this frowned upon and is it really any different than a typical undergrad research opportunity.


texts: Found and corrected a mistake on someone's else paper -- praxis?

texts:
3-4 months ago I found a big mistake in a theorem's proof of a paper that had just been published (stats/cs community). I immediately notified the authors, who claimed to be aware of the mistake but admitted not knowing how to fix it.

This week I noticed that the authors didn't notify the community of the mistake (no updates on their arxiv paper, nothing on the author's websites, etc), even though the paper got a good visibility and already has quite a few citations. I went to check whether the mistake breaks the theorem, and found out that:

1 - the theorem statement is incorrect

2 - however, the statement holds under reasonable assumptions, but the proof requires a different technique (I have a full proof for that)

How should I proceed in this case? This theorem specifically is the main result of the paper, so I wouldn't be comfortable just sending them the corrected proof+statement and not getting properly recognized (e.g. only an acknowledgement). Should I write a short report on post it on arxiv? Send the proof under the requirement that I be added as a co-author? What is the praxis in this case?

EDIT:

Thanks for all the replies so far. I've contacted my advisor and have finished writing a short report (~4 pages) on the matter. I'm yet to decide whether I should contact the authors before posting the report, and whether a merger would be a good idea -- as some people said, it is a huge red flag that they admitted to be aware of the mistake and never took action, so I am not certain that I would like to be associated with the authors in a collaboration level.

1) The paper has already been published in a conference and its journal proceedings. I've contacted the authors after acceptance but before the proceedings were published, and they took no action.

2) The paper proposes a new algorithm B and states that it has the same running time as algorithm A, a classic method in the field, while having smaller memory cost and being easy to implement. The main theorem roughly states that T(B) = O(T(A)), which is wrong as for some inputs T(B) = infinity. The technical mistake is subtle and involves upper-bounding an infinite series, which in reality can diverge to infinity. I've ran the algorithm on a simple instance where it does not halt nor makes any progress.

3) It can be shown that, for some input distributions, T(B) = O(T(A)). The technical argument is a bit different from what they initially presented. Unfortunately, I think that for these distributions it can be shown that A has an even smaller memory cost than B, but I am not sure.


texts: I just passed my dissertation defense. This means there is nothing left but paperwork to get my doctorate. Among the various congratulations I've received a couple have termed me: Dr. My assumption was that I'm not really a doctor until I go through the graduation ceremony, but now I'm wondering. Is there a convention as to when exactly I can call myself Doctor?


texts: Can I join two different research labs as a Ph.D. student?

texts:
I'm a PhD student and there are two labs that work in very similar fields, but different departments. Both look great, but I'm not sure which will benefit my research more (resources, collaboration, job opportunities, etc.).
Would you recommend I join both labs at first and then decide 1-2 years later? And, if both are really great down the road, is it okay to stick with both at the same time?
Note: I'm in social sciences. One lab in CS department and the other in Arts/Humanities department.


texts: What to do immediately after informing the journal's managing editor that you are withdrawing your paper submission in their journal?

texts:
After waiting for 7 months (and counting), I decided to withdraw my paper submission to a particular journal. The reasons are as follows:

The review decision for a particular paper is to be made within six months after they received the paper. However, in my case, it has been 7 months since they acknowledged that they received my paper.
A week before the 6 months of review period, I sent an e-mail to the journal's managing editor about the status of my submission. After 21 days, I did not receive any response. That is why
I sent another e-mail to the journal's managing editor about the status of my submission and I included in the e-mail that If I did not receive any reply for a period of 1 week, I will withdraw my submission.
After 9 days, I still did not receive any reply.

So, I decided to withdraw my paper submission via e-mail.

My questions are: (1) Is my decision correct? (2) What should I do after informing the journal's managing editor that I am withdrawing my paper submission? (3) Shall I wait for the managing editor to acknowledge that he/she received my withdrawal submission e-mail? (4) Shall I submit my paper to another journal?
Your answers Sirs/Mams will be highly appreciated.


texts: Is it wise to develop skills that do not immediately benefit short-term research productivity?

texts:
I have a master in physics and philosophy and have a keen interest in mathematics. Currently I am doing a PhD in philosophy. On a personal level, however, I cherish the interdisciplinary ideal of combining mathematics, physics and philosophy. I am well aware that realizing this ideal requires an enormous amount of work and talent – and that very likely I cannot 'completely' realize it.

On a structural level, I suppose this is an unfortunate side-effect of the level of specialization in academia today. On a subjective level, however, I feel the need to “revolt” against such over-specialization. It a shame that some "philosophers of science" in my branch haven't solved one differential equation in their life; yet they intend to reflect on what physicists do. I am convinced that combining different disciplines is a worthy thing to do. I suspect many people would agree with me, but the competitive reality of academia makes it very hard to realize.

The time one invests in a secondary area of interest (i.e. mathematics, physics) takes away time to do research in one's main area (i.e. philosophy). The reduced time would (on the short-term) make me less productive and successful. However, in the long-term, it might allow me to produce work of more value and depth.

(1) Is it wise for a PhD student, somewhere below on the academic ladder, to gamble already on long-term investments, or should one give in to the short-term safety and (over)specialize in one area?
(2) Is there some middle-way between the two extremes?
(3) Is it more useful in later stages of one's career to have a broad skill-set or have more publications in one (limited) area?


texts: Should I mention a "math depression" I went through in my letter of motivation?

texts:
I am a master student in mathematics studying in Europe and I am applying to several graduate schools in the USA. They aren't all Top 10 in these dubious rankings, but I am applying to Harvard, Northwestern and Rutgers.

Currently, in the first paragraph of my letter of motivation (=letter of intent, statement of purpose, personal statement, ...) I explain how I overcame a big slump (=phase in which I had not much motivation to learn maths) which I went through after completing my bachelor, so roughly 1 year ago.
I mention it because this was an important experience to me, and as a result I feel like a more mature mathematician, and I am now confident that I want to do maths in my life.

However, I read that one should never put negative things about oneself in the letter of motivation, so right now I'm having doubts.

Could people on the admission committee consider having gone through a slump a negative point? Do they only want to hear how awesome I was my entire life?


texts: Manuscript went from 'awaiting referee selection' to 'awaiting decision'. What does this mean?

texts:
I wonder if anyone has any answers to this? I am quite worried! I submitted my manuscript to a top international relations journal and it went through the usual admin checks and one day went to 'awaiting referee selection'. The next day it went to 'awaiting decision'!

I wonder if they made an error and decided to now make an editorial decision instead of sending it out for review? It seems to have skipped 'awaiting referee assignment' -> 'awaiting referee scores'.

Any info would be most helpful! Thank you!


texts: Programming Interview for PhD Admission in Computer Science

texts:
A prospective supervisor is interested in me, and has asked me for programming interview. As I have been told, his research group does a lot of system programming, and he is seeking a good programmer.

I have no industry experience in programming, though I have programmed for assignments, projects, and a Master's thesis. I know that, as a computer scientist, it is essential to have good programming skills. I tried to search for some tips about programming interviews for prospective PhDs, but could not find anything.

Does it differ from industrial interview? Did anyone have similar experience? Any references or tips?


texts: Is it normal I haven't met my supervisor yet?

texts:
I arrived in Montreal on April 3rd, 2020. It was during the coronavirus pandemic and I spent the first half of the summer taking a course with my Supervisor, I got A+.
In the second half of the summer, the University was closed, and I knew my supervisor was on vacation.
After he got back, I asked him a couple of times to meet him because some of the restaurants and cafes got open during summer. so I thought I should meet with him. He a couple of times replied sure and never gave me a date. Then after finishing summer vacation I again asked him and I felt he is kinda like avoiding me.
I'm not sure why. It's getting close to 6 months. Although I got A+ with him I'm not super convinced he is happy with my progress and not only he is not meeting with me.
He is not even following me every 2 weeks or so. I'm kinda abandoned.
So I'm honestly started to get very nervous about my progress.
This semester he didn't even bother to say any comment on my course selection. Whatever I chose he said good and I'm not sure is it normal or not.
Is he trying to get rid of me?


texts: Does it make sense to accept an early career identity in academic publishing?

texts:
There are multiple academic competitions developed for young researchers. Some of them make perfect sense to me, e.g. a prize for the best poster at a conference. But there are cases when special competitions for young researchers are organized by academic journals. Here is an example from my field. Since such a competition is primarily aimed at PhD candidates and even recently promoted PhDs, and this is the level when publications are routinely required from the researchers, isn't it a strange idea to compete as a "young researcher" rather than just submit your paper in a usual way? Could it have negative consequences to label you paper as something "amateur"?

In the mentioned above case 31 papers competed for 1 award that assumed publication in the journal later on. Isn't ~3% success rate insane for a second tier journal?

Some journals even develop a special paper guidance for young researchers and introduce a position of Early Career Editor.

Are there good reasons for special publication tracks for young researchers? Do I miss something in my skeptical position?


texts: What is the difference between publications and pure publications?

texts: I saw there are two sectors named 'publications' and 'pure publications' in some lab home pages. What is the difference?


texts: How to get back to STEM phD thesis after a long break?

texts:
If one had to interrupt writing the phD-thesis (for various reasons, that don't belong here):
What is a good strategy to get back and finish the thesis?

The writing would take place while working on a full-time job.
Assume that the supervisor already signalled to support this project with reading the 99%-final version and do the necessary formalities. The thesis is done in a STEM field, all lab work and calculations are finished. Before the interruption took place, the thesis itself was around half-written: out of four main sections, two are done, one almost done, one just an idea collection. Additional sections and Appendix are in a draft status, proofreading etc. has to be done as well.

One of the main concerns is the literature-review: As it currently is, it would be awfully outdated. Is it worth the effort to spend time on an extensive literature research (if so: how much?) or should one just draw a line and use the literature as it is (i.e. only the literature from before the interruption)?

The thesis is based on own, already published articles. Which should avoid running into plagiarism issues.


texts: How to follow up on the status of the official offer letter

texts: About 5 weeks ago, I decided to accept a TT assistant professor position at a R1 University in US, and was told to wait for 1-2 weeks for an official (electronic) letter arriving since it would go through the internal HR processes before being ready for signing. At this moment, I have not received further updates about the letter. I think the process may take more time than expected because of the Covid-19. But is it appropriate to send out a follow-up email? Or just watch for their notice? If the letter has no harm, any suggestions to draft one? Many thanks in advance.


texts: How much does the impact factor vary from year to year?

texts: Journal impact factors are averages of samples of a power-law distribution (most papers are not cited, lots are highly cited). Wouldn't you expect the year-to-year impact factor to vary widely...? At least for journals publishing few papers? What is the catch?


texts: Will my age affect my chances of finding a funded PhD position?

texts:
I just finished my masters studies. My question is, will my age (29) affect my chances of getting a funded PhD position? I finished Bachelor of Engineering when I was 24 (took 6 years to graduate, normally my program was 5 years). I worked as a Lab course assistant (teaching the practical part of the course at a local university) for 2 years before I started my MSc a bit late due to financial reasons. I started working in industry a year ago (for same financial reasons) in a computer science field but irrelevant to the research area. I know that most of PhD scholarship positions officially require the applicant's age to be under 35, but do not they prefer someone who is 25 rather than 34?

I have two conference publications, one in IEEE, and about to send the third for journal publication. My field is computer engineering with a focus on the software side and I am trying to apply in Europe mainly.


texts: How likely is it for an international student to be supported financially during their internship in Austria?

texts:
I am a Master's student from Iran. I sent an email to a professor in Austria and asked for a PhD position. He said that he did not have any open position, but if I like, I can go there for an internship.
I want to know whether I will be supported financially or not
and how I can ask about it in such a way that does not cause any negative impact.


texts: can an unemployed person publish an article

texts:
question

what is legally needed to be able to publish an article, in respect to the person submitting the article?

does he/she/it (it for computers) need to be employed by some particular entity or is it enough to have a reasonable idea?


texts: I am generally interested what are the benefits of Putnam (from both students and Professors' point of view), apart from the fact it is fun (for some) to solve difficult maths problem. I recently read a post on here that a good Putnam score would aid PhD application. If someone would elaborate on this a little, it'd be great.


texts: (Potentially) Low GPA with No Reserach Experience, Am I Screwed for math PhD program?

texts:
I am a Japanese junior student who is thinking of applying to the PhD program(Applied Mathematics/Statistics) in the U.S. for the 2021 cycle, but I think I have an incredibly low chance to be accepted to any programs.

Firstly, my GPA is really bad compared to other applicants. I have seen GPA of applicants on https://mathematicsgre.com/ and most of the people in that forum have at least a GPA of 3.8 or even 4.0. However, my overall GPA until the first semester of junior year was 3.48/4.0(Math GPA 3.5), which is really low for grad school. This was because I took too many courses and could not handle some of them(did not fail any but low grades). Moreover, my GPA in the third quarter this year is not going to be good because my grade in a literature class(it was mandatory to take it) is going to be C in S(4)-A(3)-B(2)-C(1) grading and I messed up in quantum mechanics exam. Grades in math classes are not going to be all S too. I am trying to get nice grades in this fourth quarter, but it will not be as good as average applicants.

Secondly, I literally have no research experience. From what I have seen, college students in the U.S. have an opportunity to do REUs. However, it is not the case in Japan. Math majors are not even expected to write a senior thesis and research opportunities are very limited here. I have asked my advisor about this but could not get any good results.

I still have not taken GRE, but from what I have heard, the GRE score does not matter as long as it is not astronomically bad, which does not help in my case.

Should I just give up or is there anything I can do?


texts: What sources of funding do faculty in Computer Science dept. in US universities have other than NSF?

texts:
I made the question a bit more specific (location:US, discipline: CS) as I'm interested in answers pertaining to those details, but I can make it completely generic if the community so suggests...

By funding, I mean grants awarded to faculty as PI/co-PI for supporting Research Assistant-ships, travel to conferences, equipment acquirement etc.

My motivation behind the question, if its relevant, is whether I can use the NSF website as an exclusive source for looking up whether a particular faculty can support more students - if there are other sources of grants, doing just that would not paint a complete picture! As to my reasons for looking up faculty funding, its just so that I can answer emails from prospective applicants to the PhD program which ask "Do u know if Prof. X in your dept. has funding for new students" with a one-liner - look it up on the NSF page!


texts: How badly will my future job prospects be affected after having my PhD graduation date extended by more than 3 years (due to health)?

texts: Do I still have the possibility of a career in Academia? Can publishing merit (Qualitative and Quantitative) save me?


texts: How to read a research paper with too many references to previous works?

texts:
I am a CS undergrad student who is just getting started with research and reading papers. My mentor has asked me to read a few papers. While reading I noticed that every few lines there are references to previous papers being cited and the entire paper just builds on the previously described architectures and then adds something new to it.

In such cases, if I start reading the cited ones (and there are many mentioned over and over again), I am afraid I might get stuck into a loop of such repetitions and never get to the main idea. How should my approach be ?

My mentor wants me to thoroughly understand the ideas stated here because we are going to be implementing those soon albeit with modifications. I know of the 3-pass approach but that does not solve my particular problem.

Note that my particular doubt is not on how long should reading take. I can see many resources explaining that very well already. So I don't think this is a duplicate of them.


texts: Should I consider not reporting a grade on my transcript?

texts: I'm an undergrad student. The grading scale in my university is designed like 4.0, 3.5, 3.0... Due to the pandemic, our school gives us a chance to select the S/NS grading option, I kept a very good overall cumulative GPA, but this semester there's a class I got 3.0 (all the other classes in that subject are 4.0 on my transcript), I want to replace that 3.0 grade with an 'S' (means satisfactory) on my transcript. However, some of my friends don't think it's a good idea since it will make graduate admission officers guess my grade for that class. My question is if I want to apply for the doctorate programs, how important is the transcript? Is it a good idea for me to replace the grade to avoid dropping the cumulative grade? If I replace the grade then I'll be eligible to graduate with high honors. Any comments/suggestions are appreciated.


texts:
So this year I'm finishing my masters degree in Security of Information Systems, in a third world country University (best in my country but still) , and I might have a chance at a fully funded scholarship in a way better university abroad, I was thinking of getting a second masters degree in robotics, Artificial intelligence or Cognitive systems.

Is it worth it ? with a bachelor degree in Computer science and a masters in SIS do I fulfil the requirements ?

There is also the matter that I'm going to be fully relying on the scholarship's funding, and of course I still can try to apply for a Ph.D scholarship abroad, but I heard it's more difficult to get it.

Getting a PhD in my country would be fairly easy, but that's not something I'm really interested in for several reasons, First the pace and level of research over here is not really that good. Second, I'm thinking an experience abroad might really help me at many levels. And here comes the point I'm not really sure about, does having 2 masters degrees give me a chance at a better job ? or a better chance at getting accepted for a PhD ?

PS : The graduation project I'm working on right now is a mix of Forensics, Security, massive parallel computing and artificial intelligence.

Thank you

EDIT :
Okay, I am to rephrase my question, I'm a passionate learner, I want to have the experience of studying abroad, I enjoy many fields in computer science, my question is, can this actually hurt my career ? personally I don't mind "postponing" its start, as long as it's harmless and I'm doing something I enjoy.


texts: How do I identify predatory and low quality journals? With Beall's List gone, how can I tell if a journal is spam?

texts:
Jeffrey Beall removed his list of predatory journals from the internet this past Sunday. While the reasons for his doing this are not yet public, this is a real loss of a valuable service. Does anyone know of similar services available to the general public?

Edit: This other question is definitely relevant, but that approach is more appropriate for finding top journals rather than identifying bottom ones. I.e., following that method would probably exclude lots of valid, lower-tier journals. Are there any approaches to easily identifying a predatory publisher?