texts: Collaborative paper-writing with non-LaTeX-using colleagues

texts:
Background: I work in a field where the use of LaTeX is common but still far from universal. So far I have been lucky in that all my coauthors in the past have been fellow LaTeX users, so collaboration boiled down to creating a shared Dropbox folder with the .tex and .bib files we were working on. Now I'm starting a collaboration with two colleagues who use Word, so they have proposed to collaborate with Google Docs. There are various reasons why this is a bad idea, the main one being that writing this paper is going to require doing things that are easy in LaTeX but difficult and time-consuming in Google Docs (or in a standard word processor, for that matter) ---e.g., Greek letters for variables, assorted math/logic symbols, trees (in the graph-theoretic sense), or frequent crossreferencing in the running text of numbered examples.

Conflict: One of my colleagues has already said he has no interest in learning LaTeX. On the other hand, I don't want to go hunting through the Google Docs character map every time I need to insert a non-Latin character.

Question: Is there any collaborative writing software that allows including LaTeX tags and environments in a Word-like document? For example, when I'm writing semi-informal things like lecture notes, I can get by with markdown and then generate a pdf with pandoc. I don't know of any online services with similar functionality.


texts: I'm about to tell my advisor I want to leave my PhD. Do I mention this when scheduling a meeting or do I drop a bombshell while there in person?

texts:
I meet with my PhD advisor quite irregularly so we arrange meetings on an ad-hoc basis depending on work progress, availability etc. Usually we communicate a bunch by email about the state of work.

I'm want to leave my course. I don't see how any minor changes to my work would change this decision. At this point I mostly just want to have a couple weeks of mental health break with no pressure to put time into the PhD, so I can have some brain-space to clear the remaining doubts from my head.

Should I let my advisor know that the meeting we are scheduling for later this week is about my position in the programme instead of normal project progress report?

PS. I am aware that a natural way to frame this would be to mention in an email that there I have some doubts about my work that I'd like to discuss. However that would be misleading - I'm pretty set on the idea that doing this degree is not right for me and the only doubts I have are whether this is the right decision at this time. I'm not interested in being convinced I should stay and try to "work things out" because my decision to leave is related less to problems I have with the course and more to simply having no reason why I should want to be doing it in the first place.


texts: Difference between “notes” and “original contributions” in journals

texts:
I noticed that many, if not all, journals have two main type of papers:

A short self-contained original research article of 10 pages or less, focusing on a particular result that does not provide enough material for a full-length contribution.
Full-length original research article of more than 10 pages.

What is the actual difference between the two? What does does not provide enough material for a full-length contribution mean?
In particular, I have a paper which is (or can be easily made) 10 pages. How should I know if it qualifies as a note or an original article?

Note that in most journals there are original contributions with less pages than some papers appearing as notes.

There are few other related questions, but none really answers (as far as I have checked) these issues. I am talking about applied maths,TCS.


texts: Phd Student here: Where is the line between free labor abuse vs....whatever the "good" version of free labor is?

texts:
I have an advisor who is very supportive. She responds quickly, offers advice and helpful edits (often on a short turnaround from my own delays), and seems invested in my doing well in the program (Social Sciences program in America).
However, I have, over the years, come to observe that she is prone to seeing others for ways she can "use" them, and has displayed at times disrespect for others' time, etc. So that's made me put my own guard up to look for the same treatment of me.
She helped facilitate my funding for the year (but it's funding for me to do work for another agency), so I think strictly speaking, I owe that agency 20 hours/week, and my other time is meant for degree progress (part of which is receiving mentorship from advisor). But I know that sometimes, much of my week goes towards helping my advisor with her stuff. Her grants, projects, pilot data, administrative work, journal article reviews, etc. The most agitating are absolutely menial tasks like picking up her mail and moving it from one building to another.

So I am wondering...at what point am I just a great advisee, with whom she produces some good work, and for which she will be a long-term (career-long??) mentor and friend and recommender... and at what point am I just being used for free labor?

Edit: The mail pickup is not just junk magazine/letters..but packages and such, some of which may be for my specific studies. But there have been times when, even for packages that are NOT for my studies, I've been asked to do X,Y,Z with them.


texts: In analysing arguments, what are the differences between claims, support and premises?

texts: I've read several books about argument and I have problem in interpretation from English to Bahasa. Is there any difference between claim, support, and premise in argument?


texts:
I am new to the world of academia and pursuing a Masters degree in HCI (Human Computer Interaction).  One of the goals I have set for myself is getting my first publication(s) before I graduate.

Now, obviously, I'd like to work my way up to potentially being a first author but that seems a bit beyond me since I have never published before.  Therefore, I figure it might be easier to work with someone else and establish myself as a co-author.

Now, how do I go about even finding someone who is working on a paper and approaching them asking if I can help them out to potentially being a co-author?  It seems like a very taboo subject and might be insulting to ask?  How do I go about doing this?  Any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated.


texts: Benefit of having more than required courses on a Ph.D. transcript

texts:
I am in the second year of my Ph.D. in computational Physics I have already fulfilled the course requirement according to the university doctoral school. However, I am interested in two more courses that are being offered this semester. I am planning to take them. I mentioned these two courses to my advisor and he said that they could be helpful for my research. He said that it's up to me if I want to properly register for these courses or just sit in class without registration and learn the course content.
I am wondering what is the impact of having more than required courses on a Ph.D. transcript? I will be learning these courses in either way. If I don't register, I would not be bound to take final exams (a little relief). But if having more courses on a Ph.D. transcript shows a positive feature (for a job or postdoc position), I would not mind taking final exams.


texts: Is it possible to do a PhD in ML or AI while in industry, sponsored by a company, or for a company?

texts:
I'm due to finish my MSc in CS within a few months and have a key focus on ML and AI research. The problem I'm currently facing is I have no idea where to go from here.

I've seen that the vast majority of more interesting ML and AI jobs, from the perspective of working on novel algorithms, all require a PhD, whereas implementation of said algorithms is MSc. I'd love to do a PhD but it feels like I would be missing out a lot in the next 3-4 years. I'd also need money to start one.

With that, I was wondering if there is such a thing as a PhD in industry? For example, company "A" gives me a position as an ML researcher, and for the next 3-4 years I do work on that. At the end of that time, I obtain a PhD.

Is this something that exists? I'm not trying to look for shortcuts, just listing my options.


texts: How do we end the culture of “endless hours at work”?

texts:
In many of the research groups I’ve worked at or visited, there is a culture that endless hours in the lab equal successful researcher. (I am in a theoretical field, so requirement of long-running experiments are outside of the picture. Let's ignore them in this discussion.) In chemistry, a widely-known example of this culture is the following letter:

I would like to provide for you in written form what is expected from you as a member of the research group. In addition to the usual work-day schedule, I expect all of the members of the group to work evenings and weekends. You will find that this is the norm here at Caltech. On occasion, I understand that personal matters will make demands on your time which will require you to be away from your responsibilities to the laboratory. However, it is not acceptable to me when it becomes a habit.
I have noticed that you have failed to come in to lab on several weekends, and more recently have failed to show up in the evenings. Moreover, in addition to such time off, you recently requested some vacation. I have no problem with vacation time that is well earned, but I do have a problem with continuous vacation and time off that interferes with the project. I find this very annoying and disruptive to your science.
I expect you to correct your work-ethic immediately.
I receive at least one post-doctoral application each day from the US and around the world. If you are unable to meet the expected work-schedule, I am sure that I can find someone else as an appropriate replacement for this important project.

I have fallen prey to this during my PhD, doing very long hours. Now that I manage a research team, what is good advice to help fight this culture in my team? (Obviously, I don't want students and post-docs to get the message that little work is required either.)
Things I already do to that end:

When a new group member comes in and they get the out-of-hours building pass (for Sundays and late nights), mention that they are not expected to use it on a regular basis.
Avoid planning meetings at unusual hours (bank holidays, week-ends, etc.)


texts: How can I assist other graduate students who may feel increasingly "unwelcome" due to their countries of origin?

texts:
I work in a research group with a large number of international graduate students. Recent news in my country (the United States) has been deeply unsettling for some of these students, especially the ones who hail from "unwelcome" countries (see here).

As a U.S. citizen, I (personally) feel guilty and embarrassed over the current goings-on (nor do I agree with them), though I certainly do not expect other Americans to necessarily feel that way too. Many of these students in my lab know my personal feelings on the matter. But at the end of the day, there isn't much I can do right now to affect national policy, so I'm trying to think more locally.

What, if anything, can I do here in my lab/department/university to help my fellow students/peers/friends?


texts: Giving feedback as external reviewer for grant application outside own field of expertise

texts: Asked to be an external reviewer of a grant application, I think the proposal looks good, but I don't know the small field well, though I'm in the same big field. So it's a bit hard to write comments. How should I write comments?


texts: Doing a PhD in data science / machine learning after a PhD in civil engineering

texts:
I am about to finish my Ph.D. in civil engineering, I would finish it by the age of 28.
I don't like my field that much and was pushed to pursue it from the beginning (at that time, was very confused and did not know what I want / I need and that is a huge problem in my personality, so my father pushed me to pursue it even though I did not like it at all !).
(one could ask why did you pursue a PhD in a field you don't like; the answer is pretty simple; it was the only way to get out of a third-world country :D)
seeing the big-fat salaries of data scientists/machine learning engineers around the world makes me jealous sometimes and makes me super unsatisfied with the work/research and the field I am pursuing.
I am really considering getting some undergraduate courses once I finish my current Ph.D. and start applying for CS masters. I will try to apply for double grants also, don't know if my current Ph.D. could help get those grants which will make me financially comfortable pursuing research in other fields again.
Also, I want to pursue a Ph.D. in machine learning cause I see the salaries are fatter for those dudes; I don't like academia and I don't like research and I really do hate teaching but I am used to doing a lot of things I don't like.
What are your perspectives?


texts: How to acknowledge contributions of anonymous referee in new paper?

texts:
I'm in mathematics, just in case that matters.

I submitted a manuscript to a journal, and got an extensive referee report from referee X. After sending the revision, the paper got rejected, so I sent it to a second journal where it got accepted.

Later, I got a note from the editor of the first journal saying that referee X found a way to improve my results, and the editor gave me a pdf file from referee X outlining his/her ideas. Unfortunately, since my manuscript had already been accepted for publication I could not change it at this point.

Nevertheless, the improvement that referee X suggested is significant enough to merit another paper. I asked the editor to pass on an invitation to referee X to work on a joint paper with me, but the editor refused, saying that he didn't want to violate referee anonymity.

I think the paper needs to be written, but I feel it would be strange for me to write a single-author paper when the most significant idea does not originate with me. (Referee X only gave me a vague sketch of the idea, there are things that still have to be worked out. I still have to do a lot of work, but the most important insight would be referee X's). I suppose I'm just going to write a few paragraphs in the introduction explaining the situation. I was wondering if there would be another way to handle the issue.


texts: Do price and value of degrees correlate much?

texts:
Many American colleges and universities have very high tuition fees, in particular at prestigious universities.  For example, Harvard University in 2014-2015 is US$43,938 for tuition and US$58,607 for tuition, room, board and fees combined.  Not coincidentally, the total US study debt is currently US$1.34 * 1012 and growing.

Many European universities have very low or no tuition fees, but their degrees are by no means worthless.  To consider an arbitrary ranking, consider the list of Nobel laureates by university affiliation: tuition fees in the top ranking institution range from $0 to $50,000+.  Personally, I am a post-doc at a reasonably well-known north-American university.  I paid several 1000€ for my Bachelor's degree, 0$ for my Master's degree, yet I work along people who have likely paid far more.   Have those co-workers wasted money?  Or, to formulate the question more precisely:

Among high-ranking research universities, do those with high tuition fees perform significantly better than those with low or no tuition fees?  Do their alumni fare better?  “Better” may be measured by: current research output (high-impact papers published), number of winners of the Nobel prize, Fields medal, and other highly prestigious awards; and for those not staying in academia, lifetime earnings of alumni, or other measures.  This should be possible to investigate


texts: Optimizing a thesis writing workflow for Bachelor and Master theses

texts:
We are at the moment designing a document which we can hand out to Bachelor and Master students to give them a general idea on how to efficiently write a thesis. We also do this to make correcting easier for us. We are working in the field of cell biology. A thesis in our field is usually structured like this:

Abstract
Introduction
Materals and Methods
Results
Discussion
Acknowledgements

What we've come up so far is the following list of best practices. This is based on our experiences with previous students and our own theses.

You can already start writing your materials and methods (M&M) section during your regular lab schedule. This will save you time later on.
You will have discussions with your supervisors on your results, in which you will decide on what to include in your thesis.
Start by making the figures for your results and a corresponding caption.
Lay out bullet points of your results. Afterwards, start writing the text around these bullet points. After finishing, send this part to your supervisor for proofreading.
Proceed with the discussion. Again, lay out bullet points, but this time, before writing, clarify each point with your supervisor. This will prevent you from having to rewrite large parts.
Continue with the introduction and, if you haven’t written it yet, M&M.
The introduction should contain everything the reader has to know in order to understand why you did what you did and what the results mean. Be brief and clear.
Finalize by writing an abstract (“Zusammenfassung”). This has to be written and edited very carefully because it will be the part most people read. Your thesis also needs to include an english abstract which is an exact translation of the german one.
Don’t forget the acknowledgements (“Danksagung”). This is the second part everyone will read, and it’s extremely unpolite if you don’t have one. It doesn’t have to be formal and can be personal.

My question: Is there something important missing and would you recommend things differently? Maybe you could elaborate how you handle this in your lab.


texts: How to cite an unpublished internal (academic) report

texts:
In our graduate school, a Ph.D. student has to present has a research proposal in form of a confirmation report. It is an internal document but contains a lot of material that is well-researched. Currently, as I am writing my research paper, is there any method, I can cite this report (like uploading over arXiv etc. ?). Also,
is this method (of citing internal report) credible for reviewers of prestigious journals to accept such citations?

PS. This report is reviewed by our supervisors and a panel to judge our performance.


texts: What is one-session short presentation or lecture in CV?

texts:
In during the M.Sc., when complex networks course lectured by prof. in university, he said me that I will talk about complex networks and my B.Sc. thesis in one session for students.

How to can I write it in my CV? What is it? a lecture? presentation? or workshop?

  It was a lecture of Introduction to Complex Networks in the Complex Networks course for master of science (M.SC.) students. Also, I lectured about the Graph, R, and iGraph package in R programming language.


texts: What is the Minimum GPA for admission in a graduate school in a respectable science university in the US?

texts:
I am thinking about applying to graduate studies in physics related Phd or master degree in the US, but my GPA is very low, 2.4/4.0 to be specific.
I wonder if there are respectable universities in the US that can accept such low average?
Notes:
-I have some experience in research from my undergrad.
-I had my Undergraduate degree in physics from a respectable Canadian university.

Thanks in advance!


texts: do references count towards page limit of journal paper

texts: I am writing a paper and the journal recommends it be 8 pages and 6000 words. I have almost 1 page of references making it difficult to cut the paper down further. Therefore do the references contribute to the page count ?


texts: What is suitable format to present a Psuedo Code in academic paper?

texts:
I'm going to include my algorithm as a pseudo-code in a double-column paper format.

However, since lines of my pseudo-code are long I don't know if is it suitable to use the width of both columns to demonstrate algorithm or not? I want to know are there any common rules for this?


texts: What proportion of papers submitted to Nature are actually sent for review?

texts:
From Nature's "Getting Published with Nature" guidelines:

  Nature has space to publish only 8% or so of the 200 papers submitted each week, hence its selection criteria are rigorous. Many submissions are declined without being sent for review.

This leads me to the question:

  Question: What proportion of the papers submitted to Nature actually get sent for review?

It'd be nice to know if, in general, the "biggest hurdle" in getting a paper published in Nature would be simply getting it to the reviewers.


texts: Should résumés be attached in a mail to a professor?

texts:
Say there is a student who writes a mail to a professor asking for a PhD vacancy or a RA-ship position. Should he attach his résumé in a mail to a professor?

I have had contradictory viewpoints on this. Some people ask not to attach résumés in such mails to professors, saying such mails go straight to spam. They instead prefer having a webpage and providing a URL. This is tough, as students (esp. undergrads) do not have a lot to share on a website. Moreover there is a contradiction: if a professor cannot view a résumé in her browser, what is the guarantee she would visit a website and click each of the sublinks? Looks more implausible to me.

There are others who advise applicants to provide a brief bio instead of a résumé or a URL. Again this could turn out awkward: in a bio, "I did my bachelor's in XYZ University" is fine, but "I was fourth in the Department during my bacheor's" looks out of place.


texts: Does resigning from industry job before probation / 'CV gap' reflect badly in PhD application?

texts:
I finished my masters (UK) in media studies last year, and hope to apply for PhD this year. I recently resigned from an industry job at a large MNC during probation.

It is an industry job which I intended to keep while preparing for my PhD application and gaining 'real world' experience (since my topic of interest is related to this industry). However it turned out I could not manage the heavy workload (12-hour days and long commute), researching schools, preparing for GRE and other tests, hence I resigned before I was a confirmed staff so I didn't have to give a longer notice, and hoped to get another job when I feel ready again. I believe I did make solid contributions while on said job; and have had industry placement in the same area during my undergrad years; if these are relevant.

So my questions are,

  Would keeping this job which I quitted during probation on my CV reflect badly in PhD applications? Should I just not list it, and let there be a (almost a year long) gap? If not, how should I mention it?

I have this concern because many current students in top programs (US, UK, Europe) in my field had industry experiences, and I am worried I am not competitive enough.

My field is media and cultural studies.


texts:
Consider a course (say machine learning). Professors attend to deal with a theoretical part and then does not involve in the coding part.
The task of handling the coding part is left to the TAs of the course.
What is the reason behind this?
I am asking this question because I personally feel that dealing with a theoretical part does not need any expertise in the coding part. But coding part expects expertise in both the areas.  (Why difficult part is assigned to TAs?). Am I wrong anywhere?


texts: Is it appropriate for a professor to give the same exam to two different classes 2 weeks apart?

texts:
Is it appropriate for a professor to give an exam to section A and then give the same exact exam to section B 2 weeks later?

Would this be a proper argument towards the professor and/or university to either curve or do something about the grades of the two sections?

It's an engineering course with the same prof in both sections.

(note: in the original version sections A and B are called "the English section" and "the French section", respectively, but these names have been edited out because they seem to be a red herring.)


texts:
I was discussing this topic with an older professor of mine who had published more than 90 papers and couple of books in his field. The papers are highly specialized and half of them are with different co-authors from the same or a different field.

Since he has so many papers, I asked him if he was able to remember and / or explain all of his published papers to a random guy or student on the street if he's asked to do so. His answer was, of course, 'not really'. Since his papers were highly specialized and he tends to change his research interests over time, his memory of the papers tends to fade. He'd still be able to remember and explain the methodology and results of any of the published research, but not in detail or without first re-reading them.

My question is, how much is expected from a scientist to remember from his papers? If you get asked to explain some of your papers, what of the following would you do:

Just explain what's in the abstract (if you remember), or
Tell them to just read the paper themselves, because 'everything is there'


texts: Is it right to cite a retracted research article?

texts:
I was doing literature review and I came across a paper which is in the area of my interest but has been retracted because of duplicating the figures (technical drawings) of other papers.

Can I cite this paper in my literature review?

Also, is it ethical to work on the topic of this retracted paper?


texts: PhD application question: "Why do you want to join my research group?"

texts: Whenever somebody asks me "why are you interested in joining my research group", I find myself helpless. What are the usual points or aspects I should talk about in reply of this question?


texts: Citation for quoting a current accepted value in an abstract?

texts: In the abstract of a scientific report, when comparing an experimentally measured value to a current accepted value, should you provide a citation for it?


texts: Why is the date left out of some academic papers?

texts:
Being somewhat familiar with referencing of academic papers as a source, it has struck me as odd why authors would leave out some date on their paper. The date could be the day the author completed the paper on or submit date or published date etc.
Certainly it would be of help to others who would want to reference their work?
So, does anyone know if there is a specific reason why certain authors leave out a date on their papers?


texts: Benefits to supervisor presence at viva in the UK?

texts: I was wondering if anyone can help me decide if I should ask my supervisor to be present at my Viva.


texts: Attending university-sponsored club events as a faculty member?

texts:
I'm a new (and hence young) faculty member, in a city where I don't really know anyone. I also really enjoy swing dancing.

The university has a swing dance club. I don't think there really is an issue necessarily, it's a public space in full view of a large group. However, because it is dancing, that means you are in contact with your dance partner (i.e., a student)...so it's giving me pause.

Looking for gut reactions, others who know their school policy, etc. Yes, I could just ask someone, but I really enjoy it, I sort of don't want to get an official school "no"...

Didn't know what to tag, ethics/policy seems the most appropriate?

EDIT: An update. On advice of one of the answers below, I did reach out to the club's admin. They said that it is open to any faculty/students who wish to learn/do some swing dancing.

Further update, HR passed me to dean, dean said they have no issue, and that he knows other faculty are part of various student clubs too.


texts: Do I need to remove/modify a journal's Latex template style before submitting a paper to arXiv?

texts:
I want to submit a paper to a SIAM journal. Before submitting it I want to put the paper on arXiv.
I've written the paper using SIAM's Latex template files. Is it ok to upload the current version of the paper to arXiv as it is or do I need to remove the templating or modify the paper in some way?


texts: What would be a fair and deterring disciplinary sanction for a student who committed plagiarism?

texts:
As a program director for a Masters degree in a business school, I am curious to know about higher education policies regarding disciplinary sanctions for plagiarism. This is for both official rules and in actual cases.
I am most interested in the cases where the characterization of plagiarism is not a black and white situation (as is often the case), but the stakes are not minor. To imagine an abstract case: plagiarism committed on a part of a final dissertation. How can disciplinary sanctions scale, before going all out with suspending or expelling the student, while remaining deterring?


texts: How to get honorary academic position in UK universities?

texts:
To my knowledge, it is common in the UK universities to offer honorary faculty positions to their partners from other universities or outside academia.

Correct me if I'm wrong, these positions are non-salary for the sake of official bonds.

Then, how one can express interest for this kind of positions and official connections? Who is responsible for granting these positions?

AND do other countries have similar positions?


texts: Does Pop-Science involvement hurt one's reputation?

texts:
There is a divide between the scientific community about involvement in popular science. I would define it as involvement in NatGeo/Discovery type documentaries, writing columns for newspapers/magazines, blogging about articles of popular nature (Like End of the World, Tsunami or whatever).

Does involvement in such issues harm one's reputation in academia?

I have frequently seen grad students shy away from such opportunities because they think they will be made fun of or won't be taken seriously when they go and speak about "actual" research.

(Although I am talking about grad students, the scenario isn't very different for faculty as well IMO)

Some people like Stephen Hawking or Richard Wiseman have actually authored best selling books. Whereas a majority of people in academia stay in the confines of the journals.


texts: How to publish an academic book but make the PDF freely available online?

texts:
Background

I like the idea of writing an academic book.

It currently looks better on a CV when applying for jobs, grants, promotions, etc. than a blog post, or a website.
Libraries and people archive the work
Most of the best academic content currently seems to end up in books and journal articles, rather than on websites.
People have an attractive physical copy to engage with if they want.

However, I don't like the constraints imposed by a book. In particular, readership is limited to those who buy/borrow the book or have access to a library.

Aim

In some cases, I'd prefer to write something like an "open access book".

If readers want the physical copy, they can purchase the book. Ideally some of this revenue would go to the author, but I'm not too fussed if the publisher just uses this money to fund promotion, editorial assistance, production, etc.
However, access to a PDF of the book is free online.
The book gets an ISBN, archiving, availability on Amazon, etc. and all the academic recognition associated with publishing an academic book.

Questions

So, are there any options for doing this, and what might be best option?
Are there any case studies of others who have done this?


texts: In what engineering field can i study renewable energies in the USA?

texts:
I am applying for a scholarship at the USA in order to  study  renewable energies.
For that I have to ask if it is considered as a subfield of electrical engineering or not in the US, because I can't find a major in energy engineering in the application form and the closest in my mind to renewable energy engineering is electrical engineering.


texts: Which discrete math journal should I choose to publish my findings?

texts:
I have some results, related to imposing group structures on subspaces of finite fields with a metric, and I would like to publish my work. My advisor asked me to choose a journal, but I have no idea how to decide.

I have some further results on a paper published in Linear Algebra and its Applications. I have resolved a few open question they pose in their paper.

Is it advisable that I publish my results in the same journal? What other options do I have? How do I know if it is a good journal?


texts: Delay in work permit processing is affecting my work. How to address the gap in my CV? I am worried about my future prospects

texts:
I am an international student who's currently in a mess regarding my work permit application. I was initially supposed to get my permit the latest by March. But now, I don't know when my application will come through. I completed my Ph.D. thesis submission in December. Now, my Ph.D. supervisor had offered me a postdoc position and  I was to start it as soon as I get my permit. However, my future is seeming quite bleak at the moment. I can't return to my home country as my country is under lockdown and my application is under processing.

I am panicking as I don't have any official position since January. I have been working on the pending Ph.D. projects since February and my advisor has ensured me that he can mention in my future recommendation letters that I had begun my postdoc in February.

However, the financial situation apart (which is really bad), I am getting disheartened about my freefalling academic profile. I am having anxiety over my predicament for last few weeks. I am not able to concentrate on my work and not able to study thereby wasting more time. My decision of joining my Ph.D. supervisor for my first postdoc was to learn and explore a new technique that would have enabled me to expand my skillset and would have made me more suitable for good positions.

But now, I am just wasting my time, working 2 hours or less every day and getting minimal work done. I am not getting the motivation to work hard or study new topics.

Is there any advise, comments that you can provide under my condition? How to address the gap in my CV? What should I do?


texts: Professor gave me a higher grade than I deserved. What should I do?

texts:
During one of my undergraduate semesters I was pretty depressed (for various personal reasons) and was struggling with completing my coursework. One class in particular didn't have a final exam, there was a just a final essay to turn in worth 25% of the grade. I was really out of it, and in the end I couldn't meet the deadline and didn't even turn it in, I was so unable to concentrate that I was willing to just accept my fate.

For whatever reason, my professor gave me a B- in the class, which is just impossible. Though I did do reasonably well on the rest of the coursework, the highest I could've gotten was 75%, not to mention if there was some bigger penalty that my university had for not attending/doing a final assignment (like getting an incomplete or something, I have no idea). It's unlikely the class was curved that much either...I don't know whether it was a grading entry error, whether the prof accidentally swapped my grade with another person's, or if she just took pity on me (I had mentioned that I was going through some personal issues when I turned in an assignment late during the semester), but for whatever reason I got a B-.

At the time, I was surprised and just accepted it. But as I started to feel better I felt extremely guilty about not turning in the essay, and months later (I've since graduated) I sent my professor an email with the paper attached basically saying "Really sorry I didn't turn it in, I was feeling depressed at the time, I should've turned it in back then, here it is", to which she just hasn't responded. I'm fairly certain she doesn't care at all, but it's been bothering me for a while now.

I'm not sure what to do - should I turn myself in to the school? I feel guilty about the whole thing, but what's worrying me as well is that I also don't want this to bite me in the ass down the line later in life. Can I be punished for not turning the essay, or not telling my professor the grade might have been too high?  Was it a mistake to email my professor at all afterwards, maybe I'm causing a problem for her? All in all, I'm really not sure what to think or do.


texts: Interview for a PhD position at a German university

texts:
I am interviewing over Skype, for a research position at German university. So far my interviewer and I communicated via email, and he sounded formal but pleasant.

I have no clue how interviews are conducted at German universities. Is it subject-based or do they just want to know the student's skills and motivations?

Also, since i am interviewing for a position in machine learning, should i expect questions about the current trends and research?


texts: Author's email address in a published paper is not working

texts:
I have stumbled upon a paper that is very related to my field of research and after reading and discussing it with my supervisor, I found some issues in the paper that I need more information about, such as the data set they used.

When I sent them an email (their emails are university email accounts) I received a failure notice telling me that these emails have been discontinued.

What is the protocol that I should follow to pass my inquires to them?

I have found one of the author's LinkedIn account, from it I know his current working place, can I contact the company asking them for his contact information? And I have already sent him a connection request containing a brief message of my intentions.


texts:
I have submitted my paper in a journal of Springer on 09 August 2016. The status of my paper as on 22 December 2016 is still “with editor”.

I have sent many reminder mail to the editor and they finally replied with:

  Your paper is presently being reviewed by the Editorial Board and will be sent to the chosen reviewer for a formal report. Please be assured that your submitted paper is under process. We will keep in communication with you.

Please guide me how to proceed now. Is this is normal time period (more than four months) for an editor to review the paper?


texts: SCI/other credible journals for low budget authors

texts:
I have done some work and I thought of publishing it. This is my first attempt to publish. After searching a lot, I found out that SCI indexed journals are good. But I am seeing publishing price at about $1500-$3100 which is absolutely impossible for me. (Just out of question). My work is on improvement in image processing, being specific, matrix encoding algorithms.

I am putting my question here after searching too much, so any hint would help. I am almost about $100-$150 budget. I don't understand how sharing info could be so costly. Is it not done as a service by scientists/Phd students collectively at some reasonable price ?

Its a baffling experience to me, specially this listed price on journal websites. In my country this amount means fortune.


texts: What is the average postdoctoral salary in China?

texts: I got one postdoctoral offer just after completion of my PhD study. I am not sure about the amount of fellowship. I do not have any experience in postdoctoral work. What is the average salary given to postdoc fellow in Wireless Communication Engineering  particularly in China?


texts: Should I pursue a PhD if I am clearly not qualified for it?

texts:
I know this board isn't meant to answer deep personal questions, so I try to keep this rather general as it is kind of related to this and this.

I pursued the goal of getting a PhD / doing research for a long time. Mostly for personal (/ego) reasons.

Now, as I am about to finish my master's degree, it becomes more and more clear, that I am probably not qualified for a doctorate. I prolonged the time on both of my degrees. My grades are average at best and I rarely enjoyed sitting in lectures. I am particularly bad at writing anything scientifically like my thesis, papers or even emails (which leads to massive procrastination and delay on this tasks). Researching on theoretical topics is often difficult for me as I tend to skim most of the papers. And, to be honest, I enjoy practical tasks like creating, implementing or improving algorithms, the most.

Soon I have to decide if I find myself an industry job or a PhD program. But should I even pursue a PhD with this kind of flaws?


texts: With regards to replying to emails, are my expectations too high from Group leaders?

texts:
I am currently looking for Post-doctoral positions after finishing my PhD. I have recently visited a potential lab for a lab visit. It has already been two weeks since I came back from there. Since then, I have not received any communication negative or positive. I also reached out to the Group leader with no response.

I am in an extremely specialised and competitive sub-field, so I cannot keep on sending out applications, because most of them come back positive with a pre-emptive interview call. Later on, I might have to send decline mails for any or all positions that are offered. And, I know that even as a Group leader it doesn't feel nice to get snubbed.

Right now, I feel a bit angry. The response from the Group Leader was extremely prompt while setting up the visit. Now, I do not get any response. And, I have no indication of when one might be forthcoming. So here is my question.

If I as a potential Post-doctoral fellow am expected to send out decline emails for positions that are offered, is it too much for me to ask the same of a Group Leader? Mind you, I am not expecting them to reply to the first introductory email. But, if I have made it to the last screening round, shouldn't I expect a response, be it positive or negative?


texts: I plan to start a blog on using free technology in the classroom, but I want to have a strong scholarly element to my posts. I would like to keep a site-wide bibliography on the blog that summarizes the articles that I am referencing. For each article, I plan on having a full summary of its methods and conclusions in the bibliography. Is it alright to do this (legally-speaking) as long as I properly cite each source?


texts: How to approach experts to get feedback on a paper

texts:
I'm a PhD student in pure maths at a university in Europe. For reasons that I won't go into, my research interests do not coincide with my supervisor's ones. This means that, although she gives me good general advice, she can't give me more "technical" feedback on my work. I've now written a complete first draft of my first paper, and I'd like to get some external feedback before thinking of submitting it to a journal. My question is:

  What is the best way to approach the experts in my field (for whom I am a complete stranger) to politely ask if they can read my paper and give some feedback on it?

Emailing, of course, would be the preferred means of communication, so suggestions on how to structure a potential email to send to the experts are very welcomed.


texts:
I have just started a research position (around 2.5 months ago) at a top-10 university. I am having my own funding and was initially quite excited about the opportunity, and did and do love my project.

I have some trouble with the mentorship, however, and the following things have happened so far:

I was sitting across my mentor during one of the first meetings I had with him. I was not aware that because of my clothing (I had a rather loose-sitting shirt on) and the way I was sitting, one could see my décolleté. Although I understand that looking at other people is quite normal, not only did my mentor stare at my chest, he then also leaned back and laughed in an arrogant kind of tone. Although he has not done that anymore, he still looks at my body in quite discomforting ways (I see him staring at my backside, my waist etc.). At this point, I am spending my time thinking about what to wear when I meet with him to avoid such situations. Then I end up being bothered that this has become a concern of mine.
I am the only woman in the group, and sexist jokes during weekly meetings are a thing. It seems that specifically, one of the students tries to cement his status by making jokes I would not like and that this student knows that the mentor will laugh along at these jokes (which he does loudest) which will also impact the relationship of me and the mentor in a negative way - which it does, though I see it as the mentor's responsibility to act differently. I have never been at a lab before where jokes about women's bodies were considered normal during meetings.
When we discuss work from a female scientist, the tone is quite different than when work from a male scientist is discussed. Again, I am well aware that we all have biases. But the discussion of a female scientist's work became aggressive quite quickly, with the mentor saying things like "This work makes me so angry that I can't control my anger anymore". I haven't experienced such bursts of aggression towards male scientists, and his behavior shapes the overall environment of the lab, and aggressive behavior I experience from the students are in my opinion at least partly a consequence of his behavior.

The student is the kind of person who knows where people's sensitivities are and uses that knowledge in his favor - but my concern is really much more the PI than the student, since, at least to a great extent, his behavior sets a blueprint for acceptable behavior and the rules of the lab.

While I have not experienced this before, there still is the possibility of leaving and ending up in a similar situation - maybe I was just lucky so far with my supervisors? It is a fear I have, it does not have to be logical. But I simply am afraid of leaving a careerwise unique opportunity without knowing what will happen next

What should I do?

Brief update I changed my lab and I am now at another "top 10" university and extremely happy. Supportive lab environment, supportive and respectful PI, great scientific work. I am glad I left and don't have any doubts anymore that this was the right decision.
Advice for others experiencing something similar: I got (anonymously) help from people who experienced similar things, but kept everything very lowkey. I tried to part as peacefully as I could from the old lab, and pointed out positive aspects of the new labs during the job interviews. I care very much about my principles, but also understood quickly that the universities would use all of their force against me if I would speak up, and decided at this point to protect myself (and my mental health).

Also, I want to thank everyone here for their support!


texts: Should I put the name of proof reader in scientific manuscripts?

texts: Should I acknowledge the person who has proof read my scientific paper and have contributed in the improvement of quality of manuscripts.


texts: Is it possible to submit a preprint to viXra and then submit my physics paper to PRA?

texts:
I really want to submit to viXra to stake my claim on the paper's idea.
I don't want to submit it to arXiv.
I searched PRA's policy on this without much success.
I have read the following documents, yet I can't figure out what is their stand on the issue.

authors/submission-faq
web-submission-guidelines-physical-review
editorial-policies-practices
Information for Authors


texts: Is taking a year or so off between master's and PhD to self-study or do independent research a common practice in Europe?

texts:
So from my previous questions and from what I heard, I found out (iirc) that people who apply for a PhD in the US make a personal statement or statement of purpose while those in the UK, and I infer most of Europe, make a PhD proposal.

From what I understand, this involves reading several textbooks or journals (IMHO, there's a lot more reading to be done if one is changing fields).

So, is that what students intending to study in Europe commonly do? How long does this take? I mean, should much of one's PhD proposal research have been done in masteral studies?


texts: Awarding Habilitation to senior researchers?

texts:
For some positions and activities, a Habilitation is required in countries like France and Germany.  My crude understanding is that in Germany, but not in France, one needs to write a special thesis for this.  I was wondering, if a university wants to hire an eminent researcher to a senior position (say a Professor in Germany), but this researcher comes from a different system where there is not comparable Habilitation, how do they address this requirement?

Can they easily award a Habilitation with a job offer?  Or get an exception to the Habilitation requirement?  (Also, will a Habilitation from France count in Germany, or vice versa?)


texts: How to cite my own submitted but not yet published work?

texts:
I plan to submit part of my current work to conference A. I then wish to submit my whole work to a more prestigious conference B. As for the part submitted to A, there is no point of repeating it again. So I will just cite my submission to A in my submission to B.

But the problem is that the submission deadlines for A and B are roughly the same. So actually the moment I submit the work to B, my partial work submitted to A has not been published yet. I have not even been notified of its acceptance.

Can I still cite it? My concern is that even if I can cite it, one will find nothing online.


texts: References in supplemental material - include in main reference section?

texts: I have some supplemental material that condenses results from a couple of studies in a table (Supplemental Table 1). In the manuscript I refer to my supplemental table. My question is: where should I include the references from Supplemental Table 1? I cannot include them in the main manuscript (right?) as I do not cite these studies in the text and any journal would just list them as references that have not been cited before. I would tend to just list them right under Supplemental Table 1. Is there any correct practise?


texts: Improving a bound in a problem in "some cases" by using the extra information available in that problem which was unused in the earlier bounds

texts: Suppose I am improving a bound in a problem in "some cases" by using the extra information available in that problem which was unused in the earlier bounds for that problem. However, in general, I am not able to show that my bound is better than the earlier bound. Can this result be considered to be a reasonable result?


texts: Social norms about hiring freelance assistants

texts:
Is it considered ethical or appropriate for a researcher to hire a freelance contractor to perform or assist in some secondary tasks related to the preparation of a research papers? To make some concrete examples, what about (1) drawing illustrations, (2) transcribing manuscript notes into Latex, (3) preparing numerical simulations, (4) proofreading, and so on?

The field is mathematics. And the assistant would not be a professional researcher, just someone with some scientific background and relevant skills in Latex, Matlab, or whatever appropriate tools.


texts: Splitting a relatively long paper into two shorter papers

texts:
I have recently submitted a 40 pages paper to a journal, say (A). After about 6 months, the editor let me know that several reviewers have declined to review my paper, and so he decided to reject the paper. He suggested that I submit my paper to a more specialized journal. Journal (A) is already a specialized journal and I only know 1 journal more specialized than (A), let's call it journal (B). So, one of my options is to submit my paper to journal (B) and accept the risk of a similar feedback from the editors of journal (B), of course after several months.

In the mean while, I think the main reason several reviewers declined to review my paper is that (1) my paper is relatively long, (2) My paper consists of two parts and each part addresses a different subject. Therefore, the set of reviewers who have expertise in both subjects and are willing to read and review my paper is very small. Due to these facts, it is very likely the editors of journal (B) face the same problem. So, as the second option, I am thinking of splitting my paper into two shorter papers each consisting only one subject of my original paper. Regarding this option, I can think of the following pros and cons:

Pros:

(i) There are a good number of experts in each subject and it is fairly easy to find a reviewer for each one of my shorter papers.

(ii) This facilitates the referee process of each paper and hopefully reduces its time period .

(iii) Two papers (each approximately 20 pages) look better than one paper (approximately 40 pages) in my CV.

Cons:

(a) The second part of my paper depends on the notations and results of the first part. So the reviewer of the second part may prefer to read and review the whole paper at once, or even worse he/she may call the paper containing the second part incomplete.

(b) Part of the motivation of the developments in the first part of my paper comes from my work in the second part. By separating these two parts, the reviewer of the first part can complain about the lack of enough motivations and justifications for my results. In my opinion, it is not a serious problem because I will explain the application of my works which is going to appear in the second paper. But I am not the person who makes the final decision and the reviewer may blame this and reject the paper.

(c) I can imagine that it would be a difficult path to follow the referee processes of two related papers simultaneously, because of the following reasons: It is possible that the opinions of reviewers of the shorter papers differ significantly. Or it is possible that these papers get refereed in two very different time periods. It is also possible that one of the papers gets accepted and the other one doesn't, which is a pretty ugly situation.

Unfortunately, I have faced each of the above difficulties ((a), (b) and (c)) in my previous submissions and I know how they can ruin my papers. In fact, the main reason that I organized my results collectively in one paper was to avoid the above issues. But now that my paper has been rejected without any peer review, I am considering the option of splitting my results into two papers. So, I have the following questions to ask from people who have more experience and have been involved with similar situations (for instance as an editor or a referee):

(1) What do you think about the above pros and cons? Do you know any other pros and/or cons? And, is it a good idea to split my paper into two shorter papers?

(2) If it is advisable to split my paper into two papers, should I submit them to the same journal, (maybe same editor), or should I submit them to different journals according to the best editors who can handle my papers?


texts: Writing PhD thesis as part of consortium project

texts:
I am a PhD student currently writing up my thesis which was performing data analysis as part of a consortium project.

For a number of reasons the project has stalled due to poor planning, lack of expertise, personality clashes etc. This means that the paper describing the dataset has not yet been published, and in it's current state I can't see how it ever will be.  My research is  based upon the analysis of this dataset. There were 4 people working on the analysis for the project, and whilst we were all involved in the design, people took ownership of particular parts, and the end product is a bit of a disjointed mess - a classic case of “too many cooks spoil the broth”.

In my thesis, I have to include two pieces of analysis that were  “led” by some of the other consortium members as they lay the foundations, and it would not be a coherent story without these sections. In the preliminary unpublished paper, these two pieces constitute two figures and are brief, incomplete, and in my opinion not methodologically robust.  In my thesis, I have performed my own much more substantial versions of these analysis, and with what I consider a better approach which better fits my own work and story.

My analysis represents my own view of the data which has been expanded greatly however, it still  addresses the same question and several of the same general conclusions are found. My questions regards how to properly navigate the authorship of these pieces and place the appropriate amount of credit with the people who did these preliminary analysis. I do not want to sign over credit for work where it is not due.  Does anyone have any experience with this type of issue regarding authorship of works on consortium projects, particularly within PhD projects, or any general advice?


texts: Are postdocs in your own institution frowned upon?

texts: Is it typically preferable in academia to pursue postdocs in institutions other than the one one has received a PhD from? I have heard on the grapevine that this is the case, but is there anything to back up this assertion?


texts: How to find internship or supervisors if not in academia?

texts:
I don't have a MSc in STEM, however I gained some professional experience in data-science, but outside of academia:

I coauthored a data-model at my former startup, described in a patent application that to date is cited 90+ times ;
I coauthored a peer-review research collaboration with a research institute

Thing is, I got passion and would like to extend research on the data-model above and uptake relevant skills ( artificial intelligence on graphs ), mostly with a motivation for both applied research (spin-off, entrepreneurship, tech transfer).
I crafted research proposal for a PhD: however, since I don't have an MSc in a relevant field (required for a PhD in Europe), it's unlikely I may have a chance and I also would be very much content to break down the research proposal in simpler parts, and work on one for a peer-review publication.
I tried very hard to find a supervisor : a research collaboration would be ideal (i.e. one where I may 'trade' complementary skills for applied research, like UX or software development, or any other thing I may work at to get a temporary paid collaboration or a paid internship).
I also tried to offer myself as volunteer, to receive supervision in the prospect for being coached on a peer-review paper.
However, I could not find any researcher/professor who may want to allocate time, because I am not affiliated to any university and could not justify resources.
I also tried to inquire researchers in private sector, but internships are allowed only for students, and I am not.
Do you have suggestions to help find paid internship for non-students, or researchers who may be interested in offering supervision ?
My current situation is Im looking for job: I would be happy for temporary collaborations in research, also entry level, where I could gain skills and exchange ideas on my research interest.


texts: I accidentally failed to disclose a school I briefly attended. Have now been admitted to grad school; how to proceed?

texts: When applying to grad school, I did not think enough about the requirements of disclosing past education.  I failed to disclose a school I attended because it was so short and brief and I received all W's, there is no GPA, but there is a transcript.  I did not realize how big a mistake this was at the time.  Now, I have been notified of acceptance from the department, still waiting official acceptance from the institute, and I am very nervous that this will all get messed up.  What should I do?  Tell the school? Decline offer and reapply next year with correct info?


texts:
This is inspired by the other question about dealing with stupid questions. The popular answers all seemed to assume that the student really wants to hear an answer. While this is a reasonable assumption, and the answers are very good, they don't cover trolls.

Imagine that you are teaching a computer science lab and a student asks you why our noses run and our feet smell. I agree that you should act professionally no matter what the student does - but what behavior would be considered "professional" in such a situation?


texts:
I am presenting a poster at ICBC, which is sponsored by the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc).
I am planning to use two logos for my poster.
I am considering the logos of the following:

The research organization. The presented research is from researchers of this organisation.

ICBC, the conference organizer

IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc), the conference sponsor

Logo of ICBC and IEEE, indicating both organizer and sponsor.
Which two logos are suitable for the poster presentation.


texts: How do Professors feel about writing recommendation letter?

texts:
Just curious about how professors feel about having to write recommendation letters? Is it a chore for them? Or do they actually enjoy writing them? Or is it more of neutral.

I am in a situation of applying to various graduate schools. Last year I only applied to one school and was rejected. This year I am thinking of applying to more schools so as to increase the chance of being accepted. I feel a bit "guilty" about having to ask my supervisor to write 5 separate letter of recommendations. Would it take up too much of their time?

That said, I don't really have any other choice since the recommendation letters are pretty much compulsory.


texts: Is it alright to ask recommendation letter from the same professor more than once?

texts:
Background: I was applying for grad school last year, and asked my professors for a lot of rec letters(likely 15 programs which made the work really tedious). They kindly agreed and send all the rec letter much earlier before the due date, and the outcome is really good, I had been admitted by almost all the excellent universities which I thought I won't had much chance, so I suppose my professors' recommendation helped a lot and I am very grateful.
However, the problem is, due to complicated reasons I had to reapply this year, and I'm not sure whether it would be appropriate to ask professors who already helped me once again since I already troubled them too much last year. And I didn't contact them after I send them a thank you letter which made me feeling like the only thing I did after graduate is keep asking rec letter from professors. I could find enough rec letter from my intern supervisor since I had graduated for a while but my friends told me universities really value the rec letter from undergraduate professors so I better at least have one. My current plan is that I would ask them if they still have the rec letter they wrote for me last year and if so, I will awkwardly ask them again. I really appreciate what my professors already done for me and I really don't want trouble them. It appears to be a very hard time for all universities and professors because of the CVOID situation, so I'm not sure if I should even bother them at this point. Please let me know if my plan would be culturally appropriate or not. I graduated from an american college if it matters.


texts: Leaving PhD program with a masters (for a job). Can continue PhD later?

texts:
Suppose a couple of years into a PhD program one gets a job offer he/she is quite happy with and decides to take it. This could be for one or several reasons such as:

You are at a point in your life where you need some money and its financially more secure to work rather than being a graduate student.
It's a good idea to experience what the work force/industry/"real world" is like for a bit.
You may not be satisfied with your research topic/advisor at your PhD institute.

Assume also that during this couple of years one has acquired enough credits to get a masters before leaving.

My question is after working a couple of years, how would it be viewed by graduate committees if I decide to reapply for PhD programs in case I decide I really want to finish the PhD now that I am financially at a better place and have a good first hand experience of what its like being at both sides of academia.


texts: Is it okay for a supervisor to require students to seek permission before publishing?

texts:
If I were a PhD student, should I be concerned if my supervisor always requires their permission before I can publish a paper?

Under what conditions should I find it acceptable or unacceptable?


texts: Prospective PhD-How to keep in touch with potential PhD supervisor

texts:
I'm applying for several Ph.D. Programs in Human-computer Interaction. I contacted a potential supervisor and asked him a bunch of questions about the program. The professor wrote a very detailed answer and recommended some books for me to read.

I would like to keep in close contact with him until result of the application is available.
How should I thank him for the information?


texts:
My wife is defending her thesis soon, and in her department, defenses are open to the public. I will be there along with several of her friends/colleagues. Her mom also wants to come to the defense. In terms of her committee's perception, I could see this being viewed as weird or maybe unprofessional. Then again, it could be harmless, and her mom really wants to come. I also happen to be in the business of trying to keep my mother-in-law happy :)

How would this look from the perspective of her committee? Do parents ever come to defenses? I haven't really heard of this before. I want my wife to have the best chance at passing her defense, but I also don't want to come across as a grouchy husband that appears to be saying, "Your mom can't be here."

This is a Nutritional Sciences department in the United States. It is a somewhat unique situation in that students typically start a dietetic internship a week or so after defending the thesis. The internship takes months to plan for the student since it involves organization with preceptors at multiple locations.

At our university, there are three possible results from a defense: passing, passing with modifications, or failing. Passing with heavy modifications could result in a delay (of a month or more) in starting the internship. This recently happened to another student.

My wife asked me to ask this question here as she wants to focus on getting prepared for the defense. She initially asked for my gut feeling on her mother attending, and I had never heard of this before, nor had she. The defense is coming up very soon ;) and she did not feel comfortable asking her advisor a question like this so late. Also her advisor is not the most responsive to email so she might not even hear in time (I know that this will probably invoke statements that she should get over it or that she should not have picked this advisor, but this is not the point of the question). For the record, I would never tell my wife who she could or could not have at her defense. I'm just trying to be helpful :) It's encouraging to hear from the comments that parent attendance at a defense is fairly common place, so it will probably be no big deal.


texts: Reusing previous review for similar paper

texts:
Some months ago, I reviewed a paper for a conference (with a joint submission to a journal). I rejected the paper with a list of points that were missing and suggestions for improving the manuscript.

Lately, I have been asked by the same journal to review a paper by the same group of authors. Note that this is not technically a re-submission, as the title is different. In the new paper (which is about the same topic as the previous one), the authors have added a substantial amount of new material and have taken into account some of my previous suggestions; yet, I believe that many of the main points I raised in the previous review are still valid.

Thus, I am tempted to repeat verbatim large parts of my previous observations. On the one hand, these are still valid, but on the other, I am not entirely comfortable with this form of self-plagiarism. It will be very obvious that I have simply reused my own previous work, also because the Associate Editor is still the same and because I have my own default format for reviews.

A related issue is that in this case the outcome could be different: given the quality of the material that has been added, I am tempted to ask for major revisions instead of voting to reject the paper.

What is the professional conduct in this case?


texts: When do I use a footnote in a thesis and when do I use parenthesis for extra information?

texts:
I have one question for my masters thesis. If I have A, which is also known as B or C, can I write:

  A (also known as B or C)

(or similar) or can I use a foonote like this:

  A¹

  ¹ Also known as B or C

Or more in general: When do I add extra information (like synonyms) between parenthesis, and when do I add them as footnote?


texts:
In my field (theoretical computer science), authors of any paper are always listed alphabetically; our papers don't have "first authors".  (Well... hardly ever.)  In most other disciplines, at least within science and engineering, the ordering of authors is a signal about their relative contributions to the paper, with the first author indicating the most significant contributor.  Hiring and promotion committees do give extra weight to "first-author papers" (and sometimes have to be reminded that not all areas have them).  As an outsider, I find this practice confusing.

What does first authorship actually mean in your discipline? I understand vaguely that the first author is supposed to be the one who "did the most work", but what counts as "work" in this comparison?  Does "most" mean "more than all the other coauthors together" or just "more than any other coauthor"?  What happens when the comparison is unclear?   How often is "did the most work" the actual truth, versus a cover story for a more complex political decision?

I realize that the precise answer is different for every paper.  I'm looking for general guidelines for how an outsider (like me) should interpret first authorship in your field.  Pointers to guidelines from journals or professional societies would be especially helpful.

Please give only one answer per discipline.


texts:
I was a little bit surprised to read this comment thread on the Chronicle of Higher Education, which suggests (among other things) that faculty shouldn't fraternize with grad students. I think this site has a different slant than CHE, so I thought I would bring up the question here. Is there anything wrong with faculty socializing with grad students?

I agree that professors should definitely avoid getting romantically involved with grad students, or getting drunk with them. Moreover, I agree that a heightened sense of boundaries is important.

But is there any reason for a professor, who would otherwise be interested, to decline offers to attend parties thrown by grad students, or to go hiking with them, or to play soccer with them, or to go to bar trivia with them? I've observed this to be common in math departments, and appreciated by faculty and students alike.


texts: How to write a methodology chapter in a masters thesis

texts:
Is there a standard way to set up a methodology chapter, other than just listing equipment and explaining the execution of method and analysis?

I find this type of set up to look childish and too simple, in a way. Maybe I only need a good example of a preferable layout.


texts: Does a significant participation weight on the final grade increase classroom discussion?

texts:
Currently at the institution that I study, we have class participation which is enforced (more or less) by making it a significant percentage of the final grade.

For instance, one of my classes has participation as 20% of the final grade. We are marked on the basis of how much we participate each class on a scale of 1 - 5.

  Question: Are there any research papers which show (or don't) that having a high participation weight causes a majority of the class to repeatedly participate?

My Observations.

Based on the two classes I have been in where the participation weight has a significant impact on the final grade (>20%), I have noticed that the same people (more or less) talk each class; the majority of the class does not participate at all. Furthermore, the "discussion" is not a discussion but rather a question and answer with very few follow ups.

Thanks for your time!


texts: Do senior PhD students form a part of the admission commitee?

texts:
Recently, I was having a chat with a few senior PhD students (almost done with their thesis) and they pointed out that the professors would, at times, solicit their opinion regarding the admission of a particular student. This was especially true when the prospective student belongs to the same country as that of the senior PhD student.

Does this happen in all institutes?

If it does happen, is it official or discussed-over-coffee unofficial?


texts: What would be the most appropriate measure I should take if I feel that I am failing to submit my MSc thesis within deadline?

texts:
In February-2016, I have undertaken my thesis. That was the topic proposed by my supervisor on my request. I started to work on the project and finding that I am actually short of various topics/knowledge(theoretical and practical). I still contacted the supervisor and he passed me in my lab and told me to continue the work.

The last date of my thesis submission is 2016–09–15.

I have been started to have a feeling that I wouldn’t be able to complete the thesis. Coz, my previous knowledge is not sufficient to complete the lab-project and hence the thesis.

What would be the consequence if I am unable to submit the thesis?

What would be the most appropriate measure I should take to save my thesis/career/semester/grade and so on?


texts:
I was surfing the web looking for the incoming conferences in computer science, and I finished in this website

http://lipn.univ-paris13.fr/~bennani/CSRank.html

Here, it seems that the conferences are ranked as A*, A,B C.

While this is the only place where I have found this rank explicitly, I have heard many other researchers refer to a conference as a "A* conference" or so.

So I am wondering: is this ranking official? Who is maintaining it? And on what is it based?


texts: Can authors email you for free PDFs of their textbook sold for profit

texts:
I'm asking just about textbooks that are sold for profit, not free ones. I know journal authors can email their papers or articles free, but textbook? Is Reddit comment wrong?

I ask all subjects like finance, economics, law, not just science.

  Science textbooks. When a scientist gets published, he/she doesn't get any profit if the schools use it. Every textbook I've had hasn't been free, so I just email the publisher and find out one of the names (of whom was published) to email them. Since they get no money, they'll be glad to email you back the entire book, to which you can print off yourself. It's a life hack people should know instead of having to pay thousands for college textbooks. Edit: I did this with my Calculus/Geometry professor in ISU (Indiana State University) and he said that he only got one overall pay for being published with other professors, and that he would be glad to give it to me, as he would all of his students. I'm not lying.


texts: When to upload preprint (or abstract) to online repository?

texts:
I know that it depends on where I publish whether I am allowed to upload my paper to an online repository like ResearchGate (cf. here).

The question is, however, when I would upload the paper.

Can I upload the abstract before the actual publication?
Can I upload the paper (e.g. preprint) before the actual publication?
Or should I wait with both until the paper has actually been published?

For example, Springer only allows you to make your work publicly available 12 months after official publication or later. The policiy does not say anything about abstracts, however.

Since I think that making the abstract available beforehand is good publicity for my paper, I´m interested in

common practice -- when do you upload what?
legal restrictions.


texts: Site with statistics of publications/citations per country?

texts:
I'm looking for a site (other than Scimago) that presents statistics of published papers and/or citations per country. However, I need more detail than that presented in Scimago. Ideally, I would like to have a list of authors, or the list of papers per country (having all the statistics that Scimago shows is a plus).

Is there any site that provides such information?


texts:
I'm studying Bachelors in Computer Science.

I've taken a course this semester where the professor requires us to write research paper inorder to complete the course. High quality papers from this course are published in journals like Springer.

So I was wondering - how will undergrad research effect my application for masters or my career further down the road?


texts: Undergraduate supervisor asked me to join his group for grad school. How do I politely say I'm also considering other options?

texts:
I spent one summer working in a research lab during my undergraduate degree. Now that I am in 4th-year and applying to graduate schools, my former supervisor has asked if I would like to join his group.

I had an enjoyable experience in his group, but I think my talents lie towards the theoretical side of my field (physics). To be perfectly honest, I think that it is more likely I will choose something other than his group. At the same time, I don't want to "rule out" the possibility of working with him just yet because I can see myself being happy with either scenario (his group or somewhere else).

So my questions are:

How do I politely tell him that I am interested, but I want to consider other options too? How transparent should I be with my interest in theoretical research over experiment? Would it be best if he knew that his group would probably not be my first choice?


texts: I am contemplating creating a scientific journal. How many editors should I try to get on board?


texts: This semester, my advisor supports me financially from his NSF funding. So I was wondering if I can write this NSF funding in my resume in honors section?


texts: How to get letters of recommendation when you work alone

texts:
There are a number of questions on this site about lacking (good) references from people who know your work, but none seem to address a situation where you lack references because there never were any people who know your work: Due to the nature of the department and especially the projects my supervisor is responsible for, I work entirely alone. This means that after one year I have no one whom I can say "knows" what I can do. Whom do I turn to for references in the case that I work entirely alone and I'm too new for anyone to be familiar with me?

On a given job application site, for example, I have to provide not just one but three references. In my case, even getting one is uncertain because my supervisor is only aware of my work on a superficial level. My previous degree was finished 5 years ago, so I doubt that my supervisor from back then could provide much of a reference, either. The job I held before starting was also for only a very short period, as was the one before that...

Addendum 29/10/2017: I am leaving the department, so I do not have much time to cultivate any possible sources of recommendation letters; I have to make due with the relationships I currently have, which are very few.


texts: Is there a pre-print server for building physics papers?

texts:
I recently submitted a pre-print (about heating control algorithms for buildings) to arXiv.org, under General Physics, but it was rejected as being off-topic for that server.

I tried to find a pre-print server specialising in Building Physics research but couldn't find any. Wikipedia doesn't list anything.

Is there a pre-print server that is suitable for that kind of publication?


texts: Is writing an expository paper helpful for math PhD admission?

texts:
I'm applying for math PhD programs this year. I'm a junior at UCB, and I've taken standard grad math courses such as algebraic geometry in the last year. This year I'm taking grad seminars and topics courses, and the topics covered this semester include geometric rep theory, symplectic field theory, TQFT and microlocal sheaf theory. I have no time to do any meaningful research on them until the December, and I have no previous research experience. However, I'll have given ten expository talks related to them since the last year until the end of this semester. I made a slide for one of them, but I have nothing to submit other than that, as I used blackboard in most talks.

To complement my lack of research experience, should I write an expository paper on a topic of my interest? Or is there anything else more effective for admission? I can write an expository paper within this semester, but I personally prefer studying recent topics to be up-to-date than writing such papers, which is often time-consuming.


texts:
This might seems like a silly question, but I don't understand why grad schools ask for GRE score on the application form. In almost all instances, they also require official score to be sent to them before they even start reading application anyway. So is there a reason why they ask for self-reporting of those score?

Also, is there any harm in not putting the score into the application? As in let's say the GRE being taken too late, and the score is not known at the time of application.

(talking about both revised general and subject score)

Thank you.


texts: How do I know if I'm unprepared for my math PhD?

texts:
I earned my B.A. in the U.S. but felt unprepared to go right into a PhD program due to the (extremely) limited math courses offered at my undergrad institution so I went into a masters program. I ended up doing really well (3.9GPA) and gained a lot of confidence and expanded my knowledge. A couple years later I decided I wanted to apply to programs for my PhD. I ended up selecting a foreign university where it is assumed you already possess a masters degree, which originally I though was great since it saved me a couple years of additional schooling that I though would be redundant. Now that I am about 6 months in however I am seriously questioning the quality of the master's program I was part of. It seems that others in the program are much more advanced than I am and I seem to struggle with everything, which is a brand new experience for me. I spend hours and hours spinning my wheels reading and trying to understand papers, feeling like I just don't know the background I need to. I feel as though after 6 months I have learned nothing and have wasted a lot of time on things that ultimately never became clear before I had to move on to the next task. I have somewhat discussed these concerns with my advisor but they seem confident that everything is fine.

I also find that now that I am here the project I am part of is much more applied than I had anticipated and I am unsure about if this will evolve to more closely match my interests over time or if this is just another indication of a poor match.

I am not sure what to do. Is this a normal experience? If it truly is not a fit for me at my current level of knowledge, what are my options?

Any advice is appreciated.

EDIT: I have not discussed this as bluntly with my advisor as I am speaking about it here, primarily because it is just over the last couple weeks that it has become much more problematic. I do intend to speak to them about this more explicitly at our next meeting.


texts:
I'm wondering how to reference a book The Jepson Manual, 2nd Edition shown below.

  Baldwin, B. et al. (ed.). 2012. The Jepson Manual, Vascular Plants of
  California, Rev. 2, 2nd ed. University of California Press.

I wondering about citing the revisions which are available on-line at eflora. There are now two revisions of this second edition. Should the revisions be listed in the citation as above or some other way? And should I keep the book date at 2012 even though the online revision 2 was 2014.


texts: How to balance learning and solving assignments during coursework

texts:
I have a bad habit of trying to objectively measure myself and my understanding. One of the ways I do this is by saying to myself "I only understand X after I have read the entire chapter in this book on X" or "I can start doing a problem on X after I have read all about X." I do this because it generally guarantees that I haven't missed something important; that I'm not stuck on something that's obvious to everybody else. It's also something external that I can point to to justify my ignorance. Like, if I didn't know something, I could say "Well if that's important, then why didn't this author mention it in this entire chapter?"

A lot of my peers don't do this. I think most of them pick up just enough from lecture to do the assignments. I'm really starting to wish I was like that because this way of learning is seriously failing. It's starting to take a tremendous amount of time and I'm under time constraints. But it bothers the hell out of me if I can't first get all the facts down.

And actually I did this last semester with one class because it was simply unfeasible to follow along with the book. When I look back I feel somewhat bad about it because the subject truly interested me.

So how should I balance learning and solving assignments during coursework? On one hand, I spend a lot of time with the books as there's a lot of stuff to learn and it helps to know all the facts and the motivation behind the ideas, as they can be enlightening. On the other hand, it leaves no time and my performance in school could be better if I focused more time on doing the assignments.


texts: How do I cite my own PhD dissertation in a journal article?

texts:
I recently finished my PhD, and now I'm in the process of submitting a journal article on the work I did in the final few months of my degree. This work is an extension to some conference papers that I'd published earlier, and so I've cited them in my journal article stating how the submitted work differs from the published material. When I submitted the article to the journal, I mentioned in a cover letter that the same results/algorithms exist in my PhD dissertation.
After submission, I received a note from the journal to also cite my own PhD dissertation in the article, as there is a fair bit of similarity. The note said:

You can resubmit after you have referenced the original article, and explained in your new article how this new work builds on your previous publication(s).

Considering the work presented in the journal article is not really an extension, and is pretty much the same as in the dissertation, how do I properly reference it? In my experience, I have not seen papers where the authors cited their own dissertation in the text.


texts: Can supplementary materials be used in different manuscripts?

texts:
Can the same supplementary materials be used in different manuscripts?

For example, hdy201491x2.docx in
this article
contains a table showing "Detailed hit frequencies (%) of the in silico analysis of the F479/R888 primer set for Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukaryota."

The same table appears as
mbt212162-sup-0002-tables1.docx in this other article.


texts: 3 follow-up emails over 2 weeks, and the potential supervisor still wont respond to me?

texts:
so i have this pool of potential supervisors who I am super interested in their research.

I have formulated the best introductory email - short, concise and relevant to their research- . No response! I sent back a follow-up email which had my old email in addition to my CV, still no response! I even called , but no one picks up the phone, and whoever picks up the phone is a clueless assistant who tells me to email the supervisor and ask him/her myself.

I even visited one the labs and spoke to one of the researcher's post-doc students who volunteered to edit my emails and told me it was a good one. But then again, no response.

how is that even possible ? I dont live in the university's city (Toronto) so I cant even stalk them in their offices.

any idea why is this happening ?

N.B

The time period is 2 weeks. I sent an introductory email, next week I followed up with another email.

EDIT- For those of you who tell me not to "harass" professors, it is not harassment so please use another word. It is the applicant's responsibility to secure a supervisor for Biomedical engineering program by emailing/calling potential PI . To prove my point on following up , one supervisor who works in a hospital told me that the hospital email service filtered out my email. If I hadn't called him to inquire about my original email, I wouldn't have moved on in my research knowing that his lab is indeed "full". Applicants are not expected to simply sit and wait for supervisors to "notice them" and hope for the best , I must put myself on the map. I don't see why professors don't get much heat -like I am getting in this post" from harassing sponsors for grants !


texts: As a course lecturer, should I excuse late assignment submissions if I wrote the assignment deadline slightly wrong?

texts:
I am the course lecturer of an undergraduate course.
For a recent assignment, I had written the assignment deadline as 23 November 2018 (Saturday). Unfortunately, 23 November is actually a Friday, and not a Saturday.

I received an email from a student asking for me to excuse his/her assignment which was submitted late. The student explained that he/she marked the deadline as Saturday, without checking the assignment date.

Question

Should I excuse the student's late submission because I made a slight mistake in specifying the assignment deadline?

Note: We use a learning management system to receive assignment submissions, and the assignment deadline was entered correctly in the learning management system.

What I decided to do

For the current incident:
After reading the answers, and thinking it through, I decided that it is better to use the later of the two deadlines (i.e., 24 November Saturday) as the official deadline for the assignment.
I did make a mistake in writing the wrong day of the week for the deadline,
and students could have been misled with my mistake.
It is not fair to punish such students for my mistake.

For future courses:

The more places I put the deadline in
(e.g., the syllabus, the assignment itself, the learning management system),
it becomes likely that I will make a mistake somewhere.
In the future, I will put the deadline in only the learning management system, and refer students to check the deadlines there.


texts: How to cite an entire section I rephrased from a book using APA style?

texts:
Let us say that I'm summarizing a chapter from a book.
I'm rephrasing an entire section, let us say that the section is about scheduling algorithms which are taken from operating systems concepts book.
Let us say that this section has many subsections, and there are paragraphs under each subsection.
Shall I add a citation to every paragraph (same citation) or shall I add the citation at the beginning of the section or beside the title? Or at the end of the section?


texts:
My current postdoc position requires that I work 41 hours per week during a 5-day work week.  As my first post-graduate position, I decided to take this seriously and actually track my hours. (People at labs have to do this anyway, so I figured it could be a helpful habit.)  I found that except for the weeks where I definitively over work, I often can't meet 41 full, productive hours.  Accounting rigorously for breaks, I often fall short by a couple hours, and even then, I know that some hours I log as working, I'm usually struggling to focus.  Most weeks I feel guilty and make up for the hours by staying late or working over the weekend, which is of course undesirable.

So I wonder: is anyone actually productive all hours of their work week?  Is there any research on how to optimize one's mental energy during the work week?

Please refrain from answers like, "You're being too hard on yourself." I'm a freshly minted PhD, of course I'm being too hard on myself.


texts: Choosing which version of an article to cite

texts:
I sometimes find an article published in several conferences.

  If similar material is published in different conference proceedings,
  how do I choose which one to cite?


texts:
I have to dig through a large number of scientific papers (~26K), all with DOI links. I've built a small Python script for searching through the papers. Now I want to have more data about those papers. For example, where the authors are from (country or university) or, at least, retrieving the DOI link for the papers (not all of them have metadata).

One approach might be as follows:

(1) Get the DOI link (from a library, for example)
(2) Retrieve the information about the author(s).

Is there an API or a Python library that could help with that? I've looked at the Elsevier API, but it seems to be just for Elsevier papers. Web of Science isn't helpful, as they haven't much papers for my field (Information Systems).

Mendeley, Citavi or Zotero aren't really the options, as I want to do that somehow "automatically".


texts: How to publish an article that is only one page long?

texts: I am interested in publishing a journal article that is only 1 page long. Most journals want more lengthy articles. The area of focus is Chemistry. How to sort through all the requirements without reading each journal individually? I think maybe a consultant knowledgeable in this area would be ideal.


texts: Salary of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Fellowships

texts: Does anyone have information about the standard salary packages for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action fellowships inside a Initial Training Network (ITN)?


texts: How do I make a parenthetical citation for a speech?

texts:
I'm writing a position paper and wanted to quote part of MLK's famous "I Have a Dream" speech, however I'm not quite sure what to cite, the speech? The website I got it from? And then what should I put in the parenthesis after the indented quote? Right now I have: (Paragraph 8) but that's hardly adequate. Help will be much appreciated.
The site with the speech: https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm


texts: Applying for posdtoc positions: is it okay to send out many applications?

texts:
When applying for postdoc positions, one has the option to send out lots of applications, possibly get several offers, then choose the one that seems best.

Alternatively, the applicant could contact the research group that looks the most relevant or best suited for him, and focus on getting a position there.  If the feedback is not positive, then (and only then) move on to the next best choice.

I believe that in the USA it is accepted that people will shop around for positions, and not taking an offer is considered completely normal.  However, in some other places it is possible that if the applicant shows a lot of interest for a certain position, then gets an offer to be hired, and doesn't accept it anyway, it could be considered rude.

What is the usual or best way for applying in various countries?  I think it is very important to research this point to avoid any misunderstandings or bad feelings because of differences in attitudes towards the application process.


texts: Is it very unprofessional to contact people from an old job interview and tell them that I think I've made a mistake?

texts:
One year ago I withdrew from one job application. I met the committee, the interview lasted nearly 2 hours, they showed me the institution, I had lunch with one of the senior team member. Then I suddenly withdrew before results were announced. The job was in a different country and I haven't got an opportunity to meet anybody again. After some time I see that it was a mistake.

Is it a good idea to send them an email that I regard my actions as a mistake or as unprofessional? Let say to the senior member with whom I had lunch, or to the head of the project.

I have  a feeling that I have made a mistake and it was maybe too harsh to withdraw. Maybe in the future they will seek another sort of collaboration or there will be another job available at the institution.


texts: Follow up email in 2 weeks - PhD application - a good idea?

texts:
I had written to a well know professor in my field of study regarding a possible PhD position. He responded and asked for references. I was dumb enough to respond to this mail after 4 days. It has been two weeks since the last email and I never heard from the professor.

Is it a good idea to send a follow up email?
Do you think the delay in responding to his mail would have spoiled my chances?


texts: As a student, how can I negotiate comfortable and appropriate sleeping arrangements with a stranger for a conference?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate student that was offered a role researching for a grant. I was able to get authorship status on a paper and will be attending a conference for it later this year. The professor I am working for connected me with another student at a different university in order to share a hotel room. We will both be staying for the entire week and are responsible for booking our own reservations. Unfortunately, the centre the conference is located at is booked, with only a single-bed room available that we would be required to vacate on Wednesday then move back in.

This student was fine with booking the room and asked me if I was okay with it, but after I realized that it is a very small, dorm-like room with a small bed and no futon I counter-offered a reasonably-priced room at another hotel a half-mile away with two beds that we would not need to move out of midweek. I thought this would be well-received, however the student pushed back saying that the other room had a better price (of course, as it was intended for one person or a couple) and we would have better involvement with the conference (doubtful, as long as we show up on time).

Besides already being an incredibly poor sleeper, I'm otherwise just uncomfortable sharing a small bed with another student I don't know, and the room is small enough that I can't confidently say a hotel cot would fit. However, I also don't feel comfortable making this a bigger conflict than necessary, and I don't want to upset my professor by costing our grant more money than necessary by booking my own room at twice the cost. On the other hand, I do feel I have the right to request sleeping accommodations that I am comfortable with. How can I handle this appropriately without offending anyone?