texts: What are some tools available for drawing good figures for computer science research papers and presentations

texts: What are good choices to create figures in computer science research papers? Not talking about graphs here, just block diagrams and simple illustrations. For example, what is the tool that can be used to produce this figure?


texts: Is it inappropriate to ask my supervisor (at a research intern) to review a cover letter for a PhD application?

texts:
I recently finished my masters degree and I'm currently interning at the same university doing a research project. I'm planning to submit applications for PhD programs at other institutions and I've just finished my first application. The application includes a cover letter of 1000-1500 words. I've sent the cover letter to family members for feedback before I send it off who have given me great feedback regarding the style and language. Unfortunately, no one in my family is in academia and I would really like the thoughts of an academic since they're the target audience and they will understand the technical content of my cover letter. I was thinking of asking my current supervisor or perhaps my old supervisor from my masters program to give me feedback on the cover letter however I'm unsure if this is unprofessional or if I'm asking too much.

My question is whether this is an unreasonable request?


texts: Conflict of interest statement for Elsevier

texts: I want to submit a research paper to an Elsevier Journal. There is also an invention disclosure associated with this work. I have got the approval of the Technology Transfer Office to submit the paper. Do I need to report anything in the Conflict of Interest statement?


texts: Do's and don'ts when writing an academic book

texts:
I am currently writing a book in mathematics. I have written a few pages and often stumble upon the question "is this good pedagogy" or is this "good typography". The chances of my work getting published is slim, but I am using it for a personal collection of notes and ideas in addition to learning writing a longer text. Below is an excerpt from my notes

An older version of my notes can be found here.As now the notes are dividied into a somewhat strict pattern with lemmas, propositions, corollary with theorems reserved for the main purpose of each section.  I have a ton of questions about layout, design how formal to be in my writing, and how spiced up I should make the text. I see modern calculus books like to divide the text into blocks (a different color for theorems, proofs etc) while published articles tend to keep a much more minimalistic presence. I just do not know if I am on a good path, or if I need to do some fundamental changes.

To summarize

What are the do's and dont when writing longer notes (mainly aimed at undergrads).
Are there any books or literature on writing longer academic texts?


texts: What are best practices for reviewing peer research lab colleagues' work for a supervisor?

texts:
Since over a year, I've been involved in almost everything my supervisor does and seem to have gained her trust, which is very gratifying.

There have been instances where I was asked to review and directly comment on other research lab colleagues' work who are involved in writing/research tasks. In many cases, I often felt like there was some kind of implicit resistance after a while (e.g. not meeting deadlines, not addressing my comments even if my supervisor wants them addressed, etc.).

On paper, my colleagues often have a stronger research background than I (e.g. coming from research-oriented field or PhD student) while I'm MA level and coming from an arts background, which I feel might influence the situation. However, at any moment, if the supervisor does not agree with my comments, she can step in, as we usually work on shared files online.

What could we do to ensure things go smoother and decrease the resistance?


texts:
Related to my work is a large project, with many publication. There is not a single recent publication that is particularly related to my work, and most of the publications have a particular focus on some aspect of that project that is less related.

What is the best way to reference that project’s work in general?

As my advisor advised against citing something too old, my current approach is to pick the latest entry on their publication list that roughly covers the project as a whole. In this case, it is the invited talk at a large conference, so I am not sure if it is the best choice.

If you care about the details: The field is computer science, and I want to reference the CompCert project (publication list).


texts: Meaning of the term "studies leading to a degree"

texts:
I am slightly confused about the meaning of the term "studies leading to a degree" in an application form.

Does it mean only studies that lead to an actual degree, in which case incomplete studies that did not lead to a degree are not covered by this term?

Or does it denote any studies that were initially started as part of a degree program, irrespective of whether the studies were completed or a degree was awarded or not?


texts: How to mention non-academic projects/experiences in a PhD application?

texts:
I want to research as a PhD student after several years of being away from academia but am unsure which non-academic positions to include, how many of them, and how to describe them: The PhD will be related very closely to informatics/computer science and my industry jobs were related to software development, but I've found out that computer science research and industrial software development have hardly anything in common with each other. Moreover, I've worked as a freelancer in addition to having proven myself to be a job hopper, so I don't even have the space to list every project I've worked on.

The question of "Should I mention industrial experience in an academic CV when applying for a PhD?" has already been asked, but there still remains the question of what exactly "relevant industrial experience" entails.

Previous attempts

Software-development bucket list

First, I simply tried listing all of my major projects which either lasted a long time or which I felt "proud" about. However, this means that my CV is ridiculously long and has a lot of stuff which has nothing to do with each other. This attempt was not successful at getting an offer or even many interviews; Apparently, just because a job has to do with programming, doesn't mean that professors care about it.

Topical bucket list

Next, I tried pruning the jobs which didn't have a direct technological/methodological link to the PhD I'm applying for: For example, if the PhD is related to pattern recognition in bioinformatics, I would list jobs for which I used some sort of machine-learning library even if it wasn't for bioinformatics; If the PhD is related to pattern recognition in blogs, however, I would not only list jobs related to ML but also jobs related to general web-application development under the assumption that making websites means that I might know more about how to work with web data. Currently, this iteration has not (yet) proven to be successful, either.


texts: Should I expect to be paid for post-graduation research?

texts:
I graduated with my Master's degree in Computer Science a couple of years ago. For a graduate requirement, I had to take on a project of significant scope and write a paper about the project. I had continued my project after graduation in order to attempt to publish a paper. This unfortunately did not happen, as I entered the workforce and focused my time on my new employment.

I received an email from my professor a couple of days ago asking if I had a copy of the source code to my project, because he has a new student who he wants to take over the project. He noted that if he was able to publish a paper with the new student, that my name would be added to the paper.

The professor had asked if I wanted to participate in the project, I replied that I would be able to help work on it in hopes of upping the chances that we get the paper published.

Since I am putting in hours post-graduation: should I expect to be compensated for my further work on the project, should I expect that this work is strictly voluntary in order to get my name on a paper, or is compensation up to the professor in charge of the project?


texts: Could number of years in Phd affect your chances to get employed in academia?

texts:
Say a Phd student spent 3 years doing systems, somewhat unsuccessfully (no publications since projects were not well picked..). Now this student switches to theory and ML (within its own department), so he pretty much begins his Phd from the beginning (e.g needs 5-6 or so years to graduate).
Assuming this student will do well in his new area, will his initial Phd "history" affect his employability? E.g if student will graduate in 8 years or even 9 years, having 3 or so years of work in irrelevant field (although without any publications...), will he have equal chances to get employed in academia e.g tenure-track as his first year peers that joined when he decided to switch areas?

I understand it might be highly subjective. If person gets to publish some field changing work in those years then I understand it will not matter, but let's assume nothing extra special happens during these years and his number and quality of pubs is average among his peers.

It would be great to hear this opinion from professors or postdocs or anyone who participated in hiring tenure tracks.

Thanks!


texts: Can I hand out students a few pages from books as supplementary materials?

texts:
No textbook is perfect. So if I want to supplement my course with some material (a few pages from different references every now and then, on topics I find lacking or weak in the textbook):

is it legal to make copies of those a few pages and give them to the
students as hand outs?
is it legal to scan them and upload them on
the course site?
should I email the authors to take their permission
1st? what if one author is dead?
in case the above is a violation of copyrights so what should I do then? asking the
students to go read those parts in the library? (the students would need to keep a copy
of the reading/supplementary materials)


texts: What is a good checklist for last minute changes before submitting a PhD thesis?

texts:
I have finished my thesis, it's been proofread by my advisor and myself, yet I have 24 hours to make last-minute changes to it. What should I be looking for? I will not make any substantial changes to the content, but what about the form? For such limited amount of time, where should I focus my effort? Or, said another way: what’s in your last-day check list for a thesis?

Major modifications to the original question. Thanks to F'x for the advice.


texts: Conference paper rejected after positive review and TPC comments

texts:
I submitted a paper to an IEEE conference, and this paper was rejected despite of almost all of the reviewers’ comments being positive. In particular, all three of the reviewers recommend to weak accept the paper, and even the TPC chair recommend to weak accept it. However, the paper has been rejected.

Due to this weirdness, I asked for the chair’s motivations for this decision, and he answered

  Your paper didn’t make the conference capacity line. Please resubmit to another venue.

What does this mean? What is the conference capacity line? Does that mean that there were not enough slots, or something else?

I have never encountered this kind of situation before.


texts:
A moment ago, I happened upon https://puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/99712/almost-impossible-sudoku-like-puzzle which explicitly mentioned that this student was given a puzzle in math class that his math teachers couldn't solve. And it got me thinking: To me, it feels like a teacher like that is unfit for teaching. After all, how could they impart knowledge they don't have onto their students?
Should a teacher be able to solve all the assignments they give their students themselves? Assuming the assignment is in fact solvable obviously.
Note: The question that prompted this was a math problem, but I'm looking for course-agnostic answers, if possible.


texts: Is second authorship good for an undergraduate student planning for masters admit?

texts: As an undergraduate student, I worked along with my professor and his PHd student on one of the projects that comes under his thesis. We shared the work equally and now I'm being offered 2nd authorship. Does it add value to my resume or will the evaluvators assume my contributions were less.


texts: Publishing research software that was developed by professional programmers - attribution ettiquette

texts:
I wish to publish a software platform that was developed for a research project. The usage-logic and user interface design were largely specified by the academic team, but the code was written by professional software engineers.
Is there known precedence for this? (citations)
And how would the community tend to handle attribution?

EDIT (due to request for more information):
Software engineers did not make 'creative' contributions, in other words they received a brief and executed it. One could argue that they acted much like a physical research service provider, for instance technicians who install/manage research equipment in labs. The main confusion is that the publication directly concerns the software. The research for which it was built is reported in another paper.

What I was hoping for here was some reference to existing publications with a similar focus, to see guiding examples.


texts: While my elsevier in press article shows up on the journal website, it has not appeared in Google Scholar after a week

texts: While my Elsevier in-press article shows up on the journal website, it has not yet appeared in Google scholar after a week. Is this normal and part of the process? If not, what's wrong with it?


texts: How to demonstrate potential for securing external funding in faculty applications?

texts: Many faculty positions ask applicants to demonstrate potential for securing external funding. For a fresh PhD who has only co-written some grant proposals, how can we demonstrate this potential? I really appreciate any thought.


texts: Choosing a PhD field, based on short term or long term decision?

texts:
I saw already questions regarding field choice, but they do not explicitly answer this question :

Choosing a PhD by following short term interest or following the long term vague idea of what one would like to do or be in the future ?

To explain what I mean, usually choosing a PhD field is restricting, it is harder to keep interdisciplinarity or swap of field if they are not seen as "close". One can be highly motivated by a subject A now but do not see a clear future, contrary to a second subject B a bit less motivating but where future is more predictable.

To take example in my case, I am considering two subfields of Computational Engineering : Physics-based animation in Computer Graphics and FSI in Computational Mechanics as PhD fields. Since one usually considers these two fields quite appart, I do not think I will be able to switch area after the PhD. I am motivated by the former but it is hard to catch a glimpse of future possibilities contrary to the latter because engineering seems more of a "safe" choice considering employment.


texts: When a research statement of a fixed page length is required, are references counted in the page length?

texts: On mathjobs.org, a few jobs request a research statement of no more than 3 pages. Are reference pages typically counted for such requirements in the United States?


texts: I am a graduate not in education. I gave a talk at a conference which was well recieved. My studies dont match those of the forum as much as otherd so I was surprised to be invited. Now I've been invited to submit an article to the conference proceeding (which are digital). Previous editions had 10-14 papers. There were 33 presentations at the conference. It was my first presentation and if successful it will be my first publication. But what do you think my chances are?


texts: Where does the budget surplus of a conference go?

texts: When a conference gathers more money (e.g., from sponsorships, registration fees, or public subsidies) than what was spent for organizing the conference, where does the conference budget surplus go?


texts:
We recently submitted a paper to a large IEEE conference (ISIT 2019). We have not yet heard back from our reviewers and the dates for the same have passed (it has been a week since). Is this anomalous (delays), or are there situations as per protocol when authors are not notified of their reviews? Is this common to expect in EECS conferences?

Edit:
We received an email on the 10th of March that reviews would be provided to authors within the next day; several of our peers have corroborated that they have received the same and responded with rebuttals. The conference website, however does not state this date officially. And for context, the notifications for the conference are due on the 31st of March. The conference website is accessible here.


texts: If research design, data analysis, and results only are good, where is the line between suggesting major revision and rejection?

texts:
Disclaimer: I am quite fresh as a researcher, even more as a reviewer.

I am reviewing a paper that appears to report a well-conducted empirical study, with proper data analysis. The results of the article are interesting and relevant for the journal.

However, I am very concerned with how the paper was written. I will provide some of my concerns of the report here:

Besides many grammatical errors - which I forgive as English is not my main language as well - the article is badly structured and often confusing. It fails to clearly state the research questions. No all the hypotheses are well supported by the literature review. It omits several key studies in the literature review. It often makes strong claims without a proper reference. It often fails to quantify stuff, falling to the tedious "a lot", "many", "few", "circa", etc. It is quite mysterious on certain aspects of the research design-e.g., a control group is suddenly mentioned without really clarifying what constituted the control group, and the paper reports that the experiment is not even a controlled experiment.

In sum, for the first sections I have nearly a comment for each of the manuscript paragraphs. I will do my best as a reviewer. I will provide all possible suggestions for improving the manuscript. Whereas I am confident that the results of the study are interesting, and that the research design is sound, I don't know if failing to clearly write the manuscript is a reason for suggesting rejection or for recommending major revisions.

Where is the line in this case? The journal does not clarify this in its reviewer guidelines.

In case of suggesting a major revision, what if the authors still fail to provide a clearly written and organized manuscript in a second round? Could I still request for major revisions?


texts: Dissertation topic in one field and degree in another field?

texts:
Feeing kind of stuck here. I started out as a math PhD student then switched to engineering. I thought by doing so I would be able to learn new skills and expertise in that particular field. But I quickly realized my advisor had a side interest in a math-ish field that is tangentially related to his main area (maybe that’s THE reason I was hired in the first place) but obviously his knowledge is limited in this new field.

Somehow I managed to publish 3 papers in engineering/applied math journals (by fluke? I thinkso) but since everything I know about this field is self-taught I don’t feel confident in my knowledge. I don’t know enough math to become a mathematician nor can I claim expertise in this engineering field I am supposedly in and time is running out.

My biggest fear is actually that the committee members are going to think I have been doodling around doing some unrelated math stuff and reject my dissertation (does this happen? My advisor doesn’t seem worried about this possibility at all). What are my options here really? I suppose if I manage to graduate I will just get a regular job outside of academia, but I do want my degree as I have been here for too long.


texts: In the United States a "PI" is a principal investigator.  This is someone who leads grant applications.  What does "PI" mean in Australia?


texts: pursuing PhD without relevant bachelor degree

texts: I have a bachelor degree in Business Administration and 4 years experience in this field, however I discovered that this is not what I want to do for the rest of my life, I'm interested in Geography and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). I went for a MSc in GIS but with my previous background I barely get a pass grade. Now I want to pursue a PhD in Geography, would it be possible to get an admission in USA universities? if yes I appreciate if you could give some names of these universities that accepting students with irrelevant experience and a low grade in Masters degree. Please note that my Bachelor Degree grade is second class with honor from a UK university also the MSc from UK university with the grade "Pass".


texts: Unplanned sequential interviews with different groups

texts:
I have recently conducted a set of qualitative interviews with a particular group. Their interviews yielded interesting info about a certain phenomenon. However, based on the information gathered from the first group of interviewees, it led me to a different type group whom I also conducted interviews with in order to explain/expand the first group's perspectives.
So it was a sequential process that I couldn't have planned beforehand without coming across the info gathered from the first group.
When parsing this information in a research manuscript (under methodology section), is it perfectly okay to explain the process of how I did or is there a set of framework out there that explains what I just did?


texts: What does define the quality of the master thesis?

texts:
I have been doing projects nearly 1 year with my future supervisor. I think he knows me enough. We were talking about many topics for thesis. Among all the topics, he is in favor of one topic which is pure science ie. development of new material. There will be lots of repetition and testing. On the other hand, I am a mechanical engineer and wanted to do some mixture work of science and design task, we ofcourse have an idea about it.

After my masters I would like to do phd, and I have low/mediocre GPA Low GPA. So I think that my thesis should be very good to compansate it. My supervisor admitted that the topic he is in favor of would be hard, lots of pain and hardwork and has high rate of failure, on the other if I somehow find something or improve a little bit, it would has very huge impact. He added that failing with new devopled materials would be again success, since in future they will skip what is failed.

Other topics that I am in favor of are more on design and less science focused, ie. using new developed material(I will make it but there will be only one material) in newly designed systems, our aim is to make an end product with low weight and low cost, ie. increasing the fuel cell performance in the ragone plot.

My question for researchers and committee, can you define a good master thesis? What do you look for?


texts: What's my professional title while working full time on my PhD?

texts: After encountering a few official forms to fill out (tax, medical, linkedin, job applications), I don't know what my official job title is during my PhD. There doesn't seem to be a standard for this. I don't think "student" accurately reflects my role, because I'm doing research and getting a small stipend for it. What should I put down as my occupation?


texts: If I buy a research article, will I get any potential retraction statement or erratum free of charge? Or will I have to spend additional money to obtain access to it? I see that some retraction statements are behind paywall, so I wonder whether the people who bought the article also cannot access it free of charge.


texts: I left college in the last semester (did not finish), but the college "transferred military experience to credits" and gave me a diploma. Normal?

texts:
When I was in community college (2016), I wasn't on good terms with the school. I was harassed occasionally and complained about it very forcefully to representatives of the administration. I passed my classes, but didn't do homework and had an average GPA. In my last semester, I decided to stop going due to continuing issues with the faculty.

After a few months, I got a diploma in the mail. I called them and asked about it and they said it was all on the up and up, and that the VA representative had taken it upon himself to transfer some of my military experience into credits (my remaining requirements were very basic, like P.E.), which is what pushed me over the edge.

I still have a hard time believing that I could graduate without knowing it. The VA rep was new and had recently replaced the old one, and I'm stoked he took it upon himself to transfer those credits over, but I am curious if this is a normal thing? Has this ever happened to anyone else? Am I worrying too much? I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I also am afraid there could have been some mistake.

The reason I'm worried about it now is that I want to go back to school for a CS degree in the near future now that I've matured a little and have a better idea of what I enjoy learning. If there's any chance I need to be worried about my previous degree I want to know about it.


texts: How do I deal with the vast number of research papers on a topic? (for non-academics)

texts:
As someone not in academia but beginning professional work in science outreach and communication, I'd like to stay well-versed and abreast of the research. However, upon performing rudimentary searches on these topics, I'm blown away by the number of results.

For instance, a Google Scholar search on "science communication" (in quotes) yields about 298,000 results, and a Mendeley search yields thousands also.

So, any words of wisdom on how to go about this? I'd like to dig in and do my homework over time, but I'm not sure how to work with the obvious limitations. I don't feel I have the benefit of specificity of a topic or previous familiarity with the research due to not being in academia also (to narrow down my concerns). I'm also not satisfied with simply reading popular accounts, as I would like to be able to back up my perspective with research when needed (and ideally in a less ad-hoc fashion).


texts: Can I ask the author of the research paper to use his program in my research?

texts:
I am doing a research in a field of psychology and I would like to do almost the same research (just with different groups) as one other published research. I can make similar research but actually I want to compare my results with already existing ones.

The thing is, that researchers made one simple application, more like a game. In their article they put a link for that game but if I want to use their game in my research I need to have theirs other application for recording each test session. I know for sure that I will ask them to use one part of application but if it's rational, I would like to ask them and use the whole game and the other application for the data collecting.

I know that this is more individual question, but I would like to know what is the common practice in computer science. Do people usually/ rarely ask someones applications/ programs for they own research? Unfortunately, I don't have a time to collaborate with someone in computer science to make other similar game. And even if I had a time I wouldn't be able to exactly compare the results with that published research which I would like to do. Anyway, I don't know the researchers but I thought to send them an e-mail to ask them.


texts: Taking suggestions for grading rubric for multiple answers test

texts:
We're being encouraged to use multiple answer tests at my school.  In case you're not familiar with the concept, each question may have multiple correct answers; students are encouraged to mark all valid answers.

There's at least one correct each for each question.  Each question has either 4 or 5 answers to select from.  It is possible that all answers are correct.

I would like to grade this so that, even when there are multiple correct answers, if the student only selected one answer and it is correct, they receive partial credit.

What I'm not sure about is how to grade problems in which:

all answers have been selected, but not all answers are correct.
some of the selected answers are correct and others are incorrect.

We've been given no guidelines beyond what I've mentioned above.  When asked about how we should grade these tests, we've been told no more than to try to award partial credit if at least one correct answer has been selected.

Does anyone out there have experience grading tests like this?  If so, how might you design a grading rubric.


texts: What's the purpose of writing one's academic biography in the third person?

texts:
I see some academics – both professors and grad students – write their biography on their university webpages in the third person, and it sounds really weird.

What's the purpose of writing about oneself, e.g. research accomplishments, research interests, in the third person?  Is it considered more professional to do so?

It reads very arrogant and self-indulgent, so I wonder if I'm just missing something.


texts: I am a graduate of electrical engineering with interests in quantum computing, machine learning and science popularisation. I have been a managing editor for a local science magazine for more than a year and wish to look into some more opportunities for exposure and resume-building. LinkedIn and Google haven't been of much help. How should I look for opportunities in science editing?


texts: What is the minimum time one should spend in a post-doc?

texts:
Suppose one has been hired for a three-year postdoc.  Three years give sufficient opportunity to get some work done, without moving to a new country every year.  Possibly, an opportunity might arise to move to something permanent before the three years are finished (either in academia, or in industry, or in government research labs, or somewhere on the edge of those).  However, the postdoc supervisor, who has invested time and money in a postdoc in order to get a project done, might be disappointed if the postdoc leaves a job unfinished.

On one extreme, I know someone who has been a postdoc at the current place for 5½ years, and they were a postdoc somewhere else before that.  I suppose spending 8 years in postdocs does not help when applying for permanent positions.  On the other hand, I know someone who has been a postdoc for only seven months or so, and is already applying for a primarily teaching position at a somewhat lesser known university, possibly a position where major post-PhD results are not essential.

What is the minimum one should spend in a postdoc, before even starting to consider applying for possibly permanent positions?  I mean this question broadly; an answer may either be expressed in time (one year) or in results (one major and one minor first-author paper).  Of course, without any significant results, finding a faculty position at a major place will be hard if not impossible.  But the question here is related to the moral obligation to complete some of the task one has been hired to do.


texts: Citing a country's constitution in the OSCOLA style

texts: How do you cite a country's constitution in the OSCOLA style?


texts: How will Phd guides treat students who are pursuing PHD under scholarships other than institute one?

texts:
Okay. SO here is the thing.

I got national overseas scholarship from my government. The scholarship almost covers everything. My question is how will professors view those who are admitted under scholarships, other than institute scholarship?

I heard that PHD guides always prefer to spend more time with those who are admitted under institute scholarship, cause there is always a pressure from institution to professors about the scheduled time.

In my case, my scholarship covers stipend for 4 years and the pressure is on me to finish it in 4 years.  Will I be given the same importance by professors?


texts:
My question was originally designed to be very related to this one.
However, I have continued to write it because it has a second part.

I am currently sending email to PIs in order to know if they have any position available for doing research in their lab (life sciences). My list includes some elite universities but it has a wide range (top 100 universities according to shangai rank). A problem I have is that I'm interested mostly on PIs and not so much on university X or Y (every university of the list would represent a major step forward on my career). I haven't had any repply so far but I'm still optimistic.

Reading some lab's webpages I've found messages like these on contact pages.

  If you are not graduate student (...), the most direct way would be to
  apply to (INSERT PHD PROGRAM HERE).

Which is very related to

  Please be aware that individual researchers have not influence on
  admissions comittee (...)

But also this,

  Please contact me if you would like to discuss our graduate program or
  the research in my lab.

I know that mostly in Europe the logic for Msc or equivalent that rules is

mail to PI-> get accepted by him/her -> apply to university with very high chance

The thing that I like about that is that it doesn't matter that a particular university has only one place that you might be interested in. However, it may be useless to apply to a university where you have only one "awesome lab" meeting your interest and more wise to apply to a university where you have (say) 3 "OK labs". Although maybe "you having thumbs up from a PI" might change the strategy, several answers point out the variability on admission comittees and the fact that your applying to the university first (you have a strong coursework component during the first 2 years) definitely make the advisor's word less important.

So the question is: If PIs are less involved, wouldn't be a better strategy to apply to the university where there are more labs without contact or does the "european" logic still hold in the US?


texts: What is relationship between post-doc experience and number of publications on Salary/appointment levels in New Zealand universities?

texts:
This question is related to What is the average salary of assistant professor in New Zealand?
and
Are salaries for academic jobs in New Zealand negotiable?

Is the relation between number of years of postdoc experience and/or publications with the appointment/salary level at NZ universities quantifiable? I am mainly interested in the starting level appointment.


texts: Limit on working hours in EU/UK with multiple jobs

texts:
I am working as an International research assistant (in a University Library) in Germany. A startup (based in London) asked me to work as a research consultant (kind of a freelancer, 5-10 hours per week). I am working full time 40 hours and also doing a part-time PhD 4 hours per week (not being paid). My employer gave official permission for doing the part-time PhD.
I wanted to get involved as a research consultant because we exchange data and technology. As per the EU regulations, there is a limit of a maximum of 48 hours per week.
I have two questions-

Can I work two jobs (full-time and freelancer) in Germany and the UK?
How does the employer check the exact number of the working hours across Germany and London?

Please share your opinion.


texts: Within the UK, how are roles corresponding to academic grades defined?

texts:
Within the United Kingdom (or perhaps just England and maybe Wales?), academic pay scales are divided over different pay grades.  Annual salaries outside London range from £16,131 in the bottom of grade 1 to £65,454 at the top of grade 10.  For example, see Oxford Iniversity, University College London, University of Reading, University of Leicester, etc.

It appears the pay scales are uniform (albeit with a London bonus), but is there any uniformity of the definition of the roles corresponding to each grade?  In one example I am familiar with, grades 6 and 7 are effectively postdocs (where grade 7 can be PI but grade 6 cannot), but this is one example for one role at one university.  It does appear grades 6 and above are usually/always considered different from grades 5 and below, perhaps due to requiring a PhD.  I wonder if any rules apply nationally.

How are the roles corresponding to academic grades defined within the United Kingdom?  In case there are differences between constituent countries, I welcome answers for all countries.

This similar question and its answers make no mention of academic grades, and therefore this does not answer my question.


texts: How can I improve my chance of getting a tenure-track position

texts:
My job search (for tenure-track Assistant professor in Computer Science) last year failed miserably.  I submitted applications to about 10 US schools (top 30 -- top-100 quality).   In the end, I got only 1 on-campus interview, which I think I did well, but no job offer.

Here is a quick summary of my qualifications:

ABD from a highly reputable university outside US (equivalent to, e.g., Toronto, EPFL)
10 papers, all in top conferences (5 first-authors)
4 recommendation letters (one from my advisor, 3 from other reputable researchers)
extensive internships in industry research labs
extensive TA experience
has experience in grant-writing (assisting my advisor)

I am really confident in my research accomplishments and research abilities. I also communicate reasonably well and speak/write English fluently.  Since I didn't get a whole lot useful feedback, what do you think are major holes in my profile?  I did some reflections and had the following in mind:

No Post-doc experience (is it really necessary in CS now?)
Never taught a course as an instructor (but I don't see many candidates have this in their resumes)
Degrees not from US
10 papers in top venues are still not enough
Research/Teaching Statement could be written better (perhaps, but I think mine read OK)

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.


texts: How is European habilitation viewed in the US?

texts:
There is something called a habilitation* in Poland, Germany, Austria, and a number of other European countries.
How is a European habilitation viewed by people in the United States?
* "Habilitation is a qualification required in order to conduct self-contained university teaching, and to obtain a professorship in many European countries. Despite changes implemented in European higher-education systems consequent to the Bologna Process, habilitation is the highest qualification issued through the process of a university examination, and remains a core concept of scholarly careers in these countries."


texts: Listing an article which is under revision in your CV

texts:
Background

I am a student applying for graduate fellowships. I recently got a decision from an editor regarding a paper I wrote, stating that the referees recommend acceptance, but that substantial changes need to be made to the paper first, and that I should submit a revised version.

This journal does not have a specialized submission system (though it is under a reputable press), and based on the phrasing I’m not 100% sure whether this can be considered a decision of “accepted with major revisions” or “revise and resubmit”.

Based on other questions on the site it seems that listing a paper under revision in the CV is not always appropriate, but that as a student in my situation it should be okay.

Finishing the revisions before the application deadlines is unfortunately not an option.

My question

What’s the best way to list this in my CV?

Followup: does the answer change if I can’t list it on a separate section from my other peer reviewed publications? (since some applicatons have space constraints for the CV)

What I thought about doing was to list it together with my other, published papers, in the format of:

MyName. (in revision). Paper title. Journal name.


texts: Is it appropriate to ask my supervisor about publication of future results now?

texts:
I'm doing my Master's degree in applied mathematics. I went there from CS department, because of multiple recommendations.

I knew before, that the most successful people of my university are usually students/graduates from this maths department. However, I was very surprised, when I found out, that the successful ones are usually chosen by professors during B.S. or very early during their Master's degree.

Every reputable professor has one or two so called "golden children" who have incredible (and insuperable usually) advantage over other students, who are not collaborating with the "best" professor so tightly.

Because of some awards I got for my Bachelor's thesis, I was offered a place in our research center and so far, I'm doing pretty well there. I talked about my ideas with one of the professors (very reputable, he's probably second in our uni just to one much older professor) and he was excited about them and offered himself to supervise my Master's thesis. Moreover, as a specialist advisor will be my immediate superior in research team, who has great ties to some good U.S. universities (we're in Europe), he even got his PhD from one of them.

So far so good, I was excited about all of this, but then I found, that some other professors care incredibly much about their students, to the point where on of my colleagues has arranged place in the international conference even before he started writing his Bachelor's thesis!

Now I'm not trying to degrade him, despite his age he's a very good mathematician and I have no doubts that with "his" professor's help, his thesis will be great.

The point is, I'd love start publishing papers as soon as possible, especially, when I'm working on two research projects which are both directly connected to my thesis's topic, so my thesis will have a lot of foundations from the beginning (so I don't have to start with the whole topic "from scratch").

Do you think it's inappropriate to talk with the professor about this? Not that I'd want to compare him to other professors, I'd simply want to tell him that I'm willing to publish some papers as soon as it'll be possible, because I think it'll help my career very much.


texts: What should I do if I hate engineering, but my parents want me to become an engineer?

texts: I really love physics, and I told my parents about my interest. They want me to become an engineer, but I hate engineering (too practical, too far from physics), and I don't enjoy fixing things. What should I do?


texts: Double degree in mathematics and computer science for PhD admissions

texts:
Long story short, I'm really interested in machine learning research and aim to get into a top CS PhD program. I recently got admitted to the best CS program (5 year bsc+msc) in my country but it is not exactly MIT. My main concerns are the lack of math and reputation. I am therefore considering starting another bachelor's in mathematical statistics in parallel.

Assuming I have the talent, ambition and drive to do it with good GPA and side projects, should I?

How beneficial would this be from a competence stand point for ML research?

How beneficial would this be for CS PhD admissions?

Math in CS program:

Single variable calculus

Multi variable calculus

Algebra and geometry (Linear algebra without proofs)

Discreet mathematics

Modelling and simulation

Numerical methods

Probability and statistics

Logic for computer scientists

Math in Bsc. Mathematical statistics:

Single variable calculus

Multi variable calculus

Linear algebra (with proofs)

Linear algebra advanced course

Discreet mathematics

Algebra and combinatorics

Analysis A

Analysis B

Foundations of analysis advanced course

Complex analysis

Abstract Algebra

Mathematical logic

Probability 1

Probability 2

Statistical analysis

Stochastic processes and simulation 1

Stochastic processes and simulation 2

Categorical data analysis

Linear statistical models

Theory of statistical inference

So what do you all think?


texts: Potential consequences of the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) for US job prospects

texts:
In answer to a question about moving between employment in the UK and the US, user StrongBad suggests that "the obsession with the UK REF will likely push your CV in directions that are not ideal for getting a job in the US."

This point struck me as interesting, as in some respects it appears counter intuitive. When I asked why this was the case, he suggested that it would make a good question. I'm now asking that question.

For those unaware of the REF, it is a regularly occurring (and not uncontroversial) nationwide assessment exercise which is used to guide the distribution of funding amongst UK universities.

In order to perform well in the REF, there is a pressure on researchers in the UK to produce a number of publications (four, to be precise) which are deemed to be of a high level. In assessing quality, reviewers are guided to consider whether a piece of work is "world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour". Furthermore, since the most recent REF another consideration for assessment has been whether research has "an effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life, beyond academia."

What's therefore not clear to me is why would building a CV containing publications deemed by peers to be world-leading, and conducting research which peers deem to have benefit outside of academia, not be ideal for job prospects in US academia?


texts: Unhappy with my PHD CS research topic. What should I do?

texts:
I've been working for about 2 1/4 years on a PhD CS research topic, which is to speed up a certain type of simulation using a certain general approach. This approach is pretty much the only research topic our research group has to offer. However, in my opinion, this approach is also fundamentally broken and beyond repair: It is not applicable or very inefficient for most simulations of this type and for the few simulations, for which this approach is applicable and efficient, there are much better specific approaches available. Consequently, in pratice, nobody uses this general approach over better specific approaches. Besides this fundamental flaw, there are other issues bothering me about this approach and my work, like being pretty much implementation focused, not offering much room for interesting optimizations and that I have to work pretty much alone.

While I have realized all this even before accepting this position, I've been telling my self that all of this will somehow work out. However, as things are now, it's quite the contrary: I've resigned a long time ago and lost pretty much all interest in CS. I've been thinking about quitting this position for a long time, but I do not want to disappoint my supervisor, whom I like very much, and I also do not know where else to work. I'm also afraid of throwing away 2 1/4 years of work on a PhD. What would you advise me to do?


texts: Where to learn the 'real' funding threshold for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship final project selection

texts:
Recently, I received the preliminary result for the MSCA-IF-2016 (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship) application, and I learned that I am in the 'reserve list'. I wonder if there is a way to learn the updated funding threshold, which can help me make a better guess regarding my position in the 'reserve list'.

Thanks!


texts:
I am having trouble asking questions in seminars, conferences, and public talks.

As a graduate math student I often fail to keep up with speaker and more mature members of the audience at events like seminars and conferences. It is very frustrating to lose track of the talk simply because I am not familiar with one key theorem/definition referenced by the speaker.

On the one hand, many people encourage me to raise my hand whenever something is unclear, motivating it by "no such thing as a stupid question" quote.
On the other, very often I observe people being annoyed by a student asking an "obvious/elementary" question and wasting everyone else's time.

I have seen several related posts on this website, most of which are asked on behalf of the speaker.
However, my question comes for the opposite side of the barricades.
I want to know how to find balance between not annoying the speaker and the audience too much on the one hand, and catching up with the talk on the other hand.

More formally, my questions are:

Are there any (semi-, non-) official recommendations on professional etiquette for mathematicians?
I understand that every situation is unique and highly subjective. However, I would be glad if someone gave me advice on when to ask, how to ask, and what to ask at research talks.
How can I tell if my question is "dumb" (i.e. the answer is well-known or searchable), or if it addresses legitimate ambiguity?

In particular, how can I quickly determine whether a definition/theorem/lemma mentioned by speaker is a part of common knowledge?

All relevant links or examples are appreciated.


texts: Are automated online quizzes effective for formative feedback to students

texts:
I would like to increase my use of formative feedback (feedback showing students whether they understand material correctly without impacting their grades) and would like to integrate it with online quizzes.

I'm wondering if this has been found to be effective.

My goal is to make it simple and automated. While I could write one myself (school generally does not pay for things like this), I would prefer to avoid building it (or paying). What I'm really looking for is something like forms in Google docs but would also somehow automatically and instantly score the answer (limiting student answers to multiple choice) and displaying the results to the student as soon as the submit button is pressed.

So, this is a compound question: Does using online auto-scoring quizzes help students (I believe it will) through formative feedback and is there a way to get Google forms to give immediate results?


texts: Fellow student asked question from take-home exam on Stack Exchange

texts:
In an advanced university course on computer science and problem solving, one of my fellow students asked for a solution to a home exam on one of the Stack Exchange sites. The question he asked is taken directly from the exam without modification also stating that this is practice question for the upcoming exam. He got the solution. There was more than one question.

The professor always creates questions that are unique. It clearly states that questions on the exam must only be directed to the professor himself.

Now for the moral dilemma. I feel very uneasy about reporting although knowing that it will hurt future students and in the long term the status of the school. Will it affect me? Most likely not.

I would like input on how others would reason about this.


texts:
I'm a sophomore undergraduate majoring in mathematics, and I'm pretty sure about eventually applying to graduate school in pure math. However, I haven't done much other than coursework so far, and I'm trying to plan a productive summer (learning something new, perhaps interacting with professors). By the time summer begins, I will have completed all basic math courses such as Analysis, Abstract Algebra, Linear Algebra, Set Theory, First Order Logic, etc. Apart from this, I've spent some time self-studying advanced topics such as Graph Theory, for example.
I think the above background is sufficient for me to at least learn about advanced math topics, if not do research at this stage. By advanced, I mean anything that would have at least one of the above topics as prerequisites, for example, Category Theory or Algebraic Geometry.

What do summer projects in math look like? I believe, for the most part, these would just be directed reading projects (which is great too). How do I find such projects?
Big Question: Would it be a good idea to cold email professors (ones who I've had no prior interaction with, but I really want to work with them at some point) and ask if they'd be willing to advise me on a reading project or such? I'm thinking of approaching professors at institutions different from mine - in particular, places where I'd like to go to grad school too. Would this be a good idea? I'm aware that professors are busy and they're not likely to respond to undergrad students from other institutions easily, but seems worth trying.
In addition, would it also be a good idea to reach out to postdocs or senior PhD students in math? I guess they could be good mentors for reading projects, too.

Lastly, if anyone has any other ideas for spending a productive summer in pure mathematics, do let me know! (apart from summer schools and REUs, I guess. Most of them are limited to US citizens/residents, making them useless for me).


texts: Should I email a potential supervisor who agreed to support me?

texts:
I am applying for a PhD at a certain university that requires the student to provide and evidence of support from a potential supervisor before submitting the application. After mailing some professors, one of them agreed to support my application. It was a very brief email saying "I am happy to support you". I immediately prepared a research proposal and sent it to her. She replied by saying "Noted". I prepared my application and submitted it two months later.

Is it appropriate to email her as a reminder of myself? If so, what would be a good email? This university is very important to me and I want to do everything I can to increase my chances of admission.


texts:
I am a Phd candidate. I'm writing a journal paper that is, in part, a review of the current regulatory landscape use of a particular technology.

Sarah is involved with an unconnected voluntary project which has been funded by a charity to use the technology, with a condition that the learning from the project is shared publicly. Sarah's correspondence with the regulator is very relevant to the paper I am writing, as they are charting new territory, but she is reluctant to share information as she is starting a consultancy business on the back of her experience with the project.

I think this information should be in the public realm (as did the charity who funded the project), so I want to find a pragmatic approach to getting it out there. Also, although the information would only make a small part of the content, my paper would be incomplete without it.

In other circumstances I would interview her for the information and acknowledge her contribution to the paper; there are others whose experiences I have written about in a simialar way and acknowledged in this way.

But in this case, I am considering offering Sarah a co-authorship on the paper in exchange for the information. I would be the lead author; Sarah would be added after my supervisors.

Is this an ethical / appropriate use of co-authorship?   Sarah's contribution to the paper would be small, and perhaps not normally worthy of a co-authors credit, but without it the paper would be incomplete.


texts: How to handle pressure from collaborators when life circumstances make it impossible to get work done?

texts:
I am looking for a bit of advice on how to handle the workload in a PhD while juggling several collaborative projects plus family pressures.

I am in the final year of my PhD which, overall, has been fairly successful to date. I am currently collaborating on a number of projects with other academics - most of which have been going on for some time and are nearing completion - which along with other work I am doing independently will form my PhD thesis. When I took on the projects I was confident that I would have the time and knowledge to turn them around fairly quickly.

However, I recently had my first child with my partner a couple of months ago and I have found it almost impossible to get much meaningful work done since (and also in later stages of the pregnancy) due to the pressure of supporting her and my child - sleepless nights, caring for the baby and her along with the additional strains on our relationship. I am now under pressure from most of these collaborators to finish my parts of the projects and this has been causing me considerable stress, which in turn has made it even more difficult to focus on projects and get them completed. I have to add that on most of these projects I have done a considerable bulk of the work, while other collaborators have at times been slow with their turn around, which is one of the reasons I now have so many ongoing projects. But I get the feeling that several of them feel I am now stringing them along but giving repeated dates for completion that I do not meet.

I feel under huge pressure and strain from multiple directions. I often do not check my emails for days knowing that there will likely be another email asking about progress, my relationship is suffering and I do not properly enjoy spending time with my child - my work seems to pollute much of my life now. Funding is not an issue as I have sources of funding that will take me well beyond the time I need to complete my thesis, but I feel I am burning bridges with other academics in the the field, which is causing me considerable stress.

I think I probably know what I need to do, but can't bear to do it... I have two first authorships and a significant authorship and am writing up a further two first authored papers. These alone would be enough for my PhD and probably a decent postdoc position. I should inform my other collaborators that I won't be able to work on their projects any longer, or at least not within the forseeable future. It would pain me to do this as I have already invested considerable time in these, and without my further input some (most?) would be unlikely to be completed and published, or would be inferior publications to what they could have been, as well as seriously damaging my reputation with these academics.

I would appreciate thoughts of people on how I should approach this - especially from people who have been in similar situations or have dealt with very slow and unreliable collaborators.


texts: Can the decision to admit a PhD student be made by a single professor?

texts: Many professors say on their websites not to email them because they cannot make admission decisions alone, but rather it is the decision of a whole committee. However, my undergraduate advisor said there is nothing stopping a single professor from admitting a student if they see fit. Is this true? And if so, how often does it happen?


texts: What are best practices for designing publication-quality figures?

texts:
I am a postgraduate student in mathematics. I am writing my thesis, for which I need to prepare some Matlab plots and figures. I had sent some plots to my supervisor, and he suggested to use black for the line color because most  journals want to make sure that plots look good when printed black-and-white.
I am curious to know some other advice for figures like line width, styles, colormap for surface and contour plots, the figures’ dimension, etc.


texts: What are "all the rights and privileges pertaining thereto"?

texts: It is common language in graduation ceremonies, at least in the United States, to hear a degree conferred with "all the rights and privileges pertaining thereto." How would one discover what the rights and privileges pertaining to a MA or PhD degree actually are?


texts: What hours do researchers work in the Unites States?

texts:
After staying in a US university (specifically MIT) as a visiting scholar, a colleague of mine says that most of research labs are still working at midnight. I suspect that he is exaggerating. Don't Americans have life?

I know that there is no working hour limit for research, but based on my experience in UK, people used to leave following the official working hours.

Apart from exceptional cases, is it really common for research labs in the US university to work at night?

NOTE: I did not mean competition of early-stage researchers, I mean the common working styles. In any country, student might be in the library during the night (and similar in the lab). I meant does a US university professor expect to keep his lab active during the night? And does he visit the lab at night?


texts: If I can't stand theoretical questions of numerical analysis, does that mean I don't have a future in applied math research?

texts:
Every math student has a good idea that there are virtually no academic jobs for pure math PhDs.  So, many go the applied route.

If I find questions of numerical analysis dull - even after hearing some of the leaders / experts of the field lecture in classes and learning about their great works - then do I have no future in applied mathematics?  I can't think of any research direction in applied math that doesn't use numerical analysis, eg, complexity theory, error analysis, approximation theory.  I couldn't make a career out of solving ode and pde.

Am I generally correct that I should not stay in mathematics if I am not interested in questions of numerical analysis?


texts: Are there any institutes removing teachers based on less performance in publications?

texts:
Consider the four cadres: assistant professor, associate professor, professor and above.

Are there any universities or other institutes across world in academia that removes from office permanently, any person, possessing anyone of the four cadres because of her less or no publishing activity?

I am just asking about existence of organizations with such rules.


texts: Cover letter: "I" or "we"? I did almost all the research and most of the writing

texts:
In a cover letter to apply for an assistant professor job in the Western US, I want to refer to one of my publications in particular:

  Indeed, this theme is the topic of my 2016 paper in Journal XYZ on the relationship between _____. I used the such-and-such scale to examine _____.

My coauthors were a faculty member with whom I have a excellent relationship and her former adviser; neither one would dispute that I did about 95% of the research (except for the original dataset collection) and perhaps 80% of the writing.

It feels cleaner and intellectually honest to call it "my paper," rather than "my first-authored paper," but of course anyone can see on my CV that I was the first of three authors. Is it wrong for me to use the singular? What would be a preferable way to refer to this publication in a way that rightfully claims substantial ownership of it?


texts: Is there a correlation between how enthusiastic reviewers are and how much impact a paper has?

texts:
If I have a paper which five reviewers agree is good, does that mean it'll probably also have high impact? Both reviewer enthusiasm and impact can be difficult to measure objectively, so I'm thinking of indicators such as the language used by the reviewers, the number of reviewers, whether the paper is accepted outright instead of revised, and the number of citations it generates.

From personal experience the answer seems to be "not really", but I don't have a lot of data, and I'm wondering if editors see a correlation or (even better) if there's been a study on this.


texts: Do graduate schools dislike when students take 5 years in undergrad?

texts:
I am currently a junior Materials Science and Engineering major at a top engineering university, and have done research in a very physics-based materials science lab for the past two years. I love this research, and plan to continue in the field for graduate school, but I am realizing more and more that I will need to strengthen my physics background significantly.

I have the option to double major in physics, which I can also use as part of the requirements for the honors program I am in, but it will mean taking an extra year to graduate (5 years instead of 4).

I am honestly OK with taking a bit more time in undergrad., as I have had a wonderful experience so far, but I want to be sure it is not frowned upon by top graduate schools (in either MatSE or Applied Physics) that I am taking 5 years instead of 4. Is this usually the case?


texts: Me and my husband both are accepted from US universities for post-doc. The universities will not pay us for post doctoral work. My husband won a scholarship from our country for 1 year, but unfortunatelly I couldn't. He will apply for J-1 visa. My question is can I do post-doc with J2, or should I apply for J1? As applying seperately for J1 requires more personal foundation, we would prefer J2 for me. As I will not receive any payment from the university should I apply for working permission (EAD) for J2? Or is it best to apply for J1 at the beginning? Thanks for your answers..


texts: How can I get a Copyright Transfer Form without notifying my advisor?

texts:
My case is that we already have an adviser. She's not allowing us to register for conference (rank B). We have prepared everything after getting acceptance letter. Now she's telling us to submit the work to another conference (ranks A*)! We are pretty much sure our paper will surely be rejected if we submit it there and since our undergraduate study will be completed within 2 months we may not ever get this chance to publish a paper!

What should i do? She's simply not ready to listen. As she was the one submitting everything program committee will send eCF to her only. Should I write to the program committee so that he sends me an eCF? I don't want to change author names... just want to publish the paper!


texts: Will advanced knowledge help my undergraduate research?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Overlearn in undergraduate College- good or bad idea?

I'm about 0.5-2 year(s) ahead of my course plan* depending on how you see it, but I don't want to waste my time so I want to self study stuff beyond my syllabus. I'm a Physics major freshman now, and I plan to get into research in my sophomore.

Let's say I have self-studied lots of Math/Physics stuff in my freshman year, and get into research in my sophomore. Will knowing advanced stuff give me an advantage in my research? (one of) My goal is to have a good grad school application

Here's a related question I asked previously on overlearning in college Overlearn in undergraduate College - good or bad idea?

*I was preparing for Olympiad so I learn Calculus and Introductory Physics. But I don't get to skip courses in college. So I'm relearning stuff all over again.


texts: What does “senior graduate student” mean in this context?

texts:
I am an Indian student enrolled in an integrated master’s-of-science program and currently in my fifth (final) year of the program. So should I be called a senior graduate student or senior undergraduate student?

[Edit]: I read this https://www.numfocus.org/programs/john-hunter-technology-fellowship/ on the first line of second paragraph.
I quote that here:

  The program consists of a 6 month project-based training program for postdoctoral scientists or senior graduate students.

Also the eligibility is:

  Eligibility: Eligible applicants are postdoctoral scientists or senior PhD students, or have equivalent experience in physics, mathematics, engineering, statistics, or a related science.

Am I eligible? I am an Applied Mathematics student (maths major).


texts: Should I mention the mutual acquaintance who recommended me to a professor in an email?

texts:
I'm applying for graduate school in the coming fall. I asked a professor - who I never worked with, but who liked my CV - if he could get me in touch with one of his colleagues to see if I can get a research position at his lab. The professor did so, and his colleague was interested in my CV enough to tell my professor to ask me to get in touch with him.

I didn't want to email this professor until I was done researching his stuff and sending my application. It's been a couple of weeks. I don't know if I spent too much time not sending the email, but I didn't want to make a poor job of that. But the question is, now that I'm writing the email, should I mention the professor who recommended me in the subject line?

My current subject line is:
"Cady Heron - Prospective [major] Graduate Student"

The one I was thinking:
"Referred by Dr. Karen Smith - Cady Heron"
(Frankly, I got this from a Business Insider article.)

Any help, please? I just don't want to sound like I'm shoving nepotism or something in his face.


texts: Is it possible to sit in a class without registering it?

texts:
I wanted to know that whether it is possible to sit in a grad-level course or undergrad course without registering?
What should I do before going to the class? should I talk to the professor?
Is it illegal to participate in a class without registration?
I need to learn about some other area that is why I need to participate in other classes as well.


texts: Is it wise for researchers to thank Alexandra Elbakyan (founder of Sci-Hub) in the paper acknowledgements?

texts:
Alexandra Elbakyan founded the site Sci-Hub, which allows bypassing publisher paywalls.

If this service is used by researchers to access papers that would otherwise be out of their reach - due to their university not having subscribed to publishers or not being able to buy papers due to budget constraints - is it a good idea / wise to thank Alexandra in the Acknowledgement section of a paper citing the otherwise unattainable papers?

For example, "We would like to thank Alexandra Elbakyan for her work / contributions to science" without explicitly mentioning any specifics.

A similar question was already asked with the top rated answer pointing out that it would be unwise for paper authors to admit to illegal activity in a formal document.
This seems like a reasonable point.

Reseachers thanking someone for their contribution to science does not seem illegal and might get some readers of a paper to research the background of the acknowledgement.


texts: how to cite an equation that is common knowledge but I use others notation

texts:
I am writing my masters thesis on an econometrics topic. It is very closely related to another paper by NW. Since our papers are very closely related, I am using their notation in order to draw comparisons (which I state before introducing my model).

NW motivate their model using known findings from their field. They demonstrate that the standard model does not behave well under their assumptions by (mathematically) decomposing the standard model's objective function. This approach is very common, however, every author formats their arguments to fit their purpose. In my paper, I want to build on NWs argument. I.e. I want to make the same point and extend it. Do I need to cite their equation (the decomposition of the objective function) in any special way?

To paraphrase what I currently have:

  ... NW illustrate this by deconstructing the expectation of the objective
  function into a signal term and a noise term

  $$E[Q(\beta)] = Eg(\beta)'Wg(\beta) + tr(W Omega(\beta))$$

  ...

(I copy their notation exactly.)

The reason I am unsure is that NWs argumentation is not unique to their paper but how they frame it is.


texts: Can I fill an application for a PhD program, and send the scores of GRE and TOEFL later? How much later?

texts:
For a PhD application due in mid-December to Mid-January, what is the deadline for sending the GRE and TOEFL scores? I know the answer is different based on the university and the program I am applying to, but I think there is some date which I can't exceed.

I want to apply for a PhD program this year, the deadline for the application is between mid-December and Mid-January, but the GRE and TOEFL scores won't be available till mid-March. Is that acceptable?


texts: I am not getting response from any professors or industry. Is it end of the road for me?

texts:
I did in a PhD in mechanical engineering from a Canadian university on simulation of shot peening process. I collaborated with experimental groups from my department.
After graduating in January 2020, I joined my PhD lab as a postdoc for few months while I applied for positions. I published 4 papers (first authored), 2 co-authored.
It has been 12+ months and I am still working with my PhD advisor and on a related topic. I have submitted 2 papers (2 first authored).
Now, after renewing my contract for another year, I am about to work on a different topic and in collaboration with experimental groups from other university and industry but same advisor.
As I am open for a life in both academia and industry, I have been applying for other postdoc positions and industrial positions. I apply to positions like 3D printing and simulations of selective laser melting process which is different than my research experience so far but I work with same numerical method (Finite element method).
Also, I apply for industry jobs as finite element researcher, engineer.
Till now, I have contacted 30 professors and  20 industrial positions. I received just 1 response from professor saying he will contact me if gets a grant approved. And I got 2 response from industry, one rejected after first interview and second position with an invitation for C++ coding assessment test. I am not proficient with C++ as I work with Matlab and a bit with python. I would fail the test.
Apart from these, I don't have any other leads. I have to continuie with my current postdoc, but am afraid that I won't get any other positions in the future due to lack of openings.
Where do I go from here? I like my research field, but I don't think I am cut out for it as proved by the lack of job offers. Is this the end of the road?
Please advise.


texts: Is there any non-commercial alternative to ResearcherID?

texts:
Identifying uniquely a researcher as author of a publication is important. There is a commercial effort to create researcher ID for every researcher. It is not likely to succeed if it is not multiple publisher effort. Something like DOI and CrossRef.

Is there truly non-commercial alternative emerging?


texts: If no revised date is mentioned in the paper, does this means the paper is directly accepted by the journal?

texts:
When I am reading papers, sometimes I see statements like

  Manuscript received October 29, 2012; accepted March 16, 2014.

Does this implies that the paper is directly accepted?


texts: “Areas” vs. “Themes” in the classification of a university’s topics

texts:
I am applying for a university, and on their website they have divided topics in “Areas” and “Themes”. For example, Areas contains Information Systems and Computer Science and Themes contains Big Data and Cybersecurity.

As the heading says, what is the difference between areas and themes in this context? In my opinion, there is a great many that overlaps making the margins fuzzy between the terms.


texts: How to stay calm when receiving review notifications?

texts:
I've been in academia for roughly 8 years now. Wrote quite a few papers. Still, my heart starts seriously racing each time there's an email notifying me of a review for one of my papers.
Does anyone have any good tips on how to be less stressed out about this?


texts: Difference between Thesis and Research paper?

texts: My query is about whats the main difference between thesis and research paper, and as i am undergrad, which is more easy for an undergrad to do!!


texts:
I've got invited to a lab seminar. I am so excited and nervous, too.

I applied for the same research group before, and unfortunately, I was not selected after short presentation and interview at a conference.

Instead, the PI (call A) recommends me to the chief of the research center and another PI (call B) saying they have one open position.
So, B invited me to come to Switzerland (French speaking area) and join the lab meeting.

PI said the entire members attend the meeting usually and I have 30 minutes for a presentation. I guess at least 15 people will be at the seminar.

So now I am considering that the presentation consists of
1) Research during my master: I have three published articles in peer-review journals (first author), one article published in a peer-reviewed journal (co-author) and a couple of studies under revision and ongoing research. I am going to categorize them into two themes and summarize the main objectives and results.
2) Research skills
3) Research interests related to the project.

It is not just I introduce the research to other people in an international conference. I would like to become a part of them, and there has to be some evaluation as a prospective PhD student and co-worker.

But, I have never been in the position. I would be grateful if anyone gives me some advice on the presentation. I don’t want to lose the opportunity again.


texts:
Situation: I’m completing a master’s degree in computer science. Currently, I’m at the final stage and finishing writing my thesis.

Usually, similar theses in my institute have the following structure:

Introduction.
Literature survey.
Proposed solution, method, framework, ...
Implementation and case studies.
Conclusion.

Problem: Actually, the research problem that I’m undertaking is a little complicated and crosses multiple landscapes; it’s about designing data warehouses using ontology. So the way I have followed is bottom-up, providing a chapter of foundations before the solution chapter (point 3 above). These foundations contain multiple basic definitions, constraints and rules that I build upon in the next chapter (including some novel theoretical issues), in order to give the reader the sufficient tools to launch reading my work.

However, my supervisor told me that this is not the best way, and that reader may be confused with all this much of theoretical knowledge in a bottom up fashion, that may lead to getting lost. Instead, he suggested to define any concept only whenever I need to use it, even if it this concept is proposed by me.

Question: Though I know that there may be no specific answer. However, in such a situation, which is better? bottom up or top down? Any suggestions?


texts: If I withdraw my published paper from an SCI journal (Elsevier publisher) due to some conflicting issues; will it appear online after the withdrawal?

texts:
My paper is appeared online 6 months ago, but due to some confidentiality of the data used in that paper, the company asked us to withdraw the paper. Their opinion is that, the authors didn't ask the permission to use their data, they just cited them.
Me and co-authors are OK with the withdrawal but we are confused that will it be there online after cancellation (with some notice in Red writing: CANCELLED due to this reason etc.) Or it will disappear online after cancellation?


texts: What lessons have you learned over the years as a TENURED FULL Professor that you wish somebody had told you when you started as an Assistant Prof?

texts: As a Tenured Full Professor and given your long experience in Academia, what valuable lessons have you learned over the years that you wish somebody had shared with you earlier when you started as an Assistant Professor? Given these experiences what would you do differently if you had the chance?


texts: Who assigns paper to reviewers for a conference and what are the challenges?

texts:
Note: I'm aware that the reviewing process in a journal has been explained elsewhere on this site.

My question is about the process for peer-reviewed conferences.

Question 1: In a peer-reviewed conference who assigns submitted papers to reviewers? and what is that party called?

Question 2: Is the party above a group of people or one person?

Question 3: What are the problems in this process? In other words, (is it fair to ask) what if a person in this process acts dishonestly?


texts: Do I have to cite the source of my notes based off of a deceased professor's notes,

texts: Let's say I'm writing a set of notes on a specialized topic, based off of notes from a deceased professor, who he himself had a disclaimer that his notes (theorems, proofs, ideas) were not properly attributed and cited, due to time constraints.  What should I do then, if I plan to distribute my notes / post it on a website?  Should I have a disclaimer of my own?


texts: Should I send a thank you note to the reply of a potential PhD adviser?

texts:
I am considering applying for PhD degree. Regarding this I contact many professors to see if they are accepting new students or if I am a good fit for their research group. The responses will be different.

For some of them, if lucky, they tell you the instruction, e.g. send your CV, contact me for the research you have done etc. However, you may receive a general email which most of the times means he/she is not interested in your CV. They write a general description of the application process or maybe a rejection to your request.

What should I reply back to these kind of responses from professors?


texts: Our research is being ignored by other research groups

texts:
I am doing a PhD in molecular biology where we conduct research on human skin and skin diseases. Our group (EU based) has been in a discussion with another research group from the USA, where we can factually show that our methods are 'better' and cleaner than theirs. Nevertheless, they keep publishing work where they don't even cite any of our papers. We noticed that our publications were rejected by journals where people from the USA group function as editor/reviewer as well. We are always open for discussion and collaboration because good science cannot be done alone.

Very curious how we should handle this problem.


texts: How reliable is GoogleScholar for judging the status of a researcher?

texts:
Since GoogleScholar is based on a search engine, it is useful to find the ranks of researchers (of course just by the h-index measure) in a topic or institution. I am conducting a scientometric research, and found three key problems.

Not all researchers (even top ones) are on GoogleScholar (as it needs email verification before building a profile).
The search engine adds works of similar authors to the same profile.
Some researchers deliberately add work of others to improve the overall look of their profile (I came across some cases, which would be impossible for a machine error).

My questions are:

Is there any estimate about the participation of academics (at least
in research universities) in GoogleScholar? Is it 10% or 90%? Just an estimate.
The problems 2 and 3 quoted above overestimate the status of some researchers, and this undermines others. Is there any trick to have a
more accurate data?


texts: Teaching statement: should I say something about Master's theses supervision?

texts:
I have a quick question. Is it usual to include a few lines on undergraduate/master theses supervision in a teaching statement? I see it as not really teaching in the traditional meaning of the word, however it is related to students. I have only supervised two Master's students, and put this in my CV; I don't know what hiring committees would like to know about this.

(By the way, this is for a tenure-track appplication in mathematics.)


texts: Page references for "far away" figures, equations, tables, etc

texts:
I am currently writing my master's thesis, which contains a lot of equations and figures referred to in the text of the report. I use Latex for my writing thus making it easy to refer to the figure/equation numbers, but it is also possible to refer to the page on which the figure/equation is to be found. For instance I might have some text on page 34 saying:

  ... which is shown in figure 2.1 on page 5.

or with shorter distance (page-wise):

  ... as seen in figure 3.2 on the following page.

My question is whether this is useful to the reader. Is there any consensus about how/when to refer to the pages? Is it better not to do it?


texts: How do "scientific couples" (from different fields) find positions?

texts:
When two people in a couple are both in science, but specialised in different fields, how can they both find relevant positions but still be geographically reasonably proximate?

Compromise and change fields? Work part-time from a distance if employers' permit it (do they usually?)? Travel both quite far each day? One person leaves science?

Are there other ways to resolve this? Any personal experiences around here?


texts: Erratum, Rejoinder etc. in Article names: What are the differences?

texts:
I am a little bit confused with the following terms and do not know how they differ:

Erratum/Corrigendum
Rejoinder
Commentary

In which cases is/should an article be named one or the other?
What other options do we have to discuss findings (other research articles) in journals?
Can Errata only be written by the original authors?


texts: Is it a bad idea to ask my erstwhile PI to say in a recommendation letter he "forgot" to acknowledge me in a prior work?

texts:
Three years ago, I was an undergrad majoring in Biochemistry in a major US university, and did significant research work in preparation for my thesis.
I am currently polishing a personal statement for PhD applications. To help illustrate a point, I started looking into the publication list of my erstwhile advisor for ideas, for the first time in a year. It turns out he published an article on Nature last year, that credited several fellow undergrads in my lab as co-authors, but not myself. I was never notified of the publication, nor mentioned in the acknowledgement section. The article relied on a database that I helped to compile, and mentioned one of the conclusions I made in my senior thesis. Clearly, it's too late to ask for any revisions to that paper.
Even if these are not sufficient grounds for including me in the author list, I wonder if I am justified in asking that professor to say in his recommendation letter he "forgot" to add me as a co-author, or include me in the acknowledgement section? I had asked him to prepare a recommendation letter months in advance, but it will be at least another week before he is expected to send any.
As for my personal relationship with the professor - his recommendation for me is probably not the most emphatic, but we have generally been on good terms up to this point. Will simply raising this question damage our relationship, or even his recommendations?


texts: Could I submit an abstract for a conference prior asking my supervisor permission about it?

texts:
I would like to submit an abstract for a poster presentation, I'm just worried that if I tell my supervisor before submitting, she might say I shouldn't do it, because she rarely wants me to be away from the office. So I was thinking on submitting the abstract and once I'm accepted telling her I've been selected for presenting at that conference. What do you think about it? Would this be a good strategy for attending a conference when having a strict and closed minded supervisor?

P.S. Our research is not about any kind of product or patent we're developing for a company, so no privacy issues apply in there.


texts: Etiquette for returning to do research as grad student in same field as undergrad lab in same institution

texts:
I'm a medical student planning on taking a year off in the middle to do research. I'm currently at the same intitution as when I was an undergrad (~4 yrs ago) and want to do research in roughly the same area. I did a decent amount of research as an undergrad, all in a single lab. The research area I'm interested in is pretty small and everyone knows each other, regularly does joint journal clubs, etc.

Question: Does it matter if I reach out to the same lab I used to work in? Would it be weird if I did? Would it be rude/inappropriate if I didn't? If I do reach out to a different lab, would it be expected that I ping my old adviser to say I'm back working in research, anyway (so I don't surprise them when I run into them randomly)? Or does none of this matter very much?

I guess I'm just ignorant about the etiquette surrounding stuff like this and was hoping for some clarification. To be clear, I had no problems with my previous lab--I had a good experience and liked my old adviser.


texts: I am interested in pursuing a Masters/PhD program in the US but I do not have a bachelor’s degree

texts: My interest is in the field of Psychology/Neuroscience. I am currently a monk/meditation teacher and I dedicated my life to helping people find inner happiness and peace 20 years ago when I was still in high school. Will this vast experience of working with people for 2 decades qualify as field experience and earn me an entry into a graduate/PhD program? I have gained spiritual insights in the nature of the mind and emotions; what I am now looking for is the scientific backing for all my experiences. I want to blend spirituality, Psychology  and neuroscience and develop effectiveness be methods for happiness and inner peace. I read some replies that it is indeed possible to directly enroll for a graduate program. Could someone please guide me how do I go about it? I live in India and I am planning to appear for GRE and TOEFL in August this year.


texts: Which type or category of posters would usually have higher rates of acceptance for presentation at conferences, case reports or original researches?

texts: In one international conference, I was told by my attending that they are typically more liberal when it comes to accepting case reports.  Then again, that statement only refers to one conference.  I don't know how it is in general.


texts: Scopus and Web of Science give different h-index: who should I trust?

texts: I am applying for a job and they ask my h-index. The problem is that Scopus and Web of Science list different citation number for my papers and this results in a different h-index. Who should I trust?


texts: What to do when finding difficulty in resuming study?

texts:
Suppose, I completed two semesters and left a university two years ago. I want to resume my study again.

I e-mailed a specific guy in the faculty/department/institute. I need a readmission paper from that guy to resume my and he never responds to my e-mail let alone other guys who are in the upper part of the pyramid. My time is running out very fast.

What is the best thing I can do in this situation to get things done amicably?


texts: Should I bring a copy of an article I wrote in a science journal to my interview?

texts:
I'm currently applying to a combined pre-med/medical program. This program guarantees a spot in the school system's medical school (assuming a certain GPA is maintained etc.). I'm between high school and undergrad, taking a few years off for intensive Judaic studies.

In 11th grade, I submitted an essay to a medical journal's contest for high school juniors and seniors. My essay (though not first place) was accepted for publication, and was published in that journal. The essay was basically a review paper of research done about a specific treatment (not CPAP) for obstructive sleep apnea.

Should I bring a copy of my essay with me to the interview at the medical school? (Does it matter that I don't believe the essay was particularly well-written?)

Is there anything to gain? (I know how to write a paper for a journal)
Is there anything to lose? (Might this appear presumptuous or arrogant? The paper doesn't actually look that good, at least to me)


texts: How often academic inventions have already been invented in private companies?

texts:
Is there any research/study/survey that looked at how often academic inventions have already been in private companies (or public but secretive organizations, e.g. the RSA cryptosystem was first discovered UK intelligence agency GCHQ)?

I am most interested in the field of computer science.


texts: What to do if one comes to a realization that research and post graduate studies is not for him/her?

texts:
Life doesn't allow for a redo. I have been a decent student in my undergrad and got placed in a reputed company right after graduation. However, research and academia always inspired me. I got into a prestigious school in India for my master's and decided to work on a particular field as part of my thesis. I did not go for hot topics because they didn't interest me.

Subsequently, I went ahead and joined for PhD in the US, on a similar field as my masters. However, after 2nd year, I realized the importance of working on hot topics and how conventional topics struggled to secure funding and permanent positions after graduation.

But, the ship has sailed and I have completed my PhD and soon to start a postdoc. But, I have come to a realization that I have made a career suicide by pursuing post-graduate studies. There's nothing permanent and decent-paying out there for me.

I shouldn't have pursued post-graduate studies. And I feel lost. I don't know what to do next.


texts:
I have applied to a university for Research Masters. Following application, I contacted the Professor I had listed on my application and told him about my research and profile. He asked me to send him my Research paper and after going through it, he contacted me again to ask about if I have a valid TOEFL and References etc. After the initial conversation of 5 emails, he hasn't contacted me again and its been 20 days.

Should I contact him or wait? I am confused about what could be the best way of contacting him again.


texts: Are page references required when citing the same quote multiple times?

texts: In an MLA format humanities essay, if you've quoted a long chunk of text at the beginning, do you need to provide page references when citing phrases from it later on?


texts: How would it look like from reviewers' point of view if one submits off-topic works for application to phd programs?

texts:
By a scientific work I mean any work of mine that either belongs to my field or belongs to some related fields of my field. A work that is not a scientific work is called off-topic.

Since I occasionally (but seriously) compose poems and popular songs, I am wondering whether it is suitable to integrate these off-topic works into the collection of my scientific works that is prepared for application to phd programs.

My principal concern is that I am unsure about how this act would look like from the reviewers' angle? Would it be deemed an affectation? Indeed, my wish is merely to present more of me.

Hope ladies and gentlemen (preferably with experience as a reviewer for phd admission) would share me your thoughts, much appreciated.

If answering this question requires more information, please feel free to state that.


texts: How can I set up a fund to support academic research at a particular lab using my own money?

texts: I want to fund basic research, particularly one research lab which does what I like. Can someone point me to resources on how to set up a fund to support the research? The fund would be in USA, and the lab is overseas.


texts: Political Topic all (most) students would agree on

texts:
For a class demonstration, I am seeking a political topic that all of my students (US undergraduate class) would pretty much hold the same opinion on. The original topic from the research I'm basing the demo on was support for the Castro regime in Cuba (study was conducted in the 1960s) - everyone was against it. I have used support for ISIS (ISIL) in the past (again, everyone against it), but I have often had to explain who ISIS was to students. I'm teaching asynchronously this semester, so won't have the opportunity to do that.
I would greatly appreciate ideas.


texts: How to find online discussion groups on research topics which are relatively less popular

texts: How could someone who has just enrolled in a phd or started a research could find online discussion groups, especially if the topic is relatively less popular.(e.g How to find research or discussion group working in privacy aware learning specially differential privacy).


texts: CS paper rejected for lack of technical contribution; what does this mean, and how can I fix it?

texts:
I recently got two papers rejected with the reviewers asserting a lack of technical contribution. They contained good ideas, at least in my eyes, and used common methodologies in the experimentation. So my question related to the CS field is, what is the difference between a good idea that was tested and a technical contribution? What should an idea have to become a technical contribution?

Another observation I had is that other papers, that got accepted, were actually worse from the research methodologies and were previously published in similar form (so the idea was not very original) at that conference, so the “contribution” of these papers is much lower than mine would have been (again it’s just from my perspective). So I don’t understand why those papers got accepted and if the reviewer’s decisions actually make sense, what is it that makes such papers accepted? I aim at enhancing my now rejected papers because I still think they contain original ideas that should be published, I just don’t know where to start.


texts: Are the Survey rankings for the National Research Council really more objective than the Regression rankings?

texts: This blog post argues so, but I have my doubts since the author works at a graduate program whose S-rankings are much better than its R-rankings. I have a feeling that R-rankings do capture some things that S-rankings don't capture. Professors who are far ahead of their time, for example, might be recognized as such, but I would expect that their papers probably won't get very high citation counts for some time.


texts: Are there official criteria what undergraduate programs in different majors must cover at US schools?

texts:
I recently found that the largest share of students in program X at my school do not need to take classes on topic ABC, even though topic ABC is considered as critical and fundamental by virtually everybody in the field. (Think of physics but no mechanics class)
In fact, I can't believe anybody would give them accreditation without making ABC a required topic.
Which makes me wonder: Are there any official criteria in the US about what a majors in X, Y, or Z must cover in the United States? Can a school just decide arbitrarily what needs to be covered in their majors? Can those criteria be seen in public?