texts: What to do if professor comments on candidate's age in an admissions interview?

texts:
I'm 34. I received a degree in computer in 2008 and have been running a business ever since. Recently, I decided to apply for a postgraduate program in healthcare in January.
To show that I was interested in health care, I completed a one year certificate course in a related field last year. A few days after I had submitted my application form and two strong recommendations, they arranged an interview for me.

The interviewers were friendly at first, and the questions were not very tough.
I was feeling confident until the senior interviewer (Prof. Joe) suddenly asked me if I wanted to become a nurse. I said yes. He smiled but then told me that all successful applicants last year were twenty something (at least 12 years younger than me.) I was taken aback by his comment. Was that a negative connotation?

Edited to add:

I had read the professional recognition information on their web. The programme is accreditated by the nursing council and graduates are eligible to apply for registration as nurse, so I could not understand why he asked if I wanted to become a nurse.
The certificate course tutor had told us about the average age of nurse population.


texts: My research is on specific publications and their publishers. Should I include all articles mentioned in the bibliography?

texts:
My dissertation is on magazine publishers. My primary source material includes magazines.
My query is, should I include all the articles mentioned in the bibliography? Or only those that I consider the main articles? Or only the magazine itself with the range of years that are included in the research?
The individual articles have all been referenced  in in the notes.
In the style guide it says: if an article is cited in the notes, then it can be omitted in the bibliography. One can include an article in the bibliography only if it’s central to an argument being made.
This does not really address my query, as central to the argument is the publication itself rather than individual articles. (As the response from my supervisors is not definitive  I'm asking for other valued opinion, thanks.)


texts: How to receive email notifications of newly accepted papers in a specified set of journals?

texts: Is there some way of arranging that I receive emails whenever selected academic economics journals of interest to me, perhaps published by different publishers, post online a newly accepted paper?


texts: Is it possible to find a PhD position in social sciences without having letters of recommendation?

texts:
I am a European scholar. I would like to do a PhD dissertation in USA on an original and unpopular subject from a social science standpoint. I would like to empirically investigate the subject, which means I need a not-very-rich grant for this research.

I would like to know if I can get a PhD position in social sciences with a   scholarship/grants in USA based on my research proposal and with no references.

Also, could you point me to resources to find potential american advisers and possible equip of research just digiting keywords of the topic I am interested in, please?


texts: Can I teach English at a community college with only a Bachelor's degree?

texts:
Can I teach at a community college with only a Bachelor's degree?

I am interested in the liberal arts. Specifically: English.

I read someone else's post with a similar question, and the responses really shot it down. That is, of course, teaching with only a Bachelor's. But I found on another site: Higher Ed Jobs, many community colleges require only a Bachelor's. Do they want the candidate to be a PHd student or something?


texts: What should go in a diversity statement if I believe I have had no relevant experiences?

texts:
So I am completing the application for UCSB, and they ask me to write a Personal Achievements/Contributions Statement, however, I feel I have nothing to say, since I have never experienced anything like examples they give. So what should be talked about in this kind of essay except examples they give?
Here is what on their application:

Personal Achievements/Contributions Statement
UC Santa Barbara is interested in a diverse and inclusive graduate student population. Please describe any aspects of your personal background, accomplishments, or achievements that you feel are important in evaluating your application for graduate study.
For example, please describe if you have experienced economic challenges in achieving higher education, such as being financially responsible for family members or dependents, having to work significant hours during undergraduate schooling or coming from a family background of limited income.
Please describe if you have any unusual or varied life experiences that might contribute to the diversity of the graduate group, such as fluency in other languages, experience living in bicultural communities, academic research interests focusing on cultural, societal, or educational problems as they affect underserved segments of society, or evidence of an intention to use the graduate degree toward serving disadvantaged individuals or populations.


texts: How often are lectureship positions just for one year?

texts:
I am an adjunct instructor in English. I do not have a PhD and don't actually want one. What I really want is a full-time lectureship that would offer job stability. However, I was recently told that they are often offered for one year and then not offered the next year. I want to know if that is how things typically go, or if some full-time lectureships are renewed after the first year. A local public university offers full-time positions that come with tenure-like benefits after five years at the institution. What are the odds they will keep me around for four years and then not renew me so that they don't have to offer the job protection?

(Edit: This is the US, NYC to be exact.)


texts: Applying to Social Psych Programs: How important are grades in statistics?

texts:
I'm preparing to apply to Social Psych programs this fall and I'm wondering how much a mediocre grade in an Advanced Stats course (B-) would weight down my application. Barring this course, my transcript is fine, with a general GPA of 82% (don't know how to convert Canadian GPA to American GPA, but it's good).

I still have a chance of taking a stats course this summer at my University as a returning student. But which is a better idea? A) Taking the stats course and doing really well or B) not take the course and use that time to focus on getting very good quant score on the GRE instead?


texts: Do textbook publishers really offer ethically questionable inducements to professors to adopt or retain their book?

texts:
I teach at a community college, and my experience with textbook reps is that they're very friendly and persistent, but ultimately all they've really done is to give me a copy of their book and try to convince me to adopt it. There are certainly many unethical things about textbook publishing, but as far as I could see, they were decisions made by executives in New York (e.g., bringing out new editions to kill off the used market, or shrinkwrapping the book with useless trinkets so that it couldn't be returned). In online discussions, I've often heard people who seem to be students make claims that professors were "bribed" to use a particular publisher's book. I never believed these claims, and when I asked these people to supply evidence, they never had any.

But recently I was talking to a colleague in another department, and he told me that his department would never change their book for a particular course, because his colleagues got ethically questionable inducements from the publisher. When I asked him what they were, he said that the publisher would, e.g., repeatedly invite faculty who were using the book to "meet-the-author" events in Florida. He said that these faculty had grown to expect this as a perk that they were regularly offered as an unspoken quid pro quo for continuing to use the book. I didn't ask him for hard evidence of his claim, and I don't know what form of evidence he would have available.

Is there really any hard evidence that publishers do this sort of thing, or is this an urban folktale?


texts: Do universities in the USA help postdoc researchers with the visa process?

texts:
I am currently at the end of my PhD and will be defending my thesis in the next two weeks. I have been offered a postdoc position at a university in the USA that is set to begin in October 2018.

I have asked the HR department of my new employer in the USA for information about the visa application process but I have gotten very little response/information. Is it typically up to the postdoc to sort out their own visa or do universities in the USA usually guide you through the process?

Note: I am moving from Ireland to the USA, if this makes any difference.


texts: Is there a difference between "interdisciplinary" and "multidisciplinary" research?

texts:
Going off of definitions on Google, it seems that interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary mean the same thing: relating to more than one academic discipline/branch of knowledge.

Is there a subtle difference between the two, in the context of academic research?


texts: Continuing an international career in literary and academic writing/publishing after MA in German?

texts: I am really stressed out by Brexit having happened + corona + uni fees. I already stopped studying for a year and want to continue now. But I am very scared of not having access to international writing/academia careers if I study in German (I am from Germany and all the literary writing or other creative programs are in German). I did my BA in Literary and Cultural Analysis and would not like to drop out of the international critical writing scene. I was wondering if anybody had any knowledge on if there were chances of for example doing a PhD in critical writing (as an example) in an English speaking country, after having graduated with a German MA? Or even working for an English magazine or so. I would really appreciate any sharing of experience, knowledge and believe. Thank you!


texts: What is the difference (if any) between a postdoctoral fellow and a postdoctoral intern?

texts: Are "fellowship" and "internship" synonyms? Is there a different meaning in this language, between North America and English-speaking Europe?


texts:
My question is related to, but not a duplicate of How many recommendation letters are enough?

In that question the job requires 4 letters and the applicant has 5 good letters. I am applying for a TT faculty job that requires 3 letters of reference and allows up to 5 letters of reference. I have 5 people who have and would be willing to write letters for me. While I have never seen the letters written by my references, I believe that 3 of them write much better letters than the other two. My question is how many letters do I submit?

Potentially useful is that my three "primary" references know my research and teaching inside and out. They are also excellent writers with effusive personalities and well respected within the field (and department) that I am applying to.

My secondary references also know my research, but not my teaching. Their writing and personalities are less effusive. I have never collaborated with them or worked directly with or under them. I feel like they have less "invested" in me and that this probably reduces the quality of the letter. They are also in a "competing" field and would potentially sell me as the "wrong" thing. I wouldn't expect their letters to be bad or saying anything negative. I am just worried that they will not be positive enough.


texts: What should I do if wrong version of manuscript was uploaded and submitted to journal?

texts: I think I may have uploaded a version of the manuscript which was loaded with markups and typos. I can’t see what was submitted now. I sent an email to the editorial staff telling them I was concerned that I uploaded the wrong version. What is the likelihood they will let me send the correct version if it explicitly says on website “no changes after submission”? (The reason I think it was wrong version, the name they gave my manuscript file on submission included a  date that matched earlier version manuscript, (If that makes sense)coincidence?)


texts: Should I send a follow up email to a prospective PhD advisor?

texts:
I was in contact with the professor in late September and had talked to home about applying to the school. I have since submitted an application.
Should I send an email to touch base with him and let him know I look forward to hearing from him?


texts:
I have been accepted for postdoc position. According the detail of postdoc

  the successful candidate will begin in January 2019

What does it mean? Can I start my work at any time of January? Am I right?


texts: Is it good to write a Critical report on my own published research work?

texts:
After 1.5 years of PhD I found some flaws in my PhD published work. The flaws are minor in nature, and an improved work can not be consider novel enough to be publish again.
How can I report those minor flaws and make them available to public?
Few of them came in my notice via email conversation from other researchers. If I can publish a report by some way, then how to give reference the private email conversation?


texts: What's the formal name of 'search committee' in a cover letter for postdoc application?

texts:
When writing a cover letter for my postdoc application, I have a question about how to write the recipent's name at the beginning of the letter. It's not a specfic person, but a committee. But I don't know the formal name of the committe (it is not provided in the info page). Can I just call it "Postdoctoral Search Committee"?
Thanks in advance!


texts: Is it common for a lab to pay for international moving expenses?

texts:
I am a senior postdoc. My lab is moving from UK to Austria, the IST specifically.  We have been told reimbursement for moving is not possible.  There are tax benefits that we need to apply for, which would of course not cover the moving expenses directly, but over time.
And even so, we would have to apply for them, and may not qualify.  Shouldn't personal relocation expenses (at least partially) be paid for by the lab or receiving institution, at the very least as a sign of good faith?


texts: What are assistant professors called in North America?

texts:
We've had discussions on this site about the German tradition of Prof. Dr., but I'm unclear on how it maps over to the North American academy.

My question, therefore, is whether a North American assistant professor (PhD holding, tenure-stream) would be considered a professor, a doctor, a professor doctor, or some other form when registering for an event there.


texts: Who should I ask to write a letter or recommendation

texts:
I am applying for tenure track faculty jobs and postdocs.  I am setting up my letters of recommendation and I am struggling on who I should ask. I have one strong letter from my advisor, one decent letter from a professor but I am stuck on who I should ask for the third letter.  I think I have three options

Person A is someone I worked with recently and the work I did for them funded my PhD.  They are not a professor and do not have a PhD. This job involved a lot of practical work and could have led to some publications in journals (think higher ed research, while my phd is in statistics).  But it ultimately did not - we did have some conference presentations.

Person B is my Master's advisor from four years ago. They are a tenured professor- and could speak well of my work from four years ago.

Person C is another professor from my department but I don't think their letter will say a whole lot.

From the link below it seems like person B would be a better choice as they are tenured and familiar with research I have done. I have asked person A for a letter, and they unexpectedly sent it to me. While it was very complimentary - it seemed better suited for an industry job rather than an academic job.

Who should write a recommendation letter?


texts: Should one thank colleagues for interesting discussions that have not actually achieved anything?

texts:
I am currently finishing a paper, and I am writing the acknowledgements section.

There is a colleague with whom I have discussed several times about the question answered in the paper, who certainly spent some spare time thinking about it, and suggested some interesting ideas. However, none of these ideas actually turned out to be fruitful. While I appreciated their interest in this question, and things definitely might have turned out differently, the paper as it is has not actually benefited in any tangible way from my discussions with this person.

Do you think it is appropriate to thank them anyway? (And, if yes, with what formulation? just the standard "I would like to thank Prof. Smith for some interesting discussions", or something else?)

If it matters, the field is pure mathematics.


texts: Should I include a "prestigious" invited-only conference/workshop on my CV?

texts:
I recently attended a workshop at a renowned research institute, to which you can participate only if you're invited by the organizers, who were rather well-known researchers.

I'm wondering if there's a point in including this information on my CV? On the one hand, it shows that some recognized people think well enough of me and my work to invite me to this type of event; on the other hand I'm afraid of appearing over-proud of a minor deal.

(For context, I'm a PhD student.)


texts: My wife's contributions are not acknowledged in our group's paper that has me as coauthor. Should I speak up for her?

texts:
The background is that my wife and I are in the same lab.
Recently our group did a paper together, and I am an author. However, my wife had contributed to draw a figure to a publication level. Although I am not sure if this contribution is enough to be included as an author, she is not even acknowledged, which I think is not fair.
My wife is not brave enough to speak up and also I have a better relationship with the group leader. Should I speak up for her, by saying something like "she contributed to draw a figure, and should at least be acknowledged"? What will be the best approach and wording? In person or message/email?
I am asking this question as I am not sure if this type of thing is appropriate. For example, I may not really know someone else that draw some figures but not being acknowledged. I happen to know just because she is my wife.

Update: I just talked. It turns out my group leader just forgot to acknowledge her.


texts: Postdoc position "on hold" due to covid-19

texts:
I am currently in a job in the US (on STEM OPT). I had a postdoc offer from a large US university that was supposed to start April 16. I signed an offer letter for a two year contract. We were in the process of deciding which visa to apply for (H1/J1).

Today I got an email from the PI (HR copied) saying she would like to put the position on hold until things settle down. I asked for a clarification on what "on hold" meant and whether the offer letter was still valid. The HR replied this (PI copied):

  As for the offer letter you signed (due to redacted’s current
  situation) please consider it void until future notice.

  Professor [redacted] will contact you if you are still being considered
  for the position.

This is the last communication I had with the HR or the PI.

What does this mean? Since I have the signed offer, when things do settle down, is the university legally obligated to offer the position back to me before anyone else? Or the university is formally rescinding the offer and I should just move on? Can they do that?

EDIT: Some answers have asked about my eligibility to work in the US. For clarification: I’m in the US now, in my current status, I can work in the US till the end of May. If the university applied for an H1B (which is typically approved for non profit), I could stay in the US as long as I didn’t leave the country (in which case I would have to get a visa stamped). Things could have gotten more complicated with J1, so we did not discuss much about that.


texts: Do universities typically provide every PhD student with a computer?

texts:
I worked in some universities in Europe and currently work in Australia. All the universities I have been into supply their PhD students with a PC or a laptop. However, I recently started working with a collaborator in Canada and came to know that his university asks the PhD students to bring their own computers/laptops.

Are there many universities that do not allocate computers to PhD students? If so, why? and how does it work?


texts: How to deal with advisors who seem to not like me?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate researcher that's been doing research with another undergrad over a summer. Our project was supervised by a grad student. For some reason, sometime throughout the summer, that grad student began making derisive comments and began to devalue my work.

After I'm away, since I've barely interacted with the PI, that grad student will tell the PI about my work when the PI has to write my letter of recommendation. I figured that since I have done valuable work, it would be a good idea to tell the PI myself about the specifics of the work I've done before I go, so that he's aware. So I asked the PI if he would mind meeting at some point before I leave, and he agreed, but seemed annoyed at the request, citing that he was just going to hear what the grad student had to say.

Have I just ended up in a bad group? Is there any way to approach this situation so that the PI is aware of my work and gives me an appropriate letter? I'm afraid the grad student will say something ridiculous like that the other undergraduate did most of the work.


texts: Getting an academic position right after an industrial based PhD program

texts:
I am about to end PhD within next 5-6 months. The PhD program I am enrolled in is different compare to normal universities PhD programs. During first 2 years I took course work from a regular university as an exchange student and afterword I start working in a research institutes whose prime target is to develop projects for the local and international industries.  Luckily or unluckily I am in the section where we deal with various small scale projects; during my 2.5 years of stay I worked on 6 different projects. These projects address totally different issues and topics are independent to each other. Therefore I didn’t get chance to focus on a single topic which can be my PhD thesis.
As a first author I have published 5 SCI articles including two in top notch journals but all of the articles are not related to each other. In the given situation I am unable to write a good dissertation. I have just 4 months left to fine tune my thesis. After PhD I want to get an academics position but I am bit worrying about my profile.

Is it something positive to have the articles published in different
areas which have no link to each other?
How much PhD thesis is important for evaluation process?
As I was working closely with the researchers who mostly focus on standardization and patent activities, none of them has a single SCI publication after graduation even my supervisor had 2 publications around 15 years ago. I am worrying whether the recommendation letter of my supervisor and team leader will be acceptable and effective for the academic position?


texts: Is it possible to change research focus entirely for a Post doc (for example, going from studying Biochemistry to neuroscience)?

texts: I happen to be in a lab that quantifies the kinetics of movement of molecular motors like kinesins and dyneins. However, through my literature search, I have seen some pretty fascinating research on these same proteins in the neuroscience field, though culturing neurons is something I've not done (although I've cultured mammalian cells). My question is, would it even be possible to switch to this field for my post-doc?


texts: What's the best way to get academic references for a masters program 2-3 years in the future?

texts:
I graduated with a BSc approximately one year ago and have been considering my career options since. I have finally decided that I would like to enroll in a masters program, however I likely won't be able to apply for another year or two down the road.

Regretfully, I was a quiet student during my undergrad, not knowing for sure whether I had it in me to pursue a masters degree in the future. As a result, I did not make as many connections or relationships with professors as I now wish I had when I had the chance.

The program I am interested in requires two academic references. My fear is that my lack of overall impression, despite obtaining decent grades, will have resulted in my professors being unable to relate my name to my face and will therefore be unable to provide me with a suitable reference when required for submission a year or two from now.

Can anybody provide me with any suggestions? Should I reach out to potential professors now to see if 1.) they even remember me, or 2.) if they are comfortable with providing references in a year or two's time? I'm concerned if I ask in a year or two when the references are required, they will undoubtedly have forgotten me.

An important note may be that I am moving out of the town where I attended university in a couple months, which will likely make it harder to redevelop any relationships in person if required.


texts: Advising a student with academically self-destructive behavior

texts:
I work for a small community college which is a subsidiary of a larger institution where I do primarily teaching and admin support but also do some academic mentoring.
I have one student who has for the past 3 semesters enrolled in a full course load and dropped all his courses after the drop and refund deadline. I have tried telling him to take on a smaller course load which he can manage with no avail.
I am debating dropping him as my mentee as I don't want to facilitate what I see as self destructive behavior any longer. I know I'm not quite fleshing out the entirety of the situation, however given the nature of a public forum I'd prefer to keep it discreet.
How would one deal with this situation?


texts: Is there a citation style with just the first author's last name, and year

texts:
Is there citation style that only cites it as (FirstAuthorLastName,year)
that can be downloaded as a .csl file and incorporated into mendeley/readcube.

However a simple nature style [1] is too short.
And I would like to see the author's name in the text.
Is there citation style that only cites it as (FirstAuthorLastName,year)

Meaning no other coauthors name, (since that not how I remeber the article anyway) and no et al.
(because i already know it's "et al", it's just redudant text).

is there a citation style that is like this?.

Or is there a website when one can see different citation syles?

Thanks


texts: Is it okay to submit a paper from a master's thesis without informing the advisor?

texts:
I would like to submit a part of my master's thesis which is more or less close to an end. I wrote the entire thesis without having much feedback from my advisor as he's in a different city and we had literally no chance to meet except a few times. The feedback he had provided was too little and I want to submit a part of the thesis to a conference on my own. I will give his name of course while submitting but do I have to also inform him?
If I have to, then he might not approve this as he contributed very little and still he doesn't like my research much.
What should I do according to your experiences?

Should I inform him and bare his negative comments about not submitting at all?
Or should I submit as single-author paper as I, from the beginning to the end, was only not the writer (of course it's my thesis) but also the solely contributor to this thesis? (He even said it to me as " you did very much well in fact, on your own", in one of our meeting.)

edit: by giving his name, I mean not as a formal authorship, rather than as a footnote, sth like that.


texts: What do instructors need to know to accommodate Muslim students?

texts:
Increasingly, my school has been recruiting students from Central Asia, so I see 1-3 Muslim students in each section.

Near the end of the last term, one student asked for leave for some religious activity. He was surprised when I said he could go, then he told me he had missed many Friday afternoon religious activities, but his advisor (or perhaps some other school administrators) said he couldn't leave. I heard a similar story from another student.

I realized that many of the other Muslim students may have similar problems, but they are too nervous to speak out and let me know. Since they remain quiet, I'm not sure how to accommodate them.

What are some typical things a teacher can do to accommodate Muslim students?


texts: Why/how APA was chosen as a standard for many fields?

texts:
My background is in mathematics where we write papers to the style guide of the particular journal, often similar to that of the largest organizations like the AMS or the MAA.  I was a little surprised to learn that (at least in the United States – I immigrated here for university and now work here) apparently many fields use the style of the APA, even if they have nothing to do with psychology.  I was told by a colleague that they even have to follow the changes to that style, even though no one in their department actually belongs to the APA.

I am curious if anyone knows how or why that is the case?  I imagine there is an interesting historical reason for this.


texts: Two years into my PhD program, and Mom is dying of cancer. Should I tell my advisor about it?

texts:
I just finished my 2nd year of PhD, and my mom has been dying of cancer since the end of my 1st year. She nearly died in January but thankfully pulled through. She was just diagnosed again a few weeks ago and her prognosis is not good (resistant to chemo and can't get another surgery).

My cognitive abilities and general state of mind have suffered as a result of this situation. My research is very mathematical and being unable to stay focused for longer than 20 minutes really prevents me from making any progress. My emotional/mental state has also been seriously affected. I managed to pass my qual and aced my classes the past 6 months, but lately things are getting a lot worse.

I am hesitating if I should tell my advisor about my mom, but I feel that I'll just sound like I'm making excuses.

Quitting is NOT an option because I have never thought about it and I always wanted to do research since I was in high school.


texts: All positions require multiple code development and machine learning proficiency. How do I address the knowledge gap? I am worried about my future

texts:
My mechanical engineering PhD is very applied. I used Abaqus software to model additive manufacturing process. I wrote two trivial user subroutines (VUHARD) to implement material models in Fortran and published 4 publications in Surface engineering journals. An example paper is this paper. I am defending next month and I am worried.
However, now I am searching for postdoc positions and the posts require proficient knowledge in C++, Fortran, Python, code development in Finite element analysis, development of machine learning algorithms, molecular dynamics simulations, phase field simulations among others.
I am seriously under qualified. I have not done extensive code development, neither I have knowledge of machine learning algorithms.
I feel I wasted my PhD. I should have done it on a different topic. Computational materials science is too hard for me and I should have gone with experimental projects.
Is it the end of the road for me? Can I address the knowledge gap after PhD? Due to lockdowns and covid restrictions, I am planning to join my PhD supervisor at the moment as an interim postdoc. The contract would end next September. I am seriously worried about my future. Please advise.


texts: Showing interest / Applying for Phd position that has just opened, before finishing Master studies

texts:
Currently I am working towards Master in Computer Science degree, hoping to be done by the end of the year.
Last month a new professor moved to our University and now there are open Phd positions in his research group. I decided to work on a Master thesis provided by this group, however before starting to work on the master thesis I want to finish my exams. Additionally, I am interested for the Phd positions as I like the area of research, but I believe that it is highly unlikely that the Phd positions will remain open until I am done with the thesis. Having in mind that I have the exams to finish first, it will be ca. 6-7 months from now until I am completely done. And I believe the positions will be filled by then.

I don't know how to proceed now. I think the best asset I have in hand at the moment is the fact that I am going to work my master thesis in the group of this new professor. But other than that, there are some downsides because he does not know me as a student as he just moved to our university. Also, I don't have any publications to impress him, and my grades got slightly worse lately.

What is the best thing to do now? There are multiple options:

1) Leave the exams aside; Start working on the thesis, after starting to work on the thesis express interest in the Phd position. Ensure that the work of the thesis is high quality so the Professor is impressed.

2) Express interest in the Phd position from now. Finish the exams, and then start working on the thesis. During the process improve the grades to impress the Professor.

The dilemma here is, if I wait long to finish everything, by then the places might be gone. On the other side, if I act as soon as possible, I think as if I don't have much in hand to impress the professor.

Please consider this question having in my the context of my exact situation and then from a general view point evaluate on what could happen in the typical case.

I am sure, here we have more experienced Professors and Graduate student that could provide insightful information and suggestions.

EDIT 1: Additionally, what is the typical time frame needed for a Phd position to be filled, I believe 6 months is more than enough, or?

EDIT 2: What if there is an application deadline? And the deadline is at least 6 months away before you get the Master degree? Is it worth applying? I believe no Professor would wait for a student to get his degree for 6 months and then give him a position? My basic instinct says "go for it" there is nothing you would loose at least you are not going to regret that you didn't do it, however when thinking rationally all the odds seem against

Thanks!


texts:
Officially, I am studying computer science. However, what I am actually doing is computational neuroscience. More over, the research I do is mostly medical research.

I have noticed that there are programs for MD-PhDs. However, in most countries, there seems to be always some legal requirements one has to fulfill to enter such programs. These requirements are not given very clearly out in most cases.

With an M.Sc in computer science, can I apply to such programs? More trickier question is would it be wise..? I mean, I could just go to a neuroscience program. However, I would be also really interested to help people with psychological, neurological, etc. issues (work in hospital), when having the MD title is a must?


texts: Is pursuing a second PhD in the same or related field a viable means of returning to academia after a decade in industry?

texts: I have a PhD from a reasonably good program in pure math, but I had no support from my department or adviser and so went into industry afterward. I'm unhappy with the situation, and I'd love to return to academia. The situation is a bit tricky, though, and I was wondering if a second doctorate (whether again in math or in another related area like mathematical physics) would help at all. Further complicating the issue is the fact that I've been in industry for the last decade, so my CV has hardly gotten any better than it was when I applied, or even left, grad school the first time. (The situation may be different in other areas, but there's very little you can do in industry that looks appealing to an admissions committee in pure math.) So, would applying to PhD #2 be a waste of time, or is this a weird but possible means of clawing my way back into academia?


texts: How can I make sure I'll get credit for my work when working with unwanted and untrusted collaborator?

texts:
I am taking a course with a major final project. I was looking for a topic when my co-advisor noticed this. He suggested that I do a project related to my master thesis, and I agreed since I didn't know what I was going to do. He suggested that we do a certain design in half between me and a colleague of mine during a brief meeting with the course instructor. The course instructor asked if we are going to team up and I said no (I am not a team player). I submitted a proposal saying what I will do and as stretch goal, I will complete the whole design on my own.

I ended doing a very smart design in one week and my co-advisor was very impressed. He said that one part of my design could be patented. The whole design can make it to top conferences. Now he is saying you both, me and my colleague, should work together to finish the whole design. I still have 3 weeks to go and I have almost finished his part too. I feel very mad now and I don't want to give him any credit that he didn't deserve(His is part is much simpler than mine).

He is asking me to show him my design and I am not comfortable with that since he, in two occasions, performed "unethical actions" during these projects. He could easily claim that this is his work as well.

On the other hand, I don't want to start a fight with my co-advisor who suggested a paper that helped me in my design. He also knows my design and likes my colleague much more than me. He could easily tell him do this and that.(I feel like I made a mistake showing him, my co-advisor, my design).

What would be a smart move in this situation ? What words should I use to explain this to my advisor ? I just want to protect myself and get the credit for the work I did.


texts: How to give credit for conference presentations on CV?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate writing my CV.

I've given two presentations at undergraduate conferences on my (unpublished) research projects. I independently prepared my presentations but my lab mates/supervisor helped with the research. I want to list these presentations on my CV.

So my question is:

How do I properly credit the contributions of others for these conference presentations?

Should I just state the title of the talk and the conference name? Should I include the names of all the people that helped with the research? Since we didn't publish any papers, how do I determine what order the names should go in? Would it okay to list them alphabetically?

Note: these aren't peer-reviewed conference papers or anything. Any undergraduate student can submit an abstract and give a talk.


texts:
My first semester of college was extremely rough GPA wise. I am an otherwise almost straight 4.0 student (up to -0.02), but my first semester of college I got a 3.46 because of both adjusting to a new  environment and an extraordinary amount of personal/familial issues that came up simultaneously (it really was an inordinate amount - I even got 4.0 during Covid-19).

Would it be wise to notate this separately on my CV/grad school application? If so, how would I do so? I don't see how to do it without making it look like an excuse and it would be taking up valuable space (although more of a problem on the CV than on the application).

To clarify, I understand that for most applicants, this would be ok. However, I am trying to get into extremely competitive programs (ex. CS@Stanford/Google), hence the concern.


texts: GRE Scores for Graduate programs in Chemistry

texts:
I am planning to apply to PhD programs in Chemistry this year so I took the GRE last week and my scores were the following:

Verbal - 161 - 88%

Quantitative - 154 - 55%

(I still don't have the scores for the Analytical Writing section)

As a foreign student, I am not familiarized with the American admission system for graduates and I'm not sure if this score is sufficient (alongside with my CV, which is not that extraordinary) to guarantee acceptance in north american graduate programs.
In your experience, should I retake the GRE and try to obtain a better score or this should be sufficient? Please note that I am not aiming super top institutions like Harvard, MIT, etc, a decent normal PhD program will be a huge improvement for my career already, since I come from a country with substandard research in chemistry.
I looked up in some institutions and it seems that the quantitative score is acceptable (verbal seems to be ok for chemistry programs), however, some institutions put the lower limit to 155 on the GRE, which is higher than my score.

Thanks in advance

PS.: I would like to retake the GRE, but I'll only do so if I judge it is extremely necessary, since it costs $215 and where I live it is a great amount of money


texts: Is work experience necessary for tenure-track positions?

texts:
In India, a minimum of 3 years of work experience is necessary to be appointed as an assistant professor in any of the IITs. (Years during the PhD or master's are not counted, but any year spent outside university after bachelor's will count.)

Is such a work experience a necessity even in US universities? If yes, how much will this weigh towards selection? If the candidate has only a post-bachelor's experience, what should be highlighted from that so as to enhance this application?


texts:
I'm an undergrad trying to publish findings on the accuracy of consumer-grade motion sensors for IEEE. I've searched for existing literature on this topic, and I've found some interesting articles. However, I'm not sure how accurate these papers are.

Once IEEE publishes a paper in a journal or conference, has IEEE deemed the paper's findings as accurate?

That is, has a paper passed science's often-vaunted "peer-review" once that paper has been published?

I realize this question applies for my research and any other research published by a respected organization like IEEE or Nature.


texts: Rejecting graduate school offer while recommending classmate - can this be appropriate?

texts:
I am an undergraduate at a U.S. university with a top-10 graduate program in mathematics. I applied to mathematics PhD programs this year, and was lucky enough to get quite a few offers at good places.
Because of the COVID-related cuts, many of my classmates were not so lucky. One of my classmates in particular has very similar interests and background to me, but hasn't heard back from any programs, which (to my understanding) means he is on the waitlist. In fact, we had a letter of recommendation in common, which was based on a document we wrote jointly (the professor who wrote it could not have made any real comparison between our contributions to the document, but he is very famous and the letter is likely very strong).
I know him very well, and I know that his background and competence in our field is equivalent to mine (and actually a lot better in some areas). I will have to reject many offers at places that he hasn't heard back from. When I do so, is it at all appropriate for me to politely indicate my opinion that my classmate would actually be a better fit than me for the program? Would this have any (however small) chance of changing the outcome in his favor? Or is it the case that admissions committees would find this annoying and actually be swayed in the opposite direction?
Maybe this sounds like a strange question, but the reason I ask is that both of us have been studying mathematics very seriously for our entire undergraduate education. We would both be really sad if one of us could not continue in math, so I want to do everything I can to help.


texts: What should I do if a group project member is not contributing anything but is also depressed?

texts:
I know these questions have been asked before but I would like some advice and perspectives on what I should do when mental health comes into the equation.

The context is: an undergraduate class with a significant project component (40%). The project consists of a research proposal and a presentation and was assigned on May 6th and due on June 4th.

We have a project that is due in five days (as of writing) that we have largely completed the project. One of our group members has not contributed anything, but is apparently dealing with personal issues and is depressed and very stressed due to the coronavirus. We have largely not been able to contact him and at the same time I have also not seen him appear in any class on Zoom nor has anyone else spoken to him. He's off the radar.

Of the times he came online, he apologized profusely and asked what he can do for the project. I answered and he agreed and I gave a deadline. Then he disappears for two weeks or so.

I am wondering if I should alert the professor or just let it go since he's going through a hard time (in his words, I do not know the actual situation). I know him well and he isn't a malicious person so I trust him but at the same time there is an information asymmetry here so I can't really assume either possibility. I'm also worried about his performance in another class (where an individual project and a final exam is coming up in a week). What should I do (or what would you advice?)


texts:
I am writing my statement of purpose for a PhD in mathematics for various universities. I know that it is a good thing to motivate why you want to go to that university in particular, but I was wondering at what point one should do this.

What I have for the moment is a paragraph in the end where I explain my reasons for applying, and talk about why I think that university in particular should be fitting for me. Is that enough? Or should there be mentions of the university in the whole statement?


texts:
I was wondering how people deal with data represented with plots (of any kind) in a published paper, in particular for what regards Physics. When doing theoretical research (but not only), often you have to compare your model and its predictions with other models and/or experimental data. In fact, I usually find many papers in which the authors "update" some existing results with their own findings, changing very complicated plots and superimposing new graphics (i.e. the constraints they have found on a given quantity etc.).

How do people usually do that?

I mean, I do not really think that people (especially theorists) get all the possible databases and re-analyze everything, it would be simply impossible when one has to deal with dozens of experiments and the very messy data analysis behind each of those.
I was thinking that maybe researchers just digitize published graphs to have several lists of coordinates which can be used at will to create new plots.

What do you think about this and what is your experience?

Thank you very much!


texts:
After 2 postdoc positions, I applied for tenure-track assistant professor positions. I am from mechanical engineering and my research is strongly experimental. This is critically important for me to have a considerable start-up package to run my lab to get funds and students.

In two interviews for positions in the USA and Japan, I was told that the start-up package is about $800K, with a possibility to be negotiated to reach 1 million too (not Japan).

However, in an interview for a position in the UK, I was told that stat-up package in not part of the position (though it is a normal faculty position, not teaching only). They can offer up to 200K pounds, subject to approval.

I am very interested in Europe, but it made me wonder if this is the common situation in Europe or this position was exceptional?

Do European university normally offer start-up package for building a lab (in experimental fields) for a new assistant professor? I mean, as it is common in the United States. Or European universities have a different scheme for funding new faculty members.

I am referring to the Western Europe: Mainly UK, and also Germany and Scandinavia.


texts: How to invite yourself to present at another university?

texts: I am a PhD student right now, and I'm looking towards doing a post-doc in the future.  There is a research laboratory where I want to do my post doc, primarily because there are scientists engaged in very similar topics to my dissertation work.  I've never met any of them personally, and I know that the standard approach is to network with them at conferences first.  Someone had suggested to me that it is possible to target an individual in that institution, and somehow invite yourself to their lab to meet them, potentially giving an unofficial (non-departmental) talk in their lab.  I know that this is not a standard approach, and I think that if I'm not careful I might give a bad impression in the process.  How can I invite myself to the lab if I don't have a personal connection to a researcher in that institution?


texts: How can I get involved in grant proposal reviews as a graduate student?

texts: I need to get some more experience with writing grant proposals, and I know that professors are often invited to review them.  How can I get involved in it while still being just a graduate student?


texts: Should I choose the schools that I apply to, or should I ask my advisors to do that for me?

texts: I am applying to some PhD programs this year. If I just ask my advisors to choose the school for me, they might think I am lazy and have done no research. However if I do that on my own, I am afraid that maybe the advisors think I am arrogant for aiming for schools out of my reach. The problem is I don't know how strong my profile is and I think that my advisors should be better informed than I am. What should I do?


texts: Submitting to a conference without my advisor's input or approval?

texts: I am a PhD in CS student in USA. I will be submitting 2 manuscripts in September to a computer science conference (ACM CHI). I have been working on one of the papers with my advisor and the other paper completely independently. The other paper is a passion project of mine which is close to my advisor's research interests but I do not want anyone else to get involved in it because it is a deeply personal subject. I wanted to ask if it is ok for me to submit a manuscript for this paper without consulting or notifying my advisor since I am not asking for his input nor am I using the resources at my school to submit this (I have been working on this paper on my own time i.e. summer vacation + other holidays, weekends etc.). I know there is a very slim chance that this submission will be successful but in the off chance that it is, will there be any awkwardness that I have to face with my advisor? I should reiterate that him and his works are in no way related to what I am submitting. We share the same research interests but my work is independent.


texts: Switching from theoretical to experimental after masters in electronics

texts: I am a final semester masters student in the US and the topic I am currently working on as a part of my masters thesis is purely computational. I will be applying for Fall 2021 PhD programs and I came to realize that there are only a few research groups working in computational electronics. Is it common to switch from theoretical to experimental after Masters?


texts: Do I need an explicit permission to publish someone else’s table in another paper after citing it?

texts:
Can one cite a comparison table in a relevant work in his own paper without asking the jounal or authors permission if the source has been explicitly stated (e.g. A comparson of X and Y in Z conditions [32])? For those writing survey papers sometimes they cite tables, diagrams and algorithms from different papers do they explicit permission from every one of them?

Edit: I have included dummy illustrations of original table and referenced for more clarity (Note that in the papers there are six columns. I reduced it to five. Thanks in advance


texts: Is a second career in statistics and science realistic? Accountant inquires

texts:
Short version: If I am 26 now and have a bachelors in accounting, is it realistic to have a shot at masters or doctorate level (bio)statistics by mid to late 30s? Assuming I prepare now.

Long version: I am a math and science lover. I read about both as a hobby and am learning Python and enjoy it too recently. Upon reading some papers in the Journal of Biometrics & Biostatistics I thought I found a field interested in the same things as I - critically examining the methodology of how studies are performed (I'm aware there's more to this area however).

I'm also pragmatic though, which is why I never went with science in college. Right now my plan is to continue in accounting, get my CPA, and be financially independent in ~10 years. Throughout this time I want to set myself up as best I can for a second career in statistics/science, by taking courses or pursuing a part time masters degree if possible.

Why not pursue this now? I value financial independence. It is a risk I can't take to go back to school now and have more debt when I'm already set up to have a good career as is. If the option exists to explore statistics later in life in a relatively risk-free way then the choice is clear, no?

Am I wrong to think there is any hope of exploring stats by mid-30s? The biggest issue i foresee is having to relocate for school or a job. But perhaps after some number of years away I could return to my area and I'd be fine with that.

Can anyone advise if years from now (age 30-32 for example) pursuing a part-time masters in applied statistics is wise or optimal in light of my ideals?
Is there any hope of getting into a biostatistics doctorate program if I am in my late 30s but have completed a masters in statistics along with great GRE scores and research experience/publications?
Is it realistic to reach out to professors/researchers while I am unaffiliated with a university to do volunteer work in order to gain research experience?


texts: Use of verbatim quotes in reporting findings in qualitative research (semi-structured interviews)

texts: In qualitative research (semi- structured interviews) do we have to use verbatim quotes in reporting the findings?


texts: Is it very difficult for international applicants to get a Visiting Assistant Professor position in the US?

texts:
I am a mathematics postdoc working outside the US and this year I am preparing for applications for positions (mainly in the US). I should also add that I am not a US citizen.

Sometime ago I have seen in the comments to a question here somebody said that tenure track positions are unlikely (though not impossible) to be offered for people working outside USA. I can understand this, since a tenure track position is meant to end in tenure, I mean, I have the impression that universities hire someone with the intention/hope that he/she will be granted tenure eventually.

I am hoping to secure a 2-3 years visiting position in mathematics so that I can introduce myself to the academia in the US, and then maybe apply for tenure track positions. But the question is, whether the same thing is true for these positions. That is, is it hard to get even a visiting position for someone working outside the US?

Also, I have a good command of English and a high TOEFL score. Do you think I should add this to my application package (e.g. mention it in the cover letter, or attach a copy of the test result, or have it sent to the universities etc.) to counter the fact that I am not a native speaker of English?


texts: I'm looking for faculty positions. How important is it to have your PhD advisor's letter after 3 year post-doc?

texts:
Like the title said, I'm applying for faculty positions. I am finishing a 3 year post-doc. I have strong support from my post-doc advisor and other profs we collaborated with. I have no problem getting three solid references. I've always struggled with my PhD advisor though. He was once important in the field, but he rarely publishes peer-reviewed research lately. I actually got my post-doc without his letter.

I'm considering applying without his letter to faculty positions. Anybody have similar experiences or advice? I'm baffled by my problems with my PhD advisor. I actually did publish with him, and even won awards.


texts:
I have been part of several classes where no-one wants to answer questions or actively take much part in the discussions. I am sure this must be frustrating for the lecturers, who try really hard to get us to answer and get an interesting discussion going.

Obviously, one answer to fix this is to suck it up and just answer the question and explain your opinion. However, as I am sure some of you know, such silences are overwhelming; it is as if the air forces you to not do anything, just sit there and wait for the one person who saves the class every time.

However, what can the lecturer do? Once the lecturer knows they are dealing with such a class, surely something should be done? In my opinion, the lecturer needs to stop asking questions to the entire class, but point at students and make them answer in that way. "What do you think, Pat?", is what I mean. If Pat does not know, that is fine; then move on to another one. As a student myself, I think this is the best way for a lecturer to approach this. Often the students are friends, or loosely know each other, so there is no rational reason for why the students don't dare to say anything. As I said, it is as if there is something in the air.

So, I know there are lecturers out there. What at your strategies for fixing this? Or perhaps other students have experienced lectures that cured this problem? I am talking mostly of small classrooms, not 100+ lecture halls.


texts: How do you find out what conferences are in your field?

texts:
I’m new to the culture of research and my professor suggested that I try to submit an abstract to a conference. The only problem is, I have no idea how you figure out what type of conferences there are. I’m wondering if there’s some type of conference portal that lists them all in different fields...?

There’s so many conferences out there and I’m just curious how one could go about finding conferences to submit to. I should say, I’m not asking what conferences I should submit to, but how you figure out which conferences even exist in the first place.


texts: Is is ethical to not compensate experiment participants who withdraw from the study?

texts:
I do experiments on learning and instruction for my dissertation. They are almost no risks in participating in our studies--except maybe boredom since they tend to run for 30 minutes to 1 hour. We get a lot of unmotivated students who don't really take the experiment tasks seriously. But in spite of this, they never get penalized if they complete the experiment. That means they get their compensation (money or course credit) and we don't check their answers before they walk out of the lab.

However, what should I do if a student withdraws participation? Should they still be given monetary compensation or course credit? Would it be ethical to specify that they will only be compensated if they complete the study? This hasn't happened to me yet, but I am running an online study and it will be harder to keep track of whether participants really complete the study or not.


texts: How hard do early-career academics in the United States work, really?

texts:
I'm finishing a PhD in Sweden this year and seeking a post-doc in the United States (atmospheric remote sensing).  It is clear that a job in academia is not a nine to five job; nor do I want it to be.  I often work late in the evening when I'm on a productive spur.  When an important dead-line is coming up, one needs to work harder, and there is no overtime paid.  I accept that.  However, no matter how much I'm interested in my research, I do enjoy and need a reasonable amount of spare time, too; relaxing on the weekends, occasionally a long weekend away, and sometimes a longer trip, such as three weeks in the wilderness.

Regarding the normal work ethos for early-career academics in the United States, I have a hard time judging what is normal and what is excessive.  Some examples:

Erick Carreira letter warning post-docs that he expects all of the members of the group to work evenings and weekends.
My apparent naïveté in believing that a sabbatical means not working, despite Wikipedia describing it as a rest from work, or a hiatus, often lasting from two months to a year.  I was thinking of my friend, who spent a year between his PhD and his first post-doc travelling from France to Mongolia mostly on foot.
Someone commenting I am not a good role model, but when I don't work on a Sunday, I count that as a vacation day.
NASA postdocs having no employment-related benefits such as paid vacations, sick leave, or unemployment compensation.
Question How do we end the culture of “endless hours at work”?

We don't have such a work-ethos where I'm at.  I belief that working too hard risks stress and burn-out, and does not increase productivity in the long run, nor human well-being.  I want to do science.  Doing science makes me happy, but having time to relax while not doing science is important for me.

Does the selection of examples I gave above represent a normal situation in U.S. early-career academia?  Should I expect an attitude where asking for a 3-week holiday during the summer is considered as being not serious, or is the situation in practice usually not as bad as the examples above make it sound?  How hard to early-career academics in the United States work, really?


texts:
I'm at the stage of my project whereby I need to perform some task that I have 0% background on originally. Hence I need to read papers and books to understand what I need to do.

So after burying myself in manuscripts, I got horribly confused and decided to email my supervisor some questions to help me understand. He has done the analysis before and is quite well versed in it.

Can this be seen as a bad thing? meaning I'm not independent? In the meantime, I'm worried that I understood wrong thing prior to start of the analysis and end up completely screwing things up and wasting time.


texts: A frequent reviewer seems to have a grudge against me. What to do?

texts:
(Asking on behalf of a friend.)

I work in math, in a field where reviews are not double-blind: reviewers are anonymous, but review copies of papers include attribution.  I’ve received several reviews recently (on different submissions) which were similar in style, all negative, and rather light on substantive criticisms.  The other reviews for those submissions were generally positive.

I’m rather concerned that they’re from a single reviewer with a grudge against me — it’s a small field, so one can easily encounter the same reviewer/author repeatedly — and I have some suspicion of who this reviewer might be (though far from certain).

Is there any defensive action I can take on future submissions — anything I can say to the editor at some stage to avoid getting shot down by this same reviewer again?


texts:
I'm a fifth year pure mathematics student and after this year I should get a Master degree (I'm from Europe). As you might know, this should be the time I decide (or at least seriously start thinking about) whether I should pursue a PhD or go work in the industry.

My main problem with pursuing a PhD is that I haven't found any topic particularly interesting or passionate about, and I think I have quite a wide mathematical education. I can easily get into some area when I'm studying for exams and such, but nothing more than that. I have to admit that I'm indifferent regarding most stuff in my life. While I was in high school, I had interests in number theory and prime distribution, but that has slowly gone away.

Having said all that, I did somewhat enjoy tutoring/helping younger students and explaining stuff to them. I'd also like to think that I would enjoy doing research in mathematics, but not sure.

So my question is:
How should I find out what is the field of my interest (and whether it exists at all)? Is my lack of interest a red flag for pursuing a PhD?


texts: Am I morally obliged to report what I judge as self-plagiarism?

texts:
I tried to search in the previous Q/As, but I do not think my case falls in any of the previous entries.

While looking for a certain topic in my field, I found two papers.
The first paper was authored by authors A, B, C, and D and published in some conference proceedings. The second paper was published in a journal in a year after by authors A, E, D, and C. That is, the second paper lost one author and gained a new author.

The two papers report the same research hypotheses, the same data collected, the same data analysis, the same results. That is, the "numbers" in the papers are the same (even the table contents).

The texts differ in a subtle way. The first paper is entitled "Studying topic T in the domain D". The second paper is entitled "Using Measurement Instrument M to measure T in the domain D". The second paper somehow avoids copy/pasting of the paragraphs from the first paper-they rewrote the sentences. It is a little bit longer than the first one. The authors actually spent some more words talking about measurement instrument M, which is taken from another discipline and it takes 3 minutes of Google Scholar searching for learning more about it. There is even a Wikipedia page about the instrument.

I think that this is a case of self-plagiarism. The second paper does not add anything useful to the first one. Additionally, the second paper does not cite the first one. This ringed a bell.

Please note that in my field, conferences are archived and are often considered more important than journals. Regardless of which venues are more important, both papers are formally considered publications.

Now, am I morally obliged to contact the editor of the journal where the second paper was published? This is not precisely a double publication, nor are the authors damaging me nor anybody else. Still, I feel they did something wrong. Should I instead live and let die?


texts: After 3 days of sending my paper to the reviewers by the editor i have a new status saying that "New reviews have been submitted and are being considered by the editor". and 1/4 Assigned reviews completed. what does this mean? is this mean that the edior will make a decision based only on one review?


texts: How to discuss an error of my previous supervisor's paper with the new supervisor

texts:
I have been recently working on my Master thesis. The idea for it was approximately the following: take a recent Nature paper of my supervisor, reproduce the results and add them to my Master thesis. This is exactly what I did, and I improved the experimental setup significantly, as compared to previous studies.

Unfortunately, during the final stages of the thesis I became increasingly confident the paper my work was based on contained a critical error. As I am an experimentalist, and rigorous investigation of this topic required a considerable amount of non-trivial theoretical work, I decided to stick to the original methodology of the paper in my thesis in the remaining time, while highlighting the possible problem in a suggestive way. I discussed this with my supervisor, and he agreed this might have been the case.

This year, I applied to US grad schools in physics, and I got into a top-1 program in my field. I will probably have to present my results to those people in order to get into the lab I like. As these people are literally the best in the world, I am sure they will spot a mistake, if there is one, and I am 99% positive this is the case.

Though the people from that lab seemed to like me initially very much (I had some other results to brag about), I am worried their opinion might change if I present this questionable methodology I used.

My question is: if the questions arise during my presentation, how can I discuss the issue in a tactful manner, being an excellent representative to my previous workplace?


texts: My PhD advisor thinks my progress is poor. How should I proceed?

texts:
I am a second semester PhD student. I have no publications until now. In the lab I am currently, we use some sort of academic journal to keep track of our progress. Due to classes and TA workload I did not make research progress for two weeks. When I saw my advisor I had not properly structured my journal update. To make things worse when he asked me how much time I did spend on non research activities I was unable to answer as I did not keep track of time.

This discussion ended up with my advisor saying that he might have to convert me to a master's student if I progress like that. He fears I may not be able to make any research progress within the semester with the current rate. He mentioned this warning will be given only once. He said that I should have adapted to the lab's pace until now.

I recognize that my progress was not appropriate, neither was the way to report this through the journal. However, I felt that being converted to a master student is something I really want to avoid.

Therefore I want to try really hard as my goal is the Ph.D.
However, doubts have clouded my head and  I felt I may also have a collaboration issue. I may need to look for another advisor too, although I still believe that if I don't improve something like that may happen again regardless of advisor.

I believe my advisor is a really good and experienced scientist and I respect him, but:

He has converted other PhD students to Master status in the past.
Also, he is very busy and it is not possible for him to discuss research with me for more than 20 minutes per week.
Other students of the lab manage to make appropriate progress but most of them seem stressed.
My advisor encouraged some students to publish survey papers. However afterward he mentioned that they can not yet graduate as the 6 papers he wants us to publish can only be research-related and not surveys.

In this post, I tried to give both my failings and my worries.

What are your suggestions for my situation?

Should I ignore all these and just try harder or should I change my course of action? Or do both?


texts: Using Paper under review as a Scientific Report in PhD application

texts: I have submitted a paper at a conference and it is currently under review. Can I use this paper as a 'scientific report' (asked to assess candidate's writing skills) for a Ph.D application ?


texts: What else can I do if a journal editor ignores my report of plagiarism?

texts:
I am now drafting a complaint letter to the editor-in-chief of a technical journal, against an act of plagiarism committed by a famous researcher in my field. This researcher is apparently aware of my original work, written three years prior to his/her work. I've been having trouble with two of my own submissions to the same journal. I suspect this researcher may have intentionally sabotaged my review process by either offering unfair comments or delay the review process, while his/her own submission got revised, accepted and published in a whirlwind. Ironically, this researcher did actually cite my only published work, a conference paper, and at the same time pretended that he/she didn't know that I did it, and helped him/herself to do it all over again.

I am somehow confident about the objectiveness of the editor-in-chief, although it might be that the AE is also involved in this misconduct. But in case my complaint is unfortunately ignored, what can I do to defend myself?

Can I directly contact the superior of this researcher's institution to bring up the complaint again, hoping to have a different result?

Added later: for those who is unclear about what I mean and downvoted my question, please compare the difference between:

Reference [xxx] already did it. The result shown here can be found in [xxx].

and

Reference [xxx] mentioned it. But it is really me that first give the result.

Added much later: someone suggests that this might be an insufficient attribution. If you were in my place, what will you do then?

Suppose I am this famous researcher and I found out a nobody is not giving me sufficient attribution, will the situation be completely different?

Added much much later: Many thanks for all the comments and replies. I have drafted my letter of inquiry very carefully after taking the many suggestions given to me. Nevertheless I am prepared to eat the shxt...fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice...

Now I think it is not true that the "game" is rigged for me just because I am a Chinese...if I received my education in one of the top universities in Europe or in the states, I would have a much lower chance of knowing people like this researcher in the first place...now it sounds like it is still because I am a Chinese...damn this life played with hard mode...


texts: I have been advised to mention faculty members in the area I want to apply for (ECE PhD). My Question is: how much of an effect would this have on my admission? Maybe that particular faculty will not want to work with me but some other person in a somewhat related area will. Also how flexible would my choice of specialization be, when I am admitted to a university?


texts: What should I do when my accepted paper is subsequently rejected?

texts:
My paper was accepted for publication in a journal. I have also received an acceptance letter and even I have filled out the copyright form. The corresponding editor first told me "Your paper is published in one of the volumes of 2017" and next time said that my paper is "published in 2018", but now I have received an email that my paper is "rejected because the paper is not in the aim and scope of the journal"!!!

Really I do not know, what should I do?


texts:
I'm currently an MSc student, and I really enjoy teaching. As an anecdote, when I was younger (like 7) I had a school for all my toys and did homework (with errors!) for them all.

Anyway, I have good reviews from my current students (I'm a lab instructor this semester), and a TA award from last semester. I enjoy this process - explaining concepts, developing lectures/labs, interacting with students. I do not really want to do a PhD though - it is not that I do not like research... I do, but I do not think it aligns with my life goals exactly.

We have two instructors with just MSc-s in my department, but they both apparently did so much research they could get a PhD if they wanted to. So I'm not sure if it is even possible to do from my current position? Can I become an instructor without doing a PhD once I graduate?

I mean, if not, I will probably spend that time developing online tutorials instead :)


texts: How to follow-up after doing a bad job on a "role play" interview question for grad school admissions?

texts:
I recently interviewed for a very competitive clinical mental health counseling Masters program(didn't know how competitive until the day of the interview). During the interview we were asked to role play a quick counseling session. Channeling all the confidence I had, I went first. Big mistake. I didn't do what I needed to in terms of empathizing, I mainly asked questions to gain more knowledge on the clients situation before the interviewer quickly ended my turn. I got through the rest of the interview feeling good about my answers. It's been about a week since the interview, I sent out thank you letters a few days after the fact. Now I have a coworker who went to the school (different program) insisting that I ask for a second chance. I don't think I want to do that, but is there any way that I can still email them addressing the situation? It is a very close knit relationship centered program, which my coworker pointed out, and they are trained counselors.
I've been reading other experiences where after a bad interview people emailed asking for feedback, or addressing things they wish went differently. Is it too late since I sent out the thank you letters? Not sure of what my next move should be. Thanks in advance.

I spoke to another candidate who is close with the current students and he said they were specifically looking for the candidate to show empathy - which I know I didn't do well enough.


texts:
I noticed that scientists are one of the most hermetic societies around. Does anybody know how can some "nobody" safely publish an interesting idea, at least, interesting for that someone?

I think that there are plenty of people that have regular jobs and didn't make it through to the scientist/researcher career to be able to present a paper or the like.

Edit: Your question has been identified as a possible duplicate of another question. I think it differs in that I'm not asking how to make a paper and what kind of ideas are suitable. I'm asking how to publish it after I wrote it hopefully accomplishing a paper's requirements.


texts: What is done in a workshop? How does it differ from an academic conference?

texts: I have done some research on this, but I still don't know what is carried out in a workshop. What activities are arranged? How are they different from conferences?


texts: How often do you get to "play with" scientific instruments?

texts:
I tend to learn and understand a subject to a much deeper extent if I am able to play around/experiment/mess with something that demonstrates the principles.

I'm starting a Neuroscience PhD program in the fall and would like to know how I could maximize the opportunities to experiment with various equipment at the university. I'm interested in working with things like fMRI, MEG, EEG, electron-microscopes, and supercomputers.

How easy is it to informally play with these types of equipment when they might be sitting idle?

Note: I'm looking to do this safely without any intent to damage the equipment. Primarily, I'm looking to replicate the findings of classic experiments and discover aspects that didn't make it into the published papers.


texts: Should a paper of exactly 15 pages be submitted to Transactions or Proceedings of the AMS?

texts:
I would like to submit a paper which is exactly 15 pages. The journal overview of Transactions of the AMS says:

  Papers of less than 15 printed pages that meet the above criteria should be submitted to the Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society.

It seems that my paper can be submitted to Transactions, since it is exactly 15 pages. However, Initial Submission for Peer Review of Transactions of the AMS says:

  Papers submitted to Transactions of the AMS (to be published in either Transactions of the AMS or Transactions of the AMS, Series B) should exceed 15 printed pages in length."

So it seems that my paper cannot be submitted to Transactions (since it is exactly 15 pages), and should be submitted to Proceedings. So I am confused. Does anyone have information/similar experience which could possibly let me know to which journal I should submit?


texts: (Australia) Conjoint senior lecturer? Do they teach?

texts:
In Australia, I see many non-university researchers (e.g. CSIRO postdocs) have a title of "conjoint lecturer" from a reputable university.

Do they teach?
Do they receive salary from the university?
What's the point of the title if everybody who is a postdoc in Australia can be a  "lecturer"?


texts: Tools for remotely updating the advisor?

texts:
I am a research student. Though me and my advisor used to meet regularly, nowadays due to workload, I usually remain outstation and not able to meet him personally.

I do work continuously and meet him at least once a month but am not able to take as much input from my advisor as I would like. (limitations of my physical availability).He doesn't prefer video chatting and pretty hesitant in replying to emails in depth.

Putting in crux, how to track research progress myself and update my advisor simultaneously. I would have preferred a wiki like page, whose URL(private) I can share with my advisor, where he could look at my progress and comment. It could also assist organizing my own research.

What tools would be recommended in such scenario ?


texts: Letter of recommendation from professors without prior contact

texts:
I am a postdoctoral researcher at a German university and aim to apply for a visiting lecturer program to be a visiting professor at a foreign university. For this, I am required to provide two reference letters from two professors working at German universities but not at my university. As most of my collaborators are either from my university or from international institutions, the options are pretty limited for me.
Isn't it silly to request such a letter from a professor without prior direct contact? If yes, how am I supposed to fulfil this condition?


texts: How to ensure a research idea has not been explored previously

texts:
I am admittedly an undergraduate so I do not have very much experience yet in finding resources.

When I have an idea of something I would consider worthwhile to research (in my case for a proposal to a supervisor about an undergraduate research opportunity), assuming I do extensive research online to see what has been found out about the subject and end up concluding that what I want to look into has not been investigated yet.

How can I ensure that it actually hasn't, and it isn't just a case of me not finding the information that is already available somewhere?


texts: How to manage imposter syndrome during the job hunt?

texts:
There are lots of questions on here about dealing with Imposter Syndrome throughout the whole Ph.D. experience.  I have struggled with Imposter Syndrome throughout my whole Ph.D., but was able to manage it through a supportive adviser who thinks the world of my work. However, this is changing now.  I am on the job hunt (graduating this spring with a Ph.D. in applied mathematics - my research is sort of straddling the line between applied math and computer science, although my masters and bachelors are both in pure math) and I am focused on teaching-oriented schools, and have a diverse teaching background (with overwhelmingly positive teaching evaluations).

I have applied to many jobs.  I have gotten a decent number of first round interviews (phone, skype/zoom, conference interviews at the Joint Math Meetings) but only one on campus interview so far.  And still waiting to hear back from them (probably not the top candidate judging by the time).  The job most interested in me right now is a job I was qualified for with just my masters - and I only have unofficial word on that, hearing things through the grapevine.  There has also been countless rejections of the form-letter variety.

Sorry for the rambling.  Long story short, I struggled with Imposter Syndrome through the Ph.D., was built up by a supportive adviser and finally was feeling like I actually did belong in academia, and now the complete lack of job prospects is just making me feel like it was all a mistake somehow.  Somehow I slipped through this far, but nobody will actually want me on faculty.

Those of you who have been here before - how did you personally deal with feeling not good enough after all this work?  The way I'm feeling is interfering with me finishing typing my dissertation, because I'm feeling like there is no point.  How can I snap out of this enhanced imposter syndrome?


texts:
I'm going to apply for graduate studies and one of the SOP outline points says

  Have strong opening and closing paragraph

What could be considered a strong paragraph? In my case, the opening paragraph is a mild introduction, not describing things in specific terms, but giving some base points. The closing paragraph sums up the middle-ware (mostly education, work experience and other interests), states my academic goals and future perspective.

Do I understand them, the paragraphs, properly?


texts: How do we test in academia, if a research area is a money burning machine or non/pseudo-scientific?

texts:
In the recent decades more and more meta studies were undertaken on the reproducibilty rate of distinct research areas like psychology, biomedicine...

The results are probably shocking to most outsiders and especially scientific laymen, not so much to the insiders I fear. But if over 70% of the studies cannot be reproduced, I'm wondering what does this mean for such fields, how do you judge this number, especially I'm wondering how such reproducibilty rates are and have developed the coming/past decades:

The amount of published falsehoods grows further and further until it converges to a final reproducibility rate (assuming the number of publications stays at some point in time constant per year), though at 30% I'm wondering how to qualify a scientific area, non-professional, pre-/pseudo-scientific or may this value even be acceptable or quite good for some branches?
shoudn't there be somehow an acceptable minimum of the reproducibiltiy rate, otherwise most of the funding money is just burned without amortisation in industry products. You could from this perspective argue most of cosmological research has no value as no industrial output, so the main criterion must be the reproducibilty rate or something like the successful experimental validation rate of new theoretical hypothesis. The latter works in physics and mathematics probably in a good way, I'm not sure what the reproducibility rate in experimental physics is, as I don't find meta-studies and there doesn't seem to be a problem of largely burning funding money and mostly industry is funding R&D in physics. Medicine on the other side is largely granted by the public and this industry and its economic prosperity strongly depend on public funding and may be not even self-sustaining without it in contrast to car industry etc.

It is clear that there has to be a minimum of the reproducibilty rate, as scientists are not perfect, unprofessional, biased, misconducting etc.

But how can we estimate what a low, normal, very good reproducibilty rate for a distinct scientific branch is? Is there any literature, answers, methods, heuristics, estimation on this apart from single meta-studies? Meta-Meta-studies over several decades?! Is it a economical or a sociopsychological estimation? Estimating the complexity of distinct experimental branches by dimensionality (number of variables of the system) X experimental steps X experiment duration X ratio of experiments conducted by students/scientists X ...

Shouldn't it be possible to derive here measures for distinct branches with <10% accuracy if the economical sciencs try to model much more complex systems?


texts:
I'm having trouble with one of my labmates that is severely impacting my work. He is a more senior student than me, but only has been in my lab for two months since my advisor came from a different university last year, and this student didn't come initially (he was supposed to graduate at the old institution but didn't).

No one else in the lab works on similar research to me, so when this student came I thought it was nice to have someone around who was experienced in similar research topics to talk to and potentially collaborate with. Right away he told me he planned to publish many papers with me while he's here, and then wrote me up a research plan. My advisor is quite hands off, and he has not mentioned to me that I am supposed to work closely with this student. I like my advisor's hands off approach, and certainly didn't ask another PhD student to write up plans for me. Even though I am a junior PhD student I am very self-directed and thus far my advisor has mostly let me dictate the research problems I work on.

Very quickly, my relationship with this other student has deteriorated to the point where I can't even go to the lab if I want to get any work done (and since I'm in engineering, most of my work is tied to my lab). He talks nonstop. And I do mean nonstop. If I'm trying to work (not paying attention to him), he interrupts me constantly to talk at me, and it is rarely work or research-related. I usually come in early in the morning, and he comes in in the afternoon. As soon as he comes in he starts telling me stories, about his work, about his childhood, his parents, anything. It doesn't stop. When I try to leave after being in lab for 12 hours (say, 8am-8pm) he stops me and criticizes me for leaving "early" (even when I point out if he works from 5pm to 3am it's actually less time in the lab than I've spent), saying I'm not a real PhD student if I don't work all night.

He has decided he will be a coauthor on all of my papers (without my invitation, and without my advisor's input), but he has not done anything. Initially I tried to meet to work out a plan for some experiments, and he didn't show up to some of them and at the others just ended up talking at me. He also touches me on the arm constantly and will stand behind me when I'm at my computer and rub my shoulders. He flatters me constantly, calls me "cute", says I'm going to be "famous" for my work. I don't see him behave this way with anyone else in the lab.

This is a lot of complaining, but the main reason I'm worried is 1) I haven't gotten anything done in the 2 months since he showed up; and 2) I know my advisor highly values students who can work well together (the older students said he fired a couple of students at the old university for refusing to work with one of the other students).

What do I do? I want to talk to my advisor but don't want to come across like I'm difficult to work with. I'm in a tough situation because this other student is more senior and has a long history with my advisor. I have immense respect and gratitude towards my advisor, but I have only been in the lab for a year (after leaving a toxic lab with a terrible advisor) and haven't yet established a good track record of research results. I've been working at home and hiding out in other labs to try to get my work done, but I can't stay away from the lab forever since I have to build stuff and run experiments. I'm worried my advisor is going to fire me for lack of results (another thing this student tells me constantly).

Sorry for the long rant, but what should I do? Should I try to talk to my advisor? Should I disappear until I have good results to show so he can't fire me?


texts: Do graduate admission committees perform a first phase filtering based on GPA?

texts: I heard from some sources that some applications are discarded before the professors in the committee even looked at it, based on GPA. How true is this? How do they equalize GPAs from different colleges across the world? Isn't this practice flawed?


texts: Reference letters after some time away from full time study

texts:
I have been away from full time study for more than a year now and I was trying to see if I could get into postgraduate studies at a masters level for a non-vocational subject.

Prior to graduating, I had some reference letters written and sealed hermetically by two teaching staff as I had some intention in studying in Japan. In the end, that did not bear any fruit and although it is not easy to get admitted to full-time studies after a blank period, I am hoping to make a few applications even if it is quite a long shot.

My questions are these:

-Would it be appropriate to use these reference letters if I want to make an application for postgraduate studies in a different country? My undergraduate studies was in the UK and I am hoping to make applications there.

-Would it be appropriate to send reference letters which is more than a year old for an application for postgraduate studies?

Admittedly, I can make a request to see if they can write a new reference letter but I would rather not, as I feel it would be too demanding if I ask them to write a reference letter for someone that had already graduated.

Thank you for sharing your insights, opinions and thoughts on this.


texts: Which google scholar citation format is IEEE standard?

texts: When I want to use formatted citation from google sholar it;s show 5 option to copy. Which one is IEEE standard? I add an image for clear my question.


texts: I had an informal interview with a foreign professor on Skype and things went well. We talked on Friday and he said he will discuss my case during the meeting for recruitment of students. He showed interest and we exchanged emails for the possibilities of scholarships. Mean while he even sent me a book and lecture related to work but he did not replied my email on Monday. I thought he must be busy due to his meeting and its Thursday and still have not heard from him. Tomorrow it will be a week of my interview. Its just 2 or 3 days but should I be worried or wait, until he gets back?


texts: Is it possible for the international graduate student to take the exam of professional courses?

texts: I would like to know whether the international graduate student can also take the exam of professional courses such as CPA,or CFA?Are there any legal restrictions?


texts: Can IEEE, Elsevier, Springer detect multiple submissions to their journals?

texts: If one wants to submit one's manuscript to multiple journals of a publisher (IEEE, Elsevier, Springer etc.), is it possible for a publisher to detect it? I mean if any publisher keeps a database of submitted manuscripts to crosscheck newly submitted manuscripts with the existing ones.


texts: Will dismissal from one graduate school affect me applying to another?

texts:
I was dismissed from my Masters program due to bad grades. I also have a mention in my records that say that I might have used last years homework. I did not copy and they had no proof that I copied per se. I couldn't care less about my grades at the time and I deeply regret doing what I did. Is there hope for me in applying to grad schools in the future?

Additionally, I am an international student. Can someone tell me if all this will affect my getting a VISA?


texts: How flexible are number-of-pages submission guidelines for conferences?

texts: I'd like to submit a paper to a conference in computer science. The conference's submission guidelines state 14 as the maximum number of pages. Should I take it at face value? My paper is 20 pages long (19, if you disregard the bibliography). If I submit it, can I expect an automatic rejection for being too long? If I'm able to cut it down to 14 pages, but the bibliography spills to page 15, will it count as eligible?


texts: Have American universities cut back on H1-B visa sponsorship of new international faculty and F-1 student visa sponsorship for PhD students?

texts:
Concerning industry, I've read that Google and Amazon have cut back significantly on its H1-B visa sponsorship of new candidates (though it's unclear what the renewal rate is for currently sponsored employees.)

Is the same sort of thing happening in academia?  Are American universities cutting back its H1-B sponsorship of new, international faculty candidates and student visa programs for its international PhD applicants?


texts: Approaching a company unsolicited for internship opportunities as an academic

texts:
It's already been discussed on here how to find internships/temporary research opportunities at universities and also when exactly to do an an internship at a company during one's PhD, but there doesn't seem to be much information on how someone goes about finding internship/temporary research opportunities at companies.

There are a few companies which do stuff which is very similar to what I'm researching, and a couple of those are even posting full-time jobs for work nearly identical to my own albeit looking for people who are more experienced in the field than I currently am. How can I approach said companies which are actively working on my own research topic (more or less) with a proposal to spend a period of time working with them?


texts: Recommendation letter for college applicant sent via their high school

texts:
Background: This summer I was the instructor for a course in which many of my students were in high school, and were enrolled in my course as part of a 'pre-college' program at my university. This was a regular course, in no way modified for the pre-college students, and there were undergraduates enrolled simultaneously in the course.

I agreed to write a letter of recommendation for a few of the pre-college students for their university applications. The students' high schools seem to have differing levels of involvement in their college applications. One of them said their school is managing their application, and that I should send my letter of recommendation to the school who will then put it in their applications. I'd prefer to keep my part of their application separate, since I'm not affiliated with their school and don't want to run the risk of my letter being edited.

Question: Should I refuse to submit a letter to their high school?


texts: Is it ethical to withdraw an accepted manuscript for financial reasons?

texts:
I submitted a manuscript, which has been accepted. Its publication is pending payment of publication fees. I need to withdraw the manuscript due to financial constraints.

Is this ethical?