texts: How should one choose a supervisor if they haven't yet narrowed down their research focus?

texts: From what I know, every Phd student needs to choose a supervisor in the first year. For someone who is entering a  Phd with a broad interest in a field, this might be difficult since they don't immediately know what they want to work on. How do they go about choosing a supervisor in that case?


texts: Does correcting the data analysis when replying to a Major Revision make a bad impression on the editors and reviewers?

texts:
I received a decision on my manuscript, requiring Major Revisions. One referee thinks one of my result is abnormal and contradictory with previous findings.

After checking my raw data and analysis and I found I did make a big mistake about the calculation. I know my carelessness brought the confusion to the referees and editors and I will explain this carefully in the cover letter when submitting the revised manuscript.

But I am also worried that the manuscript will be rejected even if I correct this mistake, because one mistake may make them stop trusting my research. How do editors and reviewers typically react to major changes in analysis?


texts: What is the acceptable similarity in a mathematics PhD dissertation when checking by Turnitin?

texts: I have checked the originality of my PhD thesis in mathematics using Turnitin. The similarity was 31%. Is this percentage acceptable by most committees?


texts: Why do many instructors avoid giving personal introductions?

texts: I recall that as an undergraduate, very few of the older instructors ever presented basic details about themselves. While I can understand how most would not reveal much about their family life, I cannot understand why few told about their academic background, research interests, work history, or other details which seem connected to the course. This was not the case with the younger instructors and graduate student teachers. Now that I teach undergraduates, I wonder if these older instructors knew through experience that it is best to keep quiet about one's background. Is there a good reason for instructors to keep back such information?


texts: Why does the Discipline of the Bachelor Degree matter for most Non-US Architecture Master Programs but not for US Architecture Master Programs?

texts:
After some research, I've noticed that in the US it's mostly possible to apply for M.Arch programs regardless of the Bachelor discipline while outside the US a Bachelor in Architecture is required.

Why is that?

The master in the US takes 3 years for non-B.Arch people while in US/Europe it takes 2 years for B.Arch people.

Can one additional year make up for the 3 to 4 year Bachelor degree?

Or is this whole idea just a marketing-gag of the US universities?

(And if anyone has some experience: In general, how successful are non-B.Arch people in M.Arch programs?)


texts: I'm from India, planning to do Phd in Marketing Management. Can I pursue it with my job thats 5 days a week 10 hours a day?

texts: I am currently working in the media industry having a 9 years experience. I want to do a Phd in order to get into the academics sector in the next 3-4 years maybe. I have a 5 days a week working schedule. I have researched a bit regarding the same and found out that some UGC approved universities offer part time Phds. Will that be advisable? Also, will I be able to complete it in 3 years? I cant afford to leave my job since I have a lot of financial responsibilities. Thanks in advance! Waiting in anticipation.


texts: Research plan vs proposed research for class project?

texts: A proposal format for that class project requires student to provide research plan as well as proposed approach. Can you please help me in understanding differences between the two?


texts: Taking my Ph.D. advisor out for dinner after graduation

texts:
I recently finished my Ph.D. in the U.S. and will be leaving soon for a job in industry. I have got a precious gift for my advisor as I really admire him and he is one of my role models and totally deserves it.

Now for giving him the gift I was thinking maybe I should take him out to dinner or something and then give him the gift. The problem is during these years we’ve never had such a relationship! Like we’ve been cool and he’s always been super friendly and supportive, but I have not even spoken to him over the phone!! Like we’ve either met in his office for in-person meetings or have been in touch via emails (although he twice invited the whole department to his house for barbecue and I went to his house, but that’s pretty much it).

So I feel like it might be a little weird to ask him out for drinks or dinner, especially since he has a family and kids and I’m single. I mean if I had a wife I would totally invite his whole family but now I don't know what to do.
I am not planning for a farewell party either otherwise I would have invited him.

Should I just go to his office like always and give him the gift and say goodbye? Or should I ask him out? Or should I ask his whole family out? What is the professional/moral way of doing this?


texts: As a part time volunteer, how can I ask my advisor to let me work independently, so that I can have a chance at first authorship?

texts:
TL;DR As a part time volunteer, what is the best way of communicating to my professor that I would like to be able to work independently on a project of my own to work towards a first authorship paper, rather than playing second fiddle to a full time graduate student?

Hello!

I am planning on applying to MD/PHD programs next year, and to that end, I am volunteering in a lab and trying to get some research experience and a  publication under my belt.  My primary goal of doing research as a volunteer is to be able to independently complete a project and obtain a first authorship paper, even if it's a very small one.

This may seem a bit crass to say this straight out, but with a first authorship paper, I believe I can show admission committees that I am able to independently perform research at a graduate level, so this is my utmost priority.

I have been working part time (~10hrs/week) at a lab as a volunteer, working independently so far.  I entered the lab a couple months ago and independently researched and explored the lab's field of study until I came up with what I felt to be an interesting and novel project.  I communicated the details of this project to the professor a week ago and he also seemed very excited by the potential implications and findings it could yield.

To my dismay, at this week's lab meeting, this professor more or less assigned one of his full-time graduate students to the project I proposed to him last week.  He heavily implied that I would be assisting this graduate student.  As a part timer, I know that 10 hours a week would definitely not be able to keep up with a 40+ hour a week full timer, so a first authorship on this project seems increasingly out of the question.

I'm not trying to obtain credit for work I didn't do, nor am I trying to find shortcuts to an easy first authorship paper.  I know both things are not possible, nor is it my wish to game my way out of hard work and effort.

However, I do want a fair shot at being able to independently do my own work, even if it's for 10 hours a week, in order to achieve a small first authorship paper that I can claim as my own.

I don't want to present an image to the professor of being greedy, scheming or not a team player, because I honestly don't feel that I am any of these things.  However, I do have my own goals for working hard and volunteering my time, and I need to be able to fulfill my goals or else I am wasting my time.

I know professors can get defensive about "cutting" a larger paper in half into two smaller papers, so that seems out of the question as well.  I want to ask my professor if I can work on another project (if I can come up with another one), but that makes me seem like I'm being difficult/uncooperative.

TL;DR As a part time volunteer, what is the best way of communicating to my professor that I would like to be able to work independently on a project of my own to work towards a first authorship paper, rather than playing second fiddle to a full time graduate student?


texts:
I'm new to these forums, but I thought I'd take a stab at asking about my situation. I have two BS degrees, one in electrical engineering and the other in physics. I'm wanting to go to grad school in either physics, engineering, or something in between. My problem is that I have a 2.3 cumulative gpa, however I do have a slew of other things going for me that I was wanting to get opinions on how much they would help with admissions.

I've done research in plasma physics for over 2 years. It was due to that project that I was place into the McNair Scholars program and was given the opportunity to travel overseas to perform research at a European fusion energy lab last year. I've graduated, but was hired by the same research group to perform data analysis work for the project. I learned alot about experimental physics: solid state particle detectors, vacuum chambers, spectrum analysis, linux operation systems, and so on.

In my engineering major I become involved with a team that built, tested, programmed and will be launching an amateur radio satellite. I worked on the power systems of the craft, and learned alot about surface mount soldering, solar cells and battery charging power circuits, etc. I'm also planning the building and programming of a rotating machinery for our ground antennas. Out of this might come the chance to work with a mechanical engineering group launching their own satellite.

I also work in the power industry, currently as an intern, where I've done a few projects related to internet monitoring of devices attached to power lines, learned pcb design skills here. My job also had me write a paper (so I'd be first author there) related to cyber security that will be going to a conference later this year. Not sure if this will help specifically since that work isn't necessarily what I want to do graduate research in.

I'm currently taking a year off to work, pay off debts, and study for good scores on the general and subject GRE's. I was also plannig on taking 1 or 2 grad courses and planning to ace them. My bad grades came from my first year courses, not from my junior and senior in-major courses. Come application time I can get plenty of good recommendation letters from various sources (not just in my university). I know my gpa is going to hurt me, but I was wondering if anyone has any experience about how much things I've done outside the classroom would offset that. Thanks for any opinions that might be helpful. Sorry for the wall of text.


texts: How do I tell my adviser that group meetings may be too time-consuming in my last year of my PhD?

texts:
I am finishing up my PhD this year and my adviser has recently recruited two new PhDs to our research group. I am the adviser's first student. Up until this year, we have had consistent individual research meetings weekly. Now, the adviser wants to incorporate weekly group meetings in addition to individual meetings. I think this can benefit some PhDs. However, I don't feel that these weekly group meetings will be particularly valuable to me. This is because I have a clear research agenda that is my top priority right now. I am wrapping up two manuscripts to incorporate into my dissertation, while also applying to jobs and post-docs, to finish my PhD in less than a year.

I am not discounting the importance of reading new research articles or the importance of collaboration between group members. However, I think the mismatch in PhD progression -- me, a finishing PhD with several first-author manuscripts with multiple collaborators, and the 2 new students, starting to test out and find research ideas -- will take away from my priority, finishing the PhD and wrapping up my thesis while also being a potentially stressful, time sink. This is tied into the fact that my adviser often has poor time management skills, allowing meetings to run for over 3 hours.

How do I tell my adviser, in a respectful manner, that I cannot attend all of the group meetings? Or, that I think prioritizing my final two manuscripts and dissertation are a more valuable use of my time?

Thank you for the advice! Let me know if I can clarify anything.


texts: Timeline for notification of teaching duties for Grad TA

texts:
As part of the support for my PhD, I teach a class every semester or so. I dual as a research assistant and have outside funding. I receive the same pay whether I teach or not. A few weeks ago, my department posted a list of teachers and their assigned classes. I was not on the list and received no indication that I would be. Naively I assumed that this meant that I was not going to be assigned to teach this semester and that I would just be a research assistant (which I already am funded for). I mean, you would think that they would notify teachers of their assignments, right?

However, I now have been notified today (December 19) at 2:30 p.m. local time that I am in fact assigned to teach a class starting in January. I have never taught this particular class, and (obviously) have no lesson plans or materials for the class. They have given me two weeks' notice. Since school is on holiday, I cannot go into the department and pick up a textbook for the class or anything. (Plus I live out of state from the school and I have gone home. I am not flying back until January 2).

Should I speak up and do something about this, or just grit my teeth and check it off as department ineptitude? For those of you who are in department administration, is this a common practice to notify an instructor two or so weeks before they have to step in front of a class and teach, especially when they have never taught the particular class and do not have access to the textbook during the ensuing two weeks?

For further reference, the department has done this to a few other students in the past. Usually what happens is that a professor decides last minute that they "cannot" teach a class. Several times the reason has been that the professor is tired of teaching said class or is just tired of teaching in general. The department chair is on board with this, since he knows he can just force a graduate student into the position and it keeps his friends happy. Since no students have ever pushed back on this practice, he keeps doing it. That is the reason why I wonder if I should formally address the issue of dumping teaching assignments onto the graduate students.


texts: Is there anything I can do about a teacher who is rumored to be unreasonably severe and whose class I am about to take?

texts:
Background
Due to a change in schedule, I recently had to swap one course section (with a supposedly outstanding instructor) for another (with a different instructor).
Problem
Based on a number of reliable sources, I have come to learn that my new professor is an extremely unreasonable, unapproachable, and severe human being. Numerous people who have had the pleasure to attend his class all commonly reflect on the fact that he is 1) a poor teacher who makes his expectations unclear (and refuses to explain students' mistakes to them) and 2) insists that only 25% of the class will pass. It might be of benefit to mention that this is a required course.
If there is one thing that bothers me in a classroom setting, it is when teachers are vague about what they want from students whilst grading them harshly for things that they never explicitly stated. This is especially worrisome in this circumstance, where the quality of a piece of work is, to some extent, subjective. In addition, I am NOT one who merely seeks to pass classes. I work hard, and I expect my grades to reflect such. Admittedly, I am a very persistent, determined, and bold and I tend to become riled up when I feel like an injustice has been done.
Class starts on Monday, and I would like to know if there is anything that I can do to minimize my heartache. I have heard too many stories about student-professor drama and I wish to avoid it entirely.
Obviously, I can't do anything right now. But would it be okay to approach the prof after the first day of class? If yes, what should I say? If not, do I just bite my tongue and risk my GPA to suffer due to nothing save a teacher's poor attitude?
For those who will tell me to wait until class starts before thinking about any of this, I see no purpose as this instructor has a very long track record and I wish to strategize.


texts: How to convince and/or ask researchers to share data?

texts:
I'm currently working on gathering data for my MSc thesis. The problem is, for my type of research, there is VERY limited data that is freely available. Specifically, I'm looking to acquire baseline population data for wild animal populations.

I've contacted a few organizations and NGOs asking if they have any data available and if they would be open to sharing it for a specific species.

One person seemed reluctant to share their data and wanted more information on my project - how can I convince them to share their data with me? There is hardly any other resources that have this type of information so it would really help me.

Another sent me a number of papers they've written - but what I need from them is discrete locations (GPS coordinates) that they no doubt have as they have figures in their paper. However, for my research I need precise locations and estimating them from a figure is not ideal.

This is my first run at this, so I'm trying to figure out the best way to open up data sharing and collaboration. It's really important to me - but I also know that not all researchers think similarly. Especially when, at this point in my research I'm not 100% sure what I can offer them in return as it hinges on the data I can gather. Do I offer acknowledgement or authorship on my papers? Keep them updated with my progress and try to illustrate how I could help them?


texts: How to help a student researcher with narcolepsy continue research

texts:
I was torn between workplace and here, but I think the question is better here.

I have an assistant researcher that I have indirectly worked with for 3 months, and for the past month have hired directly for a research project full time (they are not taking classes for 6 months to work on my project).  Recently the student informed me they have narcolepsy, and feel it may interfere with their work but would 'like me to understand'.

An important aspect to this is, I do not need advice on legal matters in terms of workplace disabilities etc. (which is why I believe this is not appropriate for workplace), as I have already spoken with HR and I am in a country in which an employer has the power (ie. they told me I can just fire the student, in fact, they were a bit too keen on this, not that I agree with this system at all).

This is a bit different than a physical disability in terms of accessibility, and I don't think it is that comparable to a learning disability as they have no understanding or application hindrance with this one caveat of random extreme lethargic feelings or tiredness.  The closest I can think of is insomnia.  In that type of situation, I could encourage the student to work hours that benefit their sleep schedule as long as they are responsible with it.

Has anyone had experience with a student researcher with this type of disability?  Are there strategies that can help the student perform well?

Update:
The type of work is programming and algorithms.  There are no safety concerns relative to the lab work.


texts: Why do universities take weeks to produce an official transcript?

texts:
I didn't graduate from a university, so this question is more on behalf of friends of mine who have had the experience of waiting for seemingly ridiculous(in my opinion) periods of time for an official transcript to be processed.  It has been particularly frustrating recently for a friend of mine who didn't realize that a background check from a new employer would require her school to produce an official transcript.  The school didn't return calls to the background check firm until my friend got in touch with the school through a different channel, only to be told that the transcript would be produced in two weeks and the process could not be expedited(no exceptions).

The frustration is beside the point though.  Why must it take this long to produce an official transcript?  From what I can tell, an official transcript is one signed by the registrar of the school and is not a photocopy.  I could see it taking a few days for a graduate, but weeks?  It seems like a common enough thing that I'm wondering what the explanation could be.


texts: The phd advisor copied my thesis to another's

texts:
I have a fairly unique situation going on that I'm not quite sure how to handle. A colleague of mine completed her PhD two years ago on the topic of arts and the local community. Since she was computer illiterate, she hand-wrote her entire thesis. Her advisor delayed in reviewing her work, asking for money from the student before beginning to review but she refused to pay (according to her). After a while, the advisor told my colleague that he would take care of having the thesis typed up himself, and did so. She paid the typing and printing cost. (Also, for context, it's fairly common not to know how to operate a computer in my region.)

At that point, this advisor asked for my PhD thesis, which I had recently completed. I handed him a soft copy.

Recently, my colleague and I were reviewing our theses, we noticed blatant plagiarism between the two versions. My colleague then remembered that her advisor has mentioned that he "edited" her thesis to "make it more informative". She immediately informed the university about the plagiarism and has put in a request to rescind the degree, as the no longer feels she deserves it. Unfortunately, the press found out about this story, and it's now in the public eye.

My question is, what can I do to protect my reputation at this point? I've since done some research and believe I have found other examples of this advisor both demanding money from students before graduating them and plagiarizing work on PhD papers. I've presented this to the Vice Chancellor, and he seems to believe the evidence, as we're not the first ones to complain about this type of behavior from this advisor. Still, with all that said, is there anything I can do to clear my name and expose the advisor?


texts:
When visiting my old school to attend the graduation of a friend, I ran into my old tutor. Exchanging stories and ideas, she nearly immediately offered me the option of a PhD position under her.

Now, I have applied for such positions before at other institutions but never got accepted. To do it right this time, I was wondering whether there were any resources available (books, blogs) that cover the early PhD and application process experience so that I may learn from others.

If relevant: I will be pursuing this PhD in the field of modern media, part-time, in the Netherlands.


texts: Can I opt for traditional manuscript submission instead of open access in a journal that offers open access?

texts:
I am a Ph.D. student and I wrote my first paper. The term open access is a new concept for me. I already watched YouTube videos about the subject, so I now understand that you have to pay a fee to the journal to get your paper published.
The question is: can I just go for traditional publishing or am I obliged to pay for open access if the journal offers it (example journal)?


texts: How can I find studies with statistical mistakes?

texts:
I would like to create a list of known problematic studies that misused statistics.
I tried searching google and read a few papers on the topic, but none of them contained specific examples of bad studies.
Is there a list of such papers? is anyone aggregating them?
Note: if there is a reason not to reference them I would also like to know why.


texts: Will it damage our grant application if we include an additional applicant with no publications?

texts: My colleagues and I are currently writing a grant application to the German Research Foundation. My colleagues have published many papers before. I have not published anything yet. Ideally, we would like to include me as an (additional) applicant, because I have written most of the application, but we worry it might lower our chance of getting the grant. Does any of you have experience with this and can tell us if our worry is warranted?


texts: How should a PhD student approach a collaboration?

texts:
I'm a PhD student at a top-ten university in the UK. I'm just starting the second year of my social science doctorate. I'm way 'ahead' of where I should be at the moment in terms of words written, research done etc, so I've got some time to build my CV and that kind of thing. In the past few months I've come to recognize the critical importance of getting published during the PhD to getting a postdoc at a good University, so I want to get something published. I'm working on two papers on my own - one a full length, one more of an opinion piece (the journal in question calls it a 'viewpoint'), but I recently met at a conference someone I'd be very interested in doing a collaboration with.

So, my basic question is - should I just email him and suggest my idea? Or should I begin by just chatting about the conference? He's a lecturer in another university, one higher up the league tables than we are (not Oxbridge). We got on really well at the conference and had a lot of academic work to talk about. I also considered getting some of his papers/books and getting a much better feel for the details of his work and then starting a conversation based on some questions/comments on his work. This therefore feeds into a wider "mechanics of academia" question - is this how collaborations start in general? Person A just finds a suitable Person B and emails them with an idea for a paper they both have appropriate expertise to write? Thanks in advance!


texts: How do you get back into teaching after being overseas for 10 years and lacking good computer skills?

texts:
This isn't about myself, so kindly bare with me. I'll try to make this question as generic as possible.
I already read U.S. humanities professors: Can you get back into academia if you leave? and Does taking an academic job in Asia or Africa make it difficult to get a job in the US or Europe later?  but they aren't a good match for my question.
A friend got a PhD in mechanical engineering at 2000 from a tier 1 university in US. Then he moved back to his home country and started teaching there. Now he is back in the US. His computer skills and knowledge of industry related softwares are limited. He just taught core mechanical engineering courses with 2-3 national papers published. His English is very good though. No problem there.
What are his best options of teaching? I initially thought that he would be able to teach in (community) colleges, but then most colleges are teaching CS, social sciences, economy, healthcare, math or at best chemistry. Most of them don't have anything related to engineering, let alone mechanical engineering
i.e. thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, etc.
Currently what I'm thinking is that his best option is to just teach math in colleges. Are there any better solutions?


texts: Affiliation when submitting a revised paper

texts:
I recently started (last week) a post-doc position and I have a submitted paper which got an R&R  before finishing my Ph.D and having this post-doc position.
I will resubmit the paper this week and my current director says that I should change the affiliation on the revised version of the paper and mention that the paper is financially supported by the institution where I am a post-doctoral fellow.

I wonder if it is correct and ethical to change the affiliation because 99,9% of the work has been done under the financial support of the institution where I have done my Ph.D.


texts: Should bad prior work be ignored, or cited and criticised?

texts:
A high citation rate is desirable in academia.  Citing other work doesn't cost much, so citations are cheap to give but desirable to get.  That brings me to the question:

If a previous article addresses a topic similar to the one I'm writing, is that a sufficient reason to cite it?  Or should the prior article meet a minimum quality to "deserve" a citation?  To put it bluntly: if I'm aware of a prior crappy article, should I ignore it, or cite it and write why it's crap (of course in a more diplomatic way)?

In my field, some articles questioning anthropogenic climate change get quite a lot of citations from colleagues pointing out flaws in their reasoning or statistics...

Note that I'm exclusively talking about peer-reviewed publications.


texts: What should someone who works at a tech company that isn't associated with the work list as affiliation?

texts:
I am preparing to submit a paper with a friend who is working at a tech company.  The company that he is working with is in no way associated with our research work.  Is it appropriate to list his employer as his affiliated institution?  Otherwise, I would leave his affiliated institution field blank.  Or, should I list the institution where he graduated from 2 years ago?

Update: Thank you very much for all of your feedback, answers, comments, and suggestions.  We really appreciate it.  I discussed with my collaborator and we will likely be listing him as an "Independent Researcher".  Although, we concluded that it wouldn't be unreasonable to list his employer purely as a personal affiliation (or point of contact) as long as he got approval from their HR department.


texts: When should one include the proof of known results in a mathematical PhD thesis?

texts:
When writing a PhD thesis on mathematics one needs to quote many results by others, such as

The following theorem was proved by ABC in [1].
Theorem. Bla, bla, bla...

My question is when should one include a proof of the result in his/her PhD thesis, if it is basically the same as in the reference? I do not quite see the point of copy-pasting the proof by others. Of course if one has a completely different proof of the same result, it is probably suitable to include it.


texts: How to bibliographise forthcoming sources to appear in a Festschrift

texts:
It’s not uncommon, at least not in my field, to refer to articles, books, chapters, etc., which have not yet been published. In in-text citations, these simply appear as Author (fc.) (or forthc. or forthcoming) instead of Author (2020).
Generally, in bibliographies, you’ll write as many details as you can about where the source will appear – often you can write either “To appear in Journal Name” or “In Editor Name (ed.), Book Title” since these things are generally known as soon as the source in question is accepted for publication.
But what do you do when the source has been accepted for publication in a Festschrift? Naturally, the details will likely have been worked out already, but an essential part of the nature of a Festschrift is that its existence must remain a secret from the person it’s dedicated to until it’s handed over to them. So you can’t just write “In Editor Name (ed.), Book Title, Festschrift to XYZ” in a bibliography, because that would likely spoil the whole thing (and you likely don’t know the editor(s) and title anyway, since such details are kept within as small a group as possible up until publication).
I am co-editing a volume in which one chapter refers to such an article. At the moment, the bibliography simply says, “To appear in a Festschrift”, which strikes me as rather… clunky and odd. Somehow both too vague and too specific. I considered leaving it out altogether, so only the author and the name of the article remains, but that would imply (to me, as a reader) that the article had not yet been accepted for publication, which I do believe it has.
Are there more or less standard strategies for informing the reader that an article has been accepted for publication in a specific location, but without actually giving that location?


texts:
I am trying to submit a manuscript to an Elsevier journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (RSER) and found the author guidelines most confusing. For example, under author guidelines, it is said that

Use of word processing software

It is important that the file be saved in the native format of the
word processor used. The text should be in single-column format. Keep
the layout of the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes
will be removed and replaced on processing the article. In particular,
do not use the word processor's options to justify text or to
hyphenate words.

Then it recommends

to use the latest Elsevier article class to prepare your manuscript
and BibTeX to generate your bibliography.

Now, there are two classes and templates available for Latex: cas-dc and cas-sc, one for the double column and one for the single column. Now I am confused,
(a) Which template to use for the submission? Single column cas-sc or double column cas-dc? The author instructions or the user guide for the templates does not guide when to use which template.
(b) The aforementioned instructions are for the source file? Latex source file is already in the single column format.
(c) What should be the layout of the output PDF? Single column or double column? The journal publishes article in the double column format!
(d) Should the PDF files have justified text or ragged right? Latex templates provided by Elsevier produce PDF files with justified text.
I will be thankful if someone can help me out with this. The confusing author guidelines can be found here.


texts: Include year range in the Google Scholar query

texts:
Can I include the year range search criteria in the query itself?

For example, if I want to search for a few words that an author published on the specific conference, I would form the query this way:

some few words author:"An Author" source:"A Venue"

However, if I want to constrain the search to only a specific year range, that is done by clicking to the Advanced Search button and entering the range there. As something like:

some few words author:"An Author" source:"A Venue" year:2016 year:2017

does not work, is there a way to enter the year range within the query itself?


texts:
So in writing a math paper, if I am writing a proof of a theorem and I need to refer a lemma that comes later in the same paper. What is the proper way
to say that? For example if I am proving a theorem in page 10 and I need a lemma
in page 15, how should I say that in the proof?


texts:
Imagine you want to apply for a stipend. Only the top 10% of ones class are eligible. The final grade distribution (German grades) is like this

1.0 - 3%
1.1 - 2.5%
1.2 - 7%
...

The complete table comes as an official addendum to your transcript of records, which shows your own final grade.
Obviously the university screwed up the grading in the past years and gave out way too good grades, which led to a kind of inflation. In other fields at the same university it's more like

1.0 - 0.1%
1.1 - 0.3%
1.2 - 2 % ...

Imagine now one has a 1.2. Can he just say he is top 10% based on this table? IMO one has to be opportunistic here and not think much about it: Less than 10% have a better grade than you -> you are top 10%. People will probably not even check the table, as 1.2 is usually much better than top 10%.
But my friend in question has a bad feeling about it and is "scared" it will be conceived as cheating. What's your opinion on this? Is there any authoritative legal information on this?


texts: Comparison between benefits of publishing a paper at a conference and a journal

texts:
My friends submit their papers at different conferences. They visit to another university or institute in India or abroad to present their work at a gathering of researchers which is formally called conference. To celebrate it they share snapshots in Facebook, discuss their experience of a foreign trip, grand dinners, gossiping with new friends, so on and so forth.

To continue a good piece of research work, one face a lot of hardness and difficulties. Hence, one may expect maximum benefit from it. My question is how beneficial submitting a paper at highly reputed journal rather than a highly reputed conference academically? Which one is better?

Please compare between the benefit of a journal and a conference publication from different perspective. Note that, I am at the very beginning of my research career in Mathematics.


texts: What is the best job for fresh graduates to improve chance of being admitted to top grad programs?

texts:
I have just obtained my B.Eng degree and I intend to pursuit a career in academia. However I decided not to immediately go to grad school in the USA.

During this time, I am considering among different working options to improve my graduate profile to top grad programs. Please help me evaluate between these 3 options, and clarify my doubts in each option. Besides, which is the most common option, for someone who does not want to immediately study PhD right after bachelor's?

To work in industry, while continuing doing research with my mentor in my free time. Then I would apply for grad schools this autumn. With this option, I will have more industrial experience but less time to finish my journal article and for research. My question is I'm not sure if the above industrial position would help my PhD admissions in any positive way. Keep in mind that the job is not related to my research interests but the skills I learn might be helpful for grad studies (programming skills in other languages, for example).
To work full-time as a teaching and research assistant (RTA) in my undergrad university. Then I would apply for grad schools this autumn. With this option, I will spend most time doing research, which I enjoy a lot, have more time to finish my journal article, and even have a chance to write more papers. However, it's unlikely that the status of my future pubs would be "published", or even "accepted", by the grad admissions deadline (December this year). Another thing I'm wondering is, is RTA considered a serious and legitimate "job" in the USA? Does it negatively affect my grad admission in any possible way? For example, the admission committee might think that I am not mature enough to pursuit a "real" job after graduation? By the way, this RTA position I'm aiming for is full-time.
To attend a MS program at a prestigious university in Europe or Asia. Then I would apply for PhD in the US after its 2-year program. With this option, I can have a degree from a more famous institution, considering the fact that my undergrad institution is not well-known internationally. I think that a degree from a repute university would be a boost to my application. Am I right? Even if I am right, is it worth my time? However, I realized there are many drawbacks to this route: potentially not over-the-top master GPA due to the rigor of the program, much less time or even no time for research due to heavy coursework. Even worse, I came to know that US grad schools often do not value master degree from other countries, which mean I would very likely have to repeat many coursework if I am accepted to a US PhD program.

Some size notes:

My field is engineering, however, I gladly welcome answers from people with different fields.
My current mentor has some very good contacts in top US grad programs. This make the purpose of Option 3 less appealing.


texts: Post Doc application form in France asks for very personal details, is it normal?

texts:
I'm trying to get an engineering post doc which I will conduct at a company's R&D labs, however I need to jump through all of the sponsoring university's hoops. I just received their application form and some of the questions are very personal. I thought such questions would be illegal in any European country. Are questions like your marital status, number and name of your children, date, place of birth...normal?
The number of ways a candidate maybe discriminated against based on their responses would be exponential.


texts: Pedagogy for trustworthy versus untrustworthy news sources through free datasets

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Teaching students to distinguish between trustworthy and untrustworthy sources of news has taken on an increased urgency recently, and the Chronicle of Higher Education recently described this as a higher education trend for 2017. Are there any freely available datasets on this issue that are amenable to the pedagogy of statistics?

In particular, I am looking for any dataset on trustworthy versus untrustworthy news sources, or on related issues, such as how the use of different media sources is associated with how well informed a person is. My goal is to integrate one or more datasets into undergraduate statistics courses in psychology, one course for 2nd year students and the other for 4th year. I'm certainly willing to simplify the data for teaching purposes if necessary.


texts: How to handle relevant, but disruptive, questions

texts:
I've seen on this site several posts about how to handle silly or "trolling" questions, but I recently faced the opposite situation. Several students in a class I'm teaching continuously bring up questions that are relevant to the lecture and/or interesting; however, they ask so many questions that it tends to disrupt the lecture by throwing off the pace and flow of the presentation (e.g., I lose my train of thought or I have to speed up to finish the lecture on time). I don't want to discourage questions, but at the same time, I don't think it is fair to entertain so many questions if it results in a lowering of the lecture's quality.

A solution that I tried is telling the students that they can come to office hours or make an appointment with me to talk. However, most of them don't take me up on those offers, and those who do take advantage of my offer sometimes come with so many questions that I cannot answer them all within the time I've set aside for office hours/teaching appointments.

Since this is limited to a small (but vocal) subset of my students, I don't think the issue is with the quality of my teaching. Otherwise I would expect (and hope) that more people would be asking questions or giving some other indication that I'm not being clear.

Is there any way to handle this sort of situation without coming across as uninterested in student questions or discouraging questions from being posed? I truly am interested in making sure everyone is understanding the material, but at the same time, I cannot be devoting large amounts of time above and beyond what I'm already devoting to teaching.


texts: Got rejected with limited scientific validity

texts:
I recently submitted an abstract to a conference and got accepted. However, the full paper to be included in the proceedings has been rejected by just one reviewer with a comment of "manuscript of limited scientific validity". I still can't understand the reason and if this is fair to be judged by just one reviewer. Should I ask to reexamine it?

The topic is regarding the development of a numerical code where I compare the results with the theoretically expected ones. Therefore I do not solve a problem but show that the numerical code works,


texts: Asking for official e-mail address from ex-employer University for publication?

texts:
I am no longer affiliated with a University. In the instance that I publish a paper (co-author or otherwise), is it appropriate for me to e-mail my old University and ask them for a staff e-mail? This journal is highly ranked. I don't know how the University rankings work so maybe they will look favorably upon this if more publications under that University's name means a higher ranking expectation.

I used to have a staff e-mail but they destroyed it when my contract terminated.


texts: I often find academics with tenured bracketed beside their position. What is meant by a tenured position? Is this different from a permanent teaching position?


texts: I started my dissertation and I want some advices in how to start the literature review. I know that it should be systematic and not a simple summary of each book or article. But my doubts relate to citations, i.e. not how to include them, but if I should start from the most recent work to the odelst. Second, if I should use Word for citations or  other softwares.


texts: Who are the editors of the Proceedings of the Survey Research Methods Section?

texts: I want to cite a paper published in the Proceedings of the Survey Research Methods Section. But I cannot find who the editors are/were or if there are any at all.


texts: What's the chance of a lecturer in foreign country to obtain a teaching job in US community college?

texts:
I'm asking this question for my mom, who has been a college lecturer for 20+ years in communication study related field in non-English speaking country. She got her master degree in US back in 1990.

My parents received their green cards(US permanent resident) about 3 years ago and are debating between whether to completely stay in US (so they can satisfy the requirement of applying for citizenship as soon as possible) or to stay in US just enough to keep the permanent resident (so they can still work in the home country for a while).

The issue is, if both of them quit their jobs to completely settle in US. In the next few years the only income of the family will mostly** be my* TA-ship as a Ph.D. student (in math), which can hardly support the entire family.

Therefore, my mom contacted me and asked me this question recently. I have little idea about it, so I'm looking for help here.

Thanks for any suggestion in advance.

*I'm a US citizen who was born in the US.

**My dad can work online, but the income will drop significantly.


texts: Pumping up my GRE score, or getting some publishing under my belt?

texts:
I took an nontraditional track to academia. I went from the professional world, to full time community college educator (media/communications). Now as I plan to go forward, I realize that I NEED a PhD to move on.  Problem, my GRE scores is awful and my Masters was a tacticians degree rather than a theoretical one. So I have no publication history.

So in order to get into a decent PhD program (I will have to change fields from Communications to Education since there are no PhD programs in my field in proximity to my tuition reimbursing institution), should I focus on pumping up my GRE score, or getting some publishing under my belt? While the second sounds like a lot more fun, I wonder if a good set of publications would matter if my GRE is abysmal?


texts: How should I break-up with a second author?

texts: My advisors told me he wants to help me publish the theoretical section of my dissertation. He offered it! I have written my part, but he hasn't done his section. It's been a year. I have reminded him a few times, but he doesn't keep his promise. I know I have to move on and publish this piece on my own. I just don't know how to tell him! Is this common? I know he helps others, so I feel ignored.


texts:
Consider the following scenario:

  A is working on a problem X and has unpublished new material. A is
  then asked to review a paper: upon reading the abstract, A realizes
  that the authors are also working on problem X and appear to have
  duplicated some of A's unpublished material (the results - not clear
  from the abstract if the approach is also duplicated).

A now has four possibilities:

decline to review the paper, or review it
stop working on X, or continue to work on it

The safest combination might be to (decline to review, and stop working), but would it also be legitimate to (decline to review, and continue working) ?


texts: Should numeration of a list of axioms be continued?

texts:
I have a definition like the following:

Definition System of sides is ... conforming to axioms:

...
...
...

Definition Monotone system of sides is a system of sides conforming to additional axiom:

...

Definition Distributive system of sides is a system of sides conforming to additional axiom:

...

My question: Should I continue numbering of axioms as above, or should the additional axioms be numbered from one (not from four or five as above)?

Also note, that every distributive system of sides is a monotone system of sides.


texts: Authoring unverified common-knowledge statements in papers about quality software-engineering?

texts:
Writing a software-engineering paper where I'm saying things like:

  Quality software-engineering/software-design means developing modularised, tested, documented, maintainable, extensible and understandable source-code.

But that sounds a little grandiose especially without multiple references. I can find many textbooks & articles which say similar, but I can't find the first reference (have gone through Google Scholar as far back as the 1940s).

Is there some special way of referencing, e.g.: do I just take the most popular relevant textbook and quote that?


texts: Writing References for a Weaker Candidate

texts:
Two of my students interns have applied for graduate school and are now asking me for references. Both did well, but one did really well. The weaker student is still excellent, and will do well in grad school I’m sure, but my reference for him will not be as strong.

They are applying to some of the same programs.

How do I reflect their ranking in the letters without completely killing the weaker candidate’s chances?

How honest do I get with the weaker candidate? I think it may be better that they apply to more (and different) programs, but don’t want them to get the impression they are not good enough.

More context:

The interns worked on one project together where the weaker student was the lead (culminated in a submission to a top venue). The stronger intern had a separate project that he successfully completed, in addition to two more projects that are currently in the works.
Both are applying to top US schools.


texts: How long are typical letters of recommendation for grad school admission?

texts: Is it bad if a letter of recommendation for graduate school is over 1 page, like 1.5 pages?


texts: Are there any Universities that accept PhD students based on Research Proposals?

texts:
I am firm on the problem I want to work (with publications and arcticles to support, for which I have already done significant work)) and I'd like to know if there are any PhD programmes that accept students primarily based on research proposals? Especially in the fields of mathematics or machine learning theory. A google search couldn't give much results. I am interested to know any in the US and Europe.

Most of the universities in US do not seem to be interested in research proposals and they don't ask for it.


texts: Avoiding offense when asking about taking a course without watching lectures

texts:
I'm a student in a part-time graduate program that is delivered online.  I had been hoping to enroll in a particular course that, until recently, was indicated as scheduled to be offered in the upcoming course period.  However, due to a last-minute change in who is teaching the course, it is no longer available online -- on-campus only.

In my experience so far in the program, there have been some courses for which I find the video lectures very helpful to grasping the material (e.g. computer security) and some courses where I've found the associated textbook / slides / problems much more useful and essentially totally ignored the video lectures (e.g. digital signal processing, linear dynamical systems, etc.).  I suspect that this particular course would most likely fall in the latter category.

Since I was very much looking forward to taking this particular course and don't want to drastically reshuffle my program of study, I want to ask the professor about taking the course remotely anyway and simply learning via the text, homework, and the online discussion forum.  (I would be able to occasionally show up in person for exams, etc. -- I'm local, but not close enough to realistically be able to attend lectures on a regular basis)  If he suggests that this isn't a great idea, I'd be receptive to that advice.  However, I'm worried that even asking the question might cause offense, as it basically implies that I consider his particular lectures to be unnecessary.  Is it a bad idea to suggest this kind of arrangement?


texts: Can you do a post graduate in Math(or some other hard sciences) if you major in a soft science?

texts:
It seems possible to go from soft sciences to hard sciences. For example one professor in my philosophy department initially did math as an undergraduate. So I am wondering can you go the opposite way, for example from psychology to maths (maybe because Maths seem to be more fun).

(Sorry if I'm asking a repeat question)


texts: I would like to hire a postdoc who is working for another institute as part time consultant for my (proposed) federally funded project (in USA). But I don't know if this is even possible for a full time postdoc paid by a private university. Is this a plausible scenario, or should I forget about it?


texts: Contacting Potential Advisor After Being Waitlisted for PhD Admissions

texts:
I applied to a few PhD programs in the US (engineering, fall 2017), but didn't contact any potential advisers before (huge mistake, I know, but somehow I got accepted into a few of them anyways).

However, I was waitlisted for the program I wanted the most.

So, I would like to know if it would be wise to get in touch with my potential adviser now, and tell him about my research background and ask if he would be willing to advise me. I'm a little afraid that this might be seen as rude or unpleasant..

This may be a bit personal, but I'm sure there are a lot of experienced people in this group who might have been through this same situation before... Any hint would be extremely helpful right now...

Thank you!


texts: How to deal with fear of exams, perfectionism, and feeling inadequate?

texts:
I will get straight to the point without much details about my mental state. I am currently studying Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. I would say that it is a demanding program. My school is considered the "hardest" to get into in my country, and we have many different courses involving math, physics, introductory computer science, electronics etc.
I know I have to deal with many issues with my self-esteem, but I would really love to hear some advice on what to do when I feel like I am not sufficiently prepared to take an exam. This happens even in cases where I watched every (or almost every) class, did coursework etc. throughout the semester, but found that I struggled with past papers some days before the exam. This makes me feel like I do not "deserve" to get a good mark if I don't study everything properly. It's like I imagine every possible scenario of failure in my head and I reject to even take the exam even though my school offers me the chance to take it again.
I am afraid to ask my professor for advice on this issue because I do not want him to feel like I care only about my grades and not the actual course, because in most of my courses I really try to care and find a deeper meaning. But I have seen (comparing to my classmates) that this is not a good study approach for finals. I feel confused, weak, and embarrassed.
My therapist asked me why I am so afraid, and I think it's because I relate my grades to whether I am good enough to follow my academic goals. For example, if I really like the course, I feel like I am not eligible to further follow related courses if I did not excel. And if I do not like the course, I feel like I have to excel because it's mandatory in my field and it shows my ability to adapt. I also feel like succeeding properly involves studying everything even if it's not appealing, because otherwise I feel like I am cheating my self, my education, and my "profession".
How can I deal with this?


texts: My phd advisor is being abusive. I cannot switch - too close to the end. Dissertation is mediocre and I cannot get the help I need to improve. Adviser's colleagues will publish the main ideas of diss without me (long story) because of data overlap. Please send a happy thought or encouragement. I would like something non-school-related to distract me, Sorry so plaintive.


texts: How to format a citation in the abstract

texts: This is a follow on to Are citations in abstracts considered bad style? It is unclear to me how to format the citation. Are citations in the abstract covered by any style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, AMS, etc) and how do they depend on if a numeric system is being used versus an author-year type system?


texts: Can a journal withhold referee reports from the authors of a rejected paper?

texts: We submitted a paper to a journal published by Cambridge Press. The paper was submitted last year (2013). After five months we got the decision yesterday. We don't mind the decision, however, we are shocked by the editorial comments that although they have the reports they don't relay the reports to the author/s for papers which are not proceeding further. Is this approach common in journals? We feel this is very unethical from any author's point of view.


texts:
I am a Ph.D. student of computer science and just have started working on a research problem. Some fellow Ph.D. students have mentioned the term research visit. For a professor, these things make sense, but as a Ph.D. student I am not getting what it means. There are some precise questions related to this below:

What does research visit mean?
What is the significance of it in Ph.D.?
What is the typical duration of a research visit?


texts: How relevant a PhD that takes >8 years would be, specially in STEM fields?

texts:
I am thinking of starting a PhD in CS while holding a full time job. If someone has a full-time job and starts a part-time PhD, it's reasonable to expect the PhD to take more than 8 years to be completed. I am wondering how relevant such a PhD would be, considering how fast some areas of CS are advancing.

For example my area of interest (and where I have practical experience) is computer vision and statistical learning. If I had started a PhD thesis, let's say in 2010, then by 2019 my thesis topic would most likely be redundant, considering all the advancement in computer vision and machine learning in the past decade.

I guess I am trying to get more insight from the more experienced people.


texts: How to ask for a letter of rec from a first semester professor in a masters' program?

texts:
How to ask for a letter of rec to apply for PhD prospectively from a first semester professor in a masters' program who I won't take any future courses with?

Assume I receive an A but I'll never take classes with them again, and they'll probably forget about me. I won't apply to PhD programs as a masters student until I graduate.

Option 1: Ask for an informal letter of rec, sent to me, and I keep it for references/jobs that don't require confidential letters withheld from me.

Option 2: Don't ask at all.

Option 3: Have them write something pretending that I'm already graduated from the masters program, and archive it on some disk. Trust that they won't lose it or "write it" or have them sent it to some other professor who is the department head.

Option 4: Risk asking them later when they forget about me.


texts: How to do a flawless and natural presentation?

texts:
I have been attending a number of academic / professional conferences recently and one thing that really awed me was the flawless and natural way in which the speakers presented on their topics.

Sure, they had the occasional mispronunciations or awkward pauses but they spoke with authority and confidence.

Some of them used powerpoint slides but were not reading from the slides; they were just talking on the points and they had so much to say on each point that I felt they could not do it without notes, but they were not even looking at their notes most of the time.

(The advantages of not looking at their notes too much was that they could maintain eye contact and could use very interesting slides that were not crammed with the dot points of their speeches.)

I hate to think that they had memorised their speech notes but some of the presentations went for more than an hour.

I know rehearsal is important but I wonder how could anyone remember so much in a nervous situation. (Its one thing to know everything on your topic; its another thing to present that 'everything'!)

Question:
What background / foreground things do presenters do that make their presentations flawless and natural?


texts: Applying for Applied Math PhD as a non-math major (Letters of Recommendation, etc.)

texts:
This is my first post, so I'm not be fully familiar with the etiquette of posting on this forum, but I'll do my best.
I graduated Summa Cum Laude in May from a reputable university with a major in finance. During my final semester, I took Linear Algebra and I noticed that I might have an affinity for mathematics. So, I took Calculus II at a community college over the summer, and I self-studied some Abstract Algebra. I also noticed that from the financial courses that I have taken, ones that dealt mostly with data and probability theory were my favorite. I then decided to pursue a PhD in Applied Math and have been preparing my application, so it'll be ready by December.
So far, I took the GRE and got scores above the 90th percentile in both sections. I was supposed to take the GRE Math test, but last week ETS cancelled it for this year. I'm also planning on taking Calc III and Mathematical Proofs in the Fall, then Real Analysis in the Spring. As I was narrowing down the list of professors to reach out for recommendation letters, I got into some issues that I was hoping this forum would help me with.
At this point, a well-established professor of mine has agreed to write me a good recommendation letter after getting the highest grade in his class (which is considered to be really hard finance course in my school). I did an independent study with a history professor; when I thought of requesting a letter from him, I wondered whether he would be helpful considering I only did a qualitative research with him. I also was the TA for a Management and Organizations class, so I considered a recommendation letter from my professor. Lastly, I was considering asking for a letter from a professor whom I wrote an economics research paper for.
About the professors mentioned above, do you think any of their LOCs would be helpful for my application? I ask particularly because I am applying from a non-traditional background.
I apologize for this lengthy post. The application process is starting to stress me out particularly because most educational institutions have stopped major research until further notice. So I'm stuck with the experiences that I have done.
Thank you!
P.S. My undergrad degree is from the US, and I plan on applying for a PhD in the US as well.


texts: At undergrad level I was short-listed for the most prestigious award at my university (best graduate of that year). I however did not receive it. I did not get any paper or other evidence stating that I was short-listed. I only know this because my personal tutor told me. She also mentions it in her reference letter for me. Should I include this in my CV? Such as: Shortlisted for award X?


texts:
What do you do if after 6 years of being an assistant professor, you come up for, and are denied tenure?

How hard is it to get a job in industry, when you are middle aged and have no relevant work experience? How hard is it to get another job in academia? Who wants to hire someone who was denied tenure at their home institution?


texts:
Almost a decade ago, when I was a young student, one of my professors invited me to make a tiny undergraduate research under his supervision. The idea was to solve an optimization problem with applications in our country. I wrote five simple solutions: three of them using mathematical models, a fourth one using an algorithm, and a fifth one adapting the latter for computational implementation (I had to design data structures, rewrite the algorithm, etc.)

The only contributions the "leader of the project" (the guy who invited me) made were to suggest me to use a specific algorithm for the second paper, and then implement it as a computer software.

Here is the problem: when I gave him my LaTeX originals for the three resulting articles in a pen drive (I didn't have much experience with e-mails back then), he recompiled my articles with his name as first author, even when it's last name comes after mine in alphabetical order ... even when he did virtually nothing! He said he sent them to the university journal for publication, beacause I couldn't send them myself (he said).

Since I gave him the LaTeX sources of my articles in person, I don't have a record of my complete authoring. Even worse, I was young so I believed every word he said, and even put in my resume the description "Co-authored with [name-of-Professor]", so I naively acknowledged his name.

It has been 10 years from that moment, and I haven't found any of my articles to have been ever published. This professor said he was the advisor, so his name should be included, even when his apport was marginally minimal, and that I couldn't send them to another journal until we get a response from the university journal.

Now I want to publish the articles as chapters of a tiny textbook I am writing, but I think he doesn't deserve his name to be mentioned in any way in this work. Is there any way I could achieve this? Nobody has been able to help me on this matter here in my country.

I really want to publish these articles. They are not exceptional in any sense, but they are part of my work as a young mathematician, and they're even an important achievement, since I wrote them without previously knowing the subject. So they are important for me.

Thanks in advance for your answers!


texts: Should I report cheating to my professor? If so, how?

texts:
My professor reuses old tests. I have no idea why she told us this, but she did. In class today I noticed someone reviewing last years test, with the answers circled, on their computer in google drive, along with several other tests for this course that have not occurred yet. The test is in two days, and I know that this person will most likely have the answers memorized so it will be impossible to prove anything unethical is happening during the exam to a proctors perspective. Not only does this student have the exams, though, but many others. Apparently fraternities hold onto these and share them amongst each other.

When posting about this on Yik Yak, and my irritation with this, I received many yaks back threatening me should I turn people in, saying they would find me and hurt me. I have no reason to believe anyone knows what class I noticed the cheating in, or who I am, but this has me unsettled.

I have been studying and will continue to study for this test, and I find it infuriating that others don't need to bother with studying at all. I work hard for everything, and I do not want to get screwed over for this. The tests are curved so that the mean score for every test is a C+, and a large group of students who score well through cheating will undermine those who did not cheat on the curve.

What do I do?


texts: Question on "Awaiting Production Checklist" Status for Manuscript

texts:
After my paper was accepted, the status in the ScholarOne manuscript center changed from accepted to "accept" with the additional "awaiting production checklist".

Now it has been about 3-4 weeks with this status after the acceptance. I would like to ask from you: does this status sounds like a normal status after acceptance?  Personally, I would think and expect the status now be, for example, "checklist complete"? I have received so far only the official acceptance mail.
I also would like to know how long the delay may be after acceptance to the first on-line view (the journal does not indicate the different dates of acceptance, on-line etc.)?


texts: What should I do when the recommender is not replying?

texts:
I am applying for Ph.D. in US universities. I already applied in some places and suggested my recommenders name as well. Now one of my recommender (who previously wrote a recommendation letter for me) is unreachable. I mean I wrote her earlier and she gave me permission. Also, I had a copy of her letter which she sent me earlier. I wrote her emails but she did not respond.
Now my question is can I ask the universities (where I applied) if they will accept the letter from me as my recommender is unavailable at the moment? If I have to ask, whom should I ask? The graduate program coordinator or the graduate office? Will it make a negative impact on my candidacy?
(All my application papers, other two LORs have been submitted, only this one is left)
Also, it is quite impossible to manage another recommender as the university is closed and the deadlines are nearer.


texts: Discovered that my BA topic has been discussed thoroughly ...after i finished half of it. What to do?

texts:
I've found out from other professors that my topic for B.A. research is something that has already been covered thoroughly. My B.A. research topic covers the hindrances affecting high school students from achieving good English speaking skills. It is a subject that I've been quite passionate about and my supervisor never gave me any negative remark about it. I started to read deeply about it and was discussing it with two other professors. They both gave me this shocking remark that this topic has been thoroughly dealt with before. I really feel frustrated and disappointed, for I feel that I'm just wasting time not adding anything new!!!
I don't know what I should do now?!!


texts: Am I responsible for not reproducibility of collaborators’ result?

texts: Recently, I have ran into some issues about reproducibility of some of my research results which are obtained by our collaborators from different university. In fact, in our current repository there are some saved figures and plots which are significantly different from the results of current scripts written by our collaborators. I knew this issue from the beginning but our collaborators explicitly mentioned in their emails that those results are not relevant and the current results which could be obtained from current codes are credible to use, so I didn’t care too much and just used the current results which seem more relevant to me for my presentations, proposal, etc. Recently, my PhD advisor tried to prepare a presentation based on those results and I don’t know why he insists to reproduce those old results which are not matched with current results obtainable by current codes. He sent me an email and its language was like it’s my fault that we could not reproduce those results from collaborators. As a result, I’m thinking am I the one that should be blamed here really? BTW I sent an email to our collaborators and asked for clarification which I didn’t get any response yet. Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated about how to deal with this problem.


texts: What's the expected level of paper for top conferences in Computer Science

texts:
What's the expected level of paper to be submitted to top level conferences in theoretical computer science (FOCS/SODA/STOC)?

I think there should be four main concern:

Is it a novel results?
How hard is the paper?
Generality and extension of the results.
Is it an interesting topic?

But actually I cannot imagine how reviewers are going to measure above concerns, e.g, If in some paper there is 10 mediocre result means is good? ...., also I don't know is there any other important thing that we should be careful about it for top conferences.

Actually someone can try to send the paper to the FOCS/SODA/STOC and see if is rejected then send it to some other conferences, but IMHO this is not appreciated. It's good if referees to related conferences help to understand what did they expecting for top conferences?

P.S1: Actually one of an important things in all the conferences is writing style, but suppose all preliminary stuffs like writing are OK.

P.S2: I could talk about this with my adviser, but also it's very appreciated to see other top conferences reviewers/participants/... opinion about this.

P.S3: Also experience of reviewers in similar fields would be very appreciated.


texts: Can I use an independent research to get a master degree?

texts: I have an undergraduate degree, and I do some of independent research on my own, so I was thinking if universities have some kind of offer where I can use it, and I mean in exchange for my research I'll get the master degree without following the course, or anything that looks like that, any resources or references where I can look ?


texts: Non-profit organization, IRB Approval, and publishing?

texts:
I'm working with a non-profit organization at the moment and we're planning to conduct a survey on ~93,000 to find certain attitudes and the correlation associated with them.
We're hoping on having our results being published in a reputable journal if possible, because we've done a lot of research and background reading to have a pretty solid study design written down.
Is it necessary for us to have IRB approval to publish in a reputable Psychology/Educational academic journal?
Additionally, even if it's not explicitly stated in the manuscript guidelines, are there "unspoken" rules about stating IRB approval before submission?


texts: Should I address all my research experience in my personal statment?

texts: I'm an undergraduate applying for PhD in engineering, and I've been involved in 3 different research projects. The first project is rather unexciting for me, and I chose not to ask the professor for a letter of recommendation. But I still worked on it for about 8 months and did some solid work (no publication though). As I do not intend to work in the same area for my graduate study, I don't want to talk about that project (have to keep the statement concise!), but will it seem weird if there's a research experience in my resume that's not mentioned anywhere else in my other application documents?


texts: What is the weight of GRE analytical-writing scores on math graduate-program admissions?

texts:
I'll be applying to math PhD programs at the end of this year. I’m practicing for the math subject test, lining up letters of recommendation, etc. Along those lines, I just took the GRE general test.

What I've learned from math professors at some of my target schools is that the quantitative portion of the general GRE can only hurt potential applicants. No one in a math graduate admissions role will be impressed with a perfect quant score but a low score will absolutely raise flags.   What I didn’t ask, and what I’m now curious about, is the effect of an average analytical-writing score on an application.

From what I understand, I wont be the biggest fish in any candidate pool. The upcoming GRE Math Subject test is extremely difficult and weighed heavily for a candidate like myself (not from a traditionally strong undergraduate math program). There will be applicants from better schools and applicants with better subject scores. If I expect to compete, it will be because my application successfully signals a strong candidacy for a teaching assistant role.

To that end, do admissions officers in math graduate programs ever look at analytical-writing scores? What is the difference, hypothetically, between a 4.0 and a 5.0? I’m interested in analyzing the cost/benefit of retaking the GRE exclusively to improve my analytical-writing score.

I ran out of time and can likely improve (literally cut off mid-sentence, didn’t finish editing/deleting my outlined thoughts)
$200 is not a trivial cost but I would consider it given the possibility of a tangible benefit.
I’m not an international student.
I will have at least one submitted math publication by December.


texts: What is the normal length for a research paper?

texts: I did a survey on the demand for complementary medicine among patients of the gynaecologcial department here in Munich. We collected a couple of hundred questionnaires and I am currently writing my research paper. Since I do not know yet to which journal I am going to submit it, I wanted to adopt a very normal and standard structure/style. I was wondering now whether there are predefined standards of length concerning research papers, in particular regarding word count. I intuitively try to stay under 3000, but would it be ok to exceed that number? Moreover, is it fine to have, for example, a comparatively brief introduction and method section but a rather extensive discussion section? Or do the different sections have predefined standards too?


texts: Is it common to include author without any contribution in a paper?

texts: I have recently finished a paper and send it to my supervisor for review. He corrected it and before submission, he added some authors (some labmates, collaborators) who have no idea about my project. Also, he did not even ask me before adding though I worked so hard for that project. How ethical it is? Because he is my supervisor, I could not raise my voice. But I think this is not right. Is it so common phenomenon in academia?


texts: Is talking to a professor about personal issues acceptable?

texts:
I've been struggling a lot recently with stuff thats been going on, I'm in therapy and receiving help but I'm still having a really hard time. I have a professor who's always asking if I'm doing okay even though I've never told him anything about what's been going on. The other day he came up to me and told me if I needed anything, or even just someone to listen, I could come to him. I kind of want to talk to him, but I'm scared of bothering him and I don't know how I would go about it.

If I should talk to him, should I go to his office hours and ask? Or should I send an email because he doesn't have office hours for another week?


texts: European fellowships for neuroscience or anatomy?

texts:
I'm not sure this kind of question is appropriate here, but if not here, probably nowhere else.

I'm interested to know if there is a) any mailing list for jobs in neuroscience or anatomy (apart from the computer vision and machine learning mailing lists), specially of computational nature. Also, b) is there any agency in Europe/US that supports and grants postdoctoral fellowships in these areas? (like Marie Curie actions or Humboldt Fellowships). I'm a mathematician who is willing to switch to these areas, and with a research team, I'm planning to apply fr this kind of fellowships.

One example I found is European Respiratory Society offering some Marie Curie postdoc fellowships, just to give you an idea what I'm talking about in b).

http://www.ersnet.org/ers-funding/fellowships/post-doc/eu-co-funded-respire-2.html

Thanks in advance!


texts: Research advertising as a recruitment method

texts:
If I would to advertise my research project in magazine to recruit participants, do you know what the steps will be?

Thank you everyone


texts:
I am writing my thesis (in Computer Science, if that's relevant) and I am thinking about the style, especially about using contractions.

I realize that thesis is a formal text and contractions like “we're” are quite informal, so they shouldn't be used. But does that apply to all contractions (like “can't” or “don't”)?

English is not my first language, so I'm not sure how much informal the various contractions are.


texts: How to list academic courses and grades on a pdf form?

texts:
Many US graduate programs require a list of courses with grades when applying.

Some schools provide a pdf form to fill out like this. However, since it is a PDF, how can a student list the courses on the document? I have tried an online pdf editor but it has been ineffective. Is there any alternative?


texts: Paper getting rejected from many journals after no proper review - What could be the problem?

texts:
It has been approximately 2 years that we are trying to a push a paper(CS) to get it published. We think, the work is/was a novel that focused on the development of a new dynamic system that works under uncertainty constraints. However, it gets rejected every time and the most frustrating thing is that the reviews we get are completely absurd. Please see the following reasons of rejection in brief (Duration of review is written in bracket). Submission to subsequent journals also included after incorporating review comments of the previous journal.

Journal 1: The abstract should not contain citation. [14 months]
Journal 2: The paper is out of scope.[2.5 months] -- The paper was actually coming in the scope of the journal. But, after request also, the EIC didn't take it.
Journal 3: This journal have stopped publishing papers related to ... [1 month]
Journal 4: Similar type of work was done in [some old papers published by journals in Beall's list]. Hence, it does not offer any novelty. [7 months] -- We are sure that the reviewer didn't read the paper. Probably, (she)he did some google search over the title. Got something and commented.

After lots of improvement and getting the paper reviewed by few fellow researchers in our lab, we are not getting anything substantial about such random rejection.

What could be some possible problem?
Should we put the paper in the garbage and move on with other works?
Are these predatory publishers (published articles) the rejection for our paper?


texts: Should I do a second PhD in Canada or the US?

texts:
I am three years into a PhD in Germany in an interdisciplinary social sciences field (Global Integration/Global Studies), but I am quite disillusioned with the faculty and the quality of guidance here. Moreover, the academic job prospects are not very good after the PhD, and any other job, given EU regulations, is hard to get (I am non EU). Going back to my country, given the corruption in academics, is also not an option. I am thinking of dropping this, and applying for PhDs in Canada or the US.

Is this a good option? I would apply for single discipline such as political science. I am thinking of international business too, because my work is a policy relevant field.


texts: How to deal with students who are among the more ignorant but think the know everything because they worked hard and got straight "A"s in high school

texts:
How should instructors deal with the fact that the students who know the least are precisely the ones who think they know everything?

NOTE: This question is not and never was intended to be primarily about mathematics instruction, but was intended to be equally applicable to all subjects to which it can be applied (which probably means all subjects).  It has been edited by seemingly many people.  I hope I've now expunged the most offensive edits from it.  The examples below are about mathematics for the obvious reason. END OF SPECIAL NOTE

Someone takes high-school math courses in which all that is required of them is that they learn algorithms for solving assigned problems, and they think that learning those is what learning math consists of (in other words, they learned no math) and since they always worked hard and got straight "A+"s, they think they're really good at math. Then they say they're entitled to take a course requiring only learning technical skills and algorithms and not requiring them to understand anything, and they think it's outrageous that an instructor would think there's something more that should be required of them. You can't get more ignorant of mathematics than to think that learning procedures to follow mechanically in solving assigned problems is what learning mathematics consists of (or at least you probably can't get more ignorant than that and still get admitted to a university), nor more arrogant than to think that an instructor needs instruction from people who think that.

High-school courses in which students effectively learn (without being told so) that learning mathematics consists of learning procedures to apply mechanically to solve assigned problems are the result of official decrees that everybody must learn mathematics. So ignorance of mathematics results from decrees intended to have the opposite effect.

In one case a student wrote on a test something like "Are you kidding? u-substitution? We shouldn't see that until next semester!" An entirely inexperienced person would have laughed out loud at a student mistakenly thinking under the circumstances that they were being asked to use the technique informally called "u-substitution", and moreover the class had been told in advance that that particular problem would be there. And sometimes they're not angry (as in the example in my previous comment) but they neglect a topic of which they are completely ignorant because they think they already know everything about it.


texts: Is it bad to apply to one PhD program with the intent of leaving for another (more prestigious) one?

texts:
I'm in my senior year of undergrad. I messed up a little bit academically this semester - not seriously, but enough to be confident I wouldn't get into a top 20 math PhD program. So I wanted to work on improving my CV for a year or two and then apply to the top 20 PhD programs (kind of like this person). I was thinking of this year applying to 2nd-tier schools for either a Master's or PhD program, then if I'm excelling really well in my first semester, applying to 1st-tier math PhD programs at the end of that semester. The main question I have is whether I should apply to the Master's or the PhD programs at 2nd-tier schools.

At first it seemed like a no-brainer to apply to the PhD programs at the 2nd-tier schools in order to receive free tuition and a stipend (which usually don't come with Master's programs). But then I was worrying if it would be looked down upon by both the university I am at and the one I am applying to if I am "quitting" one funded PhD program in order to join another. I especially felt concerned after looking at this answer, which describes a PhD as a "long-term relationship... an expensive and rare opportunity." Should I avoid applying to one PhD program with the intent of leaving for another (more prestigious) one? If so, should I just apply to Master's programs at the 2nd-tier schools this year?


texts: Recourse for patently unfair make-up exam?

texts: I am a senior finishing dual degrees in chemistry and mathematics and missed an exam in an upper level chemistry course due to a brief hospitalization which was fully documented. I was granted a make-up exam by the instructor along with a few other students. Our exam was 14 pages long, five pages longer than the original, and incredibly difficult in comparison. Several questions were structured in such a way that knowledge of very obscure and minute details from the 800 plus lecture slides and 200 plus pages of text was required. Without exaggeration, the make-up was perhaps 5 or 6 times harder and significantly longer for the same amount of time. I have no doubt that I failed and will be lucky if my score is even 60%. What actions, if any, should I take? I plan to talk the instructor when my grade posts, but I doubt that is going to get me anywhere. After spending at least 48 hours studying in the last two weeks, this feels very defeating.


texts: Where can I easily find best-paper-award-paper of a conference?

texts:
Recently I read an article on tips for PhD students to improve their scientific writing skills. There, one suggestion was to find and read the best-paper-award-papers in highly reputed conferences in your discipline and understand the writing style, the way of presenting information, flow, language etc.. I believe it is worthwhile to spend some time on this to improve my writing skills. However, I tried whether there is an option to find such papers in a typical database after filtering information (my discipline is Electrical Engineering, so I tried IEEE-Xplore) but could not find it over there. So I would really appreciate if someone can suggest me the easiest way to find such papers online?
Note: I am interested in finding such papers related to highly reputed IEEE and IFAC conferences.


texts:
I'm currently a PhD candidate on leave, working in industry (full-time) tangentially related to research topics (deep learning) I had been working on. I'm planning on submitting a somewhat theoretical result to an academic conference once we're done with the project. There's a statement that I am close to proving, but my coworkers don't have the mathematical prerequisites to understand neither the statement nor the proof, and I would like to collaborate with someone I am certain can provide advice, for example my PhD advisor. There's 2 questions I'd like to know an answer to before asking both sides including my workplace.

If I ask my advisor for collaboration, would I have to secure some funding?
Assuming the first question is resolved and we agree to collaborate, is there any reason against doing so?


texts: How to Ask via email for supervision of professor for Japan Graduate program admission

texts:
I would like to apply for graduate programs in Japan, and I have sent email to several professors in Japan (e.g., Todai, Tohoku) using this format (I only change the name of the professor and university, since the research topic is always the same):

Dear Prof Name,
I would like to introduce myself, I am Ahmad Zahi Ulul Azmi, Graduate of Engineering Physics from Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) with specialization in robotics, medical instrumentation, and control. My Undergraduate thesis is about assistive exoskeleton robot for upper-limb stroke recovery therapy. Moreover, i have developed several robot such as unmanned ground vehicle controlled by smartphone, autonomous underwater robot (Champion of autonomous underwater robot category in Singapore Robotic Games 2016), remote operated underwater robot, quadcopter, and wall-climbing robot.
I would like to pursue Graduate Program in Toyohashi Univeresity of Technology for Fall Semester next year with MEXT university recommendation scheme scholarship. I am looking for possibilities for conducting research in your laboratory. I will be glad and feel honored if i can be accepted as graduate student in this university and have you as my supervisor. For the fundamental asset, i am familiar with CAD especially SolidWorks, i have done several projects with it. Also, i have a good basic knowledge about mechanics, calculus, control system, signal processing, computer vision, and programming in Python, C, and C++. I think it will be really useful for my research at Toyohashi Univeresity of Technology . Apart of it, i am ready to learn something new and develop more advanced robot.
If my study field is not well suited with your laboratory, i would be truly grateful if i could get a recommendation of another laboratory or professor.
With this email i attach my CV, please contact me if you require any further details or documents. I hope to hear from you in the near future.
Thank you

But I don't get any responses. Is there anything wrong with my email? How can I enhance it?


texts: What is the difference between cover letter, resume and personal statement?

texts:
I am applying for an undergrad scholarship. I am required to "upload cover letter and resume" as well as a "personal statement".
I have never applied for a job or a scholarship before, but it seems to me that they more or less ask for similar information?

click image to enlarge!


texts: PhD supervisor is not willing to co-supervise?

texts:
I started my PhD two years ago on a specific problem. The problem is to study a given computer science structure from one specific perspective. My current advisor is an expert in that perspective and I got some results and publications with him.

However, during the last 6 months, I started to worry about my PhD thesis as there are no more room for novel results in that direction (several people tackled it recently). There are still some room for minor results and my advisor urged me to tackle them for my PhD thesis.

I am no longer interested in pursuing that direction and shifted towards the other perspectives of the problem as I believe there are still major results to come out of them. My advisor has no objection on pursuing these directions by myself (at the end he will put his name in whatever comes out of it!). Recently, I took a class with another professor and tackled one of the important directions of the problem as a class project and had incomplete but interesting results. The class professor was very happy with my work and advised me really well during the class semester to start tackling the problem. After couple of months of working, it seems I can really get something nice out of this.

I started to believe that, for my PhD thesis, the best thing is to have the class professor as a co-advisor. This will allow me to put in action and test rigorously several ideas I have in the other direction and make my PhD thesis more valuable.

I spoke with my current supervisor about the co-supervision but he insisted to make it as a collaboration instead of co-supervision. He has good relation with the other professor. And if it matters, I have my own external funding with no financial obligation from the current supervisor.

  What should I do in such case?

EDIT on the collaborator vs co-advisor thing:
Because I had a specific problem and had a class with him (which makes it easy to work on the other direction) and the results were almost ready couple of months later, there was a collaboration. My advisor is not willing to collaborate again and urging me to do the minor results instead of pursuing the other direction. The reason I look for co-supervision is

Consult him in many scientific results I am not good at (neither my current advisor).
No commitment in advance for collaborations/ papers.
co-advisor may suggest a new perspective to the problem instead of accepting/rejecting what me and my advisor suggest.


texts: Does Web of Sciences indexation implies a JCR impact factor for a journal?

texts:
Does an indexation of a journal to the Web of Sciences means that it must have a JCR impact factor?

JCR = Journal Citation Report


texts: Does physics education research support the idea that answer keys are bad?

texts:
This is a physics education research (PER) question. Interpreted properly, it is NOT an opinion-based question!

I am a physics grad student and several of my professors have stated that they are against the idea of posting answer keys (i.e., worked solutions) for homework and/or tests (after the assignment has been completed by the student, of course). Their argument is that having an "answer cheat sheet" discourages the student from thinking critically about the problem and presents the opportunity for students to feel like they understand how to solve a problem without actually going through the rigor themselves. In fact, the entire department apparently takes the same stance with regards to posting past qualifying exams online: they post the past exams to use for studying, but not answer keys.

My question: Does any published PER examine the pedagogical benefits and downsides of posting answer keys/worked solutions for students? I tried searching for this online, but had little success finding anything. If anyone could point me toward legitimate research on this topic, I'd appreciate it.

I should add that I was a high school physics teacher for two years, and within that arena it seemed unanimously accepted that making solutions and answer keys available was the right educational strategy. Hence my skepticism of my professors'/department's rationale. But I'm willing to see what the research says!


texts: What to do with threats of blacklisting?

texts:
To be brief, I am a PhD student in the UK, and I have recently had some disagreement with the way my advisor handled our collaboration on research. This was initially a fairly minor thing. Not in the sense of what has happened, but minor in the sense that I only wanted to move past it, and to continue productively, but unfortunately he appeared to be too preoccupied, or for whatever reason, unable or unwilling to work together on correcting our results. Frustrating and not good for me, but ok, fine. At the time, no harsh words were exchanged at all, and there was some degree of understanding, although I was not happy with the mistake.

This has escalated beyond belief as soon as I relayed this problem to an administrative person, to explain there was a mutual mistake and I needed more time to submit. I explained the situation briefly to the person responsible for these things, made it clear I held no animosity or any interest in dwelling on it, and just needed some recovery time to move forwards. This was made totally clear to him and he was fine to shift the submission date and funding termination back slightly and he had agreed with me that there should be no blame here.

This has resulted in my advisor going on a furious rant at me in public, saying he refuses to work with me anymore. In private, the advisors have said that my 'complaints' have made the group look bad (no complaint was ever made, only a request for further time), and that they have now lodged some files or something on me with people at the university marking me as problematic. I have also been told that my complaints will make it difficult for me to get a job even after graduation, if I get to that point, because my advisor has no intention of giving me a reference, much less a positive one, and that they can make finding a job very difficult.

What on earth can I do? It seems that my career is now in ruins before it even started.

This whole situation has made me disgusted since it appears to have come almost out of nowhere, based on one conversation with an admin person. But I cannot work elsewhere if they follow through on their threats. How can I salvage my potential career?

Edit: There are just too many details I left out to edit down to size, and I would like to simply close this question or delete it if possible, due to confusion. I would prefer this to editing a popular question with too many specifics.