texts: Graduating from a terrible department in an ok University vs. a fantastic department in an obscure university

texts:
I'm a PhD student in a terrible department in my field, in an overall ok university, and have just applied to another program (also PhD) in a very new but fantastic department (research-wise at least -- they just had a load of new world-class hires most of whom know me and my work; expected ranking in the field is top 5 in the world, by the next year) but in a very obscure university. I'm wondering if I should go if I get admitted, at least considering the future job market prospects. Would the obscurity of the university make so much difference even if the department is going to be highly valued?
Any help would be appreciated!


texts: Should I explain a single bad grade in my personal statement?

texts: Overall, I have always maintained a good standing in all of my undergrad classes. Most of my grades are either As or Bs. With only one Junior level course with a D. Is it worthwhile to explain this one bad grade? I am afraid that since all my other grades are good, I will only be highlighting that one bad grade by talking about it.


texts: In computer science in the US, is there a bias towards hiring junior faculty straight from PhD programs?

texts: In computer science in the US, is it harder to get employed as a professor if you've had to do post-docs, or if you decided to work in an industrial research lab for several years?


texts: I received my master's thesis grade today, with comments "weak and insufficient analysis". My supervisor read it and checked it on multiple occasions (before submission) and said it is excellent, even though the topic is complex.  He suggested to focuse on graphs, figures etc (visual presentation). I was also requesting additional resources to provide more thorough analysis, the request was declined due to:  "it is only a master's thesis, so what I am doing is more than enough". I also know he is the only one on faculty to specialise on this topic, so that is definately his comments. Whom and how do I  address these issues?


texts: How feasible is it to pursue PhD in mathematics for a computer science undergrad?

texts: As a Computer Science undergrad, I've taken Calculus I, II, III, Linear algebra and Differential equations. This exposure to higher mathematics encouraged me to pursue a PhD in mathematics. How feasible will this change be? How will the transition be from computer science to mathematics?


texts: Should I be concerned about student access to a test bank?

texts: If I am using a test bank to formulate a test based on a textbook, should I be concerned about students getting access to the test bank? I have read that student use of a test bank is cheating, but I guess I don't agree with that 100%. If I am drawing test questions out of exercise sets, how is that any different? The test banks usually have hundreds of questions to choose from, so if the students are learning the test bank well enough that they can answer some fractional selection from that test bank, it seems like a win to me. If they are studying questions, at the end of the day they are learning. Or is that the wrong way to look at it?


texts: Colleague's grant application resembles my PhD thesis

texts:
A colleague/friend has asked me to review his application for a very large grant, which appears to resemble my PhD thesis.

The backstory is as follows. My PhD thesis was the first detailed study of Phenomenon X. My colleague works in Context C. Phenomenon X is present in Context C.

Three years ago, while we were both PhD students, I suggested to my colleague that we put together a postdoc grant proposal to study Phenomenon X in Context C. We talked informally about being co-PI on the project but made no agreement.

Two years ago, my colleague told me that it would be better if he worked on the grant with someone more senior because we would have less chance together as two fresh PhDs. The idea was that I would be written into the project. My colleague asked me to send him a literature review on Phenomenon X, which I did.

Now, my colleague has sent me the draft of his grant application asking for some assistance and comments. The research questions in the application are nearly word-for-word the same as those in my PhD thesis and the application claims that Phenomenon X has not been studied before. My PhD thesis on Phenomenon X is not mentioned, nor is other relevant work. The literature review in the grant application uses the same sources as my PhD literature review. My name does not appear anywhere in the grant.

What are some appropriate courses of action here? My idea at the moment is to give my colleague the benefit of the doubt - maybe it was unintentional oversight or he had planned to add these details later. I would respond suggesting the grant application includes other work on Phenomenon X, including my PhD thesis, and to make the research questions more original. But I'm worried this will seem too territorial.


texts: How Well is a US College Degree Accepted in Québec?

texts:
Though originally a Québecker, I am soon to graduate in the United States with a bachelor's in Computer Information Systems, and a bachelor's in Graphic Design, from a college accredited by TRACS. I intend to pursue a master's related to informatics (not possible at my current college). I want to study in my home province because of the additional language and lower tuition fees.
Québec tends to be very specific with college requirements; I cannot apply until December, when I graduate, but was wondering whether I would be accepted easily, or whether this will be a nightmare. I checked l'UQÀM, for example, and their requirements state specific Québec degrees, or two years of applicable work experience with a trained background. Université Laval requires having completed equivalent training [to an undergraduate degree] according to the acceptance committee. These requirements are a little nebulous, as they could go either way.
I have contacted Université Laval previously, but they cannot be more specific before I apply. Was wondering whether anyone else has experience transferring in this way, or otherwise general advice for avoiding catch-up coursework.


texts: How best to use "downtime" during undergraduate research

texts:
Due to the nature of my research, I find myself waiting many hours for my computer program to finish running in order to find more bugs in my code so that I can debug. I generally have a pretty good idea on the big picture of my project and what the next two or three tasks I have to complete are.

As an undergraduate, I am not directing my own research but I feel that I'm not using my time as well as I can during these "downtimes". There's a lot I don't understand in my project, so my mind wanders and I end up reading textbooks or general papers in hopes that I can increase my base knowledge in my field. This base knowledge doesn't directly benefit my capabilities in this project though.

I also journal my thoughts and keep a constantly updated TODO list and list of questions I have which I work on, but I feel a sense of slow progress as I wait. Things I can do for example is read the library documentation or practice GDB debugging, etc. Of these things, I am not sure if they will even be that helpful.

I kind of want to ask for more work, but at the same time, there are a lot of unsolved problems in my current project; it's just that I can't constantly work on it since I must wait for some response from my programs I run. Thus, I don't feel that it's right for me to ask for more work since I can't even wrap up the work I'm doing right now. Am I doing something wrong?


texts: Should I choose industry internship or research assistant job at the lab?

texts:
Currently, I'm a CS master student and I want to apply for a PhD program in the coming Fall. I'm interested in the system research (i.e., distributed system).

Right now, I have two opportunities presented in front of me:

Go to a professor's research lab over the summer. The professor's interest is in distributed storage and that quite matches with my interest.

Pros: Work with a professor directly
Cons: there isn't much pay and I want to rely on myself financially instead of family.

Do a software internship with High-Performance Computing (HPC) Infrastructure.

Pros: Good pay and industry experience that relates to my interest (HPC infrastructure is related to general distributed system (Dynamo, Spanner) but not quite the same). I also heard system research values industry experience more but not sure this is true (internship is from a big company but not in Tech industry)
Cons: is not research experience

To make thing complicated, I have contacted the professor before I got the internship offer and I don't know if I should talk my situation with the Professor. In addition, I'm an international student and if I couldn't get to a good PhD program, I may want to go to industry directly but I'm not sure if an experience in a research lab helps.

Questions:

Which one should I choose?
Should I talk to the professor about my situation?
Does systems research value industry experience (more than other fields)?

PS: Thanks for the editing the format and input from comments


texts: Will I be considered as a very rude person if I call my teacher to check an urgent email

texts:
I got three recommendation letters from three of my former school teachers (professors A, B, C).
On 20th Jan, I got an email from the graduate school that I had applied to. In the email, they told me that they had received the confirmations from professors A and B, but are still waiting for the confirmation from professor C.
My application will be considered as successful on condition that they have received the confrimation from professor C before 30th
I have sent at least ten emails to professor c for the past few days, but not seen any replies from him.
I have got the phone number, fax number, and address of his office in my former school. Since my former school is a few hours by bus away from my house, and I can not reach him by emails, I am thinking to call him directly on his office phone number, but I am wondering if it will make him very angry or I may be getting scolded by him.
What shall I do?


texts: Employment in academia for doctorates w/o same field undergrad

texts: I'm an undergraduate in Mechanical Engineering interested in a career in academia, especially Physics. A middle aged person in India (from where I am) I recently met told me he couldn't find employment in academia in India or abroad after completing his doctorate in a Physics field, because he did an undergrad in Mechanical Engineering. Is this situation where there is difficulty finding employment when doctorate and previous education do not match generally true in academia, Physics or otherwise, or probably a very specific problem?


texts: How to deal with fellow grad students who want to copy assignments?

texts:
How to deal with fellow students who put little effort on their part while solving assignments, and sometimes ask you to spoon-feed them solutions. Lot of times these students end up scoring more on the assignments on average, because I don't generally feel inclined to get any sort of help on assignments, and am content with submitting my best solutions.

It is very difficult to avoid these students entirely cause grad classes are typically small and you don't want to end up alienating them.


texts: How to select which conferences I should attend?

texts:
I am in my first semester of a computer engineering PhD in the USA. At my University during your first year they will pay for your expenses to attend, up to $1000.00, for a conference. Every year after that they will pay your expenses if you get a paper accepted.

I am wondering how others look at/find conferences that they feel are worth the monetary and time commitment for what they provide. My areas of interest are embedded systems, computer architecture, and security. I have found many conferences but am unsure of how I should vet the quality of these.

What criteria do others use when looking at conferences and judging their relevance to the area they address?
What opinion or otherwise do people have of academic conferences vs industry type conferences vs enthusiast type conferences?


texts: Does a college have a legal obligation to offer advertised courses?

texts: If a US college/university advertises itself as having a certain major, with supporting courses, are they legally obliged to offer the courses or similar ones? I am thinking of a new program where the school planned to hire tenure-track or adjunct faculty but did not do so. Instead, they tell students to cross-register at other institutions (which costs additional money) or take online classes to meet the requirements. Would this be illegal?


texts: How to deal with overly helpful co-advisor?

texts:
I have 3 advisors; two are great (main prof and a daily advisor) and one ('Jill') is not. Jill invited herself to my advisor team after coming back to work from a long medical leave and she's ready to Kick! Some! Butt! in the academic arena. The problem is that her help is not very helpful because:

She is not directly involved in research and has little knowledge of my area so her feedback on my work is superficial, nitpicky or just plain useless.
She is often late to our meetings which is annoying and a waste of time for me since the meetings are planned only for her benefit (I speak regularly with my daily advisor so he knows my progress but for some reason we have a weekly meeting with Jill as well).
She is a Chatty Cathy and wants to make the office one big happy family. She's the kind of person who would judge you for being on the quieter side and make it her mission to prod you out of your shell.

I find her presence draining. She on the other hand is DESPERATE to help me and feel useful, so much so that it comes off as patronizing. Basically she treats me like her duckling.
I'm in my final months of writing and I just want to get my stuff done without having to involve her, but I can't get rid of her and don't want to burn bridges. The other advisors seem fine with her. How do I best manage this dynamic without going insane?


texts: Current status "minor review" what is next?

texts: I submitted a paper in a journal under Taylor and Francis and after the first review the status of the paper is "minor review". Both of the reviewers said that my manuscript can be accepted with some minor revisions. I am currently editing the paper according to their suggestions. My question is after I submit again will it go to the same reviewers or new reviewers will be assigned? How long will it take from a minor review to acceptance? I have no problem if it goes through multiple minor reviews but my main concern is to get acceptance notice since it is mandatory for my thesis defense, even "acceptance with minor review" status will work.


texts: If an author declines authorship, may her co-authors publish without her?

texts:
This question was raised in discussion of answers on Is it better to submit a paper to an important journal without the supervisor name or to a less important journal with the supervisor name?  There seemed to be a significant difference of opinion, so I'm asking it here as its own question.  I'll phrase it as a hypothetical.

Suppose that researchers X, Y and Z have collaborated on a project.  Each has made major contributions which were essential to its success, and would ordinarily be entitled to co-authorship on the resulting paper.  However, X decides, for some reason, that she does not wish her name to appear on the paper, but she is willing for Y and Z to publish it under their names alone.

May Y and Z ethically do so?

Of course it seems clear that X must consent to have a paper published with her name on it, and she has the right to withhold that consent.  It's less clear whether Y and Z may publish anyway, effectively claiming credit for X's work, even though she consents to them doing so.  It could be argued in this case that Y and Z may not publish the paper at all.

Another possible concern is that, if X has the right to decline credit for her work, she could be pressured or coerced or bribed into doing so, effectively reducing her to a ghost writer.


texts: Is it plagiarism to use another person's unpublished thesis?

texts: Consider a research work that is present in another person's thesis, submitted two years before at the university, but not published online anywhere. Can someone extend that work and submit it to a journal?


texts: How to submit a paper to Bulletin of Number Theory and Related Topics

texts:
The journal Bulletin of Number Theory and Related Topics (Boletín de teoría de números y temas conexos) does not seem to have its own website, from where one can obtain article/paper submission details and instructions.  (I am interested in submitting a paper to this journal for possible publication.)

I did find the following search facility for the journal in the Hathi Trust Digital Library.  But then again, no mention is made as to the submission details/instructions that I require.

In Chapter 1 of the book New Visual Perspectives on Fibonacci Numbers (Introductory Remarks [by K T Atanassov]), the author mentions (in page 4) that "[he] sent some [of his results] to Professor Aldo Peretti, who published them in Bulletin of Number Theory and Related Topics".  (It appears that Professor Peretti is the Editor (?) of the said journal.)  However, when I try to Google for Professor Peretti's e-mail address, no helpful results are returned.  Additionally, I tried to search for Peretti's papers in the arXiv (if any), and found none, and therefore was unable to get hold of his e-mail address.

I am posting this question here in the hopes that someone with better Internet search skills can enlighten me.


texts: What automatic citation/bibliography programs are well-designed for law papers?

texts:
I have tried Mendeley for citations and bibliography for writing law papers at my university, but it seems not to be designed for legal citations.

For example, when I want to add a Case file as an item in mendeley, and choose "case" as the item's type, it asks for "volume" rather than "case number", which causes the citation to be incorrectly formatted.

So which citation program is well-adapted to legal citations? Which program(s) should I use?

e.g. I'm using a citation style like OSCALA or Bluebook.


texts: If you're black, how do you answer "Oh you're a professor? So you teach African Studies?"

texts:
In a comment to How do you answer "Oh, you're a professor? What do you teach?", @JohnSmith wrote

I'm black so it generally goes "Oh you're a professor? So you teach African Studies?" I generally storm off.

John's reaction is understandable.  But I'd like to explore some alternatives.  Note that John's experience is not isolated to black professors.  For example, another comment on that thread pointed out that some stupid people tend to assume a female professor teaches gender studies.
How do you answer "Oh you're a professor? So you teach African Studies?"
I'm looking for a lot in an answer.  It should:

be short
open the thoughtless person's eyes
allow for a graceful exit by both parties

Here is an example of the kind of answer I'm looking for:

Question posed by a white person to a transracial black adoptee: "What country were you born in?"
Answer: "Long Island."

Edit: Please assume there was no hidden agenda.  Just some combination of garden variety cluelessness and stereotyped thinking.
Typical scenarios: neighborhood picnic... parent meeting at your child's school... standing in line at the grocery store....
Edit 9/18: This question closely mirrors the other, in which the questioner is not an academic, and the academic feels socially isolated and uncomfortable, and unsure how to respond.
What's different here is that there is an additional layer of discomfort related to being an obvious member of an under-represented group.  Think of a Venn diagram.  The set of people interested in "So you teach African Studies" question is a subset of those interested in the original "What do you teach?" question.
I would ask enthusiasts of this site who have no personal interest in this question to allow those of us who do, to explore this very real problem -- even if you yourself have never experienced it and do not anticipate experiencing it.
But who knows, you might encounter a similar problem some day on a trip to an overseas conference, or in an unfamiliar corner of your own country.
Permitting an exploration of this question can potentially be useful to white, male, straight, in short, hegemonic, academics in another way.  If your department is one of the many that are striving to diversify, this question is an example of things that matter to the diverse candidates you are trying to recruit.
Edit 9/22: Reading the answers and comments led me to an idea.  (If the question gets re-opened again(!) I can post it as an actual answer.)

Well, no, but if you're trying to choose an African Studies course for next semester, you're welcome to bounce some ideas off me.

(I have a feeling this is the kind of answer I'd get in a lot of trouble with from my children.  They'd say it's too annoying....)


texts: What is the difference between an academic department and program in US colleges/universities?

texts: What is the difference between an academic department and a program in U.S. colleges and universities? I am attempting to model the relationship between Departments and Programs. Thanks!


texts:
So I currently have a job in software that I really enjoy, however I've always wanted to do research, so I applied to a PhD program in CS to study formal methods and security. I've accepted an offer from the school I wanted to go to and met my adviser who seems amazing and I have full funding for 4 years. Its a great situation to be in. I had accepted the offer after weighing all my options, however now that I've actually accepted the offer, I've been having cold feet. I was given a generous raise & bonus at my current job (that I didn't quite expect) and I really feel like I'll be giving up (or at least delaying) so many things in my life (housing, hobbies, traveling, etc.). Also, I'll be giving up the security that having a good salary affords (for example, I've had to take care of my mom a few times when she needed emergency surgery and being able to just fly out on a moments notice is really comforting and something I'll lose).

I feel like I made a mistake by not just pursuing the PhD after undergrad, but at the time I didn't know what I wanted to research so I felt it would be inappropriate to go without a clear goal/specific research field in mind.

So I guess, my main question is how should I go about making a career decision when it comes to the PhD? I was so sure I wanted to do this, but its felt wrong ever since I hit the button to accept the offer. I'd love to do research in formal methods, but I feel like I've borderline been spoiled by having a well paying job after living extremely frugally as an undergrad (had like 0 money & support structure during that time) and I don't know if I have the mental stamina to go back to that life. If you guys have gone from industry to a PhD program, how did you make that decision?


texts: Is there any difference between theoretical and mathematical?

texts:
In computer science, is there any difference in usage of the terms: theoretical, mathematical?
If yes, which is more broader?
Context: If my supervisor says focus on theoretical aspects of the paper  and focus on mathematical aspects of the paper. Should I interpret as same?


texts: Scholarship/funding based on publications/research work

texts:
I am an undergraduate senior Mechatronics engineering student looking for a scholarship to pursue a Masters degree next year in Europe (Germany specifically) or US. My current accumulative GPA equates to a C+, however i worked on many research projects, 3 of which were accepted by high impact journals and still working on more to come.

I was wondering if universities would accept my work so far when evaluating my scholarship application? If not, is there a relative number of publications i should achieve in order to apply for a scholarship?


texts: Citing a project performed in a previous class that was never published?

texts:
In a past class I completed a project whose results and methods will prove useful in my current class project. This project, written in a journal style format, was never published, and will most likely never be published.

How do I go about properly citing this project? Should I simply list the title, college, and date? What is the accepted format?


texts: I was considering writing Emails to professors in US universities regarding PhD opportunities at their departments, however I noticed there is a formal PhD application with deadlines in December to follow. So what is the point in contacting professors for placements in their team when there is already an application process similar to undergraduate programmes? Thank you


texts: I have published an academic monograph in Spanish based on my dissertation with a university press in Spain. I have reworked the book since then and translated it into English, would it be dishonest to try to get it published in English (I would of course mention that the book originally appeared in Spanish)?


texts: Citing a Work that Cites a Personal Communication

texts:
I'm interested in knowing if/how to properly cite a personal communication within a reference and if credit should be given to the primary source (the personal communication), the secondary source (the reference that cites the personal communication), or both.

Hypothetical example:  There is a textbook which has tabular data that I would like to reference.  The textbook cites the tabular data as being from a personal communication with another author.  I see this as a quandary since:

(1)  If I reference the textbook without the personal communication, I am not giving proper credit to the original author (even though they never published the data separately in its own right)

(2)  If I reference the personal communication, this would be incorrect and perhaps fraudulent as it was not between myself and the author, I am only a third party, and I would not be giving proper credit to the textbook authors, which is how the data was published.

(3) If I reference both, that is somewhat awkward as that would imply that I found the data from both sources independently, even though I only found it in one.

What is the proper way to reference this?


texts: (Relatively) stable research careers other than tenure track?

texts:
(For the purpose of this post, relatively stable doesn't necessarily mean "job for life" like tenure, just that you don't have to constantly worry about losing your job.)

I have observed that tenure-track professors are incredibly busy, and most of what they are busy with is not research but teaching/administration/service/managing their lab, and that they often get very little time to do hands-on research the way a PhD student or postdoc does.

For those looking for an alternative career path where you do get to spend quite a bit of your time with hands-on research, what options are there?

I know that there are "research professors" who are non-tenure-track, often 100% soft money, but that level of job insecurity sounds incredibly stressful...

My questions are:

1) How do jobs at "research institutes" work? Or jobs at major hospitals that have research programs?

2) Are there any positions where you have relatively good job security because you are there to help/consult/collaborate on multiple other peoples' projects, but still get a chance to have a little research of your own too?

(FWIW, my PhD field is epidemiology, so I hope I could be useful to consult/collaborate similar to the way the biostatisticians do - but I'd hope to have at least a little of my own research too - either the option to get my own grants when I can but not be worried about losing my job when I can't, or even just doing secondary analyses of public datasets that didn't need funding.)


texts: Is there a way to search for more recent papers than the one I'm currently reading?

texts:
Authors of scientific papers usually use the introduction of the paper to introduce the subject of the paper by reviewing previous work in that field, i.e. the works that serve as the foundation of the current research they have conducted.

Therefore, it is fairly easy to get acquainted with the subject in general, because you get a bunch of relevant references right from the start.

However, it often happens that when searching for papers on a certain topic, the best match for my search is a paper from a few years back. While most scientific knowledge is viable for a decent amount of time (really depends on the field, but as a generalization), sometimes I want to know what progress has been made (if any) in the specific field of research I'm interested in.

So my question is: Is there a simple and convenient way to find later papers about a certain topic?

In detail

How exactly do I do it? If, for example, I have this paper from 2013, how do I find newer papers about the same subject?


texts:
I am currently enrolled in a Computer Science PhD program in USA, and this is my third year(I changed my PhD advisor after my first year).
I have written two papers with my new PhD advisor. The first one was submitted to two top-tier conference, but get rejected twice. The second one was submitted to a mid-tier conference(A-tier in Core Ranking still), but get rejected.
I feel really desperate about this.
I might be an idiot, and I feel that I might not be suitable for pursuing a PhD degree anymore.
Should I quit the PhD program to find a job or keep pursuing the degree? The thing I consider is that with Computer Science master degree, I can still find a good job.


texts: How do I get out of my problem of not achieving results, feelings of worthlessness, guilt and rejection?

texts:
I am currently a PhD student in a biomedical related field.
I came a long way. I first did my undergraduate and worked for a few years, though not research related. Later, I identified my research interest before embarking in the PhD with the hope of fulfilling my career dreams. I used to love and enjoy science, but that was long ago. I was happy when I got into the PhD program. Now I'm nearly 2 years into my study, mostly 'wet' lab and basic sciences research.

Unfortunately, my experiments - most of them - fail. Initially, that was due to lack of skills and experience - with time things have improved but I am still lacking good results that can give clear direction in my work.
My project has been modified a few times because initially there were problems with the biological samples so I had no choice. Then, I tried to 'reproduce' a piece of result done by a colleague few years ago but the results were always 'off' no matter how many times I did it. Even someone else with better experience in the lab tried but could not replicate the same result. The conclusion was perhaps, change in phenotype of biological samples over time.
Then my project changed again, and the technique is now becoming more complicated and 'taxing'. Partly, because my supervisor is not very happy and feels that it is time I should be producing good data and should aim for higher impact. With more complicated experiments, I also need to beef up my basic sciences knowledge but as someone coming from a different background it is taking me extra time to grasp. With my confidence going in a downward spiral.

I am finding more and more difficult to articulate my thoughts clearly to my peers and I feel constant 'rejection' and 'guilt'. Most of my colleagues are actually good people, but harsh words, although not ill-meaning, are slowly eroding my confidence. When I ask questions because there is something that I don't fully understand (without prior knowledge and not something I can read up on), people appear impatient and ask back (e.g. "why are you asking?",  "what do you think?", or just "I can't give an answer to you on this"). It feels more and more difficult for me to ask questions or speak up for myself.

One day, I was blamed for something (from someone outside the lab) that I didn't even do. The accusation was pretty unreasonable - others who witnessed the event felt the same - but to me I felt I was just a bully target. I just broke down and cried because I realized I couldn't take the stress and frustration of rejections and failure.
My friend in the same lab gave me some counseling but also at the same time asked me whether working in this lab is truly what I want to do. I don't want to quit my PhD, but then again I don't know how I can get out of this situation.

Should I change project?
But my PhD qualifying exam is coming up and I am having a massive problem with writing up a good proposal because of all the frustrations happening.
Should I change to dry lab?
I am afraid of talking to my mentor because I don't know whether at my current mental state I'll just suddenly break down again.

In summary, my resentment and contradictory statements that I receive:

Ideology: To do a PhD, perseverance is more important than being smart.
Reality: You need to be smart. REALLY SMART.
Ideology: There's not such thing as a stupid question. Ask if you don't understand.
Reality: Huh? Why do you even ask?


texts: How effective is ResearchGate as an academic selection and recruitment tool?

texts:
I've informally noticed that ResearchGate seems to have increased in popularity over the last year or so. I also noticed that, while I'm not on the job market, ResearchGate was able to successfully identify an available academic job in my area and in my country and bring it to my attention (for more info see here).

Thus, I ask the following question as a potential recruiter or as a member of my department who is keen to see the hiring of good applicants.

What was the experience of anyone who has used ResearchGate to recruit for an academic position?
Did you get many people applying because they saw the position through ResearchGate?
How do you think this medium of academic job advertising compares to other options? Do you think it was value for money?


texts: When you make a thesis in a field of physics and math is it supposed to be revolutionary and groundbreaking?

texts:
When you write a thesis is it supposed to all be 100% independent research?

Does the thesis need to be ground-breaking? For example, the thesis from Riemann about Differential Geometry.

Does a thesis always have to be 'revolutionary' in math and physics?


texts: Should I disclose academic misconduct on a grad application?

texts:
I am applying to a master's programs right now and am in a bind.

My professor accused me of academic misconduct in one of my undergraduate classes. After I submitted my assignment I had asked a question on an online forum about an assignment and posted a short excerpt of my work. I was asking a question out of intellectual curiosity to better my work for the future.

This had not been an issue with other professors in our department. This professor was strongly against posting anything online, so he found my post online and stated that I violated his rule of knowingly or unknowingly making my solutions available to other students. I had no intent to cheat, and I didn't feel anything I posted was a solution since they were short snippets of code. I felt this charge was a stretch, but the school sided with the professor and he will fail me for the class.

My school says the records of this academic misconduct process are sealed, and there will be no notation on my transcript, just the failed grade.

Graduate school applications ask if one has been involved in any type of academic hearings and to explain the circumstances. The application also asks me to explain any failed grades.  I fear if I disclose all this information it will hurt my application. As far as I know the graduate school will not be able to find out there was any misconduct, unless they contact student affairs and I permit them to see those records. The graduate school just requires the official academic transcript. I'm wondering if graduate schools also check other academic records.

Any guidance on what I should do?


texts: Can I ask professor to send me a copy of papers?

texts:
I'm a senior in college and working for my final year project. I am required to read more than 8 papers. However, 2 of them cannot be found online or in the library (Summon system). The library delivery service is inaccessible now, and I believe my advisor have that papers.

Can I ask professor to send me a copy of the papers? Is it impolite to ask such favor or illegal?


texts: Are the methods used in math-based teaching (including physics, engineering, etc.) substantially different from those used in other areas?

texts:
Background: There is currently a proposal for a new Math Teaching site that will be entering private beta once enough people sign up. One question that came up during its question is (basically): Is teaching math significantly different from teaching any other subject? Would it be better to broaden the scope to all education?

I had my own opinions, but I don't have enough experience teaching non-math classes to know. And now I am really curious about variation in teaching methods across disciplines.

Therefore, I have this question:

  Is there any evidence (such as refereed sources) to show that teaching mathematics and related fields uses significantly different methods or skills than teaching other subjects?

Conversely,

  Is there any evidence that teaching ability and/or techniques transfer across a wide variety of disciplines?


texts: How to cite papers that are in submission and don't have preprints?

texts:
I'm writing a paper right now to soon be submitted to a workshop venue. The way the review process works for this particular workshop is that it's a "rolling review process," in that people publicy submit their work on OpenReview and receive feedback and a decision within a couple of weeks.
Due to the public nature of the submission process, everyone has access to the information of the work (PDF files of the manuscript, comments from anonymous reviewers containing feedback and decisions, etc.), and I've been fortunate to come across previous submissions and further tune my manuscript.
The predicament I'm facing is, when I cite these papers, how exactly should I go about it? Many of them don't appear on preprint servers like arXiv nor on Google Scholar. My initial thought is to just make the BibTeX file myself and fill in the relevant information (e.g., title, author, submitted date, URL), but I'm just not sure how to go about a work that's still under review and in submission.
I've asked other senior members at my lab, but was hoping that the community may be able to provide some other opinions or experiences. Thanks!


texts: Book recommendations for information visualization?

texts:
When writing papers, one specific problem is how to effectively organize the data we want to present so as to enable the audience and readers to quickly understand what we want to demonstrate.

I've browsed a very good book before which shows you how to draw figures and tables in academic papers in the "right approach" but seems I cannot remember its name.

If anyone has read any good book on this topic, please recommend their names.


texts: Is it okay to keep a "Thank you" slide before references?

texts:
I am preparing a presentation in LaTeX and got at least seven pages for references only.

In general, as far as I know, a "thank you" slide of a presentation is the termination slide of the presentation, i.e., it comes at the end after references.

Since my presentation part, which demands explanation, ends with a page before starting of references, and I got a long list of references, is it okay to keep my "thank you" slide before references?


texts: How to deal with students who didn't attend the exams?

texts:
My course require students to take 2 mid-term exams and one final exam. What should I do if some students didn't attend the first mid-term exam or the second one. Should I mark them Zero or repeat the exam for them? What is the best strategy in this regard?

Update: Although I gave them instructions from the beginning of the course. Some of them said that they were absent when I gave those instructions. Some of them said that they were sick and some said that they had an appointment with a dentist at same time of the exam, for example!


texts: I want to participate in a summer research program, but my GPA is not high enough. Should I still apply?

texts:
I am an undergraduate chemical engineering student who has been participating in research for a little less than a year now. I was able to get a paper published on one of my previous projects. Since I do not feel that the automotive industry is for me, and since I really like doing research, I have realized that the biomedical engineering path is more suitable for me.

I started looking for summer research programs at different universities throughout the US, and also found one in Switzerland, but some of them require a very high GPA. The reason why I want to participate in these types of programs, is because I truly want to make my research skills more versatile - I also believe that being exposed to different research projects, will help me on my own, current, research project.

I do not have the high GPA, but I have the stamina, ambition, and research experience that I believe it takes to complete such an intensive summer program. Should I still bother applying to them, is there any chance they will consider me?

I do not want to ask my research professor for letter of recommendation, when I know there is no possibility of me being accepted. For anyone who has participated in said summer research programs, what was your experience like? Do they really place such a strong emphasis on GPA, or do they take into consideration the work you did/have been doing in your lab? I was thinking of emailing the department head of these programs, introducing myself, "bothering" them, but I am not sure whether starting off with "my GPA is not high enough" is the best idea.


texts: Is this ethical: "I like your paper and if you submit it to Journal X, I will be the reviewer"

texts:
Is this ethical?

Researcher A asks Researcher B, "Where should I submit my paper?"

Researcher B says, "If you submit it to Journal X, I will almost certainly be the reviewer and I think highly of your paper."

All journals in the field have single-blind review policy. That is, the reviewer knows who the author is, but the author does not know who the reviewer is.

If it is unethical, is it only unethical if researcher B actually submits to Journal X and gets researcher A as a reviewer? Or does the ethical problem disappear if researcher B submits to a different journal, or submits to Journal X but gets a different reviewer?


texts: Where can an academic put their lecture slides for posterity?

texts:
I was recently asked this question by an academic colleague and realised I didn't know the answer.

Academic X is about to retire from a computer science department and has a set of undergraduate lecture slides he is very proud of. He would like to put them online so they are available to the world. Where can he put them?

The arXiv is not suited to hosting lecture slides.  There is wikibooks which is a possibility but the quality isn't great and it is in Wiki markup I believe.

The university he works at has no permanent location to host retired academics' work sadly.


texts: Is it okay to scan a book (that I own) strictly for personal use?

texts:
I have a physical book from an Australian publisher which is nearly a thousand pages long, so it's quite hard to carry around with me. It is a book of worked solutions for a math textbook. It has no digital version, presumably to prevent people form distributing it online.

Since it would be much more convenient for me to have a digital copy, would it be okay to scan a copy of the book to keep with me, strictly for personal use? By "okay", I am asking more about its legality than its ethicality, preferably in the US.

Although I probably intended this question to be more general, here is the information for this specific book.

There is a disclaimer related to copying in the front page of the book, which says:

  Except as permitted by the Copyright Act (any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review), no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Any enquiries are to be made to the [publishing company].

The first part of this statement seems to suggest it might be allowed for private study, which seems to be the situation I am in.

One other notice that can be found in the book, right below the above notice:

  Copying for educational purposes: Where copies of part or the whole of the book are made under Part VB of the Copyright Act, the law requires that the educational institution or the body that administers it has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL). For information, contact the Copyright Agency Limited.

Part VB of the Copyright does not seem to apply to me as I am not a teacher (I am not a lawyer, either!). Is my only option in this case to contact the Copyright Agency or the publishers? I assume that if there is no resolution, I would have to try to obtain permission specifically from the publisher, which seems to be the safest option.


texts: Reviewer noticed a significant overlap of my submitted draft with an earlier paper of mine

texts: in a single-blind paper reviewer one of the reviewer comments In total, 12% of the paper contains text from X et al. (2019) which is not properly cited. this cited article, is one of my works. in review responses can I discuss it? or not?


texts: Why is bad behavior more tolerated in academia compared to the rest of the industry?

texts:
If you take a look at the various questions on Academia Stack Exchange where abusive, rude, or unpleasant situations are presented, you can quickly notice that there's often a culture of dismissal. Many comments and answers always try to play devil's advocate, for example:

trying to find a reason why a supervisor may only seem abusive but are actually just doing their job (and maybe their character is just not very friendly),
excusing rude behavior such as harsh criticism with no constructive feedback simply because it's common place in academia,
often proposing to give bad situations two, three, and more chances because giving up is shown as a lack of desire to grow in character (often for no reason but just "because it's bad to give up on a situation").

Only the most extreme situations usually result in answers that directly mention leaving the situation/going to the authorities (e.g. sexual assault).
But a look at similar situations on Workplace Stack Exchange paints a very different picture. For example, an abusive manager is never tolerated and most answers (rightly) point out that nobody should be the target of abuse and there's a general consensus to direct people to leave abusive situations as soon as there's a clear indication that they cannot be resolved properly. There is no merit in staying in a terrible workplace and fighting through it, sometimes it is just better to leave and find a better place.
Why is there such a widespread dismissal of important issues in academia? With the majority of graduate students going through therapy during their studies, I believe there must be more education about the importance of recognizing when someone's circumstances are genuinely in a bad position.


texts: Why can't motivations in a paper's introduction be copied?

texts:
I'm always baffled that the preamble in introductions in scientific papers is pretty much always the same for papers dealing with the same topic. And yet, no two papers have the same introduction, since doing so would be plagiarism. Even worse, one cannot even copy this preamble from papers one has already written, as paper reviews are anonymous, so reviewers cannot know whether the author is plagiarizing or copying his/her own work.

At the same time, this feels like a huge waste of time, akin to writing essays in high school, where you have to paraphrase and write X number of words just to fill in the page.

Talking with other academics, this is pretty much a pain point for everyone, which not only annoys the writers, but also the readers, who must skip useless text every time they begin a new paper.

I guess a simple reference to a specific introduction is not enough, as a paper needs to stand to its own (if it even makes sense in this context), but why is it so ingrained that such text must be written and rewritten, ad infinitum, in a Sisyphean effort?

EDIT: Please note that I'm talking about just the preamble of the introduction. It makes sense that overall the introduction needs to be tailored on your specific contribution. But often papers start with a brief description of the field/topic it contributes to, the field's practical applicability, and possibly some related work that makes the field look good. The preamble is just the hook needed to place one's own contribution in an overall context (also to explain the topic to somebody who may have stumbled upon the paper), but at the same time there is no real requirement that it be rewritten new every time. So why?

As an example, consider, as posted in a comment, this preamble:

Hedgehog hunting is an important problem in ecology. While the typical procedure consists of a) tracking, b) sniffing, c) aiming, d) shooting, e) desugaring, f) acquisition, the role of the spikes in sniffing did not come into the spotlight before the seminal work of Whippet et al. (2007). In this work we propose a radically different approach to hedgehog spike treatment by invoking desugaring before sniffling.

But if I wanted to write about using metal spikes, you see that the first sentence wouldn't really need to change. And such preambles can usually take a whole paragraph or two, which makes the rewriting annoyance pretty big.


texts:
I am writing an IEEE conference paper (IEEE Photonics Society Summer Topicals) and I sometimes see that shortened version of citations are used, without the title of paper. For example, something like

[3] J. Sun, J. Zeng, and N. M. Litchinitser, Opt. Express 21, 2013, 14975-
14981.

[4] M. I. Shalaev, Z. A. Kudyshev, and N. M. Litchinitser, Opt. Lett. 38,
2013, 4288-4291

What is this style of citation called? I would like to use this style of citation in my paper to save space.


texts:
I graduated with a Mathematics degree from a top-20 program in Mathematics. I have a good math background (I took many honors and some graduate level courses in my university with good grades with a 3.8+ mathematics GPA, and some researches and reading courses as well).

I applied for the PhD program in math at several universities (none of them is top-10). However, I got a terrible math GRE score (I took it once and only got 30% tile). Even though I believe that test is not a reflection of my math skills and knowledge, I think that test will bar me from going to any PhD program I applied to.

What are some options with my pure mathematics degree? I know some of you would suggest for me to go to some Master's program, but I cannot afford to pay anymore since I am an international student, and I know that I should not go to graduate school if I have to pay myself anyway.

At this point I am pretty much hopeless about my applications, and I think it would be wise to find a new path for my career.


texts: How do these UK certificates convert to the US?

texts:
Due to the pandemic, many UK universities have expanded opportunities for people to potentially earn a UK degree without leaving the US. I see several types of programs listed. All say they require "3 units", requiring one year of study:

Undergraduate certificate
Undergraduate diploma
Undergraduate advanced diploma
Postgraduate certificate
Postgraduate diploma

How do these translate to the US? Is a "undergraduate diploma" considered equal to a "bachelor's degree"?


texts: Peer review: how to deal with a paper based on an already published work whose validity to the reviewer is uncertain

texts:
I am reviewing a paper A for a Journal X. To be specific, the area is Mathematics.  The works is built on a previous work B (already published) of the same author in another Journal Y (also a peer-review Journal but perhaps less prestigious). What I have seen after reading of A is that if the results of B are correct then the results of A are also correct. After looking at the paper B, it seems to me that the proofs are less convincing and I am uncertain of their correctness (I don't have counterexamples to show their incorrectness). If the results of B are correct, the paper A deserves to be published in the Journal X.

How can I deal with this situation?


texts: Should I respond to emails (resembling spams) asking for my papers?

texts:
I started to get emails like this:

  From: Firstname Middlename Lastname <someotherfirstname0000@hotmail>~

  Title of paper.

  I need the article to study.

  thank you!

  Firstname Middlename Lastname

Title of paper identifying one of my papers.

Is this the beginning of academic spam or phishing? Do you get such stuff regularly?

The first reaction I had was to answer with an ironic version of how I'd like such an email to look and how I'd have answered it.

On a second thought I decided that the email was so rude that I won't  answer it.

After a few hours I got the very same email a second time. I noticed that the sender name is not the one of the names in the "signature". Also, the sender is rather unknown to the more relevant part of the internet (including pubmed).


texts: How important is AACSB accreditation for further study after an MBA?

texts:
I have read that many Doctor of Business Administration or PhD in Business Administration programs in the US tend to reject students who did not complete a master's program at an AACSB-accredited school. From checking the list, there are no AACSB programs in the country where I live and it seems that many other foreign students would similarly lack such opportunities.

Is this true only for American students or also of international students?
If I complete a non-AACSB-accredited program, how might this limit my opportunities for further study?
How could I demonstrate that a foreign program has sufficient quality?


texts: Is this a valid reason to choose a specific sub-field?

texts:
My local university has announced the need for local experts in a specific sub-field within Electrical Engineering (EE), which is why they are offering the opportunity to sponsor student(s) in said sub-field on their master's and PhD studies and providing future job in the university.

I would like to know If I should mention that in my SOP as the reason why I would like to peruse my degree in that particular subject, or should I avoid it at all and simply go with the more generic approach of having interest in it ( which is true considering it is still a sub-field within EE but not necessary the major reason of my choice).

My only worry is that the honesty of my reasons would deter admission referees from taking my application seriously.


texts: Masters degree in business engineering or management engineering

texts: Is it possible to have a masters degree in business engineering or management engineering when you don't have a first degree? But i have more than 10 years professional experience


texts:
Besides hard work, is there anything that one can try to be creative in research? On this site, is there a lot of people who can publish more than 5 or 10 papers per year? I would like ask them, if it is possible to train oneself to do that.

I have been a hardworking student. For four years, I have tried to publish one (first-author) paper per year, and I feel that this is my limit. This rate is enough for me to get a PhD, but it is never enough for survive in academia.

I'm going to start my postdoc in a couple of weeks, and I'm really worried, thinking about my career. I really love research, but I'm afraid I'm just a mediocre scientist, who will end up as a postdoc for 10 years (or forever).


texts: Academic Dishonesty: Do cheating students learn from punishment?

texts:
Scenario:
You catch a student cheating on a graded assessment. While you are required to report them to a student-affairs administrator, it is up to you, the instructor, how to grade the student on the assessment.
The most common response seems to be to give the student a zero on the assessment. If this is an exam, this may mean failing the course.
Question:
Is punishing a cheating student by failing them useful because it results in learning (either by the individual cheater, or by the community at large because of the message it sends), or because it weeds out students who are dishonest?
I would appreciate any references to the effectiveness of punishment for academic dishonesty leading to changed behavior(s).
Note: If a student cheats on assessments, it is clear that you will not have sufficient data to grade their knowledge or abilities there. This question is not about whether we should accept work completed via cheating, but whether rewarding the behavior with a failing exam/course grade is effective in some way. Answers that boil down to "but what else can we do" probably answer a different question not being asked here.


texts:
Submitting a rejected paper to the same editor in a different journal.

One of my papers was rejected from a top journal in mathematics. ( I submitted it to an editor, say A)
Two reviews basically were saying that the paper is solid but not good enough for the journal.
The reviews did not contain much details about the paper. I think that the reviewers (say, B, C) didn't read it thoroughly.(It was somewhat a quick rejection)
I am thinking about submitting it to another journal (not a top, but still very good).
The same person A is the only editor in the field of the paper in that journal.
So it is very likely that the editor A will handle the paper again and send it to the reviewers B, C.

What is pros and cons of submitting the paper to that journal?

Do I need to avoid submitting the paper to that journal?


texts: What are characteristics of "high quality" graduate research as viewed by a hiring committee?

texts: When discussing the ability for a faculty candidate to find a job, SE users often say that the quality of graduate research overshadows the prestige of the school at which they received a graduate degree. As viewed by a a hiring committee, what are characteristics of "high quality" research?


texts: How to mention possible mutual interests when applying for a job?

texts:
Several advices for job application, recommend to mention faculty that have similar interests and can be future collaborators. What is the best way to do that?

I have worked on topic T and I would like collaborate with with Dr. A
I believe that my work can extend the work of Dr. A

And do making such connection is valid for all schools, or can have exceptions in small departments? My concern here, is that specifying some names, may have some negative effects. Since Dr. A, could be leading a research on specific topic or teaching course C, and is not willing to allow other new faculty to compete with him.


texts: Is a "lecturer" position sufficient for a career and not a temporary position? Can it ever be useful if not intended as permanent?

texts:
I am a visiting assistant professor at a selective liberal arts school for psychology, first year post-grad. I have five publications but probably won't get any offers for tenure track positions without an additional postdoc. I also am trying to find a position in which research is an element, but not the first priority of the job (which is a really narrow path, it seems).

I haven't been able to find a lot of information specifically about "lecturer" positions in US universities. I know they can come with some security and focus mainly on a lot of teaching. I enjoy teaching and would be happy to make it the focus of my career, but I am still holding on to the ideal of the tenure-track line. If I did take a lecturer position at a high-ranking school, I figure I can depend on potentially a better starting salary than a tenure line at a smaller or lower-ranked school- while it would be at the cost of career growth, would it be incorrect to assume I could just make a living that way and possibly get some job security down the line? (For example, I know there have been "senior lecturer" designations and such that seem to indicate security of employment). Or even if there was stability but no growth?

Can anyone speak to maintaining a lecturer position as a kind of permanent position? I know that they are generally term to term, or are on some contract every x years (for example one of the positions I applied to is renewable on a 3 year contract). I know that lecturer positions are not really helpful to transition to tenure-track lines focused on research, but what about teaching-focused schools? Or, even, if one just stops at lecturer?

I feel at the moment that taking a lecturer position would sort of end my tenure-track aspirations on paper, but also I don't want to end up doing term positions or adjuncting for 10 years (true stories about this have been told to me). I could do a postdoc but the return rate on those is generally later in the year, which comes at the expense of current opportunities if I get any offers. Additionally, although I'm young in my career I am already feeling myself fatiguing and I don't want to go through years of moving, instability, financial insecurity, etc. I started grad school initially thinking of the classic tenure track position, focusing on research, etc. but I didn't really enjoy the research aspect as much as I thought, so I shifted my focus to teaching (apparently not a good move). Since I don't actually know anyone who's gone in for a lecturer position or what kind of growth there is there, can anyone weigh in on their stability, enjoyability, growth etc?? And if I take it and do want to try to pursue a tenure track line somewhere else, could it ever be useful?


texts: Publishing in multidisciplinary open access journals in computer sciences

texts:
My this question is specific to Computer Science discipline(or, Engineering discipline can also be included).

What about publishing articles, from computer science domain, in multidisciplinary open access journals?

The reason for asking this question is that I had seen on some blog that researchers do not give much credit to such articles (from computer science domain) which are published in open access journals especially in multidisciplinary journals. Some researchers have quoted that don't spoil your CV by publishing in these journals and in research community such articles do not have much respect.


texts: Adding new results during review process

texts:
I submitted a paper to an applied mathematics journal. I have since found a way to generalize one of the results.

Is it acceptable to update the paper during the first review step even if I have not been requested to improve on this particular aspect?

I understand that this would create extra work for the reviewers since they would have to check that part again. However, writing a brand new paper with the additional result would probably cause even more extra work for the review community. I also understand that a dissemination strategy that incorporates some salami slicing might be better for my career, but somehow I am opposed to doing that kind of thing.


texts: Does being a poorly-performing undergraduate researcher mean that I have little chance of being successful in graduate school?

texts:
I am an undergraduate student in mathematics, and I will be starting my third year of university in the fall. I recently attended an NSF "Research Experiences for Undergraduates" (REU) program.

Unfortunately, the program did not go well for me. I can't engage with the material at the proper level, and I've accomplished very little while I've been here. For reference, the others here are writing multipage papers about things they've done or at the very least, learned, and some plan to submit theirs journals or present their findings at undergraduate-friendly conferences. I could probably write a paragraph of what I "learned" but in my opinion, I don't have enough background to even coherently think about what I was supposed to accomplish.

Here's a rundown of other possible reasons that I performed poorly:

As I said before I don't have much background. I've taken all of the pure math courses my school offers, but the others here came in knowing things like category theory, algebraic geometry, etc. that I simply haven't been able to learn well in my short time here. Notably, the program website never indicated that I would expected to know that stuff. I certainly exceeded the "minimum" requirements to apply.
My research advisor is advising three students and we're sharing projects. Since the others knew so much more than me, I feel like he was unwilling to help me with things that was probably trivial to others. (I know that in graduate school that attitude from professors might be common, but the other students had semester long classes on things I was trying to pick up in a few days.) This was also his first experience involving undergraduates with research.
While my program is considered competitive in the sense that they apparently get 300+ applications only accept 9 - 12 students each summer, I'm pretty certain that I only got in because I'm a member of an "under represented group" in mathematics and the program tries to favor such individuals. I was clearly not accepted on merit based on the caliber of the other students.

I am concerned about my performance because these programs are "designed to expose undergraduate math students to research to the extent that they are encouraged to attend graduate school in the mathematical sciences". Considering this experience makes me want to do anything but graduate school in math, I'm worried. Should I let this experience be a wake up call?


texts: Completing premed requirements after Bachelors

texts:
I'm thinking about applying to medical schools in the USA. Many medical schools require a two-year course in chemistry including organic chemistry and a year long course in biology, as well as requirements in mathematics and physics.

I have already satisfied the mathematics and physics requirements and a portion of the chemistry requirements during my undergraduate study. Are there any programs that will let me cherry pick classes to satisfy the application requirements?


texts: What is a suitable job title for someone responsible for data and software in a research project?

texts:
My PI has just asked me what she should call me when introducing me to visiting researchers. I couldn't give her a definite answer.

I work in a research project where I supervise its research data in terms of versioning, formats, conversion, storage, etc. In this function I've, e.g., written a data management plan. I also (and this is the gros of my work) develop software which is used within the project but is also generic enough to target other researchers. And finally, I work on my PhD thesis, albeit not in a structured PhD programme (in my neck of the woods you can write a thesis as long as you have one or more supervisors with the right to supervise PhD theses.

As of now, I've usually been introduced as the "project's programmer", which my PI finds is somewhat dismissive of my actual work and responsibilities.

What would be a good title then, one that could also be printed on business cards?


texts: Etiquette for a female PhD student to reject her male supervisor's invitation to meet outside of work

texts:
The role of supervisor is a key role. The relationship between the supervisor and the students should be healthy.

In this context, in India, there is a lot of difference between male and female students. If a male supervisor frequently holds meetings outside of the workplace,  male students can participate without any fear while female students cannot.

How does a female student reject the invitations of a male supervisor to meet outside of the workplace (such as in the supervisor's home)? The purpose of the invitation is to discuss the developments or updates in research.

Many incidents like 1,2,3 etc., have occurred and hence female students have to think about their safety but at the same time they still have to work around the supervisor's workload. (He may not get time during his working hours to review his scholar's progress.)


texts: Best-practice models for "research" code?

texts:
I have been a professional software developer for a number of years, I'm also an academic researcher - and my research has involved lots of software development.

I sometimes feel as though my industrial experience has been a hindrance in my research, as the goals of writing software in a research context feel contradictory to the goals in industry.

In industry, code needs to be (ideally): maintainable, bug-free, refactored,  well-documented, rigorously tested - good quality - best practice says that these things are worth the time (I agree).

In academia, the goal is to write as many quality research papers in the shortest possible time. In this context, code is written to run the experiment, and might never be looked at again (we are judged on our papers - not our code). There seems to be no motivation to write tested, maintainable, documented code - I just need to run it and get the result in my paper or whatever ASAP. Consequently, the "academic" code I've written is poor quality - from a software engineering perspective.

The problem is that I either spend too long making (unnecessarily) getting my "research" code to industry-quality, or I publish work based on "bad quality" code, and I feel like a fraud.

My career progression is dependent on me writing "bad" code!?

The "craft" of software development is a huge subject - but where is the best practice for academic research? Nobody writes unit tests for conference paper code!

Does anyone find them in a similar situation?
Does anyone know of formal methodologies for "research" code?


texts: Is there something between auditing and taking for credit?

texts:
Is there a system in place that is in between auditing a course and taking it for credit?

I have audited a course before and I didn't learn enough material to prepare for the actual course.


texts: Undergraduate supervisor leaving on a sabbatical

texts:
I recently found out one of my undergraduate supervisors/mentors has been accepted as a visiting fellow at MIT. If all goes to plan, he'll be at MIT starting next fall.

I'm a senior year student of physics, and I have already planned to take at least a year off before applying to graduate schools in theoretical/mathematical physics. If the professor isn't around, I'm pretty much left stranded. In a small department, he's the only one who does research in theoretical/fundamental/high energy physics.

After congratulating him on getting this position, how should I go about inquiring about my status from him? Also, we used to have another professor, say X, in the department (kicked out, unfortunately) with interests in mathematical physics. The professor in question, Y, is in good terms with professor X. How can I potentially ask professor Y to recommend me as a student to professor X, assuming professor Y won't be available starting next fall?


texts: Change affilation in printed publication

texts: I am coauthor of publication (in Journal of archaeological science) and i want to change my Affiliation,  but publication is already printed (2014)...  Is it possible to change affilation after printing?


texts: What are the pros and cons of doing a PhD in a small research group compared to a large research group?

texts:
I have chosen to work under a associate professor as my PhD advisor. He has a small research group -a group of 3 graduate students and some Undergraduates. I see colleagues of my advisor have groups of 10-12 students with 3 postdocs.

Am I missing something- research wise ??


texts: Is there a need for corrigendum in this case?

texts:
After publication of my paper, I have discovered that I made a typo citing a very well known formula (part of undergraduate curriculum). Is there a need for corrigendum, as it is a well known formula ?

thanks


texts: What does it mean if a professor suggests to contact in future?

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I am a final year Computer Science student from South Asia and expected to graduate by August 2017. I thought of starting to contact professors for masters program from now. Today I received a reply from the professor I mailed first. He said,

  Thank you for your interest. I would suggest you to contact me once you have graduated.

What can I infer from this kind of reply? And another question: Is it too early to start to apply?


texts: Should I be applying for positions if my applications were rejected last year and not much have changed since then? Please advise

texts:
I am 31 years old, materials engineering PhD graduate in Canada. I completed my PhD last year and failed to secure a postdoc or industry position mainly because of my poor publication record. After graduation, I published 2 papers. So now, I have 3 first author and 1 co-authored publications from my PhD in decent journals.
Since May this year, I joined my PhD advisor for my postdoc and I have been working on different projects than my PhD's. I have been collaborating with groups in my department and other universities in Canada. My PhD advisor is great and offered me the position out of pity.
I have submitted two first author papers this year till now. Planning to submit 3 more (1 first and 2 co-authored) by the end of this year.
However, I don't feel good about what I am doing. I feel so incompetent since I did not get a good position last year and now am working with my PhD advisor which is considered a career suicide.
My advisor has ensured that the contract will be extended till the end of the next year. And I am hesitating to apply for postdoc or industry positions elsewhere as mostly I am afraid of getting rejected again and partly from covid situation.
I know I should be applying for positions aggressively. But I am not feeling the motivation to do so. I always wanted to be an academic. But now I feel that I am not cut out for it. I just don't have what it needs to be in research field. I am also not a good teacher.
There's so much I don't know and so much skillset to acquire that many researchers of my age and in my field of study are proficient in. I just feel that I am going to fail again in securing a position.
I just don't know what to do. Should I be applying for positions if not much has changed since then?
Please advise what you think about my situation. Thanks.


texts: NSF sponsoring scientist already having postdocs under their supervision

texts:
This question seems reasonably focused and of interest, but is perhaps unanswerable. I'm a mathematics student graduating and would like to apply for the NSF postdoctoral fellowship. I wanted to know whether choosing an NSF sponsoring scientist who already has postdocs under their supervision damages one's chances of obtaining the fellowship. I'm not as interested in the question of whether such a sponsor will do as good a job in their role. I'm especially interested in answers which provide some evidence which bears on the matter. This seems slightly(very?) field specific, so answers from people with experience in mathematics or related fields are preferred.

Thank you!


texts: Should I send a second (but not consecutive) follow-up email?

texts:
By the end of the term, I am supposed to choose my MA supervisor. Normally, I agreed to meet her to confer on a possible common area of interest this week. On Monday, I sent her an email asking when we could meet and she hasn't still replied. It's now Sunday in Turkey, so it has been six days.
I want to send a follow up email but the problem is that I sent another follow up email on the same issue two or three weeks ago when I first contacted to ask whether I can study with her. If I send a second email this time as well, I fear that I could seem rude and annoying. What should I do here? Since the deadline is one month from now on, I want to settle this issue.


texts: How to avoid procrastination during the research phase of my PhD?

texts:
I just finished all of my coursework for my PhD program, and am entering the research phase of my degree with a topic already in mind.  I've already started the research, but I'm already finding that I end up procrastinating a lot of my time away.  When I was taking courses, I felt like i didn't have time to procrastinate because of the pace of the classes and I felt like I had to always keep up with the pace.  But now that I have no specific constraints, I feel like its harder to pace myself.

Of course, I know it's a bad habit to procrastinate and I should probably devote most of my waking hours to my research.  Sometimes, (especially when I get stuck) I find it's so easy to get distracted on the computer (websites, youtube, text messages, etc.).

What are some effective strategies to avoid procrastination during this research phase?  How do you stay on task, especially when you get stuck?


texts: Can I add my middle initial to my author name in preceding articles?

texts:
So I'm not sure what to do. I've been listed as a co-author on my first publication in X journal, with a decent impact factor. Now I just realized that my middle initial wasn't included on the first publication.

Can I start using my middle initial in future publications? I know it's only my first, but that paper could get plenty of citations in the near future. (just hypothetically)

What do you think?

Is there a way to link the 2 names? Could I link them if I publish again in that same journal, specifically an ACS journal?


texts: Is verbatim copying of short technical phrases without quotes but with citation considered plagiarism?

texts:
My question is similar to Is verbatim copying several paragraphs of text with citation considered plagiarism?, but
I want to ask about very short, concise wordings. As an example, I read a paper in which the author uses the following sentence:

  While in the above description we have specified a local algorithm as
  a function that maps local neighbourhoods to local outputs, we could
  equally well […]

Now, instead of copying the exact sentence with its grammatical structure, I
want to point the reader to this paper and briefly mention one of the
conclusions made in this paper. Consider the sentence

  author et al. [citation] show that a local algorithm is a function that maps local neighborhoods to local outputs.

The wording "function that maps local neighborhoods to local
outputs" is a verbatim copy from the original source. Of course, I could
replace this wording with something else that expresses the same, but I find the original citation very concise and I could not come up with a completely
different and equally concise sentence.

I always use quotes in addition to a citation to tell the reader that not only
the conveyed ideas and concepts, but also the wording, is not my own
intellectual achievement. But in this case, one might argue that a person that
has understood the ideas described in the original paper might come up with the exact same wording, hence the wording is not a result of the original author's linguistic style, but rather a direct conclusion of the idea he wants to explain.

Is it acceptable to use this wording with a citation and no quotations, or
should you always use quotes for verbatim-copies?


texts: Student research proposal for project continued from past year

texts:
I'm an undergraduate doing a research colloquium project which is a continuation of one from the last school year. For the first proposal I had an introduction, which told about the disease of interest, and gave a brief summary of the project's goals. That was followed by a section detailing the procedures that were to be done in the upcoming research.

So I was wondering, for this year's proposal, since it's a continuation should I go into the same detail about the disease again, then talk about what I did last year and then what I'll do this year? Or shorten up that background [on the disease part] and just focus on what was done last year and what I will be doing? Do you think it would it be more appropriate to shorted up that beginning part or keep it?


texts: In writing a job posting/ad, better to be specific or broad?

texts:
In writing a job posting/ad for a tenure-track faculty position, is it better to (A) specify subfields the department is most interested in hiring in or (B) make the posting as broad as possible (even if there are some specific subfields the department prefers).

Obviously, better is subjective here. Here are some more specific subquestions. I am open to making this community wiki if it's still not specific enough.

Does (A) or (B) result in stronger candidates for the specific subfields?

Does (B) actually discourage some strong candidates from applying?

Does (A) end up producing a weaker sequence of hires in the long term?

I'm interested in this in terms of benefit to the department doing the hiring, not benefit for the candidates.

Anecdotal evidence based on substantial experience is fine. Even better is research on the subject.


texts: How to cite the original source of an algorithm and a secondary source that provides a clearer description of the algorithm?

texts:
I had a situation where for a particular algorithm, it first shows up in a paper [1].
This makes [1] a primary source.
I found [1] a bit hard reading when it came to describing the implementation and fine details of the algorithm. But it was good at describing why the algorithm was needed.

I found another work, which was a masters thesis [2].
It included a step by step mathematical working from what was in [1] (and [2] cited [1] appropriately).
It helped me a lot. I could have done the mathematical working myself, but didn't.

So I am writing a brief summery of the Algorithm:

  The {{Foo}} algorithm allows the {{Bar}} problem to be solved [1]. It
  is based on the fact that {{Equation}} holds under {{Conditions}} [2].
  {{My own explanation of {{Foo}} here}}

Is this correct?


texts: Should a review paper contain any original (previously unpublished) research?

texts:
I am writing a review paper together with two colleagues of mine, to be submitted to a prestigious journal in our field (we already got editorial approval of our proposal). We have contributed significantly to the field, and so the review will discuss some of our published papers together with other materials from the literature, authored by other people.

I have some unpublished results that are basically higher quality data compared with some of what is available from the literature. This means that I have deeper insight into some more or less specific aspects within the general subject of the review than what one could get from reading what has been published.

These results are kind of scattered and I don't think I can put together a  coherent story by stitching together these new bits here and there. But a review paper sounds like a good place to bring them up, complementing everything that's already out there.

My idea of a review paper is that of a critical analysis and compilation of the body of research on a specific topic which has already been published. However, it would feel silly to me (and dishonest to some degree) to write in the review that "x = 10.5" when I know from my unpublished data that actually "x = 10.8" (just an example). Hence my question: is it fine to include unpublished results in a review paper provided that they are just a small fraction of what is being discussed?


texts: Sponsored H1B vs. green card self-petition: What's the quickest?

texts:
I am a postdoctoral scholar at a top ranked US University and I am on a J1 visa. I have received an offer for a position in a company, which should be filled by May 2016. The company told me that they may sponsor me for a H1B visa, but the asked me to check whether it may be faster to apply for a green card with a self-petition as an academic of Extraordinary Ability (EBI-1A). Time is what counts most for them now, and they won't be able to hire me if I don't get this done before May- which I think it will be tough.

I would appreciate to receive your advice on this. I moved recently to the US, and I am still misinformed and very naive on this issue.


texts: Does the source of funding matter in determining academic promotion?

texts:
Follow up question to How does research funding work in determining academic promotions? since it was too broad.

Based on this answer, one needs to get funding to be promoted. Does the source of the funding make a difference, e.g. will it matter whether the money comes from a governmental funding agency versus a private foundation or a rich philanthropist or even one's own pocket?


texts: Ethical concerns regarding the review of a paper on autonomous armed drones

texts:
I would like your suggestion on a delicate matter involving a paper that I am reviewing. I will avoid giving too many details to preserve anonymity.

In this article the authors describe an algorithm for the (unmanned) control of a military armed drone. The work has been done completely in a simulator, but the authors show clear pictures of the type of real-world military drone they reproduced, explicitly saying that the real drone can be armed with different type of bombs. The performance of the algorithm is scored based on the number of times the simulated drone autonomously hit the target. The authors never discuss possible ethical concerns of this technology, neither they explicitly say if this technology will be used on real drones to hit human targets with possible involvement of civilians (e.g. in counter-terrorism).

My personal position is against the development of lethal autonomous weapons. Even though I have several years of experience in reviewing papers, this is the very first time I have to deal with such a problem and I am not sure how to move. I think that this kind of ethical problems are common in medical-related fields, but rather uncommon in engineering, and that they are catching our community off guard.

Note that, from a formal point of view the situation is fuzzy. Even though there has been an international petition against the development of autonomous weapons, the formalization in an international ban (like the one for chemical weapons) seems to be far away. Moreover, the ethical guidelines of the journal just apply to the use of animal in research, and to experiments on human subjects. This let me conclude that from a formal standpoint the paper is legit since it does not break any rule.

I have considered writing to the editor expressing my concerns or pointing out these concerns directly in the review, so that the authors can give an answer to my queries. As last solution I am also considering the option of withdrawing, but I would prefer to set up a dialogue with the authors and the editor since this is more constructive for everybody. However, I think it is also important to consider the hypothesis that my ethical position can bias my review (even though I am trying to be as neutral as possible) and this may be unfair for the evaluation of the technical quality of the proposed method.

My question is: how should I proceed in the review process? There are a few options: withdraw for ethical concerns, just review the article, review and express my ethical concerns to the editor (and maybe to the authors).

Update: 5 March 2020

Thank you everyone for your answers, they really helped me to better understand the situation. I decided to withdraw as reviewer, and I sent an official letter to the editor. In the letter I expressed my ethical concerns without giving any comment on the technical quality of the paper. The paper did not break any formal rule, therefore recommending an official rejection would have been like imposing my personal ethics over the review process. In the letter I have also reported those sentences that clearly framed the drone like an autonomous lethal weapon.

The assistant editor wrote me saying that the editor liked my academic attitude and wanted me for a second review. The editorial team has contacted the authors, who said they did not wanted to create a misunderstanding and that they are willing to modify the expressions. This seems to imply that they have forwarded to the authors the list of sentences I confidentially reported to the editor, and that the authors want to adjust those sentences in the revised version.

My personal opinion is that just rephrasing the paper without changing the substance would not be enough. You can substitute "target" with "goal" and "attack" with "reach" but that remains an autonomous armed drone.


texts: How does one maintain academic contacts?

texts:
How do you stay in touch with researchers whom you meet at conferences? My intention is to stay in touch for possible collaborations and job opportunities.

Usually I meet people, we talk and I send them a "thank you" mail but later I get confused how to take this forward and maintain this contact.

I do send links, my preprints and interesting website questions and stuff once in a while but more often than not, I don't get a reply.


texts: How do I answer a question on graduate school applications on textbooks used in my classes, when my class didn't use a textbook?

texts: I am an undergraduate math major interested in applying to graduate school. Almost all of the applications have a form I fill out where I am supposed to list the textbooks used in my classes, along with chapters covered. However, all of my real analysis and topology classes did not use a textbook, and instead the professor wrote his own extensive notes. How do I handle this on the application? And to what extent will it negatively affect my admissions decisions?


texts:
A fair number of PLOS One articles have statements like the following:

Data Availability: Data cannot be made publicly available as the dataset contains sensitive and identifying information. The authors confirm that the data will be made available upon request. Requests may be sent to the corresponding author.

My question is, what effect does the EU General Data Protection Regulation
 (GDPR) that recently came into effect have on such statements?  Does it render such statements void (i.e., the authors cannot share the data any longer), or does it not apply to this situation (but perhaps some authors will blindly cite GDPR so as to not share their data)?


texts: Is it generally worth the time and effort to challenge incorrect exam test items?

texts:
Background information:

I have just finished refreshing my high school courses in order to enter into university for engineering. Because I have a strong desire to become an engineer I have not moved past any material unless I fully understood it. That being said, the courses I took have had many mistakes in the material (online material as this is through online correspondence). I have had to fight tooth and nail to correct some of the material, even though I was a student, because I believe the material should be correct so that future students do not suffer the same frustration nor are taught improper concepts.

An example to convey the level of quality of the course material:

One example was in the Physics course, the concept of work being taught was equal to force times the distance the object traveled. This is fundamentally wrong; the real concept of work is force times the distance the force was applied over. I wrote to many people and eventually the business owner before my concerns were heard. The only reason I knew this was wrong was because it defied the law of conservation of energy. Though the fact that I, a student, was the only person who realized the mistake and sought to have it fixed reflects very poorly on the quality of the institution.

Strictly relevant to my question:

I have gotten into the habit of contesting test questions which are incorrect, and since every question on the final exam is worth 0.66% of my final grade, I take the time to make sure each mistake was mine. After contesting 2 questions on my last Chemistry final exam I have found that the head of the science department (whom I correspond with) does not understand a specific concept regarding a question. Now, I realize that it is only 1 question and my grade will go from a 97 to a 97.6, but I strongly dislike the idea of losing a mark for a concept which I deserve the acknowledgment of understanding (the grade). In order to explain why my answer was correct, I don't know how to do it in a way that is not condescending towards her (the head of the science department); no matter how you look at it, it will be a student explaining a concept to a teacher.

I am asking for criticism here. Please criticize me and tell me if I am being too much of a perfectionist. Is it appropriate to always contest questions during an academic career or will it have a negative effect on my success in the long run? Also, is it really worth it? What are the pros and cons?

EDIT: I can see my comment about the Physics concept of work is being met with a lot of skepticism; so I am including the link to the Physics.SE question I made in order to verify without a doubt that the lesson was indeed incorrect. When I saw that this was a mistake I took every measure that I could to ensure it was in fact a mistake before I proceeded to contact the head of the science department and then the business owner (when my concerns were not being heard). In no way did I take this lightly and assume I was correct, I did the necessary research before raising concerns.


texts: Submitting short version of an under review journal article in conference

texts: I have an article under review in a journal which is taking very long review time. I want to submit a short version in a conference citing that detailed version is under review in XYZ journal. I know the other way round is common practice.   I want to know if it is an acceptable practice in computer science area?


texts: What happens to preprints after the information contained in them gets published in a peer-reviewed journal?

texts: My question is whether preprints continue to exist after the information contained in them gets published in a journal. It would be confusing to have two sources for the same information (the preprint and the official publication), so I am assuming that preprints are taken down by the authors after their work gets published in a Journal. My question also is concerned with their citations. If preprints and peer-reviewed articles exist,  I don't know if tools such as Google Scholar are adding the total number of the citations received by both papers (I believe they should, as they are practically the same publication, only with different levels of revisions).


texts: Unexpected long delay to start review process and withdrawal of article

texts:
We submitted an article to a SCI journal 2 months ago. Since day 1 the status of article is "Editor Assignment Pending". In the journal introduction they have mentioned that on average 1st review response takes 70 days.
As the start of review process usually takes 5-15 days in my area of research; therefore, we sent an email after 30 days and 2nd email after 45 days but there is no response from editor. In second email we requested to withdrawal of article so we may submit it to another journal.
Can we submit the article to another journal before hearing the response from editor?
Usually in my area of research the articles goes into review process within 5-15 days and it takes 2.5-4 months to get 1st review response.


texts: Transferring results of Google Scholar search to My Profile

texts: Searching Google Scholar I find thousands of references, mostly to my poetry, but also to my articles and books.  Is there any way of transferring some of these articles, books, and poems to "My Profile" without typing each in separately? Thanks!


texts: How to explore/identify similar works in one's own field?

texts:
I bet most of the users here had one of the following bad experiences: your idea and someone's idea happen to be very similar, manuscript topics got scooped, etc. Among these bad experiences, the worst is perhaps finding out a very similar paper was already published after the experimentation, simulation, writing, or even submission was done. This is very time consuming and stressful.

I realize that this question is very general and field-dependent. However, I would love to learn from your experience on how to efficiently look for related works in one's own field. For instance:

Where (websites, publishers, pre-prints... )
When should we find or update these related works, and
What kind of tricks have you used to perform such searches efficiently.

To help you orient, my background is electrical and computer engineering, communication and image/video processing.


texts: Is developing a cheaper method ever considered to be originality in academic research?

texts:
Say, in a particular field of science, method A or equipment B are the standard. Now I have invented method X or equipment Y which cost much less than A or B.

What are the necessary conditions, if any, that allow X and Y to be published as a journal paper?

(This question of course is loaded with my own assumption that originality in an academic research does not include cheaper price. I have long held this assumption from a simple fact that I have never encountered such thing as being cheaper being described in any background/introduction section in any journal articles I've read.)