texts: Dropping out of grad school with F's: how will this affect job prospects?

texts: I am currently getting ready to finish my first semester of a graduate program (was on track for Ph.D but that does not matter anymore). I made the decision to quit half way through the semester due to some family issues that came up. Anyway, ever since that, I pretty much lost all motivation to study with the persistence that I had before - up to the point where on a subconscious level my brain refuses to absorb any more information. I will likely be receiving at least 1 F for the semester. My question is this - after I leave the program I will be looking for job in industry - I am a Civil Engineer as an undergraduate. How will having an F on a 1 semester transcript in graduate school affect my job prospects?


texts: "Write your future plans with less than 51 words": what is the purpose of this question?

texts:
I'm an undergrad who is applying a scholarship for Phd. I have already sent heck a lot of documents ranging from my academic background, letter of purpose, research statement etc.; it took more than two months to prepare them. There I - more than once - explained my future plans extensively.

Now, we are called for an interview, and we, again, need to fill a document where there is this question:

What is the purpose of this question, exactly ? What do they expect to see ?

I mean I have already explained what I wanted to, what are my plans extensively, and now they want me to (I guess summarise) write it again with less than 51 words.


texts: How should I communicate that I do not hold the views expressed in a paper I wrote

texts:
I am writing a paper for a class that requires me to write from a perspective I disagree with.  To an external observer it may not be clear that I am not allowed to disagree with the premise of the prompt.

I disagree with it to such a degree that I would like to add something at the beginning or end of the paper that expresses my dissent in case my work or record is made public for some reason.  It would be professionally and personally embarrassing to have the work become public.

Is there a way to do this professionally?  Is there a way to do this without offending my professor?


texts: What happens when a professor makes damaging comments about another in front of students?

texts:
I have had some very negative comments made about me by a small number of students, which my institution is taking seriously enough to terminate my employment.

I know that a particular colleague has been influencing the students to feel negatively about me, and unfortunately, most of the students I have taught over the past 2 years have been in direct contact with this colleague (sometimes on a daily basis). One course I taught last year actually had fairly good student reviews, and that was because my colleague had nothing to do with those students. In fact, if one looks at my evaluation results from the past 3 years, the students who had nothing to do with my colleague gave me good reviews, and the ones that were in frequent contact with him gave me terrible reviews and made horrible personal, and sometimes offensive comments about me. However, my boss is not willing to consider this and sees only that my evaluation results have taken a downward trend.

In my institution, the lectures are recorded, and I have recently discovered a recording of my colleague talking to my students (who are also his students) before his lecture. In the video, my colleague is heard to make several derogatory comments about me, my teaching, my professionalism, etc., and a student is heard to say "this does not bode well", about the course I was about to start teaching them. This was right at the beginning of the semester and the students did not even know me yet. By the way, the comments made by my colleague were untrue.

As a result of interaction with my colleague, the students were very negatively predisposed to me and made very nasty comments about me and gave me extremely low ratings on their evaluations, which has caused my institution to initiate termination procedures against me.

What can I expect to happen? Has my colleague committed a terminatable offense, and can I expect him to be fired for this?

The way this has turned out is that some students (with whom my colleague also had close contact) complained so badly about me last year that a course was stripped away from me and given to him for this year, and a project that I received research funding for (as the principal investigator) has been taken from me and given to him. He had previously applied for funding for this project and did not inform me or put my name on the proposal (i.e. he was trying to steal my project from me). I have been suspended from work, and forbidden to have any contact with students, for 2 months now.

Of course, the video is from this year, not last year, so I can't prove he did the same last year, so is the one video enough to prove that my colleague has been actively and maliciously sabotaging my career even last year?

Could I still be fired and my colleague kept on after my boss sees what's on the video? That prospect is unthinkable to me, but I have been treated so unfairly so far I could almost see them doing that. I know that my boss likes my colleague and doesn't particularly like me.

Do I have any recourse, legal or otherwise, if, even after seeing the video, my boss fires me and my colleague suffers no consequences?

Thank you.

Further information: I'm in the UK on a fixed contract. My understanding, however, is that they need a good reason not to renew a contract when it runs out.


texts:
As part of applying to a postdoc fellowship, I need to write the following:

"Please describe your planned research activities for your postdoctoral studies (up to 650 words)".

I'm not sure whether the intentions are to describe my future research plan (as in what research questions I'm going to tackle) or what research activities I plan to have (e.g., conducting simulations, reviewing papers, collaborations or organizing workshops).

I suspect that the answer is trivial, yet I'm not familiar with this academic terminology. Any help?

Edit: following Nathan's answer, I add the other questions:

Please provide a summary of your dissertation (up to 450 words).
Please provide a summary of your present research, if different from your dissertation (up to 400 words).
Please describe your planned research activities for your postdoctoral studies (up to 650 words).
Explain, in some detail, the reasons for your choice of country, institution and academic supervisor abroad, and the connection, if any, with your present and planned future work (up to 130 words).
Please describe in one paragraph (10-12 lines) what you hope to have achieved at the conclusion of your post-doctoral studies.


texts: Do all US schools provide the same access to e-journal resources?

texts: I recently took courses from several different schools, with different semesters in different parts of the US. When visiting the schools' library Web sites, I noticed that each offered a similar "search all resources link" with a login, eventually leading to EBSCO. I expected the significantly larger and more expensive university to offer more "premium" access. I could not find any difference in the available results and down-loadable articles from one institution or the other. Do nearly all schools pay for nearly the same access? Can I expect nearly all schools to use EBSCO and the search results for electronic resources to be identical at each institution?


texts: Where to search for conferences and workshops in computer science?

texts:
I'm a master student in computer science. I'm still working on my thesis and probably I will publish a paper, however I really have no idea where to look for workshops and conferences. I often hear my supervisor talking about some conferences and workshops and mentioning them, but I get no idea how he knew about them. Is there such a central website or search engine for this?

I'm new in research, never published a paper before.


texts: CS Associate's degree in Brazil: go straight to master's or get a bachelor's first?

texts:
I am 23 years old and finishing my associate degree (3 years part-time) in Computer Science. I've been thinking about pursuing a career in academia; I've started to do research and got a paper accepted to a relevant conference in my field (pattern recognition).

I already have some experience in industry (4 years software development), so it's something I've tasted before, but nowadays I see academia fulfilling me better in the long term (big thanks to this post).

My goal would be to grow a career in academia (pattern recognition) and work as a consultant on the side.

Would count against me to go directly to Masters without a Bachelor? Or is there some better option? My concern is that my associate's degree didn't have a good mathematical foundation; it was focused on market-related technologies (programming languages, databases, software engineering, testing).

At this moment I've been thinking about two different paths I could take:

Take 2 more years to get a bachelor's degree, and then go to master's (at age 25). This would allow me to grow more (both in foundation but also in maturity aspect) and make the most out of my master's.
Go straight to Masters I believe I would have a really hard time with this, due to concepts I haven't seen before (calculus and linear algebra). Certainly I would try to learn beforehand, but this kind of knowledge takes time to grow. At this time I feel that I wouldn't make the most of it, but it would save me two years.

Note, I am in Brazil. College is free, and the only requirement for a master's program is to have an undergraduate degree, which both associate's and bachelor's are, so this wouldn't be an impediment.


texts:
A PhD is supposed to be an "original contribution to knowledge". In my own PhD (in an area of Earth Science) I have so far focused on developing a particular method of computer modeling that will hopefully have a range of applications in my field. In short, my question is: Is the development of an original/novel method a contribution to knowledge worthy of a PhD?

The reason for asking this is that my supervisor seems concerned that I am drifting away from the 'pure science questions' in my field - i.e I ought to be trying to address a fundamental research question with this new model, rather than spending most of my time developing and testing a new method.

My instinct says that it should be just as valid, and browsing some of the other PhD theses from the department suggests that a few others have gone down this route. I also see plenty of papers published that are more 'methods-focused' than 'fundamental-question-addressing'. Personally, I get a lot more satisfaction from pursuing the former kind of research, even though I accept I am not directly answering 'the big questions' as my supervisor puts it.

On the other hand, I don't predict an entirely healthy academic relationship down the line if our opinion on what constitutes an interesting PhD thesis differs so fundamentally, and I also consider the possibility that I could just be plain wrong in my interpretation of "original contribution to knowledge".


texts: When is it appropriate to add references to own papers on Wikipedia?

texts:
The Wikipedia rules about citing yourself state:

  Using material you have written or published is allowed within reason, but only if it is relevant, conforms to the content policies, ... and is not excessive.

While the Wikipedia rules allows self citation, is it ethical to self cite?

Short example: there are two good papers on the same topic, A and B. Is it ethical for the authors of paper A to include a reference to A and not B in the "References" section at the end of the article even if it is not cited in the article. On Wikipedia, it is pretty common for things to be just listed at the end and not mentioned in the article itself.

My questions are:

At what point is it appropriate to edit references to my own papers/preprints into Wikipedia?  (Maybe even add a paragraph claiming the same breakthrough I claim in my own paper.)
What should one do when noticing that otherwise unknown and very new preprints pop up as (uncited) references in Wikipedia articles?


texts: Am I allowed to publish reviews submitted for courses in open-access journals?

texts:
Question is rather self explanatory.

I understand that the article was submitted within the context of a course within the university, but it is nonetheless my intellectual property. I also generally cannot seem to get a clear answer from the university's staff.

Generally, is it acceptable and legal to submit an article or review submitted within the context of a course to a journal for publication?


texts: Is it customary to discuss novel idea in front of doctoral review committee?

texts:
For a PhD student in my University, there will be a doctoral review committee presentation for every six months.

Course work is for first eighteen months.

But from fourth semester, student has to present his research work. In general, the presentation includes the summary of research papers studied in the semester, details of research papers published by student, if any and the novel ideas on which the student worked in that semester.

The committee contains three persons and presentation goes off record. Then there may be chance of copying the novel idea by any committee member. So I'm wondering whether it is a custom only in my University or in other universities also.

So my question is that is it customary to discuss or present novel ideas in front of doctoral committee in atleast many of the Universities?


texts: Poor grades in courses related to my PhD thesis. Is that an indication to my research and future academic career potential?

texts:
My PhD research will be in numerical modeling of Selective laser melting (SLM) process. I will be using finite element method, Fortran and python programming and a bit of machine learning in my research. My research is going to be completely computational based. I will be using Abaqus finite element analysis software for my research.

I took three courses (Finite Element Analysis, Mechanical behavior of materials and Numerical methods in scientific research) as part of my grad school requirements. I have a background in metallurgical engineering.

Now, I have got B-, A-, B+ grades in the three courses respectively. And I had worked hard for these courses, probably should have worked harder. My advisor says the grades and courses are a formality and I should focus on my research as I will learn more by doing than through any coursework.

It's true that I won't be developing any finite element code for my research and I will learn programming and fundamentals of material behavior as I go about my research, I am concerned that the abysmal grades in the courses is an indication to my research and future academic career inability. Is it? Any advice?


texts: Are there any tools for organising literature with tags?

texts:
So when writing a manuscript I usually go about as follows:
When reading papers on my topic I copy/paste or summarise those parts, which may be relevant for me and collect all these bits in a Word Document. It'll look like this:

Species A grew taller than Species B (Smith et al. 2013)

Growth rate depends on genetics (Miller et al. 2012)

For Species A growth rate did not differ between experiments (Jones et al. 2013)

So basically a list of statements that I then regroup (manually) by topic. However, that last part is quite tedious (and I have to decide on how to group the bits, e.g. by "Species A" or by "growth rate").

So I am looking for a tool (online or downloadable) with which it's possible to collect those text bits, assign tags to each and then select which tag to group by and get the selection of statements.

Are you aware of such a tool?


texts: Tips for purchasing food and drink for a talk

texts:
Can people who hosted talks at your university provide some tips on purchasing food and drink for the event?

We have a visitor from another American university and I am tasked with buying "food and drink" for about an audience of 30 - 50 people. We are located relatively close to Starbucks but far away from the nearest supermarket such as Walmart. The talk will last two hours.

From what I have seen, people usually purchase donuts and coffee for these events. I have seen these coffee "crates", "barrels", (I'm not sure what to call them).

Can anyone provide some suggestions as to where you can purchase cheap, and standard meal for these talks? I have asked people around me but they seen to have no idea, our group don't usually host visitors and the graduate students used to purchase for these talks have all graduated.

(Again, in a North America setting)


texts: Going from co-advisors to just one advisor

texts:
I'm 2.5 years in to a 4 year PhD with possibility of a 5th year of funding. I started with one advisor, but research interests started shifting, so we brought on a co-advisor. My research interests have continued to shift in the new co-advisor's direction. The research components that the original advisor can guide me on are hitting speed bump after speed bump and never really getting off the ground. I've been making steady progress with the research components of the new advisor. I want to have the "new" co-advisor  (not so new by now) just be my main advisor, and have my original advisor just serve as a committee member. Feels like a cold move, seeing as he was the one that brought me on in the first place. But he recently mentioned he's no longer sure how to advise me anymore, so I think he might be thinking the same thing.

I worry I'm too far into my program to make such a move. My comprehensive exams are coming up this semester, which complicates the timing of this as well. I want to suggest this move to my co-advisor in a way that is tactful and won't cause waves. But I'm not sure how to go about it - you can't un-ring a bell.

My questions are:

How unusual is it to go from two advisors to one after 2.5 years, and am I better off making this change or doing the best I can with the situation I'm in?
If making this change is better, do you have any advice with regards to how to do it so that I don't make a mess?

I am not being directly funded by either advisor, like with a grant. Funding comes through university assistantships. Additionally, keeping the original advisor on in a co-supervisory role is not an acceptable solution, because the original advisor is adamant about research approaches that don't work, and - at this point - also fall outside my interests.


texts: What to do with students coming to office hours asking to check their homework?

texts:
As a teaching assistant (TA), how to handle the situation where a student comes to office hours asking to check their homework? I.e. the student hands in their solution to the homework and ask the TA to check for any mistake. Assume homeworks are worth somewhere between 20% and 50% of the grade.

If country-specific, I am interested in the United States. If field specific, I am interested in computer science, linguistics, neuroscience and maths.


texts: What is the proper way for an abbreviation of assistant professor?

texts: I am looking for the formally correct abbreviation of assistant professor. How do I refer to someone in that position in a letter or on a webpage? Is Asst. Prof. Dr. the right title?


texts: What happens in a thesis defense when the non-committee members leave the room?

texts:
I've been to many PhD proposals and defenses, but I've yet to give either myself. At every talk I've seen, after the speaker finishes his/her presentation and the non-committee members ask their questions, we're asked to leave the room. I assume the committee then asks the speaker questions.

Are these questions any different from normal questions you would get at a talk or do they function as a sort of impromptu oral exam? Do students prepare for them in a particular way or it is just assumed you'll pick up on what you need from your studies and work on your thesis?


texts: What should be done about conflicting invitations for graduate school interviews?

texts:
I have received offers from a few graduate schools to interview in the coming months, but there are only so many February weekends available and two schools already have the same interview weekend. I accepted the first one when the invitation arrived, and now the second has arrived. Both are top choices in my book, so it's hard to drop one.

What can be done about conflicting interview dates for science grad school?


texts:
Some graduate students (MSc and PhD) have a second advisor from outside the university (and even outside the country). In most cases I've seen, the second advisor is a collaborator of the primary supervisor.

Is there any institutional attitude towards having a second advisor from outside the university (and probably internationally)?

What are the terms of working with an external advisor? Does it need an HR contract, or institutional agreement? Who approves the qualifications of the external advisor to meet the university standards/regulations?


texts: Is it acceptable for me (an undergrad) to call professors and other research professionals by their first names?

texts:
I'm a second-year undergrad, and I've always been on a first-name basis with anyone in academia or in a research setting. I first worked in a laboratory in high school, and since everyone was on a first-name basis with everyone else there, I sort of just applied that logic to other labs and to my college professors.

But when I was talking to a researcher (my "supervisor", if that's relevant) at the lab I'm currently interning at this summer, one of my fellow interns told me afterwards she thought it was "odd" and "unprofessional" to call him by his first name. I understand where she's coming from, but if this were any other type of environment (say a business office), I think it would be awkward to call my boss anything but his first name (Mr. X seems a bit too formal for the boss-employee relationship).

For what it's worth, my boss doesn't seem put off by the way I address him, and I don't think my professors are, either. Maybe my perspective's a bit skewed because of how I was introduced to the scientific/academic culture. Am I out of line here? What did you call your professors/advisors/bosses as an undergrad?


texts: Is it ethical to buy noise canceling headphones with research funds?

texts:
Noise canceling headphones are quite expensive (up to 300 USD) compared to normal headphones, but can boost productivity by creating a sound isolation in noisy environments. Would it be ethically justifiable to buy those for non-research purpose (i.e., it's not needed for experiments)?

On one hand, I feel like good office furniture like chairs and desks are fully justifiable for the well-being and productivity of the research team members. But, this argument seems like a slippery slope, since I could also say that having a high-end espresso machine or special dark chocolate bars also could boost research productivity. In a corperate environment, I would have no problem in purchasing some of these, and I would consider them to be ethical, but in an academic environment, I find it difficult to find the ethical boundary since the funds are intended for research.

The fact that noise canceling headphones will likely be used for listening to music both while working on research and not, especially during travel, also adds to my ambivalence. But then research purpose laptops are also used this way often, and I don't have a problem with that.

EDIT: I'm not looking for alternate solutions. Just an ethical evaluation. It seems there's no real answer to this question. I appreciate everybody's response. I will choose the most balanced response as an answer but you should really read all the answers.


texts: How to cite reference in APA style when author names form part of sentence?

texts:
When a citation reference is an integral part of a sentence, such as:

  Gordon and Metric provide a wide review of the key mechanisms...

Where and how is it best to place the citation reference (in APA style)?

A) Place the citation as part of the sentence:

  (Gordon & Metric, 2012) provide a wide review...

B) Place the citation right next to the authors' names (the repetition seems a bit awkward to me):

  Gordon and Metric (Gordon & Metric, 2012) provide a wide review...

C) Place the citation at the end of the sentence:

  Gordon and Metric provide a wide review [...] of the financial crisis (Gordon & Metric, 2012).


texts: How do I find out more about former PhD students of potential advisor?

texts: How do I find out more about former PhD students of my potential advisor? Shall I ask him/her himself/herself, or how would you go about this? I do not want to make somebody angry, at the same time I do not only want to speak to pre-selected students who are going to tell me that everything is awesome when it isn't. How do I create a realistic picture of my (potential) future professor?


texts: Is there an official, widely used subject classification?

texts:
For a university project I want to classify authors according to the subjects/domains they frequently publish in. For this purpose I want to first establish a subject classification with the according hierarchies (for example, chemical engineering would be a sub-subject of physical sciences and engineering).

Instead of creating my own classification/hierarchy, I would like to use an official classification of subjects. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find one that is universally accepted.

What I did find are the classifications of different publishers, for example the subjects listed for ScienceDirect.

So my question is:

Is there any official, widely used and accepted subject classification?

One thing I'd like to add:
English is not my mother tongue so it might be entirely possible that I am just using the wrong words for doing the search. I’ve been looking for subject or domain classifications. Maybe there is an entirely different term for what I am actually looking for.


texts: If an image covers the entire slide, where should I credit the author/licensor in a presentation?

texts:
Let's pretend I want to use this image from Wikimedia Commons

Here's the license on the image:

  You are free:

  to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
  to remix – to adapt the work

  Under the following conditions:

  attribution – You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
  share alike – If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

If the image is going to cover the entire slide on my Powerpoint presentation, where should I attribute the author/licensor? Can I have a slide in the end with all the attributions or should I mention it on the image itself (e.g. at the bottom right corner).

Edit: The presentation will be recorded and posted on YouTube.


texts: How to search for articles citing a certain combination of papers?

texts:
It is often the case that the proposal of a specific idea or approach to a problem (or whole field of research)  triggers a sequel of papers discussing and extending this idea. In this sequel there are papers (probably two or three) that are established as "basic", as points of reference. Each one of them may be usefull in more than one directions of research. However  the  whole set of "basic" papers is characteristic of the discussion.

In this perspective the most efficient way to follow an approach or school of research is to search for articles that cite these (two or three) "basic" papers.

However, according to this question this option is not available, but one has to write some Python code.

That was a year ago.

Is there any new  user-friendly alternative?


texts: How can I politely explain to my students that the texts in my course are all in English and it is their duty to read it nonetheless?

texts:
Eventually I grew tired of having to explain over and over why all my class material is in English. It's a mandatory course in Art History. I want to put some warning in my syllabus to minimize any arguments. The problem is how to do it politely, yet clearly.

The reasons are clear: there is no material in their native language for the courses I teach; obviously I cannot and will not translate the material; and it is their duty to read in English. I guess I cannot tell them straight that if they do not read English well they will not even understand classes well and will get low grades. I don't want to sound rude.

Is there a way to explain the situation, or is it better not to include such a written statement in a syllabus and keep things as they are?


texts: Research on strategies for student recruitment

texts:
How do I find research on strategies for recruiting students into undergraduate programs?

I am an assistant professor at a small comprehensive 4-year public institution. My department (chemistry) has implemented a new strategic plan. One of our principle action items involves recruiting more high school students to attend our institution with the intention in majoring in chemistry.

I know that research is conducted, probably at the institution level, on what recruitment strategies are successful in various disciplines. However, since my research background is in chemistry, I am not familiar with the resources to find this research.

I will start with this question: What journals and/or databases should I be reading and using? I know about the Chronicle of Higher Eduction. Which others are good resources?

Update: I would like to find relatively recent reports, preferably in peer-reviewed literature or published by not-for-profits. Strategies that use social media would be great. There is a nice study linked in Dan C.'s answer, but it is from April 2004, meaning the data likely predates Facebook.


texts: Can I ask a journal editor about an invited review paper?

texts: I would like to know whether I can place an inquiry to a journal editor about writing an invited review paper. In particular, I would like to write a review paper on a particular topic which is currently of significant research interest. However, I have not been invited to do so from the journal (where I would like to publish this review paper). In this regard, I am wondering whether I could draw the editor's attention via email and ask him whether I could be requested officially from him to write this review paper. Is it a valid inquiry from my side?


texts: If I appeal an admission decision by a German university at the court, would the department take it personally?

texts:
I've applied to a graduate program at a university in Germany and there is relatively clear evidence indicating that they've missed one or even two of my documents in application review based on the responses they've given me. Now they are reluctant to reconsidering my application when I resent the documents to them and explained how those documents mean the reason they mentioned for rejection is clearly not true. This is not a subjective thing and it's completely objective and bureaucratic.

It's stated on my rejection letter that I could appeal the decision at the court and I have their emails where they explained reasons that are in contradiction with each other about those documents, which could help me make the case. I really like that department and want to have the option to go there later in my academic career, but I'm afraid if I take my complaint to the court, the department may develop some level of animosity towards me.

Do you think I should forget about working in that department if I start an appeal process at the court, or could I assume that everyone could just be adults and behave professionally?

Note that while I asked previously about what possible decisions to take, this is just about the consequences of an appeal at court when it comes to working with the department in the future.


texts: What tools make it easy to maintain (or avoid!) the N versions of your CV?

texts:
Academics need various forms of their CV, depending on what purpose it's being used for. In my case, here are reasons I've had to re-format or have a different version of my CV:

promotion and tenure,
research proposals (each grant program requires a different format),
program accreditation for engineering universities,
my official web page at my university (with a French and English version).

It's a lot of busy work to maintain these CVs, especially as they evolve.

In Canada, there's a program in government-funded research to have a common format for CVs, called the Canadian Common CV. It's a great idea, but doesn't really solve the global problems. Not all funding organizations support it (or the same version of it).

Can anyone recommend tools that help in preparing academic CVs in various formats? Probably this means centralizing the information in one place and having it output in customizable formats. Obviously, there needs to be some understanding of the elements of an academic CV: publications, students supervised, grants awarded, community service, courses taught, distinguished awards, etc.


texts: Is it ok to start looking for other postdoc positions?

texts:
I'm currently doing the first year of my postdoc. My contract is coming up for renewal in a few months and my PI has asked what my plans are for next year. I told him that I was hoping to stay in his lab for at least another year, but he's told me he can't yet guarantee my contract will be renewed.
I've heard from other people in the lab that my PI normally holds off from confirming that he'll renew your contract until the last minute, where he'll then try to add some extra clauses in the contract that demand the postdoc to complete certain projects or papers by a certain date.
I'm relatively confident that my PI is intending to renew my contract, as he's pushing me to write some grants that would start next year.
But as he can't promise anything yet, is it ok for me to start looking for other postdoc positions in case he doesn't renew my contract? If so, should I let him know that I'm looking for other roles?
Thanks!


texts: What credit does inclusion in "Who is Who" book add to the researchers and academicians?

texts:
This question has two intents. Firstly sharing an email I received, as an academician, with other academicians and also clarification on the contents of this email and the way it works.

I have received the following email.

  Dear XYZ,

  I am the editor-in-chief of Who's Who in the World® and I have received your name through a private nomination process. I'm writing to ask if you would provide us with information about your personal and professional accomplishments for possible inclusion in the forthcoming 33rd Edition.
  Inclusion in Who's Who in the World is a sign of true success. The book is a global reference source relied upon by universities, libraries, corporations, and governments around the world.

  Like LinkedIn, Wikipedia, and Facebook, it costs you nothing to be included in Who's Who in the World. But unlike those resources, our books only contain biographies that meet our rigorous selection criteria (see below). Also, our books are available both online and in print and are used by the world's most respected institutions. So among other things, Who's Who in the World provides all the benefits of high quality networking. Many people put this recognition on their résumés or CVs.

  Please click this link to the Who's Who in the World Biography Submission Form and you will be taken to our password-protected site. The submission process takes only a few minutes, and the benefits of being included are significant.

  Deadline: February 23, 2015 Congratulations on being nominated!

  Sincerely,

  Fred Marks
  Editor-in-Chief, Who's Who in the World®

I googled this message and found some other people are getting it. I further drilled down and found that my email is allegedly given to them by Thomson Reuters (from the Thomson connect website that is the sender of the above email). So, I assume I am not the only one and will not be the last. I assume many of you academician and researchers will receive the same email so I thought it is good to raise the concern here since I found no other discussion elsewhere.

The email is being sent from

Who's Who Selection Committee
and the reply-to field shows    Who's Who Selection Committee

The email is Signed By "thomsonreuters-authorconnect.com" (suggests that my email is being given to them by Thomson Reuters).

The company behind this email is called

￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼Marquis Who is Who, Publisher of Who’s Who in America® since 1899

Here are my concern:

How much is this website credible? Does anyone (including academic employers) give credit to those listed there (email says, inclusion in Who's Who in the World is a sign of true success. The book is a global reference source relied upon by universities, libraries, corporations, and governments around the world).
Registering into the system needs to fill a form that contains almost every single piece of information about me, including my parents, education, work, wife, certification, political/social activities and many more which is quite scary to me. How can individuals rely on this particular website and share their information. Does inclusion in this particular website gives so much credit that people lose privacy?


texts: What is the typical payment arrangement for course design?

texts:
Occasionally, my university gives me outside work to design courses for other teachers or graduate students. This includes course books and other complete materials so that teachers using them have little to prepare.

How do schools typically arrange the payments for course designs?

Are course designs typically only made in a one-time payment, with intellectual property transferred to the university?
Is it at all typical for course designers to ask to retain intellectual property rights and to receive continued fees for each semester that a course is used?


texts: How to make the most of an online research internship?

texts:
I am undergrad who will be doing a research internship this summer in Physics. The professor I will be working under is from another country, so there is no possibility of working in-person. I have never met the professor beyond a few Zoom meetings.
I am worried that not being in that environment of working with other students and the professor, but instead from home, may encourage me to slack off or become demotivated. Since there are many academics here who have probably experienced online research and probably have some valuable tips, I would like to know:
How do I make the most out of this opportunity?


texts: How can I determine the funders of an article?

texts: Who funded the article "randomized controlled trial contrasting the effect of 4 low calories sweeteners and sucrose on body weight in adults with overweight or obesity "? In general, how can I determine the funders of research articles?


texts: What are the upsides for British science from Brexit?

texts:
This is a companion question to Why do most scientists think Brexit is bad for British science?. Based on this meta discussion, it was suggested that I ask a new question about potential upsides of Brexit...
From the answers to that question about Brexit, it sounds like there are no upsides to British science. However, there are still roughly 12% of UK researchers who think the UK should exit the EU. It seems that these 12% must see something positive from Brexit, otherwise they would not be voting to leave.
What could these positives be? Or are there no positives, and they are just more optimistic that the UK government will provide the political support to let British science emerge unscathed and / or they think the gains elsewhere outweigh the losses?
Only thing I've seen about this is Royal Society president Venkatraman Ramakrishnan saying:

Will Brexit open up any new opportunities for UK science? Are there burdensome EU regulations you’ll be glad to see go? Will collaboration with scientists in non-EU countries, like the US or China, become easier? Will tranches of non-EU funding become accessible?
The only thing I can say is that if you have new technologies and you need to make regulations where current regulations don’t exist, then it’s easier for a single country. Britain is very rational about balancing risks and benefits. Its easier for one country to move fast. This is a sort of theoretical, possibly marginal benefit. Whereas the actual risks and drawbacks of Brexit are much more real and immediate.

However this sounds extremely marginal. Unless these 12% of UK researchers know in advance that they're going to come up with groundbreaking new technologies for which current regulations don't exist, it's hard to believe that 12% of UK researchers would vote to leave for this reason.
I am interested in all positives, short-term or long-term.


texts: How to write a letter declining a supervisor offer?

texts:
I have written a proposal to a supervisor for asking a letter of support in order to apply for a PhD research grant. First, I emailed to supervisor A but no respond for two weeks. Then, I tried to write to the second supervisor (let say supervisor B) and he agreed to write me a letter of support. A week later, I got an offer from supervisor A. I decided to put both letters in my application by list supervisor B as prior.

Recently, I have been awarded a grant under a supervisor B. So, I would like to write a letter to say thank and sorry politely to supervisor A.

Please advise how to write a fit letter of this situation.


texts: What is the reason that once a student has passed a university course, the student cannot take the course again?

texts:
This question geared towards STEM but can definitely be expanded for courses in the arts as well.

Imagine the following scenarios:

A student has taken a course, but passed the course with barely a 60
over the 50 percent required to pass the course.
A student has taken and passed a course with a project component, but found that
it would be beneficial to explore other topics if given another
opportunity, in particular, using the expertise of the instructor and
the resources provided in the course.
A student has taken and passed a course, but due to family
issues/illness/personal issues/financial issues/job/internship, etc.
the student takes a break of one or two years; when the student
returns to school, he or she would like to take the course again as a
refresher.
A student has taken and passed a course, however due to change of instructor, textbook, and other circumstances the course material was presented in radically different way, the student feels that the material presented has been inadequate or non-standard and would like to take the course again.

In each of these cases, from a student's perspective, I do not see why it makes pedagogical sense to prevent the student from taking the course again. The student could improve over his or her previous poor performance, explore alternative topics in a guided way, refresh his or her knowledge or be taught
the material in a different way, perhaps by a more experienced instructor.

However, I suspect that most schools do not allow students to retake courses they have already passed, no matter how poorly the student performed, or how long ago the course was taken, etc.

  My question is: what would be a sound reason for this?

From the school's perspective, one reason may be that the student would be at an unfair advantage over the other students. This reasoning however, assumes that there was some measure of fairness to begin with. It is difficult to claim this given the vastly different backgrounds the students have prior to enrolling in a particular course. Even then, the transcript would quickly reveal to a potential employer or an potential supervisor that a course was taken twice or several times. It can probably be said that a course that is passed with a high score/mark the first time is better than a repeated course.

Added:

Since the most common response to my question is: "But I was able to retake courses", please read some of the different policies for various schools and related discussions:

http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/aacc/academic-advising-faq,
https://graduatecollegebulletin.ouhsc.edu/hbSections.aspx?ID=586,
https://orapps.berkeley.edu/Registrar/courserep.html,
http://artsandscience.usask.ca/undergraduate/handouts/RetakingCourses.pdf
https://www.revscene.net/forums/572588-question-about-retaking-courses-limit-etc-ubc-sfu.html,
http://calendar.ualberta.ca/content.php?catoid=6&navoid=857


texts: Can the "and" word be replaced by the ampersand, "&", in citations with IEEE style?

texts:
Can the "and" word be replaced by the ampersand "&" in citations with IEEE style?
I have searched for an answer to this question online but I did not find anything so far.


texts: Are researchers for big digital companies experienced researchers/scientists or just experienced industry programmers?

texts: Are people doing research for Microsoft, Apple, Intel experienced researchers/scientists or just experienced programmers using other people's research? Do they hire full time researchers for their research or do they take experienced/skilled professionals who are familiar working with java, C++ and other commercial technologies?


texts: As a PhD student, is it worth spending time organizing a contest for a conference?

texts: I am a PhD student in computer science: is it worth spending time organizing a contest for a conference (e.g. a shared task for a conference in natural language processing)? I think that would be a great experience to have, and fits very well my research interests, but I am afraid it might slow down my research and therefore delay my graduation date.


texts:
In my country where I come from, online or part-time or even more, part-time online degrees are not comparable with on-campus full-time degrees. The difference in the value of the degree/diploma is huge, in the depth and breadth of the studied material and recognition from prospective employers.

Is it true for US education? Would a part-time student who earns his/her degree 100% online cover the same exact material than another student who is studying the same program but full-time and on-campus?

Do US employers favor on-campus graduates over online part-time graduates?


texts: How can we help cope with sleep deprivation among university students?

texts:
Sleep deprivation is a common problem among college students that has become so serious that universities in the US have taken measures to help their students overcome it.

As a particular example, the curriculum of Ateneo de Manila University was planned taking into consideration what would constitute a healthy student-life in a Philippine setting, however its students still experience the same sleep deprivation problem. With this in mind, we would like to gather ideas on what measures or projects can be taken to help students in our community cope with this problem.


texts: Heard of Chamber of Chartered Java Professionals International?

texts:
I'm Java course which they said to me that they can arrange a Bachelor's degree from "The Chamber of Chartered Java Professionals International."

I did a little research my own, and from what I can see, they don't really have any verifiable information to confirm their existence.

Is there such chamber that can give people a degree?
If they can, is it a reputable degree?

My course is covers regular software engineering, including generic languages and sometimes specific languages. I also submitted a few assignments, and projects to the institute that I'm following the course with. From what I understand, they can make them equivalent to their degree requirements. However, their reputation and existence remain mysterious and I chose not to rely on what the institute says, which of course, technically, is a business.


texts:
I am now working towards my PhD degree. In the very near future, I will have a citizenship change, which also leads to a name change. In detail, I am adding another given name to my current name with the original surname and given name untouched. So it's like going from

FirstName1 LastName

to

FirstName2 FirstName1 LastName

I already have some publications under my current name, FirstName1 LastName, which I do not wish to lose after my name change. At the very start of my PhD, my supervisor has advised me to stay consistent with the name for a better recognition in the field.

Is there a way to minimize my loss of recognition in the academia? Will the publication stats tools, such as Google Scholar, include my publications under my new profile?


texts: Offering Authorship Prospects To Professors For MSc Thesis

texts:
I am conducting research for my MSc thesis and there is a paper that I have been putting a lot of work into trying to understand and incorporate into my thesis. Theoretically I understand what's going on, but mechanically carrying out the concept is stumping me. As such, the problem that I am faced with is that I have hit a wall in my intellectual ability to perform a particular computation within the paper; by this, I mean that I simply cannot reproduce the method the author used. If I had somebody I could talk to about this paper then perhaps I could figure it out, but for now, assume that my supervisor is unable to assist and the author of this paper lives far enough away to make travelling not an option.

My own research idea is dependent on being able to reproduce the results in the paper I am studying, and so if I cannot reproduce the results with my own data for myself, I cannot pursue my idea. So, what I was thinking of doing was reaching out to the author and asking if they would be willing to perform the computation for me in exchange for an authorship position on the paper if it can get published.

This is not ideal for me, because I would much rather just recreate the results and I feel that for an MSc thesis seeking external collaboration might be frowned upon, although I do not know for certain. However, I feel that I am at a point where this might be the best path forward to keep working on my original idea. If I cannot perform this computation on my own, would offering potential authorship to the author of the paper I am studying be a worthwhile path to pursue, given that I am doing this for my MSc?


texts: Is it ethical to take external consultancy jobs during a fully funded PhD programme?

texts:
I am on a three year PhD programme which is fully funded. My salary is fair, nothing flashy but definitely enough to get by without having to do anything else.

Recently, I was offered to start a new course and teach it at a different university from the one where I am employed, in exchange for an extra salary. I am very inclined to say yes to this because it is a really good opportunity to gain teaching experience, promote my research center and earn more money.

From a bit of Googling around it seems that there are different takes on this depending on the country, but that the general approach is that bijobs during the PhD is totally fine. My university (a Scandinavian one), however, officially states that applicants to PhD programs cannot have other jobs. It's confusing to me and I'm not comfortable just naively considering it consultancy work rather than an actual job, and playing stupid if bureaucracy catches up.

My supervisor has a very "long leash" advising style so his opinion on the matter is that I should do whatever I'm comfortable with as long as I'm fulfilling my academic duties. I'm pretty comfortable with it, but the rules are fuzzy and what I really want is some examples of what other people have done in this situation.


texts: Why some papers are free while the other are not, even in the same journal/publication?

texts:
I am accessing this journal from university.
So, I assume the university subscribes to this publication/journal (Sciencedirect/Microelectronic Engineering).

But why some papers are free while the others are not?

example:

free
not free

I just want to make sure that my inability to access some papers is not caused by technical issues from my PC/access/internet/etc.


texts: How do you compare US and UK PhD programs?

texts:
I have an equal opportunity to pursue my PhD in chemistry in the United States or United Kingdom. As I investigated, the educations systems are different (correct me if I'm wrong):

US

BSc: 4-year coursework
MSc: 1-year coursework + 1-year research
PhD: 2-year coursework + 2-year research

UK

BSc: 3-year coursework
MSc: (it can be) 2-year research
PhD: 4-year research

In all programs I checked, a master degree is required for the PhD admission (I think it is the standard for chemistry).

My ultimate goal is to continue in academia and I anticipate that I need 3-4 years of postdoc before applying for a faculty position. Since the UK system is more research active, I thought a research degree can be more helpful to get a postdoc position (I anticipate I can publish more papers during 4 years as opposed to two years of research in the US).

In general, I am fascinated by the research-oriented system in UK and I prefer it to coursework, but it can be my misconception only. This is the reason that I ask this question to avoid any illusion.

Disclaimer: I know that a PhD program may take longer and each university may have different programs to offer. These numbers are just standard averages for the sake of comparison.


texts: Should my bachelor's degree match the graduate program that I am trying to get into?

texts:
I am an Italian undergraduate student of natural sciences, I would like to pursue a graduate program in the USA like a PhD or a MSc. Should I change my major in order to match the graduate program I will try to get into in order to improve my chances?

The graduate programs that interest me in order of liking, are:

Computer Science & Entrepreneurship (or other innovative programs with a scientific and entrepreneurial component);
Computer Science;
Oceanography/Marine biology;
Computational mathematics;


texts: Does time taken and a poor grade for a PHD in Germany destroy chances for a post doc?

texts:
I  come from a violent country that gives me no hope for the future. I cannot go back. My supervisor has more than 30 students, did not read my chapters, and insisted that I give in the first draft as final. The second supervisor, the expert on the subject, resents that the first supervisor will get all the credit. So neither helped. Refused to read drafts. The defense was full of questions that a reading of the first draft would have easily fixed. There was no support from the institution and I ended up with an average grade of cum laude after more than a decade of effort. All on my dime. Odd jobs. The reason I delayed was that my home country is hell and my family depends on me.
I am so desperate that I d rather do a second Ph.D. than go home. I don t know if they will give me recommendations for a postdoc.
Any solutions to get out of this? I mean can I get a postdoc with lukewarm recommendations? I have a sterling academic record, publications though a bit dated, and I truly think this grade is unfair.


texts: Am I missing something or is submitting from the ArXiv really that unfeasible?

texts:
Some publishers, such as the APS, allow to submit papers from the ArXiv instead of from your computer. While this seemed somewhat reasonable to me at first glance, I noticed one problem with this that seems to render this feature pointless:

ArXiv submissions as well as replacements take some time, usually a few days, to be published. So, if you just submitted your files to the ArXiv, you would have to wait this time before you can submit to a journal. Instead of waiting, you could just take the files your just submitted to the ArXiv (or download your files via your ArXiv account) and submit them to the journal directly. This should take little additional time, as you do not need to prepare these files in any special way – if you would need to, submitting from ArXiv wouldn’t work anyway, as it would yield the same files.

Now, I can think of some exceptions where your files could already be published on the ArXiv. For example, you submitted a version to the ArXiv and to “internal” review at the same time and the internal review results in no changes whatsoever. Or you submitted a paper to the ArXiv and a journal at the same time and the latter desk-rejects your paper for being out of scope or similar; then you could submit to another journal from ArXiv. But these are exceptional cases: In most situations, you would decide that a paper is submit-worthy directly after you made some changes, which hence cannot already be published on the ArXiv.

Note that at least the APS does not seem to have a way to magically obtain the paper you just submitted to ArXiv as it requires an ArXiv number for submitting, which you only obtain after publication and hence after waiting.

As it would surprise me that time was wasted in implementing this feature if it really is as useless as I consider it to be, I am curious: What am I missing here? For example: Is there some common situation in which you would decide that a paper is ready for submission without any change? Or do you not have to wait for the ArXiv to publish your paper for some reason I am missing? Please answer only if you can address the above concerns.


texts: Applying for a mathematics PhD in the US after getting a BSc degree from Imperial

texts:
This summer I finished my BSc maths degree at Imperial College London and ranked around top 5% of the class.
I was considering the idea of applying to some US universities like Stanford, Harvard, etc., but they don't do master's applications, just straight up PhD ones for mathematics. I quite like the idea of doing a PhD, so it is not a big problem for me, but I was wondering about my chances here, coming off a BSc and applying straight to a PhD sounds like a big reach.
Has anybody had similar experiences and know if it's even worth trying?
Thanks for all the help.


texts: I reported cheating in an online exam and now I am scared the professor is going to blame me

texts:
I took an exam online and immediately after the exam typed in the programming question on google to see if there is an answer out there so I have an idea if I did well on the exam. I found on Chegg that people were taking pictures of their computer screen with the exam questions and I reported it to the professor.

Now I really regret doing that because I am 100% sure the professor will look at my protected exam video and try to blame me for cheating as well.

Can I be blamed for cheating on an exam without a proof, and if I didn't do anything wrong? the reason why I think the professor will watch the video is because I sent him an email telling him that there were some background noises from outside of the room during the exam, in case the screen protecting software detects the sounds and flags my exam, it happened to me before in another course and the professor said that only if the exam is flagged will she watch the video but this professor said he will watch the video and let me know if he has any questions.
 what are the chances of something like that happening, and if I am accused with cheating, how will I be even able to prove I didn't?


texts: Which academic options are possible for a tenured faculty that do not involve students' mentoring?

texts:
I am a tenured associate professor at a top 20 US research university. I am publishing and getting grants. My teaching evaluations are decent.

I am realizing that I am not interested in mentoring (grad or undergrad) students (— over the last 10 years, I mentored two grad students and they changed advisor before graduating). When I teach, I am not curious about students and their backgrounds.

My relations with other faculties in the department (size < 15) have deteriorated and are, now, cold at best.

I enjoy the research portion of the work. I am in a STEM field and have had several consulting opportunities. I am currently on leave to decide whether to pursue an academic career (~ 20 years) or to resign completely.

I am wondering whether tenured professors have found academic options with limited (or without) students' mentoring and teaching?


texts: How would teaching during the last year of a postdoc be perceived on the academic job market?

texts: How would large and small research schools, master's only schools, and liberal arts schools all look at a post-doc who did 5 years of research and a 6th year of teaching + post-doc at ~50/50? This would be in physics if that matters.


texts: Error in published paper not present in the free copies for author

texts:
A few months ago a published a paper in a highly reputed journal. There were last-minute corrections. Finally, I received a link to share the article. The version obtained through the link was ok and I own a PDF copy of it. The link does not work anymore.

Now I see that the current online version of the manuscript on the website does not include those corrections.

I desire that the error be fixed. I wish to know what can be done to solve the problem.

Clearly, I plan to write to the Journal for this issue. But I do not know in detail the scientific publication system, so I do not know what to expect or exactly what to ask for. What should I do?

Additional info:

If it matters, the mistake does not change any aspect of the science of the paper. It is related to the description of an equation and the mistake (and the correct description) should be obvious for the readers.


texts: How do I write about suggested reading by my professor

texts:
I had a casual meeting with my professor and he recently learned about a topic and he asked me to look at that topic as well. This topic is not my research topic and it is just a further reading.
I prepared this email and a brief summary of what is that method is about. I want to show my interest and tell him that I respect here suggestion, but I am feeling somehow awkward. How can I write better?
PS. it is not to expand or redirect my research. only for my knowledge.

Dear Dr.X
Thanks for the suggestion regarding that I read and learn about ABC,
it sounds interesting and I wanted to follow up on our discussion.
and the rest my summary................
Best regards,  XY


texts: How does academics form discussion & study environments efficiency and effectively?

texts:
As a student, I often read & hear academics meeting in workshops to discuss problems in their fields with their colleagues, or with academics in other field etc.. As a Physics & Mathematics student, I know how beneficial and enjoyable is discussing ideas with a fellow student, so I'm aware of the importance of such meetings.

However, whenever I (with other student) tried to form such a discussion groups, meetings, it always failed. Most of the time, we didn't have any specific problem at hand, and there was nothing to discuss. I mean after all we were learning the subject, and try to understand it; not to solve some particular problem. Of course, one can try to solve some "exercises" as a group, but most of the time those are just to verify we understood what we've learned, and their solutions are in web, so to a Physics/Mathematics students, there is almost no motivation, nor any joy, in solving or talking about them.

Similarly, I've seen various "study groups" in my department (within PhD student, PhD student with his/her advisor etc.) studying some topics together. Up to now, I always did self-studies alone, so knowing that doing this with a second or a third person would be much more beneficial, I also tried to implement such a study group, it also did not work, somehow.

Question:

How do academic meetings for discussions & studying managed themselves in a way that it is useful for everyone, much more efficient compare to doing the same thing alone, and enjoyable ?


texts:
I have submitted a manuscript around two months ago. The reviewers gave me generally good comments, and the editor suggested "minor revision".

Problem is, I think the main part of my manuscript have a big problem. I am currently making further readings into the subject and delving deeper into the math. All previous research suggest that I am giving an incomplete solution, resulting eventually in an inaccurate simulation.

Although I have a large mistake in the manuscript. This mistake if corrected will support my results even more (Lucky me).

I will tell the editor of course about the mistake, but I need time to correct my simulation, manuscript etc...

My questions are:

1- Can I ask the editor form more time?

2- Will the editor reject my paper because it have a major mistake?


texts: Term for someone with a doctorate in nursing

texts: What would you call someone who had a doctoral degree in nursing? I wouldn’t think you’d be able to call them doctor as this would be confusing in the hospital setting. Is there a title used for a nurse with a doctorate degree?


texts: Are employments in universities affiliated (or named) with a specific religion restricted to people with the same religion?

texts: I just saw an ad in mathjobs.org about an opening in a Catholic university, see here. I am not christian. So I was wondering to be eligible for employment in a university or college affiliated with a specific religion, should the applicant  have the same religion, or other people from other religions (or even non-religious people) are eligible to apply as well?


texts: Friend of mine told me that MOOC platforms recommend not to take notes for better learning experience, that people remember material better after watching a short videos, than after spending some time taking notes and pausing each time. Although I didn't find any such suggestions, maybe there is some research about it? Or any personal thoughts?


texts: Skimming through a math paper with a group

texts:
I am an M.Sc. student in mathematics. I was recently invited by some Ph.D. students and Post-Docs (a group of 5 people, including myself) to join their study group. We are reading a specific text, which should get us ready to read some more advanced work. This work is relevant to the research of some of the other people in the group, but my main goal is to experience this learning methodology with the added advantage of getting to know a few aesthetic results in mathematics.
We met around 6 times, and it is not what I'm used to from courses in the sense that we don't completely understand all the details. Nevertheless, we go on reading.
For example:

We encounter a definition and we can't find out its exact meaning. In this case we usually know of an example of a mathematical object satisfying this definition (because it's mentioned in the text) and we just try to see how the propositions in the text apply to the specific example.

A proof is given with very few details - we manage to fill in some of the gaps, but not all of them, so we just take an example again and simply accept the statement of the theorem so we can use it later.

An excercise is given in the text and we only solve part of it.

We allow ourselves to skip some details because this text is only meant to get us ready for some more advanced, but more specific, material. My question is how we can find out whether or not we are gaining anything, and how we can gain more given the fact that we are all busy and don't want to invest much more time in this specific reading (we have a 3 hours meeting every week).
I have a feeling that I'm "getting used" to some ideas and facts while reading this text (in contrast with "completely understanding"), but I'm not sure if I'm really gaining anything or whether it's just an illusion and I'm not sure how to test my gain of knowledge. The exercises in the text allow us to test our understanding of the details, but not of the general ideas.
EDIT: I will clarify what the question is, in response to aeismail's comment:
As Charles and Nunoxic say, the question of whether shallow-reading is useful is separate from the fact that we are studying in a group. So, the 2 separate questions are:

When reading without understanding all the details, how can I find out whether or not I'm gaining anything?

How can we make the process of studying in a group for 3 hours a week most efficient?

These 2 may have better been asked as 2 separate questions, but I did not  notice that (in my mind they were related because the group study was the first time I encountered shallow-reading).
To summarize the answers I got so far:

It is possible, for some people, to gain knowledge from shallow-reading and one way to test it is to see if you understand why each topic is being developed and why the text is structured the way it is.

When studying in a group, one should test his ability to work out the details himself after the group sessions.

I think the answer I got for (1) is excellent and the answer for (2) is somewhat lacking so far.


texts: Is it okay to cite a supplemental attachment when referencing a previously published technique or method? (advanced materials and surface science)

texts:
The thorough answer to Roadmap and possible pitfalls for a first-time software author to publish a paper on a Python package? covers the issue nicely, and it's not yet clear if in my case this paper still needs to be published stand-alone. The reason is that the mathematics behind it will be sufficiently described in a supplemental materials document associated with a (hopefully forthcoming) publication in the general fields of advanced materials and surface science.
Now my question is if the supplemental section of a published paper in a well recognized journal will sufficient to use as a citation in subsequent papers e.g. "coefficients were extracted using the same analysis as previously described in X et al." (or something with less awkward cadence) where the bibliographic item will mention the supplemental section to that paper.
Question: Is this a generally acceptable way to do this, or are supplemental materials not considered to be "real" references, either because (perhaps, just guessing) they are not as thoroughly peer-reviewed as the main paper to which they are attached, or don't appear in the print version and so are not considered as accessible, or for reasons I can't yet imagine?
I understand that some journals may address this situation and I will try to look into several of them, but there may be a more global or generally accepted viewpoint on this that I'm not aware of.


texts: What can I do if my supervisor does not publish my research results?

texts:
By this, I do not mean I did not obtain significant research results. My supervisor has told me to finish up a draft of paper for submission, I wrote it, then after few months, he told me to correct some parts and did more experiments on certain area, I followed all his instructions and wrote a second draft to him. And until now, it is already one year after sending my draft to him, and still I have no idea when he will publish it.

Actually, this not only happens to me, it happens to all the members in my research group. The average time my supervisor publishes our results is about 2-3 years after we have finished all the required experiments. The results just become idle. I would like to ask, if this is a common phenomenon (and the possible reasons behind it), if not, what I (and my colleagues) can do about it? You know as a research student, having publication is very important, it is really frustrating.


texts: English requirement for Teaching Assistantship for Ph.D students

texts:
I am applying to Ph.D programs of universities of America as an international student.

I currently have an 8.0 IELTS with 7.0 Speaking, and a TOEFL with lower points: Reading, Listening and Writing:20, Speaking:26

Usually programs require a high speaking score (equal to or over 26) if I want to become a TA, right? Clearly my IELTS speaking is not high enough, but TOEFL speaking is.  But the overall scores have the opposite order.

So can I submit the two certificates and become a TA (assuming I am admitted, of course)?


texts: How bad is a B+ for master's application?

texts:
I have had at-least two to three B+ in each semester of engineering but in third year when I feel sick I ended up getting 4 to 5 B+ in the two semesters of third year. Some of them in core papers like AI, Databases, compilers, Design and analysis of algorithms etc., I am from an unknown college in India where people very rarely score A+ in any paper, Even if they do it's only a single paper per sem. Most of the time people end up with one or two A and 3 ~ 4 A-. I got A- in most of the theory papers and A+ in labs(Everyone gets A+ in labs) and final year project(which is rare). The grade ranges is exactly identical to what people use in the US. Also we have to take 6 theory courses each sem and 3 labs related to those 6 courses.

I am currently shortlisting colleges according to my interest for spring and I was wondering if I have a shot at any of the 20 ~ 50 ranked colleges in US for MS?


texts:
I've heard the term 'academic identity' used a fair amount. Although initially it seemed like a simple concept, there are many papers on the subject and no-one seems to have a concrete definition.

Is there a concrete definition of 'academic identity'? If not, what are the key points of an 'academic identity' (if there are any)?

Links to some academic identity papers:

Academic Identity: A Modern Perspective
The imagined and the real: identifying the tensions for academic identity
Academic identity and autonomy in a changing policy environment
Younger academics’ constructions of ‘authenticity’, ‘success’ and professional identity


texts:
In teaching university level Computer Science, I find many students struggling because they lack basic problem solving skills. Having them do more practice problems does not help as they get stuck at those or somehow hack together a solution to some problems but cannot generalize to other problems. Walking them through some solutions does not help as they might understand that solution but are again unable to transfer that to another problem.

I thought math competence would ensure logical thinking and hence problem solving but I have seen enough counterexamples by now.

The conclusion I seem to be getting to is one that I do not like: problem solving is an innate skill - it cannot be taught.

How have others dealt with this problem?


texts: A team member of a coursework software development project didn't contribute in any way. Can I remove his name from the project?

texts:
I am the project manager of a small team of five undergraduate developers who have been working for months on a large system for our Senior Capstone project. Four members of the team, including myself, have put in an extensive amount of work on this project. The remaining member failed to contribute anything at all to the team project (not only did this team member fail to contribute any source code, he failed to contribute in any way at all).

I spoke with this individual multiple times about how failing to contribute, or even contributing minimally, could result in having to retake the Capstone course. Still the individual made no contribution. I spoke with the Professor leading our Capstone team on multiple occasions, and provided documentation supporting my claims. This documentation, along with several peer evaluations, should give the Professor enough information to make fair decisions involving each of our grades, which is really none of my business at all.

What is my business is that this fifth team member has his name displayed on work that he did not contribute to in any way. My question then, is can I remove his name from the completed system?


texts: Why don't publication venues systematically make the LaTeX source of papers available?

texts:
I wonder why most publication venues don't systematically make the LaTeX source for published papers available? (which implies systematically asking authors for the LaTex source)

LaTex source are more machine readable than PDFs, and make it easier for humans to reuse part of it (e.g. math equation or figures), amongst other advantages. I fail to see any downside.

(I am aware that some authors write their publications using other tools such as Microsoft Word: let's ignore it.)


texts: Optimal structure of cover letter for PhD application submitted directly to PI

texts:
I am currently applying for PhD positions (mainly - though not exclusively - around Germany and Switzerland). As I would like to start as soon as possible and would rather be paid than receive a scholarship, I am not applying via grad schools but directly to potential supervisors.

This is an arduous process as very many PIs interest me, though most do not have the financial freedom of creating new PhD positions on the spot. Consequently I have written a lot of emails and I have developed a short formula which I adapt to each individual PI. The structure is roughly:

Title: 2-3 buzzwords related to the PIs work followed by " - PhD Opportunities"
Introductory statement - Who am I
Short summary of my experience, explicitly mentioning points relevant to his focus and including a link to my full CV
Explicitly state my preferred topics related to his focus
Explicitly ask if he has a PhD position opening, possibly including a suggestion of what sort of project would motivate me, and what about him/his group precisely I found interesting.

Here is an example e-mail:

  Neurogenetics and Psychopharmacology - PhD Opportunities

  Hello, I am a Molecular Neuroscience major from Heidelberg. I have
  recently graduated from our MSc. program and am currently looking for
  groups in which to pursue my PhD.

  I have very versatile experience in neuroscience - ranging from
  molecular biology, microscopy, and genetics in model animals up to
  fMRI, eye tracking, pupillometry, and behavioural tests in humans (for
  more on this please refer to my CV:
  http://chymera.eu/docs/cv-acad-gen.pdf ). I would like to continue
  using a broad spectrum of methods in my research, and put my scripting
  experience (Python, R, Julia, MATLAB, SPM, FSL) to good use in the
  analysis of complex data sets.

  I am very motivated by research into mood disorders and genetics; and
  I would also like to augment my methods spectrum with
  psychopharmacology and NIBS over the following years. I find the
  addition of these methods particularly important because in my opinion
  they present the most solid ways of testing causality in correlations
  between human brain activation and behaviour (as observed via fMRI or
  PET).

  I have browsed your list of publications and I found your
  neurogenetics work most motivating. I would like to ask you whether
  you would be able to offer me a PhD position in which I could
  integrate the genetic focus of your group with brain imaging and brain
  stimulation (perhaps to elucidate brain area function or
  psychopharmacological treatment possibilities resolved for
  endophenotypes). I would also be grateful for the opportunity to
  discuss further project ideas with you.

  Best Regards,

  Christian

I generally just write one email, and follow up 7-14 days later with a second one if there is no reply within the first week. Of the PIs that do not respond to the first email less than 25% respond to the second.

With this email structure (and what I believe is a strong background) I get a reply rate of ~50%, of which all replies specify that the PI would like to take me on - in principle. Actual invitations for interviews, however, are at about 5%. I am thinking this could be a lot better.

Do you have any (different) email structure which you have found optimal? Are there any other details - such as tone and style - which you think are very important to note in such a context?


texts: Can someone get his previous credits counted in a new Master's programme in the EU?

texts:
Suppose, someone studied in a 120ECTS MSc program in CS in a country 'X' in the EU. He obtained 60 ECTS there, but he also has some failed courses. He then abandons the program.
Now, he moves to a country 'Y' in the EU and gets admission to program CS in the country 'Y' after 5 years.
Can he get his 60 ECTS credits counted by the school offering CS?


texts: Do I need to focus my writing to specific paper?

texts: I'm a master student and I'm the phase of preparing my thesis. I've searched many papers related to my thesis but I'm a bit confused in what to focus. Do I need to take only a paper (or few papers) and to focus basically on that?


texts: Can I write for another grant while being funded by a grant?

texts:
If my university position is entirely funded by grant funds can I write for another grant while being funded by another grant?

More specifically the individual is a project coordinator hired by grant funds to manage a grant, not a faculty member or student.  Can this person spend time writing another grant when the project coordinators entire position is grant funded , no appropriated funds used. A PI on  the grant has asked the individual to start working on another grant during the regular hours, not outside the designated 40 hour work week. Thus, the real ethical issue can a faculty PI of a grant request a project coordinator to work on another grant


texts: Is it okay to copy somebody else's words and sentences?

texts:
So I am writing my master's thesis, and am reading a lot of papers. I usually do a lot of 'backtracking' (meaning, read one paper, then look at who they cited and go read those papers).

Doing this, I have found that a lot of authors straight-up copy words and sentences from some of the papers they cite. I don't mean a full paragraph or anything of that sorts, it's almost never more than a sentence, but it does happen a lot.

This is particularly annoying when I read a sentence in one paper and think hmm, that isn't entirely clear and could be expanded upon further, and then I track down the similar concept in another paper to see if there's more info there, but I then find the exact same sentence written there, with no further context provided.

For example, currently I am reading a paper which states

  The alternating coefficients of the method may mean that in practice, the theorem does not hold.

I'm not quite sure what they mean by this (why are the coefficients alternating? And why does that impact the validity of the theorem?? Does the theorem not take into account the alternating coefficients???), so I look at a paper they cite that talked about this theorem a bit more, and that paper has the exact same sentence (with no further context).

This makes me think that not only was

the sentence (in the non-original paper) copied straight from the original paper without using quotation marks

but also that

the author of the non-original paper doesn't actually fully understand the meaning of that sentence (just like I don't), and hence, since they don't understand it, they can't write it in their own words, and hence just copied it verbatim.

Am I reading too much into things, or is this behavior common, and if so, what is the proper etiquette concerning what this is acceptable or not?


texts: What level of sponsor ownership is normal for an industry-sponsored research project?

texts:
As a graduate student, I'm involved in an industry-sponsored project in which they provide us with a large dataset (the only source of data that we have) and money, but no guidance, as they have no clue about our work. In the draft of the agreement between our university and the company they wanted full ownership of any code, algorithm, methodology or design produced as a part of this project. In addition, they wanted the right to review, edit and approve any publication based on this project or any subsequent activities performed during this project.

I just wonder whether this is a normal practice or whether they want too much!


texts: Turning down a postdoc offer from a committee member. Can that create problem in the future?

texts:
Recently I responded to a postdoc 'advertisement' posted by one of my PhD defense committee members. I still have 2 months to go for my PhD defense. However, I got an offer for a position from the said committee member.

Now, I am in a fix about what would happen if I reject the offer? I am hoping to get a better position in a different university and group soon and I don't want to create any issues with my thesis evaluation due to the rejected offer.

Is it going to create an issue in the future? Can it influence my thesis evaluation?


texts: Would it be appropriate to ask depressed brother's professor to reach out to brother?

texts:
My brother is severely depressed and has absolutely minimal support, in any form, from my family.  He's a very bright guy with no direction and no resources at home. After graduating from high school, he spent 3 years at a dysfunctional relative’s home playing video games, and finally enrolled in college after I badgered him the entire time in-between.

He chose not to enroll for the second year of college. He stayed at home playing games again. He "did not like" school except for one course, where he happened to have a minor friendship with a professor.  This professor nominated my brother’s essay for a departmental honor. My brother rarely has good news, and when he does he often does not voluntarily share it. So for him to offer this story up to me makes it stand out.

This professor almost certainly knows my brother has some sort of problems. There are cases when you can just look at someone and know; my brother is one of those cases. But, given that this prof nominated my brother’s essay for a departmental honor, I think that the prof at least somewhat believes my brother is capable of some sort of achievement (I think my brother is even brighter and more capable than me, but I know him differently).

I want to reach out to brother’s professor and ask him to inquire about my brother’s situation. Going to college is the best chance my brother has to break a generational cycle, but he does not know this, and he will not listen to me (I am only 3 years older than him, he may think I'm a similarly clueless peer). This prof, on the other hand, is a person who my brother might listen to. Presumably the professor also agrees with my assessment of what an education can do for a life. I sense that this idea might get backlash – e.g. this is not the prof’s responsibility, that it is rude to even ask, and perhaps if the prof cared he would have reached out on his own already. However, on the other hand, this prof probably went into this business with the hopes of changing the world for the better, and thirty minutes or an hour of his time might change someone’s life. Plus, he has no reason to know just how dire my brother’s situation is (there are plenty of loser-looking people with average to robust support networks – but my brother does not). I plan on contacting the prof, either via email or phone. What I ask you is for advice on how to tactfully and effectively make this ask.

The end goal is to get my brother back in school and to encourage my brother to build his own support network, and to know that it is impossible to succeed without one. I accept that I might get a flat out “no,” but for the sake of this thread let’s assume that he agrees to something small like a phone call or a coffee (I assume he is kind enough to oblige, plus he seems to have liked my brother somewhat). Also, how should I handle the corollary issues that my ask might raise? For example, I don’t want to make this prof feel like I am asking him to be a mentor to my brother or that this will create some enduring obligation. Moreover, I can’t expect this prof to know how to deal with people the same way a therapist would. Is it appropriate to suggest that the professor suggest therapy (which is what’s truly needed here) to my brother? There are more things that may come up, but for the sake of ending this post, I’ll end it here. Many thanks to you all.


texts: How to approach potential supervisors who have already expressed an interest in supervising me after submitting my grad application?

texts:
I am interested in a grad program at a Canadian university and alike US grad schools, this department requires me to submit a formal application first to be reviewed by the Grad Committee, get accepted first by them AND also secure the supervisor before I could get an offer letter.

I have got a response from the Graduate Coordinator that they would like to admit into their program and have provided me with the names of two professors interested in supervising me. I would like to work with one whose work interests me, but how do I approach him? Do I simply say something that goes like, "thank you for showing an interest in supervising me, please share your current research projects" or something like, "I have read some papers from your lab group, and I have been impressed by Tom's (Consider him as a superstar graduate student in his lab) work and I consider myself an ideal fit for your lab." I am SUPER nervous & confused! Please input your thoughts about how would you handle it.

Also, should I reach out to another professor who is also interested in supervising me? If yes, how should I politely decline him?


texts: whether to make a tenure track faculty job talk interactive

texts: Is it appropriate to give a tenure track faculty job talk in an interactive way, like posing some questions, asking for audience opinions?


texts: How do I make the case to regain first authorship?

texts:
I am a senior Phd student in a very small lab consisting of me, my PI, and one other graduate student (one year under me). We began at an academic institution working on this paper related to my dissertation. I was always first author on this paper, and presented it to my committee as such. A former post doc who "contributed intellectually" but did minimal actual work for the final paper is second author, and the other grad student was third author. The other graduate student contributed significantly more work for this paper than the postdoc who left the lab due to lack of funds, so she asked if she could be moved to second author.

In a STUNNING move, my PI made her co-first author and kept the post-doc at second. I found this unfair, and when I went to talk to her, she revealed that she had promised her post-doc high authorship on the paper before she left, and also felt that the other graduate student contributed enough to be co-first. I had to no choice but to let it go.

The paper was rejected three times in its current form. The last journal told us if we added more patient numbers, they would reconsider it with the same reviewers. As a result, my PI added 200 more cases (we only started out with about 150 cases) from a cohort that I managed myself, processed, phenotyped, genotyped, multiplexed, etc. I did all the statistical data analysis, redid all the figures (that I had already made to begin with) and integrated these extra cases into the manuscript. The other graduate student, nor the postdoc had anything to do with these additional cases.

When I asked for my sole first authorship back, she blew up at me and told me it would demean the other graduate student by demoting her (which I felt is exactly what she did to me). We have an upcoming meeting and I need to know what my options are outside of her if she refuses to change the authorship list. Do I need to contact the department head and my committee about this? I told the other graduate student the situation and she is COMPLETELY fine with being second author, as she was never asking for first authorship to begin with as this paper is not at all related to her dissertation. She actually thinks its ridiculous that my PI is not seriously considering this request. I feel like she is trying to save face with her post-doc, and not giving me proper credit for my work.

Am I being unreasonable or do I have a case?


texts: Should I ask to meet graduate students during a TT job interview?

texts:
I'm about to start interviewing for tenure-track computer science positions in the US. I've read various bits of advice online [1,2,3] about meeting with graduate students in the department I am visiting.

I can see the value in getting the student perspective on the department. (Although it's also a bit scary. I'm not much older than the students and sometimes the students can be overzealous and ask tougher questions than the faculty.)

I'm told that most places will organize such a meeting automatically. However, should I ask for a student meeting anyway when setting up the job interview?

I worry that, if this is not standard, then it might be an awkward request for them. One school of thought is that this is a bad sign I should be aware of, but I don't think I should read too much into it.


texts: Why do Americans care so much about recommendation letters?

texts:
In Europe, we judge students based on their work and abilities. How are their grades? Do they have relevant work experience (TA/RA, maybe part-time industry work, etc)? What projects have they done? What courses have they taken? And of course the odd recommendation letter is always a nice bonus.

We expect students to write up a summary of all these things (it's called a resumé) upon which they are to be judged, and further detailed inquiry can then be made during a possible interview process.

However, as I understand it, it seems to be quite different in the USA. Reference letters is all that matters. Be a mediocre student, but have a good friendship with Professor Abstract Algebra? You're as good as made. Be a fantastic student, but be a bit shy or having done most of your work independently of the professors? Tough luck.

I am particularly bemused by so many of the questions on this very site where professors come to talk about awkward situations where they are being forced to write a recommendation letter for some student that they don't even know. Who the heck is Robert James? I lecture to hundreds of students, for Christ's sake!

Or when you in turn get students here asking for questions about how to approach a professor they've spoken very little to all year and ask them to write a recommendation letter.

And yes, I get it. One day, one time, you'll get a fantastic reference letter from a professor who actually knows and has worked with a particular student, and that reference letter will give you a better understanding of the capabilities and experiences of this student. I get that. But that's only part of the whole process here in Europe: That's the bonus I mentioned in my first paragraph, but we don't make it our everything. We realize that some people might get luckier with recommendation letters than others.

So why do Americans put so much weight on  recommendation letters?


texts: How to find a good topic for a PhD research proposal?

texts: In many countries an application for a PhD position includes a written research proposal, so my questions is what are some advises/strategies to come up with a good topic/idea for a PhD research proposal and how can one assess the quality/fruitfulness of an idea? As an undergraduate student one just doesn't have the experience to foresee which ideas might have promising research results and which probably won't have. (And I doubt that potential supervisors have the time to comment on every idea of every potential applicant in cases where it is possible to establish some kind of contact before the actual application.)


texts:
I recently started doing a PhD and am soon going to my first conference as a PhD student. Its expenses (registration fee, accommodation and travel costs etc.) will be covered by my university.

I need to apply for a visa for the country the conference is in, which costs a significant amount of money (approximately 200$). Would it be appropriate to ask for a reimbursement also for this application fee?

Here is some more information that could be relevant:

Even though I wouldn't apply for this visa if I didn't go to the conference, the visa will be valid for 6 months, i.e. far beyond the dates of the conference, so I could theoretically use it also for private purposes.
There are some other PhD students who will go to the same conference and whose costs are also covered by the university, but I am the only one who needs a visa, so I am worried that this could sound like asking for "special treatment".


texts: What are the benefits of participating in workshops related to good conferences?

texts:
I just received the acceptance notification of my paper in one of the workshops related to ECML/PKDD conference which is among good conferences in computer science.

However, my paper is accepted as a poster and its chances of being selected for the printed proceeding may be low, which means it could be useless for my CV. But I have to pay 400 euros for the registration plus travel costs. Although I use my travel grant, I do not like to just waste the budget.

So I was wondering how worthwhile is for me to present my work there.


texts: What to do when you're cited, but the author doubts the validity of your results

texts:
So, this just happened recently - I and my colleagues were cited in a scientific, peer reviewed paper (our article was published in a scientific journal as well). The author summarizes our findings (to a degree) and then concludes that because of two failures, we compromised the study's validity. However, those two "failures" were correctly addressed in our paper. I guess the author did not bother to read the complete article and, thus, highlighted the supposed "failures" that were accordingly addressed.

I have the e-mail address of the author, but I don't know what good would it do if I explain the situation. I'm not happy with this citation, since it (wrongly) presents our study in a bad light.

Since the article was already published, is there anything we can do? Thanks for suggestions.


texts: Should an advisor care if their student becomes overweight?

texts: So your student is becoming overweight: does this negatively impact your research group in some way? Should an advisor care?