texts: Advisor is unhappy with M.Sc. research results and is showing signs of preventing the student from graduating. What should be done?

texts:
I am having difficulties with an advisor who has not been clear with me on my research project, and I am fearful that I will not be allowed to graduate on time. What should I do? Please allow me to explain:
(Please note I am trying to be as vague as possible to conceal the situation and identities).
Previously, I was working at a company that was taking advantage of me, so me starting my M.S. was a ticket out of a bad work situation. I did not have many options to begin this program, and I really wanted to study this subject. So I began a M.S. program. The tough part of this situation was that I was introduced to a project right in the middle of it, so right from the start, it was rocky. There were probably less than 20 minutes devoted by the advisor to explaining the project to me, and it really wasn't set up for the kind of measurements that I was to take. It really wasn't set up for success to begin with, in my opinion.
The first year did not go well because of said reasons. Being more prepared the second year, I accomplished everything that the advisor wanted me to. I was therefore not able to do it the first year, but with the second year, I was able to get significant results. This work was to be included in a M.S. thesis, but the professor wanted me to  produce work that could be published in a scientific journal. However, in my area of study, it is not usually possible to publish results with only one year of data. The advisor did not like this, and is continuing to push me to analyze other kinds of data to try to make results that would be deemed publishable.
With this in mind, the data that I did collect makes a good thesis chapter. The original objective that was only briefly explained to me was accomplished, with results that showed the success of my experiment. However, knowing that I may not be able to publish it, my professor is telling me that what I have as a thesis article will not meet the advisor's expectations for graduation. I am trying other means of data analysis, but am not getting significant results. These results are not pleasing to this individual.
This problem is further complicated because the professor will not give me clear directions on where to head with this project. Every time I ask for help, I get no clear answers, just papers sent to me that only partially relate to my project. I do think that if my thesis is not going to be considered 'good enough,' there needs to be specific suggestions for improving it. But there are none. To make matters worse, I have not been prioritized, having been blown off several pre-arranged meetings with no apologies. I just never get a clear answer, and I often feel afraid to approach this person.
I feel like I can defend my thesis chapter well, but I am concerned that this person will ask me a whole bunch of questions during my defense (might not be related to my thesis) that I will not understand just because they are upset at my insignificant results. The committee may deem me unfit to graduate if I'm not able to answer them. It is not a requirement to publish in a peer-reviewed journal to graduate, so I have not failed that expectation.
As I feel like I have been short-handed in this process with no direction provided, what steps can I take to get around this? I want to graduate, but I feel like politics may impede this. Has anybody ever heard of anything similar? Is there an appeal process that I could take, if I am not allowed to graduate?
Thank you for reading!


texts:
Suppose you learn of a confirmed fundamental error in a CS conference paper (for a reputable conference) that smells of gross negligence. Is there any way to get it retracted? Whenever I've asked, people told me that CS conferences don't do that—and I've surely never seen it for PL conferences (though this paper is on algorithms).

While we can't talk specifics, please assume I've already done all the due diligence to confirm the error, down to getting the authors to confirm it.

I understand such errors won't kill people directly as errors in life sciences could, but I'm still concerned. Maybe a more serious version of https://xkcd.com/386/, but still.

The specific case

Years ago (around 2009) I've confirmed the flaw with other experts of the field (let's call them A), who confirmed it with the authors of the paper (let's call them B). I was just an undergrad and not working in the field, so I didn't participate in the conversation. This paper is still cited years later by the authors (as a "preliminary version") without mentioning the error—though a later paper citing it changes a key equation and (maybe) fixes the problem.

*Those experts avoided publicizing the flaw out of professional courtesy—making enemies of the author would allegedly have risked hurting their publication chances. However, they (had to) go as far as citing the paper without mentioning issues in follow-up work. Out of respect, I hence won't mention even the subfield of algorithms or the conference.

I'm also outside of the field—I got involved simply because I was friends with one undergrad doing research with experts A and he just asked me help when he couldn't make sense of the paper by B.

EDIT: I forgot to specify why I say "gross negligence", and I agree that was bad on my part. Here are the neutral facts as best as I can recall them/verify them:

the included pseudocode has a type error in a crucial routine—if you index a matrix you need two indexes, not one. We started investigating because we couldn't make sense of the pseudocode. This was on a second paper specifically about the implementation. EDIT: All 8 accesses to the array in 21 lines have this type error, so it's no typo.
the algorithm fails on the running example. EDIT: by running example here meant the example used throughout the paper. But I rechecked and the offending example is just the 2nd they use.
the paper implements and benchmarks the algorithm it describes against a naive implementation, yet it didn't detect that the algorithm results are (EDIT) incorrect. After you've done 90% of the work, comparing results is pretty easy.

I wouldn't talk about negligence for an error in a correctness proof (which the paper seems to implicitly claim). And maybe the above is not gross negligence in this setting, but it does feel rather sloppy. I'm happy to be corrected though.

EDIT2:

The question starts with "Suppose you learn [of a case that...] smells of gross negligence", then focuses on retraction (not misconduct). You can question that assumption only if no such case exists. I do sketch one example but that's just supporting evidence; the focus of the question cannot be trying the specific case. I'm fine with also discussing this case, but I'm just trying to argue plausibility.
I still think in such a context one should compare expected and actual results, at least once you have implemented both. The guidelines of the German Science Foundation say "good scientific practice includes the following fundamental principles:... consistently and critically questioning all results". Which sounds common sense to me.
I'm sure aware of honest errors (which should also be corrected somehow). Nobody expects all proofs to be error-free and formalized.
Google suggests "negligence" can only be "gross" if it endangers people's life. I'm surely not suggesting that. If that's how it's understood, I apologize for that and amend to negligence.


texts: How does peer review detect cheating when replicating a study isn't an option?

texts:
Disclaimer: This is the third incarnation of my question because the previous two have met with silence.
Adapted to this site:
For a scientific study to be accepted as "truth" the standard process is peer review. When the subject is something like math where you can follow through all the steps and recreate the logic in your head, that works great.
But what about cases when that's not an option - for example, research into the efficiency of a vaccine or a new drug? After Phase 3 trials the pharmaceuticals company releases the data which is then scrutinized by (I'd expect) both peer researchers from rival companies and government agencies. But how can they detect that it's not all or in part a lie? There is after all a huge financial motivation for the company to do it. Even when the reviewers are highly motivated to find any traces of fraud, what is the actual process by which they do it, if they can't replicate the study itself and compare the results?


texts: What do faculty members mean when they say "happy to find a time some time to chat more about it..."?

texts:
Sometimes in correspondence with faculty I get emails that end with a sentence like "happy to find a time some time to chat more about it though, just let me know."

What medium do people usually mean when they say this? Is this an invitation to schedule a phone call? Or because this is on an email is it best to stick to to sending responding with a detailed email about the said topic?


texts: How much time should I allow for math postdoc candidates to accept or decline my offer?

texts:
For the first time in my life, I received a research grant that allows me to hire postdocs. The hiring procedure is very flexible, and I have complete control over the process, without any involvement from my university or the grant agency.

My question is - how much time is it customary to give to potential postdocs to decide if they accept my offer?

I am especially interested in feedback from pure mathematics.


texts: Publisher has changed many terms in section/subsection titles to acronyms

texts:
I have an accepted paper which is now in the proof stage. Throughout the paper we define various acronyms, since we use these terms lots of times. For example:
These two acronyms are introduced in the first section:

A Bayesian network (BN) is a well known machine learning technique for (...) The conditional probability distribution (CPT) requires the specification (...)

Afterwards we generally used these acronyms, but not always. For example, at the start of a new section. We felt it is better to start the section with

Bayesian networks were introduced by (...)

than with

BNs were introduced by (...)

I think it is much easier to read the first way. Afterwards we do use the previously defined acronyms.
They have even changed these in the section titles. For example, a section is called

Estimating the Conditional Probability Tables of a Bayesian Network.

They have changed this to

Estimating the CPTs of a BN.

To me this does not look right. The reader who just wants to quickly grasp the contents of the paper will likely be confused.
Is there any convention about this? Do you think I am right to suggest the complete titles?


texts:
I was wondering what is the average notice (leave) period for academic positions (eg lecturer/post doc/teaching fellow).
I have just received a 14 month contract stipulating a 3 months notice by either party which effectively makes leaving the job early for new employment impossible. is this normal university practice?
The companies I have worked for before had an employee notice period of 2 - 5 weeks and 2 months employer notice.

UK University.

Thanks


texts: I have applied for a PhD program in USA. I have mentioned a professor's name in the SOP. Will the professor only get the application to review or the other professors will also be able to see my application? Will the other professors mind as I did not mention their name?


texts: Is it a good idea to do Masters in multiple subjects rather than doing a PhD?

texts:
Suppose, someone already has a Masters in CS/EE. Say, he wants to work with Robotics.

Is it a good idea to do a 2nd/3rd Masters-by-research in Robotics rather than doing a PhD in CS/EE (concentration Robotics)?

Why or why not?


texts: How will an application for graduate admissions be affected if psychological issues prevent student from getting strong recommendations?

texts:
What if a student is unable to or has difficulty getting strong recommendation letters (for graduate admissions in mathematics) due to psychological factors, such as autism?

Will graduate schools even consider these problems?


texts: Is it acceptable to ask an unknown professor outside my dept for help in a related field during his office hours?

texts:
Would a professor find it strange or be irritated if an unknown student asks him a question during his office hours that is related to his field but either is or isn't related to any class he is teaching?

Sometimes I encounter a math problem in my engineering class where I'd find it helpful if a math professor could explain a concept to me when I don't have any satisfactory answers. Another example is if I am working on an outside of class project and would like to ask a CS professor what an apache log is?

Is this acceptable?


texts: Should one include grants that were not finished on the CV?

texts:
If one gets a grant, and by some reason (e.g., administration problems with the university) the project needs to be ended before the grant is over. Should one list such grant in the CV? or just let it go into oblivion?

If put it into the CV is OK, then should one state that the grant ended before its time? or even state the reasons?


texts: State-of-the-art animated handwritten slideshow software

texts:
This is a remake/sequel of the 2015 question Handwritten presentation slides?.
Surely much has changed in these five years. I have seen lots of presentations combining typed text/equations and handwritten diagrams, sometimes on the same slide. Technically it would not be difficult to do it "by hand" - say, work with TeX/beamer or powerpoint, draw pictures, make image files and include them as graphics into your slides. However I would like to have two more features:
First and foremost, to automate this. Say, I make slides, leave out some space, then review the slides and draw inside the left out space. Or something probably even more efficient?
Second, I would like to include animated sequences, like a drawing gradually showing up, or being modified in a simple way - say, some lines disappearing and new ones appearing on the same drawing.
Do you know good efficient software for that? Or maybe you can just suggest efficient search terms for googling it? What I try seems to be too general, I get lots of results but none of them are to the point.


texts: How hard is it for someone who already has tenure to find a tenured position elsewhere?

texts: I am in my second year as an Associate Professor (with tenure) at a top research university (listed among top 20 in US News & World Report in my field). My publication, teaching, and service records are all very good to excellent. I have also received numerous awards such as Sloan Fellowship and NSF's Career Award. In general, I am happy with my current institution, but sometime wonder if I can move to more prestigious university. There are other personal reasons as well that makes me ponder about such possibility. Would it be a good idea to apply other universities for someone at this stage of their career? How do search committees feel about hiring someone who has a tenure?


texts: How do conferences detect double submission?

texts:
My first year undergraduate teammate has submitted our project work to multiple conferences. I want him to pull back the submission before reviewers take action against us. But he wants proof that conferences actually care about it and can detect self plagiarism and double submission.

This is in electronics, where conference proceedings count as publications.


texts:
I don't quite understand the education process for lawyers, but I do understand there are a number of different degrees, and one of them is 'JD', the juris doctor. My Latin is quite rusty, but I believe that is "Doctor of Law."

So why are they not called "doctor" in common practice, like any PhD is? Is the JD actually not similar to a doctorate program? If not, then why does it take the name doctor?

I understand that the JD is what they call a "1st degree" and there are even higher degrees. The LLM, for example, is a "Master of Laws", which really confuses things now because "master" degrees are normally less than "doctor" degrees. So if a JD is not not called a "doctor" for some logical reason, what about the LLM, since it is a higher degree?

I'm coming from an American perspective, so I would like an answer from an American perspective, please.


texts: Alternatives to Excel to store experimental data

texts:
As a part of my thesis, I collect data from students and I combine their data in a single Excel sheet.

The experiment consists of 200 trials. Every trial gives me three numbers:

The answer is correct (1) or incorrect (0)
Participants' rating of their confidence in a 5-point scale
Reaction time

However, Excel has some weaknesses.

I cannot write three numbers in one cell
Excel doesn't warn me when I mistakenly change or delete data
The formulas become too complex as I just want "average correct answers when confidence is 4 or 5 and Reaction Time is less than 2 seconds"
There are too many rows columns

Below you can see an example how I try to handle my data: (notice the dots, in my original file there are hundreds of rows and columns)

So, I was wondering if there are some other good software (for mac os, if possible) for storing data. Or, do most experimental psychologists store their data in Excel, too?

Edit. I am aware of the existance of other stack exchange sites. You can vote to close if you think this problem is off-topic, but please don't post unfriendly comments.

I thought this problem relates to academia more than other "computer science, programming" stack exchange sites because most psychologists in academia encounters this problem, but they handle it very "manually" because they don't have a programming background. I thought there are some user-friendly software for social scientists.

Thanks for your valuable answers.


texts: How can one prevent a co-author from publishing without consent?

texts:
I have been reading about several cases in which a co-author submitted a paper without the consent of another author (for example in  What to do after I was named as co-author on a paper, without my consent?).

Consider a situation where one co-author goes on to publish without my consent when I am the first author.

I know the rule for most publishers would legally prevent a co-author from doing this as the submitting author requires consent from all authors.
However, it seems that in practice many journals have no practical processes in place to prevent this. The co-author would likely submit to an Elsevier journal. It seems that the Elsevier submission system (EES) would allow them to submit and go through the whole process by themselves without informing me if they wanted to.

Moreover, it seems that for Elsevier journals, only the submitting author is informed of advancements through the process, so that the co-author could indeed go through the whole process without other authors knowing.

If I only find out when it is published, it also seems that I have nothing to do about it. It seems that a retraction would only do more damage to my career as the paper will just stay online with my name and also be tagged as retracted. There seems to be no way if disassociating yourself with a published paper.

I am a bit worried to see that in fact there seems to be no real barriers to a co-author doing something like that.
Note again that I am referring to the Elsevier process, though there may be other publishers with a similar process (and potentially the process is not like this for all Elsevier journals).

To summarize, it seems that, at least for certain journals:

A co-author could submit a paper without the consent of other authors and the journal would not inform or ask explicitly for consent from other authors.
The co-author could go through the entire process, even up to publication, without any other author explicitly being asked for confirmation.
Other authors in such a case would not even be informed of the submission or status changes of the paper
If eventually the paper is published, the only option unaware authors have is retraction, which is likely to do even more damage to their career than the fact that the paper has been published prematurely.

Am I correct in my assessment? it seems like if this is true for even some journals, then the publishing process for such journals has been designed quite poorly.

I would like to know how, as an author, I could prevent such a thing from occurring to me. How can I prevent a co-author from publishing without my consent?

I am aware that the best means is having a good relationship and communication with the co-author in the first place and I will do the best I can in this regard. But I would like to know what other practical means I have of preventing this.


texts: Is it common for a thesis-based master hasn't got the thesis topic?

texts: The supervisor just tells students to learn knowledge and practice skills that will be required in their research in the first year but doesn't have their topic decided. Is such case common?


texts: Should we ask ambiguous questions on an exam?

texts:
I'm TAing an undergraduate course at a university in the US, and had a disagreement with the professor teaching the course about a question in an exam. Here's an abstract version of the relevant part:

Select the single most appropriate method, out of the list {A, B, C, ...}, to solve problem X.

Both A and B are appropriate to solve X, and objectively superior to any other method on the list. Weak arguments can be made for either of them being more appropriate than the other. After a debate with the professor, we agreed that the question is ambiguous.
My opinion is that we should not be asking such a question. I think students might waste a lot of time trying to find their presumed mistake, since the question asks for a single most appropriate method, and there isn't one. Therefore, I think we should either remove it, remove one of the two methods, or rephrase it to

Select a single appropriate method...

The professor argues that the ambiguity is not an error on our part. They suggest we'll give full credit to either choice of A or B, and say that students shouldn't obsess over this minor detail at the expense of other parts of the exam.
I feel like this is problematic in terms of ethics (because of the possibility of misleading students) and pedagogy (since I would like students to distinguish strong and weak arguments for a method being superior to another). I would like to know others' position and arguments on this issue.
I'm also very interested in references that address the pedagogical aspect, based on either research or experience. The only such reference I could find is this blogpost (in Hebrew), written by a teacher, that defines "what's in my pocket" questions to avoid as teachers.
Edit
I might have overdone the abstraction, and made the example trivial. Consider the question

Select the single most appropriate method, out of the list {A, B, C, ...}, to solve each problem in the list {X, Y, Z, ...}.

{A, B, C, ...} are standard methods, all taught in class. Each other problem, {Y, Z, ...}, has a unique method most appropriate for solving it, and the ambiguity rises only for X.


texts: Did conferences have poster sessions before PCs were widespread?

texts:
At modern scientific conferences (at least in my field), poster sessions are a very important part of the conference.  Most posters are prepared by the authors using modern computer software which may or may not be fit for purpose, but which does fulfill the task.

How was this done before 30–35 years ago?  I'm aware that oral presentations (mostly) used transparencies.  Of course poster printing as such existed, but preparing a poster would have been much more difficult.  Did scientific conferences before the 1980s have poster sessions?  If so, how did scientists design and prepare their posters without the aid of GUI-based, WYSIWIG, or LaTeX + viewer software?


texts: Where do PhD scholars get data to test their thesis on?

texts:
For example PhD scholars working on ML/AI algorithms need a lot of data to train and test their research. Research on distributed systems might require terabytes of data to test.

Where do these scholars get so much data i.e. the scale which is only produced in big companies?


texts: I'm thinking about leaving after 6 months as a PhD student

texts:
I started last November but I've been having this gut feeling that this project may not be the one for me
The big picture is that I'm not really happy with the theory- if I'm being totally honest with myself, I feel that the project is disconnected from what I truly enjoy.
It's not something I'm considering lightly but the last few months I've been working, I sometimes wake up dreading the day ahead. I can't even enjoy my weekends without feeling this way. A PhD is a big undertaking I know but surely I should be happy and enthusiastic about approaching it? Even with a supervisor as prominent as mine, I just feel like I'm not having a good time.
I'm going to leave it a few weeks but I may need to take some time to consolidate my plan.
To summarise:

I feel that the field doesn't satisfy me, after extensive literature review and discussions, it feels as if the field has no practical uses and is purely academic. I wanted something that's engaging and hands on- so far my supervisor hasn't been able to answer about the applications of the research.
I think that my mental health should also come into it, the thought of dealing with this project makes me feel utterly depressed, I wake up dreading every day I need to work on it.
Something else which I didn't mention is the admin and HR department is very poor. For starters, I'm on a funded project and they tried to invoice me £8k. Moreover my supervisor put in a purchase order for some software and books I need and it still hasn't been approved after 3 weeks.

Thanks for reading.


texts: PhD student who should be the correpsonding author

texts: I am a PhD student, should I put my supervisor as the corresponding author, will this increase my chance of publication?


texts: Is my Major Professor Counted as a Co-Author?

texts:
According to the APA style manual, the editorial "we" is used to refer to the author and co-authors but should not be used if there is a single author. However, in writing my mathematics thesis, I am working closely with a professor to do the research. He won't be listed as an author as far as I'm aware, but it feels natural to use the pronoun "we" to talk about results found during or after a proof. It also has always seemed more a reference to the author and reader together but perhaps this has only been my own erroneous imagination. Here is the link to the APA style reference I mentioned: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/grammar/first-person-pronouns
Should I avoid using the pronoun "we?"


texts:
I like maps very much, any common maps, geographic, historic, statistic, etc., or I would say reading maps is my favorite hobby. I can sit at table and read maps for several hours without any stop.

I was studying courses about math and physics in university. I am planning to pursue a PhD degree in the future. It would be great if I can convert or leverage the my map hobby as my career.

So my question is, considering my background, Is there any research direction which is closely related with map reading? If difficult to find such position in academia, is there any jobs in industry can greatly fulfill my idea?


texts: Citing a funding application in a student thesis

texts: I gave an application for a funded project to a student as reference material for his Masters thesis. He wants to put a reference to this text into his bibliography. What is the necessary "bibliographic" information to include in this case, and what would be the recommended way to format such a reference?


texts: References for Ph.D. admission application

texts: I completed my B.A. in 2005 and my M.Ed. in 2010.  I'm now looking at going back to school to do a Ph.D., but I'm not sure what to do about the references required for my applications.  I'm still able to get in contact with my advisors from both programs, but even so it's been a couple of years since I've talked to either of them.  Should I focus on tracking down old professors, or would it be better to find colleagues from my professional career to attest to relevant work I've done since graduating?


texts: Is it ok to contact multiple potential supervisors?

texts:
I have applied for MASc. (graduate research) programs in Canadian universities and there is a requirement to have a supervisor.

My question is: Should I contact more than one professor from the same department of a University with similar interests? What would happen if more than one professor shows interest in me? How would I deny the acceptance of other professors and just choose one without giving a rude impression? Would it be better to be honest upfront and mention about "contacting more than one professor" in the emails?

I want to contact more than one professor as I am not sure about the situation of the professor i.e. They might be on sabbaticals, leaves or might not be taking any more applicants, which might cause them to reject me and I won't have enough time to contact another professor (also, I personally feel that this method is rude).


texts:
In our lab (at Nankai University, in China), students often write papers where they are first author.  However, we use a convention where the last author signifies the student's teacher.  I feel that this is uncommon.

I have not heard of this done outside of our lab, but maybe this is more common than I would guess.

Question: How widespread is the use of "last author = teacher" on student papers?


texts: Which date should I include in personal statement?

texts:
I have just finished writing personal statement and as far as formal etiquette concerns, there should be a date at the beginning. Is this a date I started writing the statement or the date I am sending it?

And is this the right format of the date: February 24, 2014?


texts: Writing a letter of recommendation for a promising but very new student

texts:
As part of my PhD I am required to teach some bachelor level micro and macro economics classes. One of my new students (we only had 3 classes together) approached me with a request for a letter of recommendation for summer research internship.
The student looks like good student, they are active in class and pay attention and asked few good questions. However, I only talked to the student 3 times in my life during the online classes.
This creates a conundrum for me because the student so far made a good impression on me but I know nothing about the students and first impressions can be deceiving. In addition, one should of course never lie on the letter of recommendation so the best I can say about the student is that I recommend them because they are active in the class and ask good questions.
Also, the student said that they need to submit application by end of next week so I will see the student only once more in class and by that time the students won't even submit their first assignment for the class. So waiting here and seeing how the student will do is not an option.
Consequently, my questions are:

Would there be any possible repercussions for me if I write truthful letter of recommendation, but the student turns out to be very bad at their internship? In another words would that cost me my creditability, are recommendations for candidates in academia taken very seriously?
Would writing such recommendation help the student at all or would it actually potentially hurt student's chances?

I know this is a topic that was already discussed at academia, for example here but that does not answer my question because the question is about mediocre student whereas this student looks promising.


texts: Publish an article in the journal in which one is an associate editor

texts: I want to know whether is it normal to publish an article in the journal in which one is associate editor. For example, one of the co-author article in this article in this journal.


texts: Time overlap between two postdocs? Simply keep two affiliations or quit the first position earlier?

texts:
My current postdoc position will end in few months, so I started to apply for another postDoc position abroad. Shortly, if I would get the second position, there might be about two months overlap between them.

What is your advise on how to deal with it? What I am considering:

End the first job two months earlier, and start the new one.
Keep both positions during those two months: start the full-time the
second one and continue the first one on weekends, until it "dies"
naturally.

I think the most honest would be the first option (opt#1). However, as my manuscripts were submitted for publication, I will work on them no matter where I end up (likely the second position). The finalization of those manuscripts is my main responsibility, and I cannot be sure about the each review processing time and schedule.

In this case, I would get at least paid for my publication finalizing (opt#2), which would not happen if I will officially quit my first postdoc earlier (opt#1). And I can use two affiliations during the time overlap.

Should I notify my future employer about my postdocs position overlap and my potential plan to keep two affiliations?

My expertise is in ecology, therefore I am transferring neither extra secret information nor some commercial patents between positions.


texts: When are 2 PhDs in philosophy necessary?

texts:
I stumbled on Tom Angier on his UCT page, but this page details his degrees more:

  MPhil. in Philosophy (University College London, 1995), PhD in Philosophy (University of Cambridge, 2001),
  PhD in Ancient Philosophy (University of Toronto, 2008).

I grasp that a braggart may like the cachet  of having 2 PhDs. But I'll assume that there are other modest reasons.
Couldn't Dr. Angier have studied in Cambridge, whatever he studied in Toronto, by taking more time in Cambridge?
In general, why'd you need 2 Philosophy PhDs?


texts: Applying for a PhD with two undergrad degrees in different subjects

texts:
I completed a BA in philosophy, but then my interests changed and I did a BSc in mathematics. I am currently finishing my MSc in mathematics and applying for a PhD in maths. I have the following questions:

Does the fact that my very first degree was in philosophy put me at a disadvantage in terms of applying for a PhD? Could it potentially be interpreted as a sign of indecision or inadequate motivation?
Should I refer to my philosophy degree at all in my personal statement? Does my change of academic interests call for an explanation, or is it better to leave it out?


texts: Tension between "publishable" and "motivating" research topics

texts:
I am half way thorough my second year as a posdoc and I have a reasonable production (4 published papers in good journals and two other under review). I also have several ongoing/potential research projects and I am finding it hard to figure out how to manage my time and energy regarding them.
Here is the problem: among these projects, there are some that are fairly secure in terms of publication, meaning that I feel confident that within reasonable time and with reasonable effort those projects will lead to papers published in good journals (let us simplify assuming that "good" means Q1). However, these are not particularly motivating problems/proposals (for me). The main issue is their lack of motivation, mathematically in particular and scientifically in general. It is not that they are not good problems at all, or uninteresting in their entirety, they just don't seem to have an underlying mathematical or scientific question to them.
On the other hand, there is a handful of potential projects that I find motivating, some of them proposed to me by other mathematicians (tenured professors with solid careers) and some of them my own, but whose perspective of success is much less clear. These are interesting questions and/or research directions but there is no certainty that I will be able to get something out of them. And on top of that, they require an important time investment.
I am tempted to follow a strategy based on working on the "publishable" projects just the amount of time required to move forward with them and dedicate the rest of the time to the other projects, but I would appreciate points of view, comments or suggestions on the matter.
I could not find a question to which I would say that this is a duplicate, although I do think that these issues ought to be common for people at my stage of the career.


texts: Should I be worried of being accused of cheating?

texts:
So I just took a very simple, all-multiple choice test. I will straight up say I did not cheat, put bags phone etc across the room from where I sat, and the test was very easy. I marked all questions that I’m not sure of with an asterisk, and then when I went over the test papers, I wrote down the questions in the palm of my hand so I could check for answers immediately after handing in the test and getting out of the room. This is something I suddenly wanted to do so I know what I did wrong immediately and get a slightly clearer idea of how I did. I probably should’ve just asked the TA for an extra scrap of paper to make it transparent but I didn’t think of it at the time. I handed in the test and waved him goodbye. I’m not sure if he saw that stuff was written in my palm when I waved at him, but he just said like have a good one. Now that I think about it, this is far from cheating but probably an ambiguous move that might stir up misunderstandings. Just in case I took a picture of my palm with the contents to show that the contents are not like cheat reminders, just a list of the questions I didn’t feel confident about in the test so I could check them later, but still I’m worried that misunderstandings will crop up later and I will be swept into confrontations. Should I be concerned about my academia integrity standing?

Also it’s not an exam, not sure why the testing tag shows up like that. It’s a normal quiz.


texts: What does "Awaiting SE Preliminary Decision" mean for IEEE transactions journal?

texts:
I have a manuscript with IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology under peer review from early Jan 2020. Today, there has been a status update on the journal's ScholarOne online portal which says "Awaiting SE Preliminary Decision".

What does this mean?

What does the 'SE' stand for?
Why is the decision to be made by the SE classified as "preliminary"? Will there by further non-preliminary decisions made at the editorial office?


texts: I am unable to reach one of my faculty member through email, phone call or even in person, what may I do?

texts: I am unable to reach one of my faculty member through email, phone call or even in person, who have agreed on providing me with a recommendation letter. He is not replying to my email, phone number is unavailable and even not coming to the office. I do not know what is wrong or what is the matter, I might miss a deadline of a university which I am really intending to attend.I have given him multiple reminder and not even sure whether he has seen them or not.


texts: How much is a PhD worth without publications or a reputation?

texts:
I asked this question a few months ago about addressing in-group bullying during my PhD.

How to address in-group bullying without compromising PhD/career?

Things have not improved over the past few months - in fact I think they have gotten worse. I'm three years into my PhD and at least a year of handing in. I'm still very much in the experimental phase, so unfortunately 'writing at home' is not an option now or anytime in the near future. I've been pretty scarred by this environment so I highly doubt I will end up in academia. While I am currently on funding, it will run out a year before I hand in, so I will need to self-fund.

My current question is this: How much is it actually worth to have a PhD if I do not have any publications or references by the time I submit?


texts: How much of a paper does a reviewer fact-check?

texts:
I'm mainly interested in the level of fact-checking of computer science conference papers. Do reviewers normally read the entire paper and exhaustively check the correctness of proofs, algorithms and claims?

I have read papers at top conferences where implementation details are sketchy and conceptual claims are inaccurate.

My guess is that an exhaustive level of fact-checking is often not done particularly in cases where the reviewer might not be familiar with all the concepts in the paper. Is this true? If this is so, then it seems unfair that the merit of a paper is essentially just based on how well the paper is pitched in the first one or two pages.


texts: How should I reply to this Professor's email?

texts:
The following is the last email I received from a Professor in June 2019, and recently (in Dec 2019) I submitted my Ph.D. application to this University.

"Thanks for writing and for the great ideas -- I see a lot of energy and promise in your thoughts, and I encourage you to try to pursue some of these questions -- most, in fact, are exciting and open research areas. I also encourage you to apply for PhD at YYY University.

Best wishes,
Professor X"

Now that I have submitted my application, I want to send a simple email to this Professor reminding her about my interest to join her group and the discussion we had 4 months back (through emails).

Can anyone suggest a draft of the email that I can send to this Professor?


texts: Strategy to avoid duplication when my paper is under-review

texts:
I am a Research Scholar in Mathematics in my initial days.
I  wrote an article and submitted it to a good journal recently.
I am confused with the following inquiry of mine:

If my article gets accepted then there is no worry.
But suppose my article gets rejected and in the meantime when my article was in peer-review, someone else does the same research as mine and submits his/her research to some lower ranked journal which unfortunately gets accepted.

My query is what will happen to my article. Since an article  similar to mine has been accepted, if I try to resubmit it to another journal after the rejection, will the Editors consider my article as duplicate even if I started the work before.

Will the Editor of the journal  allow me to resubmit my paper if I show them all the details that  I was the one who started this work first but since it got rejected from a higher ranked journal, I am submitting it to his/her journal now.

Or

Will my article be considered duplicate of the one which got published recently in a lower ranked journal?

I am confused.What shall I do in this kind of situation. I guess these sort of things happen to every researcher. How does one get to deal with this?

Another query of mine which is related to the same problem

Even if I put my article on the arXiv and if someone does the same research as mine, is it possible that he/she may say that he/she does not read arXiv articles and hence his/her work is not plagiarized.

Someone please help me out. I am puzzled on how to deal with these two issues.


texts: How do I withdraw a paper from a journal after it was accepted but before it was fully published?

texts: On the advice of a senior colleague, I decided that I do not want to publish the paper anymore and with that journal. I wrote the editor several times; he has received the emails, but refuses to reply. I know he gets the emails because if its on other matters he has replied but not on the paper. I am ready to forfeit the processing fee I gave them but they refuse to reply and have already published the abstract of the paper to their site but not the full paper. Is legal action an option and do I have the right to sue? What are the guidelines in matters like these?


texts: Should I write "we" or "I" in my research statement?

texts:
I am currently in the process of applying for tenure-track assistant professor jobs.
I was wondering whether I should write "we" or "I" in my research statement.
While it is true that I did not do all the research on my own,
I have heard that in a research statement,
I am trying to sell my research agenda
and thus should use "I" rather than "we".
Nevertheless, I get an odd feeling as if I am taking all the credit for something that was done with other researchers.


texts: How should one maintain a relationship with a professor?

texts:
So I am planning to apply to grad school sometime in the future and would need a letter of recommendation from an awesome professor who I took a time series class with.

I got an A- in the class, he liked my final project a lot and I know he remembers me but how do I maintain a good relationship with a professor after I've graduated?


texts: How do you make corrections to a published paper?

texts:
What's the best way to make corrections to a published paper? Should I amend the original paper and mention in a footnote (or similar) what was changed and why or prepare a completely separate document and put that on my website/append it to the original paper?

I'm not so much worried about how to get it to the publishers that handle the paper, but rather about how to go about it. I would especially like to hear from people who have done something like that or know someone who did.


texts: Is it common practice for an admissions office to ask a transfer student for the current semester's grades?

texts:
I applied to a state university for the Fall semester the first day that applications opened for transfer students.
The admission office wrote that decisions take 8-10 weeks.
After 10 weeks, I emailed the admissions office and they told me they would have an answer in an additional 2 weeks (for a total of 14 weeks from the initial submission date).
Today, 14 weeks after my submission, I emailed them and asked if they had any update since I would have to make living arrangements if I got accepted.

They responded:

  The admission committee reviewed your application and determined we
  need your spring grades. We will review your application once we get
  an updated transcript in May or June. Due to limited space
  availability, it would be helpful to have a back up plan for the fall.

Is it common practice to give students responses in such uncertain terms?
I responded asking if there was anything I can do to speed up the answer (e.g. giving them my current grades) but didn't receive a reply.

I'm not sure that this is relevant, but my GPA is 3.86 (which makes me wonder why they would need to see my grades).


texts: Do European PhD programs offer the opportunity to take on teaching assistantship duties?

texts:
I know that, in North America, the opportunity is given (and often mandated) to take on teaching assistantships while in a PhD program.

I knew that, often, European PhD programs pay you to do RA from day one. But, in European PhD contracts/programs, are there countries, or universities even, that set conditions under which you have to TA? Or can you even TA in the first place?


texts: When/how can one be funded by multiple grants?

texts:
Many researchers are funded by multiple grants. I want to understand how this works, at least in general.

Can one be funded by multiple grants for the same (duplicate) work?

I'm guessing not, but perhaps there are circumstances that allow it?

Can one be funded by multiple grants for the same project in different proportions?

E.g. Grant A pays for half, and Grant B covers the other half, together paying a full salary.

Can one be funded by multiple grants for different aspects of the same project?
Can one be funded by multiple grants for independent projects?

I'm guessing this is fairly common....

Are there grants that specify exclusivity?

E.g. "You must focus on this project and may not receive any external funding for any other projects until this project is completed."

I ask multiple questions here because they have a common answer, such that if I asked them separately, they would almost certainly be marked as duplicates.


texts: Can my recommendation letters be repeated?

texts:
For example, if I am going to apply to 3 REU programs that ask me for 2 recommendation letters each one.

Can my 2 professors who I asked the recommendation letters send the exact same letters to the 3 REU programs?


texts: Is it important to dress in formal clothing for a postdoc interview?

texts:
Just curious is it crucial?

It's one of the reasons I like academia that I don't need to care too much the boring stuff like wearing suits.


texts: How can I mention a personal tragedy in a statement for PhD?

texts:
I am currently applying for my PhD in pure math. I am also finishing up my masters. Unfortunately my brother passed halfway through the semester and I received an incomplete in one of my classes because I was absent too much. I also missed the GRE Mathematics subject test which is required. I spoke to the head of the department who said that they will consider my application without the GRE subject test. I don't know if he is going to personally be reviewing my application or if he's even going to remember he said this to me.

Anyways, should I put this in my personal statement? So far I've talked only about my math research interests, experience, etc. But maybe I should add a concluding paragraph that explains my current situation? How can I approach this? I took my regular GRE and though my score isn't awful, it's not great and I just feel like my brother passing in the past few months has tremendously had an affect on me. That being said, I've worked so hard and besides this incident, all my grades for my masters degree have been high to low A's. I want them to know this isn't me at my best. But I also don't want it to be a sob story.


texts: Is it mandatory to include the registered trademark symbol ® next to the name of a computer program?

texts:
Suppose you write a paper and you use Wolfram Mathematica to do calculations. In the article, should the program be mentioned with the registered-trademark symbol immediately following the name and in superscript style, i.e., as follows?

  Wolfram Mathematica®


texts: What are secondary "visiting" positions?

texts:
Note that I'm not talking about "visiting professor" or "visiting lecturer" positions in the US, which seem to be full-time non-tenure-track positions offered at some US universities.
What I mean is that I sometimes see people list "visiting researcher", "visiting scholar", or "visiting professor" as their second affiliation, and seemingly they are not actually being paid by the second institution (their full-time position is at their primary place of employment) but they simply maintain a second affiliation through this visiting position. Often I see people having visiting affiliations at universities in other countries, or professors keeping a visiting position at their previous place of employment after they moved to another place.
What are these visiting positions? How does one get it, and what is the point?


texts: Failed my professor months ago, not sure what to do now

texts:
About 8 months ago I was about to graduate university and was trying to figure out what to do with myself then. A professor asked me if I wanted to do  my masters with him and I said yes almost without thinking.

I still had classes at that moment so for about a month and a half I focused on my courses and he did not talk to me so there was little communication between the two. Due to an error in the system, my application for a masters program got delayed to January this year, rather than July, when it was originally planned by both me and the professor. I was taking 2 highly accelerated courses, one of which was a grad course, so I in between the stress and my own ignorance I neglected dealing with that issue until it was too late.

I had an immigration status that made it so that I needed to get a job within 90 days of graduating or I would be kicked out of the country. Without talking to my professor I panicked and applied to jobs, got one and then "remembered" to tell my professor essentially a week before moving to a different city to start my job.

In other words, I told him I would work with him and then didn't communicate anything to him and then a month after went back on my word and left for a job.

This professor is the person with whom I did my undergrad thesis, so he is invaluable as a recommendation reference. But I don't think I deserve or have any right to ask him for references. Worse than that, even if I was shameless enough to ask, it is unlikely he would give me a good reference after I essentially shat on a verbal agreement and betrayed his trust by unilaterally taking fast decisions without telling him anything.

Is there anything I can do here? I messed up, I messed up horribly, but I still want to go to grad school even if at this point I probably don't deserve it.


texts: Will my stressful year be seen as a negative?

texts:
I am an undergraduate student in mathematics. My academic performance is really good but many people tell me "you are too stressed up", including people who know me for a few weeks.

Due to some serious family issues the last few years have been hell.

As the time passes everything is returning to normal but the professors who don't know about those events might think this is how my personality is.

I am going to ask letters of recommendation from those professors for a graduate school application. Do you think this will negatively impact my application? What I can do about it?

edit: It's just the air around me. Some professors mentioned this: "You are too tense, don't worry you will go alright". Not sure how to explain this better.


texts: How long should one wait for a reference before writing to the course convenor?

texts: I am getting a little worried about my PhD application. I submitted it three weeks ago with reference requests going out to Prof A and B. Prof B wrote to me the same evening to say it would be done asap, and Prof A didn't respond, but that's fine. Three weeks later and Prof A has written back and completed the reference, though nothing so far from B. I have written to B with a polite reminder but they haven't written back. How long do people take on average to get these things across and should I be concerned? I know these academics are very busy but at the same time this is the only thing holding the application up. Should I write to the convenor about my concern if this goes on for a couple more weeks? What other ways could I politely encourage a response?


texts: Time between Viva (minor corrections) and the letter

texts: I have been awarded a PhD today with minor corrections (yay!). I am not very relieved yet, because I signed a job contract that says that the deadline to provide a proof of a PhD award is September. I tried to search for the answer in the research regulations of my university but it was not there. I also asked my supervisor and she told me we're going to try to do that. Do you know roughly how long does it take usually to receive the letter after the viva in the UK? (minor correction that need to be sent to my supervisor).


texts: Can an editor review manuscript without sending to reviewers?

texts: I submitted my manuscript to a journal one month ago and the status is "with editor" up to now. As the editor of my paper is one of the leading scientists in the field of my research paper (mathematics), I would like to know that can an editor do the review of paper by him/herself without sending to other reviewers?


texts: Swiss cheese holes in my education. Do I go back and fill them?

texts:
In this recent blog post the author lists several interesting concepts he has discovered pertaining to learning. One thing he mentions is the following:

  Mastery is more important than passing grades. You will reach limits
  in learning when you have a "Swiss cheese" foundation full of
  misconception holes. Master each concept before building on top.
  ~Salman Khan

(This is actually from Salman's TED talk which you can view here.) My questions is as follows: I graduated about a year ago with a Master's in Applied Physics from a reputable university. I've been a B student throughout my academic career and I feel like I started building on un-mastered concepts somewhere towards the end of high school. Despite obtaining a relatively tough engineering degree, I cut corners whenever possible. If I could pass an exam by being able to do all the exercises, I would get to that level and stop there. I would rarely - if ever - go for complete mastery. As a result I feel like I have Swiss cheese holes in my understanding that date back to high school.

If Albert Einstein's quote is anything to go by:

  If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.

I'm afraid I can't simply explain a whole lot. For instance I would not be able to explain simply:

What is the proof of Euler's identity?
Why can you express a wave as an imaginary exponential?
How does a photon have momentum, but not mass?
What is the intuitive understanding of eigenfunctions, eigenvalues and their physical manifestations?

With the wealth of knowledge available today on the internet, I could look up any one of my knowledge gaps, and with some effort I feel confident I would be able to fill them. My question is, would that be worth it?


texts: How do you self-teach yourself about a field you don't know about, specifically for STEM?

texts:
When I was in an undergrad, I joined a DNA nanotechnology lab and the assistant professor who was member of the lab gave me bunch of papers to read to get acquainted with the field. When I joined a computational physics lab, it was the same and the professor gave me a paper to read. I do understand that, in labs, you don't have textbooks but bunch of papers to teach yourself.

I am curious about how people in academia self-teach themselves about a field they don't know about. Would they read a review from major peer-reviewed journals, such as Science or Nature, and then dig deeper from there? How would they get teach themselves techniques, and knowledge? When I was in a lab, I didn't have to worry about those things since professors gave me things I needed to read. But, if there was no person like that, how would the researcher get acquainted with the field?


texts: What stops an assistant/associate professor with a strong publication record from being promoted?

texts:
As far as I experienced, research is the most important factor for promotion, as it represents different features of an academician/scholar, which are needed by higher education institutions: teaching at graduate level, supervising academic projects of graduate students, attracting research fund, fame for the university, etc.

Publications is normally the main measure for research of a professor. Thus, one expects to see a proportional relationship between publications (both quality and quantity) and academic rank.

People can be promoted with less publications, probably because of other activities. But, I wonder why there are some academicians whose rank is far behind their publications. For example, I have seen people with 50 papers but are still assistant professor, or over 100 papers but still associate professor. I am referring to the US universities.

What keeps an assistant/associate professor with a strong publication record from appropriate promotion?


texts: Difference between experiential learning and hands-on learning

texts:
I have just started doing some research regarding different ways of teaching and learning.

I would like to know whether experiential learning and hands-on learning are same or there are some differences between them.


texts: What could be the effect of mentioning a student's weakness in the recommendation letter?

texts:
I am going to request a letter of recommendation for higher studies (PhD) from one of my faculty (I took two classes and did 3 very good course projects). I have never been good (just above average) in any of his written examinations and has admitted this to him in several discussions. Though in the projects, my score was the highest and I also got praise from him for writing excellent research quality articles for those projects.

I am pretty sure that he would certainly mention my weakness in the letter. I don't think (not really sure) that he has doubt over my research potential. So does that give any negative impression on the reader of such recommendation letter ?

So, if I generalize my question, how does specifying weakness of a candidate affects his chances of admission (if they do) ?


texts: Why people put the details of publication process like revise and resubmit in their CVs?

texts:
In my field (economics), I see lots of scholars (some of them are famous in their field) putting their papers with the information (R&R at Journal X.).

I understand the fact that they try to transfer the signal that the paper in question has an academic quality but what happens if the paper gets a rejection after the third round of revision? Can it be worse for the reputation? So, what are the pros and cons to give the information like R&R or "conditionally accepted" for a paper in publication process?


texts: Does high school success in Math have a correlation with Undergrad success in Mathematics?

texts: I will start in freshman in a fairly good undergrad institution in August 2018. I am planning to major in Mathematics. However this school attracts the most brilliant high schoolers in Math. This includes IMO gold and silver medalists. Participation in IMO guarantees admission to this school. I have already planned to go to graduate school. However seeing the enormous competition I am pretty skeptical of my chances. Usually the best student of our school in a given year has a fair shot at Princeton. Looking at my result I might have barely crept in their freshman batch. I do have 1 month left, shall I start on standard Math textbooks like Rudin, Munkres, Dummit and Foote or are the IMO medalists way ahead of me?


texts: Is it okay for the author field to contain names of research labs?

texts:
I find most articles through EBSCO and similar search tools, then export the BibTeX details to my own bibliography.bib file. Recently, I found some BibTeX files with a strange author field, containing not just the name of a person, but also of a research lab or a college. E.g.:

  Author = {White, R. R. and West College Child Development Laboratory}

When compiled in APA format, it looks very odd:

  White, R. R. and Laboratory, W. C. C. D.

Are there situations in which it is correct to place such lab or school details directly in the author field? If not, where do I need to relocate this information to?


texts:
This question has asked previously for PhD in mathematics and computer science in this StackExchange forum. However, the situation will be completely different for Biology graduate because of the skills we learn during our PhD. Math and CS graduates have lot of open options (?) looking at their quantitative reasoning skills, which are not enough for biology. We learn lot of logic, reasoning and statistics, but is that enough to survive in a highly competitive world?. So I was wondering: is there any alternative career option for PhDs in biology?

P.S: There are few options I am already aware of, like teaching in school/university, quality control posts at various firms, R&D in pharmaceutical companies. I was wondering if there are any other options which are not very obvious from our skills.

Update (18 Sep 2015)

After reading comments and answers, Following more options have raised

Science communication
Librarian
NGO and firms for data analysis


texts: Authoritative source for the title of an article: print or online?

texts:
The web page for Nature volume 567 issue 7748 lists a comment called "Scientists rise up against statistical significance".  If you click on the link you get an online article with that title, and at the end there is a note saying "Nature 567, 305-307 (2019) doi: 10.1038/d41586-019-00857-9".  But the online article also has a link to a "PDF version" which appears to show the actual layout of pages 305 to 307 with the title "Retire statistical significance".

What is the correct citation for this paper? And why do publishers make our lives difficult?


texts: Research Assistant Professor vs Post-doc

texts: Recently, I have completed my PhD in Biomedical Engineering from a 25 - 30th ranked USA university and got  a Post-doc offer from a 9-12th ranked USA University.  To keep me, my PhD advisor offered me a non-tenured tracked Research assistant professor (RSP) position with 1.5 times of offered Post-doc salary. I will be funded through my advisor grant and need to conduct research related to the funded project. However, I will also have the independence to pursue my research interest and apply for external funding. I have a very good relationship with my PhD advisor and good publications in my PhD. Eventually, I want to get a tenure-tracked faculty position. What is best for me “stay in my current university as an RSP ” or “ get the post-doc position in the more reputed university”?


texts: What is the academic route to study Archaeology?

texts:
I am really fascinated by ancient civilizations and cultures.

I do not know what subjects one has to take up to study Archaeology (like what subjects in A Levels or High School) at an academic level?

I would just like to know in general but would appreciate any details about United States and India.


texts: How should I consider a possibly rude reply from a potential PhD advisor?

texts:
I am in my first semester of my applied math PhD program in the United States. The professor (potential PhD advisor) of the course I am auditing has replied to my question about the schedule for the final project:

I mentioned several times in the chat box in class. Did not you attend or did not you listen?

I had honestly not remembered that this was done and so it is my fault for not listening properly. However, I am interpreting this reply to be quite aggressive or rude. Should I no longer consider this person to possibly be my research advisor? How does one handle such a reply?

Thank you all for your advice and general comments. They have very much helped me.


texts: How do I get to know/work with academics during my master's degree?

texts:
I am in my first year of my master's degree in Europe, and within a year or so I'll have to be sending out applications for a PhD (always in Europe), for which I need 2 to 3 recommendation letters. This is a huge issue  for me because I pretty much don't know anyone inside academia.

Recommendation letters should be written from people inside academia who know you, which I suppose means they worked with you on something.  The only person I worked with was my bachelor's thesis advisor, but I changed institution for my master's degree so I'm not in contact with him anymore. I also need to complete a thesis (equivalent to a semester of full work) for my master's degree, so I will have another thesis advisor eventually, but by the time I can start working on my thesis I will already have to be sending out PhD applications. Is it possible to work with academics in other ways than writing a thesis? Or is it otherwise possible to have an academic know you to the point of being able of writing a reference letter, without necessarily having worked with you?

Anyway this is not just a matter of recommendation letters. I think that having people in academia know and recognize me would give me better chances in getting admitted to a good PhD program. Moreover, it's nice to have someone to ask for advice when you need it.

I think for people who are already into their PhD it's easier, since at least you're put inside a research group and have your own advisor. But as a master's degree student I don't feel like I have many opportunities to establish contact with academics.


texts: Is it correct protocol to be able to split a bibliography into more than a single column?

texts: I've been informed by my peers that a bibliography must always be presented in a single column i.e. each item spans the width of the page - even if the main body of the document is presented in more than a single column. Is this correct?


texts: Is it possible to request a scientific experiment from a laboratory?

texts: I have a scientific experiment that I need done to prove a theory of mine. Unfortunately I don't have the resources to perform said experiment like a fully functional laboratory such as Los Alamos National Laboratory would. Is it possible to request an experiment be done by a laboratory like LANL? Would this cost money?


texts: What to do after failing out of grad school?

texts:
So I'm technically a graduate student. My school allows people who are studying a certain subject apply to the graduate program early, so if you get in, you get to work on your master's at the same time as finishing your bachelor's degree. Anyway, I applied and got in. I am also only 20. So the plan was to graduate with both degrees by the time I was 22. Here's the thing though, I think I'm going to be academically dismissed. The rules are that you cannot a C in more than one class. I got a C in my last class and it looks like I'm going to get a C in this class too unless I somehow get a 98% on the final. Unlikely, but I guess anything is possible.

So my question is, what do I do if I fail out? I don't have my bachelor's yet. I'm only 20 and if I'm being completely honest, I don't think this is something that I want to do anymore. I'm just not passionate and my level of caring is so low. It's probably why my grades are so bad. I just don't care anymore. I just can't deal with the fact that I'm probably going to fail out.


texts: Do editors allow authors to respond to reviewers when a paper has been essentailly rejected?

texts:
I recently submitted a manuscript to a journal that focuses on short papers about software packages. One reviewer gave a very detailed (and helpful) critique of my software/paper with one major objection: another package already exists that has similar functionality. S/he mandated that I clarify what my package offers that the other package does not.

Unfortunately, I was not aware of the other software package when I started my project (which I'm pretty embarrassed about). On further inspection, I realize that this other package is far superior to my own in terms of functionality and performance. I've come to the conclusion that my project is not salvageable. This is disappointing but not soul crushing as it was a side project that is only tangential to my dissertation work. Frankly, I don't have time to improve my software to point of being a significant contribution, and I'd only do so for the sake of "getting a publication," which does not seem fruitful. Improvements wouldn't be immediately useful to me. and thus I don't have the motivation to submit a revision.

That said, I'd really like to submit a genuine word of thanks to the anonymous reviewer for their detailed critique of my paper/software. Through their comments and working through a revision I learned a lot (how to use Docker, sharing and recording terminal sessions through
asciinema/asciicast, general improvements to my writing, etc.) Do editors allow authors to respond to reviewers even if their manuscript is essentially rejected? It seems as though editors would generally disallow this since authors responding to a rejection may often want to say something nasty. Would it be best to email the editor directly with my request or respond through the submission system?


texts: Do most postdoc offers include travel funding?

texts:
My mathematics department (a research-oriented department at a non-top school in the United States) has recently made a postdoctoral offer to a strong candidate, and I very much hope the candidate comes.

I have learned that the offer doesn't include any money for travel. Since his eventual success on the job market would presumably depend on how widely his work is known (among other factors), I believe that he (and essentially any other postdoc) should travel extensively to conferences. At least, he should have the opportunity to do so.

Some conferences have funding for attendees, but many don't. Unfortunately, none of us have much grant money we could spare for this purpose, and in any case my feeling is that this should come from my university.

Is it typical that postdoctoral offers are made without any travel funding? And if yes, is it typical that candidates are able to successfully negotiate for some funding?


texts: I got a B- in my biology course this semester and the day I received this grade I checked my requirements for a specific course I want to take next year and it said the minimum requirement was a B-. However when I checked it again the grade is now a B. I am off by 1 point. Can I ask my professor to change my grade?


texts:
I'm a third year PhD student. I'm not getting much guidance from my adviser. We only meet once a month, and he keeps giving the same general advice. As a consequence of that, we have had to cancel one project since I have no motivation at all for that project.

Now having the new project, things are getting the same. I'm worried about my progress as some of my lab mates are about to graduate. What should I do? I realized my responsibility in driving the project by myself, but most of the time my idea are discarded. Recently when I showed my result, he claims that's garbage without any reasons. What should I do? I'm really thinking of dropping out if situation is not getting better.


texts: Approaches to finding potential collaborators and co-authors

texts:
Based on my recent question on simultaneous working papers strategy and relevant insights by Stephan Kolassa, I would like to solicit the community's thoughts, advice and best practices on the topic of finding potential collaborators and co-authors (especially from a beginner's perspective).

Initially, I thought that it is a rather simple question with a most likely and obvious answer to it is simply to intensively network, interact with relevant people and publicize your own ideas, thoughts and projects (in other words, build your academic "brand"). However, while the core idea is most likely to follow the above-mentioned common sense, on second thought, there might be much more to it, such as various important strategic and tactical considerations that I could have missed.


texts: How can I hire a professor to write a research paper?

texts: I'm part of a trade group that's looking to hire a professor to write a whitepaper on our industry. We plan to release and promote the study to help people understand our business. What's the best way to do that? Find a professor in our niche and reach out to them directly? Or do you go through the department chair or some other means? Are professors generally receptive to this sort of for-profit work? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


texts: Can I compare my research work with another work published many years ago?

texts:
In scientific research and publishing (as I have been told ), one should compare his work with previous published works. I am intended to compare my results (working on now in 2019) to another published in 2002(considered as a pioneer work) . Is this long time gap between these two research works acceptable in scientific community and journals ?
Have you ever published such a research paper ?

Note: The field I am talking about is computer science .


texts: I want to completely redo my thesis without repeating the research course. Has anyone had a similar experience?

texts:
I have completed all but one course (which is tied to the final three chapters of my thesis) for my M.Ed. My research was designed back when I was teaching and I designed an experiment for use in my own classroom. I had to postpone conducting my research (and graduating) because my family relocated and I had a baby. I now want to finish my Master's, but am unable to complete my research, and would like to choose another topic altogether.

I would like the be able to start from scratch, write the first three chapters of my paper outside of school, return for my last research course, take my comprehensive exams, and graduate. Does anyone have any experience with a similar situation? Of course, I realize that this is likely a school-specific question, however, are there any users that have had a similar experience?

I know there must someone who has had to change their research question at a similar point in their program of study; I would love to hear how your situation was resolved before I speak with my advisor about this. Thanks!


texts: What master's degree is recommended to study at a university for establishing a start-up?

texts:
I studied for 3 years computer science at a relatively good university, and at the same time I have several years of experience with broad and deep knowledge in many fields on the subject. I am a creative person and I am interested in expressing my Innovative ideas by setting up a start-up from scratch which will bring a technological solution to many companies in high-tech.
I wanted to ask in general what it is recommended to study for a master's degree so that I can bring the product that I can build independently through my knowledge of computer science and experience to a successful start-up company?


texts: PhD interview question: BSc dissertation/'thesis'

texts:
My BSc dissertation was basically a literature review of Sean Carroll lecture notes on general relativity.

I got a first in this, and was offered PhD interviews with the supervisors being aware of this so it must suffice. I'm unsure how you explain the motives and conclusion of such a piece of work. By doing a literature review I have pretty much, almost, produced my own set of lecture notes.

This is a common question in interviews that throws me.

Any advice?


texts: Start the PhD research before taking my masters?

texts: I was thinking about getting my masters in November 2015 or May 2016 (An 18 month masters) but I was wondering if its possible to start my PhD research from now, I have an idea of what my research would be and I think it will save me time when I actually apply for PhD, I understand that a lot of changes will come once i finish my masters and enroll for PhD, but the question is; is the research that ill start now would be acceptable and valid for my PhD?


texts:
All the outreach activities planned this year for my project have been cancelled due to COVID-19 disruptions.
These include Summer math camp for high school students and seminar in local high schools.
These are stated in my grant proposal, and thus I have a responsibility to carry these out one way or another.
An easy way out is to replace everything with their Zoom version.
In my opinion and experience, however, the usefulness of such alternatives will be very limited.
What other outreach activities should we consider now?


texts: How much does TA experience impact acceptance into PhD programs?

texts: Obviously being a teaching assistant as an undergrad or a masters student looks good, but how good does it look?  Is it merely a nice little bonus, or does extensive TA experience have a large impact on one's acceptance?


texts: What to do if my university does not offer any advanced math courses?

texts:
I am enrolled in a university close to my home in a bachelor of electrical engineering and a bachelor of data science. The university I am attending does not offer a lot of math courses. The only math courses they offer are first year calculus, discrete math, vector calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, abstract algebra, real and complex analysis. I am intending to do all these math courses as electives for my bachelor of data science (they are not core courses). My university does not offer any courses such as topology, analytic number theory, differential geometry, measure theory and other advanced math courses which undergraduate students in other universities have access to.

The only option I can think of is to transfer to a university where they offer the math courses I need but that requires me to travel about 6 hours each day (3 hours each way). Also, moving out is not an option since accommodation is expensive and I can not afford it. So that only leaves me with studying in my current university.

What options do I have to learn and do more advanced math courses?

I may be going to graduate school in math and I do not think that the math courses my university offers is suitable for graduate level math since other students have done a lot of advanced courses not available to me. What can I do to ensure
that I am a good candidate despite the fact that my institution does not offer any advanced math courses? Would self studying suffice? How can I then convince the graduate admission committee that I am ready for graduate level math courses?

I live in Australia and I like to do my graduate school in USA.


texts: How can I address a fail in course when applyin graduate schools?

texts:
I am applying for HCI/UX graduate programs in the US as an undergraduate student with a major in architecture in China.

However, I failed an Architectural Dynamics course in sophomore year because I need to finish an important internship in Disney Research, and I will retake it by graduation.

I have an overall GPA of 3.53/4.0 and scored 329(V 160 Q 169)+3.5 in GRE.

Considering the top graduate programs (in CMU, UW and GATECH) are rather demanding, how can I minimize the negative effect of the stigma on my transcript? Thanks!


texts: No students show up to class -- what should an instructor do?

texts:
Suppose an instructor shows up to teach a class and no students are present. Assuming that the instructor's institution has no formal policy on such matters, how should an instructor proceed in such a situation?

If it helps to narrow down the question a bit, assume that the enrollment is no larger than ~20 students or so.

I am in the US, but responses tailored for other physical locations are welcome, too.

The above question was inspired by the following related one: Is it okay for a professor to leave the classroom only 5 min past the class start if nobody has shown up?


texts: How detailed should PhD proposal component of a PhD application be?

texts:
Some of the PhD positions I'm applying for (all in Europe, mostly UK, Germany, and Switzerland), require a research proposal as a mandatory part of the application. I'm confused about what exactly they are asking for because the guidelines are quite vague.

I've seen this question and this one, but there are two things that are different in my case: First, the proposal for some of these programs is actually a mandatory requirement for the formal application (not for the first contact with the potential advisor), and second, unlike the former of those two questions, my field is mathematical and computational science, not Social Science (not sure if that makes a significant difference). I've also seen this question, but the question and the answers are not about how detailed the proposal should be.

My broader research interests, including a somewhat narrow area of interest for my PhD thesis (but not as narrow as a research topic), are already stated in both my statement letter (for formal application) and my contact with the potential advisor. That makes me think the proposal they expect to receive shouldn't be just my research interests, at least for those programs where, according to the guideline, it is recommended to cite related literature in my proposal. On the other hand, I really can't state a question that would be a suitable driving question for a PhD project on my own without enough help from a professor at this stage, and even if I could, I highly doubt that would be something my prospective advisor would want me to work on. So, it seems to me that writing a proper research proposal, without a substantial contribution from the advisor is impractical. (In fact, I can't even imagine how I could write about "the methodology" at this stage, considering finding the appropriate methodology in this field is often actually a very substantial part of the project.)

I'd appreciate if you could share your knowledge and experience about writing a PhD proposal as a part of the application. It would be very helpful to know what admission committees expect to see in a research proposal at the application stage, and how broad could the proposal be without turning into an SOP.


texts: Is it appropriate to "shop" through high-impact journals before sending the paper to more specialized journals?

texts:
I have recently finished writing my first paper for my PhD study. I believe I have made some discoveries, but by comparing my manuscript to previous work, I think the advance is not very big and the work should be published on specialized journal in my field.

However, my supervisor does not agree with me and he really wants to try publishing it on a high-impact journal. I have talked multiple times with him, listing the novelty and limitations of my study, as well as the journals that previous work mostly published on. But he put my suggested journals on the last positions of his list, saying that he hope my work should be read by more people. Other students in my lab told me that they have met similar scenarios before.

Up to now we have tried Nature Communications, eLife and Current Biology, all being rejected without full scale peer-review. The review editors in one journal point out some limitations in my study, and we addressed them before submitting again; the other two turned my manuscript down without pointing specific problems.

My questions are:

Is it appropriate to "shop" through high-impact journals (all getting desk rejections) before submitting to specialized journals, with modifications made if specific suggestions have been received?
How can I talk to my mentor to reduce publication time for my future papers?


texts: Viva voce question about another student "validating" my results

texts:
My PhD supervisor wanted me to talk about how my research was "validated" by another student in my Viva Voce, despite my results speaking for themselves. This part of my findings had not even been questioned by my examiners.

The student in question had never worked with me in any way. Nor have they published in a work I could cite - conference paper, article or even blog post. Or even private correspondence.

He claims it is common to "have worked with people in this way".

I don't understand why he would ask me to do this.

Ideas?

Post-script:

I am asking this question from the perspective of the exam administration.
Isn't it cause for concern to bring up a person who wasn't cited or acknowledged in the thesis during the Viva?


texts: I am going to teach a course, but the classes have already started with another professor. Any tips?

texts:
I am the assigned professor for a course, but won't be able to teach its first two or three weeks.

The University has appointed a substitute for those weeks. Any tips on things I could do to smooth the transition? Things I should be aware of?

Thank you!


texts: What are our main concerns regarding academic dishonesty in Massive Online Open Courses?

texts:
As illustrated by the recent NY Times article, Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) have recently gained a lot of attention because of their new model for educating students.

What are the main concerns regarding academic dishonesty in Massive Online Open Courses?  It appears to me that academic dishonesty may be difficult to police for an online course.  Is this correct?


texts: Applying for job while 3/4 done with MS program

texts:
I am currently a MS student finishing my last (2nd) year. I have just applied to a top company of my field in my city (perhaps the nation as well). I did a video, phone, and on-site interview. They understand that I have just 1 class left next semester, but also need to finish my thesis (which is maybe 25% done?). I have informed them that I can work a full 40hrs a week (I am actually currently working about 35 hrs on top of 2 classes, TAing, thesis work). I have received an offer to start in January that is generally quite high for a new MS grad in my field. To be honest, I am much more interested in the work I would be doing at this company.

Should I take the offer and start working while taking the class/work on thesis? Or don't take it ?


texts:
There was about 30 mins left of the exam, everything had been going well so far, I got nervous as there was 1 question I hadn't answered that was worth a few marks, so I made the irresponsible decision to check my phone, the moment I pulled it out is when I got caught, the TA took my student ID and allowed me to continue with the exam. With the guilt of knowing what I had just attempted to do, I submitted my paper instantly after my ID was taken.
I just received an email saying there will be a meeting. What should I expect? (Never done anything like this before)


texts: If I interview a professor, should I pay him or her?

texts: As part of my Toastmasters club, I am preparing a speech where I have to research a topic I am not familiar with. One suggestion is that I could interview an expert (e.g. a professor) in a field related to the topic I choose. If I do interview a professor, should I compensate the professor for his or her time? What's the protocol for this? Does the answer change depending on whether I use the interview for commercial gains or not?


texts: How to transition: leaving an EdD before completing to pursue a masters in another area

texts: I finished half of my comps for an EdD program that I really have no interest in finishing. I would actually like to pursue a second masters in a different area, but I have no idea how to do so, and it's a sticky situation to ask these questions of the university advisor. Basically, I want to move in a different direction with my career, and a second masters will bolster that rather than completing the EdD track I'm currently on. I basically have 12 more comps before I can even write dissertation anyway. Rather than pay tuition another semester for a degree I will not finish, I'm interested in how to transition and if I will run into any issues because I leave this current program with admission to another.


texts: How to evaluate a postdoc offer, if I'm not sure I'd be able to do the work?

texts:
I've been accepted for a postdoc position but after reading the research project I realised that I barely understand anything, so I'm not sure if I would be able to perform it.

Should I reject the position and inform the PI about it or start the postdoc and try asking other postdocs in the group to help me?


texts:
I had an interview at a European university. After half an hour in the interview, they told me, we are positive to give you this position. The position starts in February however, the earliest time I can be there is in March.

I would like to ask, is it possible to defer a Ph.D. position for a month or two in Europe?

In the description of this position, the start, and the end of the position along with monthly salary is clearly stated and the fund comes from a national energy utility.


texts: How to politely enquire how serious someone is when they say "work for me as a postdoc"

texts:
I am a PhD student that is about to graduate. Sometimes professors whom I know personally (and/or have collaborated with before) will say "Come work in my lab as a postdoc!".

However, when I approach them after a few days/weeks/months, they inform me they would like to hire me, but do not have any funding.

Personally I would rather they not have not said "Come work in my lab as a postdoc" if they weren't sure they would have the funding, but I understand their reasons for saying such things.

However, in future, how can I politely enquire how serious they are about how interested (and able) they are in hiring me?


texts: Journal paper plagiarism, use of same words

texts:
So, I came across this paper in my field (let's call it paper A) and there was a reference for an equation that they had borrowed from another paper (let's call this paper B). Everything well-cited and fine so far. While reading through paper B (the one that they referred to), I noticed that paper A had also copied over the conclusions!

Obviously, it is very common that 2 papers reach to the exact same conclusions, but shouldn't it have been rephrased somehow? I am talking about 3 bullet-points like: "Factor X is proven to be more significant than Y, where the results in tables 6,7 indicate method 1 describes interactions and square terms better than method 2".

Numbers and indices are different, but the words are EXACTLY the same. Is that allowed, am I just being paranoid?

=== Edit ===

To clarify, by "exact same conclusions" I meant to say that both papers study the effect of a set of independent variables on a response variable. Both follow the same methodology and conclude to something like "A affects the response variable Y the most. Using methodology Z proves that the experimental procedure is faster and more accurate than any other algorithm." and so on.

The conclusion is more sort of qualitative discussion of their results, more than quantifying "A affects the response 83%, whereas B only 4%". But this description of the quality of the methodology (which is not novel but well-known by the way) has been copied over word-by-word from paper A.

They have repeated the experimental procedure of paper A slightly modified (because of the different equipment used), so it is normal to report different numbers throughout the paper. My question is whether they should be allowed to use the exact same sentences in the conclusion to describe the very very similar results they came to.


texts: How to deal with inconsistencies in my last name spelling on official documents?

texts:
In my native language, my last name contains a letter, which can be transliterated into English in three different ways. Namely: ja, ya and ia. When I tried to transliterate my last name to English for the first time, I checked the results of several online translators, and they all transliterated  my last name to English with ya. I kinda liked that option as well and decided to stick with it.
After some time, I was issued my first passport, and it contained the other variant. I didn't want to drop my initial choice, because I liked it more and didn't want to rename all my Internet accounts either.
Yesterday, I had gone to a translator agency to translate my transcripts for the Master's program application and the translator asked me to write my last name exactly as in my foreign passport. I have realized that I have a lot of documents with the initial variant variant, which can't be reissued. For instance, all my award certificates and TOEFL results. Now I'm going to change everything I have to make consistency with my foreign passport, as it might cause problems with visa issuing.
I have two questions:

How I should cope with documents with the old last name option, which can't be reissued?

I think one way would be to add a footnote in my CV (which contains links to all certificates) which will notify the referees that I have written my last name previously in a different way.

Do you think that referees of Master's program admission might invalidate my TOEFL results because of this inconsistency?


texts:
I am struggling a lot these days while presenting in front of my supervisor. I make many mistakes, sometimes very stupid mistakes, and he is now saying, "You need to avoid these mistakes." I am not able to focus on theorems, lemmas, etc. but instead focus on things like how to avoid mistakes in front of him. Many times I feel nervous in front of him, sometimes sweating in front him due to nervousness. Although he tries to make me calm but also give strict feedback.

The one question that makes me worry is that he knows the things I am presenting in front of him, but he doesn't try to clarify things. To me it appears that he creates confusion in the proof that I try to present.

Question: Is my supervisor making things clearer or confusing?

On the comment of @Magicsowon I am going to add a detail here. When I discuss things with him he asks, "What is this?" Now the problem is there can be multiple definitions of the same term. Then I often assume the wrong one and do the proof. In the literature I follow, things are not defined in a good way so most of the time it happens that there is a confusion on concepts.


texts: Is there a standard medical fitness certificate format for applicants to European universities?

texts:
I am from Southeast Asia and am applying to a university in Europe for a scholarship for a post graduate degree in management. The university is asking for a medical fitness certificate as part of this application.

The problem is that the university doesn't provide any kind of format for the medical fitness certificate. When I visited my doctor; as I am applying to a foreign university he recommended some kind of format.

I emailed the university to ask about this, but they did not respond yet.

So my question is, is there any kind of internationally recognized medical certificate format for this purpose? (If so, please provide a link.) Or can I have a simple letter on my doctor's letterhead stating my fitness of health?


texts: Is it legally okay to photocopy solutions from a solutions manual when giving answers to students?

texts:
I am the TA for a class and we plan on assigning problems from a book. The professor also has the solutions manual for this book.

Would any legal problems arise if, instead of writing the solutions myself, I simply photocopied the relevant solutions from the manual and posted these on our private class webpage?


texts: Are citations in abstracts considered bad style?

texts:
I'd like to know your opinion on citations in abstracts.
At my university, there is no rule on that matter so it's basically a
question of preference.

Do you think it's okay to have citations in an abstract or do you
personally prefer to have the abstract be a ``stand-alone'' piece of
work?