texts: Use cases of org-mode as a scientific productivity tool for academics without programming needs

texts:
I am a social scientist working primarily on Linux, but also at times required to work on Windows systems at the University. I have been looking to improve my productivity in the academic workflow which primarily consist of:

Collecting literature, reference-management, review notes etc. (currently zotero)
Outlining, writing long documents (currently Lyx)
Task, time and project management (currently misplaced and lost pieces of paper)

I can imagine that these steps apply to most academics, and many will share my interest in developing a more productive workflow. In my research on potential solutions to this issue, I keep being drawn by org-mode as a potential swiss-knife solution that can take care of all these needs, and be my mainstay as a personal-information-manager, organiser and text editor. But being built on emacs, I find it forbidding. I also have no need to program anything, so learning emacs seems like major overkill for my needs.

Could academics who use org-mode or a similar solution for organising their workflow give examples of how they use it? Also helpful would be an evaluation of productivity improvements that such users have themselves experienced, and the kind of productivity improvements that can be expected with a basic academic workflow described above. I am interested in evaluating whether it pays off in terms of productivity improvements in the face of what appears to be a massive learning curve, especially as I don't need any programming tools?

I am aware that this might lead to subjective opinions, so I would request academics with a similar work profile to reply based on their personal experience regarding the learning curve, possible benefits, example cases and perhaps alternatives they have found superior (preferably also cross-platform and open source).


texts: I forgot to rename the school when applying my SOP to another school. How bad is this?

texts: I just realized that I referenced my desire to go to school A in a letter to school B (in fact, I did this by mistake for 2 schools!). Most unfortunately, I have already submitted the applications for these 2 schools so I can no longer change the letters. How damaging can this mistake be? The annoying thing is, I mention specific professors I want to work with from both schools, and these names are correct, but it's just the school name that was mixed up in the editing stages.


texts: When quoting books, ought pages be separated as they are on paper?

texts:
I agree with this user that reproducing page breaks make quotes less readable, but I prefer authenticity for whenever I cross-reference the book with the quote:

is my preference usual? Are there any famous academics who do this?
Or ought I ignore physical page breaks?
Is there a term for reproducing page breaks?
Is there a term for ignoring physical page breaks?


texts: How to correct the missing citation counts/citing References in the Google Scholar?

texts:
How could we correct the missing citation counts and the missing citing References in the Google Scholar suppose you have a Google Scholar profile?

For example, I find that other resources such as https://inspirehep.net/ and http://www.adsabs.harvard.edu/ that links to arXiv may have much precise and better citation counts for a few particular publications of mine, while the Google Scholar misses many citation counts/missing citing References.

I am a physicist, an engineer, and a natural scientist. But I don't mind to receive comments from experts working in other disciplines.


texts: Is asking for the syllabus as a student before class starts frowned upon?

texts:
Is asking for the syllabus before class frowned upon?
I usually ask because I'm trying to figure out what we're going to do and whether I have interest in the subject.


texts: Proving authorship when name in publications does not match name in passport

texts:
My full name on passport is Amir Hisham Ahmed Al-Attraqchi (first three names + surname). In my publication, I only used the first and the surname (i.e. Amir Al-Attraqchi). Is it going to be a problem proving the publications to be mine?

I'm worried about proving this when applying for new universities, promotions or fellowships


texts: In the United States, what is the difference between lower division and upper division in colleges and universities?


texts:
I want to digitally publish a document which includes mathematical equations – including symbols for integration, summation, etc.

This isn’t possible in MS Office or Notepad, which makes things difficult. Is anyone aware of software which would let me typeset math on a computer?


texts: I want to gain expertise in a specialized topic but not necessarily go on to research career, is a PhD the way to do this?

texts:
If I simply want to gain expertise in a very specialised area of scientific research that is in its infancy, and not necessarily go on to do further research, is a PhD the way to go?

Is a PhD solely a door to a career of research?

There is currently little known about the phenomenon I'm interested in and even less research, so there is no explicit education in the area.


texts: What is the dropout/switch major rate for engineering bachelor?

texts:
What is the average dropout and switch major rate for US 4 year engineering college for students entering bachelor's degree program after 2010?

It is pretty hard for me to find any good reference.


texts: CS conference paper rejected but recommended for conjunct workshop

texts:
Earlier this year my paper was rejected for conference A with 3 highly rejects, so I tried to revise it and then submitted it to conference B. This time I still got rejected with 1 weak accept and 2 rejects. However the program committee has just told me that my paper can be a candidate for one of the conjunct workshops and if I agree they will forward my paper to the workshop for review.

The thing is the deadline for conference A next year has just been extended so me and my advisor are considering resubmitting the paper to it. I have already been revising the paper before conference B contacted me. My first submission to conference A got really bad (but very helpful) reviews. This time the reviews are more positive as their main concern is only about experiments and evaluation that need to be more thorough. They hardly have problems with my design, which used to have a lot of flaws pointed out by the first review. So should I try the workshop with probably higher chance to get accepted, or should I bet my 2nd chance with conference A?  By the reviews I know that my paper is getting better, but since it’s already the 2nd rejection, I am not so confident that I can make it...


texts: Is promotion from staff scientist to professor possible? (Considering job offer in US)

texts:
I am a researcher making its way (very slowly) to professor in Europe. After several years of effort and relocations, I have now my own research program and have earned a promotion to supervise PhD students and postdocs. In around three years, I will be applying for full professor positions, hopefully.

Now, I have recently received an offer from a very famous professor in the US who wants to move in the direction of my research field. It is a permanent position as staff scientist (director) in their group with a close to decent salary. It is clear that with them things will move faster and the impact will be high.

I am ambitious and still want to lead my own group and succeed as a PI in the future (even if I have certain age now). If I accept this position in the US, will I be still be considered for promotions as professor in the American system? Thank you in advance!


texts: Should I mention that I am interested in developing bioinformatics tools in my SOP for a "Software Development/Engineering" Master's program?

texts: The program I am applying for is "Software Engineering/Development" master's program, I am really interested in this field of study, and I have already mentioned in my SOP that I wish to follow the studies up with a PhD and then want to have a career as a professional programmer. With all that being said, is there any need to give specific examples of what I can and want to potentially do when I become a programming expert? For example, developing bioinformatics tools really amazes me, should I mention that just as an example of what I would like to do during my career as a programmer?


texts: Adviser wants to be joint first author, even though I did most of the research

texts:
In my research, my adviser only gives minimal advice that is limited to the direction of the research and defining the problems.

I can say I do most of the thinking, the actual solutions of the problems.
Even at one time I needed to explain to my adviser how my algorithms work.

The only "effort" my adviser does is writing the actual paper, since I'm still a master's student and lack experience of writing. Moreover, I'm not a native speaker so I'm still trying to improve my English writing.

Well, that's the intro of my background. FYI, I'm a CS student and I'm aiming to publish a paper in a conference in ACM.

The actual problem is my adviser demands to be joint first author.

I asked the reason and the reply was it was needed to progress to associate professor, with my help, and eventually gain tenure.

I suspect that the supervisor feels  under risk to be kicked from the university. With 3-4 years as an Assistant Professor but doesn't really have good research output (only 1-2 small papers every year).

I reluctantly agreed to assist under these considerations:

1. We can be joint first author but my name should be written first. Initially wanted their name to be written first because alphabetically the last name comes first compared to my last name.
Then I did a "bargaining" by saying that I want to be researcher in the future and I need my name to be put first.
The discussion ended and I was allowed my name to be written first.

2. I need to graduate
In my university, advisers have total control to let students graduate.

With this post I want to ask you for more suggestions.

Edit 1:
Right now I want to play "safely" rather than being kicked out, but I feel I'm being treated a bit toady. Usually the adviser likes to scold other students.

Edit 2:
The advisor does indeed write the most part of the paper, but it doesn't mean that I didn't take any part in the writing. I tried to write an initial paper, from the introduction to technical part, writing equations, making figures, producing results, etc.
The advisor helped me to polish the grammar and made the sentences neater.

I forget to say one thing, I have another adviser. Let's say A2. The one I'm having dispute with is A1. A1's most significant  contribution is writing the paper. A2 helps me with the "big picture". Because A2 is more junior than A1, A2 only becomes co-author.

Also thanks for everyone who wrote answers and comments. All of you gave me a lot of new perspectives.


texts: How can I view the license information of preprints on the arXiv?

texts: I'm interested in learning more about different types of licenses that are used for preprints on the arXiv. Upon checking some random articles on the website, I could not find the licenses under which they're distributed. Are they listed somewhere in the arXiv entry itself, or do I have to consult the relevant authors to learn more about the license that belongs to the preprint?


texts: Is it possible for an applicant to be disadvantaged by negative comments sent via emails without his/her consent?

texts:
I saw some reports about how corrupt teaching staff in some colleges in some countries forces their students to comply with their unreasonable demands (e.g. to conceal a huge flaw in the teacher's research, or to stop speaking their own native language) by threatening to write negative emails and letters to disadvantaged their students' job or academic application.

Of course, such teaching staff will, hopefully, eventually get punished. (Note that we cannot always find evidence of their unethical behaviour, so some get away with it.) But even if they are punished, there is probably no means to stop them from making negative comments directly to the admission office or even one or two professors/employers who make the final decision.

What should students do to protect their own rights? Is it likely that some real damage will be caused by such malicious emails?

Some may complain that I should not ask this because it is not happening on myself - but the situation I describe is NOT hypothetical, and it might happen on anyone, so it is helpful to know how to tackle the situation.


texts: Is it advisable to drop out of a PhD and look for a new one?

texts:
I am someone with an undergraduate degree in physics and am currently a over a year into a PhD in maths. However I am not feeling happy for several reasons:

I told my supervisor right from the beginning that my interests were
in physics (and very specific areas of physics), yet I have spent a
year without doing any physics.
I have been studying a problem that     on the one hand seems
extremely difficult and on the other contains     no physics and
doesn't interest me, though I'm worried about souring our relationship if I tell him to his face that it doesn't interest me.
Part of what makes the problem so       difficult is that    my supervisor has
no clue how to solve the problem    and suggestions    he gives are
never useful. In my meetings my       supervisors often    says
things that are wrong and (combined with the lack of ideas on his end) it has somewhat       shaken my faith    in
him. On one occasion he got angry when I disagreed with him on something, even though I was right. I get a slight sense he resents me for this. Instead of being supervised by someone who seems knowledgeable I feel I am for all intents and purposes working on my own.
I am concerned that I have picked an area       that doesn't      interest me as much as I thought it did.

All of these things make me feel depressed and make me want to drop out and start again somewhere else, somewhere I can do research that interests me. I don't want to waste 4 years of my life simply out of a desire to "see it through." If I drop out and apply to another PhD program is the fact that you've already dropped out once damning?


texts: Effective ways of encouraging "weak" students to make use of office hours

texts:
I find that a not-so-insignificant number of my students could benefit from coming to talk with me during office hours about homework assignments, their exam preparations, etc., and I'm looking for ways to encourage them to do so. I am a big proponent of students being proactive, and figuring out on their own that they need to seek out help, but I am not seeing enough progress on this front and am, thus, looking for alternatives.

One of the main problems I am observing is that, on homework solutions, some students clearly don't know what they are doing, and coming to talk to me about how to proceed could potentially be very beneficial for them.

  Since good students already utilize office hours, when needed, what are some effective ways of getting the relatively weaker students to attend office hours?

One idea I am toying with at the moment is to make office hour interactions with me grade-able, and worth a certain percentage of the grade. As an example, consider the following:

Say a homework is assigned, student W is the "weaker" student, student S is the "stronger" student, the homework is worth 10 points, and the "interaction-with-me" component is worth some amount of points, say, 10.

Student S turns in a solution, which is correct/mostly correct [say, 85% or more correct]. In this case, student S would receive anywhere from 8.5 to 10 points on the homework grade and, since their score on the homework is greater than or equal to some threshold, say, 85%, they also score 10 points on the interaction component, whether or not they utilized office hours.

Now, consider student W: If student W utilizes office hours, and it seems like they are really trying to understand how to tackle the homework assignment, then this student would receive 10 points for the interaction component [student W's homework score, though, would reflect their performance on the homework]; else if student W does not utilize office hours, and they scored below some threshold on the homework [again, say, 85%], student W would then receive whatever they earned on the homework and zero points for the interaction component.

The above is just one idea I have at the moment. One thing I don't like about it is that it increases the documentation burden on my end. One possible solution to that would be to require students to document their office hour interactions with me on their solutions such that it would be a relatively quick check for me at grading time.


texts: I have agreed to do undergraduate research in a lab, but then I found another lab that seems more appealing. What are my obligations?

texts:
I am an undergraduate student in a European University (for privacy reasons, I will not reveal any personal information that may identify me).

I am interested in research, and a month ago - or so - I have contacted a Professor from Department "X" at my university, asking whether I could be integrated in any research group at the Department. The Professor set an appointment with me, showed me the installations, the labs, the material, ... I really liked Department "X", but their research is not what I was expecting. At Department "X", they work on the field that I like, but it's not what I was expecting: here's an analogy - I wanted to study snakes, but instead of actually studying the snakes' behaviour/their genes, at Department "X" they study the effect of external factors on snakes.

Still, because at my university I wasn't aware of anyone else studying snakes - or any other animal -, I said I was interested. I've been given a few articles to read, to catch up on the latest news about snakes, and also the methodology to study snakes. She (the Professor) is expecting me to work there soon.

The problem is that I have met a Professor, who works at Lab "Y". At Lab "Y", their research is top-level, probably one of the best labs in the country. During a talk with the Professor from Lab "Y", I mentioned my interest in animals, specially snakes, and the Professor told me about his job at Lab "Y". They do not specifically work with snakes, although they also do research on snakes sometimes. The research at this lab is much more specific and they have papers in the best journals in the field (unlike Department "X", which - although their research is not that bad - is much inferior to Lab "Y").

Now I am not sure what to do. I feel like I am obligated to work at Department "X" - after all, I have made a commitment with them. Furthermore, because it's a department from the university, it is close to me, I can go there in my free time easily, and I actually hope I will be able to teach a few classes about snakes if I stay with them. However, if I choose Lab "Y", I will be in another environment, where top-level research is made. On the other hand, the lab is around 1 hour (by public transports) from my house (it is not at the university).

For that reason, I would like to hear some advice from experienced academics like you.


texts: My professor is not teaching his online course himself, but uses publicly available videos instead. Is this appropriate?

texts:
I'm taking a graduate course online this semester, and have noticed a few things:

Professor has assigned us a mid-term, a final, and a research paper as the coursework for the class. These are the only grades we will receive this semester from this course.
Each week, he assigns us a chapter to read, and around 8-9 hours of videos that are supposed to serve as supplementary instruction.
The videos are publicly posted YouTube videos from the textbook author, Coursera, and other online courses.
He has not provided any of his own material for this course. No PowerPoints, no lectures, no notes, no study guide. Nothing of his own work.

At no point in the course description, or anything provided before registration did he indicate that the course would be structured like this.

Is it an issue that we're essentially taking an uncredited Coursera course for a grade and graduate credits?


texts: Is it plagiarism to copy from the textbook and referencing properly but not using quotation marks?

texts:
I have copied several paragraphs from our course textbook in my homework, however before starting the section which is from the textbook I have clearly stated that following sections are from textbook (name of book, author, chapter). But I did not put them in quotation marks.

Is that plagiarism?


texts: Proper notation to represent a set containing sequences of numbers for scientific papers?

texts:
I would like to include a set of numbers, which are composed of by multiple sequences, for example:

{1,2,3,4,5, at steps of 1 ... till 100, 200, 500, then 1000, 2000, at steps of 1000 .... till 10000}

Is there a proper way to represent this? I tried looking up some scheduling papers in OR/IEEE journals but have yet to find papers that include such notation explicitly.


texts: How to convince the faculty search committee to select/short list me at a place where my research interests are already actively being pursued at?

texts:
I am applying for a faculty position and thereby requires me to submit my research interests. The department I am applying already have two professors that have similar research interests to mine. The research topics demand a lot of collaboration and effort and people working in that area would know that an additional faculty could complement the work being done there. But for the faculty search committee not well-versed in the area, it may appear that an additional faculty is not necessary to do research in that area.

How can I tweak my research statement to convince the faculty search committee to short list me for interview? Any suggestions or advice.


texts: What is considered appropriate women's attire for a PhD interview in Germany?

texts: I have an interview for a PhD position (engineering) at a Central German University. I am not sure what to wear (formal wear for woman). Since certain countries are very particular about what you wear to an interview, I want to make sure that I don't look out of place. Any suggestion about formal wear for woman would be appreciated.


texts: Finding authors who published in a certain journal

texts:
I was told by faculty in my field that top journals A and B sort of have an arch-rivalry in the sense that people either choose to publish in A and not B, or the other way around, due to some huge schism in the past. (Keeping this slightly vague to not perfectly identify my field)
Naturally, I was interested to figure out who has ever bridged the gap between journals A and B and published papers there both. However, it seems like neither Scopus nor Web of Science offers any functionality that would help in my search - one can search for all documents that an author published, but not authors that have published in a journal (or in my case, multiple journals).
Are there any resources out there that would help me in my search, beyond doing web-crawling on the journal webpages and comparing them manually? I am intrigued to find out this answer, but I don't know if I am willing to commit that much time...


texts: Acceptance rates of submitted papers by country

texts: Is there any data source or statistic showing acceptance rate of submitted papers for publication by country?


texts: Reviewer recommending citation of certain papers of specific group of authors may be himself

texts:
Recently I had a challenge in responding to a reviewer (#2) for revising our work. The reviewer asked us to refer 16 papers in multiple parts of the paper. I decided to refer some of these references about 8 papers due to the not relevancy of the mentioned references from the reviewer to the question raised by the reviewer #2.

Now the reviewers commented on the revised version and three of them are accepted without any further comments and modification. But the reviewer #2 rejected the paper and said that the authors didn't consider my concerns and comments thoroughly and only partially answered to them.

I think that this reviewer objects to our work because of we didn't refer to all of 16 mentioned paper in his comments.

The editor asked from us to answer why we didn't answer the reviewer #2 comments and revise our work to answer them.

I have two scenarios in my mind:

State clearly the unprofessional work of the reviewer #2 to forcing us to mention many papers from a group of specific people with a similar author in all of them and weak relevance of the mentioned works to that comment.
Reanswer the comments of reviewer #2 and mention some of the wanted references

what should I do now?


texts: How can I address my career future with my current PI?

texts:
I'm currently midway through my first Postdoc gig, I got a 1 year contract and haven't heard a word from my PI concerning any possible extensions. I only have 6 more months left in my program, and I was wondering whether I should:

Ask him directly whether he is considering to extend my contract.
Start looking for other jobs without consulting with him first.

I know I'm under a grant that runs out shortly after December (my contract is due on February), and we might or might not have an extension for that. The answer should come around September's end, but I'm afraid it'll be too late to look for another postdoc then, I'm under a J1 visa in the USA, and I'm worried that the immigration process to extend it and the whole hiring process might take considerable longer than 5 months.

AS professors and more experienced professionals, what would you recommend to do, I'm also wondering whether asking him if I should look for another job might strain our relationship.


texts: My PhD went over time - advice for explaining this on a CV

texts:
It is a concern to me that I may look unattractive to potential employers because I went so far beyond the original budgeted time for my PhD (50% over time). I am currently searching for a job in industry, where there may be no understanding of the difficulties of my research and I expect to recieve no sympathy from prospective employers.

I feel that on my CV I must somehow find a way to hide that it took me so much time to finish my PhD. However I will not blatantly lie on my CV. Does anyone have any advice? Or any suggestions as to how I could explain this extra time on a CV? I hope I am not the only one to have ever been in this mess?

The time I studied for my PhD went to 6.5 years, which is far beyond the typical 4 years for PhD studies in Europe (I study in London). In growing desperation (for applications to jobs based in Europe) I consider replacing the first two years of my PhD with a job, possibly titled "research assistant" or something similiar, and placing it under employment history. On the CV it would then appear my PhD took 4.5 years, a more typical length. Any thoughts on doing this? Is it correct that in the United States and Canada that 6.5 years is close to the typical length (or time required) for a PhD and therefore I would not be discriminated against?

Any advice and suggestions are appreciated.

PS it genuinely took 6.5 years to finish this PhD, it was impossible to finish in 4 years.


texts: How are suitable epigraphs in books found?

texts:
Sometimes we see some scientific books (for example in the fields of computer science, game theory, ...) start their chapters (mostly the first chapter) with epigraphs from famous people, movies, an important event like famous conferences....
How the writers find these sentences? Since they are more or less related to the subject of the book's (or chapter) discussion, it seems that they can't be found accidentally by watching a movie during the writing process, or just the nice sentences be gathered during the time.
Is it practically possible to search on the internet for a suitable quote just at the time of preparing that specific writing/book/presentation? What should be searched for? Could anyone please give me some practical directions?


texts: What to write in "outline of research program"

texts:
I am applying for a scholarship to support my final stages of PhD. One document required by the scholarship grant committee requires me to provide "Outline of the research program".

What should I write in this document? Note that I am almost done with my research and now I am almost finishing my thesis as well.


texts: How can I get involved with applying my expertise in a specific subject?

texts:
I have recently obtained my MS in data science, and am interested in applying it in a few specific fields - urogynecology, microbiome research, and others. I'm still connected to my university as a research fellow but the research options are limited there. How can I find people to work with, and what are the possible scenarios with which I can work with them (i.e. volunteer, employed at a university, employed at a research company, etc)? How do I contact them as well? I feel I have motivation, expertise and a specific purpose but not sure how to connect with the right organization.
Thanks for your help


texts: I signed up to present at a conference and didn't tell my advisor about it. How to handle this now?

texts:
I have a little bit of the dilemma here... A month ago, I signed up for a conference talk and I got accepted to present there... However , I actually found out about that conference and decided on my own to give a talk... I did not tell my advisor about it. At that moment, I did not think much. And part of me forgot about it since I was so busy with everything else.

Now, thinking back, it occurs to me that I might have done something stupid. From what I know , most PhD students go to and give talk at conferences because their advisors tell them to go... So I am not sure if I did the right or the wrong thing not asking my advisor before applying to go...

So I know that I now should tell my advisor about the conference. However, I am not sure how I should explain about that fact that I didn't ask before applying ... Is it common for graduate students to let the advisors know before applying for a conference ? Seems like it is a common thing at my institute.

Or should I just back out from the conference? I don't think it is smart if I back out since it will hurt the reputation.

Please give me some insights about this. Thanks a lot.


texts: Is re-taking a course seen negatively in PhD applications?

texts:
I am re-taking a course I was registered to during a somewhat rocky exchange semester. I was too far behind on the assignments to get a good grade, and chose to wait and re-register now, two years later, after having graduated.
The subject is quite central to my field, and it is one of the hardest and most useful courses I have taken during my studies.
Assuming that I get the good grade I am aiming for this time, will this delay in passing the course be seen negatively in a PhD application, since the committee will think I have had much longer to learn the material, and presumably failed to get a good grade the first time?


texts: Word limit for paper after addressing reviewer's comments

texts:
After submitting a paper, receiving comments back from reviewers and revising, the paper manuscript may be longer than the given word limit due to the additional content added (even if it was at or below the word limit in the original submission). For the sake of argument, say the revised paper is 10% or 20% longer than the word limit.

Shortening the paper without loosing any information may be difficult. Moving some paragraphs into the Supplements may be possible, but may make it more difficult to find relevant information or be aesthetically displeasing, such as writing "Additional discussions can be found in the Supplements." in the middle of the text.

Are there any guidelines on how willing journals might be to accept papers above the word limit after revisions? Is word length still strictly enforced or is this mainly checked upon initial submission? Would simply submitting and hoping for a quick response from the editor (in case this is unacceptable) be a good strategy? Or is this a bad idea since either it highly unlikely to be acceptable or has a risk of annoying the editor? Do you have any experience with this issue either from an author's or an editor's point of view?


texts: Inclusion of a non-contributor co-author

texts:
On the last day before the submission of our paper, a Ph.D. student in my group got her name added on the paper. She did not do anything but reformulate a sentence in our manuscript. I replied to that decision saying that I was surprised to see her name on our paper.

And now I feel horrible. I did not talk to other colleagues in the same lab about this, because of I afraid I might blame her. However, when I came back to work, other colleagues (even the one who is not related) came and asked me why I was sad about that. I then understood that I made her hurt a lot by being surprised at the decision and that she had to talk to our colleagues to clear her image.

She said that she didn't take anything away from me as I am still the first author, that she couldn't care less about the paper and that I made her a wrong person. She could not understand why I took such an importance on the coauthorship.

I do not know why I was that sad about it, or why did I value my works that much. I was too egocentric and egoistic, but even until now, I could not make my feelings of unfairness go away. I do not know why I am that sad. Maybe it was because I did a lot experimentally and numerically I felt entitled. I do not even know, and I was just really sad.

I always say I want to help her with the experiment and works and everything as I am finishing my Ph.D., but I do not understand why I couldn't be happy helping her by having her name on my paper.

My feelings are really weird. I felt so wrong on something that shouldn't be a big deal. I only cause hurt to people, everywhere I go. I want to disappear.

In general, my existence in the scientific workplace is wrong. The boys always say that I was not normal and that I have sexuality's problems because I refuse to date them and remain single. The girls always say that I was slutty because my classmates and co-workers are mostly male. But other people did not have such problems to blend in and did not cause so much pain to others. Because of me, people do things they do not usually do, such as sexually harassing me or verbally abusing me. Maybe it was the way I dress, or the way I talk, or the way I work. I made others unhappy. I only victimize myself while I was probably the main reason for every sadness.

People were so happy without me, and I have to come to disturb everyone. I can not be an egoist and remain. Why can I not die, is it because I am a hostage of life? I'm still chained to my family. But I hate myself so much. Why am I like this?

I just want to vent, I guess. I am sorry for saying all of this nonsense, because, the problem was just me


texts: Expressing concerns about an individual starting in a faculty position

texts:
This is a question that does not quite fit the bill on any particular SE forum but Academia SE comes the closest in my opinion. I will use non-binary they/them pronouns to retain some amount of anonymity.
Some background will be important: I have lived with my current roommate -- a grad student at my university in the US -- for two years, in this time I have come to know them in a way I really wish I hadn't. This person is extremely manipulative, a compulsive liar and used me and my friend for an embarrassingly long amount of time before we realized what was going on. This has not been limited to personal favors but also professional ones where this person would get editing feedback on their extremely long papers with nothing in return, not do the reading and then ask for summaries that they would then use during class discussion without attribution. This is a person who openly flouts page limits, writes in a needlessly convoluted sentences and has shown repeated patterns of not respecting other people's time. Professionally, I think this person is a total hack who uses trauma of marginalized groups to progress their own academic agenda.
Now, I suspect that this person likely has narcissistic personality disorder but I am in no way an expert. They are usually very polite and cordial to other people they do not know very well and generally have a good image in the department -- except that they often do not respect other people's time but people think it as a quirk.
My concern is that this person will soon be assuming a position wherein they will be teaching and advising students (in a different program than mine). I do not know where they draw a line regarding abuse so it's hard for me to judge whether this is something that they might do to their students. Still, is there a way for me to warn someone about this individual?
I am also afraid that if I do make complaint I will be ostracized. I have, with my own eyes observed departments side with abusers because everyone knows them to be "good guys" and I wonder if I should just let things play out and hope other people catch on eventually.
Update: Seeing your abuser succeed in their professional lives without suffering any consequence while your work suffers because of the trauma, that just doesn't seem fair. I maintain that this person is unfit to teach by their history of disregard for rules -- including syllabi, contracts and so forth. In any case, it is perhaps time I sought helped and moved on with my life.


texts: Does having external funding raise your chances of getting accepted ? ( Masters )

texts:
My UG university have awarded me a scholarship for master's degree ( I'm an international student ) the scholarship pays for all expenses of the master's degree for the whole duration of the study.

I would like to know if this raises my chances to get accepted for a masters program ? Does being a "risk free" student gives me more leeway?


texts: Is it always bad if you continue to publish with your PhD advisor? What about the small country vs. big country bias?

texts:
Is it any biased view from a viewpoint of a big country, where you have many chances to change laboratories/universities/working groups, vs. a small one?

Suppose you are from a small country when there is only one laboratory in your field and you want to stay in that country due to family reasons. Then you probably have these options:

stay there and get published with your supervisor;
move to another country for some years and come back (and you will
end up with your supervisor);
move to related field and you will probably end up with    some sort
of collaboration with your supervisor anyway.

Are these options considered "weak" from an academic's perspective?


texts:
So I am gradute student in theoretical computer science.

Throughout my education path up to highschool, I have all been praised a big lot by my teachers, some of them even went to such lengths as to say I was the most intelligent student they have ever taught. By dint of all that, I took it for granted that I must be cleverer than average and before I noticed, I might have gotten on a very high horse.

Then I got into college, and things started getting harder. The higher the horse, the bigger and harder the fall. So my grades stopped being close to full score, but not bad at all. Until I decided that I wanted to do a PhD later, and for that, I have to get very good marks and hope to get a scholarship.

Ever since, at the dawn of every test/exam, as opposed to the relaxed and cool mindset I'd be in before, I get very, very, VERY anxious and very flustered, either out of fear that I run out of time (because of a lived experience), or of not having the answer. That anxiousness would get lifted immeditely when time is up, and on my way back home, all answers or most of them, would start flowing in my head.

Only this morning, I had a test which I failed like never before. I quickly glossed over problems one by one in order, my mind would go blank for a few seconds, then I would deciddeto move on to the next problem and that it is no use wasting time on this one (because I wasn"'t going to find a solution), and that for every exercise. It is for a reason I say I failed today's like never before because I literally could do nothing; my mind was paralyzed and started weating and how I was going to not get to what I want to (PhD). But as soon as I got home and sat down for a few minutes, I solved prefectly 5 problems out 7  in 30 minutes (the test was to do within 90 minutes).

I was one of the most confident people in themselves before, but now I lost every bit of that confidence and wouldn't stop thinking I'm too dumb to make it. I have been struggling with this for two years now, and after today's huge blow, I decided to take to the internet and this board in order to try and find a solution. Chances are Academia is not the right board to ask this question in, but it must be the closest to that out of all other SE boards.

What can I do about my test taking so that my scores are more reflective of my natural ability?


texts: How to add a paper to google scholar as "to appear"?

texts:
I had a paper in an IEEE conference which will appear in the proceedings. But the proceedings is not out yet.
Meanwhile, I would like to cite mentioned paper in another paper.
How do I do it? I want it to be added as "to appear in ..."
Can I add the article manually to google scholar?
If I do so, what happens if the proceedings out eventually? Will it be merged automatically?
I have read this Submitting conference paper to Google Scholar when proceedings not available but this doesn't solve my problem. Because of copy right I can not publish the pdf in preprint, research gate, etc.


texts: Changing the typeface from the official style in a conference paper

texts:
I'm a big fan of the Euler typeface for mathematical typesetting, especially compared with the standard Latin Modern. I feel somewhat justified in changing to Euler for a paper, but Euler doesn't usually look very good with the default body text typeface.

It's a small thing to change that as well (\usepackage{charter}, for instance), but at that point you're really messing with the official style supplied by the conference.

On the other hand, some conferences also allow submissions from Word documents, so the visual unity is unlikely to be maintained anyway.

So, two questions:

How unusual and frowned-upon is it to change the math typeface?
How unusual and frowned-upon is it to also change the body text typeface?


texts:
What are the key components of a progress report? There are no official guidelines from the funding agency; all I have is a set of project objectives listed in the original proposal and a target length: three pages.

I am at the stage of putting together a draft for the PI, and I would like to due my due-diligence (get some basic guidelines here) before asking the PI for further input.

Here are some of my questions:

What sections should it include?
Are there any essential "key concepts" to include?
Is it acceptable to cut and paste from the proposal?
Should I include figures and graphs from unpublished findings?
How would the writing style compare / contrast to a proposal? To a research paper?

Finally, is there a good resource that provides a comprehensive (if brief) overview of writing progress reports? I have a few books on scientific writing, but none specifically adress progress reports.


texts: Where do researchers get the money to replicate others' work?

texts:
I'd like to follow up on my previous question. If scientists have to replicate and validate/refute their peers' research, where do the "provers" find funding?

In my 2 years as an undergrad at a public American university, I've heard of a lot of professors researching new things and/or trying to find funding to research new things, but I've never heard of a professor dedicating resources to replicate his/her peer's work.

As I explore existing literature for my research project, I see that I could have used existing literature to guide the experiments I did for my project. Along the way, I could have replicated + validated* the existing "new" methods before trying my new method. Is this how researchers usually review their peers?

That is, professor X gets a grant to explore field A. Professor Y comes up with model 1 for field A. Using his own funding, Professor X designs and conducts an experiment to replicate model 1 before testing his own model, model 2.

Note: I assume my question depends on the field of study since a computer scientist can more easily verify a model + experiment than a chemist.

*Is there a better verb or phrase for replicate + validate/refute? Or does validation imply replication?


texts:
I am an Computer Science undergraduate student and I am looking for my potential mentor for my PhD study. I guess besides research interest, personality etc., h-index is an important factor one should consider. So I wonder whether there is a way to find out about the precise h-index of an arbitral author.

I've been using Microsoft Academic Search. It's cool, it often finds the right person and gives you his/her h-index. However, I believe that this tool has underestimated the h-index of many researchers. (I think so because I've tried typing in some very famous professors' names and the h-index that Microsoft gives is about 10~20 lower than the actually value).

Moreover, since I am mostly interested in Human-Computer Interaction so I am also referring to ACM SIGCHI's Most Frequent Authors Page. The page is awesome: it gives you the most brilliant professors ranked by their number of publications. However, I think h-index is a better metric than the number of publications alone.

I could, of course, go to the professors' websites and read their publication list. But I want to know whether there is a better, more efficient way of finding h-index.


texts:
I plan on leaving my current postdoc at the end of the first year to go to industry. My question is two fold:

Is 3 months a good length of notice to give?

When should I begin applying for positions in industry?

With regards to the first, there are already plenty of answers saying the more the notice the better, however I do not want to give too much in case I am replaced before the end of the year.
I would ideally like to begin a post in industry (computer science) at the beginning of 2020. It may be too early to begin applying now but I'm not sure about the interview timeline etc.

Thanks in advance.


texts: Copyright policy of conference and sharing of article in public archive

texts: I have few articles published in IEEE conference as well in IEEE Sponsored conference proceedings. I want to share my work on public library such as arxiv. The IEEE copy right policy states that  "The policy reaffirms the principle that authors are free to post their own version of their IEEE periodical or conference articles on their personal Web sites, those of their employers, or their funding agencies for the purpose of meeting public availability requirements prescribed by their funding agencies. Authors may post their version of an article as accepted for publication in an IEEE periodical or conference proceedings. Posting of the final PDF, as published by IEEE Xplore®, continues to be prohibited, except for open-access journal articles supported by payment of an article processing charge (APC), whose authors may freely post the final version". I have three questions:1-The same IEEE policy is applicable to IEEE sponsored conferences or they have their own copy right policy? 2-Few conference papers were accepted in first round of review and published as I have submitted without any modification. In such case what is my version and what is the publisher version?3-What if a conference discontinued and their webpage is no longer available only the proceedings are available on IEEE Xplore®. What kind of copy right policy is applicable to such conference?


texts: Is it okay to upload slides based on others papers?

texts: In some seminar classes, one student presents a paper selected from top conferences or journals with the help of slides. Usually, there is a lot of discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of the papers. The plots or figures are usually not prepared from scratch for the slides, but are copied from the paper by taking screenshots. But is it legal or even ethical to publish these slides online?


texts: Are editorial management systems helpful to journal editors?

texts:
In this amusing blog post, Scott Aaronson explains why he is unwilling to deal with editorial management systems as a referee. They make you log in to some complicated system, using a password you've probably forgotten, all to provide your expertise for free. They often don't give you the sense that you are corresponding with an actual human.

And they can go hilariously wrong. In March of this year (2017) I was informed that I was supposed to have finished a referee report by May 15, 2017, that my report was therefore "-51 days late", and that I should therefore finish it as soon as possible.

From my perspective simple e-mail correspondence works better as a referee. (Many math journals make do without these systems.) However, I have never been a journal editor, and so I wonder if I am missing the point. Do editors genuinely find these systems to be more convenient for managing their workloads? Or alternatively is it publishers that prefer to use them, and thus ask the editors to go along with them?


texts: Does adding "All rights reserved" have no legal usefulness?

texts:
My University requires students to add the mention "All rights reserved." on their thesis. The full required copyright notice is "© 2008 Jane Doe. All rights reserved."

However, I have read in a couple of places that the mention "All rights reserved" has no legal significance:

http://www.iusmentis.com/copyright/allrightsreserved/ :

  The phrase was a required element in the 1910 Buenos Aires Copyright
  Convention. This was a treaty between the United States and most South
  and Middle American countries. Article 3 of this Convention states:

  The acknowledgement of a copyright obtained in one State, in conformity with its laws, shall produce its effects of full right, in
  all the other States, without the necessity of complying with any
  other formality, provided always there shall appear in the work a
  statement that indicates the reservation of the property right.

  Adding the phrase "All rights reserved" was enough to comply with this
  article.

  The phrase "All rights reserved" indicates that the copyright holder
  does not want to give up any of the exclusive rights he has under
  copyright law. This is only relevant for members of the Buenos Aires
  Copyright Convention.

  Today all members of the Buenos Aires Copyright Convention are also
  member of the Berne Convention. The Berne Convention states that
  unless explicitly stated otherwise, all rights are reserved. Further,
  a copyright law may not require any formalities as a condition for
  copyright protection. Therefore "All rights reserved" has no legal
  significance anymore.

Wikipedia echoes the same information:

  The requirement to add the "all rights reserved" notice became
  essentially obsolete on August 23, 2000 when Nicaragua became the
  final member of the Buenos Aires Convention to also become a signatory
  to the Berne Convention. As of that date, every country that was a
  member of the Buenos Aires Convention (which is the only copyright
  treaty requiring this notice to be used) was also a member of Berne,
  which requires protection be granted without any formality of notice
  of copyright.

Is adding "All rights reserved" only a legally insignificant reminder to the reader that author is by default the copyright holder of the piece of work and that he did not give up any of the exclusive rights he has under copyright law? Has the mention "All rights reserved" turned to be useful in the jurisprudence since its legal obsolescence?


texts: What exactly is a theoretical/conceptual framework? How can I write one?

texts:
First and foremost, this is my first time writing a research paper (still a research proposal in this case). We we're required to write a research proposal in school. My research problem was about the "Daily academic life of physically disabled individuals".

I was thinking on looking for theory related to individuals in the society being unique and therefore treated as an outcast or whatever. Bu I have really got a hard time looking so I thought I could ask for some help here.

So I could really use some help regarding as to what do I put in my theoretical/conceptual framework, In fact I don't understand what it means much. Any help is appreciated. Thank you.


texts: Supervisor's behaviour changed after I decided to move to industry

texts:
As any other late-stage PhD student, I am applying for jobs. But I noticed that my supervisor's behaviour changed a bit after she heard that I want to go to industry, although she has been a great admirer of my work and encouraging me to pursue my academic work. I was wondering if I should be concerned about this or just let it go?

The story: I applied for a few academic positions and my applications were not successful. So, I decided to apply for some non-academic jobs in the industry. Fortunately, my applications received good attention in the industry and I was invited to a few interviews. Particularly, one of the companies responded very quickly. They have even called my references immediately after interviews. I felt that my supervisor's behaviour has changed ever since I told her about this. She saw me on the campus and coldly told me: "I just answered a phone call for you.".

Meanwhile, I received two interview invitations in academic positions, and the interviews went quite well. But the areas are not much relevant to my previous research, so, I am a bit hesitant about them (although they are really excellent positions). Besides, the industry offer is much more generous from the financial aspect.

I was wondering if I should be concerned about my supervisor's behaviour or it is a normal thing? Have I done something wrong?


texts: Is it okay to suggest a Professor Emeritus as a mentor when applying for US mathematics postdocs?

texts: Consider a typical mathematics postdoctoral position in the US that is assessed at departmental level and open to applicants from all research areas. Suppose that applicants are required to indicate one faculty member whose research areas overlap with those of the applicant. What would be the effect on the candidate's standing, if any, upon suggesting a Professor Emeritus particularly if the professor has the best fit concerning research interests compared to existing faculty members?


texts: Is it correct protocol to thank your committee members in a PhD dissertation?

texts:
My question is: I would like to thank the committee members of my PhD dissertation explicitly thanking them for their time and effort and writing down their names Prof. Name1, Prof. Name2, etc...

This is of course before the formal defence after they found the dissertation worthy of being defended.

I am a bit concerned about whether it is correct, or impolite or not, or protocol wrong... if you know what I mean.

Any advice, opinion, suggestion that could help me?

P.S. The thesis is about mathematics, if it may help.


texts: Is age a factor when applying for federally-funded pre-doctoral fellowships (such as NIH's F-31 grant)?

texts:
I have seen a number of postings along the lines of "Am I too old for tenure track?". While the consensus was "no," I am suspicious of the meritocracy holding for F grants. These are training grants designed to develop the next generation not scientists. Someone who is applying for an F31 at 40 has less runway than  a person who is 22 or 23. Does this aspect get baked onto your scores on some fashion?

Is there an unwritten rule? What's the oldest F31 recipient you are aware of?


texts: Does one need a master's in math before taking a PhD in math in Europe?

texts:
This question is a variation of my earlier questions.

Okay so in the US, I guess one does not need a master's in math before pursuing a PhD in math since the US apparently usually assumes only a bachelor's.

What about in Europe? Technically, my master's is in mathematical finance not mathematics. So I didn't have research experience in looking through (pure) math books or articles in order to try to prove something theoretical or anything like that except for a few problem sets.

On an answer to one of my previous questions, user deviantfan commented that:

"In many european countries, it´s not even allowed/possible to skip the master degree."

Perhaps my question may be rephrased:

  Is the master's in X PhD requirement in Europe satisfied by a
  master's in Applied X rather than Pure X?


texts: How to connect with those distant senior colleagues who are in their last PhD year?

texts:
I have some senior colleagues in their final year of PhD. busy most of their time and in quite stress (as much any last year PhD student). we share a lot of history together. and also have some sort of common academic fields interests. It has been a really long time since we got together.

I am interested in partnering with them doing some projects together. What is the proper way of connecting to them ? what the best way of explaining what i would like to do with them. I am afraid that an extra profession email would be silly but also a too friendly one would be understood as unserious.

If i happen to talk to them what kind of topics that should not be brought up? for a PhD student in his last year of program.


texts: How can I search for currently trending, new scientific articles?

texts:
I often find myself wanting to find brand-new scientific articles within certain search parameters (e.g., words in the title, journal, etc.) that are currently "trending" in scholarly or public attention. As far as I know, standard academic search engines that allow the use of such search parameters offer only metrics such as citation counts, whereas I am interested in something more immediate like Altmetrics. Searching sites like Twitter or Google News better captures instantaneous public attention, but allows only the most rudimentary of searches.

I found ScienceOpen, but it seems to have an extremely limited set of journal articles.

What's the closest thing to a Google Scholar-Altmetrics lovechild?


texts: What can I do to maximize my chances of getting into a CS PhD program if I switched to a CS major during my junior year?

texts:
I was a business student for my first two years of undergrad but then switched to computer science. I took classes over the summer before my junior year at another school. During my junior year (which I am in now) I am/have taken 7 CS/upper level math courses. During the summer I am doing research and taking non-cs/(core classes for my undergrad curriculum) so that I can take only CS classes senior year. Fall semester of senior year I plan on doing an undergraduate thesis class and take two grad classes, along with another course.

How bad is it for my application if I only have my junior year and first semester of senior year for the admissions committee to review.

I have pretty good grades in my cs/math classes post sophomore year (A's/A-). I plan on having two good recs at least. My main concern is the lack of semesters for the admissions committee to judge me on.


texts: Colleagues don't congratulate me or cheer me on when I do good work

texts:
When colleagues that don't co-author with me and are in separate projects, writing different papers, I've noticed they don't congratulate me, when I give them exciting progress.  They're around for the gossip, and are always willing to listen to gossip or bad news.  But when I have exciting news to report, e.g. a new paper, they are silent.
I do try to cheer my colleagues on, but I realize I cannot force them to do the same.
How could I deal with this mentally?


texts: Awarding additional points to prevent too many students from failing course

texts:
Is it acceptable, if too many students in the class would fail otherwise, to award additional points across the board (in the one class, in one semester)?
Would it require approval of the Division Dean? How could this be justified?


texts: Idea stolen from proposal. What are my options?

texts:
Here is what happened:

I suggested collaborating with some group and sent them a proposal for a grant application (in 2011) - and I had not seen the proposed idea anywhere before then.
they were not interested in the project.
now I figure out that 3 years later they published a paper with an extremely similar design.

Besides going nuclear (e.g., sending a letter to the editor claiming an authorship issue), what are my options assuming that I don't need to work with them anymore and that there is no way they affect my reputation?


texts: Should I withdraw my paper because the editor is delaying the report?

texts:
I am clearly disheartened by the editor's behaviour:

I sent a manuscript for peer review nearly three months back to an Elsevier journal with impact factor 0.625 in mathematics.

I inquired about the status of my manuscript after 1.5 months since it was still showing "With Editor " status.

The editor said review process is on and a decision can be obtained after 1 month.

After 1 month I again inquired about its status, to which the editor said that the report can be obtained in a few days.

But, since then, nearly 3 weeks have passed, but I did not get the report.
I have mailed the editor 2 times and the associate editor 1 time but no one replied.

The status is still showing With Editor.

Why is the editor behaving this way with me? I am waiting anxiously for my report as it matters a lot to me.

Are they avoiding my mails intentionally by not replying?

What is their aim? Do they want me to withdraw my paper? Should I withdraw my paper because the editor is behaving so badly with me?

NOTE: Also, if the editor is busy, why is the associate editor not replying?

My question is not a duplicate of submission review is taking too long because I never asked why my review process is taking long.

My question was

  If the Editor said that I will get a report in a few days , why did he not keep his/her word and now when I am sending him mails, why is he/she not responding?

The two questions are clearly different as far as my knowledge goes.


texts: Does it look bad to have a PhD thesis unrelated to the rest of future research?

texts:
The short version of my question is: will it be perceived negatively to have a PhD thesis unrelated to the rest of my future research or work?

For more context, I currently hold a bachelor's degree in computer science, and am working in my first full-time job as a software developer. I have a unique opportunity to pursue a PhD as part of my day job, with little change to my economic/living situation. I already planned to do a PhD in computer science in the near future, so this works well for me. The downside is that while the project I would be working on for my thesis is exciting and interesting, it is not what I would have picked for myself or an area I foresee wanting to work in long term.

I am not worried about lacking the motivation to finish the thesis, or the opportunity cost of not starting directly researching the area I am interested in. What I am trying to get a feel for are any unexpected roadblocks I might hit in the future for picking a PhD topic more for convenience than passion.


texts: How to insert LaTeX in abstracts for AMS sectional meetings

texts: So here is my silly question. How would you type in LaTeX codes when submitting your abstract of your talk at a AMS meetings? I tried something like $Bla \leq Bla$ but it was not able to compile it.


texts: Do I need to ask a permission to acknowledge a respected mathematician in my paper?

texts:
After writing the first draft of my paper, I sent the proof to an expert in my area. He responded my email in a neutral way, something like: I think if your argument is true then it would be nice,... I suggest you may read the paper ... to ...

Now, I would like to acknowledge him in my paper, sth. like: "I would like to thank Professor A for his comments". In my opinion, I should do this to show my gratitude. Besides, this also makes my paper somehow more concrete and professional, I think so.

My question: Do I need to ask Professor A the permission to acknowledge him? Or I just acknowlegde him without asking?

Thanks.


texts: Potential downside of joining a rapidly growing department

texts:
I'm considering joining an engineering department as a graduate student at a US university which has been rapidly expanding over the last few years. They don't have a lot of name recognition at this point but have a few other things going for them. They are ideally located and have excellent labs and collaborations. Over the last 6-7 years the department has jumped up ~50 spots in rankings and the college of engineering has gone from ~50 - 150+ faculty. Since most of the PhD candidates who joined after this expansion started are still in school, there is very little record to show which careers PhD graduates go into and how they do over a time of few years.

What could be the potential downsides of joining such a department?


texts: Do Universities have a right to stop students from talking about questions on tests?

texts:
This case in Canada was between students who were complaining about a professor and the school who claimed doing so was misconduct. The school lost because the punishment infringed on students' freedom of speech.

By this logic, does freedom of speech protect students from punishment if they were to release details of a test question while complaining about it in a similar manner? What legal right do universities have to mandate confidentiality of such things? (I hope this doesn't sound facetious)


texts: In case of admission of international students, do the US,Canadian universities prefer more on TOEFL than IELTS?

texts: TOEFL and IELTS are both standardized test and used as a measurement for English language proficiency.Do the universities have any particular preference in case of admission (MS/Ph.D) of international students?


texts: Is a faster implementation of an existing algorithm publishable?

texts:
So a paper exists, it was published 3 years ago and had a novel algorithm (more or less, it's in the area of finite-difference time-domain simulations).

I've taken the algorithm and accelerated it by a factor of 100x (example, I don't have the true number), producing the same results in the end, but providing an opportunity to essentially simulate more (iterations/objects) in the same amount of time.

The methods used to accelerate it aren't particularly novel, though some aspects might very well be a bit different from mainstream ideas. All in all, a person set out to do the same thing would probably be able to do it, but I would not call it trivial. However, I know that this has not been done before.

Is this something worth publishing? I am going to ask my supervisor, but he's been very busy lately ( >.< ), I haven't been able to catch him for ~4 days. I would like some of your opinions.


texts: Realistic odds of acceptance into a top 10 bioengineering program from an average public university

texts:
Essentially, I want to know if I'm suffering from imposter syndrome, or if I really am unlikely to be accepted to a top 10 PhD program in bioengineering.

I go to a relatively average public university in the US, majoring in Chemical Engineering (there is no major offered in biomed/bioE) with a 4.0 GPA. I've spent 3 years on the rowing club, and 2 as the president of the club. I'd like to think this shows I'm very dedicated and a hard worker. I will also have my name on two publications (3rd and 4th author) in average journals as well as a presentation at a national conference, all of which are strongly related to bioengineering.

I know I will have one very strong letter of rec from my current research advisor who I have worked with during the academic year and as part of an REU program this summer. I'll also have two other decent letters of rec from a past research advisor last summer and a professor I have gotten to know while taking her classes and doing very well in them.

Assuming I put a great amount of effort into my application, especially my statement of purpose, what are my realistic chances of getting into a top program?


texts:
I asked a similar question last year, but the stakes have changed slightly.

So, I have an offer from a top 5 program in Chemical engineering (my major). There are a couple of extremely accomplished professors in fluid mechanics here, which is what I want to study in grad school. However, I am not so interested in attending this school for graduate school because it does not send many people to academia post-graduation, despite being a top 5 program, mostly because it isn't a very big name school. Or at least I assume this is the reason.

The deadline to reply to this school is March 5th.

To complicate things, I am waiting on a reply from a much more prestigious university for a summer internship. While the school has a much better name, its ranking is slightly less (number 6 for chemical engineering). I think I have a very good chance of getting this internship (my PI went to grad school here and wrote a very strong letter, plus I have a good resume otherwise). However, I learned today that they will NOT be able to get a response back to me before March 5th.

I am much more interested in attending School 2 (slightly lower rank, better name), because they very frequently send people to academia, which is my long term goal.

School 1 (higher rank, worse name) was pretty firm in the March 5th date, so I don't think I can ask for an extension.

Financially, School 1 offered me a slightly better deal, I'd be netting about 2k more over 10 weeks. However, that isn't as important to me, since the experience is worth far more than the money.

I apologize for the long question, but any advice or guidance would be appreciated. Am I putting too much emphasis on the name and rank? I don't want to be greedy and put all of my eggs in School 2's basket, and be left with nothing if I end up not getting it after all.


texts: Is there a recourse for a retired professor who was denied Emeritus title?

texts:
I know of a recently retired professor who has taught over 35 years, and has published over 100 papers, and has filed multiple patents as well.
His college dean does not agree that he should get the Emeritus title.
The main reason he wants to obtain this title is to retain his office, in which he has a large library of books and materials
Is there anything he can do here?  How would he challenge the decision of his college dean?  Do universities usually have a system to granting the Emeritus title?


texts: Would it be acceptable to occasionally sleep at the lab?

texts:
I'm currently an undergrad, and work as a researcher in an EECS lab. Recently, I discovered a novel application to work on, and so for the last few weeks I've been staying at the lab late almost every day, leaving at midnight or later. Since I live in a dorm on the opposite end of campus, I usually don't get to sleep until around 2-3 AM. In the morning I need to be up and in class by 8-9 AM (depending on the day), in a building that happens to be right next to the lab.

Would it be acceptable to set up a foldable cot at night (leave it under my desk during the day) and sleep at the lab occasionally? I'm usually the last person at the lab at night. If it cultural context matters, I work at a research university in California (US).

EDIT

The lab is mostly composed of graduate students and professors, so they usually maintain a regular 9-5/5:30 schedule at the lab (minus office hours and lectures). As one of a small handful of undergrads, I'm usually there between 4 (when class ends) and well after everyone else leaves. In some cases, graduate students will sleep in the graduate student lounge just outside the lab proper (still part of the lab IIRC).


texts: Should "I" be used in a science fair conclusion?

texts: I just want to know if I is appropriate to use in writing a science fair conclusion.


texts: Is there any website/forum where people post their application results? For instance a website where people write the name of university they applied for, their GPAs, their GRE/TOEFL scores, their subject, ... and the result of admission? I'm just eager to see some admission results from top US universities specially in Statistics and/or Computer Science.


texts: MOOC's for failed modules in PhD applicaiton

texts:
I'm applying for PhD's (from the UK) with a low 2:2 BSc and a Distinction MSc, and performed very poorly in a few certain modules of my undergrad degree (including failing two 3rd year modules) which pulled my grade down. In my MSc research project and the MSc modules most relevant to my PhD field of study, however, I obtained high firsts (80%+).

I'm taking online courses on the failed undergrad topics on edx and coursera to strengthen my previous weak points and fill the gaps in my knowledge. Is it worth highlighting this in my application, and if so, is it worth paying for the verified certificates? I'm aware of the general opinion that mentioning MOOC's in a SOP isn't detrimental but does little to strengthen an application - in my case, would it at all counteract the bad module marks?


texts: FERPA and confidentiality of information when university officials contact school

texts:
I have a reason to think an official from a university I previously applied to is potentially stalking me. His previous actions and attitude had made me uncomfortable. We live in the same town and at a talk I attended recently, he asked if I am a grad student at University X now (the school I chose to attend instead). I did not answer and largely tried to avoid them but I do indeed attend university X. The thing is, I really don’t want them to contact me at my university/lab so I do not want them to know my information related to this school. I asked the office of registrar to make my directory information confidential. It took a few days and I have also been told that FERPA confidentiality has some limitations and it seems release of information to educational institution officials is one of them. As long as a university official contacts the school with an education-related interest (it would be easy to fake one, I think), apparently revealing my information is at the discretion of the school and not governed by FERPA. Is this correct?

If they were to contact my university as an official from a different university / department head, would they be told any of the following information:
- My current address and phone number
- The department and the labs I work in
- My office address and office phone number
- Dates of attendance
- Classes I am currently taking and their schedule
etc?


texts: Can work documented within a manual be published in a journal?

texts:
I work on an actively developed collaborative project. The project is a simulation package. The model has various manuals and guides. These guides are non-peer reviewed collaborative documents self published online. When features are added to the model it is important to keep the guides up to date. For example, when a new feature is added the user guide must be updated to enable users to use the new feature.

I recently added a major update to the code. I documented the use of the new submodel and it's numerical verification in the collaborative user guides.

To make this novel contribution permanently available to others (the guides are changing constantly) and to reach a wider audience, I submitted an article to an archived peer reviewed journal. The article included the theory, implementation and verification of the new submodel. i.e. some of the content from the guide is in the article.

One of the reviewer's comments I received was:

  It bothers me that the present paper does not add any new findings or results to those already published in <the guide>. Figures xyz of the current manuscript are same as the Figures abc of <the guide>. Therefore, I do not recommend the publication of this paper in the <journal> in its present form. The authors must delineate the similarities and differences between the works mentioned above.

I am the author of the relevant sections of the guide. The guide is not a permanently available archived peer reviewed journal. That is the reason I decided to publish in a journal.

I would draw a parallel to a PhD thesis chapter (or an MSc thesis). These are publicly available, arguably more "peer reviewed" than manuals or guides and will be permanently archived. It is typical for thesis chapters to be converted in to journal articles - so why not a non peer reviewed, non permanent and unarchived manual?

Is this a valid and fair comment? Is content presented in manual or user guide be published in a journal?


texts: Can a method of research used in one context be reused in a different research context?

texts: Is it permissible to reuse a methodology in another context. e.g.  One did a research on land surface temperature(LST) based on a model, say for it. Now is it legit to follow all the procedures of this research for forest loss modelling? Care that just majority are same (in methodology part) but one uses for LST and another for forest loss.


texts: Can an unsuccessful grade appeal hurt an academic career?

texts:
Background:
After an academic dismissal from an undergraduate program, I have been working towards improving my GPA (as well as my own academic habits) at a community college, in hopes that after receiving an associates degree, I can move forward with to earn a bachelors and hopefully enter a graduate program. I know that I still have a ways to go before I am prepared enough to re-enter a university, but I feel that it's something within my grasp.

Grades for the fall semester were posted today, and in two out of the three classes I took this semester, I got an 'A'. This is a pleasant surprise, since I have had to miss a few classes and was worried about my performance on assignments overall. However, I got an 'F' in my third class. This makes me a little distraught as well as confused. I know my shortcomings, and I believe that I should receive the grade I deserve, regardless of the extenuating circumstances that tend to pop up in my life. I've earned my fair share of poor grades - 'F's included, and I have never disagreed with it because it reflected the work (or lack thereof) I put in.

That being said, I am uncertain that my performance deserves an 'F'. I don't think that I should be getting an 'A' or a 'B,' and even a 'C' seems excessive if I did not meet what is required, but the failing grade doesn't sit right with me. I am considering emailing my professor, and if it comes to it, following the procedures for a grade appeal, but that makes me more worried than another 'F' on my transcript.

The Question:
Is going through a grade appeal, or even just emailing the professor to inquire about how the score was reached, worth it? I'm worried that the mere mention of being incorrectly graded will hurt my future. If I try for an appealed grade and fail, will that be reflected on my transcript? Given my already rocky academic history, I'm worried that I will come off as indignant and that I do not possess the skills required of me.

In the broadest terms and applying to students of any level (ranging from undergraduate to graduate to everything else): Can a grade appeal that is not granted affect a person's transcript, reputation and/or perception throughout their academic career?


texts: How can I find if my viXra paper is cited?

texts: I've published a paper in viXra and I would like to know if someone else cited it anywhere, but I don't know how. Is there a kind of global index for citations? Does it include “alternative archives” such as viXra?


texts: How to set up lab rotation when commencing a PhD?

texts: I'll be starting a science PhD program in the fall, and I'm required to do at least three lab rotations. I haven't received any instructions from the program as to when and how I should secure a spot in the labs I want to rotate in. I did contact some of the PI's I'm interested in working for while I was applying, as well as during interviews, but obviously nothing was finalized. Should I be contacting them and trying to meet with them now, or is this generally done at the beginning of the school year?


texts:
When I cite papers online, especially in Wikipedia pages, it is very convenient to use their DOI. However, some papers which I would like to cite (like this and that) have no DOI. Or at least, I haven't been able to find their DOI in the crossref search form.

Why isn't a DOI assigned to all papers? Is there something I can do to change this?

EDIT: I now found out that in ResearchGate, I can upload my paper and it automatically receives a DOI. So practically, my problem is solved.


texts: Why are oral tests and exams not common in American educational systems?

texts:
My family originates from Russia but I only have experience with American academia. My parents constantly describe oral exams whereupon a student is required to choose one of many cards that have a certain amount of questions on them and then after some time preparing be able to answer the question verbally to the professor, who can then ask follow up questions.

In my mind, this offers numerous benefits; it's much harder to cheat this system as you have to verbalise your answer so copying is not an option, verbalisation is shown to help with memory's retention, because you don't know what topic the teacher/professor will follow up with you have to more deeply to impress the professor, and many more.

The drawbacks seem limited to me; more people standing around waiting to do the exam isn't great, nor is the fact that this will be a bit more subjective to the teacher/professor.

Is there some specific reason as to why this isn't done?


texts:
This is going to be a rather soft question, I am not completely sure it is appropriate for this place. But still.

In your opinion, how important is the presence of strong curiosity (passion for research) in a researcher for him/her to become very successful in science? Here I mean really big success (like getting top awards and/or reshaping a research area significantly) and really in science (not including management achievements, or high numbers of supervised successful PhDs or things alike).

There are many people doing research who consider (or start to consider after a while) their research-related activity as "just a job" like, say, an engineering or a carpenter one, just with a different range of required activities. So these people are not driven by a strong feeling of curiosity. Sometimes they are very hardworking and get a lot of important results, but I am not sure they get to the top (in fact, I just do not have enough data to judge).

So a second part of my question (and partly a clarification of the first one) is: do you know

examples of people who got to the top and did not have curiosity?
examples of people who are very curious, stay in research for a long time, but did not get to the top? (better if such person is somewhat known so that his/her biography could be found)


texts: What is the minimum contribution expected from an M.Sc. thesis?

texts:
I am writing a thesis for my M.Sc. dissertation, and I am struggling to identify how big the contribution of my paper has to be.

I've heard professors in our campus saying "you don't have to save the world, just add a little bit of something to an already existing work." But that is vague and seems too little for an M.Sc. program. Do you have any advice on what could be considered a sufficient contribution?

Ps. My field is distributed systems (cloud computing) and it would be nice if you could explain it in that context.


texts: What are Industrial Case Studies and why are they required?

texts:
I searched on the internet about this but found no convincing answer. I have to submit a paper to a conference where they are also asking for an Industrial Case Study. I contacted the conference chair about this, they replied:

  If there is a pragmatic solution to a problem or there is an innovative application developed then an Industrial Case Study is required. For more details you may search for case study submissions for similar conferences.

The domain is KDD (Knowledge Discovery in Databases). I did search but did not find any good stuff.

Could anyone help me out with this?


texts: What are my duties regarding reporting plagiarism when reviewing a fellow graduate student's paper?

texts:
I am a PhD student, and have just finished the last part of my course requirement. My last assignment is to review several other student's term projects from a seminar course.

One of the projects I have been asked to review is rife with plagiarism. More than 75% of the paper is plagiarized, from over two dozen different sources, including academic papers, stackoverflow.com, and wikipedia. I have reported all of this to my professor, along with a detailed summary of which parts are taken from where.

However, some of the paper appears to be plagiarized from the student's own earlier assignments, in a different course. It's fairly obvious that this is the case because they first plagiarized the assignment description to summarize the problem they wanted to study, and then provide an answer to said problem, including answering discussion questions that are on the assignment, but somewhat unrelated to their main topic.

I know the professor who taught the earlier course well. Should I contact him directly? Should I suggest to my current instructor that the earlier professor be notified as well? Which course of action is more appropriate?


texts: Citing unpublished figure from an ex colleague

texts:
A former colleague has created a figure. The figure is not published and serves only as a mean for information sharing. I used to be a part of that research group and thus had access to it.

I published an article featuring a modified version of this figure, to explain my current experimental set-up. I did not cite the author of the figure as the figure was not found in any published material. I didn't know what to do - perhaps add them in Acknowledgments?

Have I done the wrong thing?


texts: Can I legally omit the fact I hold a Ph.D. degree?

texts:
I am about to complete a Ph.D. in Hong Kong and would like to study in the United States. I hold a first class B.Eng. degree in Electrical Engineering. I have a CGPA of 3.67 out of 4 in my current PhD studies, two journal publications (IEEE Transactions) with two more to be submitted soon. I would consider this a fairly good academic record.

For career purposes, I would like to obtain a Ph.D. degree (in a different but related field) from a top American university. There aren't post-doc openings in my current research area, which is why I am considering another PhD in a related area.

Question: Is it considered illegal to not mention that I hold a Ph.D. (hopefully) during application? I noticed some schools frown at what some would call a "professional" or "serial" student.

NB: I have read responses on this question and I am satisfied with them. But I feel there's need to make my question clearer for those who did not understand. Some universities clearly state on their websites that they will not consider applicants who already hold a Ph.D. while some others do not specify this. My question was more for the latter. But now I know that other than dealing with the university, it will require lying on visa application, as some people wrote below.

Thank you all for your contributions.


texts: Section name for class project reports, theses, short essays

texts:
In my personal website, I'd like to have a section for class project reports, theses, and short essays I've written. I'm thinking about naming the section "Other Publications" or "Other Papers", but I'm not sure if these count as "Publications" or "Papers". Do they count? If not, is there an appropriate term?

(Since it's a personal website, I don't think it's so important to get every detail correct, but it would be nice to get it correct nevertheless.)


texts: I read this question, in which all answers recommend posting one's master's thesis online. My thesis is available from my university's repository, but I'm thinking about posting it on arXiv since it's more easily searchable. However, I don't think I've seen master theses on arXiv. Is this something that people typically do? Are there disadvantages that I'm missing?


texts: I am starting an assistant professor job this fall. What do you recommend me to do during this summer before a tenure-clock starts?

texts:
The school I will be working at is a low-ranked R1 university.

Some people said, "just enjoy and have fun right now. It would be the last time you would ever have such enough free time".

But others said, "You should do research as much as you can before the school starts because you would not have enough time to do research for the first year because you would be busy with teaching for the first time as an instructor. You should start thinking about writing grant proposals or turning your dissertation into peer-reviewed publications."

Both seem to sound right to me, but are actually very opposite suggestions.

What did you do before you started your tenure-track assistant professor job and after you graduated your PhD? What do you recommend me to do for this summer?


texts: I know that sometimes (in a thesis for instance) one can thank his supervisor, family or whoever and give a small reflection on the work. A good place would be a preface, I think, though I am not sure whether this is common in academic papers. If not, what is a good place to place reflections and - more informally - thank-you notes?


texts: Sending reminder for LOR and asking them to do it early?

texts:
I'm applying for the Spring Semester for 5 Master's programs, with deadlines ranging from Oct 15th to Dec 10th. I sent all the information to my 2 Professors who are writing the letters. I guess I was naive in thinking they would write the letter pretty fast, now I'm freaking out they might wait until the deadlines of December. (It's been two weeks.) That wouldn't give me much time to choose a program, and move by classes that start in the spring semester!

All the programs say they will make an offer about a week or two after reviewing my application, which they won't start until AFTER they get my letters. I really want my Professors to write the letters ASAP. How can I tell them I'd like them to submit them before the deadline? Is that OK?


texts: Will a top journal at least read my introduction?

texts: I'm currently preparing an article for a very good journals in mathematics (AMS, Acta, Advances, etc.). I have never had a result worthy of these journals until now.  I would like to know whether I can count on the editors to at least read my one-page introduction before making a decision. Or could they stop after the abstract?  The reason I ask is currently my abstract is very short and gives zero background.  If someone were to only read it, they could undervalue my paper.


texts: Should non-native speakers get extra time to compose exam answers?

texts:
Today I met with a student who had plagiarized answers on an exam from online sources. She explained to me with apparent honesty that she had spent too long answering the first two questions and then run out of time. In her telling, being a non-native speaker makes grammatical writing in English very slow going. On this exam, I expected the students to write approximately ten to twenty sentences in an hour.

Sometimes our academic counseling department requests disability-related accommodations which allow certain students 1.5x or 2x time for an exam. However, I've never seen one related specifically to speech and language.

Does non-native speech warrant extra time when writing exam answers?


texts: How to ask good question at the end of lecturer interview

texts: I interviewed yesterday for a lecturer position at computer science. At the end of my interview, the Head of School asked me if I have any questions to ask them. This is my first time to interview, and I don't know what to ask, and just said to the HoS that ``I saw your research project on Youtube, and I was very interested in that topic, and is possible to have any future collaborations?'' I did see his research project on Youtube. However, I can feel that the HoS was not very happy. Maybe I screwed it up. Is this a sensitive question? Could anyone give me some suggestions on how to ask good questions? Thank you.


texts: Is there a tool to visualize the citation network which works with Google Scholar?

texts:
I know about tools like CitNet Explorer and VOSviewer, but they only work with Web of Science, which doesn't contain many papers I'd like to have in the network.

Is there any software, which does the same thing with data from Google Scholar?


texts: What factors determine acceptance to top graduate program in Engineering?

texts:
Question that is really bothering me is what are the important factors for admission to top five engineering graduate school? I searched in different forums and saw people got accepted to  PhD program at prestigious school with GPA 3.40 GRE Quantitative of 165 and no publication. However I also saw people could not get in to even master program with 4.0 GPA ,good GRE score.
I am starting to think that GPA ,GRE and even research experience are not determining factor. Can anyone please clarify this for me?


texts: Do I know my GRE scores when I choose to send them on test day?

texts:
I haven't started preparing for the GRE and I have my exam in a week's time (15th Oct.). I know I'll get a low score which is why I don't want to report the score to any university. So, I have two options:

Reschedule the exam to something like 10th Nov.
Take the exam on 15th Oct. and take it again after 21 days.

I will go with option two if reporting the scores is optional after taking the exams since reporting the score is my only fear in regard to my question.

Do I have to report my score when I take the GRE? Do I know my scores before I choose?


texts: Author order when senior and lead author same person

texts:
I have an article I'm writing where I'm the senior author, but I also did the majority of the work and wrote the paper. I have two co-authors who have also contributed.

In my field (physical sciences) the norm is that the senior author goes last and the person who wrote the paper/did the majority of the work is first author. Everyone else goes in between.

What should the order should be in this situation when lead and senior author are same person?


texts:
In a week I will start attending classes at another university as an exchange student. In the meantime, I am applying to grad school, and I am debating putting said university in my CV. I know that adding future experience on one's CV is generally frowned upon, but in my case I think that it might make sense, as:

The contact information will include my address at the exchange university,
By the time they get to my CV, I will probably have studied there for at least a month,
It's really a matter of days.

Unfortunately I cannot wait until classes start to submit my CV as the deadline is approaching.


texts: Patented algorithm: what authors are allowed to do?

texts:
I work for an industrial research lab, which requires everybody to file 2 patents a year to achieve 100% in annual performance evaluation. Once the patent is filed, the algorithm in the patent is allowed (and is encouraged) to be published in a conference.

When I started, I signed a document saying all my inventions belong to the company. When I leave the current company, what I can do and cannot do with the patents I filed.

If the algorithm in the patent is not published in a conference, can I publish it as (i) an independent researcher or (ii) an employee of another company?
If the algorithm in the patent is published in a conference, can I build an (open source) tool from scratch to implement it? can I implement it for another company?


texts: Should I expect to be invited to visit the grad schools I was admitted to?

texts:
I applied to grad schools this year. I haven’t heard from some of them but the one I was admitted to I was invited to come and visit. My understanding is that this is relatively common, but I would like a better sense of how common.

I want to visit the school I choose before I make a decision on where to go. My question is: should I expect to be invited eventually for a visit day for the schools I am admitted to? If not then I guess I should plan a trip myself.

To add to the context I will say that I believe I had a relatively strong application.