texts: Stranded in a taught MSc CS Program. What should I do?

texts:
I am an international student pursuing my masters degree in computer science at a mid-low tier U.S. university. This is my second year and still I couldn't get in a research group and here usually profs. consider PhD students for research.

This program has a thesis option but it is not compulsory and it seems like professors and department is abusing this to get rid of spending time for MS students. The program is actually a taught MS, but it is disguised as a MS CS program. Some schools clearly mention that their program is not designed for research or thesis work. And still my schools web page talks about thesis work but I don't see a single student in my batch doing a thesis. Also the courses they offer are mostly advanced undergrad classes. I didn't come here to take the same classes which I did in my undergrad or I can learn from MIT OCW.

While choosing this program over others, their research focus was important for me and I was interested in doing a MS thesis. But now, I only have minor class projects which are far away from research. Probably, if I apply for a PhD my recommendation letters will not be strong as a result of this. My GPA is good, I am not a bad student but still whoever I talk with says "give some time". And time is passing.

I want to get involved with some research, what can I do outside this school ? Can I transfer to other program ? I am thinking of taking permission from school and not paying this semesters fees and applying for a transfer to a school where students really do a thesis work. If a get a masters degree from here can I find a research internship position  as an international on student visa ?


texts: What to do if my internet connection drops during the exam?

texts: Next week I will start having online exams. One of the rules is that the camera must stay on during the whole time. Unfortunately, my internet connection will occasionally drop. This will happen rarely (maybe a few times a day) and will last from one to a few minutes. I am very worried that if this happens during the exam the professor may be suspicious. What can I do to assure him I'm not cheating?


texts: Is it fair to use techniques I found on the web to solve my assignment?

texts:
I'd want to get perspective on what I feel is an unjustified case of academic misconduct.

I am taking a mathematics subject and part of my assignment was to submit answers to questions given.

One of the questions I was unsure of what method I should apply, I searched on youtube and found tutorials on how to solve this problem. I should make it explicit the direct answer was not part of the video, however, using the same method I could substitute my values and get the correct answer.

I may be accused of plagiarism and apparently, my use of the video was unfair and plagiarism. I suspect it's because I used the same symbols which in retrospect I could have, should have changed however I still feel this is unjustified and comparable to applying the chain rule or any other mathematical principle taught through the increasingly powerful use of the internet.

Do you think there are ground to challenge this? I thought I was doing my due diligence sourcing methods, not direct answers.

Do you think this fair?


texts: Journal allows me to choose whether to transfer copyright – why would I do so?

texts:
I am a mathematics undergraduate in the USA. Recently I had a paper accepted to a math journal, and in the final steps of the process I had to fill out a “consent to publish” form, in which I had the choice of whether to transfer the copyright to the journal. My question is: given the option to still have the paper published while retaining the copyright, is there any reason to still transfer the copyright?
In this situation I don’t think it matters much, because regardless of which option you choose you still retain the right to post on ArXiv and your personal website, etc. But I’m curious about what is considered acceptable and/or standard, in case I have to make the decision again.
The specific form I had to fill out is that of the AMS, and choosing not to transfer the copyright has the effect of deleting points 3 and 6.


texts:
I got a conference acceptance and my institute registered that. All the expenses to attend the conference were also approved.

When I checked with the respective embassy for visa processing, they asked for a letter of reason from the host country/conference.

Upon request to the conference representatives they excused. When I told them explicitly, once with a sample from some colleague of what I would need and then with the exact form from the official website of their embassy, then the response was, yes we would try our best to prepare it. However, if we couldn't, you can not blame us because the organizer has not promised any such assistance.

Such statement was a shock for me. To me, it was as if, I invite someone to my home, once he is at the door, I tell him, I did not promise you to open the door.

I am not sure if my assumption is wrong or what? maybe that's almost out of their domain but other conferences do prepare these documents.

So my question is:

Is it really the responsibility of a conference organizer to provide the necessary letters to the participants for their visa processing?

In any case, how to deal with such an issue/response?


texts: When writing a literature review, more specifically writing a summary for a source, is the use of quotes frowned upon versus paraphrasing?

texts:
Whereas I normally paraphrase information when I use a source for my literature review, I occasionally insert quotes (not to emphasize the information within the quote). All the reviews I've looked at so far tend to use quotations as little as possible. My question is whether it is discouraged or encouraged to present information through a variety of ways (ie. paraphrase, quotes, etc.)?

For instance:

In looking at the relationship between immigrants in the Netherlands and the Dutch economy, Rootenberg et al. (2003) drew upon findings comparable to that of previous research results found in Sweden: while the impact varied across different immigrant groups, the average impact was inconsequential. Among the groups that produced a net gain were immigrants who arrived at a young age and those coming from a western society; all other groups represented a burden to the public sector. Hansen et al. (2015) and Gerdes et al. obtain similar results for Denmark. Their findings are summarized as follows: “Immigrants from richer countries have a positive fiscal impact, while immigrants from poorer countries have a large negative one. The negative effect is caused by both a weak labour market performance and early retirement in combination with the universal Danish welfare schemes" (Hansen et al. 2005).


texts: Is differentiated instruction permitted by universities?

texts:
In primary and secondary school in the US, some teachers will adjust homework so that it is a better match for students. For example, a teacher might give a strong math student more advanced math problems, while a weaker student might be given more remedial work.

I am currently teaching some 100-level undergraduate courses. While my assignments seem appropriate for the majority of students, I discovered a few that are really not ready, as they came from rural high schools that did not offer the necessary background. It is unlikely that these students can develop their skills to the same level expected of other students within the span of one year, unless I make significant adjustments to their work. As my assignments are too difficult for them, they have given up hope.

The students are too few to warrant a recommended creation of more remedial courses. I'd like to apply some of the differentiated instruction methods that are common in primary and secondary education. At the very least, I would like to: (1) offer these students alternative homework better suited to their level and (2) offer them exams more appropriate for the level that they can realistically achieve during the first semester of the two part course.

Do universities permit teachers to differentiate their instruction, or must every student be given exactly the same assignments and assessments?
If this is not permitted, is there some other approach or way of framing the homework and assessments as to make this seem fair for everyone?


texts: Leaving a Master's Degree Early for a Doctorate Degree?

texts:
I am currently enrolled in my fourth semester of my master's degree program in psychology and this should be my final semester.  Due to issues stemming from myself and my relationship with my mentor, my thesis has been lagging behind the rest of my school work and I am just now preparing to defend my prospectus.  While I am currently awaiting to hear back from Ph.D. programs, I am starting to consider an alternative plan to completing my graduate education and was wondering if anyone could help shed some light on this matter?

On the off chance that I get accepted into a doctorate program I am wondering if it is possible to leave my current graduate program without completing my thesis and proceed to enroll in said doctorate program? Are Ph.D. programs going to frown upon this decision?  Will they still allow me to join the program? My present thesis is really not related to anything remotely close to what I want to study and I have had a very strained and borderline emotionally abusive mentorship experience at my present program and would prefer not to continue working with my current mentor if possible.  I am assuming I will have to complete a new master's thesis on top of a dissertation while completing this possible Ph.D. but I just wanted to know if the option to leave one program and enroll in another is available?  I would much rather spend more time completing a new thesis with research I care about and a mentor who will (hopefully) not be as abusive rather than finishing up a thesis late at my present program.

Thanks!


texts: Computer Science - final year project of undergraduate degree (individual vs teamwork)

texts:
I'm in the final year of my undergraduate degree in Artificial Intelligence. Thus, I have to choose between individual project or teamwork. In both cases, I believe that I can do well.

However, I'm going to apply to MPhil in Advanced Computer Science at the University of Cambridge later. So, my questions are:

Which choice gives a complete thought of my abilities?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each choice in this case?


texts: How you choose the literature you read (Advice)

texts:
As new researcher and having started my PhD studies less than one month, I would like someone experienced to give me some advice.  As researcher, which are your habits concerning research papers you read.
How you choose the literature you read ? Do you 'follow'  journals/ research groups/conferences/topic?

Are there tools for this reason?


texts: I miscalculated the mark of one of my students and mistakenly notified him that he passed the class. However, I noticed my mistake after some hours and fixed it, thereby resulting in him failing the class. Obviously, the student is very upset now. Should I have left the mistake and pretend I hadn't noticed it?


texts: Is it OK to publish a book as an undergraduate?

texts:
I am a CS student at 4th year in my university. I have done a lot of real-world projects, worked as a freelancer for many years, and have released a lot of software in use by thousands of people. I believe I have good experience about topics which I am interested in.

My question is about whether writing a book about those topics and publishing it in my name would be a good idea? I heard that whatever undergrads write in Academia is not considered reliable/trustworthy. And that even if the thing you write was actually very good, people would still not rely on it. Is this is true?

Is there a possible way to publish a book as an undergraduate student? I would like to write the book now because I feel it is so needed by my local community (non-English). We have a very limited number of books in this field. And I don't think I'll have the same amount of time as when I graduate.


texts: Why have lectures in the information age?

texts:
The primary method of instruction at most colleges is lecturing, where the professor delivers and explains a set of well-established knowledge to the students.

However, there are drawbacks to this: people have different goals, intellectual orientations, and levels of prior knowledge. What's more, the information delivered in these lectures is well established, well documented, and easily available online -- and for far less money than the average college tuition.

Can lectures be more effective than, say, reading a book oneself? I am unconvinced. Instead, I see people learning by imitation, reading, discussion, and practice. If education is a way to prepare for life outside of academia, shouldn't the method of instruction also reflect the ways people learn outside of that environment?

What advantages (if any) does lecturing have, that make it worthwhile in an age where there are so many other options? Is there any systematic, empirical evidence that supports the widespread use of lecturing?


texts: Post-doc in Iran. Would you suggest it? Where are post-doc offers at Iranian Universities published?

texts:
I am an Italian Ph. D. candidate in Linguistics and I am in my penultimate year. My research focuses on nominal structure in Southern Italian Dialects, Balkan and Indo-Iranian languages.

I would love to work on a post-doc in Iran. Does anyone have experience on doing one in Iran? Would it be considered valuable experience? I am afraid of stereotypes in general, even though here in Italy the situation is different from the United States and we have an overall positive consideration of Iran.

I've already traveled to Iran for long periods and I am about to go back this summer, so there is no questioning that I like the place, and that it would be good experience for my knowledge on the Indo-Iranian family.

Apart from these questions, does anybody know about how the hiring process for post-docs works  in Iran? I have made many searches, but most universities do not have a page for job offers.

Very long question. For now, thanks everyone for listening. -)


texts: Is there any major problem in applying to PhD program in US after getting BSc and MS in UK?

texts:
I'm considering getting my BSc and MS in UK instead in US, since I prefer specialization rather than diversity in education. However, I'm not sure whether or not this choice will affect my chance to attend a competitive PhD program at an American university, since people who get MS tend to stay in UK to get PhD. This route may have the following problems:

I will have to take some extra courses in my grad school in US to make up for classes not taken.
I may be disadvantaged in admission because of differences in the educational systems in the US and the UK.

Considering these problems, should I rather stay in US to get BSc and MS? Or are they negligible? For me, it's the best if the time spent to get BSc and MS will be as short as possible. This may seem strange to people in US, but I want to consider the merits of education in both nations, so I can find the course of education which is the most suitable for me.

(I want to study molecular biology.)


texts:
I am in a professional evening program, it is full of students like myself that have full time jobs. Recently we had a professor give us a take home exam that said "no collaboration, no internet usage" (this is because the program is very compressed and doesn't have time for in class exams). When I talked to people about the exam, the first thing out of their mouth was "I'm going to use the internet, that requirement is ridiculous". In my personally opinion no one is going to take the time to exclude themselves from a tool that they use every day because a professor says so.

The professor is quite experienced, but spend a lot of his recent career in administration instead of teaching and is just getting back to being a lecturer.

All courses in this program are curved, so it is disadvantageous to not do what all other students are doing. I would like to let the professor know that his teaching style is very out of date and that saying "no internet" on a take home is guaranteed to be ignored, and frankly doesn't make sense given how modern people learn. (I'm a programmer by trade so if they told me "no internet" at work they might as well fire me)


texts: Proposing current postdoc supervisor as a Marie Curie mentor

texts: The Marie Curie Global Fellowship involves 2 years in a university outside Europe and 1 year in a university in Europe. I'm applying together with my current postdoc supervisor, who is a fantastic scientist in a world-leading lab. This means that they would be the mentor for the European phase (which would, naturally, be back at the university where I am currently postdoc'ing). Is this an unwise decision that may count against the application? Are the grant reviewers likely to interpret it as not moving to new pastures and so not gaining new experience, and mark down the application?


texts:
I independently wrote a number of math articles, and published some of them in refereed journals. I wrote the draft of the thesis, and contacted a Prof., and started a PhD program under his supervision. After being accepted, the supervisor

Asked me to change all notations and terminology. I hesitate, because I used the terminology in use in the domain, I kept at minimum new terms, and I already used these terms in the published papers.
Asked me to make him coauthor of some of the papers I haven't yet published, and which I wrote previously, without any suggestion or discussion with him. He motivated his request by saying that my articles need to be polished (ie terminology changed with an invented one), and that even when they will be ready, nobody will accept them with my name only (although I already published some articles as single author).

He is very assertive with these requests, and I feel like he is putting pressure on me. Normally, I would like to have him as coauthor, and maybe it will be good for my career. But I am affraid that he will make my results unrecognizable, and incompatible with the other papers in domain, including my owns. And, frankly, his only contribution is that he suggested to change the terminology.

What should I do?


texts: How to cite the US Federal Register in Harvard referencing style?

texts:
Please advise how I should cite the US Federal Register in Harvard Reference style.

As an example, I have seen this part of the Federal Register referenced as:

  2012 Planning Rule (77 Fed. Reg. 21161)

However that's not in Harvard style. How do I reference this within the text (author, year), and in the reference list?


texts: How difficult is it to switch majors going from a BA to MA/Phd?

texts:
A few years ago, I received a BA in English. While I was studying my focus on English, however, shifted when I took a class on literary theory in the latter half of my 3rd year, which inspired in me a deep passion for critical theory. I continued to read and study in this area, often filling my electives up with classes that related to it, but I never switched majors over to something more akin to my new found interests like philosophy or sociology because I felt it was too late to switch majors.

At this point, I would like to pursue an MA/Phd on this subject in one of the aforementioned majors, but I am concerned that it may be difficult for me to enter into a program with a degree from a different field of study. I'm also worried about the fact that I've been out of school for about 4 years now because I've been told that being out of school for an extended period of time can be a real obstacle to getting into a program. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.


texts: Is it ethical for a lecturer to require students to purchase an online learning kit where kit is used for course assessments?

texts:
I am taking a course in a may-not-be-top-but-still-decent university located in North America. The course lecturer forces us to pay for an online learning kit from Pearson by adopting all the graded quizzes provided in that learning kit.

That is, if one refuses to pay for the learning kit, he or she will have no access to all the quizzes, which in total constitute 20% of the final grade of that course. Moreover, all the text completion questions are basically exactly the same sentences copied from the eBook. Therefore, if you simply pay for the learning kit (~$50), then you will have a hard time doing the quiz as compared of those who buy the combo including the eBook (~$90).

In summary, if

you pay ~$90, during every quiz, simply do CTRL+F, you can always find the exact sentence in the eBook, and hence you can get nearly full marks.
you pay ~$50, you can access the quizzes, but you may have to search somewhere else and spend more time on the quizzes.
If you pay nothing, the 20% marks are gone.

I, as a victim who unwillingly paid $90, find it irritating and unethical, as I feel this is some sort of a coalition between the lecturer and the publisher. I understand that some lecturers do have recommended textbooks as well, but they are not mandatory! That is, if I can learn that course well by other books, I am free to do that. If I didn't buy the book and hence screwed the course up, that is my own responsibility. I cannot blame any one for that. But this lecturer's deed actually bans the students who do not pay for the learning kit from the quizzes.

Is this ethical? Wait, is it even legal? How may I fight for our rights as students on this issue?


texts: How to teach a class that I've never taken?

texts: I have the opportunity to teach an undergraduate class in statistics.  However, I've never taken statistics and the material and concepts are a little foreign to me.  I'm concerned, as a graduate student, that it may take up a lot of my personal time just to learn the material, much less teach it.  I really don't want to turn the opportunity down because I know its a good learning experience, but I don't want to become overwhelmed by it.  What are some effective strategies to teach a class that you've never taken before without overloading yourself?


texts: Should I follow-up about poorly answered questions in an interview?

texts:
I had an interview today (my first one) for a teaching stream position at a college, and I'm unhappy with a couple of my answers.

Should I just consider the matter closed and send a follow-up email to the committee thanking them for their time? or is it appropriate to include a few remarks and/or clarifications about the questions that I wish I answered differently?

Appreciating any advice.  Thanks!


texts: For writing samples, is it necessary to provide an English translation of a conference paper written and presented in my native language?

texts: I have a paper, written in my native language, presented in a conference. If I want to use it as a writing sample in the applications to phd programs in the US, should I provide an English translation of that paper?


texts: What are the advantages and disadvantages to completing a Masters program before applying to a Ph. D program?

texts:
I've been considering applying to graduate school of some form or another in Mathematics. During my undergraduate years, I did decently on my undergraduate coursework (mostly A-s, some As, a B) but not stellar, and it wasn't until I started taking graduate courses as a senior that I started buckling down and getting solid As or higher. I also had no research experience at this time.

I eventually want to apply to a Ph. D program in pure mathematics. Since I didn't really click until later in undergraduate years, so I was considering applying to 2-year masters programs in mathematics, and then based on my performance there, decide whether I'm fit to work towards a Ph. D.

  My question is, what are the advantages and disadvantages to completing a master's program before applying to a separate Ph. D program?

I know masters degrees are sometimes considered terminal degrees. Would doing well in masters coursework be advantageous in applying to Ph. D programs later on as opposed to immediately after undergrad years? Does strong performance as a masters student make one a more attractive candidate, or do programs have less interest in applicants who already have a masters? Is it wiser to apply for a Ph. D directly? I'm sorry if this question is considered too much of a soft question. Thank you.


texts: Should I do research into the topic prior to being officially accepted as an RA?

texts: Last week, I had spoken to a professor regarding a research project (I am hoping it will get my “foot in the door” and benefit my graduate school application). I had been in contact with this professor for a few months regarding a potential research project. The professor finally got the project approved and described it to me. She then told me to think about it (it would be fairly extensive) and to get back to her. She had mentioned some things I would need to familiarize myself with before I begin. I want to do the project. So my question is, should I begin learning all of the concepts she mentioned / doing research into the topic before getting back to her? Or will I be making too many assumptions about my place in the project by doing this?


texts: Wiley journals request payment from authors who want an image to appear on the journal cover.  Is this a common practice followed by many publishers?  Why do authors pay the fee?


texts: Academic dean (interim graduate program director) not responding to e-mails

texts:
This question goes along with this post here:

E-mails being ignored by university

Interestingly, my situation is also at a college institution in California. However, rather than note that it might be a problem with America, I want to ask a specific question. The academic dean of my Graduate department program very consistently does not answer any e-mails from students. 5-6 of my colleagues have tried e-mailing her over the past year and a half of our program. In order to reach her, I have had to go directly to her office (attempting this 3 times to finally speak with her). I just e-mailed her again recently, and am not receiving any response again.

Major note: She is also the interim director of my specific graduate program

Question: Can I as a student in the program say or do anything about this? As busy as an academic dean may be, it doesn't seem acceptable in my opinion.


texts: Have there been studies about the effect of idle time vs time pressure in learning?

texts:
There is a discussion in our institute about how much of their time students should spend on lectures and homework.

My own experience has been that idle time and wandering of the mind is necessary for seeing the big picture, but I understand that this depends on personality, context etc.

Are you aware of any papers which discuss this issue? What are the keywords for this topic?


texts: What does non-exclusive publishing rights mean?

texts:
I have read on open-access journals that some of them allow non-exclusive publishing rights. What does this mean exactly? Is there a general open access policy or consensus about what these publishing rights should be?

Does this mean that I can publish my article in other journals too? Wouldn't that be considered plagiarism, or at least reduce the citations to the original article in the first journal? Does this mean that the author(s) is/are allowed to only self-archive their article on a repository website but cannot publish it elsewhere?

I have also seen this term on the website of Directory of Open Access Journals. So, I suspect that this has to do with open-access policies.


texts: I've been invited to a workshop in Japan, and I haven't been to an academic event there before. In my field in the UK, it would be normal to attend an event in "smart casual" wear, eg a polo top or open necked shirt. Should I expect this convention to be different in Japan?


texts:
I'm reapplying to one school I got rejected from and it's my top choice. Is there any chance they just might go like "oh, him again?" and throw it out or something, or not read it?

My application is going to be very different and, in my opinion, much stronger this time, with 2 new pieces of research.


texts:
Everyday there are hundreds of papers published worldwide in every single area of study. I am mostly interested in architecture and environmental psychology.

A question arises how to assure that we select relevant literature review? or how to assure the originality of research?

For example more recently I am conducting a research on primary school children's perception of an ideal school. I am analyzing children's' drawing. Even my primary analysis reveals statistically significant differences between girls and boys. There are some studies conducted on gender differences similarly.

So how to assure the originality of the research when there many papers written in this area and despite reading over 100 papers there might be those that we are not aware of?


texts: Should I send this e-mail to my instructor who is also my supervisor?

texts:
I am very mad about my grade and I prepared this letter. could you pls give me a piece of advice about how to write and complain about the grade? I really do not know what to write. I really want to tell him that this grade is not fair.

PS: I should say that this prof is my supervisor as well.

HERE IS MY LETTER

I am writing this email regarding ++++ grades.
I am not happy with my grad. I hope you do not mind but I'd like to ask some questions.
I should say that I am really surprised by the final exam grade.  The questions were very easy for me since they were very similar to what we learned in the lectures and you had already covered all of them through the lecture, I thought I could get 100 in the final exam.

In the written report, I got 86.00 I am really curious about this grade. I want to know why I really performed badly. Did I miss anything in the report?

I am available days and nights to discuss these three parts.


texts: Is anything wrong with hiring TA as a private tutor?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate student and recently I've been trying to find a private tutor to help me further expand my knowledge (outside of a scope of my courses). I've discovered one of the TAs advertises themselves as a private tutor. Would it be ethically wrong to hire them? Are there any potential issues/conflicts of interests?

As far as I know there is nothing strictly forbidding it in the university codes and I would love hiring them - I'm quite picky when it comes to the teaching style and in case of the TA in question I already know it'd be a great fit.


texts: How to establish a relationship with a department head as an undergraduate?

texts:
I am an undergraduate who is line for a first author publication in a field I absolutely love, and want to continue my research in the same department. At my school there is a program, I have heard of, that would allow me to get my masters as an undergraduate, and the paperwork requires a signature from the department head. I don't want to appear as sycophantic a-hole, I come from a very economically disadvantaged background. I am paying for my school, want to continue my research, and eventually obtain a PhD. Basically, I need to know any good suggestions of how to establish a relationship with the department head. I know email is an option to contact the department head, but she doesn't know me. I have emailed another professor, I said hello to and know his childhood friend, who has been in the same department for 15 years to see if we could get coffee and talk with him about this matter to see if he could introduce me to the department head. Any suggestions of knowing how to connect/establish a relationship with the department head?
Best


texts: Some authors can use variants of their last names in two different publications. How does one write their last name when citing both inline?

texts:
When citing two articles from the same author using different initials, one should cite each article with the relevant initials, even if they are different. This is answered here.

But what about differences in the last name of the same author when referencing inline? Russian authors, for instance, must transliterate their names and there are sometimes inconsistencies in the way this is done. For example, E. Mashchenko writes his or her name E. Maschenko here (published 2015), but E. Mashchenko here (published 2013). Basic knowledge of Russian transliteration suggests that Мащенко is to be transliterated as Mashchenko, and that is indeed the spelling the author uses on Research Gate, suggesting that the Maschenko spelling is an error.

Yet, because the point of referencing is to make it easy for other researchers to find the sourced material, the literal spelling Maschenko should be preferred when citing Maschenko (2015). When citing both articles inline, which of the following would one write?

  (Mashchenko, 2013; Maschenko, 2015)

which would be correct, but misleading and strange because this is the same person.

  (Mashchenko, 2013, 2015)

which doesn’t adhere to the above standard.


texts: How To List Other Academics' Conference Papers Discussing My Artwork?

texts: I am a Fine Artist, and art historians have discussed my work in conference papers... how would I cite these papers on my CV? Would I include them under "Publications", as I do catalogs, books and art reviews of my work, or should it be under a separate heading? Also, if someone discusses my work in a Master's Thesis, is it appropriate to list that as well?


texts:
I graduated with my PhD in January. In my field (biophysics) and country (US), we only have a 1 year time window to apply for fellowships.
However, my advisor is sitting on the paper from my dissertation and refuses to submit it (he keeps asking for more and more tiny tweaks) even thought it’s perfectly ready for submission. There is no end in sight here and I have tried politely arguing to no avail.
Since it takes many months from submission to publication and since I can’t apply for fellowships without a paper published in a high-ranking journal, I’m stuck in a sort of Catch-22.
My time is running out for the fellowships which I need to get competitive professorships, my career is at risk because of my graduate advisor.
What are my options here?


texts: How far can I go when requesting presentational changes in a review?

texts:
First time reviewer for a mathematical journal here.

I'm encountering a lot of little presentational flaws, such as typos and grammatical errors, but also LaTeX problems. It doesn't stop there, I also encounter (what I see as) problems in the structure of the text, for example, a rather important definition is "hidden away" in the text and referenced later, but it could be improved to be a standalone definition.

I don't know how far I should go in my review. Of course I'll point out all typos and grammar issues and require those to be fixed before publication. But can I ask people to improve their LaTeX typesetting? Can I ask them to restructure their text? Can I ask them to change the title in order to match the content better?


texts: What to do when I can prove a conjecture of a paper I'm peer reviewing

texts:
I was given a paper to peer review. A result of that paper has been obtained with some extrapolation trick and so they present it as highly plausible conjecture.
It turns out that me and another collaborator computed the exact same thing (for other reasons) in a work that is still unpublished and we used a method that is rigorous. Our results match so in principle I could prove their conjecture.
Now there are a few things I could do, and I'd like some opinions from you:

Don't say anything. When our paper comes out I will cite them and say that we prove their conjecture. This is ok, but it itches me a bit to recommend the publication of a result claimed as merely a conjecture when I know it to be true.
Say in the report "hey, by the way, you could prove your result by doing this. Please do it." However it is a hard computation to set up and I would just make them waste time. Also, I would need to ask my collaborator's permission on this.
Say in the report "hey, by the way, I have unpublished work that proves your conjecture, so great news." But I don't know what that would accomplish.

I'm obviously leaning towards 1. but maybe some of you have even better ideas.


texts:
How does one choose which speakers to invite to research seminars? There are some obvious points of consideration, for example if it is a seminar with a more or less specific topic, then the speaker should have some work related to the theme of the seminar. However, there are still a few other points of consideration:

Is it more common to invite early career researchers, or full professors?
How much of role does personal connection play?
Proximity/travel funds available

From what I experienced so far, there often seems to be a healthy mix of younger and older speakers, as well as people who live nearby or far away. Some insight in how people in charge of organizing regular seminars go about this would be appreciated.


texts: Reviewer wants me to do x - Should I admit I don't have the resources to do so although I think it's a good idea?

texts:
A reviewer pointed out that I should do an additional experiment to further validate my analysis. I agree this would be a good idea and would further strengthen the manuscript. However, I think it belongs to the category "a paper can always be better" and I don't think the additional experiment is essential to my argument.

The main reason I am not doing the additional experiment is that it would require additional funding that I don't have, and cannot acquire in the time the journal wants me to submit a revised version of the article (and even if they were more flexible, it would not be a good idea to wait two years to submit a revised version).

What is my best strategy when replying to the reviewer's comments? Should I

point out that adding the additional experiment would require additional funding and that this would not be possible within a reasonable time frame?
point out that the results are meaningful even without it?

I am a bit worried that saying "yes, that's a good idea, but I don't have the means to do it right now" would trigger the reply "Well, that's too bad for you, then the article is not suitable for publication". What's the best strategy here?


texts: How to use "can" or "could" when referring to a methodology?

texts:
If I say "This methodology can/could be used in the research in this area, e.g. (the relevant paper)", should I use can?

If no examples is given, should I use could? (to emphasize possibility?)


texts: How do I avoid or get past the post-orals slump?

texts:
I just passed my comprehensive oral exam. I took a week off and have spent the better part of another week trying to build motivation to get back to work.

Now I have about a dozen things I could do for my project: delve into the observational or modeling literature, hunt down a tricky bug in my prototype model (several approaches!), derive the more general governing equations for my dissertation model, learn somebody else's code which I plan on basing my model on, restructure my prototype code (needed, but it'll take hours), and the list goes on.

I acknowledge that this is a broad and opinion-based question, but here goes:

What are some good ways to beat the post-orals slump?


texts: No reply from PhD supervisor after meeting

texts:
I met up with a potential supervisor two weeks ago and they were very keen on my topic (on literature). They took a hard copy of my draft proposal to read and told me I will be contacted in a week. However it has been two weeks and I have not heard anything. I have sent a follow up email saying if my proposal is not appropriate, I would be happy to start from scratch again. There is no reply to that as well.

I am not sure what to do. If the proposal isn't ok is it not professional to email and let me know? Given the initial enthusiasm of the supervisor and the silence since they took my draft, should I believe my proposal must be horribly wrong and must be binned?


texts: How to find a reputable open access journal?

texts: I found few open access journals that show quite good quality articles. However, I have been advised that open access journals may be predatory. When I searched websites, I was surprised that all lists are "possibly" predatory journals. I tried to figure out why these lists are "possibly" predatory. One of the answers is that the websites claiming predatory publishers attempt to avoid judicial consequences. On the other hand, I also found that editors from the conventional publishers could have conflict of interests with competing open access publishers. I am completely puzzled and do not know if these lists of "possibly" predatory journals are due to conflict of interests or due to commercial interest of the open access journals. I want to publish my research paper timely and do not know if I should choose an open access journal. And, if yes, then how to find a reputable open access journal? Please advise.


texts: What should a reply to a peer review look like?

texts:
Recently I have received a peer-review letter on my article. While preparing an answer I've found that I have no idea what I should include in the answer.

There is multiple "idea" notes and few language issue mentioned.

It's my first peer-review, so it would be very useful to have some idea how to compose a good reviewer reply.


texts: Should I do a PhD or Master in Statistics for a career in Data Science?

texts:
I am a Mathematics student with a concentration in Applied and Computational Mathematics. I have done a Mathematics research project with a faculty member, which resulted in a co-authored paper being refereed. This project was on image processing, and I was exposed to some large scale data analysis. The original knowledge discovery element of the project was very exciting, and that's what made me decide to go to graduate school.

However, I had a hard time deciding what I want to study. I am naturally interested in many things (I was an Art History major before switching to Mathematics), and not inclined to put forth serious intellectual effort in anything that would narrow my career possibilities afterwards. For example, for some time I was very interested in Financial Mathematics, but then realized that this may limit my career options to the finance industry. With my research experience, I could see that Data Science is an interdisciplinary subject with potential application in a vast number of fields. So Data Science is a possible "major" for my graduate study.

As for the programs, Master programs bearing the names of "Data Analytics", "Data Science" and the like don't appeal to me as much as Statistics MS/PhD with Data Science track. The reason is that many of the former ones seem to be more or less "fad" programs (I'm not wishing to offend anyone here, so correct me if I'm wrong) designed to meet increasing industry demands for skilled data analysts, and so may lack the systematic, deep mathematical rigor and generality (i.e., not confined to business applications) I appreciate in the latter programs.

So it seems a PhD/Master in Statistics would suit my criteria for (1) a widely applicable, interdisciplinary subject and (2) more rigorous, mathematical training of the subject. What do you think?

Please note that as of now I have no particular preference for industry or academia after program completion. Which of the two I will end up in will depend largely on how my job search goes. I know that the number of faculty positions is much fewer than the number of PhD students wishing to fill those positions; also industry may pay better, and I am not dead set on producing academic papers in prestigious journals. As long as I get to work on interesting problems, using data science as a tool, and make independent discoveries as contribution, I would be happy.

Edit: Since this post may be too broad, as @Stephen pointed out, I rephrased my question as follows: given my interests in (1) independent knowledge discovery, (2) diversity of knowledge domains and applications, (3) systematic training, and (4) a career in Data Science, my question is: Is a Ph.D. in Statistics the right path? @Stephen has given a thoughtful response, but I would like to hear from others as well.


texts: Tips for being the first graduate student of a PI?

texts:
I have a very high expectation of a lab that I want to join and It's highly possible for me to eventually do that after my rotation period ends. The PI is the kind of person whom I have been looking for for so long. The only concern is that the PI doesn't have previous grad students and if I join I will be the very first grad student. I know there're a lot of benefits for being in that position and that's what I want. However, for being the first grad student, what issues/problems should I be careful about since I have no senior grad student to talk to for more experience? Thanks

NOTE: in Canada and the US, the term principal investigator (PI) refers to the holder of an independent grant and the lead researcher for the grant project - source: Wikipedia


texts: Why do publishers allow distributing preprints?

texts:
I recently wanted to read one conference paper and one journal article. The conference paper is named Division by invariant integers using multiplication. By clicking on the "All 9 versions" link on Google Scholar, I found the full paper on gmplib.org.

The journal article is named improved division by invariant integers. It is also available at several sources as PDF.

Why do publishers allow such redistribution of papers / preprints? I mean, if everyone is doing the same as I'm doing, the main revenue source of publishers will go away. Is it because publishers obtain their main revenue from university libraries? If I can't find a PDF preprint of an article, the next thing I'm going to do is to try to find the article through my university library.


texts: No vote from department, up vote from university level committee. What does this mean?

texts:
I am an assistant professor who went up for tenure, got a negative vote in my department and then a positive vote at the university level committee. I have asked a number of people who have been in academia for decades, and no one has seen my exact situation. I am unsure of what will be the eventual outcome. I am wondering if anyone has seen a situation like my own, and what ended up happening?

To put things in context, I have a solid number of pubs, some small grants, good to excellent teaching and outstanding service. I have had some difficult interactions with some of my colleagues, mostly because I called attention to racism and reported unethical behaviors in the past to leadership at the school.

Addendum - The school’s procedural policy seems to be that the decision now goes to the provost. There does not seem to be any explicit school policy on what would be the outcome. My understanding is that the previous votes are advisory to the provost. If it helps, all my external letters were good. 3 of the 6 explicitly stated I should get tenure.

This seems like an uncommon situation. Has anyone seen a situation like my own? What was the eventual outcome?


texts: Transcript error, college unresponsive - how to handle?

texts:
I applied to graduate school this spring, and discovered that my undergraduate transcript has a substantial error: it omits one of my majors.

I contacted the university registrar, who indicated the omission was caused by a "system" issue that prevents listing a 3rd major if the student thas one. (They said their new system won't have this issue in the future, which doesn't help me at all.)

The registrar also pointed to a note on the bottom of the transcript that says I was "approved to pursue" the three majors. But, the comment is dated 2 years before graduation, and "approved to pursue" doesn't mean "completed," so I don't think this is sufficient, especially given the conspicuous blank spot next to where the third major would be listed.

Since replying to my first email right away, the registrar hasn't replied in weeks. They have not indicated that they plan to correct the issue.

How do I get the college to correct my transcript, preferably soon enough to submit to the graduate school?


texts: What to do when you have more things to say in a published paper?

texts:
I have published a paper covering a topic, now I see that there is a lot more to say about the published work, mainly in the theoretical framework and in the results/conclusion sections. However, I don't see how these information can merit their own paper.

How can I publish these additional information since the main core the work has been already published?

The best I came up with is to talk about these additional information in a conference paper, is that possible? Can I maintain the same results from the original paper ? what do you suggest?


texts: Is the minimum GPA required for Graduate school a cut-off criteria or a general guideline?

texts:
I am a senior year undergrad student from a prestigious institute in India. I intend to pursue a PhD after graduating. While researching universities, I stumbled upon the fact that many of the top schools have a minimum GPA requirement. For example UCSD has 3.4/4 as its minimum requirement.

My GPA is 7.2 on a scale of 10. It is quite above average in my school, but it translates to a 2.9 on a scale of 4 which looks pretty bad. DOes this mean that my application is likely to be rejected outright?

Also, I heard that most universities don't consider converted scores (by WES, for example) in a good light. I have research experience in my undergraduate years to offset the GPA. I really hope that the universities have a look at that.

Should I not apply to schools with such a requirement?


texts: When referring to races, should 'black' and 'white' be capitalized? (MLA)

texts: I was assigned to write about the relationship between poverty and crime, and in my research, race came up as a factor. I'm supposed to use the MLA format. Should 'black' and 'white' be capitalized when referring to the respective races? I see that APA specifies that they should be capitalized, but I can't find anything for MLA.


texts: Choosing a title to hold upon completion of a doctoral degree: "Dr." vs. "Ph.D."

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  EU Ph.D. in Germany: Calling yourself “Dr.” or “Ph.D.”

I'm asking this question in relation to my doctoral studies in Germany. However, my question may be relevant to regulations in other European countries.

At the university where I pursue my doctorate, I have the choice between two titles. Upon successfully completion of my dissertation and all related examinations I can decide which title I want to hold: "Dr. rer. nat." or "Ph.D.".

In Germany, the traditional title is "Dr.". From what I understand the title "Ph.D." is being introduced at many universities for reasons of comparability with degrees from other countries (especially with the US and the UK). I'm guessing, the reasoning is that holding a "Ph.D." will improve your chances when applying for (academic) openings internationally. However, I have also been told that the German "Dr." has an excellent international reputation and may give you an edge over "Ph.D.".

EDIT: A couple of years ago, legal steps were taken so that a "Ph.D." issued by other European countries is automatically recognized in Germany (as long as the issuing institutions are eligible) and may be "translated" to "Dr." in Germany. There is also a question related to this here. However, a "Ph.D." issued in Germany may not be "translated" to "Dr."! Therefore, I have to decide for either one and cannot use both.

Hence, my question is: What are the advantages and disadvantages of either title with respect to academic careers in Germany and internationally? Is a "Ph.D." seen as less distinguished by German academics? How is the German "Dr." perceived by academics in other countries as compared with a "Ph.D."?


texts: Are there instances of papers the first parts of whose colon-wise titles are questions?

texts:
pre-colon-part: post-colon-part is a format which is often used in titles of papers. In all of the instances I have seen, the first part is an informative phrase, a (fictitious) example of which may be

Optimal consensus control of drone swarms: a game-theoretic approach.

But, I am wondering whether there are instances of papers# first parts of whose colon-wise titles are questions; as another fake example, something like:

Constructive or destructive?: Implications on the effectiveness of my
vaccine on the mutated coronavirus

I just tried to look up potential occurrences of the pattern pre-colon-part?: post-colon-part in Google Scholar by searching "?:". However, my query yields nothing. Has anyone already encountered such instances in the scientific literature?
# I am preferably interested in the potential instances which are composed by English native speakers, and/or published in prestigious journals.


texts: Publishing a conference version of a journal paper at the same time ? (copyright issues)

texts:
This may be a question repeated many times, but I want to know your opinion.

I submitted a journal paper for an algorithm (Computer Science). Fearing that the review process take too long, I decided to submit a short-version conference paper, while the long version is under-review. I received the journal review comments, and re-sent the modifications to the journal. Meanwhile, the conference paper was accepted. But the camera-ready is not sent yet.

The problem is that both papers are about the same idea. There is also some copy-pasted parts in both papers. But:

1) the editor of the journal was not informed about the conference paper (I heard that I should tell the journal about any published papers - but note that the conference paper is not yet published - not even the camera ready is submitted),

2) the organization organizing the conference, is not the same that manage the journal. I have been told that there are conflicting copyrights.

The proposed solutions (that colleagues told me about):

a) submit both as is !

b) submit both (but with change in text).

c) do not submit the conference paper (but I heard this can be harmful)

d) tell the editor now (but honestly, the journal is way more important than the conference).


texts: Mapping connections between topics covered in academic papers - does such a tool exist?

texts:
I'm interested in learning about how to go about writing a paper, and obviously, an integral part of this process will be to read papers written by others, and study those. I'm curious about the idea of using software mapping tools as a means of logging connections between certain papers of interest.

The following questions: Is there a network map of subjects and how they connect with each other? and Map (tree) of citations/references are related to my question, but I'm not sure the suggested software, Auto Desk
or Cytoscape, would be entirely appropriate for what I'm interested in doing.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?


texts: Mentioning Professors in math PhD applications

texts:
When applying to grad school, is it a good idea to mention professors you want to work with? For example, "I am applying to this program because University X has leading experts in the field Y, such as Professor Z. I studied some of Professor Z's papers and would like to learn more about this particular topic in field Y."

EDIT: In addition, what if I were to email Professor Z to ask if he is taking students (in order to avoid an awkward situation where the Prof is leaving/not taking students)? For example, "Dear Prof. Z, I am applying to University X for grad school and I am interested in field Y. I am wondering if you are taking any students at this time, or if there are other researchers in field Y that are taking students?"
Also, is it normal/not awkward for a math phd applicant to email a professor?


texts: How lenient are conferences in accepting and reviewing lately submitted poster presentation abstracts?

texts:
There is a conference that my advisor suggested that I attend and present at, but unfortunately as this was just suggested today, I missed the abstract submission deadline by about a week.

I know this is my fault, but I am just wondering how lenient conferences are wrt late registration. I emailed the organizer politely explaining the situation and asking if it would still be possible to register. If anyone is curious, this is for the SIAM annual meeting in Chicago.

I've never attended any sort of conference at this level before (but do have some experience with poster presentations), so I'm wondering should I even expect a reply, let alone a positive one? I think this would be a really great opportunity for me to present my research to people in the field, and I will most likely attend the conference even if I'm not able to present at the poster session.

Edit and update: The organizing committee has agreed to give consideration to my abstract, and said they'd let me know by the end of next week re: acceptance/rejection.


texts: I'm now a second year math student at a top uni, and in the summer of my first year, I was a part of a small research team where we proved various new results related to Random Matrix Theory and wrote 2 papers on them. Now those papers are up on arXiv, but it hasn't been accepted to a peer-reviewed journal yet. My question is that when I'm applying for summer research programs etc should I list these as "preprints" on my CV even if they haven't been accepted to a journal yet?


texts: Writing a book: How do you use references?

texts:
I'm re-writing my PhD dissertation as a book manuscript. My dissertation includes in-text citations to back up what I'm saying in almost every sentence - (Doe, 2012). My brief review of academic books on my bookshelf seems to imply that books don't do this.

I know the audience and purpose of a book is different than a manuscript, but shouldn't the level (and visibility) of academic rigor be maintained?
In a book manuscript for a university press, how do you go about integrating these citations? Should they just be transferred to footnotes that include the full bibliographic reference? Do you maintain the in-text citation?


texts:
I am mentioning briefly research topic that has reached a general consensus and cite a literature review paper. I wonder which of the two ways below provides in terms of the best readability. I dislike both options and suspect I am missing the optimal option.

blabla.... a group of study has found strong association....

See Smith and Pitt (1999) for overview.
See (Smith and Pitt, 1999) for overview.
See ???? for overview

I am following APA standard but not literary so style improvements are more important.


texts: Is it ethical to request additional money for non-research related work in a research lab as a grad student?

texts:
I work in a computational research lab as a graduate research assistant. We're all funded under various grants to do research in our field and we are also working on a thesis, which may or may not be directly related to the funding source (it is if we are lucky!)

Our lab is also licensing the software we write to outside companies for their own in-house use. As a result, there are many "niceties" that should be added to the code to make it more user-friendly, but these have no bearing on our research, either the sponsor-funded or thesis-related.

Is it okay that we are expected to implement these things in addition to our funded/thesis related work? Is it acceptable to ask for additional money (assuming work done on this is in addition to funded/thesis work)?

Our advisor is considering hiring an outside company to come in and put in these features, but we would be expected to help them through the process of learning and understanding our code so it would be nice to cut out the middle man since we certainly won't get any extra money from advising the consultants.


texts: How do you balance producing results with learning new skills?

texts:
On the one hand, I'd like to produce a few graphs every week so my project can move forward.  Taking a month off to learn a new programming language, do a literature review, or work through a relevant textbook would hurt the pace of my research, and my advisor would wonder why I haven't done anything for a month.

On the other hand, if I take time off to learn a new skill, it may make my research faster and more efficient in the future.

What is the best way to balance these competing demands?


texts: Is reuse of "internal" results considered self-plagiarism if used in a later publication?

texts:
This is a little bit different from the case of reusing boilerplate text.

Say one has done a series of experiments (either real or "virtual") to produce a set of results. Because the results are inconclusive as to the cause of certain effects, an additional, much larger set of experiments were performed under a series of different conditions to complete the "factorial matrix" of possibilities (all possible states of factor X crossed with all possible states of factor Y).

However, because the original results are valid, and represent unique "cells" in the factorial matrix, is it necessary to rerun the experiments for a future publication, or is it just a matter of obtaining journal permission for the re-use of figures and tables associated with the presentation of the data? As an example, am I violating copyright if I add a new set of curves to a figure which contains the same data as before?

I ask in part because there was just today a retraction based on reuse of figures, and I'd rather not run afoul of guidelines.


texts: Emailing potential supervisors in the US before submitting application

texts:
I'm applying to PhD programs this year. How common is it to email potential supervisors before submitting my application, asking if they have a spot available? Could this improve my chances of admission? I've heard that this is the norm in European countries. What about in the US?
I have a masters degree (Mathematics) and know roughly the area of research I'm interested in.


texts: How to write large numbers in a scientific thesis?

texts: I know the rule of thumb is to write out numbers 1–10 in words but what if the number has a decimal (i.e 3.4 million)? And if I write it as 3.4 million don’t I have to write the other numbers, for consistency, as 1 million, 2 million and so on?


texts: When citing a personal corespondence, is the full name always mentioned?

texts:
If you're citing a personal correspondence, e.g.:

"Cats are vicious" (Bill Bobson, personal correspondence, March 12, 2012)

and you continue to use this personal correspondence with a cat expert, do you refer to them simply as Bobson, or Bill Bobson?


texts: Undergraduate and Masters degrees in the UK before PhD. Why do they last so little time?

texts:
I am quite baffled by the undergraduate studies in the UK as well with their graduate studies. In Argentina (where I am from) and in other countries like Spain and Greece (as well as in Equador for example), the undergraduate education lasts between 4 and 6 years. In Argentina doing a BA degree in Physics takes 6 years, in Spain it was until last year 5 years and now 4 and in Greece 4 or 5 years depending on the university. Then, in order to do a PhD you need to study another 2 (for 4 year degrees) years or another 1 year (for 5 or 6 year undergrad degree).

If you sum up you end up having between 5-7 years of pre-PhD education. In other countries e.g. in Germany, Italy, Holland, France you study a 3 year undergrad degree and then a 2 year Master's degree before you begin a PhD. Therefore in the whole continental Europe a pre-PhD education requires between 5 and 7 years of education. The PhD then lasts around 3-4 years usually.

Now in the UK a Bachelor degree lasts 3 years (i.e. like in Italy or Germany or France) but the Master's is only one year long. Additionally if you get a good mark in your Bachelor you may enter to a PhD program directly without any Masters. Thus in UK you begin a PhD with a minimum of 3-4 years of pre-PhD education. Then a PhD never lasts more than 3 years (most typically).

So, my question is how do we explain these differences? Why would a university look at a UK PhD graduate on the same standards as an Argentinian one? I am asking this because in my group in my university in Argentina we welcomed a UK postdoc this year. He started studying physics the same year as I did. Despite that he now has a PhD after 7 years of studies and I am just beginning my PhD. In our conversations I am amazed sometimes by the fact that this person has been awarded the title of Doctor by a rather prestigious university since he seems to lack very basics of my area of research.

To summarize we have the following facts: PhD time per country is
UK ~ 6-7,
USA ~ 8-10,
Germany ~ 8-9,
Argentina ~ 9-10,
Spain ~ 8-10,
Italy ~ 8-9,
Greece ~ 9-10,
Holland ~ 8-9,
and so on. How do we explain (or they explain) this difference between the UK (England and Wales basically) and the rest of the world?


texts: Why are examinees often not allowed to leave during the start and end of an exam?

texts:
I notice that, quite often, exams have a rule similar to this:

  You may not leave the exam theater during the first ten minutes and last ten minutes of the exam.

I'm wondering what the purpose of this rule is. In the first ten minutes presumably nobody would have finished the exam, but I don't see why that should stop anyone from leaving. As for the last ten minutes, if I had to guess, it's to prevent an "arms race" where examinees race to leave before everyone else so they can avoid the traffic jam at the end of the exam. However this hardly seems like a deal-breaker. There're also exams where nobody can leave the exam theater until the exam is over, and usually the end of those exams aren't a complete mess: examinees just wait until scripts are collected and then leave. Besides, having this rule just pushes the "arms race" to ten minutes before the official end.

What is the point of this rule?


texts: Where to get second opinions on independent research?

texts: Advisor mentorship, department peers, passing extended abstracts around at conferences etc. all come to mind for an affiliated researcher. None of those options except the last one apply to someone without an affiliation and the last one is cost prohibitive most of the time. What are the options for someone without access to traditional options like these?


texts: Sharing data (not a data set) with a research paper

texts: How to share data accompanying a research paper? I know there exist some places to share datasets, but sometimes I would like to share data that are not data set (e.g. experiment parameters, results, etc.), and add a pointer in the research paper to the online location of the data. The data size typically range from a few KB to a few MB, and the license is not an issue.


texts: Is it possible/acceptable to publish the same article in 2 journals, if one is un-categorized?

texts:
So as the title says I got the opportunity to publish my article right around the time my article has already been accepted by other student journal.
My question now is - is it acceptable to publish an article in both journals, with informing the editorial board first, if in the case of student journal I'm not getting any academic points for it?
I know that self-plagiarism is seen as publishing your paper multiple times in categorized journals to cheat the system for academic progression, but what is the general stand on an issue like in this case?


texts: Any possible solution for this submision mistake?

texts:
I recently have submitted a CVPR conference  paper (double blind) and made a horrible mistake!

I finished the remaining part of the paper one day before the deadline, and I made a copy of the files just in case anything went wrong.

Then I started to take care of the typo/grammar mistakes and polishing the structure (paragraphs, figures and tables placement).

When I finished I submitted the final version. But the next day, when I checked the submitted version I got a shock!
I had submitted the version before the polishing! The one that I copied for safety!!

The portal is closed and the organizers won't allow any more updates to the paper. Only submitting a supplementary file is allowed for which I'm not allowed to submit the paper again.

My guess is when the reviewers see an unpolished paper with many mistakes they will have a strong bias towards rejecting it!

There is no solution, is that right?


texts: How important is institution prestige at the postdoc level?

texts:
I once heard a piece of advice from an established researcher in my field: even if you don't want to stay there permanently, choose your first tenure-track institution wisely, since you won't be able to move to a more prestigious university -- only comparable or weaker ones.
I was wondering, how relevant is this at the postdoc level? Of course it's always better to have worked at high-tier universities, but e.g. would getting a postdoc job at a lower-ranked university (because I like the location, because of a good advisor, whatever) prevent me from getting another postdoc position at a higher-level institution? Would it decrease my chances of getting a TT position at a good place later on, even if I have previously worked at a prestigious institution?
(Just to clarify, I'm a non-US postdoc and planning to do at least a few postdoc stints before looking for more permanent positions. This might not apply to the US where I often see people only do one postdoc and go into tenure-track after that.)


texts: Replying the rejection email from Professor

texts:
Recently I mailed a professor for a PhD position and got a reply after two days.
The following is the reply I received from the prof.

  I am afraid we already found a candidate to fill this position.
      There will be other opportunities in the future in our group.
      We are truly sorry for not bringing more positive news, and I would like
      wish you the best on your job search.

A thank you and good luck reply is needed?


texts: What are ways for graduate students to make additional money?

texts:
A friend of mine started a PhD program after finishing his diploma with the best possible grade.

Unfortunately the institute does not have a lot of resources so he is being paid from a project fund for 3 years for a part time job.

He needs the full time to work on his PhD thesis, however, so works half the time for free.

This and his friends starting to work in the industry for considerably more money made him feel left behind, questioning his choices and that he is being taken advantage of.

The project that is funding him is capped at 3 years, so he doesn't think he could work part time to supplement his income.

Are there any ways, scholarships for example, for these kinds of situations, or does my friend simply need to reconsider his choices and quit his PhD to go into industry as well.

The field is aero-space engineering.


texts: Can the university force me to share my courses publicly online? I want to use my course material to write a book in the future

texts:
As a response for the Covid-19 pandemic, my university built an electronic platform, and is now ordering professors to share their courses on it.

The school platform is open to the public, so I'd rather not share my documents on it. I've been using Google Classroom to share content with my students.

Can I rightfully refuse to use the school's platform?


texts: Should I disclose my mental illness and medication in a PhD position interview?

texts:
While I was doing my PhD in my previous position I was diagnosed with a mental illness. I started medication however as a result I could not concentrate very well and it made me quit my previous position. I continued my medication and recently have reduced it. Now I think I am able to concentrate again.

Soon I will have an interview for a new PhD position. I was wondering if I should bring up the matter. On one hand, I think I should be honest to my future supervisor. On the other hand, I don't want to lose the chance by scaring them.

Would you please help me with your opinions?

If I shouldn't bring it up myself, what if they asked me about my previous position? Should I tell everything then?


texts: How to apply to do a masters thesis in the US or Canada when departments don't post specific positions?

texts:
I am enrolled in a Master's program (Computational Science and Engineering) in Germany and currently I am looking for a Master's Thesis abroad, preferably in the US or in Canada.
Unfortunately, I am not sure how to apply for a thesis and to be honest I am walking around in a vicious circle.

What I've done so far:
My first step was to visit the international office at our university. The lady there told me that I should have a look at some university/institute websites, look for specific research areas/topics of my interest and write application letters to the respective persons.

Additionally, I went to one of my professors who gave me a list of people that he has worked with in the past and which probably might have interesting topics available. However, after carefully working through the list and writing down what looked interesting to me he told me that there's a 99% chance that my application will be ignored or denied if I don't explicitly describe what work I want to do. So actually his attempt to help was not of much use to me.

My main concern is: How can I know what I want to do if I don't know what is being offered? Most departments do not explicitly offer positions, in particular I haven't found a single offer for a master thesis at US/Canada department sites.

My area of interests involves fields such as the numerical treatment of partial differential equations (e.g. finite elements, solvers for hyperbolic problems...), numerical linear algebra, etc.
However, if there is no disclosure of potential necessities for a master student I don't see a chance to describe my interests more specific than that. On the other hand, I am afraid that my applications will be interpreted as "bulk letters" if I just write down everything that I would like to work with.

I also thought of reading through some publications/papers of the respective persons, which would be very time consuming. But regarding the fact that I can have at most a slight insight into the respective topics and that I don't even know if there is any need for further work at a master student's level I don't think it is reasonable to spend too much time with that without a gleam of any success.

I would appreciate if someone could help me with some hints on how to come across that. It would be even better if someone who faced the same situation and succeeded could share her/his approach.


texts: Advisor on medical leave only a few weeks before dissertation defense

texts:
My doctoral advisor has been on medical leave for several months now. As such, he has been extremely hard to maintain contact with. He lives in a different part of the country and checks email only about one or two times a week. This usually has not been a huge issue because I know what I need to do for my dissertation and have been doing it.

In keeping with a discussion that he and I had about three months ago (which was a continuation of several prior discussions on the same topic), I have agreed to terms for a full-time job starting in six weeks. Part of the contingencies of the job require that I actually have successfully defended my dissertation.

Today, he sent me a terse email to inform me that he needs to take care of some of his medical issues, and then he will contact me and we can try to "finish" the dissertation. This is a deviation from previous agreements he and I had. Outside of any last edits he would want to add though, the chapters for the dissertation have been done for some time now. I am just biding my time, waiting for him to give the final go ahead to submit the dissertation to the committee. I have conveyed these thoughts in email to him, but he has ignored these emails.

My question is this: Has anyone ever declared their advisor "medically unavailable" just weeks before trying to defend their dissertation? I am essentially faced with the decision of delaying the start date for my job (while still paying rent all the while) and keeping in the good graces of my absent advisor, or, alternatively, going to my department and seeking to have my advisor declared medically unavailable. Because he would possibly still need to sign off on my defense paperwork, I am worried that my advisor could try something to still block me by refusing to consent to signing the paperwork.

ADDED

I will add here a few details about why my advisor is on medical leave. He is not sick or dying. He had a routine procedure done on his knee about five or so months ago. Millions of people have undergone this procedure and return to work within a week. This is not a case of a poor old man who is terminally ill. I do not think it is unreasonable to ask a guy who had routine knee surgery to respond to emails five months after the surgery.


texts: Good responses to "Ivory Tower" accusations?

texts:
Recently I have come across a few articles on Google that are really distressing.

I typed in "professor real world" and it just mentions how professors have lost touch with the real world, how they need to step down from their ivory towers, etc.

Why is all that bad? It doesn't make me reconsider my dreams a little, but it does hurt.

Is it ultimately subjective from the pessimists' point of view? I have come to terms with the fact nothing ultimately matters, we are just grains of (smart) sand in the universe. Whether I did industry or not wouldn't matter, since I love academia.

How can I help others see that academia is a 'real job' too?


texts: How can I deal with these group members?

texts:
Recently, my apush (AP US history) teacher assigned my class of high school juniors into groups in class for a project. Though I dont know that many people in my class, I really did wish that I’d get people who would do their work. This is where my problem arises. The two guys i was placed in a group in have the exact personalities I tend to avoid and not want to interact with unless they take initiative - I’ll call them Person A and Person B to lessen confusion.

Person A obviously cares about his grade, but seems to look down on my because I’m a girl, I think?, or at least I’m assuming this is the case from what I’ve observed of him when he said he didn’t expect me to have a discord “because girls don’t normally don’t use that gaming chat”. I think I could work with this person, because he does quite care about his grade, but I feel as if I’d only get along with him if there was another person besides himself who was hardworking in our group.

which leads me to Person B. Despite being someone who rarely checks her grades and usually procrastinates to the last second, I actually consider myself more diligent in my work compared to Person B. I know for a fact that Person B will definitely throw me off in terms of planning the work and not allow me to properly get work done because I anticipate he’ll decide to either just not do the work, or do a terrible job at it. He immediately admitted he has a 70 in this AP class and that he sucks at this class (to which I wondered why he didn’t drop out of the class, but I try to keep my opinions to my self when talking to people I don’t know as well), and said he wished he sat behind me so that he could easily cheat off me - which absolutely pissed me off. People may say that I’m biased or just extremely judgmental, but will absolutely not let someone with a personality like that cheat off my work (though I have, on occasion, guiltily let it slide for my friends and other students who I find interesting or charismatic). Of course, I didn’t say anything to this as I’m not so confident to state anything that may make someone I don’t know to become hostile towards me.

As a group, we didn’t get any work done today as these two dudes decided to get off topic and talk about stocks, which I’m not so interested in, and also not even related to the topic we’re supposed to research for our US history class.

This situation leads me to ask my question, how can I deal with group members like this? Since I’m someone who can do my work by myself or with friends more efficiently and properly than I can with people i don’t really get along with, should I just do all the work by myself and then expect they do their work? Whether they do or don’t, at least I’d have my work down. Would it be rude to tell the teacher? Or is this all in me and my own prejudiced against guys? I’ve never really clicked well with guys in the first place unless they were kind enough to talk to me first, so I’m always conscious that I may be acting in some way because I’m unable to understand them.


texts: How to tell a hiring committee that my family lives in the city

texts:
How can a job applicant tactfully tell a hiring committee that they particularly want to live in the location where the school is located?

I am applying for a faculty job in the city where my wife's family lives. I would love to move there to be close to her family when she and I have kids.

The school might be concerned that I would take another offer over theirs. I want to communicate that I would be particularly likely to accept their offer if they made one.

What is an appropriate way to communicate this? I want to avoid inserting unnecessary personal information, like my marital status or sexual orientation.

I'm thinking of something like this toward the end of the cover letter:
"I am particularly excited about this position for both personal and professional reasons. Most of my family lives in [city] and I would be thrilled to live there."


texts: Is it possible to apply for a Master's programme then leave current PhD?

texts:
I'm a 2-year PhD student at a research institute in Asia, and now I'm thinking about applying for a Master's programme abroad (possibly in Australia or Europe), so is it possible for me to submit my application first, if I could be really lucky to receive an offer, then I leave my current PhD?

Here's my background. I earned my BS in optical information, and my final project was to investigate quantum machine learning, it really piqued my interest in machine learning, that's why I took my Master's programme on data analysis. Things went well at first, the research institute I'm in is part of a larger system, so the first year we were all gathered to finish our courses in a universty. In the second year, we were summoned back to respective institutes to finish our studies.

I was hoping that I could finally get to know more about scientific research, but it turned out that it was just the beginning of the nightmare. I was assigned to a team led by a certain PI, everyone on the team is this PI's subordinate, even my so-called supervisor. The PI is the kind of person that won't allow others to say "no" to him, and he initially asked me to investigate situation awareness, then switched the topic to object detection. At that time I didn't put much thought into it, so I applied to continue my study as PhD student, and stayed on the team.

To cut a long story short, I was then asked to work on multiple object tracking, remote sensing, spatial-temporal data mining, event detection in videos, graph-based data mining and information centric networking. That's 8 different fields in 2 years. I just can't stand it anymore, I've never recieved any proper guidance since I got back to the institute, all the PI wants is asking students on the team to write a report about certain fields so he can make better judgement when outsourcing the project.

I'm still passionate about my research, I keep reading papers and conducting experiments on computer vision and deep learning, but haven't made much progress, I have no one to discuss my research idea with, as no one on this team really knows these things, the PI and supervisor really don't care about students' research since they can still make resonable profits by outsourcing projects, they just keeps distracting students with endless reports to write.

This is why I made up my mind to apply for a Master's programme abroad, I desperately yearn for better guidance, hopefully it can make me better prepared, so I can eventually do some real PhD.


texts: Can I give back my Master's Degree and remove my Master's Thesis?

texts:
I was coerced into a sexual relationship with my Advisor. Although, I passed my First Doctoral exam in my first year (2008), I was held back from any further advancement by my Advisor. In frustration and by manipulation, I defended a Master's thesis using my Dissertation work.  In an ordinary world, the sophistication, analyses, and level of research comprises two of the three required for my dissertation.  I can't defend myself and laws aren't upheld at my University. In December 2015, I submitted allegations of sexual misconduct, after accumulating overwhelming evidence that my Advisor had sexual relationships with me and three subsequent students he mentored. I am still waiting for a finding on my allegations from the Title Coordinator at my University.

I want to return and decline my Master's degree. It's apparent that I was held to a different standard than other Masters and PhD students. It is my way of getting this acknowledged. I also want to remove my current obstacle in getting help from my uninterested advisor - "Your Dissertation must be significantly different from your Masters Thesis, thus you need four experiments."

Is this possible?


texts: How to make sure that something hasn't been done in the literature and can be studied by me

texts: Before starting a new research project/paper, one needs to make sure that this project is new and nobody has done it. I'm still not confident about whether sth really hasn't been done in the literature by doing the following search: 1.google scholar, 2.researchgate, 3.related papers, their reference lists and what papers cited them. Is there a foolproof approach?


texts:
I've been seeing the phrase "knowledge point" everywhere for a long time, including research papers.

Is "knowledge point" a term in pedagogy or some other related field? If yes, what's the definition of it?


texts: How to ensure that a reference letter is sent on time if not knowing the reliability of a referee?

texts:
It has happened to me the second time that I was turned down by a referee (different one) not taking his responsibility seriously. Of course, I let each of them know about my application and the reference request well ahead of time.

The first time I requested the reference letter I was told that everything would be sent on time, etc. But one week before the application deadline the reference was still not sent (even despite my reminders) and so I quickly found another referee who rescued me. I never told the first referee that I found somebody else and the referee never got back to me over the email again...

The second time I had the "advantage" (or rather a deception) of being able to meet the referee everyday in person and so the day before the deadline I reminded that professor in person concerning the reference, also sent emails, etc. He promised into my eyes he would send it on that very day, but the deadline passed and the reference was never sent... No, the referee did not die, did not have an accident or a bomb in his office. They just could not be bothered.

I think it is very sad to know of the existence of such people and their behaviours, especially considering the fact that they used to be (some of them still are, probably should not be) my close collaborators with whom I spent many hours together.
I believed them. I thought I knew them, but only afterwards I realized that whatever smooth words they may have told me in the past, they did not mean them.

How do I ensure that the reference gets sent on time, how can I determine that I can trust somebody who I test the first time?

Usually more than one reference is required and I know that on some people I can rely 100%. Their yes means yes and their no means no. But what about the new referees? I was thinking of telling them of a deadline that is e.g. 15 days earlier than the actual deadline and in case no reference gets sent by my deadline, then I would contact an emergency referee to send the reference by the actual deadline. But sometimes, an electronic application tells the referees of the actual deadline and therefore I cannot make my own deadline.

Also note that many referees do not want to give you their reference that you may read it, but rather want to send it directly to the application committee. Thus something like having a backup letter, I am afraid, is not an option, especially in cases when the reference needs to be signed electronically by the referee oneself.


texts: Responsing to "How do you intend to fund your studies for the entire duration of your stay in ...?"

texts:
I am filling in an application form for a PhD program and I am supposed to answer the following question:

"How do you intend to fund your studies for the entire duration of your stay in ...?"

Actually, I cannot afford any part of the living costs and university fees but I don't know how to mention it in a academic, polite and well-structured fashion.


texts: Is getting a second masters frowned upon?

texts:
I recently read on stack overflow that getting two PhDs just shows that you're unfocused and you don't know what you want to do. However, I'm at a small school with a 5 year Computer Engineering bachelors/masters program I feel like I should take advantage of, but I'd also like to go on to do another part time grad degree in the same field or Computer Science at a larger, better established school, while I work.

If I went to a larger school like University of Illnois or MIT or similar, will having a masters and going back for another be frowned upon, or is this a non-issue?


texts: Question about listing postdoc on NSF biosketch

texts:
Yesterday, I submitted a postdoc research fellowship proposal to NSF. I am currently a postdoc.

I realized that I didn't list the postdoc in the Professional Preparation section, but it is listed at the top of the Appointments section immediately below. It is also mentioned in the training plan section of the Project Description.

Should I worry about this error, or is it nothing to be concerned about?


texts: My paper got accepted; acquaintance's paper wasn't. Should I thank them?

texts:
A week before submitting to a peer reviewed publication, me and an acquaintance exchanged drafts for comments. My acquaintance described my work as preliminary, listing many ways in which the work could improve. The tone was slightly harsh, but the comments were constructive. They seemed to be relatively confident about their paper.

My paper was accepted, but I heard that their paper was not. Should I thank my acquaintance? On the one hand it is courteous to do so, since they read a draft and helped me to improve. On the other hand, it could come across as schadenfreude if they are a bit on the sensitive side.


texts: How does the teaching of biology differ from teaching physics?

texts:
Respected teachers, I have this question for quite some time and I need your ideas.

When we teach physics we can have a lot of brainstorming sessions and adopt the "scientific method"  ( Observation, Hypothesis, Experiments, Conclusion ).  I do this regularly in my physics class. Recently I was asked to take a course in elementary biology. I find that most biology books are filled with facts instead of stimulating questions, observations and experiment opportunities which I find in good physics books. In biology, we find less opportunity for real demonstration and conducting experiments-  e.g. how to do an experiment on the digestive system as clear as we do to demonstrate and understand Newton's laws in physics. You might suggest using models but all models are inaccurate. On the other hand Netwon's laws can be directly observed without aid or model ( though that is also possible).

So my question is

1- Fundamentally how the two teachings differ, and what could be the most appropriate and meaningful strategy for teaching biology that keeps the students motivated and curious to know living beings?

2- Can we still use scientific methods as we do in physics? (But I see a narrow opportunity for observation, hypothesis, experiment, and conclusion.)

I think someone who is experienced in the teaching of biology, as well as physics, might explain how he/she shifts strategy when moving from one to another.

Thank you very much for your valuable suggestions.

Edit:
By 'fact' I mean rote learning. You just remember what is Newton's third law without bothering to know how Newton discovered it and how in general scientists discover and invent things. I am talking about the lowest level in Bloom's taxonomy. If that is the best learning experience in science, we could not have come where we are today. In my class, I prefer Questioning, inquiry and challenging the set notions instead of accepting and forcing things as Gospel truth. In my opinion, all famous scientists work like this. Galileo did this and was punished by Church but was ultimately proved right.


texts: Correct Academic Title, Necessity of Adding All Emails, Necessity of Adding Authors Photo in IEEE Transaction Journal?

texts:
I should provide a concise biography of myself for IEEE transactions journal. We received the paper proof and this biography goes at the end of our accepted paper. At one point in my biography I should add my current position. So, I’ve written the following sentence. “He is currently a lecturer in ABC University”
ABC University is a small university that I am teaching some academic courses there. I am working there with my Master degree and teach the student who are purchasing Bachelor degree in Electrical engineering. I am not an associated, assistant or full professor. I am a part time instructor that is qualified to teach these students. Also, I don't have any constant commitment to the university as well. I fill out a contract form for each semester and get paid based on the hours that I teach at the university. So I would like to ask:

what is my exact ranking title? A lecturer, instructor, adjunct
lecturer, adjunct instructor or what?
How much is it important to be precise for academic title in this
biography?

My professor which is the corresponding author of this paper didn't add my email at the foot note of paper and only added his own email there. He was concern about exceeding 8 page limit of IEEE transactions papers in first submission of the manuscript. In the other stages where we received the revision of the paper he said we will add it after the acceptance stage.... so, right now we received the IEEE proof PDF of the paper and we are only asked to prepare a  Biography.So I would like to ask:

Is it important to include all authors email in the paper? (I am the
first name on the paper and he is the second, but he is the
corresponding author)
considering the fact that, we only received the PDF of the paper, How
can we correct the foot note at this stage?

The IEEE editorial board didn't ask us about providing a photo beside our biography. Why is that? All publications of this kid of transactions have a photo beside authors biography. Also, in the 'authors guide' it is mentioned that a photo and biography is needed. on the other hand, my professor told me we only send them our short biography, because after their pedantic revision our paper became 13 pages and we should pay about 550$ fine. So, I would like to ask:

Is it important to add our photo beside biography?
Considering the fact that we didn't exceed 8 page limit of IEEE in the first
submission of our manuscript, and the other 5 pages has been added to
the paper based on the reviewers revision and editing of the editorial
board, Do we still need to pay that fine? Also, My professor and I are
Senior member and Student of IEEE organization, does that help us to
get rid of paying the fine?

Your help is much appreciated in advance.


texts: Article re-submission - PI is not responding to requests

texts: I, a PhD student, was first author of an article with several co-authors under a PI.  We submitted the article to a journal and it was rejected.  Is there a common practice for resubmitting work? Can I just expect to be first author of a resubmission, or can the PI remove me or designate someone else? I asked the co-authors to meet to talk about revising and resubmitting the work. In response, the PI asked me to communicate with him/her only. S/he is not responding to my requests to meet to talk about getting the paper ready for resubmission. I can't tell how long I should wait for him/her to respond. I'm also not sure if I should continue with re-writing/analysis if there's no agreement about what exactly we're doing. What's a cordial and professional way to handle this?


texts: How long does PhD Application Process take in the UK?

texts: I submitted my application with a supervisor's name fora UK university last week. I plan to apply for a scbolarship after getting an offer. The scholarship application deadline is in March. I would like to know how long it takes to get an application result in a UK uni?


texts: I have to write a rebuttal for a machine learning conference in which I included a lot of new references (to prove broad interest). The rebuttal has a page limit of one, and my reference list is too long for that. Is it ok to cite the paper by only using the DOI in the rebuttal, if I cite the works in full in the actual submission in the final version?


texts: How to handle PhD student who expects help with technical problems?

texts:
I am a postdoc supervising a PhD student in Computer Science.

Unfortunately, I have a lot on my plate and I cannot help him with the solution of the technical problems (they require a lot of time to solve them). The PhD student often gives me some tasks and I execute them to help him go forward with his research.

What are the suggestions you have? Should I talk about it with my Professor and maybe find a more suitable advisor for him?
Honestly, in my experience, I did not meet many PhD students who receive technical help from a Postdoc, but I could be wrong of course.

I would just like to do the best for him and for me.

Thanks for your ideas.