texts: Can lowlighting less important text improve readability? Are there alternatives?

texts:
I think many experience the following: Sometimes I want to get the main message of a paper within 10 min then I am annoyed by any less important details distracting me. And sometimes I spend days or weeks to understand a certain part of a paper, where I would highly appreciate any further information on that aspect of the paper. Or I am just very curious if the authors got further results on a very specific aspect of their paper.

So I think good papers should be more interactive in a way that the reader can easily choose which parts to read and which parts can be skipped without missing the main message (or the introduction of the notation necessary to understand the main message).

I know about the following methods to achieve this goal:

less important stuff in the Appendix
Using remark environments to indicate that a certain remark provides additional information.
Using good section titels to let the reader choose which aspects they want to read.
Using footnotes to provide optional additional information that is specifically related to the content at the position where the footnote appears
Using lowlighted (i.e. grey / half transparent) text to indicate less important additional optional information.
Using smaller fontsize to indicate less important additional optional sections or paragrahps.
\underbrace, \overbrace to explain certain terms (that might be obvious to some readers)
\overset such as $a\overset{\text{Th. 1}}{=}b+c$ to indicate that a=b+c holds true because of Theorem 1, which might be obvious to some readers, but not to others.
(Writing something unimportant in parenthesis.)
There are probably more options...

I think all of these methods have their advantages and disadvantages and I think for each of them there exist scenarios where they can be very helpful for readability. I don't really understand why some journals and even Arxiv forbid some of them.

Question 1: What are the pros and cons of low lighting text by making it half transparent? Are there situations where it is helpful?

I think for example for papers in the intersection of mathematics and computer science grey symbols inside formulas can be useful to allow readability for both communities. E.g. a real valued random variable X is typically introduced as $X:(\Omega,\Sigma)\to(\R,\mathfrac{B})$ in mathematics literature, but this might unnecessarily confuse some computer scientists, because in this field of computer science the assumptions expressed by this notation are typically made implicitly without explicitly writing it down. So making :(\Omega,\Sigma)\to(\R,\mathfrac{B}) half transparent is understandable for both communities.

Therefore, we wrote our paper using lots of lowlighting and uploaded it to Arxiv a couple of months ago. Now, we wanted to update it fixing some typos and to furhter generalize the theory, but we got a mail, that highlighting and lowlighting is not accepted by Arxiv, because it is too unconventional.

Question 2: What can we do know? Is there an equally good alternative instead of lowlighting?

Related other questions:
Is there a way to improve the readability of equations in research papers?
Is highlighting important references a good idea?


texts: Can I use an online university credit for grad school admission?

texts:
I'm thinking of applying to grad school but it requires multivariable calculus and linear algebra which i did not take during my undergraduate years.

Would an online course (credit earning, such as this one) count towards this application requirement?


texts:
Short form: How should one lead a collaborative "book study group" amongst one's peers, particularly when the leader does not have deep prior knowledge of the book?

Long form: I'm an undergraduate CS student† (rising junior).  In the remaining time before I graduate, I thought it would be a fun idea to read a volume of Knuth's Art of Computer Programming each semester and work some of the problems.  Since I know others in the department might be interested in studying this work, I decided I would organize a "book club" where we read ~40-50 pages a week and then meet up to discuss what we read and/or solutions to exercises that we have solved.

So, my biggest question is: Besides solutions to exercises in the book or clarifications on what we read, what else should or could be discussed during our weekly meetings?

There are plenty of resources online about "how to lead a book club," but they all primarily focus on literature/story analysis, etc., not something suited for scientific writing.  Many book clubs will have a time where they read a chapter aloud, which also is not applicable to Knuth's work.  I feel as though I'm searching for the wrong term when I use the phrase "book club."  Is there a standard term for this form of study group that I could use in searches?

Furthermore, I have not read AoCP before.  Thus, I don't have a strong basis of knowledge upon which I could draw to guide discussion.  Obviously, a great solution would be to get a professor or grad student who has read AoCP to act as a mentor for the group; however, I do not know if any have done so--assume for sake of this question that such a mentor is not available.

†I know that issues facing undergraduates are generally off-topic here.  However, I believe this situation could also be faced by a grad student or a postdoc--the primary difference would be the difficulty of the source material they are studying.  I simply mention my background so readers may understand where I'm coming from.


texts: Can the review of a tenure track application start before the reference letters arrive?

texts: I was chatting with some friends and some claimed that a tenure track applicant can be reviewed and invited to campus before letters arrive. However, others claim that without the arrival of all 3-5 reference letters nothing will move forward. Can the application review start before the arrival of reference letters or is it similar to graduate students' applications, where the graduate school will not forward the application documents to the department before they are complete?


texts: How to find out the tier of a university in the USA?

texts:
How I can find out the tier of a university? Is it available in any website or report? If yes, what is the link?

I tried to find out the list and I got some pages which says how the universities are evaluated. I was more interested in current list.


texts: What type of gift could I give to my PhD advisor?

texts: I will be defending my dissertation in this Summer and I'm planning to give a gift to my advisor. I'm not quite sure what would be the best and meaningful gift for a professor receiving from his/her student. Main reason I'm asking this questions is that I'm an international student and not sure what would be most suitable. It's usually a general understanding in my homeland that we give some gifts to the professors that stays for long time. In other words, we avoid giving Champagne, Wine, or something to eat rather a shirt, pen set, etc. Any idea from the american life perspective will be appreciated.


texts: Mental health problems affecting performance in coursework. Who (advisor, professors) should I talk to, and how?

texts:
I'm a U.S. student studying abroad in Canada and also an undergraduate student. I believe my question could apply to graduate students in the same situation, i.e. someone who has not had prior mental health issues and who is unaware how to move forward.

Recently, starting a little before this Fall semester, I've been struggling with most tell-tale signs of depression (no motivation, constantly sleeping, gaining weight, etc). I live with my girlfriend off-campus, and she also struggles with mental health issues. I have been struggling to find motivation to work as hard as I was in the beginning of the semester. I was originally taking a 5 course load, but had to drop one course due to not meeting the prerequisite (I was wrongly advised, but take responsibility for not confirming and sitting down with someone before registering in the course).

Of my remaining 4 courses, only one have I truly excelled in all semester (due to the fact that I have worked with with the content of the course before extensively, and it came naturally to me).

I started out well in my other 3 courses (and have also completed all labs and assignments) but have gone downhill, to the point where I am worried I could possibly fail the courses if I don't do well enough on the exams (very bad second midterm results).

I haven't spoke to anyone professionally, nor any advisor at the University about this issue. I feel like if I do not email or meet with my professors soon and explain, they won't take me seriously after the fact my grade has been posted. I wrote one exam the other day and will write the others soon.

What is the best course of action for me to take? Should I email my professors, or meet with them? Should I try to talk to an advisor first? I have read this question but I feel like I'm on a much more limited time table, and of course this is entirely my fault for not taking action sooner.  Does anyone have any suggestions on what the correct steps to take are?


texts: Difference between criterion validity and reliability equivalence

texts:
In the book Doing research in the real world by David E. Gray, there is a section on experiment design. When discussing validity and reliability, the author defines “criterion validity” as

  This is where we compare how people have answered a new measure of a concept, with existing, widely accepted measures of a concept.

and a little later, in the “Reliability” part, there is a subheading “Equivalence”, which says

  Another way of testing the reliability of an instrument is by comparing the
  responses of a set of subjects with responses made by the same set of subjects on another instrument (preferably on the same day).

So if I got this right, we are both times measuring if there is a difference between the answer on our new instrument and another, existing instrument.

Is there a practical difference between the two concepts, or only a philosophical one? And whether practical or philosophical, what is the actual difference?

Update The author discusses validity and reliability in general, then lists 7 different aspects of validity and 5 different aspects of reliability. "Criterion validity" and "reliability equivalence" are only one type of each, respectively. Please consider in your answer that this question is not about validity vs. reliability in general, but only about these two specific aspects.


texts: Earnings generated by open-access papers vs. paywalled papers

texts:
Is there any research/study/survey that tried to compare the  earnings generated by open-access papers (researchers/institutions pay when publishing) vs. paywalled papers (researchers/institutions pay when reading)? I.e., for a given paper, do publishers make more money through the open-access model, or through the paywall model?

This question came from Mark's comment (mirror).

FYI: Are open access papers read by a larger readership than paywalled papers?


texts: Can I protect a questionnaire that we've developed against unauthorized use by publishing it somewhere under a license?

texts:
We're collaborating with another researcher from another institution. Collaborating here means that we do the whole work (study design, questionnaire development and testing etc.) and the other researcher provides access to patients, potential study participants. We usually wait for months for a reply when we have a question and progress is really slow.
Now, there are pretty clear signs that this other researcher may try to take over the whole project and write the publication alone. For me personally, this is not my most important project, but it would still bother me if you would have invested so much time for nothing.
Would it be an option to license our questionnaire to have it as a hostage for the worst case or what would be a good option?
Spoiler: communication is complicated.


texts: There many technical focused roles which demand a PhD degree as a necessary qualification. Is it possible to access those roles with a Master's + work experience?


texts: Asking potential PhD supervisors about research

texts: Is it considered acceptable to ask potential PhD supervisors to recommend some of their recent publications for reading to get some idea what they are doing? Or is it considered the applicant's job to familiarize themselves with the supervisor's research? I could imagine that a busy professor might not want to spend much time writing about his/her research to a person who might not apply after all.


texts: Stating a post doc research fellowship that I declined on my CV due to personal reasons?

texts:
So, I have recently finished my PhD in one of the "pure" sciences, in the UK. I have applied and been successful in obtaining a prestigious and rather lucrative research fellowship for a post doc position at a university in a country abroad (different to UK).

However, I have declined this award due to personal reasons, as I decided that a short-term post doc abroad without further career certainly is not something I want, due to my financial and family situation. Instead, I decided to either :

a) apply for a permanent position in the industry

b) apply for permanent teaching / lectureship positions in my current county of residence at "low" ranking universities / or so-called community colleges that emphasise teaching over research. (This is because I have virtually no chance of getting a permanent position without doing a post doc at a high quality research-orientated department.)

c) Apply only for post docs at "good" departments but only in the location I live now (since this way I will be able to save most of my salary, since I live at home with my parents), and transition to industry at a later date.

In either case, is it a good idea to state the fellowship that I have won, but declined, on either my CV and/or cover letter?


texts: A lecturer wants to grade me based on 'creativity' in a task, how do I succeed?

texts:
TLDR: In a course where students are required to do exercises, a programming project and write a report in small groups, the lecturer announced that grading will be based on 'creativity' and how funny or interesting he thinks the results are. How can I cope with this as a student?

I am taking a mandatory course where a programming project and exercises are carried out in small groups of students. Over the last years, the projects were relatively similar from what I've heard, and the course is known for a comparatively large workload with no deadline or fixed extent.

An anecdotal example told by the lecturer is that someone wrote a 170 page report and implemented his own wireless transfer protocol (which is only partly related to the course contents). Students from the last semesters took up to around a year in total to finish their projects.

This is my final semester where I take courses (hopefully), and the only semester I am able to take this course specifically. After that, there will be my masters thesis.

In the introduction to the course, the lecturer has mentioned that he does not want to keep the old format of long reports about the basics, but rather wants students to write 'creative' blog posts in addition to a report to be turned in. In particular, he is looking for us to write about things he likes or perceives as funny (but is still related to the topic, which according to him has a lot of potential for this).

In addition to the report and programming exercises, he lecturer wants students to write creative written blog posts about topics closely related to the exercises. These posts are supposed to contain funny and interesting information, as in "we accidentally made a mistake but the outcome looks/sounds funny" or "during the exercises we found out/made an assumption and verified it by xyz".

I want to mention that this is the same lecturer who fell asleep during two of my talks he had to grade, and I was previously dissatisfied with his grading on one of these. Now I have a new task where the desired outcome is unclear, and the task description is very subjective. During the introduction, I have explicitly asked for fixed deadlines and a statement about the extent of the project and report (as in, how many pages and such). He replied that he would 'probably' write down a few sentences about the task soon.

My worry is that there will be a lot of work for me, since i would like to get a very good grade. In addition, I fear that my work won't result in what the lecturer wants, and I am worried that I might get a worse grade than desired due to 'creative' grading.

My questions are:

Should I communicate this to the lecturer?
If yes, how?
How can I effectively deal with this unclear task in a way that will not leave me frustrated and overworked?

I understand that me being unsatisfied with a grade is not so much a problem and rather common in students, but my main concern is that I don't want to do unproportional amounts of work and then be given an average or worse grade.


texts: During applications, how can I prove I was the first author of the papers that I couldn't become first author for various reasons?

texts:
One year ago, I started working on a subject with one of the professors of our department. The idea was mine, and all of the subsequent steps including modellings, simulations, generation of figures, writing the paper and even responding to the reviewers were done by myself completely, and the professor just reviewed the paper and reminded some typos and minor mistakes of this kind, and also added a short paragraph (completely unnecessary in my opinion) to the Introduction section.

But at the end he wrote his name as the first author and submitted the paper. He told me that being second author for him means getting no credit from the department.

Anyway, I'm going to apply for grad school, and he told me he will compensate in the recommendation he will write for me.

As this is my only published paper as an undergrad, and being first author means everything for me in my application, is there any way for me to prove to the admission committees (or the professors; whoever will review my application) that I was the main contributor of the paper?


texts: Buying a gift for my PhD student after his graduation

texts:
All posts here on the "graduation gift" subject are about a gift from the PhD candidate to the professor (after the graduation of course). What about a gift for the student from the professor?
My student just graduated, and he really is an exquisite person, he worked more than he probably should have (extra hours, weekends) without me asking, and even with me saying he should not work that much. He was very nice with all the other lab members. I don't know if he will get me something and honestly I don't care. I would like to get him something, for sure a handwritten note to thank him. But I was also thinking to buy him a present, such as a bottle of wine from my country.
I am an Assistant Professor in the USA, but I was not born here. Do you think it will be appropriate to buy and attach a gift to the hand-written note?


texts: The use of second authorship paper for graduate admission

texts: During my undergraduate, I have a publication, however I am listed as the second author. I know it is not as ideal as being listed as first author, but for graduate admission, will it still play a role?


texts: Salary for math professors at 4-year liberal arts colleges?

texts:
I am working on the latter half of my PhD in mathematics at a mid-ranked university, and I am beginning to think about what kind of career I would like to have after I graduate. I am leaning towards a tenure track job at a more teaching oriented liberal arts college. I am more into the teaching aspect of the job rather than the research aspect of the job. I prefer living the quiet life in a smaller size town, and having fewer students that I can interact with rather than larger classes where I don't get much interaction with students.

However, salary is important to me and when I search online "liberal arts college assistant professor salary" I get conflicting, and some downright scary search results.

Examples:

Salary genius says:

  The average yearly salary for Liberal Arts College Professor is $36,550. If you are just beginning to work a new job as a Liberal Arts College Professor, you could expect a starting pay rate of $30,100 annually.

Salary.com says:

  How much does a Asst. Professor - Liberal Arts make? The median annual Asst. Professor - Liberal Arts salary is $56,978, as of January 30, 2018, with a range usually between $44,890-$69,846, however this can vary widely depending on a variety of factors.

Wikipedia says:

  Assistant Professor:
  $45,927 (Lowest Median By Field)

  $81,005  (Highest Median By Field)

  $58,662 (Overall Median)

I am okay with Salary.com's numbers and Wikipedia's. I know that these numbers go up as you get promoted to associate professor and full professor, and I think that somewhere in the neighborhood of $50,000+ is a pretty decent starting 9 month salary. But Salary Genius' cited numbers, to me, are an absolute joke for the qualifications required for the job and the amount of time we have put into getting those qualifications.

Question: I am hoping for some responses about what kind of salary I will likely be getting if I get a tenure track job at a smaller liberal arts college in, say, a rural town. What are the actual numbers?

Hopefully I can hear from someone who actually has experience working at these type of institutions.


texts: Do Research Papers have Public Domain Expiration Date?

texts:
Do research papers have a Public Domain Expiration Date? simmilar of what happens to literature books
For example, let's consider a research paper of James C. Maxwell: XVIII.—Experiments on Colour, as perceived by the Eye, with Remarks on Colour-Blindness, it is stored in here: link to www.cambridge.org website
It says: "Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1857" and if I want to purchase the article, it would cost me: USD35
This is an article published more than 150 years ago. How long do I have to wait in order to download it and use it for free?


texts: How to ask for another university prof for course materials?

texts:
Just surfing the net to find useful resources, came across to the university course page, and course materials were well explained. However, when trying to download them, Unfortunately, there was a canvas page to do the university authorization.

Is it a mistake to ask the instructor for the course contents, despite not being a professor's student?
Well, if that is not a problem, Is there any suggestion or recommendation with how speaking and using words or expressions in email text might make it better?
Should there be an EDU email or other Email service providers are safe?
What if they did not answer? Is it right to keep doing it again?

Any help would be appreciated.


texts:
I'm currently undertaking my PhD and I have plans to get married before I complete my candidature. In particular, I will be double-barreling my current surname with my fiancée's current surname. We are indifferent to which name will appear first, and/or hyphenation. I have not begun publishing yet, however, I do have a first-authorship on a conference paper from my undergrad, though it is not likely this will contribute towards my PhD.
The core questions I have are:

How should I identify myself on publications produced before I am married (still >12 months away)?

My goal is to achieve consistency despite my decision to change my surname. My current thoughts so far:

Use my birth surname before marriage (First Birth), and initial my fiancée's birth surname before my own on post-marriage publications. (First F. Birth). In this case, I'll likely continue to be referenced by my birth name (e.g. Birth et al).
Continue to just use my birth name in publications, even after I change my surname. This seems like the lazy option: the option which is most convenient/appropriate at present but will become more inconvenient in the future as I continue to publish. I do have female collaborators in this situation, though they had more publications with their birth name before their name change.

A third option would be to simply change my name before I get married, and use that name on all publications. But, officially changing my name doesn't happen overnight, and I'd like to be prepared should I have to put my name on a publication before my name is officially changed.

This is a lesser concern, but I'd still like to consider: In academia, what are the implications of:

a hyphenated surname?
a double-barrelled, non-hyphenated surname?

I appreciate any thoughts and contributions. If it matters, I'm in STEM, and my surname is already quite unique, ~30,000 according to [1]. My fiancée's is ~300,000.
[1] https://en.geneanet.org/genealogy/


texts: Can a cousin write a recommendation letter for graduate school?

texts:
I have a cousin who used to be a research engineer at MIT until recently, and now is the global manager of a company. While at MIT, he suggested that I should apply for graduate school there (I'm an undergrad in Mechanical Engineering in Brazil). He knows me pretty well and is encouraging me to try. I have a good GPA, 3.6/4 as of now, but could be 3.8/4 by the time I graduate. I also have published papers, some of which will be published in top journals.
Since he used to be part of the MIT community, would a recommendation letter from him be an advantage for me? Or, because he's family, the comittee could simply consider it biased?

PS: He was not from the mechanical engineering department.


texts: What is too obvious to explain in a scientific paper?

texts:
Recently I had my paper reviewed for potential publishing. With no big surprise I need to make some adjustments to my paper. One of the criticisms was that my work lacks "textbook explanations" (e.g. what is BETA, alpha).

To further clarify, this is the first ever work I ever plan to get published  (academic context is finance). But I am surprised I should be required to explain basic concepts.

Would you have any recommendations as to what is the best way to incorporate these explanations in a work (e.g. footnotes) and what should be explained (of this really basic stuff/how to identify it) and what not?


texts: Is it common that you can't finish the exam questions during PhD study?

texts:
I'm a first year student and twice now I have been unable to finish all the problems during the exam, which had never happened before I became a PhD student. And to be fair, even if I had been writing without stop, I might still have failed to finish the exam questions. Is this common? I believe my professors are trying to push us beyond the limit, but it is frustrating.

P.S. I'm not complaining, I just try to cope with it with right attitude.


texts: How to publish analysis work of an approach worse that state-of-the-art?

texts:
I am currently working on an engineering problem for which I have developed a new and quite effective solution.  My research field is electronics (if that matters).

The problem is quite complex as it revolves about using a single circuit configuration for multiple voltage ranges (conversion of ac voltage to high dc voltage).  State-of-the-art circuits offer unacceptable performance for input voltage range A and reasonable performance for input voltage range B.

My solution offers reasonable performance for voltage range A but the performance for voltage range B is slightly worse than state-of-the-art.

Since the problem can be broken to two individual parts (low voltage range and high voltage range), I plan to publish the first part on its own (e.g., novel high voltage step-up converter). However, I am debating how to publish the second part that on its own does not offer better performance than state-of-the-art. I have spent half a year developing, evaluating, and optimizing the circuit and I believe the engineering society would benefit from this work.

I am thinking along the lines of "Analysis and optimization of ...".


texts: Is this unprofessional academic writing? How to cite it anyway?

texts:
I am currently preparing some case studies written by Harvard Business School professors. The case is a 'real marketing' case; based on a true story. It is mostly compiled from many sources such as newspaper articles and books. Aside from common knowledge, the authors sometimes provide information (i.e. factual) without any reference, other times they do. I, sometimes, try to 'find' an original source for their un-referenced claims (and always track the referenced ones).

My question: If I don't bother to find a primary source by myself and simply cite the case writers for the information they are presenting (the ones without references), is this a bad practice? Is it plagiarism? (Since the information could have belonged to someone else)

One more thing I noticed which is really confusing is that, sometimes, the authors write an idea without a reference and then, by accident, I discover that such an information belonged to reference #24 (for example) which is like 5 pages away (How did I discover it? By tracking the reference #24 and reading it and discovering that this information is the same presented in page 1 for example (which was without a reference))! How should I handle such a situation? Can I, again, simply cite the authors for whatever un-referenced information they are presenting? (Assuming that they are HBS professors and know what they're doing)

I am just worried about plagiarism and crediting the wrong people.


texts: How relevant is a candidate's BA institution when applying to graduate schools in the US?

texts: In the American university system, how relevant to the graduate admission committee is the institution from which a given candidate obtained his/her bachelor's degree?


texts: Why do some universities require use of approved suppliers?

texts:
Some universities in the UK require that all purchases from budget available to researchers happen through one or more authorized suppliers. They tend to be strict in this regard, even though some equipment might not be available or the price of it might be higher than elsewhere.

What is the rationale behind this policy?

I fail to see any. If university where concerned with financial control then allowing outside purchase should make no difference, as they would still have to be approved by the administrative personal. If they are concerned with providing adequate IT support this might be done as well, just under a different contract with the supplier.


texts: CV heading to include participation in scientific/organization commitees?

texts:
How do you name the section on your CV to list your participation as scientific/organization members in academic events (e.g. conferences, workshops, etc.)?

Thanks


texts: Referring to author with their full personal name or by their abbreviated author name?

texts:
For example, the author B.D. Acharya uses the shortname BD or B.D. in papers instead of his full name that is apparently Belmannu Devadas. I cannot be 100% sure for what the BD or B.D. stand for in this example. So in referring to authors, do I refer to them with their full personal name or by their author name that they use in their publications?

I think the usage of the author publication names is correct because it may even be impossible to find the full personal name. So what is more correct way to refer to the publication with the name standing in the publication even abbreviated or with full name?


texts: Thesis contributions: where/how to specify them?

texts:
I am a physics student and I am presently writing my Master thesis.

My work has been a theoretical/numerical analysis of data produced by a simulation written by my advisor.

I would like to write explicitly somewhere that I wrote all the programs for the data analysis and performed the analysis itself, but the simulation code has been written by my advisor.

Where/how should I include this remark?

The thesis is structured as follows:

Contents
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion and Conclusions
Appendices
Acknowledgements
Bibliography


texts: Is it generally allowed to send a published paper to another conference but in a different format?

texts: My paper is accepted for poster presentation for a conference. Is it allowed sent it again to other conferences without withdrawing it from first conference? I am looking for oral presentation.


texts:
I just submitted my paper to a Springer journal. The status changed to with editor and then decision process . I thought the paper will be rejected as it didn't pass the prescreening phase but the status went down to with editor again and didn't change for 10 days now.

Should I contact the editor Or should I wait?


texts: Boost grad apps profile without getting a second master's: Subject GRE? Self-study? Soft skills?

texts:
In general, how does one boost PhD admission profile?

In my context, same question but besides getting a master's in pure math. (See here and here)

Here's what I got so far:

Employment not specifically in research for soft skills boost (I have specific career goals in case I am not good enough for academia)
Employment specifically in academic research (I've seen job posts that look for research assistants) for research experience here I think?
Employment as a research analyst in finance
Tests e.g. GRE Subject
Self-study

What else?

work for a professor for a research project like here I think?
Or pay a professor to supervise my own research projects like here I think?

My context:

I have a master's in applied math and want to get a PhD in pure math.
I'm applying to universities that don't require GRE, GRE Subject and IELTS/TOEFL for fluent English speakers.
My bachelor's grades are bad and my non-pure math master's grades are bad.
I've had a lot of research projects in master's (mostly by group) and cannot get very strong letters of recommendation from main research project (sort of a thesis, also by group) supervisors.
I am applying for 2018-9 admissions.

What about the GRE Subject?

I was suggested by one of my professors to study for GRE Subject, but I think that was in the context of his applying to master's having had only a bachelor's.

On one hand:

The GRE Subject may make up for low grades or the fact that I haven't had complex analysis, number theory, graph theory and abstract algebra. Is that right?

On the other hand:

The GRE Subject doesn't seem to show ability for research. Am I wrong?
It just seems to be able to show that you know complex analysis, abstract algebra and other things that, while are expected of math PhD applicants, are hopefully expected to be able to be learned by math/applied math master's holders, that you take exams well, know precalculus or calculus tricks or pathologicals (cf. pathologicals in real analysis are important!) and haven't forgotten very basic facts that you haven't encountered in higher math.
Even if I were to study the basics of complex analysis, abstract algebra, number theory and graph theory I'm not sure that that translates to a much higher GRE score. Does it? Or can it help graduate applications in some other way?
I mean come on, if it's just for the GRE Subject Test, of course I'm just gonna use Schaum's Outlines or a GRE Subject book instead of actually learning from a textbook. I would rather learn from a textbook, but I don't see how the learning beyond the basics is helpful for graduate applications (cf. graduate school).

P.S. Sucks if I don't stand a better chance for boosting admissions through self-study. Sigh. Can't believe there's a dichotomy between doing what is helpful for graduate school and what is helpful for graduate applications, but then again professors aren't the only stakeholders.


texts: How much help is a PhD supervisor if you only see them 30 minutes a month?

texts:
I often hear from PhD students that they see their supervisor only 30 minutes per month, or 30 minutes per semester even. According to my calculations, this adds up to a whopping 13 hours and 6 hours respectively over a three year period (if there's no contact during the holidays). This is less than the typical amount of contact hours during an undergraduate week of lectures.

This made me wonder: To what extent does such a PhD supervisor really help you? Even if this supervisor is a star professor, does 6 to 13 hours over a period of 3 years, really help you that much with your PhD?

To formulate the question differently, let's say you're getting 10,000 education/career points out of your PhD. How many would you get if you got rid of the supervisor and basically had to do it without official guidance?


texts: Can we use the same picture across multiple chapters of a thesis?

texts: I am writing my thesis. In second chapter, I would like to propose a model with a figure. In third chapter, I want to propose a framework which is based on that model. It would be easy for a user to understand the framework if I can have the same figure in chapter three. Is this OK to copy the same figure? Or should I just add reference to the figure in second chapter?


texts: Can a psychology article be published without verifiable results?

texts:
I wrote this article with a radically new idea what is the function of the sense of humor.

I sent my article to one journal. They said they won't publish because they publish only experimentally verifiable results.

In my article I propose several brain experiments, but they may provide only circumstantial evidence for my theory.

Also my cites list may be outdated.

I am not a psychology professional. Can this article nevertheless be published in a reputable psychology journal?


texts: How to Cite Hardware in Scientific Articles?

texts:
I am writing a scientific article. In the "materials and methods" section I must specify the hardware I used, namely an HP Pavilion dv6 Notebook PC (I also specified the details of its features).

Now my doubt:

Should I use bibliographic citations (such as when mentioning a software, book, or scientific article) when I mention the hardware?

What is standard (if any) for such cases?

Thanks in advance for any help and/or suggestion.

P.S.
I use APA standards for bibliographic references, although the question is independent of that subject.


texts: How should I express theorems without a proof in a research paper?

texts:
What do you do when you have a conjecture, and you run experiments that confirm your conjecture, but you are unable to provide a formal proof (perhaps because it's too complicated)? Do you name them as conjectures or observations or... what?

This is in the context of a CS theory paper.


texts: How can I prove my publication list is mine?

texts:
In some of the questions regarding author name, it is mentioned that people can use whatever they like, however, they must be consistent across their publications.

When it comes to being hired by a university for a tenure track position or by another principal investigator as a researcher, how can someone prove that they are the author of papers when their author name does not exactly match the one on their ID card? How can a principal investigator be sure that the publication list does actually belong to the person claiming them?


texts: Just realized I may have accidentally plagiarized some of my bachelor's thesis

texts:
I had been reading a news article recently about some politicians who had been accused of plagiarizing their master's or PhD theses, and I noticed something that really frightened me.

With some of them, what they did was copy, near-verbatim, passages from other articles or books which had citations in them, and they cited those same citations in the footnotes, without citing the secondary source. FWIW, those officials did so in humanities, law, and/or international relations. In contrast, my thesis was in a STEM field.

I was unaware that this is considered plagiarism, and realized that I had done something similar in my bachelor's honors thesis. I had looked at the thesis of a former student in the lab to get an idea of how a thesis was written. His work was closely related to mine, and as I was short on time, I ended up writing an introductory and methods section that were most likely, in some sections, extremely similar in wording and style. For the introduction, I tried to paraphrase what he wrote and cite the same sources he did (I did check to see if the sources were accurate) on background information relevant to both of our projects, but I'm sure that a side-by-side look would spot the similarity, as the sections were mostly definitions and descriptions of things we work with.

For the methods, as I had used some of the exact same protocols and procedures that he did, I just wrote down what I did but the wording most likely ended up being extremely similar to his, enough to notice, with no citation given for that part because the protocol was just given to me orally by the grad student when I was starting out. I thought this wasn't an issue because the methods section is difficult to phrase in different words if the experimental protocol was the same. I passed the defense and the thesis was approved - my PI didn't notice any similarities.

The parts of the thesis where I branched off in a different direction than that student I wrote without the aid of the previous thesis, and I cited sources as appropriate and reported my own work.

My former PI stores hard copies of his students' theses on a shelf in his lab, and there is another hard copy in the university library, but there are no electronic copies available. I don't have the thesis of that former student with me. What I'm terrified of is that a future undergrad in the same lab might use my and that person's thesis as guides to writing their thesis, notice the similarities, report me to my former PI and/or the honor council, and get my degree revoked for plagiarism. It's been a year since graduation and I'm about to head into grad school.

Do you think I am right to worry? If so, what should I do?


texts: Do all preprint servers have the non-updating issue in google scholar

texts:
It has been identified on stackexchange that Google Scholar has a bug where ArXiv  publications are not updated to match the final journal publication information in google scholar (for several months). And the answer claims that google has stated that fixing this bug is not a priority for them.

My question is: Does this bug exist for all preprint servers or just ArXiv? This a huge problem in my field (where the convention is to not cite ArXiv papers), so I'd rather post my pre-print elsewhere if this problem does not exist for other preprint servers.

BioArXiv and ResearchGate come to mind as possibilities.


texts: aggressive co-worker and bullying at the lab

texts:
I've recently started doing postdoc in an European country.

Since the first day, I am having problems with working in the lab environment. The research group is too individualistic (there is no shared protocols, project and any kind of support) and some people are behaving in quite toxic ways.  One of the lab members doesn't even look or talk to us (me and another student) since we arrived here. He ignores and turns away whenever he sees us, as if we are not worth it.

The main problem is the postdoc though. He is too assertive, aggressive and sort of being a bully in lab meetings, trying to get involved in every project and confront you without significant reasons. He even interrupts when he thinks it is boring and not delivered very well or wants you to prove (show RAW data) when he doesn't think it is enough. The PI does nothing and she is so dependent on him, lets him to be a co-PI or the kind of bad boss.

So, basically, I don't know what to do. I know that I can't stay it more and be productive here, but I am in a small country, where all the academic world knows each other.

Do you have any suggestions about finding another position or doing applications at the same university? If you could give some ideas, I'd be very grateful. I totally feel paralyzed.


texts: How should one acknowledge a funding agency if it fulfils its obligations only partially?

texts:
I applied for funding of my project and it was approved.

When it came to spending money, this funding agency put constraints on some sorts of purchases (e.g. by putting unrealistically small limits for computer buys). This was not stated in the call for proposals.

The research along the proposed lines was done, with some degree of external support. How should one acknowledge the original funding agency provided that a significant degree of funds were not spent due to those suddenly introduced constraints and limits?


texts: Cite Formal Definitions of Standard Problem in Thesis

texts:
Should I cite the definition of a standard problem that is widely know by the community in my thesis? For example the travelling salesman problem (TSP) is a very well known problem in computer science (dating back to the 1800s). To ensure accuracy I would refer to other sources for the formal definition, but these sources are very far removed from the original formulation of the problem.

Not sure if it makes a difference but I would potentially using different symbols as some of them could conflict with other uses throughout the document.


texts: Should I give partly score of my English certification in my CV?

texts:
I am writing a CV to get admission of a scholarship to study a PhD program in the US. My IELTS score is quite low, only 6.5/9, just enough to pass the door. However, my reading score is quite high, 8/9 (listening, writing and speaking are both 6). I have time to take the test again, but I'm suspect that my score can't be improved in a short time. I have some options here:

Show overall score. This is ordinary. The 6 band indicates that I "has generally effective command of the language".
Show only the reading score. The 8 band indicates that I "has fully operational command of the language". This is my preferred option, since after all reading is the most important skill to do research (I think).
Don't show anything. Overall score is low, and only show the reading score will raise the suspect in the recruiters that I'm hiding something.

Which one should I choose?


texts: Sending the same proposal to multiple funding agencies

texts: I am planning to submit a proposal for possible funding. There are three sources of funding I can apply for, and unfortunately the evaluation periods all three overlap. Typically there exists an option to state this while submitting. I am wondering if such a statement has any impact on the chances of being funded (of the three grants, I much prefer a specific one). Moreover, two of the agencies uses external reviewers and since my proposed work builds heavily on the previous efforts of three persons (one of them a prolific reviewer), there is a risk in reviewer overlap. I wonder how a reviewer would perceive this. In particular, would a reviewer be less inclined to recommend a second proposal for funding if they have already recommended a first on the same topic? PS I was advised not to make any statement of overlap. Is this an  unofficial custom?


texts:
Recently I had an interview for a phd in computer science. In the application I was able to choose multiple thematic categories, so I decided to apply for complex event processing, as well as robotics. During the interview I was asked to explain the reasons that I decided to choose these categories. I tried to explain that I am interested in applying AI techniques in data stemming from multiple heterogenous sources and that I believed that both of these categories would give me such an opportunity. Although the methods that I would use to do this as well as the application I would develop would be different for each thematic category. However I believed, that this would not be a problem. The interviewers though seemed dissatisfied with my views though. One of them suggested that I lean more towards the complex event processing thematic category. They asked me then whether I would be interested in applying complex event processing in medical applications (since I have an MSc in Biomedical engineering) or some other area of application such as finance. I replied, that I am more interested in exploring the methodologies involved than the actual application and that both the cases of finance and medical data excite me. However I think that the interviewers were possibly dissatisfied with my answers as I did not seem to come to a closure regarding my decisions. They then replied that a PhD is a process of researching a subject in depth... They also mentioned, that although in my CV I had done several things in the past related to computer science (such as jobs, conference papers and journals) they all were quite different from each other. This could possibly indicate that I was more interested in learning several things instead of giving special emphasis in one area... I replied to this by saying that the fact that I took advanage of some opportunities in the past did not necesserily mean I would not be willing and motivated enough in researching a subject for a long time.

However I feel dissatisfied with the responses I gave in this interview. The reason is that I realised that if I had a gun pointed at my head in order to choose a topic, I would choose the application of complex event processing in finance data. So I want to ask the following:

I am able to talk to one of my interviewers. Would it be a good idea to tell him that I realised that if had to choose only one thing, that would be the application of complex event processing in finance data and I would forget about robotics or the medical modality as they only seem nice alternatives (with the exact words described above). (I have no previous experience though in these areas ... but I feel really motivated in researching this topic)


texts: Can a managing editor replace the editor on a paper or remove them from the editorial board?

texts:
Let's assume that a journal editor has been allocated a submission, started reviewing it himself, but stopped responding to the managing editor (= you) despite a long time since the authors had sent the submission (a little less than 3 years). The submission is longer than each of the papers accepted during the last 5 years, but historically, even longer papers were accepted. The authors were aware of the length issue, but they were concerned. The editor's Web page got updated (say, new teaching contents appears), so, he/she is  presumably still alive, but simply unresponsive.

Let's further assume that you've waited long enough (say, 1 month), tried to give them editor a call, but got no response at all.

Is it the managing editor's (= your) responsibility to replace the editor for the paper? And is it your task to get him/her off the editorial board?  What is the typical in the field of computer science?


texts:
This was originally posted on math stackexchange and I was told this would be a better fit. If this isn’t the right place to post this question, please let me know.
Question: Is it looked down upon to apply to PhD programs in the US if I’m currently enrolled in one somewhere else?
Some context: I just graduated with my Master’s in mathematics from a well-known university in Europe. I had applied to grad schools in the US, but a combination of poor GRE subject test scores and the pandemic meant that it wasn’t safe/feasible for me to go there this year. I’m currently enrolled in a math PhD program in Europe for a research project in analysis. Unfortunately, my interests are in combinatorics-adjacent fields, and while I enjoy the occasional analysis, a PhD is a huge commitment. The school has a small department and my funding situation also means there’s no way for me to change research projects. This was absolutely a last resort for me - I did not want to start a PhD only to abandon it after a year. Unfortunately, as an international student, and because of the sudden pandemic, I didn’t have any other options left. To clarify: I am of course going to give this current program a chance, but unfortunately application deadlines are much sooner than that so I have to apply if I want to keep my options open.
I feel very guilty about this whole situation, so I’d appreciate any advice.


texts: Is it acceptable to ask another faculty member from different department to review my paper prior to submission to a journal?

texts: I am a PhD student in Civil and Environmental Engineering and have just finished writing a paper which contains a statistical details. Is it acceptable to ask a faculty member in the statistics department in my university to revise my paper before submitting it to a journal to get it published?


texts: How do the "proposed research" essays of those who win NSF Fellowships compare with those who don't win NSF Fellowships?

texts:
I just looked at the research proposals of a few people who failed to win the NSF Fellowship, and they actually scare me a bit.

I know that the NSF cares about Broader Impact a lot, and that is where I might actually be strongest at. But the reviews look at intellectual merit first and foremost, and that's what scares me, since how can you convince the reviewers that your idea has more intellectual merit than a huge number of other very strong applicants?


texts: About the job prospects and skills learned during physics/math PHD

texts:
I am nearing the end of my degree (which is equivalent to a double major B.Sc in mathematics and physics) and the time has come to specialize in a field. The chliche is almost obvious, I am having a hard time choosing between studying:

Fundamental physics; high-energy theory. Due to the lack of knowledge I cant be more specific.
Mathematics; Mostly of the analysis sort (in the intersection of geometry, functional analysis, probability). Perhaps with a more applicable touch.

I have not considered anything else. CS / engineering do sound nice and exciting, but I know too little about either to determine if I may enjoy them.

To make sure this isn't the standard "math vs physics" topic; I will attempt to detail as much as I can, and pose answerable questions.

After lengthy contemplation, I am still unable to realize towards where each academic degree would lead me. Academia is an option, but, adopting a more realistic point of view, the number of positions is small and I cannot foresee whether I will still like academia. This pushes me to explore other possibilities. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I have enjoyed both topics very much, and studied them with success.

To avoid unnecessary repetitions, in the rest of my post, physics would mean high-energy physics (phenomenology or theory). Math would mean geometry, functional analysis, probability.

What skills, applicable outside of physics/math, does one acquire in physics/math PhD?
What can a physics/math student do during their PhD to increase their job applicability? I refer to this What skills can I get during a PhD to be competitive on the job market against non-PhD holders? but would like to note that the former is broader, as the possible PhD there is not mentioned.
When physics/math PhDs leaves academia, they would rebrand  themselves, for example, as engineers or data scientists. How difficult such a transition is? Asking friends, professors and searching through the internet shows they get to high-tech, big data, financial trading. But more specifically, how could a theoretician/mathematician develop the skills to become, for instance, chief engineer (maybe simply engineer)?
Are these degrees appreciated outside of academia? For comparison, let's say CS and engineering are appreciated. How bad does math/physics compare to them? I apologise this question is not very subjective, but I get the feeling that although people who go through these programs are capable of dealing with such abstract concepts - they are disregarded outside of academia.
Studying any of these, can you get involved in developing algorithms fairly easily? What about AI? This sound like things I would like to do if academia doesn't work out for me.

I find this: MS degree after a PhD in physics demoralising, but would like to understand what I should expect. Expiriences like that probably answer some of my questions, and are very welcome.


texts: Is there a lack of oversight of how professors interact with students?

texts:
Why does there seem to be a lack of oversight when it comes to how professors interact with students?

For example, consider the following questions:

How to deal with an advisor who wants a "friendlier" relationship with me than I do?
My professor is rigging data and plagiarizing. What can I do?
My first authorship is being turned into co-first authorship, what can I do?

I understand that these situations are not typical, but why is this able to exist at all in the academic world? In all three of these situations it seems that there is a complete lack of oversight of professors went it comes to their interactions with student and it seems their students can do very little if they are being treated unfairly.

I ask this because in many ways, it seems that academia is much more objective and fair than the corporate world. For example, one cannot get a faculty position at a top school by interviewing well or because their friend heads the department. College admissions tend to very (perhaps, even brutally) objective.  Lastly, outright fraud and theft of one's work tends to be low compared to outside academia. I suppose my point of confusion is why does academia fail to be as strict and fair at the professor/student level.

To give some context to my question, I work in the software industry and I am approaching this question as a total outsider.  It seems like the academic world tries to do everything it can to be fair, but I don't (as an outsider) see this with the professor/student dynamic.


texts: Do years in parentheses need to be chronological?

texts:
Is there a norm that states years of publications should be chronological when cited parenthetically in a text? For example, is the following incorrect?:

"... to that of Mircea Eliade (1964, 1951), for whom the shaman is ..."

I'm revising another author's paper and this is the first time I've ever seen the years out of order. But I can't confirm in any guidelines that it's necessarily incorrect.


texts: Asking for a recommendation letter (Post-Doc) when you have Bipolar Disorder

texts:
I'll be defending my PhD soon and I want to ask two professors for a letter of recommendation. They both know that I've been responsible with my work lately and I've made an impressive progress. The problem is: I behaved in an embarrassing way during most of my years in grad school. I'm so ashamed that I now avoid social contact with people in my department.
My problems during grad school were serious: suicide attempts, several hospitalizations, manic delusions and substance abuse (marijuana). Last Summer I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (after dealing with years of misdiagnoses). I was then put on a mood stabilizer, got better and started working every day to compensate for the time I lost. I finished my dissertation and I submitted two papers for publication.
Considering all the problems I had during most of my years in grad school, do you think anyone would ever write me a letter of recommendation? How should I ask for it? Should I explain the professors why I'm now stable?
Thank you!


texts: How to Use a Result Already Under Review in Another Paper?

texts: This may apply to any mathematical scientists. I am working on a paper, which (as far as I can tell) needs a result that I obtained. The result needed is a part of another paper of mine that is already under review. If I would like to submit the new paper, but need to cite the old one, how do I best work this issue out?


texts: Experiences with air travel CO2 emissions offsetting funding rules?

texts:
The human-induced climate crisis happening right now is no longer news. While many people urge their governments to change policies to reduce our carbon footprints more easily, there is also the possibility of individual action, or change - such as less frequent flying.

In academia, flight can be reduced by some amount (decentralized conferences, etc.) but to many people it seems difficult if not detrimental to science or mankind in total to stop flying altogether.

It is possible to offset the CO2 emissions of a flight by spending money on some carbon capture project or some project that reduces future emissions (e.g. by renewing technical machinery in third world countries). Where does this money come from? I know from colleagues that they asked their university administration to use their travel funding for some CO2-offsetting agency, and were told that this was not possible.

If I understand the rules in Germany correctly, it is not the funding body who makes such a decision but the states general travel rules for state employees.

The question I have is:

Does anyone have experience in negotiating (with a positive outcome or not) such a use of academic travel funds for offsetting the carbon emissions? If so, how did it go? What were the stumbling blocks?

If you thought about the issue but had reservations on why this might not be a good idea at all or why it is hard to actually implement, I would also appreciate your comments, though I'd prefer if you could phrase it as answer to the question(s) stated.


texts: Possibility of doing PhD in astronomy with only masters in CS

texts:
I have a masters degree in Computer Science & Engineering (and currently employed in s/w industry in India), but have no degree in physics. For long, I've been interested in doing research in physics, especially in astronomy, astrophysics or in particle physics.

Are there good institutes or universities in EU, US or India which accept students without any degree in physics to PhD program in astronomy or astrophysics? If so, do they also offer financial assistance or some form of scholarship to such students to meet at least one's tuition fee expenses?
I checked with an institute in Germany that offers PhD in physics but I was told that a masters degree in physics is a mandatory prerequisite. Does this apply to all leading German institutes? What about other leading institutes in EU or in the US?
What are the pros and cons, if any, between doing PhD in US versus in EU, especially in the field of physics (in the subdomains I mentioned, if that too matters)?


texts:
I am a currently an undergrad sophomore and am aiming to go to grad school for a PhD. I would like to do research with a professor at my school during the semester for (among many other things) graduate admissions. However, I have been able to secure a mentor or arrange for this research over the past ~year. I have contacted many professors by email (and sent polite follow up emails after a few weeks) but only a couple responded, and they said they were too busy to work with undergrads. After that strategy yielded no success, I tried to go to professors office hours and talk to them face-to-face; however, the majority said they were too busy, were already at capacity with undergrads, or did not have a lab/research area that was well-suited to undergraduate research.

The professors' reasons are of course completely valid, but I am very worried about finding a research opportunity and the attendant impact on grad school admissions. I have spoken with more than half of my school's faculty in my major (and many of the remaining faculty do not have significant lab groups and only work with one or two graduate students at a time). I believe that part of the problem is my school—it is very highly ranked in this field in the US, and the undergraduate population is very competitive. I am a slightly above-average student in the department, but I can't compete with the very top group for research positions. Would it be advantageous to transfer to another university with a lower-ranked department in order to increase my chance of finding a research position? Or  should I just contact the professors again next year? I have also considered expanding my search to other departments, but I am less interested in those areas and unlikely to pursue them later.


texts: When is a not updated software considered deprecated in the academic world?

texts:
Currently I'm writing a thesis in Computer Science for which I need to introduce and compare several open source tools that are available for performing a certain type of testing (mutation testing) on some piece of code.

To reduce the number of tools (initially  more than 25), I set two limits :

The tool must have been updated in the last 5 years to be present in the list, otherwise it is considered obsolete.
Only tools that work for one of the 3 most used languages are considered. I defined them with the TIOBE index (Java, C/C++ are equivalent for the tools and Python).

I arbitrarily set the first condition to five years, but I would not be able to justify this number if needed. I didn't find a study or article with a point of view on the subject.

So my question is: After how many years without updates would such a software (or any software) be considered deprecated?


texts: Australian Research Council (ARC) grants for overseas applicants

texts: I am currently a visiting assistant professor in Computer Science in the United States. I was wondering If there are any avenues (ARC programs) for someone like me to apply for research grants in Australia.


texts: Does a professor need a student's permission to cite the student's unpublished essay in their own work?

texts:
Would professors keep an undergrad student's essay to contribute to knowledge in a certain field? I mean keep for the purpose of citing and using it as a reference when conducting further research on the topic.

Or are they designed to just reiterate information already known just to prove that the student understands the material to qualify to pass a class?

Consider a scenario where the prof is covering course topics throughout the semester and then tells the students to write an essay (the typical introductory paragraph/thesis, body, conclusion, etc.). For example, a student writes about a certain topic in the field and the arguments used to defend that topic over an opposing claim against the original thesis. The student may present arguments that can can be a breakthrough in the field as to why a certain position on a topic is the best choice.

This could happen where the student has a background outside the classroom that contributed to the "original" discovery.


texts: Is it reasonable to use full word and abbreviation in parenthesis in a chapter title?

texts:
Can I use full word plus its abbreviation in parenthesis in a chapter title?
here is my case:

Chapter 2
Human Immune System (HIS)

is it correct? Is there any differences if the the full word have appeared before in the previous chapter content.


texts: How to review a manuscript where the software is difficult to install?

texts:
I'm reviewing a manuscript that is protocol focussed. This protocol is a bioinformatics workflow that uses the author's own software that has already been published.

Part of the peer review requirements are to test the protocol to see if the instructions are accurate. I have no problems with this request. However, although their website suggests that the software should be installable on any OS, the installation package only includes an .exe file for a Windows system. I do not have a Windows system.

It is possible for me to figure out how to install their software, but these instructions are not included in the paper nor on the software website. This would also take me some time and this would be more than a normal amount of time that I should be spending reviewing this paper.

My question is: should I only review what I am able to easily complete from their protocol? In other words, should I only review what I can do from their given instructions and include the difficulties I had installing the software? Or should I contact the authors (without mentioning I am reviewing their new manuscript) and let them know that their installation package for their already published software is missing important files for unix-based systems?

I am still relatively new to the peer review process and think this paper is very interesting and don't want it to be rejected simply because I do not use Windows.


texts: how to express my thought to my supervisor without being disrespectful?

texts:
I applied to a not-so-well-recognized university for my PhD studies. The reason behind it was that one of my undergraduate professors moved to that university for some financial benefits.

I have been working in the research proposal for almost one year, and it got accepted. The problem is that I would like to continue with my studies, but I know that if I continue in that university I would not get many academic chances, and I will be obtaining my doctoral title just for the sake of getting the certificate and nothing more. Actually I would like to move forward to other more respected university with my research proposal. By the way this is my own work and is not related to any on going project from my supervisor.

How I can tell the professor that I would like to still have the professor's help in matters of getting recommendation letters? so I can move with my project to a more well-respected university? I just do not know how to mention that I feel that my academic future will be jeopardized if I decide to stay at this university. It's not a big deal for the professor, who already has a stable academic position.

How to deal with this situation? I do not want the professor to get pissed off with me or to burn any bridges.


texts: Submission of a part of a thesis to a conference?

texts:
I just submitted a part of my thesis to a conference. But in the document, although in fact it is a paper to be submitted to a journal, I have mistakenly left a few words as “in this thesis, my thesis,.. etc”.  Because of the deadline and some timing constraints, I could not find time to replace them.
Do you think it’s a bad thing to upload a paper with thesis words in it? Would it be a negative consideration in terms of the perspectives of the scientific committee?


texts: What does the term POI mean in the context of graduate admissions?

texts: I hear the term POI used in graduate admissions. What does it mean?


texts:
I'm an Erasmus student and I've had pleasure to meet a really great teacher who taught me more than anyone before. I would like to show my appreciation and thank her, but I'm leaving a week bofore the end of the course - and the grades release.
I want to be polite, appreciative and show my respect not to be a "teacher's pet" (I'm an Erasmus, I don't care about the grades, just the learning experience).
Should I came to her after the class and simply thank or send and e-mail or I'll be just making a fool of myself?

Thank you for your answers :)


texts: Are there any universities in US/Europe which will give PhD in Engineering in 3-4 years?

texts:
I know that PhD is not like other degrees which ends in a span of 2-4 years.
Also, one cannot control the span of the program which entirely depends on topic and guides.

But I heard from some where that some universities offer PhD within 3-4 years and there is no minimum journal requirements.

I would like to know if such universities really exist and a comment on the university will be highly appreciated.


texts: Is it possible to do a phd in computer science with an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering?

texts: Is it possible to get admitted in a phd in computer science with an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering? If the answer is yes, then would a graduate student in theoretical computer science who has an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering experience difficulty understanding the computer science?


texts: How important is it to have a PhD advisor in mind when applying to math PhD programs?

texts:
I am about to begin my final year as an undergraduate/masters student in mathematics (my school lets us pursue both degrees concurrently), and I will be applying to pure math PhD programs in the fall. I didn't decide to take the PhD route until somewhat recently, so I am trying to learn as much about the process as possible in a short amount of time.

This being said, I know that in many fields, it is expected that you apply to a PhD program after talking to a researcher at that program who you plan to conduct research with if accepted. For example, it is basically impossible to get into an anthropology PhD program studying archaeology if an archaeologist at that program hasn't already guaranteed you a research position in their lab. Is this kind of relationship important for math PhD programs? I have done a lot of online research about applying to PhDs, but I haven't heard much about needing a connection like this prior to applying to math programs.


texts: Methodology and Literature review in Masters dissertation

texts: I am writing my masters dissertation and it is supposed to be 25000 to 30000 words long. I am struggling to decide how big the Methodology and Literature review should be? Do you think 5000 words for each should be sufficient or too much? The handbook I was given doesn't state how long they should be, only about the total word count.


texts: Does getting awarded your PhD in physics depend on the quality of university?

texts:
Say you wrote a good thesis on some discovery you made in physics.

If it was a mediocre discovery, nothing special, are you more likely to get awarded the PhD at a 'not very good' university than at a top class university like Cambridge?


texts: Why don't some U.S. colleges celebrate American national holidays?

texts:
I was just catching up with a friend about the plunging temperatures in the towns that we live in, and they brought up that they actually have classes today, on Martin Luther King day, which is a national holiday.

Shouldn't colleges observe national holidays and give faculty, students and staff the day off?

(If location matters, we're in the Northeast region.)


texts: Are there any meta studies that look at cost-per-paper of funded projects?

texts:
A senior professor once said to me,

  you expect one (top-ranked) journal paper for every $120,000 in funding.

I’ve always assumed it was an unverifiable figure but I’m interested to find out if work has been done.

Obviously this figure will differ for fields, funders, and your definition of top-ranked. My question is: Are there any meta studies that have looked at this funding versus quality issue?

Caveat: I’m aware that ‘quality’ of science is something that we all agree can’t be measured.  But people do measure it. And I’d like to know if those people have produced any work looking at quality per unit funding and the circumstances that improve the ratio.


texts: Recommendation from foreign professor for defense/intelligence research internship

texts:
I'm looking into applying into research/academic internships in defense and intelligence agencies in the U.S. given my previous work experience and my research interest for the next year. All of them unsurprisingly requires letters of recommendations.

I know one professor who could give me a strong recommendation...only that he's native Chinese. Would his background be an issue, raise suspicion, or be a big red flag?

I apologize if this sounds offending. I feel like I'm opening up a hornet's nest. I'm not familiar too much on the academic side of these things. I know if I applied for work with these agencies, the background of this professor would've raised some concerns over any recommendation he could've written.


texts:
I have been in my current teaching/research position for 4 years. I have just been informed that my contract is research only. I think technically this means I don't have to be teaching. My School and HR want to issue a new contract (which I am sure will take months/years). I would prefer to be research only. I think if there was a screw up and I was listed as teaching only, getting moved to teaching/research would be a real fight with HR. Do I put up a fight about the change? To what extent do contracts matter?

EDIT: I took the job with the expectation of doing both teaching and research. I have had a standard teaching load consistent with other new hires on teaching/research contracts. I have been under the impression that I have to teach as part of my job. The contract doesn't say anything about teaching (in fact it says little about specific job duties). This didn't strike me as odd when I signed the contract. Now on an unrelated issue I have learned that this is odd and means I do not have to teach. The university would like to modify my contract to include teaching duties (which I am already doing and am happy doing).


texts: Does anyone here know what happened to the journal "Indian Journal in Number Theory"?

texts:
Does anyone here know what happened to the journal Indian Journal in Number Theory?

We recently submitted a paper to this journal via e-mail and asked for an acknowledgment of receipt.  However, despite several follow-ups to the Managing Editor over the last few weeks, we have yet to receive a reply.

Should I try to contact another member of the journal's Editorial Board?


texts: How to handle one doctoral supervisor being unhappy over a doctoral student's preference for the other supervisor?

texts:
For my doctoral programme, I have 2 supervisors: 1 academic (i.e. a professor) and the other an industrial.
Over the past few years I've found that my industrial supervisor isn't really able to contribute to my research that much. It's not that he isn't smart or anything like that, its just that he doesn't seem interested in me producing actual research and would rather I just implement existing literature or settle for something that doesn't fulfill my research aims.
I don't really want to go into too much detail but essentially my industrial supervisor has a low opinion of me because from their perspective it seems like I just do whatever my academic supervisor tells me. This isn't true at all.
Before knowing this (he told me himself in no uncertain terms) I felt like I could respect my industrial supervisor and talk to him about my work but now I don't really want to talk to him unless I have to.
What is the best way to deal with my situation?
For context, the current contact arrangements are that I speak/video call my industrial supervisor every weekday. With my academic supervisor its a back and forth email chain with a video call when we can't express things in an email. Prior to COVID, I would work at my industrial supervisor's company everyday and have to arrange skype calls from the office to my academic supervisor. This was difficult to do, so I only really spoke to him once a month and saw him in person every other month (its a 600km round trip).


texts: People with multiple PhDs and People teach in different departments

texts:
Is it allowed for people to obtain multiple PhDs at different stages of their career? I am thinking of Phys and Bio.
Then regardless of that, is it allowed to teach in different departments at one or multiple institutions. (But I would want a tenured-position somewhere.) By teaching, I also wish to include doing relevant research in the two different fields. (for me, maybe physics and biology. Beware: Not biophys.)

John


texts: Should I be worried that I have no set dissertation near the start of my 4th year?

texts:
I'm entering the 4th year of my STEM field PhD at a prestigious institute in Canada. My supervisor is a bit terrible; never around, and often with fantastical ideas that are much harder to realize than he thinks. I'm starting my 4th year this fall, and my first two projects have failed. Now, my supervisor has provided me a new project of which I am not too stoked on. It relies on a collaboration with another group, and involves a lot of waiting time. I'm worried that the clock is ticking and I have nothing concrete to work on. I have one 4th co-author paper in a reputable journal, but I don't foresee publishing soon due to a lack of success. Perhaps it's bad luck.

Others who are in or have done their PhD - is this normal to experience at this point? Or should I start to worry about my ultimate success?


texts:
Fake science is hurting academia and society at large in many ways. Legitimate scientific literature is being drowned in an ocean of junk journals and articles. Almost everywhere in the world, there seems to be simulacrums of science where people wear pompous titles, pay to publish seemingly scholarly literature, go to conferences, etc. but produce 0 contribution to human knowledge. This might be still manageable now because legitimate scientists can easily weed out the junk, but if the amount continues to increase it could go out of control.

At stake are the trust from the general public, the appropriate use of public and private research funds and the advancement of science in general.

Who knows, we might be going towards a new Dark Age but where science is not hindered by powerful religious and aristocratic organizations but rather by an overdose of junk.

What can be done at the individual or institutional level to fight junk science?

Edit: by junk science I mean pseudo-science (i.e. work done with flawed or frivolous methodology), deliberately faked results, and generally very low quality research. I'm not interested in a debate about what is junk and what's not, I'm looking for tangible actions that an individual can take or advocate as an academic, member of a professional/scientific society, employee of a university, etc. very much like what Murphy or Thomas wrote in their comments.


texts: Is it possible to make leaving a PhD look good on a CV / Resume?

texts:
I am in the process of leaving my PhD programme in life sciences at a top university in the UK. A PhD is simply not for me and I find the work/life balance to be intolerable; in addition, my PhD so far has included an industrial placement at a Fortune 500 company that was very eye opening and enjoyable. I am looking to leave academia permanently and apply for graduate schemes.

My question is whether it is better to leave the fact that I quit a PhD off my CV, or to have the failed PhD / MPhil on there, or to mask it as '18 months of lab experience' or something similar. Is it possible to make the fact I left a PhD sound good?


texts: Should I retract an article published in a disreputable journal?

texts:
I was published by the IJARCS in 2011 (International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science) and was wondering if I should retract my article due to the journal being disreputable.

I am under the impression this journal is hurting my CV more than helping it, but to have it removed I need to show that it has a serious flaw in the research.  The article can be found here:

http://www.slideshare.net/IanMalloy/l-2213-321470

Should I list the publication in my CV or not and if it comes up, it comes up?


texts:
I know, the question of how to cite source code has been asked before, but I did not found anything helpful for my specific situation.

I am currently writing my master's thesis. My university does not dictate any particular citation style so I just use biblatex's default settings. My work is quite OS-specific, so I have to cite Linux source code on several places throughout.

I found the Linux cross reference, which allows me to reference specific code lines for specific Linux versions. I intent to use this for my purpose, so I will cite URLs in the form of http://lxr.free-electrons.com/source/<filepath>?v=<version>#L<linenumber>. However, I do not know how to exactly do this.

I know biblatex provides the online type which should be generally applicable, since I am citing URLs. I have two problems with this, though:

What do I fill in as the author/editor? Linux is written by hundreds of people and surely there would be no benefit in mentioning them all. Should I drop the editor/author and instead fill in the organization? But then, do I refer to the Free Software Foundation holding the copyright to Linux Linux Foundation or rather to the maintainers of the Linux cross reference?
I feel like a larger amount of such source code references would clutter the bibliography. Hence, I would rather have an extra section (like a secondary bibliography) listing only those source code references. Is there a solution for this use case? Or should I save the effort and accept the cluttering?


texts: Number of potential PhD advisors at a school

texts:
Past advice suggests that potential PhD students should be wary of attending schools with only one professor in their subfield. If you have problems with your advisor and want to switch, having that option would be invaluable.

But what if your subfield is not represented that well in the vast majority of departments? Almost all schools I'm considering applying for only have one professor in my intended research area. I'm a MS student at the moment and I'm sure what general subfield I'd like to do my PhD research in.

Should I just accept that this is how things are and try to check whether a professor and I would be good matches before accepting? Or should this make the few schools with more than one professor in this subfield more attractive? To be clear, every school I will apply to will have top researchers in this subfield. The comparison is more between a school with one top researcher and one newer researcher and another school with one top researcher and no one else in the subfield. The majority of schools are in the latter group.

I'm tempted to think that hiring committees avoid hiring additional faculty in my subfield if they already have one professor doing research in the area. They have their token professor and that's enough for them. Never mind that the professor's personality, perspective, and research methods matter!


texts: Supervisor has suprevisees do peer reviews for them – what are the ethics of this?

texts:
From Jan van Deursen’s bullying: lab members speak out:

Not everything in Jan’s lab was bad and I think it’s also important to point out that my relationship with Jan was often professionally respectful. For example, Jan repeatedly asked me to peer review manuscripts that he had received from various journals from all impact levels. The level of trust was high. Jan would give me his log-in and password. Our routine was that I’d submit reviews for manuscripts without him reading either the manuscript or the review that I wrote; it was completely hands-off. Honestly, I quite enjoyed this, although my work was always claimed in Jan’s name.

The scientist in question seems to see little wrong with that. Can you provide an ethical analysis of this behaviour?


texts: Do universities keep records/a database of student assignments from the past? Or is only Masters/PhD work kept to publish in journals?

texts: Do universities keep work done by students for later research and/or plagiarism detection by future students (eg. self-plagiarism)?


texts: Asking professor for recommendation after rejecting his PhD offer

texts:
I did my undergraduate thesis with a professor A in a foreign country X. It went well and he offered me a direct PhD in his department afterwards [1]. I was not too keen on accepting the offer due to a variety of reasons, and to avoid saying an unequivocal no (lest he feel bad), I ended up saying (untruthfully) that I could not join the PhD program as I did not want to settle in a foreign country. Having matured much more since then, I now realize in hindsight that this was perhaps not the best way to handle that situation. At the time, I instead asked him to recommend me for a different research job in my home country (I am currently at this position).

Presently, I am being considered for a research job in a foreign country Y, and it checks a lot of the boxes of the ideal job that I have in mind. It provides great opportunities for my future career as well. The recruiter for this new job has asked me to provide references. Professor A is a really good reference for this as the work that I did with him is similar to what I will be doing at this new job, and he was impressed by my work too.

The question is, would it be reasonable to ask professor A to recommend me for a job in a foreign country, when I had declined his offer to apply for his PhD program stating that I don't want to settle/work in a foreign country. If he were to ask me why I am applying to a foreign country, what could I possibly say to him as a reasonable explanation for this seemingly contradictory behavior? I have considered coming clean about it, but it seems that he would just be even more upset that I wasn't honest with him at the outset.

[1] Well, he not so much "offered" it as "suggested" it - he told me that they had a program to take PhD students directly after their bachelors if the students were deserving, and he said he liked my work and felt that I was deserving enough to clear the bar of this program to be selected.


texts: Is there an online directory listing upcoming scientific conferences?

texts:
I am looking at organizing a small conference next summer and I would like by all means to avoid concurrent dates with any major or highly-overlapping conference on the same or related topics. I thought that it would be really useful if there was an online directory where I can check a calendar of upcoming scientific conferences and workshops (maybe sorted by field) and plan mine on a week in which it does not coincide with an already planned event. That way I would not be "competing" for speakers and attendants against the organizer of a different event. I would prefer to avoid "manually" browsing the internet to find this information out, so a centralized online service would be perfect for my needs.

Does such an online resource exist? If the answer depends on the discipline, I am mostly interested in physics, chemistry and materials science conferences and workshops.


texts: Recommenders that are professors but not co-authors

texts:
I applied to a junior faculty position in a certain university. They asked me to provide a list of recommenders with the following requirements:

Each recommender should be a professor.
No recommender can be someone with whom I wrote a paper.

The second requirement rules out not only my Ph.D. advisors, but also most professors who know me as a researcher. I thought of several ideas for recommenders that meet both these requirements:

Professors who meet me regularly at department seminars. They can (hopefully) testify that I can ask good questions. But this is only a small part of being a good researcher.
Professors whose courses I took as a graduate student. They can testify that I can learn well. But again, this is only a small part of being a good researcher.
Professors for whom I did some technical work, e.g. computer programming (for research purposes); same comment as above.
Editors of journals for whom I reviewed a paper. They can (hopefully) testify that I can write good reviews; same comment as above.
Editors of journals in which I published papers. They can (hopefully) testify that my papers are good. But, the fact that they published my papers already shows that they think it is good.
Professors for whom I worked as a TA. They can (hopefully) testify that I know to teach. But for this, it may be much more relevant to bring recommendations from students (which I have).

What other options do I have?


texts: Meaning of 'not under active consideration' in APS peer review process

texts: I have submitted a paper to Physical Review E some 15 months ago. The criticism of the two referees was deep and serious so they suggested a major revision. The editor agreed to publish the paper if I can correctly answer their questions and implement their suggestions. In order to do so, I had to perform calculations which turned out to be lengthy and elaborate, but I have finally finished them. Now I see that the status of the manuscript is 'not under active consideration'. Any idea about the meaning of that? Does it mean that the paper is finally rejected or can it be 'reactivated' by the editor? In the case of the former, can I move the manuscript to another publisher without further communication with the APS?


texts: Allowing a student to sit in during class

texts:
I'm a grad student who will be teaching a course for the first time over the summer, and I'm not sure what the convention is on allowing a student to "sit in" on the class (that is, attend class without being registered, not getting credits, etc). If a student asks before class for permission to do so, is it to my discretion on whether or not to allow it? I suppose it's always within the instructor's right to deny the request, but it seems like approving the request without the school's permission could be a mistake, since I am an employee of the university. The faculty handbook seems to only consider if the student audits the course, in which case they have to officially register as auditing the class, but nothing about unofficially sitting in. Am I extending past my right as instructor if I let a student sit in?

EDIT: This is at a private university in the US.


texts: Is it wrong to leave Ph.D program after MS?

texts:
I have applied to multiple graduate schools and have been offered two GTA positions. Both included full tuition waivers and similar work loads.

The primary difference is one is for a MS program and the other is for a Ph.D program. I applied to the Ph.D programs because the school's Master's program didn't come with a GTA opportunity.

I am not currently committed to the idea of pursuing a Ph.D. The way the program is set up, the course requirements for a MS and PhD are very similar with the primary difference being the depth of the research project. My plan was to evaluate my job prospects and the prospects of a PhD around the time I obtained my MS. I feel like I would have a better idea then about whether or not to pursue the PhD. I don't want to be dishonest but I don't want a career in academics and I suspect that a masters will be sufficient to get me where I want to go. Is it considered unethical to leave a PhD program after my masters under these circumstances?

If it makes a difference, I stated in my SOP that my goals were to obtain a job in an industry.


texts: Could a manuscript be under review even if the AE was not assigned?

texts: There are three things written on the journal’s home page: EIC (editor-in-chief), AE (associate editor) and ADM (administrator). The EIC is assigned, whereas the AE and ADM are not. The status is "Under review". In this situation, what can I expect? Has the EIC invited the reviewers or it is not under review?


texts: Is having a job that you love an advantage or disadvantage when applying for a Masters?

texts:
I'm currently applying to a masters program in a field unrelated to my current line or work. I am lucky to have a job that I love in a different field. Will this make the admissions committee question my commitment to their program? I am satisfied with my current job, but the Masters would enable me to try and do my dream job.

In case it's relevant, my PhD is in physics, and the Masters is in Computer Game Engineering. I am applying to a one year, full time taught Masters at a UK institution. (Related to this question.)


texts: What are the ways I can demonstrate to the PhD admission committee that I am a highly motivated applicant?

texts:
I have a STEM background. After failing in the CS MSc program, I got enrolled in a graduate program in Education. I was originally heavily motivated to do a Ph.D. in CS. But, after failing in CS, now I want to go for a Ph.D. in Education.
What are the ways I can demonstrate to the Ph.D. admission committee that I am a highly motivated applicant?


texts: Dealing with rejection anxiety as a reviewer

texts:
I am not very experienced as a reviewer, and I often find myself stressing over recommending rejection, even for the articles which I think are clearly low-quality and unsuitable for publication in a strong journal. I imagine how the authors might feel (especially if I suspect they are PhD students/postdocs/early career researchers who have a lot at stake in the publication), and I second-guess my judgement and wonder if it would align with others’ opinions. I also always worry that I might come across as unnecessarily harsh and critical in my reviewer report, especially as English is not my native language, so I have limited ability to express myself clearly and succinctly.
This usually leads to me writing too verbose and too detailed review reports (I think). More critically, it caused me a few times to recommend major revisions in the first review round when I thought that the manuscript should really be rejected but didn’t have the guts to suggest it. So inevitably, there comes the second round, the manuscript is not much improved, and I am left stressing again over recommending rejection. I think in such instances it would have been better to just suggest rejection initially, and more importantly it would probably have been fairer to the authors and would not waste their, my or the editor’s time.
Basically, I am asking how to overcome this anxiety about suggesting rejection and the fear of coming across as the “bad reviewer.” Are my concerns valid?


texts: How long do PhD students typically take to come up with their research proposal?

texts: Especially if you are someone who is entering a PhD with very broad interests and little depth of knowledge in your field.


texts: If a midterm exam was from 100 points with 5 points bonus(extra points). Then should the total grade be out of 100 or 105? How to deal with cases of students getting above 100? Should their points be used as bonus for the next exams or just throw them out since they don't need them? I feel that since some students would benefit of the 5 points, those who were above 100 should also do, but I am not sure how?