texts: How competitive is it to get Google Cloud Platform credits for research?

texts:
The Google Cloud Platform (GCP) offers cloud credits for PhD students who submit a research proposal through their website:

https://edu.google.com/programs/credits

Does anybody know how competitive this competition is?


texts: Do American students enroll in unaccredited universities?

texts:
In countries with central governmental control over higher educations, universities normally should be accredited by a governmental body to establish a university and enroll students.

However, in the United States (name if other countries have similar system), establishment of a university is different from accreditation. Therefore, a university officially starts to enroll students (correct me if I am wrong), then apply for accreditation by local accrediting agency.

During this period (establishment and accreditation), will students enroll in a university which has not been accredited yet?


texts: I found published results of my mentor to be wrong. How to tell her?

texts:
For the last few days, I have been trying to reproduce things in a published paper (in quite a reputed journal) from my field. My postdoc mentor is the last author of the paper and the main work was carried out by her collaborators from a different institute and a first author is finishing his Ph.D.

When I saw the paper, I immediately got skeptical because they had missed some obvious things, so I rewrote all the code from scratch and, after a week's extensive checking and cross-checking, confirmed that their results are completely wrong. I told two of my trusted colleagues and they asked me to tell my mentor this. However, I am quite uncomfortable and confused about this.

The student who is the first author has based a big part of his later work on these results. This means that the later work by the student might also be completely wrong. My question is how to proceed from here? Can I ask my mentor to retract their paper? Or should I ask her permission to write a comment about the paper? If I do either of these (or something else which reveals that those results are wrong), would I be considered guilty of destroying the thesis of the first author guy?

I really appreciate any type of help in this matter. Thanks in advance.

Edit: All the answers and comments here are very helpful and I thank you all for them. However, I think I was slightly vague while asking. I very well understand that I could be certainly wrong. But the question is what do I do if I am not? In that case, what should be done? (As things stand, they have surely got at least one plot wrong because it directly goes against a famous fundamental theorem. I got this confirmed from a few people in the field.)


texts: Is it necessary to submit papers to IEEE conference which are PDF Express Plus approved?

texts:
I submitted one of my papers to an IEEE conference: NGCT 2015 which is supposed to be happening soon (the final paper submission deadline is gone) and I had submitted my paper in PDF format, written in latex, without getting it approved using PDF express plus.

Is it necessary that I should have submitted the PDF express plus paper? If yes, do I still have an option of changing the submitted paper?

I tried contacting the conference organizers but they were unreachable for quite sometime now.


texts: How to do a literature review on practical research (thesis)?

texts:
Some background, for my bachelor of science degree I have to do a practical research (thesis) for a company that develops software.

At the end of my Introduction chapter I arived at the following central question:

  Which testing strategy should company X implement to decrease the
  time and cost that goes into testing software Y?

After finishing my introduction chapter, I'm stuck with the literature review/theorthical framework. In my mind I already have the practical solution to the problem and find it easy to write the steps it would take to solve this problem but I'm not sure in what direction to approach this theortically and what type of literature I would need to use.

-update-

Perhaps I'm focussing to much on the testing strategy part of the central question? Should I rather focus on decreasing time and cost that goes into testing? And write down the possible solutions to accomplish this?

So for example a theoritical perspective could be:

Test automation?


texts: This might be a bit of an abstract question, but what defines a dissertation? Some colleagues and myself have been debating this and some are arguing that three peer-reviewed publications or a long monograph make a dissertation. However, others are arguing that the dissertation is defined not by the length or number of publications, but the significance of the contribution. Is there any scholarly consensus on this, or is this a continuing discussion in academia?


texts: Where to get a basic introduction to a science subject published legitimately?

texts:
I have a high school to undergraduate level introduction written for methods and applications of a particular science topic (~5000 words with tables and schematic, like a book chapter).

My goal is to get people especially students interested in this particular topic. My homepage does not have much traffic to help in this. I already have an offer to write a book but that will need some free time which I do not have at this moment.

Where to get it published legitimately? Online ok ISSN or similar required. Any suggestion where this question can be legitimately asked (if not here) is appreciated.

Paid publishers please ignore.


texts: When is Research Assistant/Associate/Fellow a correct title for a PhD student?

texts:
What is the correct term for a PhD student who does entirely research and is paid through third-party funds?

One can see that sometimes people doing a PhD call themselves a Research Associate or Research Assistant (in a very few cases also Research Fellow). I am looking for clarification regarding which term would be appropriate and also why the others are not.

I can't find a clear definition. If this is country dependent I would like to know this for the UK and Germany.


texts: NWO Veni grant application: domein-overschrijdend or humanities?

texts:
I am working on a Veni (introductory individual) grant application to the Dutch Organization for Science, NWO. My proposal is interdisciplinary in its methodology, but firmly rooted in historical linguistis concerning its research question.

I wonder about the pros and cons of submitting my application to humanities (SGW) or as interdisciplinary (DO, for domein-overschrijdend) proposal.

I know that the domain will affect the choice of reviewers/committee members who get to judge the proposal, and that I will have to tailor my application to it.

What is unclear to me, however, is whether there are other factors that mean I should choose one or the other. In particular, are there differences in funding structure and application counts that would mean there is an expected difference in the success chances of an SGW versus a DO application?

NWO have changed their application structure this year. Applications in the domains of humanities or technology (but not interdisciplinary applications between the domains) now need to submit a pre-proposal which needs to be accepted before one is allowed to submit the full application. This was introduced to reduce the workload of referees, which to me suggests that the quota of applicants to grants in humanities and technologies is larger than elsewhere. However, when I asked NWO staff about the difference between the humanities and the DO application procedure, they did only mention the effect on reviewers, not any difference in funds. Are there summary statistics or funding allocation descriptions available online that would show whether a DO application has an a priori higher chance of success?


texts:
Can grad school admission recommendation letters be generic for all applications? (2 or 3, not more than that).

Does it has to be specific to each school ?


texts: Recovering your energy after back-to-back teaching

texts:
This past fall I taught three lecture courses back-to-back-to-back on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. Although I enjoyed it, and felt I did a good job of it, I felt physically exhausted afterwards and usually did not manage to accomplish much those afternoons.

What strategies (yoga? meditation? long walks?) have others used to quickly recover their energy for research or other duties in such situations?


texts: How to cope with unfavorable GPA algorithm

texts:
I am going to apply for graduate school a year later. My institution is adapting an GPA algorithm which take all course grades record in to GPA calculation. But there is a consequence I think is unfavorable to students.
For example, I got a 1.0/4.0 for my calculus course in freshman which is a 6 credit course in freshman year.I retake it and get a 4.0 a year later to prove that in fact I am well versed in this area. But the net effect for GPA calculation is that the two grades are all included which means (1.0+4.0)/2=2.5 GPA for 12 credits which is still of negative effect. I have a number of  courses badly screwed up and I find it difficult to pull my GPA up in this circumstance.
So, is this algorithm used widely among universities? If it is, how to overcome the downsides or the only way is to face it directly? How would admission offices in, e.g. US graduate schools, view this?


texts: How to deal with left over work from a Post Doc

texts:
I have recently (6 months) left academia after a three year postdoc at a high ranking university. During my time there, I became the lab's statistics guru having carried out analysis on a lot of our labs data, both my data, and others.

I was let go due to lack of funds, but my previous supervisor is now asking me to carry out a number of analyses on new data for publication, and to finish one or two papers I did not finish during my employment.

So my questions are:

How do I graciously refuse to touch others data? I wrote the data analysis pipeline, but am not interested in maintaining and rerunning it every time new results appear. It's available on github and well commented, just no one else in the lab knows how to do anything with computers. The actual running is easy for the most part, it is "small" modifications that are causing me trouble. I've offered to train others (and trained an undergrad who has also since left the lab), but the amount of training to teach someone python from scratch is a little daunting.
How to finish up my own papers? I'm currently contracting to industry at rates 3-6 times what I was paid during my postdoc - my supervisor is asking for me to work for free, or maybe my previous rate if he can get the money. This is a significant time sink, but I do feel obligated (and interested) to finish these off. What is a good pay rate to ask for? How do I do this without offending my supervisor?

Location is USA. The postdoc was a yearly contract, where an informal agreement was made to extend it to a 4th year, which had to be cancelled due to a loss of funding 4 months from renewal, thus the somewhat unorganized departure. In my heart of hearts, I'd like to continue in academia, but due to partner issues have to stay in the current location, making academia extremely unlikely. I'm currently undergoing the recruitment process for two different industry positions, as well as my contracting.


texts: Are mentally ill people allowed to perform research?

texts:
Is it acceptable for a person to be a researcher if she/he has a mental disorders or illnesses?
Are there laws that either prohibit or not prohibit mentally ill to perform research? Caveats?


texts:
I am an undergraduate student and while I was taking a class I happened to come up with some new concepts contrary to what my professor had told me regarding their possibility.

I have published in other journals but never in IEEE transactions, this could very well give a solid backing to any SOP I would write for my Phd studies. My professor is a Phd and he has various connections and stuff. He was impressed with the work and told me to publish it. However, I have heard that publishing in IEEE transactions is extremely hard: would including my professor as a co-author, with his doctoral degree, help in the review process? Not influence it or something, but would they at-least take me seriously? Normally, I don't fret about being published and stuff but to get a good school for Phd it's essential that I have this done. What are your thoughts?


texts: Mathematical proofs in non-math paper: What if they are wrong?

texts:
So my first paper from my undergraduate research just got published! Yay!

However: I am still stressed out: What if there were any mistakes? I did my undergraduate research in a psychology lab, all other coauthors have a psychology background. I myself got very interested in mathematical modeling and took many math classes as an undergrad. As a result the paper also had a lot of mathematical statements and proofs in the supplement. Nobody except me has ever checked the proofs. They passed through peer review; though I am not too sure the reviewers were in a position to judge the proofs either (unless the editor was very diligent and sent the manuscript to mathematicians; it did not sound like that from the reviews).

To the best of my ability these proofs are correct. However, I would not describe myself a mathematician yet (though I will start my PhD in the fall in an applied math department), so I am worried there could be some subtle error in there.

What would my current advisor think if someone actually found a mistake there? Or my future department? Are such thoughts common and how do people deal with these?


texts:
Two years ago, Roger Peng discussed in his blog the ramifications of requiring reproducibility for the first producers of research objects, but not for reusers. He then proposed

  What I think a good reproducibility policy should have is a type of "viral" clause. For example, the GNU General Public License (GPL) is an open source software license that requires, among other things, that anyone who writes their own software, but links to or integrates software covered under the GPL, must publish their software under the GPL too. This "viral" requirement ensures that people cannot make use of the efforts of the open source community without also giving back to that community.

I agree that having such a perpetuating policy element is very desirable, but would try to establish community norms around that, i.e. to get community organs like funders, publishers, institutions or learned societies to express support for the idea that reproducibility should trigger reproducibility. How best to phrase the core elements of such statements?

This question was originally posted at the Open Science SE private beta, due to be closed tomorrow.


texts: Efficient process for writing a STEM journal article

texts:
Background:
I have done quite a lot of research work for a particular project.
I am working in the field of operations research (i.e. applied math/physics),
so this work primarily takes the form of propositions, proofs and numerical experiments.
In the process of my research,
each day I write up my daily progress in my lab notebook,
which in my case takes the form of a very very long LaTeX file.
I am now trying to write up my work as an article for submission to a journal.

Question:
What is an efficient process which I can use to write the journal article?

Related links:

The Mumford method sounds interesting.
However, as Mumford is a philosopher,
his writing process seems to me to be less relevant to writing in the sciences.


texts: What are the chances of an article to get published if it got minor revision comments, and a single optional major revision comment?

texts:
Our paper have been reviewed two days ago. The comments of the the two reviewers are few and of minor type (spelling and format issues) and can be addressed easily, except of one comment in which one of the two reviewers "optionally" asked if we can use data from other locations. However, we cannot do this now. Getting the data will take long time before being used in the study, the deadline of the journal revision is so tight, and the study is already intense and long. The status on the journal online system is "Major Revison" despite the fact that all other comments are minor, and the only major comment is optional.
How do we respond to the reviewer to take the other option: not adding new data?
What are the chances of accepting the paper in this case?


texts: In my letter of intent for an MSc, should I mention my commute?

texts: I have a respectable cGPA of 3.5 and annual GPA of 3.7. I am hoping to graduate with at least a cGPA of 3.5 which would award me with "high honours". I am not trying to find an "excuse" for a low GPA (since mine is rather high), but rather emphasize that I was able to achieve those marks while volunteering / commuting. I am hoping this demonstrates my hard work. Anyways, I volunteer on research 3 hours a week (not a huge time commitment). However, I also commute 5 hours total to and from school (so about 25 hours a week simply commuting). I am wondering if this would be worthwhile to mention in my letter or if I should leave it out? I am definitely mentioning my volunteering since it relates to the program.


texts: Background review in a multidisciplinary paper

texts:
I am writing a paper which will include concepts from statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics, relativity, information theory, and thermodynamics. Potential readers will probably not be familiar with all the different fields. I need to find the right balance between assuming that the reader knows all of the concepts, and explaining all the concepts from the beginning.

Any tips on how to find this balance?


texts: How to use competitions to encourage students to work harder and study more

texts:
In order to encourage and motivate students to work harder and study more, it seems the teacher can use various competitions in class or after class. But on the other hand, competitions could cause jealousy and other destructive emotions among students and therefore affect the performance of some students adversely. Due to my doubts and my lack of experience, I haven't used competitions in my classes as a means of motivating students yet. But I would like to know if there is an experienced and useful method to do that. So my questions are:

Have you ever used competitions in your classes? What are the pros and cons of students compete in the class for higher grades? Which points should I consider before encouraging students to compete with each other?


texts: Why do Swedish postdoc ads typically have a requirement that PhD date must not be more than 5 years ago?

texts:
Ads for postdocs in Sweden appear to always have a rule like PhD degree obtained preferable not longer than three-five years ago:

Example 1, 2.  I've seen it many times in the past but job opening links are particularly temporary.

Is this to protect people from becoming career postdocs?  Is it a requirement from a funding agency?  Or is it just a habit?


texts: Google Scholar citation missing because of name mismatch?

texts:
I am a PhD student and have only a few publications under my belt. I just noticed a Nature paper cited my Master's thesis but it cited my first name as my last and my last first. I am a tad worried that this problem would propagate. On top of that, I tried to add this missing citation to my Google Scholar profile by adding an article manually with the messed up name (as in the references of the work citing mine) but the citation didn't show. For some reason, this citation was shown on ResearchGate and I just claimed authorship to it but would this affect the Google Scholar citation count though?

Would appreciate any suggestions around avoiding name being mis-cited or fixing citation count.


texts: In a yes/no question, a student gives the right answer and an unnecessary but wrong explanation. How to grade?

texts:
Example:

Q: Does Venus exhibit retrograde motion? (1 mark)
A: No. This is because Venus orbits the Sun and not the Earth.

The first part is correct: Venus does not exhibit retrograde motion. But the explanation is incorrect: the reason Venus doesn't exhibit retrograde motion is because it's closer to the Sun than we are. Mars for example also orbits the Sun and not the Earth but does exhibit retrograde motion.
Do I award 1 mark or 0? On the one hand, for obvious reasons, the grading scheme only covers whether the student said "yes" or "no". Based on that, I should award 1 mark. Further, if the student hadn't written the incorrect explanation, then the answer is perfect, and it feels wrong to penalize the student for going beyond what the question asks for.
On the other hand, the explanation is clearly incorrect and the student should've known the correct explanation (it's part of the curriculum). It also feels wrong to award full marks for semi-incorrect answers. For example, if the student had written something silly such as "This is because Venus is made of Swiss cheese", do I still award 1 mark?!
Ideally, I'd award 0.5 marks, but for various reasons, fractional scores aren't permissible.


texts: Is contacting this expert in the field something acceptable or would it be discourteous?

texts:
I have a major in Mathematics and Mathematical Physics and a masters in Theoretical Physics. I have enrolled the PhD course and must pick an advisor/theme until june.

I have three main big fields of interest and for the PhD I wanted to work in the intersection of these themes. I then got interested in one particular formalism which is related to all three themes. This particular paper is written by an expert in the field and seems to be part of the people who initiated this research effort.

I did talk to a professor in the department that has knowledge in one of the fields and has a lot of interest in the others (despite being no expert there) and which is usually open to new things.

He, however, said that I should come up with a concrete research objective inside this field.

Now, I must admit I can't do it. I look at what has already been done and I admit I have no idea what is still open and what can specifically be done. I just know I want to work with this and start a career with it.

So I considered the option of writing one email to the author of the paper that got me interested into this and ask for advice on what can be done.

The point of the question is that I'm unsure if this is acceptable in the academic world and if this would be well received.

So my question is: would be it ok to write an email to the author and ask what for advice in what is still open and can be done for a PhD research given my interests? Or is it discourteous and shouldn't be done? Or is there some specific way in which this should be done to not be discourteous?


texts: How can I better equip myself early on for pure mathematics research?

texts:
From discussions about the nature of pure mathematics research I reached to a conclusion that it requires both- theory building; that is to create rigourous concepts relevant to the problem one working on and then building upon it, as well as usage of clever, ingenious tricks to obtain certain results. There's no real dichotomy in here.

If this is the case then I'd like to know how can I do certain things or develop a few habits that will help me or atleast equip me to tackle the challenges professional pure mathematics research poses before an individual?


texts: Is there a reason a TA and a professor may have to travel together?

texts: I don't work in academia but I'm working on a screenplay set in that world. I was wondering if there might be a reason for a TA and a professor to travel together for work. If the professor were attending an academic conference, would it be normal for the TA to go with? Thanks!


texts: What happens if no one wants to advise me?

texts:
I was accepted to a PhD program. I am finished with quals and looking for an advisor. I'm having a difficult time finding one though. Everyone is not accepting students (or at least not me). It's a small department. I'm worried I won't find ANYONE to advise me. I finished my quals, I work hard, I try to be polite.

If no one wants to advise me, do I just have to drop out?


texts: How Important is the rank of a school in a certain specialty?

texts:
I am interested in applying for PhD programs in discrete mathematics, but one of the schools I'm looking at isn't included in the top 10 rankings of discrete math programs (at least not according to US News: https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/discrete-mathematics-rankings). The school I am looking at is an overall top 25 school in math, but just not in the top 10 for the specific area I am interested in. They do have several people (about 5) researching discrete math, so it is not a non-existent research area in this school.

The part that I am especially torn about is that if I were to go to this school, then I wouldn't have to move (and incidentally the city I currently live in is my favorite city), and I could likely keep my current job and just work at my job half-time. I figure that if I'd have to likely work 10-20 hours a week as a TA, it might be worth it just to do 20 hours a week at my current job with better pay. Also I should mention that so long as I do 20 hours a week at my current job, I will get tuition payed for, health insurance, 401k etc (all the benefits I currently have). My goal isn't to stay in industry, but to go into academia, and so I would need a really stellar dissertation since academia is so competitive. My question is therefore if you want to take the academia route, how important is (in shaping how good of a mathematician you will become) the ranking of a school in a certain specialty if its overall math ranking is good (top 25), and there are still several people doing research in that specialty?

EDIT:
I wouldn't be able to live in the same city as the school is located in. I'm in a city that is close by. How important is it to live near the campus when doing a PhD?


texts: Putting off PhD for a (potentially) better experience

texts:
I'm a software engineer for a CS lab for a top-20 school. I have a masters in CS (no thesis) from a top-tier university, a few secondary authorships and fairly decent experience working on research projects. I'm in a position where I either enroll in a PhD program at the school I currently work at or waiting a few years until my next chance to try to find a lab that is a better fit.

My wife is a medical student and in 3 years, she will be assigned a residency somewhere. While we are able to narrow down our choices to a handful of cities, there is no guarantee which one we will end up at. The PI for the lab I work in is aware of this, but has offered to let me do a PhD with him anyways.

Pros:

He is fairly confident I will be able to finish in a few years and is comfortable with me doing my last year remotely (allowing me to move with my wife when she begins her residency).
I like my PI and he treats the lab well
I would have a significant background in the research field having worked in the lab for a couple years by the time I start my PhD.

Cons

I feel my academic interests have little overlap with many others in the lab. I like looking for, analyzing, and writing code for novel algorithms as well as really thinking about how to go about creating software, I love to code and to explore the languages I use. Most of the lab's interest is more geared towards using, combining and writing scripts for data analysis tools, interpretation, pipelining etc. I could certainly stand to learn a lot from them, but I am just not as interested in that as I am in theory and software.
The lab is very young (not sure if pro or con). In the start of Fall 2020, the oldest lab members will be the 2 students in their third year.
I fear that a rushed and partially-remote PhD will be a lower quality PhD.

I look at other labs, primarily those that are in the top of their field, and can't help but to be jealous of them. Just by looking at the publications, code and CVs of the grad students, my interests and abilities seem to fit in much better. I want to be in a lab where I can bounce software and algorithmic ideas off of the majority of the lab and get feedback and help on both research and software questions.

The question boils down to whether or not I should stay at my current university and do a relatively fast PhD with more perks/freedom or wait a few years and do a PhD in a lab that better fits my interests (and is potentially higher-tier as well). Obviously, there are risks associated with waiting. I may not get rehired at my current job and be forced to work in the industry for a couple years (I'm on a yearly grant, and I know money will be tight next year) or I may not be accepted to a school where my wife is matched for residency.

I have debated reaching out to labs I'm interested in and asking them this question directly, however I worry it may seem like I'm going behind my PIs back or using him as a backup option. Would this be an inappropriate thing to do?

While I know this is a very opinionated question, I would like input on potential pros/cons that I am missing, other options, or perhaps even weighing in on what you think the right decision would be. If this post doesn't belong here, please forward me to a forum/site that is more appropriate.


texts: Why don't professors give talks at their own departments?

texts: Why don't professors give talks at seminars in their own departments?  They travel to other schools to give talks, while seminars at their home departments consists of talks given by visitors.  Is there a reason for this?


texts: In CV, mentioning of a report that summarizes the postdoc research without publications?

texts:
During a one year of postdoc of mine in pure mathematics, I didn't publish anything. I definitely did a research report and wrote down the main questions (in the form of conjectures) we were after and some ideas on how they could be solved. I'm now doing a new postdoc in an applied area as my next postdoc, and I was wondering whether it's okay/encouraged/discouraged/harmful to mention that research report in my list of publications/pre-prints. Clearly, it's just an expository report without proving any new results, which will never be published or even put on arXiv, but it does reflect the fact that I was not idle during my postdoc.

What do you think?
Thanks!


texts: Outsider Contributions: Are They Possible, and How?

texts:
The current system of producing knowledge in academia, think-tanks, research laboratories funded by large organizations, and similar has the benefits that there is usually some oversight, the people involved have been trained on how to conduct and contribute to research, and how to communicate their results to the literate portion of the society they are supposed to aid.  (The above is subject to debate, but I prefer to assume it for the purpose of the question below.)

How can a person with no contacts to any of these contribute, or learn how to contribute, to the production of research, in spite of lack of oversight, funding, and training?  As examples, a person who finds an alternate and faster method of DNA replication, or finds influences of Jane Austen among current bloggers that suggest a certain societal trend, or has a new way of analyzing large portions of astronomical data, or finds a way of speeding up numerical simulations of models of biological systems involving capillary blood flow.  How does such a person present such an idea or method?

One can write to authors on the appropriate area; how likely is this to succeed?  One could look at an appropriate journal, attempt to copy the style, formatting, and phraseology of the articles and then submit their write-up to that journal, but without affiliation; with what result?  One might attempt to use the Internet to strike up conversations with like-minded individuals and find a willing ear and eye; are there enough willing ears and eyes?  One could start a blog or just put up a web page announcing the work; I have done that, but I have too many connections to be considered a complete outsider to academia, and I want to pose the question for those who are so outside.  Further, how could someone searching an index find that page among many that are computer generated using similar phrases?

There are several spins one can put on this.  Let us further assume that the primary goal is to present the idea/form of knowledge, and receive little or no more than the recognition of making the contribution and the satisfaction of seeing it used.  In particular, potential degrees, awards, or jobs are not part of the scenario or motivation.  In this day and age, would blogging be enough?  Also, for fun and to make answers less trivial, assume the outsider is not and is not likely to enroll in a university.

Added: To address a comment, enrolling in a university would likely provide many of the desired contacts, but with some cost.  The outsider may have had a university education, but this question makes the assumption that contacts there are stale or otherwise not accessible or appropriate, making this person more of an outsider.


texts: Will professors get dismissed for not actively doing research?

texts:
According to Wikipedia:

  A tenured professor or curator has an appointment that lasts until retirement age, except for dismissal with just cause. A common justification for existence of such a privileged position is the principle of academic freedom, which holds that it is beneficial for state, society and academy in the long run if scholars are free to examine, hold, and advance controversial views.

I know this "just cause" includes academic misconducts and crimes, but my question is about a mild case:

I have heard that professors and associate professors have certain research requirements. If a professor or associate professor stops to be active in his research (for instance, publishing very few or even no papers for years) after he gets tenured (but let's assume he still does a fair job in teaching and outreach), will he be dismissed from the university?

If there are no such examples, then what is the binding power of research requirements upon professors and associate professors?


texts: What is my salary expectation in Germany with Remuneration group 11 TV-H, if I have master degree?

texts:
I did master in Germany. One of the public sector company offers me a job with "Remuneration group(entgeltgruppe) 11 TV-H".

"Remuneration group 11 TV-H" is basically for Bachelor. My question is, my salary belongs to which Stage of Remuneration group 11 TV-H.

They will add 2 years of experience from my master degree or not. If they add then my salary belongs to stage 3, otherwise, stage 1.

Salary group


texts: Should the listings be included in the contents page

texts:
I have a thesis template that does not put the List of Figures, List of Tables etc. in the contents page.

What is the normal practice and what is the normal order for the front matter?

Currently it is:

table of contents
list of figures
list of tables
list of listings
list of symbols


texts: How significant is it to publish a scientific "review paper" in 6–10 impact factor journal?

texts: I have published my thesis to an international conference but it was not anything reputed. However, I do not have access to lab now. I have been asked to be a part of a review-paper writing team and a book-chapter writing team. I am not sure which will have greater impact during my admission in grad school and among researcher community.


texts: How to deal with a piece of text and materials that you do not consider essential?

texts:
How do you normally indicate a subsection, or a part of the text that it is not so important for the rest of text. Let me give an example:

  [...] This method uses ABC as a coefficient.

  Subsection: how to measure ABC

  [some text and a plot, making up for roughly one column]

The subsection can be skipped, but is probably too short to appear as an appendix at the end.


texts: Best course of action to get into theoretical and mathematical biology

texts:
I have long harboured a passion for the application of mathematics and physics towards problems in biology and from my microbiology and bioinformatics experience, I very much consider myself much more of a bench scientist and all round "thinker".

Assuming someone had a strong biological background (PhD level) but wanted to study part time in order to gain the knowledge necessary to properly transition into the theoretical biology field, would it be best to study purely mathematics, physics, or mathematics and statistics? There is little in the way of career insight into this field and I believe it has yet to bloom, but all of these subjects contain highly applicable topics. Personally I am leaning more toward physics as I believe that this will not only give the mathematical background necessary, but the applied mindset that physicists possess but some mathematicians don't. However, many aspects of statistics are well rooted in biology, and of course mathematics on its own will give me more tools to apply.

I understand that no one course will cover all bases, but which would be the best to pursue in order to give me the strongest grounding for further study in this field? It is my intention to perhaps follow up this with a dedicated MSc in mathematical biology in order to give me the opportunity to study the direct application of my knowledge to biology.

Thanks in advance.


texts: What procedures should I follow if my preprint is stolen and published in a journal?

texts:
I am surprised by the fact that a journal published an article that I have had in arXiv for a few months. The date of publication is after the date that I posted on arXiv. The submission date in the journal is not mentioned.  What procedures I should follow?

Some information to clarify the situation:

The article published in the journal is a total plagiarism. They changed only the name of the title.
The article is published in a journal in the name of other authors.
My article (that is in arXiv) is already accepted in another journal (but not yet online) and the date of acceptance is before the date of publication of that of the other authors.


texts: Posthumous authorship or acknowledgement

texts:
Suppose I am working on a book that is a broad expansion of a survey article I wrote with a collaborator, Dr. Y, who passed away recently.
I sent Y extremely early drafts of some chapters and invited Y to be a coauthor.
Y gave a lot suggestions in the structure, content, and style of the book, yet Y remained vague about coauthorship (probably because he had doubts if he will live long enough). Y never said yes or no.
Y never participated in the actual writing.
But Y's suggestions became the high level blueprint that guided the development of the book.
This draft is only about 60% done, but I'm wondering: in this case, should Y be a coauthor?


texts: Does careful selection of graph colors in a manuscript have any positive impact on reviewers?

texts: I have just completed an article in which results are interpreted by means of 3D-plots; there are almost 15 plots in my article. Since plots could have a major impact on the reviewers’ decision, I am little worried about the colors used, which are actually very bright. Do the colors used in my plots really matter? If so, what type of colors should one should use in graphs?


texts: Is it okay to inquire about the status of a paper when the online submission system shows no update three months after submission?

texts:
Around 3 months ago, I submitted a paper to a Math journal for peer-review through an online submission system. The same day I received in my e-mail an acknowledgement saying that the paper had been received.

The problem is that the status of the paper on the online submission system is still "Manuscript submitted".

I think this means that the paper has not even been assigned to an editor yet (once this happens, the editor will probably start looking for reviewers), but as far as I know submissions are assigned to editors within a few weeks (I once submitted a paper to another journal and when an editor had been assigned, the status on the online system changed to "Editor handles" or something like that).

I know that publishing is a long and complicated process and I'm not trying to rush anybody, but sometimes manuscripts are lost in the system. In fact, this has once happened to me, so I just want to make sure that the paper was not lost in the system.

Should I send an e-mail asking for the status of the paper?

PS: I think that, at the time of submitting the paper, I didn't choose any specific editor to submit the paper to.


texts: In what format I should share a semi complete business & technical innovative idea in enterprise

texts:
Question
Does this fit a Yellow paper or a Whitepaper or other kind of document?
Context:
What is my document about ?
I am developing an idea, out of a business need. It is not an algorithm or a 100% technical specification to solve the problem, it can accept a wide range of solutions. To put you in context, it is about:
"Evolving ETLs with future business specifications". For this, I wrote a document presenting many ideas, a study of the existing techniques and technologies. Along the lines, and in the first section of the document, I exposed the problem and how I see the new solution. Therefore technically it is not 100% specified, because I have not 100% the knowledge and experience nor I have the time to develop more (this is why I want to throw the document).
Why do I write this document ?
As you know all, in a professional environment (without necessarily a research subdivision), other developers are not just there to discuss ideas. Even seeking knowledge (at least in my space) is not easy. Simply asking for a review from other say experimented developers in the same field of study also can be out of scope, they are already working on on-running products and not necessarily looking for innovation (let's say it, without $$ or reputations).
The core purpose of the document is to:

Save my work, even when not 100% specified.
Share knowledge and in a way seek indirectly help and get the attention of more experimented peers hiding somewhere.
Prove some motivation.
Very probably, it can be a base for new products around the idea.
Push others to thinking (like some ppt presentation I saw in IT late meetings, some presentation with a lot of question marks "??")

Is this what we call a Yellow paper ?


texts: UK: Must my PhD research related to my MPhil research?

texts: Is this generally expected? It seems to me that most people develop something in their MPhil and then continue working on this field for the PhD. What would I do if I had a change of interest, and work on sub-field A for the MPhil, but then want to do subfield B for my PhD. Is this generally o.k. ?


texts: Continue applications after accepting a position

texts:
There are various questions (and excellent answers) here about what to do when one accepts a job regarding existing applications. The general consensus is "withdraw existing applications".

I write with a variation on this that I have not seen addressed here.

If someone accepts a soft-money research position at one institution, and that position will start in 1.5 or 2 years, must they still withdraw and cease applying to other institutions?

Some context: The current role is post-doc. The goal is TT. The soft-money research position is a good step and starts when the post-doc ends.

It seems strange the candidate is effectively removed from the job market for ~2 years (1.5 until position starts, and one assumes it is bad form to apply for other jobs immediately in a new position), even though the next position is not committing to salary. It seems like other TT applications that are pending, or new ones that might be submitted in the next 1.5 years, could lead to the desired TT job, in which case the soft-money position would not be taken.

Is this approach unethical?

Edit

Soft money is a common term in my field. It means the institution provides no fixed long-term salary support. You are responsible for your salary by grant-writing.

Edit 2

Several questions about why the 1.5 year delay. This is part of dual career hire. One got TT, one got soft-money after post-doc ends.


texts: CS PhD at University of Houston ranking importance on future career

texts: Currently a undergraduate student planning to apply for PhD programs in a year or less. I have been working with a professor at University of Houston (my current location) for almost a year on machine learning. Everything is great. Our research interests align, relationship is getting stronger. I have some people tell me a university's ranking does matter a lot but heard quite the opposite from others. It makes sense to choose a PhD program by seeing what advisor wants you and how well you fit, which in my case is great. How would one speak of University of Houston? I am planning to join the industry afterwards preferably a big tech company but things change long way to go. Can and should one's H-index be a means of quality measure? I have spoken to his past and current students, all of them said positive things which reassures me as a future possible candidate. Please help me out with some advice and facts that I can use to understand and evaluate my situation.


texts: Can somebody explain Design Science in Layman's terms

texts:
I am going to write my master's thesis, and for that I will try and see if one can effectively forecast security prices with recurrent neural networks. My thesis supervisor proposes that I use a "design-science" methodology. Wikipedia says:
"Design science research focuses on the development and performance of (designed) artifacts with the explicit intention of improving the functional performance of the artifact. Design science research is typically applied to categories of artifacts including algorithms, human/computer interfaces, design methodologies (including process models) and languages. Its application is most notable in the Engineering and Computer Science disciplines, though is not restricted to these and can be found in many disciplines and fields."
But I'm having trouble understanding exactly what is design science. How does it differ from a normal approach, say a classic psychological "intro-methods-results-discussion" paper?


texts: Can I submit my paper somewhere else during rebuttal period?

texts: During a rebuttal period, with reviews that show a strong indication of overall reject, can I submit the paper to another venue (without violating concurrent submission rules)? The submission deadline in the other venue is before the final response of the current venue.


texts: Why do you need to do a postdoc after getting your PhD?

texts: I never quite understood why you need to do a postdoc after completing your PhD. Is it like getting an unofficial second PhD?


texts: How to tell my advisor I stopped sending him weekly reports on my results because he was not answering my emails?

texts:
I have been working on my PhD from home for several months now because my mom is sick, which was fine with my supervisor up until a few weeks ago. Before starting to work from home (in a different country than my supervisor is), we agreed that we would communicate every two weeks and that I would send reports about my progress.

As I did so over the last months, I would rarely receive a response from my supervisor, who is a big name in our domain and is very, very busy.
After a few unanswered emails, I had the impression that I should just contact him in urgent cases, so I stopped contacting him every two weeks.

Now he is asking me to come back to work at the office because he thinks that I have not been communicating enough in the last weeks.

I am aware that I should not have supposed that he only wanted urgent information and thus I should have continued sending him my weekly reports, but how can I tell him that it is because I never got any answer from his side?

My wish is to find a good equilibrium in our communication style so that I can continue working from home!


texts: What is the expectation that one should have from reading a published paper?

texts:
Is it just to check that the paper's results are correct?  Should I expect that the authors describe their methods for arriving at the right answers / solving a problem?  I've often found that on a key part of the paper, e.g., the main result, the authors just give you the data without explaining.  I then have to verify that the data is correct and the results are correct but this takes a bit of work on my part, which I am happy to do, but I wonder why these steps aren't shown on the paper itself.

Is what I described the usual expectation when reading a research paper?  That I shouldn't expect researchers to divulge how they arrived at the right answer and perhaps that is a way for them to protect their work, e.g., whatever method they came up with that worked ... could have the potential to be used again and again to publish more papers?

I also tried contacting researchers directly to discuss their work.  All of them are happy to talk - but mostly on a superficial level, e.g., "I've done X,Y, and Z, my co-author has done A,B and C."


texts: How should I present awards I won as a co-author in my resume?

texts: I'm a co-author on a project. The project has been presented at 2 conferences and won 2 awards. How should I present this information on my resume?


texts: What are the mechanics of negotiating a faculty job offer?

texts:
I would like to know the following. This is for the US.

Is the deadline in the offer letter a deadline to come to a finished negotiation, or a deadline to say you'd like the job and then to enter into negotiations.

How exactly and with whom do you negotiate? Is it with the sender of the job offer, and is it usually done over email or a call? It seems email may have the advantage that there is a written record.

I'm thinking of ways of reducing the teaching burden by asking, for example, trying to minimize the number of unique courses over the years, while agreeing to the number of courses taught per semester in the job description. Is this a reasonable thing to ask for, and is it too vague?

What happens after the negotiations are finished? Do they revise the offer letter or do they draft a contract? How long does it usually take from finishing negotiations to confirming that you have the job (which I suppose is when a contract is sign)?


texts: Code plagiarism by teacher at renowned university

texts:
As a post-graduate student at a renowned university, I am supposed to make an assignment (see attached images) which is obviously inspired on this licensed scikit tutorial.

Since the assignment (code) instructions are identical to the licensed code, I have two questions:

Is the scientific integrity of the teacher challenged by posing this question?
Should I report this at the university's fraud office?

In the assignment is no reference or citation included.


texts: What are the recommended approaches in selecting students to work on research projects?

texts:
I have seen several approaches in selecting students to work on research projects like:

Select from the list of admitted students
Announce the job for all the students in the department and interview the top candidate
Select after teaching a course and knowing the best students

Are there any other approaches and are there any recommended ones?


texts: How did authors prepare figures in their publications before the advent of computers?

texts: I am often amazed at how neat figures in old scientific publications are. How did authors prepare those plots and diagrams, when there were no computers around? Did they draw them by hand? Were there any special methods and tools involved? Did the authors prepare the figures themselves?


texts: What is the average tenure-track duration in the USA?

texts:
I am a postdoc and will be up in the tenure-track job market in the near future. Just want to know what the average duration one has to work on tenure-track. Is this duration negotiable or there is a strict rule for this duration?
Thanks!
--Dave


texts: How do professors view a student who has good grades but always asks stupid questions?

texts:
I am planning to apply for Ph.D programs in mathematics in U.S. and I am thinking about which professors I should ask for letters of recommendations from. In order to get "strong" letters, I need to determine which professors believe I am really strong.

Although I do well in most of my classes (I am always trying to get full marks on my homework and tests), I do have a "bad" habit of asking stupid questions frequently. I can see from the faces of professors that they dislike students who always ask stupid questions, while welcoming students to ask questions. (If you are a professor and don't think this is the case, please let me know...I really appreciate it.) I feel like professors prefer the questions that will make them have a better understanding about the subject instead of the questions that they will waste their time on.

What do professors think of a student who has good grades but always asks stupid questions? Should I expect good letters from them? Or I should go to the professors whom I seldom ask questions (but still do well in their classes)?


texts: Job prospects for international student in the UK for an academic position in the humanities

texts:
For the sake of context, I have been accepted by a UK university for my undergraduate degree (Maths and Philosophy at Oxford), and shall be beginning my degree this fall.

My issue is this - after having looked into the course contents for English, I have been considering changing my degree subject once I arrive. However, when I suggested this to my parents, they were convinced that I would have to return back once my degree is over if I did this, because, according to them, it is much harder for an international student to get a job that will allow them to emigrate as a humanities student than as a STEM student.

As such, my question is this - as far as the UK is concerned, is there a significant difference between one's prospects in academia between the humanities and the sciences? And is it thus any harder for an international student to emigrate if he or she pursues an academic career in the Humanities?


texts: How to mention a paper as a citation which is to be published and not present as a preprint?

texts:
Background:
I have written a paper X. In X, I mention 3 future works which I had thought to take a lot of time to solve. But somehow I managed to finish those early.
Now I want to write a Paper Y on these future works. But I want to submit paper Y before paper X is published.
Question: How can I mention Paper X in Paper Y?
Note: I can not put paper X in a pre-print server because the conference does not allow it.
(Domain: Machine Learning/Computer Science).


texts:
I want to know that's it is written on some conference website that paper will be published at Scopus indexed journal. What that means. Is that paper is considered a conference paper or journal paper after publishing.?
Thanks


texts: How to avoid personal issues interfering with my Ph.D. studies?

texts:
Background

My life had (and still has) difficult problems (chronic disease and its consequences: social isolation, anxiety, having to take extra measures to take care of my health...). As a disclaimer, I am in psychological therapy right now.

That being said, I managed to finish my bachelor’s degree (mathematics, with a very uneven transcript with both very high and very low grades) and after that I did my master's degree, this time with very high grades. I did my master's thesis and then I was offered Ph.D. admission by the same research group in which I did the master's thesis.

To the point

Now, the problem is that I am constantly reevaluating if I should do my Ph.D or 1) either find another program or 2) move outside the academia, and I am unable to make this decision due to the fact that I think personal issues are interfering. I identify several more or less objective problems:

The Ph.D is in an applied department (biology), which is formed by specialists in the area, I have been told the research group is good in its area by a professor from another department (from the same university) which I trust, but since I am a newbie and have little knowledge about the area, I cannot test it myself. I have been here for 6 months.
I did not choose this Ph.D. They chose me. I think ph.D students are actually scarce where I live, and that is a reason why they hired me. I feel I could be in a more satisfying Ph.D program or area.
It is likely difficult for me to get funding in other Ph.D programs due to the problem stated above. This Ph.D is the comfort zone, I have funding (this is Spain, where even in private companies salaries, for graduate students with no experience, are not that high).
I feel like academia is a good fit because it allows me to work without a fixed schedule and in a non stressing environment. Note that I have not really worked outside academia.
My Ph.D supervisor is great, I like her as a person. But although she is a mathematician, I sometimes feel like she left mathematics and now she is a biologist more than a mathematician. This is leading me to think she not the right person to supervise a mathematician, past Ph.D students are happy with her, but most of them have biology related studies. Also,
She chose a Ph.D subject which is now in stagnation. I warned my Ph.D supervisor about this likely outcome several months ago and she told me to trust her, up to a point where we showed we could no longer apply the technique (a particular machine learning technique) we were trying to apply to the topic, leading to now being trying to publish a result so that the time employed is not lost. I now feel as if we were trying to desperately find something to publish from a technique that has proven not to be effective. Not to mention that reading through papers in biology is difficult, as I find myself not understanding lots of things.
I have enjoyed research, but not most of the time, I fear this has to do with personal problems not letting me concentrate, when I should be reading papers, I end up procrastinating with the phone or forums. I can concentrate when I like what I am doing, but not right now. I also do not feel like I have a strong passion for researching in a particular topic.
I am also concerned about overspecializing in a particular topic that leads me to not being hired afterwards.

So the question is, How can I make sure I want to pursue a ph.D?,  i. e.  pretty much what title says, I want to avoid personal issues interfering with the decision.


texts: I applied to tenure track positions in the US when should I hear about interviews?

texts: I have a PhD in Chemical Engineering and have applied to a handful of tenure track positions in December/January. When can I expect to hear about possible interviews? At what point should I just move on...


texts: Europe Etiquette : Should I reply to a reply?

texts:
When asking a question to a professor, I wonder if I should reply to his answer if I have no other questions with "Thank you for your kind answer professor". I guess this is the polite thing to do but with covid-19, I know professors are overwhelmed with mails from student and I am wondering if I am expected to systematically thank them for their replies to my questions or does it just bother them with extra-mails in their mailbox ?
Also, I am in a master student in an European university where there is a high hierarchical gap between students and professors.


texts: What is expected when "novel" and "innovative" ideas are requested as part of a research grant application?

texts:
I am applying for a research grant which specifies that the proposed research should be novel and innovative. However without previous experience, it is not clear what degree of novelty is required. For academic publications the requirement is generally that the presented results should be non-obvious (novel) and making a significant improvement in understanding about the topic. For this reason straightforward incremental advances are liable to be rejected.

When considering grants, is a similar degree of novelty required, or is it expected that the proposed research is a new departure from what has has been done before? By way of example, say you have done research on a certain sample to investigate physical property A, would a proposal to investigate physical property B qualify as novel?


texts: Research studies covering the reasons why faculty applicants accept or reject academic jobs?

texts:
Is there any research/study/survey that tried to quantify the reasons why faculty applicants accepted or rejected academic jobs that have been proposed to them? (e.g., location, salary, the current faculty, college ranking)

I am mostly interested in the United States and the field of computer science, but curious about other countries and fields as well.


texts: Worldwide Dissertation Database? or French, German, Italian ones?

texts: Is there a global/worldwide database of dissertations? If not, how can I access French, German, Italian, etc. dissertations online?


texts:
I found some typos (or errors) in my thesis, one formula, the label of one figure, and one citation. My thesis is done. What should I do? I know some students faked data and their degree were revoked. I did not fake data, but I am not sure how serious these typos are.

UPDATE

I cited and used 5-6 statements from an online report A and changed a little of them. They looks similar. But citation is wrong. I cited B in reference. What should I do? Is it Plagiarism?


texts: Is a general GRE score of X sufficient for entry to postgraduate degree Y?

texts:
Question: I got general GRE scores of VR (verbal reasoning), QR (quantitative reasoning), and AW (analytical writing).  Is this a good score to apply for entry to postgraduate degree in field X?  How will this score look to the selection committee?

Note: This is an intentionally generic GRE question (with unspecified scores and field of study) which is intended as a template for a large number of questions asked on this forum regarding evaluating the scores on the general GRE test (e.g., this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this).  This question seeks answers that are applicable for an applicant for graduate-level programs in any field, based on any scores in the GRE general test.  The goal of this question is to provide a general reference to avoid the need for specific questions with particular scores/field of study.


texts: Different CV for university position and research industry position?

texts:
Up to now, I've only applied to "public" academic positions (universities or public research centers). I have now an academic CV, that is roughly 7 pages long (2 pages of "classic" CV, and 5 pages of research experience + list of publications).

I would be interested in applying for research positions in industry. I know that if I wanted to apply for a regular position (for instance, as a software developer), only my classic CV is enough (and the long one might actually be counter-productive). However, the kind of position I'm interested in is very similar to a public research position, i.e. people there publish, applying for public funding, might even co-supervise PhD students.

So, what kind of CV should I send for such a position? Should I consider the application process as the standard public one, or rather as the standard industry one?

--

In case it's relevant, it's in Computer Science, and I'm thinking of positions such as those available at Microsoft Research, IBM Research, etc.


texts: Second Bachelors in Maths after Masters in Optics for Theretical Physics Phd

texts:
I have completed my Masters(5 year Integrated) in Optics recently with average CGPA. I have couple of projects experiences in Theoretical Physics, but no publications. My masters course had rigorous higher mathematics papers yet I find that I have very little knowledge and experience in doing even the undergraduate math, though I am very much interested in it, may be because my course was designed to give more importance to experimental physics. Thus, I started improving math using online lectures and our mathematics stackexchange forum, and I can feel I am able to gain much more than what I could during the course. But many told me not to take a gap by spending time on maths after masters as it'd affect my chances of a Phd admission, as I am already 26.

So is it a good idea to do a second bachelors degree in Mathematics(distant education) before applying for a Phd in theoretical Physics in Europe/Australia ?

Or is there a better way to compensate the time I spend on improving maths myself ?

Note: The reason I was thinking of doing a bachelor's while improving my math is, that way at least I could show that I was doing something while I was away from academia.


texts: Are Systematic Reviews Efficient To Familiarize Yourself With The State-of-the-Art?

texts:
Problem
I have to familiarize myself with a new sub-field fast, to the point where I can recommend an agenda/recommendation for further research. I thought about doing a systematic literature review to achieve this, but have to work somewhat cost-efficient due to external deadlines that I have no influence on.
Background
Systematic Literature Review
When I say "systematic literature review" (SLR) I'm referring to a speficic concept which originated in medical science and was  introduced to computer science by Kitchenham (2004), for a hands-on guide see Kuhrmann et al. (2017).
Purpose
The purpose of conducting a systematic review would be to acquire the necessary knowledge to be able to argument for new research endeavors (i.e. defend their relevance). Additionally, it would be nice to get a publication out of this, which is part of the reason why I think about doing a systematic review instead of just writing up a state-of-the-art document for myself.
Narrowness
The topic I want to research is part of Software Engineering, and deals with the application of a specific concept in a more-or-less specific environment. I could not find any systematic reviews (or indeed, any reviews) covering this.
What I found
Ressources
Time
The approximate time to become familiar with the state-of-the-art in a field that one is already familiar with, according to this answer, is one year. Even though the question was about a PhD, and not just a work project, this strikes me as a little high. An answer to a question about the usefulness of SLRs warns that spending 6 months on a SLR for just a paper is excessive.
Human effort
Even though the literature on SLR recommends multiple researchers, this answer says that it is quite possible to conduct and report a SLR on your own. I might get a senior colleague to look over my draft and maybe recommend specific papers, but I should expect to do almost all of the work on my own.
Paywalls
I don't have institutional access to a lot of journals and such, which means that I will mostly be able to read exactly those papers that are either published in Open Access journals or are otherwise available through researchgate and similar platforms. This answer predicts that a restriction like that will render the SLR of little interest to publishers. Since I not only support Open Access publications for various reasons, but also really don't have a lot of choice in the matter (I can't convince my institution to pay for the access I want, nor do I have the money to pay for all those subscriptions), I do hope that this is not true.
Usefulness
Even though it is considered useful to write a SLR in order to get a good foundation in a field, it might be more efficient to just read some papers (specifically reviews, if they exist) and follow the references. However, this efficiency calculation does not factor in the expected utility of publishing a SLR as paper.
Questions
Main question
Is it really useful to write SLRs in order to familiarize yourself with a topic in a short time, while a publication is nice-to-have but not mandatory?
Sub-questions

Is it possible to do a SLR on your own, in a matter of weeks?
Do paywalls effectively keep me from writing and/or publishing SLRs?


texts: In a grant application, how to address gender aspects when working in a highly technical field?

texts: The guidelines for a certain funding source ask me to address gender aspects. This call is open to all scientist, but I work with pen, paper and computers and I see no gender aspects in my work (only that usually in the institute there are clearly more men than women, but this is not something I could fix in the project). I wouldn't like just to ignore the comment, as it might make my reviewer unhappy. What might this mean for mathematicians/informaticians/physicists?


texts:
I have been admitted to a 4-year B.S. in Mathematics program in an Asian country. The mathematics courses are excellent and at par with the finest universities in the United States and there will a generous number of courses from the humanities. All the same, there is a provision for taking 7 more single-semester courses, to get a minor (alternately, I could dabble in many other subjects other than math).

I was wondering if taking a total of 7 courses in English and Economics instead of courses like physics, chemistry and biology could seriously affect my application when I apply to grad school in the US for PhD in mathematics. I would almost certainly apply to  good grad schools like UChicago and Berkeley depending on my interests.

  Will taking no courses from physical sciences as an undergrad affect
  my chances of going to grad school for mathematics in the US?


texts: Is it possible for a grad school applicant to cancel a letter of recommendation once it is submitted?

texts:
I asked my professor to send a letter of recommendation for me because I worked for him and I did great in his course. He submitted his LOR and I receive the confirmation email from the graduate school.

However now I am afraid that he might not write a good letter or I could ask a more reliable person to do that.

Therefore, I am wondering is there any way to cancel your letter of recommendation once it is submitted?


texts: Voting by faculty after a Search Committee recommends a candidate for a TT hire

texts: How are candidates for tenure-track positions/hires voted on after interviews and the search committee recommendation? (I am especially interested in R1 procedures.)


texts: PhD Candidate to resign and reapply; Asking recommendation from thesis advisor

texts:
I am a PhD candidate in a nationally prestigious university in a developing country. The university is mainly of engineering departments but also has a rather new economics department. It is my 7th year there and prospects for graduating are unclear. No one has ever graduated from our school (1 in her 10th year, 4 of us in 7th year). The are problems with the program I don't want to discuss that. But in short: asking for international level quality work + 1 paper accepted in an ABS rated journal before PhD thesis defense. There is no funding and we all have to work full-time somewhere else if we want to survive!

I have decided to apply for some public policy PhD programs in US, and resign from my current program if I get an admission.

All of my professional experience are research oriented, half of which I have under direct or indirect supervision of my current PhD thesis adviser. I have written one paper and in the middle of a second one with him in my PhD program. To sum up, he knows me the most, and potentially the most important reference for me.

The question he posed me when I asked for recommendation is this: how could a thesis adviser give you recommendations if you want to leave the program. What is the norm when people resign and reapply? Is it better to have him as my reference or not? And would people in admission committees think that I am low on perseverance? (I am not really, I am not of the type to quit something easily).


texts: Want to add new data to my recently submitted paper

texts:
I recently submitted my manuscript to Journal of optics (IOP Publishing). Unfortunately,I noticed that I forgot to add one specific figure to the paper. The general quality of the manuscript is good. I was wondering if I would be able to add that figure maybe in the revision process. Do you think reviewers suggest a major revision or a minor one, or maybe a reject and resubmit? The exact question is that to what extent one can modify his/her manuscript while it is considered a minor change and hopefully an acceptance? (Is just adding a figure a big change?)
Thank you for your time and consideration.


texts: Does taking courses of various subjects matter in PhD admission?

texts:
I'm going to apply for PhD programs of biology or biomedical science. I understand that I need certain semesters of biology, chemistry, biochemistry, and mathematics. Because I'm going to graduate in four years while double-majoring in math and biology, I can't afford to take courses of various subjects, as I can take, except for subjects belonging to math and science, only one semester of social study and humanities, two semesters of foreign language, and four semesters of PE. Since my college has quasi-open curriculum, there's no problem with the credit requirement of my school.

But should I take courses of various subjects for my PhD admission? Does variety of courses taken in undergrad matter in PhD admission?


texts: How to request a positive reference letter from my former PI who does not know me very well?

texts:
I worked in a research group and now I am applying to a PhD program. A positive reference letter, especially the one from the big-named Principal Investigator (PI, project leader), will be very helpful.

My direct supervisor was a Research Scientist instead of a professor (PI). The professor (PI) of our group knows me, but not very well, since he has dozens of Postdocs and dozens of students to take care of. So I am think about having my direct supervisor write the letter and having the PI to co-sign.

However I've heard that two people signing a single reference letter is extremely uncommon is US. Not sure what is my best option.


texts: Publishing without an affiliation while having one

texts:
There are many questions here about publishing without an affiliation. They have in common the situation that authors do not have an affiliation to use (for example they are unemployed). My question is different, an author has an affiliation, thus:

Are there downsides in publishing a paper without affiliation while working at a university? The question is general (including legal, ethical, and other aspects, such as possible career repercussions in future at the current or future affiliation).

The reason I am asking is that I know of a case of a person who was leaving a university for industry. The paper was written and accepted during his tenure at the university. The work has nothing to do with the new company. The paper was accepted just days before his new job, so he put the affiliation of the company (the reasons were also personal because he was not on good terms with the university), without the one from the university. The university was not mentioned anywhere. The company does not do any research, hence having a paper with their affiliation was irrelevant for them and for the job. I am wondering what would happen if instead he decided not to put any affiliation.

Some information:

The work has been done in private time without resources from the university (theoretical stuff that does not require anything except time and a computer, so no equipment, funds, and similar). The only resources I can think of are paywalled papers accessed from the campus network.
There is no conflict of interest, and the publication doesn’t conflict with the any work or policy at the university.


texts: Is it ethical to ask about the professional profile of a candidate at another university before a job interview?

texts:
I’m on the hiring committee for a Asst. Prof position. One of the applicants is working as a (non-TT) TA/postdoc at a dept in another university (but for only appx 6 mo) where I have a colleague (friend of a friend).

Is it ethical for me to ask my colleague about this applicant?

I could request my colleague keep my inquiry confidential, but in a competitive department, doing so may make public that this applicant is looking for another job. I don’t want to cause problems.


texts: How is a part-time degree (from a reputed institute) perceived in the academic job market?

texts:
I have recently graduated with Computer Science and Engineering and joined an R&D firm. During the job, I enrolled for a part time MS(Research) from the topmost institute in my country (with reputable world rank). Though the only difference from full time course is that we get 1 extra year to complete part time course.Everything else, like the courses, class timings, labs, exams and rigor remains the same.

I intend to join academia in future. How valuable is a part time degree with respect to joining academia and industry?


texts: What are the social norms associated with stealing free coffee?

texts:
Every morning, at the institution where I work, I attend a lecture series with on the order of 100 other students. The lecture hall is very central on campus, and large meetings are often held nearby -- almost right outside -- at the same time. Very frequently, tables equipt with refreshments accompany these meetings. Again very frequently, I will pour myself a cup of coffee as I go by.

I'm reasonably certain that this is unethical (*), but what surprises me is how socially deviant it appears. Of the approximately 100 students with whom I attend lectures, I do not see any of them making use of these resources on a regular basis. I've once or twice been harshly reprimanded by a conference-goer getting coffee at the same time as myself, and I've seen people sit down to work only about 20 meters away with coffee that they've licitly purchased, even if the meeting was clearly over and the refreshments were just waiting to be cleaned up. I once walked by a table just as it was being cleared and asked the staff member clearing it if it was okay for me to take something, and he was totally cool with it. I've never seen signs posted near the tables indicating that the refreshments are intended strictly for the attendees of the meeting, though I would guess that this is assumed to be understood. My only other source for views on this matter is PHD Comics, which has published an assortment of strips centered on the topic of free food.

I know that social norms probably vary geographically, maybe even by discipline, but I was wondering what others' experiences have been as regards stealing free food. As is -- I believe -- apparent, I consider it a relatively minor trespass, but other than the conference-goers who've yelled at me I've never heard the issue brought up explicitly. So, how do you think people judge the stealing of free food, and how have you formed these perceptions?

(*) I'm only "reasonably certain" because, as I understand it, the excesses from these meeting are frequently thrown out. As someone legitimately attending a conference, I've been instructed explicitly by the organizers to take excess food with me to avoid wasting it in this manner. I dislike waste in general, and I particularly abhor the waste of perfectly good food, especially coffee.

Note: I'm not 100% sure that this belongs on Academia Stack Exchange, but this is not a question about the ethics of stealing coffee; I am interested specifically in the attitudes of academics towards stealing free food. For instance, why do so few others seem to do so? People do little unethical things all the time -- arguably, speeding falls in this category -- but I seem almost alone in breaking this particular rule.


texts: Why is the "citation/reference page" counted towards the maximum limit of pages in many journals and conferences?

texts:
In recent years

the number of authors working on a paper is growing to be quite large,
the titles are getting more and more lengthier and intricate to distinguish between the state of the art while still trying to be self-explanatory.
the list of references are growing. One cannot imagine to be interdisciplinary and be stingy on the number of citations.

This leads to a massive list of reference at the end of many paper, each sometimes taking 4 if not more lines in a standard Latex document. Also, the names of the authors can be quite long in many instances.
It just doesn't make sense to include references towards the maximum page limit of a conference or a journal. It not only discriminates those with long names (leading them being cutoff from the citation), it also constraints the entire research community to only make marginal/tangential contribution so to limit the size of the references.
What should be limited instead is self-citation. But even that can be disputed.
Is there any good reason why the reference page contributes to the total number of pages these days?


texts:
I've seen poems squeezed in-between chapters in books, but I don't want to write a book for each poem :-) . Hence my question:

Is there a journal or 'place' to publish poems written by and for other researcher in the same field?

What I have in mind is for example a poem written for physicists.


texts: When writing a synopsis "review", may I contact the authors with questions?

texts:
Please read the following background paragraph carefully to understand the meaning of "review" in this question - it may not be what you think.  In particular, this is not a duplicate of Is it acceptable as referee to contact an author on a paper you review?, and the peer-review and review-articles tags are not really applicable here.

In mathematics, we have two well-known "review databases": MathSciNet / Mathematical Reviews and Zentralblatt MATH (aka zbMATH).  These services aim to create a comprehensive database of papers that have already been published in peer-reviewed journals.  For each recently published paper, they invite an independent expert in the subject (not one of the authors) to write what is (perhaps confusingly) called a "review", which is really just a synopsis of the paper's content - a sort of third-party extended abstract, perhaps 1-4 paragraphs long.  The review is generally not expected to make a judgment of the paper's quality or novelty, though it may cite other papers for context.  When the review is finished, it is posted in the database along with bibliographic information for the paper, including the reviewer's name (so these reviews are not anonymous).  The databases are available by subscription, and are the field's primary tool for literature searches.

I have been invited to review a paper for zbMATH.  In reading the paper, I got confused by some notation that seems to be unclear; it could be an error or omission in the original paper, or maybe just something I have overlooked.   I would like to contact the authors to ask for clarification.  Is it appropriate for me to contact them directly?  If so, should I identify myself as a zbMATH reviewer, or just a reader with a question?

I can't think of any concrete reason not to do so.  My review will eventually be printed with my name, so I don't have anonymity to protect, and it won't say anything controversial.  But I do have some vague sense that my review is supposed to be "independent", so I am hesitating.

I suppose I can ask the zbMATH editors / administrators, but I would also be interested in opinions from the community.

(Note that the database editors are not generally in contact with the authors of the paper - they just grab the published papers and send them out to reviewers.  So it isn't as though I would use the editors as an intermediary.)

For reference, the invitation from zbMATH reads as follows:

  [W]e would like you to contribute a review of the attached item for
  zbMATH. We hope that you will find the publication to be of interest to
  you. We would appreciate if your review would give an independent
  description. If you cite parts of the original text please label
  extensive verbatim quotations as such.

More information about what is expected in a review can be found at https://zbmath.org/reviewer-service/, but the issue at hand is not addressed.


texts: Unfinished prerequisite undergrad course in the last year in MS application as a final year undergrad student

texts:
I am in the process of applying for MS program in computer science as a final year undergrads. I am taking Computer System course this semester and likely to take another Operating System course in the next semester.
Both Computer System and Operating System are core CS courses that are included in prerequistes for master program in CS (I am not CS undergrad student). But the majority of schools have the application submission deadline of December this year, when the grades haven't shown on my transcript.
Should I contact the school about the issues and convince them I will finish them before graduation? Or should I mention it in my CV or SoP to arise their awarness of the issues? Other approches are also welcome.
It is acceptable to include only one course(Computer System) if it's too hard to cover both and a compromise is not avoidable


texts:
I have an idea inspired by class project readings but is significantly different from the class materials and published work. I already have some promising results. I am tempted to do the research and try to write a paper on it and send to the journals. (This is in the field of CS and not much resources are needed to do the research.)

I am a Master's student pursuing an online terminal Master's degree. I have no prior experience with publishing a paper. Being an online program, I have no face-to-face interactions with the faculty, but I do have a lot of online interactions with the helpful TAs.

I am wondering what is the best way to go about this.

Should I indicate I am associated with the school?
Should I indicate that I am working with my professors/TAs, although I have never discussed the idea with them?
I have done a reasonable search on the existing papers on this idea and haven't found any. But there are thousands of papers and I am worried that I won't be able to do an exhaustive enough search to see if there is anything similar to it. How is this usually handled?
Similarly, what about related ideas? I do see that some ideas are related to mine. Should I try to reference all of them?
Is there anything else I should be considering?

I know the chance of actually getting it published is slim. But it is worth trying and I want to do it right such that the only thing I need to worry about is to produce something with quality.

Note:

I noticed that the original version of my question was not communicating what I meant. I apologize that it caused some confusion and responses based on that.
I am in fact not sure if I want to get a Ph.D. and do research for the school as a way of making a living. I have not decided. Right now I just want to finish the research, write a paper, and possibly publish it.
The motivation is not career. I just find the idea and results interesting.


texts: Can I retract my name from an already published manuscript?

texts:
I'm a co-author on a paper that was published in a Nature family journal some months ago because of my scientific contribution to the work presented there. I've discovered that the first author of this paper (let's call them Pat) has, in several instances, over several years, committed scientific fraud by manipulating raw data in other publications. I have no direct evidence that Pat has done anything wrong in the paper I'm on, but I assume they probably have, given their past conduct. I don't want my name to be associated with their name.

If I ask the journal to remove my name from the author list, will they simply do it?


texts: I am IT Director of a Company and I'm regularly invited by Italian universities to do lectures on Innovation or Information Systems, usually 5/6 lectures per year. Can I claim University Guest Lecturer title in my CV?


texts: Choosing my name as an author when publishing a scientific paper, can I use my "unofficial" first name?

texts: I have one official first name which appears on my ID card. I have another first name which friends call me by. Is it possible to use my unofficial first name and official family name to publish scientific papers? How can I prove to someone that I am one of the authors?


texts: Should I oppose reviewers whose results I show to be wrong?

texts:
I am submitting a mathematics paper to a journal. This paper contains a section where I claim that some results made by some authors in different published articles are false. I give a counterexample to support my claim and also show where their proofs are flawed.

Should I oppose these authors as reviewers when I submit the manuscript? In this case what should I write in the “reason” section?


texts: Writing a new book on known methods/algorithms

texts:
I am quite young but embarked on a rather new challenge for me: writing a book. There aren't so many books on this specific topic in my field: maybe 2 or at most 3 good references, with the first two quite old. The trouble for me is that although there is some clear original stuff in each chapter/section, the main reason for writing the book, the methods (some algorithms and numerical stuff, many equations) are quite standard and all good lecture sets (not too many) draw from these two books.

My book would be clearly better organized than the previous ones. However, the methods are basically the same. I mention that this chapter draws from x and y source, and sometimes that the theoretical part of a certain section is according to z source.

Would citing my sources be enough in terms of not having issues with plagiarism?


texts: Is writing a research paper necessary for thesis?

texts:
I'm from Computer Science field and usually I've seen students are required to publish a few research papers to be eligible for writing a thesis. I'm talking about masters level thesis here.

As far as I know the rationale behind this is that research papers are usually well evaluated by the conference committee but what if someone's  research doesn't get published?

I'm assuming their research to be good enough but is rejected by conference people because they had better alternatives.

Are they eligible to write the thesis? They don't usually allow it in my college. Is it the case everywhere?

If the answer goes along the line that it must be acceptable in a lower rated conference then why go for external evaluations anyway since I've heard they have poor evaluations.


texts: I was reading about a “young researcher award” recently being attributed in my field to a colleague who is 40 years old (and has had a permanent research position for 12 years now). It may be viewed as borderline ridiculous, so I must ask: in this context, how young is typically “young”? For the purpose of this special projects/grants/awards, how do research and funding organizations define “young”?


texts: My supervisor wants me to include another professor's name in my paper while... what should I do?

texts:
My supervisor wants me to include another professors name in my paper just because he was declared as my second adviser on the project. But the problem is that this man has not done anything but giving foolish and useless comments on my work. By foolish, I do not exaggerate since my supervisor thinks the same but it seems that he made a deal with the other one.
What should I do? I can't really tolerate the fact that he will get acknowledged for the work which he doesn't know anything and didn't do anything about.


texts: How is publishing under a random pseudonym authorized?

texts:
Who decides if someone can author/co-author an academic article under a pseudonym, when you want to do so to hide your identity on Google but still want credit for it for your academic advancement?

Is it the PI, department, university, publisher, or something else, who decides if you could do this? Also is it illegal in any country?

And from looking at previous threads here, seems that you cannot pick a completely random name as a pseudonym; it usually has to be somehow tied to you in real life - your maiden name, adding your middle name, abbreviating John Smith into JSmith... things like that. Not much change.

So you can't use names like "spongebob"? How about "JS" or "J" for John Smith?

Someone mentioned you could get your professor to write that you used a fake name in their letter of recommendation. Would they be willing to write "this person published a paper titled so-and-so under a pen name called "[insert a randomly made-up name here]"."


texts: I anticipate a lot of scepticism about my question, but I've written a short paper which identifies and corrects what I believe to be a flaw in the way an age old Newtonian problem is taught in physics. I'm not a student nor an academic, so can't use the services of an established University. So how do lay people like me get a technical paper taken seriously and reviewed by my peers ?.


texts: How to minimize cheating with open source assignments?

texts:
For my computer science programming-based course, I'd like to:

1) host my course and assignments (without solutions) open and free to all (e.g., as public GitHub repos)

but this seems at odds with also wanting to

2) not have to deal with rampant cheating.

Any open source assignments seem to suffer from the problem that a random stranger could do the assignment in her spare time and then post the solution online. So in theory, publicly hosting the assignments has created an avenue for my students to find a free solution.

Hosting my assignments on GitHub lubricates this process because the programming community knows how to click "fork" and any forks are listed right there for future students to browse.

What are recommendations or best practices to find the right balance?

The extremes have clear tradeoffs:

A) go full public. this is easy for me to implement using GitHub, but even students in our classes will have easy access to other students in the same section. I can run/threaten to run MOSS, but students may still try to beat it and that will create a hassle.

versus

B) go full private. I lose all the niceties of the GitHub interfaces, lose my open source freely available and advertised assignments to the larger community and world.


texts: Can you send a university a protected PDF of undergraduate transcripts for graduate applications?

texts: I am applying to graduate school using an online application service. There is a field to upload an electronic transcript, so I ordered transcripts from my university and saved it as a PDF. Unfortunately, the application service will not accept this PDF because it has certain restrictions (it cannot be opened after 30 days). I want to know how I should approach getting my transcript to the universities I am applying to. If I change the security measures on the PDF, will it no longer be an official transcript? If I have an electronic transcript directly sent to the university, will they be able to view it after 30 days?


texts: Transitioning from PhD in biomedical engineering to software dev (have 5-6 software experience working for a team during PhD)?

texts: My PhD is in biomedical engineering (MEMS and electronics). I also have taken some CS classes in the last 5 years (and during undergrad in electrical engineering). I was also in the software team for a robotics club at university for the past 5 years. How do I market myself for SW jobs in industry?


texts:
What's the license of content in a patent?

I'd like to refer to existing techniques and show obtained results by including a figure which is obtained from a patent. Am I allowed to do that?

For example I'd like to include a picture from the patent Producing engraving-style halftone images in a journal entry I am writing.


texts: Formatting and grammar of sponsoring scientist statement

texts:
Is there a formatting guide for the Sponsoring Scientist Statement for NSF postdocs in the Department of Mathematical Sciences? All I'm finding is this two page document, which is much less precise than the usual NSF rules.

Here is a particular thing which I can't find out: The NSF has a rule that Project Summaries should be in the third person ("the PI", not "I").
 Should I likewise write "the sponsoring scientist" rather than "I"? Should I write "the PI" rather than using his or her name?


texts: Is it okay to mention what a different chair is working on?

texts: I'm a university student and am looking for a master's thesis topic. I also have a job at a company and this company is cooperating with a chair / staff of a chair (i.e. people working for a teaching professor) from a different faculty but the same university to help them with a paper. The paper now is almost ready to be published and I have an idea for a master's thesis where that paper could help. When I'm discussing my idea with my advisor, is it okay to mention that I know that a paper about that topic is coming out soon and that I already read it several times while looking over it?


texts: Is it possible to keep one published paper in two persons thesis?

texts:
Me and my colleague are working towards our PhD. We have worked on same problems (80%) over the past few years. We have published some papers based on the work we have done. We have decided to write thesis now. Is it possible to keep two or three chapters in both thesis identical (because we both did the same work).
Thanks.