texts: Math postdoc: 'endowed' postdoc vs. ordinary postdoc

texts:
It seems that most of the job advertisements for postdoc positions in mathematics (in the US) on mathjobs are named positions (I.e. "Smith visiting assistant professor" or something like that), and each department offers a very small number of such positions (usually between 1 to 4). But when I check the webpages of the relevant departments, it seems that they usually have something like 20-30 postdoctoral researchers, and most of them are not named postdocs.

What is the common way to apply for those ordinary postdoc positions? (I can't find them on mathjobs and I know that math postdocs in the US are usually not hired by a PI)
When you apply for a named position on mathjobs, does it mean that the hiring committee will automatically consider you also for the ordinary postdoc position?


texts:
I'm working on a paper for IEEE Transactions on Computers, and I can't find any guidelines on how to format code (C++) that is included in the paper.

I found some other papers with short code snippets, and it looks like they just used Courier New for the font, but I'm not sure of the font size. Do I need to include line numbers? I haven't found any with long sections of code (so for something with 4 lines I wouldn't expect line numbers anyways).

If someone has published a paper with code in it in IEEE Trans, and could give me some advice, I would really really appreciate it.


texts: Should I not ask my students about their hometown?

texts:
Recently, I taught a class of five students. I asked for their native place and all  told that their hometown is X, but I didn't tell my reason for asking.
I asked them because of the reason that I can communicate easily with them if they are from Y, since I can speak the language of my hometown Y well.
Although I can communicate in our common language, I cannot communicate as well as I can in Y's language.
My doubt here is whether this would constitute discrimination based on place or is it perfectly fine to ask them?  Is it similar to asking about race, religion, caste, etc., which is generally not recommended?


texts: Path to a good grad school in math during undergrad?

texts: I'm a high school senior about to graduate in 1 month. I have a strong passion in math, and I want to be a mathematician. What is the best path to getting into a top grad school? How many REU's should I try to do? Any publications? How about graduate level courses? Do you need a 4.0 in undergrad? I'm also self studying as much math as I can, from Artin's Algebra, Munkre's topology, and baby Rudin. How much math should I know by the time I apply for grad school? I would greatly appreciate your feedback!


texts: Is it OK for a professor to refuse access to individual test marks?

texts:
I received a very low grade in one of my Master classes. This is not a failing grade but close to it. Such low scores are highly unusual in this  country (Japan), 90/100 or more is the norm and even a 80/100 is frowned upon sometimes. My score is much lower. Therefore, although I will obtain the credits for the class, there may be prejudice.

The strange thing is that this class was anything but hard. It consisted in about a dozen of lectures, one every week, done by different scientists. The evaluation consisted in a very small quiz (A5 sheet) at the end of each lecture, to be answered in 10 minutes. Usually the question was: `what did you think of this lecture, and how does it relate to your research topic ?’. I would answer it normally, in a few paragraphs.

Because my final grade is so low, and because I was very surprised, I asked the responsible professor for the details of my marks. I would like to know how well I performed in each individual test. Unfortunately, he refuses categorically to provide me with this info. Is this legal or common behavior? What should I do?


texts:
Why can courses at the same department have an apparent disproportionality between credits and hours?

For example at my French university my department offers a 12 credit course with 48 hours of lectures and 72 hours of practical work, a 9 credit course with 24 hours of lectures and 12 hours of practical work, a different 9 credit course with 24 hours of lectures and no practical work, a 6 credit course with 24 hours of lectures and 36 hours of practical work. There are also 0 credit courses with 1 hour of lecture, but these are not really courses and are just included in the course catalog as bonus content to make up a bit for courses not offered in the current year. All of the courses I refer to are Master's level.

How are the number of credits calculated? Intuitively, one would suppose that the number of credits should be somehow proportional to the number of hours, but it is clearly not simply: a x # of lecture hours + b x # of practical hours.

Question: What is the relationship between credits and course hours?


texts: When should a graduate student accept a peer-review request?

texts: I have recently published my first research paper and have already received a request to review a manuscript. The journal's impact factor is low, but it is open access, and the paper's topic is relevant to my field of study. What factors should I keep in mind when deciding whether to accept or decline the request to review? What level of expertise is typically expected from a good-quality review?


texts: Should I include research stays in my CV?

texts:
During my PhD I was invited three times by two researchers to stay and do research in their lab, one week at a time. I'm now a postdoc and applying to tenured jobs in Europe (yay). Should I include these stays in my CV for these job applications?

To be fair most of the deadlines have already gone for these applications. Someone just mentioned to me that they did that so I'd like more opinions on this. To be even more fair I'm pretty sure I will still need the advice next year. (Some more research stays are coming up, also.)


texts: Letter of Recommendation from English Teacher for Math Ph.D. program?

texts:
I am a Japanese undergraduate junior student who is thinking of applying to graduate programs in Mathematics in the U.S. and the biggest problem for me is the Letter of Recommendation. I am planning to ask a teacher of my English class for one of my LOR because my senior who went for a grad school(Engineering) in the U.S. did so.
My intention is that she can prove that I have sufficient English skills to study in the U.S.

However, from what I have seen on the Internet, no one seemed to do so and all of LORs have to be from people in relevant fields. Is getting a LOR from an English teacher for Math Ph.D. program good or bad?


texts: As a teaching assistant, how important are student evaluations?

texts:
I have seen a number of résumés of doctoral students, but only a few of them listed their evaluation scores when presenting their teaching experience.

How important are these scores in evaluating the teaching capabilities of a student?
How does one ensure that the students are sincere in their evaluations?

In case a professor does a slipshod work of a course, not teaching in depth or cramming a lot of syllabus in a short time, there is only so much a TA could do to salvage the course for the students.

How does the TA make the best of a bad job in such a situation?
Apart from holding weekly office hours and lenient grading(!), what is the maximum a TA can do, after all?


texts: Etiquette - send a copy of my new book to the department I earned my PhD within or to my advisor?

texts:
I need some etiquette advice.  The book version of my PhD manuscript has just come out and I have a limited number of copies (8) from my publisher that I can give to family etc.  My dilemma is whether it is more appropriate to send a copy to the department where I earned my PhD or to send the copy directly to my supervisor, who has retired and is no longer teaching there.  The rest of my committee is still teaching in the department.
Any thoughts?
Thanks for the help,
Wendy


texts: What is the difference between early career research positions

texts:
I am looking for the differences between the following positions:

Researcher
Postdoctoral fellow
Postdoctoral researcher


texts: When writing the paper about completed experiments, should you cite work you hadn't read before?

texts:
I (try to) do research in Computer Science/Deep Learning. I recently did some work developing a novel idea and am writing a paper on it. I have only written one paper before, and I'm currently being paralysed by the related works section.

It seems impossible for me to have a thorough understanding of everything that is related. When I started the work, I was working from the understanding I had at the time. The vast majority of the influence on my work was only from ~4 other papers, and what I took from them as background in the area.

In doing the work, I have come to understand other work and the context much better (I find that working on a problem, and attempting to explain my work, demystifies a lot of statements in other people's papers). Now, reading other papers on other related work is more plausible for me. I'm realising that I've made some assumptions based on those core papers, and want to find citations for them.

This appears backwards to how it's supposed to work; the papers that I would cite in this manner I hadn't read or understood before I started working. So, my main question is: is it illegitimate to cite several papers you hadn't read before completing the majority of the experiments?

Follow up questions are: Is it normal to only have a few main influences, and many lesser influences? (Computer-science-specific) How much of a paper's theory/background is worked out after making it work? Is it my fault if I haven't come across some important related idea, or is it generally accepted that you might miss something?


texts: Why are the acceptance rates for publications in subfields higher than others?

texts:
For example in computer science, systems conferences have low acceptance rates hovering around ~20% as listed here: https://www.cs.ucsb.edu/~almeroth/conf/stats/

But in robotics many of the conferences, even the major ones, seem to have acceptance rates of ~40% (ICRA, IROS) as seen here: http://www.adaptivebox.net/CILib/CICON_stat.html#ICRA

Why is this, and are any steps taken to equalise the playing field between subfields? Does this simply mean that those doing systems research are just going to have a harder time publishing than those in robotics?


texts: It may not be in my best interest to ask a professor I have done research with for recommendation letters. Can this seem suspicious in my application?

texts:
I am not from the US and my field is in the social sciences. A while back, I started collaborating with a foreign professor on a research project which is now under review and another one which is halfway through. however, I did not find these topics very fulfilling and I want to move to another area closer to my original interests (I already have two other published papers relevant to this new area). The complicating issue is that the professor has told me several times he would be very interested in having me as a PhD student. So, I guess, he may not appreciate the fact that I have decided to pursue another area with another supervisor. Therefore, it may not be very fair or wise to ask him for letters of recommendation. What worries me, however, is that if I list these papers in my CV (which I eventually have to when they get published), it may raise questions/suspicions about why I have not asked him to recommend me. I cannot preemptively tell my prospective supervisor or the admissions committee the real reason for my reluctance to ask this professor. So, I am concerned that if such questions arise in their minds, it may lead them to mistakenly assume that I have something to hide, motivating me to exclude this professor as a potential recommender.
Is this a legitimate concern?


texts: Can UK PhD studentships legally effectively bar EU applicants by stating that "all eligible applicants must also have been resident in the UK"?

texts:
I am aware that many UK PhD studentships are only open to UK/EU applicants (question 1, question 2).  In my understanding, they cannot (pre-Brexit) legally discriminate between EU and UK applicants, but they can bar non-EU applicants.  But
my eyes fell upon eligibility requirements for this University of Newcastle PhD studentship, emphasis and link mine, which effectively bars EU applicants, too:

  This studentship is available to UK applicants and EU applicants with settled status in the UK, meaning they have no restrictions on how long they can stay. All eligible applicants must also have been ‘ordinarily resident’ in the UK for 3 years prior to the start of the studentship, and not been residing in the UK wholly or mainly for the purpose of full-time education.

Such an additional requirement effectively discriminates between UK and EU applicants.  The vast majority of EU applicants will not have been also resident in the UK for 3 years prior to the start of the studentship, or if they have, have been so for the purposes of education.  Even some UK citizens will be ineligible if they spent any time studying abroad.

Is such discrimination between UK and EU applicants legal under EU law?  It would appear to effectively amount to the same as stating "Europeans need not apply" by different means.


texts: Waitlisted - Got Paper Accepted - Email Committee?

texts:
I have been waitlisted to a top program in CS. During the time I applied to the program and now, I received the rebuttal results of a paper I had submitted and worked on over the last year. I got two strong accepts, and 1 weak accept, as first author at a top conference. There is potential for this paper to be an Oral paper as well.

Should I email the committee requesting to update my resume? Although having  strong accepts is usually a guarantee for admission, it is still not official until mid March, but it may be too late by then. Also, are the waitlist positions already set in stone, or can this update of my resume move me up on the waitlist. Is this even worth it to do?

Please give me your advice.


texts: Is it ethical to upload an automatically generated paper to a non peer-reviewed site as part of a larger research?

texts:
I'm doing some research on my own as a side-project. In fact, I want no one from my research center to be involved in this research as I feel that they will take credit for my idea, like in past times. Nevertheless, if their involvement is completely necessary, I would consider it.

Anyways, this project requires to upload completely nonsense papers to Arxiv or similar. They are completely nonsense as they are artificially generated. The idea is to see if this is possible or how easy it is.

On the one hand, I don't want to pollute the scientific community with rubbish but in the other hand, I see that this step is necessary to continue further with this research.

My question is, how should I proceed? Should I do it and once I finish my research tell Arxiv that they can delete the files? Should I ask for permission first? Should I not do it at all?

EDIT: Just to make sure that everyone understands, this is not something that I have done yet. In fact, after seeing the responses, it is more than likely that I try to avoid publishing in arXiv. The objective is not to upload a paper to arXiv, is something else, but I was considering uploading it to arXiv as a medium for reaching another goal. Nevertheless, it is not my objective to pollute arXiv or the community.


texts: Do automatic tools to check thesis exist?

texts:
I am currently writing my bachelor's thesis in Computer Science with LaTeX. The thesis is written in English. I use aspell for spell checking, but I think there is more that could automatically be checked:

Writing "style" (e.g. warnings for "I", "me", ...)
Grammar checking.
Wrong citations (I use bibtex)
Missing figures or tables
Duplicate lables

Is there a program that checks writing style for academic work?


texts: Impact of parameters in experimental results of paper

texts:
I am writing a paper in computer science literature. I have a method that has two main parameters. It turns out that one of these parameters does not have a significant impact on the quality of the results, but it has a big impact on the efficiency of the method. I have a question:

How should I explain this in my experimental results section? Should I draw some plots and show that for different variation of this parameter the result is the same (this seems numb to draw some plots that all overlap) or I should write a paragraph and explain this phenomenon?


texts: Turning down an accepted tenure track for a better one?

texts:
Nota: This question specifically scopes the issue in an academic context.

Context
I am currently on the job market for a tenure track. I assert I should get a position in a bottom-of-the-first-tier institution.
Consider I accepted such a position, and that I then get an offer for a top-3 institution. (Obviously, I won't be their first choice, so I should receive their offer after I had to answer to previous lower-range offers.)

Issue
As far as I am aware of the job etiquette in the US, you are not liable to your future company as long as you've signed no contract. So you can eventually change your mind, even if you already shook hands. Of course, you discredit yourself with the given company... but there are plenty of fishes in the sea in the case of industry. This is not the case in the academia, where you will rub shoulders with the colleagues you dumped for a few decades.

Questions

How bad would it be for my reputation/career to turn down a medium-position I accepted for an all-star one, in the case I verbally (phone call or email only, no contract signed) accepted the former ?
Idem, yet with a contract signed (as long as it is permitted in the contract to resign)?


texts: Present journal paper at conference or the same work at multiple conferences

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Under what circumstances can one republish a conference paper/presentation?

I have recently completed a Masters of Science which I pursued to fill a personal goal and to advance our development of a regional tsunami warning system.

Having read the thread on multiple publishing and presenting I am still confused as this is a new issue for me. Coming from Government we present on special projects or findings any number of times.

If I wish to publish my findings in an academic journal am I precluded from presenting at any conferences?

If I present at a localised scientific conference without published proceedings, am I precluded from presenting at a global one?

Can I focus one on localised context and the other on the global implications, then cite having presented at the local level?


texts: Can I publish if I develop a tool, but it solve non important problem only? (Mathematics)

texts:
My research is in mathematics.
I have developed an interesting quantity X. Combined with other quantity Y, I can solve a certain problem.
However,

I don't know if the problem itself is important or not.
It needs to combined with other tools to work.

Can I still publish my idea?


texts: Where to publish research if I do not want a peer review process?

texts:
I have a few papers, one of which is on a topic that, after thorough checking, has not been researched from this particular angle before.

My question is where can I publish this without going through peer reviewed academic journals? I only have my undergrad, and am looking to publish the work to make myself competitive for a PhD finance program. The paper is on real estate finance.

I just need a quick- one, two, you're published! Will finance programs look highly on this, or will they ignore it completely?


texts: Why are some non-thesis MS or MA programs just called M?

texts:
I heard of some master's degrees that are just M instead of MS or MA like Master of Mathematics or Master of Psychology. Apparently, this is due to it being non-thesis.

However, I met people who choose non-thesis in MS or MA programs that have a choice between thesis and non-thesis. Their IDs say MS or MA. Is this because the program has a choice for thesis?


texts: If you make a substantial contribution should you be given the opportunity to satisfy the other requirements for authorship?

texts:
The ICMJE has developed a set of guidelines to help determine who authors should be. They say

The following recommendations are intended to ensure that contributors who have made substantive intellectual contributions to a paper are given credit as authors

The requirements to be an author are:

The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
Final approval of the version to be published; AND
Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

I think that it is reasonable that authors should meet all 4 of the criteria. What seems surprising to me is that someone could use the guidelines to justify not including someone as an author that did the work, drafted the manuscript, and agreed to be accountable, by simply not allowing them the chance to provide final approval of the version to be published.
Shouldn't the guidelines include a condition that if you meet the first criteria, that you then be given the option to meet the other criteria?
Am I missing something?
Has this apparent shortcoming been addressed anywhere?


texts: How much does a low undergraduate CGPA affect chances of getting a faculty job in a top-tier university?

texts:
Your undergraduate CGPA is quite low, but you were somehow accepted into a respected Masters and PhD program, and completed your postgraduate work quite successfully. Your undergraduate major was the same general field as your postgraduate research.

You are now beginning your academic job search. How would the low CGPA affect your chances of getting a job at a top-tiered academic institution in the US or UK?

If yes, then what else can you do in the meantime to counteract the negative effects of that low CGPA?

(btw, I am asking this for a friend, not for me as I am not in academia)


texts: Can I quit an already started Marie Curie Postdoctoral fellowship to start an assistant professorship?

texts:
I received a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship in Europe. Now, due to the institute's lack of equipment + COVID, it seems I will be able to do barely any of the things I had planned. I have been offered a position as Assistant Professor at an Asian International University of Technology.
Would you leave a European fellowship for a tenure track assistant professorship that has a 2+2 year structure?
What happens if you quit a fellowship for an assistant professorship?


texts: Shifting from a mechanical engineering major to a pure mathematics major

texts:
A few answers related to such queries are already present in this forum; however, my case is distinct from the others and has some specific restrictions.

I am enrolled in a dual degree program in Mechanical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and this is my final semester. The course is of 5 years in duration and awards a general bachelor and, in my case, a master specialized in thermal science & engineering. Usually, the admissions to elite Indian institutions are granted on a rank-merit basis and I couldn't apply for undergraduate mathematics programs (and a world of other unique problems that exist to bar your independent decision).

I had particular interests in pure mathematics since my high school: such as trying out fundamental aspects of sequence & series (in real analysis contexts) or multivariable calculus. These interests translated to my undergraduate years as a minor in mathematics & computing.

The first three semesters of my major program covered aspects upto applied partial differential equations (contain basic linear algebra, vector calculus, complex analysis, and theoretical calculus). To obtain my minor, I took additional subjects: Probability & Statistics, Design & Analysis of algorithm (Theory + Lab), Operations research (theory + lab), Theoretical statistical inference, Regression and time series analysis, Real Analysis, Abstract Algebra, Integral equations & Calculus of Variation, Galois theory (covers up to basics of transcendental extensions).  Apart from these, I have also taken some courses in theoretical physics such as Statistical physics and Quantum mechanics.

My main interest, however, lies in topological manifolds, differential topology & Geometry. As it was difficult to find courses that are at least offered and then doesn't clash with my major. I self-studied - at least the fundamental aspects - of topology, measure theory, functional analysis (needed for integral equations and operator theory), topological manifolds(J.M. Lee).

On the Indian grading system, I have maintained a pretty good CGPA in both my major and minor: 9.28/10.0 (major) and 9.20/10.0 (minor).

I wish to apply in three regions: USA, Canada, and Europe. And I wish to apply for a master so that I can obtain sufficient grounding in the domain of my interest(Differential topology & Geometry).

I have given TOEFL and GRE General test but couldn't give GRE subject test due to some issues. However, I have decent scores in both the GRE General Test and TOEFL.

As a backup, I am also applying for a Ph.D. admission in Mechanical engineering at some U.S. Schools but this is still secondary for me. My main target is to achieve admission to a master's degree in mathematics in a self-sustainable fashion so that I can apply for a P.hD. in the future.

Edit - possible sources of recommendation: One from a statistics Professors, one from my Master's thesis advisor (my current thesis is more like in the junction of applied math/modelling and supercapacitors), one from my galois theory professor who, in general, works in algebraic topology and K-theory.
There aren't many sources of strictly pure math recommendation in my institute as this institute is more inclined toward technical and engineering aspects.

  What are some optimal strategies for me to change my major and get a
  successful admission under these circumstances?

Potential constraints:

Different Major
No GRE Subject test
Lack of enough coursework
Lack of any work experiences or research internships
Truly need Self-sustainability throughout the duration of the program.
Need a program where I can get enough time to develop a solid grounding - (2 Year) preferable.

Should I try to focus on universities from a specific region or a specific section of the QS ranking? Is it possible for me to know which universities would be the best to target in my condition? What are some strategies I can adopt for the next semester to boost my chances?


texts: Unsatisfactory Instructor Evaluations: balancing of expectations of engineering students

texts:
I teach undergraduate and graduate level courses in mechanical engineering at a research oriented university in the United States.  I am a teaching track professor and my sole responsibility, on which I am judged for pay raises or promotions, is teaching efficacy.

The courses I teach have a strong mathematical component to them.  Some notable examples would be: computational fluid dynamics or finite element methods.  For those here familiar with these courses, you would know that calculus background is necessary to understand the nuances.

However, I find that the students I teach this to (mostly 4th year undergraduate students) balk at the prospect of doing some analytical "pen-on-paper" work and would like only to know how to use relevant software skills for these, with no mathematical background.

This leads me to receiving unsatisfactory end of semester evaluations (3.90/5.00) from students with a lot of them complaining that "the course is too math-y"(verbatim).  The department requires teaching professors to consistently receive a 4+/5.00 for courses they teach and base promotions, continuing contracts and raises on this.

Unfortunately, I refuse to pander and just teach students "software-button-clicking" alone. Software skills can be learnt from Youtube and they don't really need me to teach them that.  I continuously tell them that mathematical/fundamental analytical skills are far more important because the software landscape is quite fickle and ever-changing based on industry whims and fancies.  However, fundamental mathematical skills are resolute and robust and may be applied to most engineering problems.

Has this been encountered by other folks on this SE and is there some effective method you have devised to counter this? My university is significantly "engine research" driven and students end up getting jobs at the "big 4" automotive companies.  Perhaps I need to ply my trade at a different department like "applied mathematics"?

On my part, I juxtapose software results with analytical results continuously to explain how analytical results are necessary for validating software results.  However, students are under the impression that the "software is always right" irrespective of whether or not their problem set-up and boundary conditions are correct or not.


texts: How should I prepare myself for a Master's degree in Computer Science from Stanford or Berkeley? If I am already working as a Software Engineer?

texts:
Let me begin with a little background information about myself first. I studied physics for my Bachelor's degree from a public university (within the top 20 physics program in U.S.) Now I am working for a robotics startup in Silicon Valley as a software engineer. Not very long ago, I discovered a strong interest toward AI and Machine Learning. I've been taking courses from Coursera and Udacity for convolutional neural networks and deep learning. At work I've been working on the implementation of simple computer vision. However, I feel that I am still lacking a strong theoretical foundation in the field. Thus, I wish to pursue a Master's degree in AI/ML.

Financially wise, a Master's degree has a steep opportunity cost for me. My annual salary is in the 100~150k range. If I take two years off for the program, it will cost me at least 200k including tuition (considering my taxed income.) The best way for me to save money is to stay in the Bay Area because I can live with my parents; that alone will save me the money for rent and food.

Here's a little academic background, I have a 3.6 GPA in physics and 3.5 overall GPA if humanities courses are included. I only have A's and B's on my transcript. My upper division physics courses are mostly A's including the two graduate courses I took in Condensed Matter Physics. I also did research in the field but didn't make any significant publication. They only won me scholarships and poster presentations.

I think I will need to retake my GRE. My verbal portion was merely average, very average. My quantitative portion was about 95th percentile.
So beside GRE and GPA, who should I ask for letter for recommendation for a Master's degree in Computer Science? Also how should I prepare myself before I apply?

Your advice and opinion are greatly appreciated!


texts: Asking authors for details of algorithm implementation when no explanation is provided

texts:
I am reading a paper where they cite "Apply the X Algorithm on the result" after a series of operations on "result" in the algorithm. The rest of the algorithm is clear in what it asks to do, but the "X Algorithm" and "applying" it are not clear in what is supposed to be done. Also, there is no other place in the paper, nor any citation to another paper, where the algorithm is cited.

Looking up "X Algorithm" online does give an explanation to how it works, but the result does not seem close to what the expected results are. For example, the explanation online gives results that are always integers, when the result is supposed to be a real number normally distributed between 0 and 1.

Is it suitable to contact the author(s) of the paper directly and get an explanation/access to implementation of the algorithm because it is not explained in the paper?


texts: How long should I wait for the receipt acknowledgement?

texts: I submitted my paper by e-mail one week ago. How long is it reasonable to wait for the receipt acknowledgement? What to do if they won't acknowledge receipt of the paper?


texts: study phd and second master at the same time at same program

texts: I am a phd student at Civil/Structural engineering program outside of Canada but now I want to study second master of Structural engineering (my research area will be difference from my first master) in Canada. I want to know if I can study both phd and master at the same time? my phd courses are finished and I am in phd research duration.


texts: Is it worth the risk to apply to REUs? How likely am I to be accepted?

texts:
I am applying to biology REUs(Research Experience for Undergraduates) this summer. Would a white female junior from a small R2 university, 3.9 gpa, and one summer of research experience be likely enough to get into one these programs? I've heard that it's a long shot if you're not a minority, the issue is while female counts as minority for other REUs I don't know if it counts much for bio these days...
I'm asking because there's a very very good study abroad program (a very good university to study at for bio) I want to apply to that goes until June (which overlaps with 99% of REUs and other internships). So I either pick the top study abroad program and simply do research at my university over the summer or get a job, or I pick my second choice study abroad program in order to apply to REUs (as well as other internships such as NOAA), but risk not getting into any of them anyway and going right to my backup plans for the summer.


texts: What to do in dealing with scientific mistakes in an article?

texts:
Recently I've read an article in a journal and find out numerous scientific mistakes in that paper. I decide to write a note to the editorial board of the journal.
First of all, I want to know is there any credit for writing a note about scientific mistakes in an article?
Then I want to know what should be the subject of the note, errata, corrigenda, or retraction note with respect to the scientific mistakes and probably falsified, mistaken data?
It should be noted that I am fully confident of the paper's mistakes and have no desire to communicate with the author of the article.


texts: I will be retiring in a few months with a successful research career in industry (>100 journal papers, >300 conference presentations, >50 patents).  I am interested in doing research in an academic lab after retirement.  My current expertise is in applied plasma physics, but I am interested in doing research in either astrophysics or biology.  Any suggestions on on how to find such opportunities or how does one get involved in research in a new area when one is 60+?  I won't be concerned about compensation and I am well adept at the numerical, statistical and mathematical methods employed in research.


texts: How to cite indirect sources in CSE/CBE (name–year) system?

texts: I’m writing my first review paper and I don’t know much about the CSE system. I couldn’t find the indirect citation rule for CSE (but for others). So how do I cite indirectly in this style?


texts: Are there studies testing whether academia rewards researchers based on number of publications?

texts:
I would like to know whether any scientific study has tested a hypothesis relating number of publications to career advancement.

It is often suggested that hiring and promotion decisions at research institutions are based heavily on the number of publications produced.  That is, one is more likely to get a tenure-track position and subsequently to get tenure if one has a larger number of publications (independent of quality).  One could also introduce an opposing argument that large numbers of publications are negatively correlated with quality of work and therefore negatively impact career advancement.  Are there any studies supporting either of these views?

Some remarks: I understand well that even if there is correlation it would not imply causation.  Also, I suspect that the relation between publication quantity and career advancement is very different between disciplines and between world regions.  I would be interested in studies that address the question globally or among some subset of academe.

I believe this question is different from Whether to publish one big paper or many smaller papers for a given research project?, since I am asking for general scientific studies rather than opinions.

I am aware that, for many reasons, reaching valid conclusions may be impossible.  I am interested in whether it has been attempted.


texts: What does a managing editor do in scientific journal editorial board?

texts:
I need to contact the editorial board of a journal I recently submitted an article to about an issue, and I am having some thoughts as to who would be the appropriate person to contact.

I know that the Editor-in-chief is pretty much in charge of the show, and the associate editors contribute based on their personal areas of expertise.

I have no idea what a managing editor does however. Intuitively I would assume that this job title would encompass more of the administrative and less scientific aspects of the publication process, but I am not certain.

So what does a managing editor do, and what type of questions should be directed to the managing editor?


texts: Do we cite results in Arxiv which are obviously wrong?

texts:
I am now writing up a math paper, and there is an Arxiv paper posted back in 2009 which proved a weaker version of my result. But I don’t think their paper will be published in any journal – their proof is clearly wrong. Since that is eight years ago, I suppose the author spotted the error already.

My question: Should I cite their result in my paper? Note that we are both using the same technique (introduced elsewhere), just that they overlooked a key technical issue.


texts: Signature for Doctor of Information Technology prefix and suffix

texts:
How can I sign my name with the degree of "Doctor of Information Technology"?

Is this all correct?

Dr. Full Name

Full Name D.I.T

Dr Full Name
(Doctor of Information Technology)

Dr. Last Name

Can I use these kind of signatures in my emails and/or letters? Is there a standard way of doing this?

Note: This question was also asked on English Language & usage


texts:
I am a 31 years old software engineer at a big technology company in Silicon Valley. I have a master's degree in computer science and moved into working full time right at the time of my graduation. During those ~6 years in industry, I always tried to work a few hours during the day on my personal passion which is studying mathematics. Ultimately, every time I want to study a specific topic, I made so little progress because of my full-time job that I got frustrated. I figured just a few weeks ago that something needed to change and I should pursue my passion, which is research, and then got into my head that I must do a PhD. Now, the principal reason of doing a PhD for me is to be able to work full-time on maths. Something I am dreaming about, just thinking about it makes me very happy. On the other hand, at the same time, I know that I am taking a major pay cut (from 6 to 5 figures), and my lifestyle will dramatically change.

EDIT :
Question has been put on hold so I will try to narrow down my questioning to a specific concern.

Considering that I have no demonstrable research experience, no real recommendations by academia people ( 7 years out of college, my teachers will likely had forgot about me ), no good grades in my masters ( average ), and a degree in computer science vs a math one, is it really possible to get accepted in a pure math phD program ?

Note : the only math experience I had is high school ( grade 18/20 ) and my personal experience ( which is not demonstrable )


texts: Lost Interest in Electrical Engineering. Still have a Math degree to complete. What to do?

texts:
I just finished my 5th semester of a compact, dual degree (MS in mathematics and BE in electrical and electronics engineering) course from BITS Pilani, India. It's hitting me really hard now that I just don't want to be an engineer at all. I was really enthusiastic about this programme when I joined it, but with 5 more semesters to go, I'm near clueless about what to do once I'm out of here.

I still like mathematics though and my grades in those courses have been fairly decent, but the university grades me for the entire course and so I'd barely make it a 2.7 or something like that on a scale of 4 at the end of it. If I keep going like I am, more or less.

I like statistics, probability and operations research but even though I can tolerate the mathematics degree which is a lot of pure mathematics, that part of it isn't something I want to pursue.

I have, however, recently developed interest in financial analysis. I have taken introductory courses in economics and management, to fill up the elective credits I had to and so I have a little bit of an idea about how this stuff works, and I'm really enjoying learning more of it. But I have no clue where to go, or what to do.

I want to be certain that I can make it to a decent program, preferably MSF or MBA Finance, in the US, UK or Germany (or any other place where financial markets are really intense and interesting) with those sort of grades and maybe a few projects (which I intend to take up in the next few semesters) related to financial analysis, but mostly math.

I would really appreciate if you could help me find a path to accomplish what I am setting out to, point me to alternative programs I can get in that can get me where I want to be or advise me on what the focus should be on right now, working on a few more projects, or improving my grade; or something else.


texts: Should I try to warn administration about truly unacceptable professor behavior?

texts:
I was kicked out of my lab late in my graduate school career, which destroyed my confidence and obviously delayed my graduation by 2+ years. What's more, my advisor tried to convince me to drop out of graduate school, saying I was just "embarrassing myself", that I just didn't have any ability.

After me, there were many more awful events-- one person (non-student) was fired and rather slandered in an email to the lab; multiple postdocs had their projects pulled out from under them and were forced to start over in another lab, no papers; I know another graduate student there who has been struggling to decide whether to drop out; in all cases this advisor tries to destroy the person's confidence and convince them they are incapable of success.

I tried to talk to the administration a year or so after I got kicked out... just to suggest that such things should not happen without any scrutiny from the uni. I think it was just viewed as sour grapes, and nothing happened. Recently, my (second) PhD advisor suggested in a veiled way that I should try again, and maybe if I got all the other "survivors" together, we would have credibility.  I think it would probably be useless and risky for me.  But this person should not be in such a position of power over vulnerable junior scientists. Is it morally wrong for me to do nothing? But what could I do? (I think the best action would be for my advisor to organize something but like all advisors, mine 90% only cares about his/her own career).


texts: What can I do if my academic references are not responsive?

texts:
I provided references of two Professors from my previous University. I talked to them before supplying the references.

I believe, the universities sent some Emails asking them for some kind of confidential report. They are procrastinating responding to the Emails from the universities I applied to.

They are not even responding to my calls and mails:

I contacted them last week of December to let them know about the reference.
Sent SMS text on 11th January after I had submitted the application.
I also sent them personal Emails on 15th January.
Called them on 18th January.

I believe the last date is 31st January.

How can I get around problems like this in future?

Is there any formal way to submit applications without references?


texts: Postdoc using current university's letterhead for job application cover letter (academic/national lab jobs)?

texts:
I'm currently a (physics) postdoc at a university. I'm currently applying for academic jobs (tenure-track research professor and postdoc positions) as well as jobs in national labs.

Question(s): Do I need to use my current university's letterhead for my cover letters? If it is optional, is it somehow better to use the official letterhead?

Note: This is similar to the post here. That post was specifically for someone who is currently a lecturer at a university, and the answers ranged from absolutely yes to absolutely no (with no clear consensus). Therefore, I I want to know if any of the specifics in my situation make a difference for this question (e.g. field = physics; I'm currently a postdoc which is expected to only be temporary; does academic appointment vs national lab job have different expectations etc…).


texts: Should the supervisor work in the laboratory with the student during M.Sc.?

texts:
I was just employed in the foreign university as assistant professor. I am going to have one M.Sc. student soon but I am not sure how much independence should he get. At my previous university we needed to work with the M.Sc. students in the lab all the time as they were unable to do anything being alone in lab. How is it at your universities? Who teaches M.Sc. students the methods, presenting the rules in the lab etc.? (Food Technology.

The field is: Food Technology, generally lab work connected with chemical and physical methods like HPLC, spectrophotometer, rheology.


texts: What is the mean in an standard exam? (For grading on a curve)

texts:
Suppose a grading system is used in which grades vary between 1 and 100. Grades below 50 are failing grades. If I want to grade the students on the normal curve, which grade should I choose as the mean of the distribution? In other words, what should be the mean of the new grades? The number 50 is somehow counter-intuitive, as it results in half of the students failing the exam.

Note: This question was previously posted to stats.SE, but was voted as off-topic there.


texts:
I had a conference last week on which I presented paper 1.

There's paper 2 that has been accepted with the CR deadline within a week. I'd like to cite paper 1 in paper 2. I could make the reference state "In press" but my worry is, when paper 2 gets published, is the "In press" part going to remain there after the publication (forever)?

Is there a way to avoid this or solve this?


texts: How to handle an advisor who regularly gives me new work for my thesis?

texts:
I'm currently working on my master thesis and will have to hand it in in April. Of course, the topic of my thesis is somehow restricted to a certain problem, but my advisor keeps telling me new problems to consider for my thesis, which have little relation to my original master thesis problem.

The problems he gives to me are very interesing, but they do not fit into my master thesis and if I had to include them, I would get into serious time troubles. I talked with him about this and he always answers very vaguely, e.g. with "Let's see how your thesis turns out to be". His answers are also very mood-dependent, so one has to be careful.

How can I convince him that his problems are not fitting for my thesis and that it is simply too much? I have to hand my thesis in soon and now, at this point, he comes up with new stuff to include. Furthermore, I am afraid of getting a bad grade if I don't do what he tells me to do. I am planning to start my PhD study under his supervision afterwards. Could I perhaps propose that I work on his problems after my master thesis?

Thanks in advance, I appreciate any sort of advice.


texts: Are academics allowed to own/be part of/found a private company (UK)?

texts:
I have seen some professors being members or even founders of one or more private companies. Many times in a similar topic as the one they teach/research.

What is the legal status behind this in the UK? Is it universal (controlled by state laws and rules) or contract/university specific (to be negotiated with the employer)?


texts: One student grading other students' assignments in the same course?

texts:
In the US, can a student who is already enrolled in a course grade homework assignments of all other students in the same course (but not actually accessing and changing academic records)? Is it legal and compatible with academic integrity?

Two of several issues that I'm concerned about are:
1. He has not actually done his own homework (because homework submissions are not recorded).
2. By comparing my paper with other students I wasn't able to observer a consistency in grading. Actually initially I found who has graded our homeworks based on a pattern of inconsistency in grading and also inappropriate comments on my paper.

However the professor rejects my concerns by stating that he has overseen and reviewed everything himself.

In this page from USC.edu it is stated that "Please note that it is not possible for you to be both a student and a TA within the same course. Federal law [FERPA] and University policy both specifically prohibit students enrolled in a class from being able to modify their own grades or to view or modify the grades of other students enrolled in that same class." However as pointed out by Bob Brown, Supreme Court allowed in-class peer-grading.


texts: Doing a PhD in physics after doing bachelors and masters in mathematics

texts:
I have done my bachelors and currently doing masters in pure mathematics. I have done four physics courses during bachelors degree which also includes special relativity. What is the possibility that I may prosper in theoretical physics and earn a PhD in any branch of mathematical physics?

Also, I am going to take the GRE this year but I am little bit confused about choosing subject in subject GRE since scoring in maths is much easier than scoring in physics (if later its possible to change departments then of course I'll choose maths). Any suggestion regarding that is also welcome.


texts: Counting journal reviews (when reviewing revisions)

texts: We've discussed how many papers we should review, but how do we count reviews? Sometimes I review 2-3 versions of a manuscript before it is finally accepted/rejected. Should I count each version that I review? Or should I just count each accept/reject decision?


texts: In addition to the grammerly software, are there other better tools in English writing?

texts: For non-English speakers, are there other useful tools besides grammerly software in English writing? Mainly check whether the sentence is authentic.


texts: Who "owns" a project idea after a grant application is rejected or declined?

texts:
This past year I put in an application to a federal agency (US) for a post-doctoral fellowship and collaborated on it with a three profs/research scientists on the proposal.  If funded, one of them will act as my post-doc supervisor and the other two as collaborators, all bring necessary skills and methodological capacity to the project.  The project idea was my own that I had before meeting or discussing it with these collaborators, I chose to work with these people because they are researchers whose work I was familiar with and they are located in a city I'm interested in living in.

I have accepted a different post-doc since that application was submitted and I expect that application to be rejected because it was still a bit rough when submitted and it's a pretty competitive grant.  Since I took the other position, I won't be doing this project with these collaborators in under this recent application.  This is my first time as part of a multiple collaborator application, so I am wondering:

Who has ownership of an idea after grant rejection/do all members of a proposal collaboration have to be informed of any member independently moving forward with an idea from the proposal?


texts: Referencing a question on research level from StackExchange in a footnote in a thesis?

texts: Is referencing a question on research level from StackExchange in the footnote of a thesis appropriate?


texts: On tenure track and department chair wants me to consider leaving

texts:
A few weeks ago after my grant meeting my department chair asked me if I still wanted to do research. She said I didn’t have to if I didn’t want to. She went on to say that I appeared to be struggling and that I could leave the tenure track. She said no one would judge me or think that I was a failure if I decided not to do research anymore. She said I could return to practice if I wanted to. This was pretty much an invitation to quit. She said she couldn’t promise I could get another non-tenure position and that the other departments did not have any needs.

It turns out that the department does need someone but she lied to me. She told me to think about what I wanted to do. Last week she sent me an email saying that she wanted to meet with me about my grant. So I invited my other grant team members. She then emailed me back to say that she did not want them present. She said that the meeting was not about the grant and that she wanted to close the loop on our discussion. Basically she lied again with a misleading email. The subject of her email even read meeting to discuss grant.

We didn’t meet that day. I was sick. This week she emailed me again to get on her calendar to have this meeting. I feel like she is trying to force me to resign. Do you have any advice about how I should proceed?


texts: Does switching majors look bad for graduate admissions?

texts:
Here's my situation: I've want to get into a master's or PhD level program in biomedical engineering. However, the college I go to does not offer a biomedical engineering degree. So, out of the options I was given and at a advice of my advisor, I decided to major in chemical engineering degree.
I pursued research with a professor in the chemical engineering department and was preparing to take the GRE. Once, I got to my actual Chemical engineering courses in the second semester of my sophomore year. I really ended up disliking my courses and not doing well in them (I got mostly Bs and two Cs and it's my fault). I went to my academic advisor for advice on the situation and I was told that the average GPA for the chemical engineering class was a 3.2, and that it's really hard for people to make a high enough GPA in this major to get into graduate school and the my grades are what most people make in the classes.
I don't know if this is the standard for engineering or something but it feels really discouraging to me cause it feels like I can't fix my grades and grind through to get a good enough GPA to just get into graduate school. I like my research, but I'm unable to handle the rigor and intensity of my chemical engineering engineering classes despite reaching out to my professors and my university's tutoring center. I feel like me not liking the major is also a major factor in why I am unable to pass my classes. I will be a junior this year.
Should I just stick it out with this major that I don't like at this point and work harder to keep up my grades since I will be doing BME master's anyway? I really want to get into a good masters program for biomedical engineering, but I really dislike my current major. Would changing majors hurt my graduate school admission chances?


texts: Dealing with unsupervised research as novice researcher

texts:
I am currently working on a research project at a non-academic institution as part of a summer internship. They've brought me in to work on a topic that is somewhat within my area of study. However, there is nobody here who shares my field. There are other folks with related expertise, but it's not quite similar enough to be of help (at least not at this stage in the research). Furthermore, my work involves data that is quite different than what I'm used to working with. It's enough to say that the data requires different analysis techniques than what I'm used to--to the extent that the application of this research is whole sub-field in its own right.

I'm obviously reading papers to familiarize myself with this sub-field, and I've also reached out for direction from colleagues who have plenty of experience in this area. The real problem stems from the lack of an experienced adviser/supervisor who can help direct the project. As much as I'd love to be capable of doing this solo (and this will probably be a good trial-by-fire learning experience), I'm concerned that I'm still too novice of a researcher to go it alone.

I'm not throwing this project away, so what are some steps I can take to make progress despite this limited supervision?


texts: How to verify authenticity of submitted assignments

texts:
When teaching 250 students in the same subject, knowing each student can be quite difficult. In smaller classes, it may be possible to learn enough through classroom interaction that when assessing the assignments it may be easy to tell if it is their work or not. For example, if a student can never form a coherent argument when asked in class, but that same student submits extremely high quality work, the teacher might want to dig a little deeper to see if the student is just better at writing or if they are hiring a ghost writer to produce their reports for them. However, in large classes, there is too little interaction with each student to form a strong opinion of everyone. Those who can 'hide' in class are the least likely to be 'caught.'

I see one option as incorporating an oral exam into the overall mark and using that mark as a basis from which to judge the student's future work. It's not perfect but it's something. One problem is that with 250 students, oral exams end up consuming so much class time that little time remains for lectures.

Running through something like TurnInIt will only catch if they are taking from an existing work but it will clearly not catch ghost writing.

What are the most effective ways of verifying authenticity of student assignments?


texts:
I am a STEM master's student in a University in Europe. I am going to graduate next month and I need to settle the date of my defence and other bureaucratic matters with my second advisor. He had no role in my master's thesis project but has to be part of the committee on the day of my thesis defence.
The problem is: I have been trying to contact him for almost three weeks with no success. He ghosted me.
The question is: Should I try to contact the head of the department and report his behaviour (in order to get him answering)? Or should I forget about that and look for a different second advisor?
You should consider that: he has not answered any of my emails in the last weeks. The emails were 2-3 lines long. The academic staff working with him suggested me to call him on the phone in some particular days/hours in which he was there. I did it and he did not answer. I cannot go in person to the university since the access is restricted due to the Covid pandemic (and anyway the professor goes there rarely in this period as far as I have been told).
Also, I have been told that this professor behaved similarly with many other students, but usually they managed to "spontaneously" come across him at university (there was no pandemic at the time). Therefore, I am not really sure if contacting the head of department would ever change anything. On the other hand, looking for a different advisor might be as challenging as contacting this guy, since we are close to my graduation date and there are not many professors at my university who work in the field of my master's thesis.


texts: I uploaded a transcript in my online application for grad school but did not include the back side (transcript legend), should I worry?

texts: Title says it. I submitted a transcript in my online application for grad school but did not include the back side which contains the transcript legend (has some general info about my university and grading system). Should I worry? Would this affect my application? And should I send them the legend now?


texts: Does an acceptance of an abstract mean that I will definitely be presenting at the conference?

texts:
I just had an abstract accepted by a UK conference and will be submitting the final paper in a few months. We were notified by email of the acceptance and directed to register for the conference. The information we were sent currently does not mention a presentation and the schedule is not yet posted.

Does this mean that I will definitely be presenting at the conference? Or are abstracts/papers sometimes accepted but not presented?


texts: As an experimentalist, will it be possible to be a good theoretical researcher through self study?

texts:
My Ph.D. research in materials science and mechanics was entirely experimental with some MatLab coding to analyze the results and some image analysis through the image processing toolbox. However, in my 2 years postdoc with my Ph.D. supervisor, I am planning of carrying out computational simulations using Molecular dynamics and Finite element analysis. I have limited mathematical background (undergraduate 1,2,3rd years) and programming (undergrad, master's and through Coursera). Through self-study (books and online lectures), will it be possible to be proficient in these modeling tools and methods? Or has that ship sailed when I started the experimentalist path?
Has anyone followed this path in their career?


texts:
I started a PhD programme 6 months ago.  During the selection process you were asked which areas would u like to work in. My studies specialization is in microbiology and molecular biology, I clearly stated that i wanted to carry on my research in food microbiology because I carry out my master thesis in this area. What is more, after the interview I was contacted by a professor working in this area because my profile was totally fitting the PhD they were looking for.

However, a big professor was also interested in me (the rector of the university) and directly contacted me to work with him in biosensors applied to food. I tried to go back to my interest but I found the door closed (some matter of power around...). Despite of this, I though biosensors sounded very interesting and I would enjoy it.

After the PhD kick-off I found out that we did not share the same definition of a biosensor.. they were meaning just sensors made with organic polymers. I was told to do a PhD proposal in a short time of a topic I had no knowledge in.

Nowadays, my supervisor does not follow me and they group is so new that there is only a postdoc researcher who is an engineer, we have nobody from biotech,food science or a chemist who works with sensors in the "bio" part. I am totally alone in my research in a  field I do not know. I told my supervisor and he told me to look for somebody who help me in the literature to help me. what the .....?? I really fear i do not manage to finish this PhD successfully.

I started looking for another PhD opportunities and I found one which I totally felt in love with. I would like to write the professor in advance but I am not sure whether I should mention that I am already a PhD student.

What would you do? In the applications I am doing I am commenting I am a PhD student that does not have interest nor the background in the area I was assigned..

Thank you,


texts: How to write an email to request a dataset to a professor

texts:
I'm interested in a dataset used in a scientific article, but I am not able to find this dataset on the Internet, I guess it is because the dataset was provided by NSTAR (an energy company) that no longer exists (it has merged with Eversource).

I have thought of requesting it to the corresponding author of the article, but I have never sent anything to a MIT visitant professor (female, just for the record) and I have never called a teacher of mine by its title. I think that there is not such a strict culture in Spain of calling everyone by its title. Can anyone help me in writing the letter? Will it bother her if I send such request? How should I start? What should I say about myself? How should I end the letter?


texts: How to deploy a StackExchange-style question and answer site for a university subject?

texts:
Problems with discussion boards: After being involved with StackExchange for a couple of years, I've really grown to despise standard discussion boards. All those meandering threads, no commenting, no ability to edit questions to improve them, inadequate cross-referencing of questions, no markdown support, no voting for good answers; no rss subscription options, the list goes on...

Educational context: I have interacted with a few course management systems that include discussion boards for students to ask questions. These systems also lack most of the great features of the StackExchange model of Q&A.

Question

Is there a way of deploying a StackExchange-style Q&A site for a university subject?
Are there any examples of people doing this?
Does anyone know whether StackExchange themselves have considered this market?

Initial thoughts

I realise that there are open source clones of stack exchange in existence. However, my concern is that they take a bit of effort to setup.

Ideally any system should be very simple to deploy for the lecturer, and easy to learn for the student.


texts:
I'm about to apply for postdoc positions in the US through mathjobs. I already did it last year, so I have my reference letters from the previous time (which are probably pretty good).

Now here's my situation: During the last year, I was lucky to solve some well-known open problems in my field (well, it's not going to earn me a Wikipedia entry, but the tiny group of researchers in my esoteric field is impressed), which will probably turn my application from "good" to "outstanding". In order to really make my application look better, my reference letters should address the recent results, so I asked my letter writers to update their letters. Most of them did so, except for one (who didn't reply to my emails). The problem is that I should submit some of my applications by November 1, and as I didn't hear from that letter writer for several weeks now, I'm afraid that he might not update his letter by November 1.

Question 1: When job ads on mathjobs say something like "screening of applications will begin on November 1", do they really mean it, or do they mean something like "screening of applications will begin on mid December, but we want you to submit your application early"?

Question 2: What would you do in my situation (assuming that the relevant letter writer is currently abroad and I have no other way to contact him)? Should I contact the relevant search committees and ask them to check that reference letter a bit later, once it gets updated?

Question 3: If a letter of recommendation is updated on mathjobs past the submission of an application, which version of the letters is available to the search committee? What should I do in order to make sure that they read the updated version?


texts: Career advice: How can I move on from my probable PhD flop?

texts:
So thing aren't going well for me with my PhD and I sort of think I'm not going to get there (hard deadline is September and frankly I think I'm fairly close to having a breakdown). I'm in the UK and the hard deadline is university policy.

How soon should I start looking for work outside academia? How should I go about explaining my (likely) failure?

I'm not sure I know what to do from here.

I don't feel confident about bringing this up with my supervisor. If I did, he would brush it off (he doesn't really get me, I don't think) with something along the lines of "What else are you going to do? Just get on with it.". He has expressed concern about my progress before now. Also, part of the motivation for asking this question is feeling well-researched on this topic prior to having a conversation, which I'm hoping will show my supervisor that I'm serious about it.

If this information is useful I'm based in the UK, I have a pass at Master's level already and a 2:1 BSc in physics and I am in an allied field at the moment.


texts: How to deal with unnecessary stress introduced by the supervisor?

texts:
I am doing my PhD in a high prestige UK university.
I am finishing my second year and I have funding for three years in total.
I have already two papers finished (pending to be published) and working on two more.

I like research and I like being pushed to achieve the best I can. What I don't like however is introducing unnecessary stress into my daily life. With this I mean the following:

I think that it is totally acceptable and expected of me to work overtime when nearing a deadline. Usually the month before a deadline I work 12 hours per day, 6-7 days a week. This is totally fine and to some extent I enjoy it.

My supervisor is a brilliant researcher. Young and successful in his field with many publications in high prestige venues. However, he's also the classic stereotype of the super-workaholic academic who works 7 days a week, from early in the morning until late at night.

It's common for him to send messages or emails at 23.00 or during weekends asking for something. This could range from asking to complete a certain task or a simple "What is the status of X?".

I find this exhausting. To work hard during the week I need to have a "safe space" where I know that I can relax without worrying about work. Otherwise I feel demotivated to work hard. Due to this behavior I have anxiety issues. Recently, after a very stressful period mostly due to work, my hair started falling. This was identified by my GP as "Telogen effluvium". It can happen after very stressful periods. Thankfully it stopped but it's a clear sign that I've been stressing too much.

Ignoring my emails and messages is not an option for me. The reason is that I know that he genuinely cares about my PhD and many times his messages may be about the changes he has done on my paper. Ignoring this makes me feel ungrateful.

My most important problem is that, looking back, 70% of the stress introduced by supervisor could have been totally avoided if he could relax a bit. He's micromanaging me and wants to know everything. And many times we could have taken a month more on a project instead of rushing things.

Moreover, because he's always pressuring me to do as many things as possible as fast as possible, I feel that I cannot do any quality work. I prefer quality for quantity. He's the opposite.

I have tried to convey my feelings to him multiple times already. He does not seem to get it. Or he may back off for 2-3 weeks and then resumes his previous behavior. In a recent confrontation I mentioned the words "unnecessary stress" and he didn't take it very well.

Many colleagues have told me that I should be thankful because he's actively working on my PhD while other supervisors are totally absent. I find this unfair. None of the two should be OK.

Overall I feel burned-out and demotivated. This saddens me because I really like my PhD and research in general.

However, I don't think I can take this for one more year.

Question: How to deal with a workaholic supervisor who is introducing unnecessary stress into my daily life?

p.s. It's important to mention that my supervisor probably suffers from anxiety as well. This is somewhat known by his PhD students and he has implied it one or two times.


texts: Which department does a professor in a joint appointment get his/her graduate students from

texts: If someone is a professor of department A, however, s/he also affiliates with department B in a joint appointment. Which department does the professor in a joint appointment get his/her graduate students from? Department A or B? The original or affiliated department? Also, does he/she evaluates the admission of A or B? Or both? Thank you. I did a web search on this site with the keyword joint appointment, but I can not find any similar discuss.


texts: My manuscript status says that one referee sent a message but not a report

texts:
About three weeks ago, I submitted a paper to a highly reputable physics journal. (I had another paper recently published in this journal as well.) I have been checking the status continuously, and today I saw the following as a follow-up to a referee request:

  message received (not a report)

I am curious about this status update, as I have never encountered it before. What does this notification mean – rejection of my paper or acceptance?  It would be really appreciated if anyone could share experience on this.


texts: How reasonable is it to ask about my application status to the Chair of the search committee?

texts: It has been more than 4 months I applied for a tenured-track faculty position in a research university. However, I have not heard back from anyone (e.g. representative of the Chair of the search committee or someone else) regarding my application status. Unfortunately, there is no online status-checker system available. I am even not sure whether my application has been rejected. In such a circumstance, can I place an inquiry to the search chair and ask him to let me know the status of my application?


texts: Which is preferable, to go to graduate school at same school as undergrad or to go to a lower-ranked school?

texts:
I've heard from people that generally, it's a bad idea to go to the same school as your undergrad to get your graduate education.

However, in the situation that you get into only your undergrad school and a few much-lower ranked grad schools, what would be the better school to pursue?


texts: Are there scholarships for a physics PhD in Germany that don't consider income?

texts:
I'm searching for scholarships for a physics PhD in Germany. I will have a (part time) contract by the institute in which I'm doing the PhD and receive a monthly income. Now, the only scholarships I find on the internet are intended to fund the PhD position entirely and count the income by the institute against the amount of scholarship money. In the end the scholarship is reduced (maybe to zero) because of the income.

Are there scholarships that don't consider any other income and can be received additionally to the income by the institute? Since I'm going to travel quite a bit during my PhD I'd also be happy with scholarships for traveling expenses.


texts: reference letter from current line manager?

texts:
I am currently a lecturer at a UK university, and I got an oral offer from another university. I was called by their HR today saying that their official is condition on satisfactory reference checking with my current line manager, who is the HoD of my current department. In my case I do not know my HoD is willing to provide a reference letter, as I am pretty sure that he will not be happy knowing I want to leave.

I am wondering if this (requiring reference from current line manager) is a common practices for UK universities? If there is any alternative solution to it? Thanks for your suggestions in advance.


texts: Are there other cities in the world like Boston where a large number of good postsecondary institutions are located?

texts:
The really unusual thing about the greater Boston area is that so many and such good postsecondary institutions are crowded into that area. Harvard, M.I.T., Tufts, Brandeis, and others.

Is Boston unique in all the world in that respect, or is there some comparable place elsewhere?


texts: Applying to Ph.D. as M.S. student but failing to complete M.S. after admission

texts:
I'm currently studying for a qualifying exam required by my M.S. program to get the degree and have also applied to continue onto a Ph.D. elsewhere (all of this in the U.S). This situation got me curious about a weird edge case:

What is likely to happen if I get accepted to a Ph.D. program, but later find out I have failed my qual/will not receive the M.S. degree?

I realize that no answer to this will be universally applicable, but the reason I ask is because I already have a B.S (what most of my fellow applicants have) and they don't necessarily know that my M.S requires a qual in the first place (so admissions decisions were probably made taking into account my coursework, etc.). So, on the one hand, it seems like even supposing I didn't receive the M.S. I am still an applicant with the same credentials as my fellow applicants + two years of additional grad level coursework + 2 years of MS project + 2 years of Research on top of these other things. On the other hand they accepted me expecting another degree which I don't have.

I'm not too worried about this personally and intend to pass, but I was curious since it is a real possibility for me (most people get 2 or more chances at the quals, but since I am changing fields a bit I wanted to take certain classes to help in Ph.D. admissions during my first year and ended up with only one shot).

It would be nice if this got answered as generally as possible for future worriers, but if more specificity is needed I did a math undergrad/M.S. and applied to Comp. Sci. for PhD. Also, the M.S. was not done to bolster my record but instead just because I found funding and got more time to explore before jumping onto the PhD "treadmill" as some of my professors have described it (meaning, my undergrad would have made me a good math applicant with research experiences, 3.6+ GPA, strong letters, from a respected school, etc. should I have decided to apply straight out of it).

Anyhow sorry this got long, I was just trying to walk the line between keeping it general and making it unanswerable haha. (Also, as a little aside, I can retake it late in the summer but it'd be a pain travel/housing wise).

tl;dr
Accepted into PhD while in a MS elsewhere, but failed exam required for MS (all in USA). What happens?


texts: Mentioning money in statement of purpose

texts:
I am currently working as a research assistant with a pay grade that is half of a typical entry level commercial job (computer programming jobs in particular).

Is it beneficial to mention this in a Statement of purpose for graduate admissions, so as to show that I sacrificed a better financial situation in favor of a research career? Is mentioning money a bad idea regardless of the context, or is it well known that research assistance-ships pay less than regular jobs?


texts: Have US universities seen a significant increase in administrative workforces relative to academic activity?

texts:
I was recently made aware of a study (caveat: from 2014) indicating that, supposedly, US academic institutions have taken on non-academic staff at a much higher overall rate than the increase in the student population, counting from 1987 and unti 2011-2012.
Now, the think-tank which authored this study seems fishy to me, but I don't live and work in the US, so I wanted to ask for corroboration or refutation of its claims based on your experience and knowledge.
Note: Academic activity and number of students is not the same thing; information relative either to the former or the latter is relevant.


texts: How do I tell my supervisor that I've been offered a job and want to leave?

texts:
Yesterday I posted about wanting to leave my PhD and I've definitely decided that it's the healthiest choice for me. Now comes the hardest part- telling them that I plan to leave the program once I find an alternative role. I'm not a very confrontational person and I hate to feel that I am wasting anyone's time so I want to be as polite and direct as I can be.
Is it as simple as emailing to say that I wish to discuss my progress and long term goals and then inform them during the meeting that I've been offered a job?


texts: (How) can you teach a subject effectively for which you are a skeptic without biasing students?

texts:
I recently accepted a tenure-track position at a university and will be on a 1-1 load my first year. My first course I will teach, I will get to modify and alter based on my expertise.

In my second semester, I am taking over a graduate course that was taught by a previous faculty member. This course is over a concept that I am extremely skeptical about. The prior professor, who taught the course, is a prominent supporter of the theory and has written articles and books on the subject.

So my concern is that my own biases could bleed out into the class.

My current plan is the following:

First half of the semester: teach the course close the the prior syllabus with some differences.
Midterm: present the evidence as to why I am a skeptic.
Second half of the semester: students either provide evidence in the form of a literature review supporting or objecting to my skepticism.

A little background, I was brought into the department for my computational strength, productive research stream, and subject expertise. The thing is, the subject expertise has nothing to do with this course where I am a skeptic. So I feel a little bit like I would be being unnecessarily disruptive to an already established department curriculum. That said, the faculty member who pushed this subject recently left and I do not know if anyone else in the department is as passionate about it as they were.

I hesitate to outright say the topic due to not wanting to be unmasked. But it can be thought of like this: The idea has a solid foundation built on strong empirical evidence and results. This foundation is largely agreed upon by the field. Where this foundation is not nearly agreed upon is a certain abstraction/extension of this foundation. I believe that this abstraction/extension is trivial and also ill-defined. Others in the field believe that this extension is an important area of study.


texts: Listing talks given at home institution on CV

texts:
I've given many talks at my home institution, at the undergraduate and graduate colloquiums, and in a few seminars. The list is getting quite long.

Is it appropriate to list many talks given at my home institution? Does it reflect badly on me?


texts: When reapplying, does it pose negative effect in the admission process if you use the similar personal statement?

texts:
I was reapplying the same institution that rejected me last year. Last year, I didn't reach any potential supervisors and this year, one professor told me that he would assist me. I thought the personal statement last year was not the main problem for rejection so I reused it. I added two lines to update my background information. And I reworded two paragraphs though they express the same meaning and intention.

I just realized this problem after I submitting my application. Will the selection committee check my previous application? Will it pose negative effect? I really don't want to mess it up with this opportunity.


texts: What open indexing services compete with Web of Science

texts: As far as  I know, the only indexing services which track citation across journals and data repositories are accessed for a fee. Are there any free-to-use databases of article or data citation indices ?


texts: Why did it become so much more expensive to start a university?

texts:
In 1873, Johns Hopkins University was started with an inflation-adjusted $144.5 million. In 1884, Stanford University began with an inflation-adjusted $139 million. Meanwhile, in 2009, KAUST was started with $10 billion. There's a difference of two orders of magnitude.

Why did it become so much more expensive to start a university in modern times?


texts: How should I cite a conjecture to which no written record can be found?

texts:
Suppose that a famous mathematician E (long deceased) made a conjecture (C), but no written record of this can be found (either because none exists, or because it exists in a very obscure source). Then, a senior mathematician S, who knows for a fact that (C) was conjectured by E, tells another mathematician X about this problem, and indeed X manages to prove (C). Just to clarify: S is sure about the conjecture, but does not have a publicly available source for it.

This creates a problem: one of the reasons for X's interest in the problem was the question asked by E. Without context, the problem is still interesting, but less so, and it would be better to include a reference to the conjecture whenever communicating the result. Presumably, in verbal communication this is not a problem, since one can simply explain how things are. But what about publishing the result?

I see the following options. Which of these are most widely accepted? Is there any better alternative?

Not mention E at all, simply state the result as is.
Mention that (C) was conjectured by E but not make effort to justify this.
Mention that (C) was conjectured by E, try to use elaborately justify that.
Keep digging for a reference (the real question here is - for how long.).

The question is most natural in mathematics, but I suppose it makes some sense in other disciplines. Feel free to post non-mathematics based answers/comments.


texts: Is it suitable to ask for extra work concerning my bachelor thesis?

texts:
I study computer science and going to write my bachelor thesis during the next weeks at a very practically working chair.
At my university most students are not able to write simple programs or algorithms (of course they are able to design them in theory).
Because I also work in the field of computer science I have many years of experience in programming. Therefore I think that the tasks I have to do will be very easy and bore me.

Furthermore, during my next semester I have enough time to work on my thesis more than maybe is necessary. I do not want to get a better grade or something like that. I just want to gain new knowledge and work in an scientific environment.

So is it suitable to ask for more difficult tasks and say to my supervisor that I would like to invest more time in my thesis than necessary? Or does it sound arrogant?


texts: How to write my name and my job description in a publication?

texts: I'm a resident in a teaching hospital and not a staff member in a university, how to write my name and my job description in a publication as an author


texts: I wonder if there are universities having real-world MSc related courses. My focus is to understand cloud technologies and services(especially if it is Amazon). Preferably in UK, but can be actually anywhere around the world. Maybe general or specific like PAAS , SAAS etc. Could you suggest any?


texts: Should you place accents on letters in academic writing in English?

texts:
Is there a standard practice in academic writing regarding the use of accented letters when the underlying language is English? I'm specifically thinking of the word naive, which often has a dieresis above the i, but I suppose this is applicable to other words.

I would prefer to not use them since it's simpler and seems somehow less pretentious to me.

Also, is there is a difference between dissertations and journal articles?


texts: Cannot present paper at conference. Instructor wants to move me to second author

texts:
Due to unforeseen circumstances, I am not able to present my paper at a Computer Science conference. Without the presentation the paper will not be published. My instructor has said that she will present the paper instead, but wants to move me from the primary author to the second author. I did all the work as a graduate student while she reviewed and gave general feedback. What is the proper etiquette here? Is it okay to move her to primary because I cannot present?

UPDATE

In the interest of fairness to the professor, I want to provide some more background. This started off as a end-of-semester project. Each student needed to come up with an idea, then propose, implement, present and write a paper on it. I initially proposed a vague concept of using PSO to train neural nets. My instructor said her lab is working on something similar and if I wanted, I could tackle an extension to their algorithm, which depending on the outcome could lead to a published paper. During the course of the semester, my instructor offered little to no help for the project, presumably because that would give me an unfair advantage. All the work, code, paper, the specifics of the algorithm extension are all mine, and all I had was the published paper of the previous algorithm to work on.

After the semester was over, I decided to see if I could get it published. I noticed a lot of mistakes I made with my implementation during the tight semester time-frame and spent several months iterating and refining my process and results. I was put in touch with the previous researchers who offered little help with the exception of getting a portion of their source code, which was also of little help to me. I would venture to say that my professor's role in this was mostly advisory, although at the end of it, I would send my paper to her to proofread it.

Fast-forward to now, my instructor is claiming that because I am not presenting, I am not taking ownership of my work. She is also claiming that the work was her idea and based on her lab's previous work. She gave me a choice of swapping authors or withdrawing the paper. Note that a camera-ready version of the paper has already been submitted. I offered to withdraw from the conference. She then tells me that she has already registered the paper so I shouldn't withdraw, but she wants the source files for my work (I assume latex files?).

She has now invoked university policy and copyright law, saying that since both our names are on the paper, I cannot withdraw without her consent, which she has not given. Since she shares ownership of the paper, she claims she is also entitled to the source materials of the paper. She has offered not to change the author order.

That is the majority of the story. The actual email conversation was not as civil. I have graduated and moved on... we never actually met face to face since this was an online class. So... given the above story, have I done anything wrong? Is the instructor entitled to the source material for the paper? This is for the IEEE WCCI conference this summer. We are the only two authors on this paper. This is my first paper, this is not her first paper.


texts: Regarding withdrawal of a paper which has not been registered for conference

texts: I had submitted a paper for an IEEE conference. My paper has been accepted for presentation and potential publication. However, I have not paid the registration fees and do not wish to  register the paper. I want to submit the same paper to some journal. So, is it necessary for me to withdraw the paper from the conference by writing some sort of email or Can I simply submit it to some other journal without withdrawing it from conference? I mean what is the need to withdraw the paper if I have not even registered it. Non-registration would automatically mean withdrawal


texts: Applying for tenure-track research position and lecturer position at the same university?

texts:
there is a very good research university (actually many of them; this is mathematics in the US) that have both tenure-track assistant professor open positions and lecturer open positions. I want to know what you think about applying for both. Ideally I want the tenure-track position, but the job market is tough, and I would also be happy with a lecturer position (which is much more teaching oriented). How would a hiring committee look at this? I am afraid that the tenure-track guys will say "Well, this guy/girl doesn't think he/she's good enough to get a tenure-track job because he/she is also applying for a lecturer position, so let's ditch him/her". At the same time, the lecturer guys could say "Well, it seems that he/she wants a tenure-track position but he will settle for a lectureship. We want someone more motivated."

There is a similar question here: Should I simultaneously apply for multiple jobs in different ranks at the same university? which is more about "post-doc vs. tenure-track". I think this situation is slightly different.


texts: I just submitted my PhD applications. What do I do now?

texts: I just submitted my applications to all the grad schools I am considering. Is there anything I can do during the wait to help my application?


texts: I have career gap after bachelors degree and irrelevant work experience. How do I write SOP for MS admission in US?

texts: I pursued a Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communication Engineering stream and I completed the course in 2010. I was jobless for more than a year so I did a 3 months course in Java. Im Sun certified. I still wasn't able to find a job. I got a job in a Business Process Outsourcing company as a customer support associate. I had to take the job, as I didn't have any choice. I worked from Aug 2012 to Nov 2013. Now I'm interested in doing an MS. I'm afraid I don't get admitted. I'm especially interested in University of Texas at Austin. I don't know how to project my negative points in the SOP. I don't know what points to include and what to not. I have no clue. Please help me.


texts: What's the point in specifying the grant number in a paper's acknowledgments?

texts:
I understand why people mention the grant agency, but what's the point in specifying the grant number in a paper's acknowledgments?

Examples:

  The authors acknowledge
  the support of the U.S. Army Research Office under
  grant number W911NF-10-1-0533

  This work was supported
  by the National Key Basic Research Program of
  China via grant 2014CB340503

I am mostly interested in the field of computer science > machine learning, and English-speaking venues.


texts: Did any universities publish an official analysis on how successful remote learning has been during the pandemic?

texts:
Most universities around the world have now completed at least a year in remote-first mode due to the COVID pandemic. Some countries have been lucky enough to avoid/supress a major explosion of cases (China, New Zealand, Australia) but European and North American institutions have definitely been severely restricted in how much they could do in-person.
Did any universities publish an overview of how successful remote learning has been, according to whatever metrics they find important? I.e. graduation rates, median test scores, number of research grants approved, etc.


texts: Going for a PhD after being unhappy in industry

texts:
After finishing my studies, I worked as a researcher for a few months in the field of my master thesis, but was not quite satisfied with the field.
So, I tried to transition to industry. In my first job I was working in R&D as junior engineer and I quite liked it. Later on, I moved to pure software engineering and I hated it. Even though I was receiving a good salary for my experience. I couldn't stand the lack of innovation, I wasn't even good enough in my job (this is my personal opinion), I was always bored and after a while the dissatisfaction from my job made me unhappy for my life as a whole. I couldn't imagine myself doing this for the next 40 years. I quit my job and this is my last week, after that I have nothing scheduled regarding my career.
I am really very confused about my next steps and I have been thinking about finally doing a PhD. The reasons behind this is that I want to feel that I can really make contributions, bring my ideas, solve problems and not just write code lines.  I would prefer intellectual and time flexibility, as I believe that I am functioning better this way. I had never thought of following an academic career before, now it may not be my ultimate goal, but I could consider it. I know that becoming a professor is very hard, and I am not targeting such a position, but I really want to do research and not just software engineering. I would be mostly interested in doing an R&D job later, either at a company or at a research center.
I have been reading here that a PhD can be a waste of time for people that do not seek a purely academic position. I have already applied a couple of times for research positions in companies and research centers without success. Thus, I thought that a PhD could make the difference here. What is your opinion regarding my case? Is it a good idea to go for a PhD or can it be a burnout after some bad career decisions until now?


texts: Has there ever been a trend in academia like the one we're experiencing with Data Science?

texts:
At a panelist event that I attended recently, exactly 100% of the current students and alumni in the room who didn't have PhDs in Machine Learning stated that they wanted a PhD in Machine Learning -- and they all wanted to know how and where to accomplish this goal.  I'm honestly not sure whether most of these students can even describe what machine learning is.  There were long lines to talk with computer science PhDs, who are directors of research either at a university or in industry, e.g., Google, Goldman Sachs - everyone was so infatuated with the thought of getting into Data Science.

Does any field in the past compare to the current field of Data Science, in terms of trendiness and importance?

Was it Probability Theory?  Fourier Analysis?  Number Theory?  Mechanics?      Law School?

This coming semester, I really wanted to follow my interests and study measure theory and functional analysis - just skimming through the table of contents of the functional analysis book by Reed and Simon was pretty exciting in itself.  Yet, it's hard to drown out the Data Science influence, and I feel that I should be "wiser" and take machine learning / data science courses instead.

A respected math PhD student in our department advised me that, "if you study some subfield of algebra deeply, then in the future perhaps a dozen people might understand your work.  But if you get into Data Science, it's a field that's projected to grow for decades to come, and if you land in industry instead of academia, all of the skills are transferable, unlike the skills gained from studying algebra."


texts: Experience with paid English grammar and style software for writing papers?

texts: I'm looking to suggest to our institute to invest in a paid software for helping writing, along the lines of Grammarly Premium, Antidote 10 or something similar. Does anyone have any experience with any of these, in particular for writing papers in STEM? Can you comment on how valuable these are?