texts: I had an argument with my professor, and I feel like I was disrespected. Was I in the wrong?

texts:
I do not want my professor to know that I wrote this question, since that would just escalate the situation further, so I will not be very specific about certain details.

I am in a research course that has weekly meetings. There is a software that the research group that I am in uses, and that is where the argument was had. Some further background is that my professor, and some other guy (call my professor B and the other guy T) said that we should all have a meeting to discuss something. As a result, I went on to the software to list all of time intervals for which I am available to have a meeting. A couple of days later, I get a message from B that I didn't show up for the meeting that I set up (it turns out that both B and T attended the meeting that I allegedly set up). But that's false, all I did was list my available times. So I responded with first saying that I didn't set up that meeting, and that I didn't even get a chance to see their responses until now (after I had posted my available times, both T and B agreed to have a meeting at a specific time, and B asked me if that time would work, but of course I didn't see that until after the meeting they had).

After I posted my reply, I expected B to, in some sort of way, to politely acknowledge that there was a miscommunication between me and him. But instead he replied with (paraphrasing him), "Look at the messages, you gave us your availability, we responded. It is not our fault that you didn't look at the software again."

I felt disrespected after reading that message. Because I did not want to escalate the situation further, I just apologized for not looking at the software sooner. I felt like I was disrespected mainly because it seems my own consent was disregarded, while theirs was valued over mine.

Was I in the wrong? Was my professor in the wrong?


texts: Is it ethical to recieve stipend after publishing enough papers?

texts:
In my institute, it is necessary for a Ph.D student to publish two research papers in SCI or SCIE journals to become eligible for Ph.D.

Although it is not a sufficient condition, but it is the only key task and the remaining tasks need only the presence of student.

I observed some students (infact very few) completing the process of publishing papers in first 2-3 semesters and does his/her own work independent of Ph.D , such as preparing for competitions, jobs etc., in remaining 3-8 semesters.

Is it ethical to take stipend without doing any actual work?


texts: Is it plagiarism when copying something that you have written before?

texts: I am writing an essay and I have previously written and submitted an essay to a different professor about a similar subject. Would it be considered plagiarism if I copied my own exact sentences from my previous essay?


texts: How to write a practical computer science research?

texts:
I'm currently a computer science student at the 3rd/8 level, and there is a competition in scientific researches, including computer researches, at my university for financial aids and I'm thinking of getting involved.

I'm not a fan of theoretical stuff or things can't be applied, instead, I think of writing about Unix and Linux debuggers development and debugging techniques basically something practical that helps to provides the bases and guidelines for someone who want to build Unix debugger starting with the basics of debuggers and then build a proof of concepts small debugger.

I never done such thing before and have a few ideas about writing researches from high-school.

Can this be a research? what type (I need the term so I can look it up) of research is it and it's general structure?


texts: Device for writing a lecture with a stylus for video lecture recording

texts:
I would like to start recording mathematics lectures for students to watch on their own time.
I need to find a device that allows me to write out the lecture with a stylus and import it to a computer.
I suppose I could buy an iPad or something close to it.  But, that would be a bit of money.  I am looking at a Wacom Bamboo Splash.  The problem here is that the writing area seems very small (the class is a math class).

What is a good device for writing out lectures to a computer?
Is there a device that makes this work best and is not hundreds of dollars?


texts: Using equipment from research grant funding for both resaerch and personal use

texts:
I recently received a grant (JSPS Kakenhi) to support research funds. For personal equipment, I will be listing a computer and camera. The computer is for computational parts of my research and the camera is to document fieldwork for professional-level photos that can be used in press releases, presentations, and publications.
I plan to ask the funding source (JSPS Kakenhi) directly. However, I am curious to know, in general, how funding agencies view individuals using equipment for personal projects (in addition to their intended research uses).
Is it in general appropriate or inappropriate (ethical or unethical) to use the camera as well for personal use in a manner that would not render it less useful for its research use? What should become of the camera after the two-year research support concludes? Is it only appropriate/ethical to use the camera for personal uses after the research funding end date?
Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge.


texts: Advisor suggested me to typeset my thesis with a software that I don't know

texts:
I am writing my dissertation and my supervisor recommended me this LaTeX template.

https://bitbucket.org/amiede/classicthesis/wiki/Home

However, I have been using MS-Word all along and don't know LaTeX. What are some approaches I can consider given this situation?


texts: Statement of Purpose in Graduate School Application

texts:
First, I hope this isn't the wrong place to put a question like this.

I have a very specific graduate school question. I graduated last spring with my BS and intended to go to graduate school. I accepted an offer from (Big State School). However, during the summer before I could go, one of my parents became terminally ill; so I ended up declining the offer (well after the acceptance deadline) to move back in with my parents and help them out. At the same time, I also arranged it with my undergraduate institution to continue towards my masters there (since I had already acquired a bit of graduate credit) with the intention of transferring to complete my PhD elsewhere.

I am considering mentioning in my statement of purpose the reason why I graduated as an undergrad, have a semester gap, and then started taking graduate classes again at my old institution (I've heard going to grad school at the same place you did your undergrad looks bad?). But I'm also not sure if it's relevant to applications or even the sort of thing that belongs in a statement of purpose.

Would it be in poor form to do this, or should I leave such things out of application materials?

(reposted from MSE)


texts: Should I take courses that are not directly part of my research topic?

texts: I've received conflicting advice as to whether I should choose my coursework based on my research topic or not. The main pro usually is that I'll quickly be able to get up to speed on my research. The con is usually that there are so many other courses that I could take, in which I could learn topics I may not ever have a chance to formally learn, and given the constant need to hunt for funding, I may never have a chance to put aside and study in-depth again. Any definitive answers to this topic?


texts: I have sit the TOEFL iBT for several times, Which one can I post: my most recent score or my best score?

texts:
I know that it's possible to pass the TOEFL iBT several times. However, it has been one hour since I looked for the answer on the web, but I don't manage to know if all the scores are sent to the university I apply.

In other words, if I pass the test two times, can I send only my best score?


texts: What are the consequences of using Sci-Hub?

texts:
A student of mine has told me about Sci-Hub, where people can download copyrighted scholarly articles for free.

I have cautioned him that it is illegal, but he challenged me asking me what would be the consequences for him if he only downloads files uploaded by others.

So my question is, what are the potential consequences of using Sci-Hub?


texts: Planning to do PHD, Masters Thesis important? (USA)

texts: I am a master's student in computer science. I have completed my coursework and will be graduating soon, with a project. I am planning to do a PhD in the future: is a master's thesis an important prerequisite for a PhD? Most people say yes, hence I am of two minds: (1) get an extension and improve my project into thesis, and then graduate or (2) graduate now, hoping that everything will work out fine. I already expressed my interest to work more on my project; my advisor said OK. Do I need to do anything other than this (improving my project, of course with research exploration) to get a thesis? My advisor seems to be a little uninterested, because he has to guide other students, too, rather than that I did a bad job on the project. But I am wondering which way to go: industry or master's thesis?


texts: Workflow for long-distance collaboration with a dyslexic researcher?

texts:
I often work with graduate students at a particular university in Europe (I am in the US), in a kind of supervisory role.

In the past, I've used a shared wiki for this kind of collaboration. The students take informal but very detailed notes on the wiki as they work. I regularly check on the latest contributions, and comment on the wiki directly if I have something to add. This is analogous to the way I can "drop in" on local students and check in/help out whenever I find myself with some free time on my hands (which is much more frequent than my availability for "real" scheduled meetings.)

It is especially useful because the difference in timezones makes it hard to schedule "face to face" meetings over Skype.

A student I am currently working with has informed me that he has dyslexia. His writing speed is slow, so keeping copious notes on a wiki is just not practical. (Even instant messaging is difficult.)

Any suggestions regarding how to facilitate this collaboration?


texts:
I have been tasked with writing an exam for a student who wishes to receive credit-by-examination for an upper-level course in my department.1  While the department head suggested just using the final exam as the basis, I don't really think that works as it misses out on a lot of the material that was assessed via other means (e.g. paper writing, presentations, etc) as an integral part of the course.  In contrast to many lower-level courses that cover wide swathes of basic material that is very conducive to comprehensive examinations, this course has both a wide and shallow (assessed via tests) and skinny and deep approach (assessed via papers and presentations).

Given a course that approaches the material in both broad and deep ways, how should an exam that is supposed to represent having done both styles of learning be designed?  Or would it be fine to give a student credit (presuming passing) despite not demonstrating competency in an integral part of the regular course?

I freely admit being completely against this CbE procedure in principle, but since I couldn't get out of it, I want to do this correctly.

Update: Thanks for the answers everyone.  After making the exam, the student never bothered to show up to take it.  Hooray for wasted time.


texts: How to reference a picture from a website in a report?

texts:
Let's say that I have taken this picture in this webpage

https://www.nde-ed.org/EducationResources/CommunityCollege/Ultrasonics/js_apps/transducerBeamSpread/

If I did change some things in that picture , How can I now make the reference of that picture in my report? Can you please write to me how the reference will be?

Thanks


texts: US Postdoc in Japan not allowed to be first-author due to being foreign. How to proceed?

texts:
I am a US postdoc at a lab in Japan doing niche research in computational biology. I recently found out my advisor will not allow me to be first author on papers. He says the datasets (which were my primary reason for joining this lab) were funded by the Japanese Government (although the data collection was international) and so a foreigner cannot be first author (though I would be doing most of the work).

There is a half-Japanese/half-American professor who teaches a short course for foreigners about how to survive/excel at the university. He told me this is common and that most foreigner postdocs leave the university with zero first-author publications - because first-author credits are typically reserved for Japanese researchers. He said I will need to creatively navigate these issues while not stepping on toes.

I want to figure out a way to obtain first-author publications during my postdoc without stepping on anyone's toes.

Question: Is this typical for foreigners in Japanese Academia? How can I navigate it? I know it is difficult to switch labs in this niche field, but if I do not take action, I will finish my postdoc with 0 first-author publications.

Possible solution: I have connections with a scientist at a government lab in the US. I have a negative impression of him from our past interactions, but he does have datasets in this niche research area. I could ask if he would be willing for me to remotely analyze one of his datasets. Does this seem like a reasonable solution? Any caveats I should be aware of?


texts: How to prepare for attending first conference as an undergraduate?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate about to finish my first year of undergraduate research in CS. This past year has been mostly engineering-based as I learned how things worked in terms of implementation.

I expressed a desire to my advisor about (for next year) moving from engineering / implementation of others' ideas into creating my own novel ideas and research, and how to appropriately bridge this gap. He suggested that I attend a conference in my field to learn more and get a better idea of the sort of problems out there.

My question is -- how should I go about preparing for attending a conference? Should I read all the accepted papers, and read the papers that have background information that they use that I'm not familiar with? Or is there some other better method?

I know that this question is similar, but I'm more interested in finding out how can I learn the most from this experience as an attendee vs a presenter.


texts: First conference: choosing which session to apply to talk at

texts:
Context: I'm an early PhD student (physics) applying for a talk at a conference (APS).  I have never been to a conference before. My topic does not fit neatly into any of the session titles. There are a few focus sessions and a few standard sessions that are more specific, and only borderline relevant (if at all, some do not have detailed descriptions, so I could be misjudging), and one standard session which is very broad and definitely includes my topic in its scope. For my abstract submission, I need to choose one of the sessions to submit to.

My goals:

Have my abstract selected. I want to have the practice of giving a talk at a large conference.
Get feedback/questions on my work. Ideally this would be from someone who knows about my topic, is familiar with the literature etc. However, I would also welcome feedback on my general theoretical framework, which is general enough that a large fraction of theorists in the field will be able to understand after a decent introduction to the particular system that my work looks at.

Questions:

How do I pick a session which maximizes the chance of achieving Goal 2. while minimizing the damage to Goal 1.? I.e. if my talk falls outside of the scope of the session I applied for (but not the conference), will it increase my chance of being rejected? Or will my submission just be altered by conference organizers and moved to a different session?
Am I more likely to be accepted at a standard session than focus session?
Does APS allow for indication of interest in more than one session?


texts: I am an undergraduate student in Electrical Engineering, and I presented my research as a poster at a reputable IEEE conference. In addition to this, my 2-page extended abstract was fully peer-reviewed (quoting the conference site) and published in the proceedings as a 2-page paper. Would I be able to count this as a publication on my CV? Is being peer-review and published in the proceedings the only criteria for something to be counted as a publication?


texts: University asks not to promote other university's research

texts:
A university sent a letter requesting/advising its staff members not to interact with or promote a media coverage of a research study by a another university.

The letter didn't include any explanation. Some colleagues believed it undermined academic freedom.

Apart from this specific case, is such request common? What are good reasons, if any, for it?


texts: For an undergrad, how long should a short-term volunteer position in a lab be?

texts:
I've been working as a research student at a biochemistry wet lab since my final years of high school (as a result of cold-emailing a professor). I'm entering the same university as that of this lab soon, and I plan to continue working here.

My direct supervisor (an incredibly hard-working graduate student and mentor) recommended me to try to work at several different labs throughout my undergrad. She said this would help diversify my skillset and expose me to potential environments I might enjoy working in even more.

However, my current plan is to spend most of my time continuing to work at this same lab as I'm more likely to have the opportunity to produce publishable results. I don't believe working at two labs concurrently would be a wise use of time (based on Working in two research lab at the same time – unethical?).

I do think it's feasible to take on short-term positions with different labs to gain insight into other fields and expand my skillset. I intend to be completely upfront about a short-term interest when applying, but I'm unsure how short this interest should be.

For an undergrad looking to volunteer in a short-term position at a lab, what would be an appropriate length of time to both learn some basic skills and truly bring some value to a PI's lab or a graduate student's project?


texts: Applying for a PhD with professor X, when my prior research is in a different field?

texts:
In an ideal scenario, I’d like to do my (computer science) PhD at university U. I completely lack the credentials, and my MS work is in one of those areas where ~10 people in the world are capable of understanding/appreciating it (and it won’t be published anytime soon). Fortunately, one of those people is Professor X (they contacted me unexpectedly saying that they liked my work, having evidently seen my code-in-progress). Great, right?

Unfortunately, I don’t want to work with Professor X, I want to work with Professor Y, because I want to switch to a completely different field of CS. I have nothing against X or our field, I’ve just gotten really interested in Y’s field, and Y is arguably the best person in the world study under for these interests. So while I feel quite confident that I do want to make this switch, the fact is that currently I don’t have anything to “show” Y (in terms of credentials or research in their field).

Do I have any good angle here?


texts: What to do about fellow student that hogs lecture time with many questions

texts:
I am in a master's program, and one of my peers in the program is in two classes with me. He is a nice person, but he tends to ask a lot of questions in lectures; both of which are very large, and often ends up derailing the lecture for 25-30 minutes.

It has (long since) gotten to the point where many people are bothered by it. He will ask a question if he is hazy on any details, and often doesn't allow us to cover all of the material in a lecture because of it. In addition, the professor is typically forced to just repeat him/herself, so we don't even learn anything new from his questions. Of course, we are still responsible for that material regardless of whether it is covered lecture. The professors appear to be bothered by his behavior, though I wouldn't presume to know for sure.

Can and should I say something to this person? I don't want to discourage him from asking questions or feel disliked by his peers in the program, but it seems unreasonable to allow him to negatively affect my and other students' learning experience (and to a rather severe degree).

Note that I am aware of this post detailing how to handle disruptive questions, but I think my question is different because it concerns how to handle it from the perspective of a fellow student rather than a professor.


texts: What type of paper is this and how should I input it into JabRef?

texts:
As a follow up to this question I am now trying to use JabRef along with @Jonas Steins python script to manage a small literature database on my local machine. I came across the following conference paper :

http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/852068/1/098_Argyroudis.et.al._rev.pdf

I tried adding it as "Proceedings" in JabRef but the only required fields which need to be added are:

Title
Year
Bibtexkey

I find it really strange that entries which are conference proceedings do not require anything about the name of the conference, or the authors responsible for this particular article.

Am I looking at the wrong category? If so which one should I be looking at? Here are the possibilities in JabRef:

Article
InBook
Book
Booklet
InCollection
Conference
InProceedings
Proceedings
Manual
MastersThesis
PhdThesis
TechReport
Unpublished
Misc

If this is the right category, could someone please explain why the name of the conference and the authors are not required for this literature type?

Thanks


texts: How to find universities helping commercialization of research

texts:
I have a PhD in computer science. I have done some successful applied projects. Now, I am looking for a postdoc position in the US. However, I prefer a university with more support for commercialization of projects.

As I tried to search, most universities have offices for university–industry liaisons, but I do not look for a collaboration with industry. I wish to find universities specifically have an office for helping student and staff to start their own business, i.e., if I complete an applied project, the university supports me to establish my company.

How can I find universities that actively have this service?


texts: What does mean "REFERENCES" section should be block?

texts:
I have received this reviewers comment ("REFERENCES" section should be block ), what does it mean?

Update: There comment was

  All reference in the “"REFERENCES" section should be block


texts: Balancing between confidence and arrogance

texts:
People always advise me that I should focus on my achievements when I write a mail for, say research asistanship because people receive a lot of emails and want to know why they should pick me.

However, I do not want to be seen as too confident or arrogant. Is there any way to know when is too much?

Best regards.


texts: Data on costs of two-year colleges in the US, by state?

texts:
I teach at a community college in California. Our students' tuition is approximately 85% subsidized for the half of our students who can't show enough financial need, and 100% subsidized for the other half, who get fee waivers. There are various proposals at the federal level to eliminate tuition at two-year colleges, and possibly four-year state colleges as well. As a Californian, I find this kind of odd, since our community colleges are already essentially free, and the real financial struggle faced by students living in poverty is actually their need to work too many hours to pay for food and rent.

But is this different in other states? Do some states not have community college systems at all? Do some states have community colleges that charge significant tuition? Are there any statistics available for the US, broken down by state?


texts:
I have acquired a 4 year BA degree in one of the social sciences. At the moment, I'm considering applying for MSc outside of my country (I'm Non-EU citizen and I will apply for MSc studies in EU country).

The University where I want to apply has 3-year BA programmes and 2-year MA/MSc programmes. However, in my country I finished a 4 year BA programme with a total of 240 credits and MA studies are usually with a duration of 1 year. I really don't want to study 2 full years for something that I believe I could finish in a considerably shorter time (one year). Also, I already have the necessery credits for the first year of the MSc programme.

I would like to know how is this handled? Does the number of the acquired credits I have matters, or is the official length of the MSc programme that counts?


texts: Online tool to convert plain text references into list of PubMed IDs or DOIs

texts:
A smart researcher is using a reference manager (zotero, endnote) for citing papers. To import papers into the reference manager is a tedious task.

Is there a web based tool that could automate some of it. Consider a block of text with references below (emailed as free text by a colleague) and the tool would convert it into a list of PubMed IDs or DOIs.

•         Saxon AJ, Ling W, Hillhouse M, Thomas C, Hasson A, Ang A, Doraimani G, Tasissa G, Lokhnygina Y, Leimberger JD, Bruce RD, McCarthy J, Wiest K, McLaughlin P, Bilangi R, Cohen AJ, Woody GE, Jacobs P.  Buprenorphine/Naloxone and Methadone Effects on Laboratory Indices of Liver Health: A Randomized Trial.  Drug and Alcohol Dependence 2013;128(1-2):71-76.
•         Woody GE, Poole SA, Subramaniam GA, Dugosh KL, Bogenschutz MP, Abbott P, Patkar AA, Publicker M, McCain K, Sharpe Potter J, Formar RF, Vetter V, McNicholas L, Blaine J, Lynch KG, Fudala P.  Extended vs. Short-Term Buprenorphine-Naloxone for Treatment of Opioid-Addicted Youth: A Randomized Trial.  JAMA 2008;300(17):2003-2011.
•         Wu LT, Pan JJ, Blazer DG, et al. Using a latent variable approach to inform gender and racial/ethnic differences in cocaine dependence: A National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network study. J Subst Abuse Treat 2010; 38(Suppl. 1): S70–79.
•         Wu LT, Blazer DG, Patkar AA, et al. Heterogeneity of stimulant dependence: A National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network study. Am J Addict 2009; 18(3): 206–18.
•         Wu LT, Blazer DG, Stitzer ML, Patkar AA, Blaine JD. Infrequent illicit methadone use among stimulant-using patients in methadone maintenance treatment programs: A National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network study. Am J Addict 2008; 17(4): 304–11.
•         Wu LT, Pan JJ, Blazer DG, et al. The construct and measurement equivalence of cocaine and opioid dependences: A National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN) study. Drug Alcohol Depend 2009; 103(3): 114–23.
•         Wu LT, Blazer DG, Woody GE, et al. Alcohol and drug dependence symptom items as brief screeners for substance use disorders: Results from the Clinical Trials Network. J Psychiatr Res 2012; 46(3): 360–69.

Output would be:

PMID:22921476
PMID:18984887
...


texts: Are undergrad professors the be-all end-all for MS recommendation letters?

texts:
I am applying to several MS programs in computer science. I graduated last year with a bachelor's in physics and a CS minor. So far, two of my recommenders are:

The professor I did research with in a physics lab for 2+ years as an undergrad
My current manager in a data science / software development role

I'm torn about who to use for the third letter, between my undergrad academic advisor (and current chair of the physics department at that institution) and a science journalist and producer of the radio show I worked on last summer.

I think the journalist would have more interesting things to say about me but I keep reading about how committees want to see letters from professors. I had a good relationship with my academic advisor but he'd probably just repeat things that my research leader would say. Is position really more important than breadth in this case?


texts: Why call it a "major" revision if the suggested changes are seemingly minor?

texts:
I recently got a major revision from an applied math journal. However the only change the reviewer has asked is to put a remark on some theorem in the paper (why the specified theorem will not work under some general case). According to the reviewers the rest of the paper is fine.

I am slightly confused why is it a "major revision". Any suggestion will be helpful.


texts: Is it proper etiquette to keep religious content on official course page?

texts:
Is the course site property of the university or the person engaging it such as a teacher, teaching assistant etc.,?

Is it proper etiquette to add religious contents such as quotes from religious texts, images of gods into scientific course pages in a secular institute?


texts: What career option is the most viable if one has very wide research interests?

texts:
I'm in mathematics, and have recently gotten an opportunity to do applied/industrial research for a strong research institute in my country. As of now I have two MSc degrees in math and engineering respectively, and I also legally qualify as an Engineer. I have a passion for math, but also physics, computer science, and engineering. Thus I have very wide interests and want to continue to do research and interconnect these topics.

I fear that if I choose to go into research (my country's rough equivalent to the latter part of a PhD) I will not have the opportunity to conduct research in different topics, but rather have to specialize myself in a subarea of a math field.

At a research institute I will not be able to do pure math, but I'll have a very good pay and I'll at least get to do some applied/industrial math and publish in those areas. I will also be able to get a doctorate (latter part of PhD) via the research institute, but again it will be in applied math.

Right now I'm thinking of trying it out, and switch back if I don't like it as much, relying on my publications and teaching experience to get in somewhere.

Going fully into academia doesn't seem a good idea if I want to have varying research areas, but at least I'll get to choose my specialization. Going into industrial research I will have a varying job, good pay, but not as much intellectual stimulus and I can't choose my projects. How can one approach this, and what can I do to make either of these a better choice?


texts: In teaching, what do we actually mean when we say "syllabus completed"?

texts:
In my university, every faculty member has to submit a handout at the semester beginning for his(her) course. The handout is basically a list of topics (a syllabus) that needs to be taught to the (to be)registered students. The examination questions must also focus on the topics from the submitted handout.

At the end of the semester, many a time I have been a part of the informal discussions related to the topic "How much syllabus have we completed at the end?"

I do not only find this discussion illogical but also very strange. I believe that the completion of the syllabus depends on

The registered student group (their individual effort in the course, their own standard, capability, intelligence etc.)
The intention of the teacher (how much depth is (s)he reaching into during the teaching, assignments, projects etc.)

My university and administration often ask this question formally to the students (during their teaching feedback) as well as to the faculty members during the annual appraisal.

I have the following questions and I seek some advice on this aspect.

Does it make sense to just say that syllabus is completed in which students get almost nothing?
Is it not worth teaching some small amount but in an optimal way so that the students would get the true knowledge from the course and could apply whatever they learned?
What do we actually mean by the term "syllabus completed" -- Do we mean "students learned everything that we taught" or "we taught everything, but don't care about students learning"?

Inputs:

I am not considering the extreme classes of the students i.e. genius guys and the dull guys.
I discussed informally with one of the professors involved with teaching administration, but the discussion was inconclusive.


texts: Likelihood of being admitted to a top 10 CS PhD program?

texts:
Summary

I'm currently an undergraduate student at a university in the UK that's ranked in the top 10 universities worldwide by both Times Higher Education and QS. I'm in my final year of a 4-year undergraduate program that culminates with a Masters degree in CS.

A brief summary of my academic experience is as follows:

I have a 3.51 GPA (according to the UK-US conversion from https://www.scholaro.com/gpa-calculator) that is the culmination of both coursework and about 24 exams thus far.
In my top 3 exams, I achieved grades over 80% (considered impressive, as 70% is the minimum needed to get a first-class grade) although in 3 exams, I've also achieved grades in the 40-49% region. Although, bear in mind that these exams where I performed extremely poorly, two occurred in my first year and one in my second year.
At the end of my second year, I spent time over the summer working as an undergraduate research assistant in the CS dept. on a project that did not go badly, but also did not result in any published academic papers.
I'm currently starting out my Masters thesis on an exciting project that has the potential to result in a publication depending on how good my work is.

At my university, exams are what make up the bulk of your final grade - followed by your Masters thesis and then your overall coursework average over the 4 years. My exams thus far are actually quite unimpressive, as most people in my cohort are obtaining firsts and the very best are obtaining averages close to (and some even above) 80%. For reference, my average is just over 64%.

Factors that are leading me to seriously question whether I should do a PhD, despite my interest in research:

The aim of undergraduate courses is to imbue students with a basic understanding of fundamental topics, and I have demonstrated quite mediocre performance in a sizeable portion of these courses.
I come from a demographic that is severely underrepresented in STEM and generates a very, very low quantity of total scientific knowledge in STEM. I can count on one hand the number of computer scientists I know about who (1) work in the sub-field of CS that I'm interested in (machine learning), and (2) come from a similar demographic to me. I do not think that I am "special" and given this empirical evidence, it appears to me that people with a background similar to mine may not have the right skill-set to be successful scientists. Note that I cannot explain why this is the case, I'm simply taking a "outside view" of the situation and making inferences based on what I observe (Daniel Kahneman explains the utility of the method here: Daniel Kahneman: Beware the Inside View).
My position, based on my academic performance and research experience thus far, is that I do not currently stand a chance of being a successful scientist in the near future. If I am not a successful scientist, it is unlikely that I will obtain a promising research-oriented job in a country with high scientific output in STEM (e.g. US, UK, Canada, etc.). Consequently, I would likely have to return to my home country - a developing country - where, due to the lack of resources and poor levels of education, I would be unable conduct high-impact STEM research and so my PhD would simply go to waste.

Note that my aim is not simply to "get a PhD", but rather to obtain a high confidence estimate of the likelihood that I would be a successful scientist.


texts: If I upload a draft of my paper to arXiv, will I still be able to publish in an IEEE or ACM publication?

texts: Since IEEE/ACM will eventually own the copyright of the papers they publish, and since they charge for access to papers, if I have a paper on arXiv is that a problem for them?


texts: Changed jobs. Email from last job is now dead and that is log in for my google scholar

texts: I have changed jobs.  My email from my last job is now dead and that is log in for my google scholar account.  How do I get round this?


texts: Pharmacy graduate: What are my chances of obtaining a scholarship for physics graduate studies?

texts:
Background: I am a pharmacy graduate who spent several years in business, but I always had strong passion to physics and now I want to change my career to theoretical physics. I have done many studies on my own and took recently a good collection of non-degree intermediate and advanced physics undergraduate courses. I have also shown excellent performance in those courses.

Questions: Would any respectful university (let's say in the top 100) be willing to adopt a case like me and offer me a scholarship for a master degree in physics or would they all necessitate full undergraduate certification in Physics in order to be eligible for scholarship? Some professors advised I should apply for a master degree, while some others (given my old age of 42 years) recommended that I should go straight into a specialized PhD in theoretical physics. What route should I prefer?


texts: Destructive bureaucracy and how to oppose it

texts:
In my country researchers are overburdened with paperwork and are struggling with increasingly overwhelming bureaucracy while being underpaid. This all leaves them not much time for actual research and demotivates them. What is the best way to make impact against such trend? When I discussed such issues with my colleagues they all seemed depressed and pessimistic. They can't imagine any kind of protest and noone believes in succesfull lobbying since science isn't "politically attractive". All other social groups (from teachers to medical doctors and from miners to farmers) are able to protest. Why can't we?

If my question does not belong here, please just tell me where to seek for help.


texts: When do you ask a professor if a visitor can sit in on class?

texts:
There's a prospective graduate student visiting my adviser and I was asked if the student could come with me to an undergraduate class I'm taking at another college within the university. Is it acceptable for me to just show up to this class with the prospective student or should I email the professor and ask if the visitor can sit in? The class is lecture-based and doesn't require student discussion, relatively large (~40 students at both the undergrad and graduate level), but the professor will likely notice that the visitor isn't in the class.

Edit: I'm in the US and the prospective student and I are both from here, but the professor is from the Netherlands.

Update: I ended up emailing the professor three days in advance to make sure it was fine.


texts: Pursue a PhD in a different field than MSc

texts:
I have recently obtained a MSc in Molecular Biology with research on viral gene expression. It has been a long interest of mine to work on stem cell biology and neuroscience and I am wondering if it would be possible to pursue a PhD on the field. Or is it too ''late'' for me and should only look into virology?

Thanks


texts: *Probably* losing my tenure-track position due to COVID-19 and low enrollment

texts:
Due to low enrollment, my college's administration sent out letters rescinding all non-tenure full-year appointments (against our contract, too) and replacing them with a fall 2020 appointment only. This would be my tenured year if I made it through, and spring is unknown as of now.
I just interviewed with another institution that loves me (Zoom, informal), but I have not gone through with the official interview, and they hinted that they'd be willing to hold the position for spring for me. They are hiring urgently and my tenure is uncertain. I won't know until maybe November 2020 if I have a job next spring at my current institution.
I'll obviously need references, etc. from my current place of employment. My chair, several colleagues would gladly do it for me, but I'm afraid to tell them I'm about to leave... and I don't want to. But I have bills to pay and would hate a gap in employment and the loss of (potential) tenure, too.
What would you do?


texts: Is there a standard way of referencing line numbers in a draft?

texts:
I'm reviewing a manuscript with a two column layout that has line numbers on the left margin of the page, but not on the right. Like this:

How do I efficiently and effectively reference a particular line in the manuscript? Is there a standard way of doing it?

Currently I write "P1 C1 L12" to refer to page 1, left column, line 12.


texts: Any way to get credit for publications that I drafted as a fellow for a law professor?

texts: Since I graduated from law school almost ten years ago, I have been working as a fellow for a law professor at a US law school. In that time, I have drafted over 25 articles and book chapters, but only been listed as a co-author on 8. I don't begrudge this split: The Prof has the established name and, in every instance, she has sat me down, outlined what she wants to cover, and then made comments and requested revisions on every draft I produce, but I have always done 90% or more of the actual writing. I greatly appreciate the confidence she has shown in my writing abilities and am just not sure how to convey this on my CV/job applications. My position is ending and I'm applying for new jobs that, in many cases, are looking for expertise in areas on which I've researched and written extensively, just not under my name. Is there any accepted way/format to mention publications one has drafted/contributed to without receiving formal authorship credit?


texts: Can I publish a paper in a good journal without having an academic position?

texts:
This community is introduced by a friend of mine about a week ago and I hope I can write my questions clearly (English is not my first language and I normally have poor communication skills...)

My story: I started my BSc in mathematics about 22 years ago (when I was age 9) and I decided (had to) quit after one painful semester that I still remember it. I studied on my own and a few years later I decided to solve the notorious impenetrable problem the Hodge conjecture. I have not achieved that goal yet but (I think) I have more than enough that people get a fields medal for that. And with my past experiences I believe that I am most probably not wrong in the technicalities (peer review need to be done though)... Nonetheless I can't continue working hard on the problem as I used to because of spending a lot more time on making money (from teaching to laboring jobs) so better to publish whatever I have to possibly get a research job than living a fading life and every-day-increasing severe-depression. But there are many obstacles I believe:

1- Can I publish an article without having an academic position and even without a university degree, at all?

2- I never care about fame and I absolutely don't care if solving some unsolved problem is attached to a particular name (=person) but handing over 18 years of my research to someone who have authority to easily publish it has a high risk of his/her plagiarism temptation thus ruining a possible would-be good life of mine. How can I trust someone?

3- Evaluation of my results is a necessity before I have any claim of that but if it turns out to be valuable enough can I get an academic position without having a physical degree and not going through all many years of official undergraduate and graduate programs in mathematics?

By the way, I hold an Iranian passport which means that I cannot travel Europe/US/Canada/... to present my research with just an invitation for a conference. (Visa-on-arrival is available for Iranian citizens in Mozambique or Samoa airports but I don't think that be helpful; no offense).

PS Please feel free to edit my post if my English is not clear. Thank you all in advance. :)


texts: How to sign your email to students, so to avoid their immature behavior?

texts:
Or how would you like to be addressed?

As a graduate TA, I went by my first name. But I thought that some students were becoming too friendly. They took things for granted (for example, asking for a homework extension every week without even bothering to make up an excuse, or showing up to my office hours and interjecting with comments meant to be funny but came out sounding obnoxious).

I will be an assistant professor next year, and I am wondering whether asking my students to call me Dr. LASTNAME would resolve some of the rudeness that I've encountered.

But how do you ask? Sign my email Dr. LASTNAME? That sounds pretentious. Should I just use initials (FL for FIRSTNAME LASTNAME)? I sign all my emails with my first name, but doing that for students is an open invitation to call them by my first name. How do people transition from a graduate TA to someone with a PhD in front of a class full of undergraduate students?

**EDIT: I have had several students be truly rude to me, but in keeping with the spirit of anonymity, I did not describe in detail what happened. But My colleagues were shocked and appalled at some of the behaviors that I have encountered.

That said, I do very well with evaluations, often nearing perfect score, and my students score well above average in multi-section calculus classes. As you might imagine, my classes are fairly well-attended with high level of  participation. Of course there are pros and cons of familiarity, but I am somewhat puzzled at this display of lack of authority in my classroom, as all of my colleagues also go by their first names. I hope this is more information.**


texts:
I'm a 3rd year Ph.D. student in an engineering discipline, and I realize that I am better at starting projects than closing projects. By closing, I mean that the work gets published either in a good journal or a top conference.
I currently have 3 projects on the side (each of them started as a course project or a fun side project) apart from my thesis work. My advisor is flexible with this, but at the same time he would prefer me to invest all of my time in my thesis work (which is completely reasonable).

Given that I would like to continue in academia after Ph.D., I would like to hear tips and tricks on how to be a good closer.
Should there be a restructuring in the way I think about publishing?


texts: Using previously developed code for research at a new place

texts:
My ex student developed a useful program while working with me and some other students/postdocs in my group.

Nowadays the student is a postdoc at a European university. She has a copy of the code and applies it sporadically. Recently she informed me that her current supervisor requested her to share this code with him, in quite a rude way, because she used the code to compute something for her ongoing job at her university.

There is no reason to share the code and I, as a coauthor, rejected that. What should be her correct answer to her current supervisor?


texts: How to effectively manage a new collaborator?

texts:
As a 3rd year PhD student in a Canadian university, I've been given the opportunity to work directly with my supervisor's long-term collaborator, who is a young faculty member in an Australian university. I shall be visiting him for a month to initiate a (STEM-theory) project and am looking for advice on how to make the collaboration fruitful.

More specifically, it took time for me to understand my own supervisor's priorities, strengths-weaknesses and way of working. With that understanding, I have been able to work effectively with him. How can I quickly learn the best way of working with my new collaborator?


texts: Best approach to suggest a PhD student from a external collaborator to be her/his PhD co-advisor

texts: In several international collaborative projects I am working, it happens that in some cases I have to teach and do a thorough supervision of PhD students from the other groups. This is something that I like and I am motivated to do, but in such situations I think I might deserve to be her/his PhD co-advisor. I could ask this directly to her/his first PhD advisor, but I prefer better to ask the student first. What is in your experience the best way to suggest this to the student? Of course I would respect her/his opinion. For me the main advantage is that the hard work I am doing would be merited on my CV and for promotion/habilitation aspects. Besides, I do not think this would harm her/his PhD, but just the other way around.


texts: Do I cite both sources in the following scenario?

texts: When you have sources X and Y that are similar in content/relay similar ideas, but only choose to use source X in an essay, and then summarize/paraphrase source X, but have source Y on your mind while summarizing/paraphrasing source X because it (source Y) can be summarized/paraphrased the same way and/or can technically apply to your essay as well, are you supposed to cite source Y in your essay too? Can you say that source Y “influenced” your summary/paraphrase of source X?


texts: Are there any pre-print services that accept manuscripts already accepted by a journal?

texts:
My publication was accepted by a journal, however I want to post it online prior to publication.

BioRxiv was the original repository of choice, however they do not accept articles accepted by other journals.

Question:  Are there archives that accept pre-prints that've already been accepted by a journal?


texts: Can political escalation between Iran and western world affect Iranian students?

texts:
Can political escalation between Iran and the western world affect Iranian students in getting admission from university in Canada, Australia, and European Countries?

After two years of hardworking, TOEFL exams, publishing articles in journals, etc. I am ready to apply for many universites to pursue my PhD, but I am wondering if it would be successful or not. The political escalation between the Iranian regime and the western world is escalating on a daily basis and universities may reluctant to accept applications because of sanctions or any other reasons. Even they issue the admission the embassies may cause some trouble for students. I don't know what to do???


texts: Visa interview: Will you return to your home country after your studies?

texts:
Why almost all students answer 'Yes' to this question? Is this a must for student visa? I have applied to student visa from Iran to study master degree in Germany. I want to pursue PhD (may be in Germany or may be not) and I will apply to work for giant software companies after that.

I don't understand why people write this?

[UPDATE]

I will immediately follow PhD after masters either in Germany or somewhere else. Also all students have 18 months job seeking visa extension. Then why should we lie? Embassy definitely knows that everyone will at least give himself a chance to work in a better company.


texts: Can I ask letter of recommendation to my undergraduate thesis supervisor for PhD in other lab

texts:
I am doing my bachelor's thesis (4th-year 1st semester) in one of the top 5 research group in my field in the world (but not a renowned university). I want to do direct PhD (also called Masters track PhD) after this and my supervisor is extremely impressed by my work and wants to convince me to do it in his group.

He also offered me one more funded semester (4th-year 2nd semester) of research internship which I have accepted.

But, I have friends in some other labs and also, I want to explore some other options like doing a PhD in the top research group as well as a renowned university. Hence, I have decided to apply for direct PhD to some other labs too (top 5 and also university wise top 5 universities). Is it okay to ask my bachelor's thesis supervisor to write a recommendation letter for me? How can I ask him to write a strong letter without disappointing him?


texts: What is the approximate composition of a statement of purpose in Mathematics?

texts:
I am writing a statement of purpose right now for US graduate schools in mathematics, and am I bit bogged down on figuring out the approximate ratio of my background versus my actual research goals. I currently have three paragrahs of background, mainly involving seminars and projects, and a discussion of the non-traditionality of my situation, and one of my actual research goals, and I am trying to determine if this is what is desired? The only source of examples I could find are here, and I am not sure if these are actually good examples of what is desired.

Edit: I keep using the wrong word since statement of purpose and Personal statement means different things to different departments (for example, Northwestern seems to want only one essay, which they call a personal statement)


texts: What is the difference in using terms like a model, a framework, an approach, a method, a scheme in scientific research?

texts:
in scientific research, I get confused in using terms
like a model, a framework, an approach, a Method and a scheme so what is the difference between them?
when I should use each of them to express my work?


texts:
I'm in Germany studying a Master of Computer Science, and the program has options of Dual Degrees with other Universities from outside of Germany (US, Europe, Asia). I'm thinking of applying to the Dual Degree, but i have doubts about the purpose of getting two degrees.

Is there a defined purpose or career profile for such double degree programs? In what case should I apply or in what case I shouldn't?


texts: Can I submit my mark sheets as academic transcripts?

texts: I have not yet received my academic transcripts from my University and the application deadline for a PhD program that I am interested in is already near, and I won't be receiving my transcripts before it. Can I submit my mark sheets to the University? If yes, then should I mention it somewhere that I am submitting my mark sheets instead? And where should I mention it? They have asked for a CV and a cover letter, so those are the two other documents I'll be sending. Or should I first contact the University and find out if it is okay to do so?


texts: How to avoid getting lost in referring multiple reference texts at the same time?

texts:
I am a 2nd year PhD student working on a project which involves control systems and power systems. For the next stage of my work, I have to learn about a control systems technique which I am not familiar with. It involves advanced mathematics and control systems concepts. So I picked the most well-known book in that area and started going through it. However, when was at the middle and I could not understand a certain concept which the book assumes that the reader is familiar with, I searched for some other references and ended up finding the 'best' references: lecture notes from top universities, video lectures, other books. However, at the end I am struggling to decide upon what to read, what not to read and the references which I am going to pick to learn the content which I need. Simply speaking I am overloaded with reference texts and struggling to make a judgement.
Having faced such a problem, in general, what would be the advice you could give to avoid getting 'lost' in trying to follow all the references ? How can I be selective and proceed with a single references and finish learning what is required.


texts: Will sitting for the IELTS Academic module void the validity of my previous General Training module score?

texts: I have already taken the IELTS GT examination and my score has not yet expired. If I take the IELTS academic exam, will my previous score be voided? I need to take both format of exams for different purposes.


texts: Are publishers making less money on textbooks now?

texts:
A colleague of mine, who teaches chemistry, claims that these days, sales of copies of college textbooks are no longer profitable for publishers. He says that their revenue is now from services, such as answer-checking services like MyMathLab. I asked him to provide a source for his claim, but he didn't. I have a pretty hard time believing this as stated, because his statements sound categorical and extreme. But is there at least some truth to this? Is there any way of knowing, since the publishers may not make the data available?

My suspicion is that a $280/copy o-chem text is even more profitable than it was before, because the online services can be used to force the students to give money to the publisher. Before the online services came along, a student could just buy a used book, which would put no money in the publisher's pocket. Now, the student may have no choice but to buy the book shrinkwrapped with a card providing access to the online service.

The publisher can also rent the book to students in electronic form, with a DRM scheme that makes the book evaporate after a year. This also helps to kill off the used book market.


texts: Should I ask the instructor for a make-up exam for attending a PhD interview at another university (and risk my standing)?

texts:
I am a first year PhD student at an American university and since I was not satisfied with my present department, I had applied to a few universities last semester (it was my first semester here). My recommenders were all from my previous university and no one in this university knows I applied. I recently received an interview call from one of the universities I applied to. It is a 2 day program, the first day being the interviews and the second day for the faculty presentations and interaction with current students. Unfortunately, the second day clashes with a major exam for a core PhD course I am taking here.

I asked the official of the interviewing university as to what I should do and she said that I could ask for a make up exam in order to attend the second day as well. My question is, should I? My fear is that the instructor could tell about this to other people in my department (or she may actually be bound to do so by some school law?) and that could seriously jeopardize my situation here. I did like the PI for my first rotation here, and might want to join his lab for my PhD in the event that I am not selected by the interviewing university OR I do not like the interviewing university after visiting it.

I thought that I could go to the instructor of this course and ask her if she discuss a matter with me confidentially (keeping the matter confidential at least till the end of this semester), and then ask her about the make-up exam. Is this a good idea?
Another option is to not tell her anything and miss the 2nd day, since the interviews happen on the first day. That way no one would probably know, although I will miss the crucial part of the faculty interviews and student interaction which is so important for me to make my decision.

Is there something else I should consider that I am missing? Any help could be life-saving!


texts: Are software engineers with PhD in demand in Academia?

texts:
I'm about to defend my PhD in Computer Science in a couple of months, and I'm struggling with deciding on a future career path. Over the course of the 8 years I spent in an academic environment, I familiarized myself with advances and challenges of formal software development. I also learned a lot about myself. It might sound a bit depressing but right now I don't think that it's my vocation to be a scientist. I feel that there are lots of talented people who will do the research with a lot more passion and way better than me and that a mediocre researcher is of no use for society.

However I think I would love to work with scientists as a software engineer. I came to this point because I like developing software, I have high respect for science and would happily support the research with tools, and implement the research results in software. Being in a research environment I might become more inspired with science someday and will switch to research.

This being said my question is: are software engineers with a research background & PhD in demand in the academic world? Do they allocate funding for such people in universities/research labs? What should I expect from a career of a research software engineer? Would it be considered strange if I applied to a PostDoc position saying that I want to concentrate primarily on software?

I would appreciate any comment or advice. Thank you.


texts: Concurrent commitment to 2 Masters degrees, One of them is online

texts:
I am more likely to get admitted to 2 programs in 2 different universities. Both are great but in 2 different interests for me. The first is a non-thesis based program and mostly online while the second is a thesis-based research master degree.

My question: Assuming I can do well with both, are there any legal issues or concerns?

Given that I don't have to take the classes in person in one program, should I tell any of them?

what is your feedback if this scenario is in Canada and/or the USA?


texts:
I had a face-to-face interview at a German University for a PhD position on Feb 12. The project is co-supervised by two professors. I was asked to prepare a presentation of my Master thesis for the interview. I was told that they invited only 4 out of 90+ applicants. It went okay and the sit-down interview after that went more or less fine. They seemed to value my enthusiasm while doubting my mathematical backgrounds. At the end of the interview, they asked me to send my transcript. I sent it the very next day (Feb 13) through email and got a reply from one of the professors on the same day that said they would soon be in touch with me regarding the position. However, I have not heard from them yet. I sent an email politely asking for an update last Friday (March 1) to one of the professors, but no reply again. Should I send an email to another professor? Or should I wait? Also, does it look like I am being refused? Any help would be good.

Thanks!


texts: All Reviewers Assigned : Nature Communications revised manuscript: What does it means?

texts: I have a revised manuscript which I submitted to Nature Communications. The status of the manuscript says 'Reviewers Assigned' for about 24 days. What does it mean? Is it under review by the reviewers? Or reviewers are not responding to the editor after the request to review the revised manuscript by the editor? Just want to clarify, that this question is specific to the editorial process of 'Nature Communications' which is not usual and not related to generalized peer review process. I think I am asking this question especially because Nature Journals have their own editorial workflow which is not as same a typical workflow of many journals.


texts: Choosing between PhD students or postdocs as a lecturer

texts:
I have been appointed as a lecturer in a UK university. For establishing my lab, the department head offered two fully-funded PhD students (research programme) or two postdocs. I am struggling with what to choose. I consulted with some colleagues but received contradictory advice.

Postdocs are more experienced for a starting lab but successful PhD students are better points for my promotion. On the other hand, PhD students have lots of official responsibility and paperwork while postdocs have no direct interaction with the university/department.


texts: My CS teacher thinks I'm cheating for some reason, what do I say?

texts:
I took a computer science test today and finished it by using lists, and it worked fine. We didn't actually learn lists yet, but I sort of understood how they worked, so I used them anyway. My cs teacher just came into my breakout room and asked me the functions of the code, and I explained it, and for some reason he thinks I cheated?? What?
I showed him my history and there wasn't anything suspicious about it. I just figured out the answer within 10 minutes which was apparently really fast. I quite literally explained each function of each individual word, and he just said "I'll think about it." I have a meeting with admin and parents real soon, and I don't know what to say, because I didn't use any outside sources. I already explained the functions of my code, and even though I may have been a bit suspicious since I used code we haven't learned yet, he never said we couldn't, and even said it was fine when he entered my breakout room.
He also doesn't have any proof that I cheated off of anyone, so I'm pretty sure I'm fine, but I'm still really worried. What am I supposed to do?


texts: What are the benefits of organizing a conference?

texts:
Organizing a conference is very difficult for a scientist, you have to have the right collaborators, to find the right venue, to spread the word, to advertise it, to send the call for papers, to receive the papers, to check them, to organize the lunchs and dinners, etc etc.

All these tasks are very time-consuming, and stressful, and they will steal precious time to your scientific research activity, and also to your family/friends time.

So, why do people decide to organize conferences?

What are the main benefits and advantages of running this complex and time-consuming activity?


texts: Postdoc interview presentation "of yourself and your research"

texts:
I applied for a postdoc position in Denmark and was invited to an interview. The interview includes a ten minute presentation "of yourself and your research" targeted towards master students (the entire interview is 30 minutes). Presenting my research is expected and not a problem. But what does it mean to give a presentation of myself in such a context?

I have met one of the interviewers during a conference and discussed the position briefly, but the other is not familiar to me.
The interview is through Skype and I assume no master students will ever be exposed to it, in case that matters.


texts: What if the author I am seeking his permission to use part of his work has passed away?

texts: What should I do if I need to use part of a previous researcher's work (e.g. an instrument or a questionnaire) who passed away?


texts: How to cite multiple papers published in different years by the same authors in APA style?

texts:
http://www.easybib.com/guides/citation-guides/apa-format/how-to-cite-a-parenthetical-citations-apa/

In APA style, we have to use ampersand(&) instead of 'and' when we cite multiple authors in the parenthesis.

Ex) This is the sentence (Smith & Williams, 1989).

When I cite two papers by the same author, should I use comma, or 'and' or ampersand?

(1) This is the sentence (Smith, 1989 & 1991).
(2) This is the sentence (Smith, 1989 and 1991).
(3) This is the sentence (Smith, 1989, 1991).

What if there are three or more papers?

(1) This is the sentence (Smith, 1989, 1991, & 1993).
(2) This is the sentence (Smith, 1989, 1991, and 1993).
(3) This is the sentence (Smith, 1989, 1991, 1993).


texts:
I have a class that I have to research a topic on. It can be anything and all I have to do is inform the class about the topic. It's not super intense research, just a small amount, enough for a 5 minute presentation.

However, before, I had a research project that took up almost a whole school year about a topic we chose. It's a topic I'm interested in and I was wondering if it counts as self-plagiarism if I reuse sources from the old research project? Not all of them just a handful. It's almost all just facts and not much of my own analysis so would it be counted as plagiarism?

Does turnitin count it as plagiarism if they find 2 papers using the same sources? The thing I'm concerned about is we have to do an annotated bib and I took the sources from an old annotated bib. However the info paragraph I basically rewrote it all and its a lot more simple than my old one, which has a lot of specifics. Also all the sources I am using are on my old annotated bib.


texts: Is GRE really required to get into a good university for MS in CS

texts:
I am a software engineer with 2 years of experience. I am very passionate about software and technology. I code the whole day, creating applications that my friends and I can use.

Now I have left my job because I was not finding it challenging enough (intellectually) and wanted to do something of my own. I feel that I need to study and gain more knowledge in a more systematic way. Thus only option which I feel has the maximum return to investment ratio for me are the MS programs in USA.

So this year I am taking the GRE General Test in May (2013). The problem is that I am not good at words plus I am not very passionate about learning them also. I also feel that they should not really matter considering I want to do research work in the field of Computers.

My question is -
Can I still get into a university?
If yes then what should be the right approach?
I am really scared about what I should be doing right now as the dates for my exams are getting closer. Please Help.

Update:
I saw this video on TED trying to explain why being good in english is not required (Im being even more liberal by saying what is the point of learning so many words?)


texts: Transferring to a PhD program I had been previously admitted to

texts:
I will be beginning my PhD (in a field that's halfway between social sciences and humanities) in the fall. During my application cycle, I was admitted to all three of my top choice programs, and was heavily recruited by all three - to the extent that when I turned one of them down, the admissions committee chair emailed my undergraduate advisor and asked her to try and change my mind. Eventually I committed to the school that I thought was the best match for my research interests, with one professor in particular I was extremely excited to work with and who was excited to work with me. This choice was a bit of a gamble- while the research going on here is probably the most exciting in my subfield at the moment, the program itself is pretty solidly second tier (as opposed to the two I turned down, which are definitely top 5) and fairly narrow in its focus (i.e., if my interests shift even within my own subfield, I'm not sure the department will be able to accommodate that).

Even with the potential risks of this program, I decided the research was fascinating enough, and I wanted to work with this professor and his lab enough, that it was worth it. However, since committing I've heard some things about the organization of the program as a whole, and specifically the advising styles of this professor and a second professor I would likely want to collaborate with, that really worry me. Also, I've had some conversations with my future advisor that similarly make me think that it may be a bad fit in terms of our working/learning styles. Basically, I'm afraid that I chose the wrong program for me and that I'll end up unhappy, unproductive, and (in the end) unemployed.

My questions, then, are if, after a year or two in this program, I feel like I have a bad "fit" with my advisor, am unhappy, and/or my research interests have shifted so that they will be better served by one of the other programs:

1) Is it generally possible to transfer, assuming that my academic and research performance at this PhD program are still very strong?

2) Is it possible that one of the programs I turned down in the past will accept me again? Or would the fact that I turned them down previously make them reluctant to do so, even if I made it very clear that I would definitely attend if accepted (I would probably only reapply to one university, so that I could say with confidence that I would attend if accepted)?

3) How seriously would this burn bridges with people at the program I'm currently attending, and the people they work with at different universities, if I did decide after a year or two that I wanted to transfer?


texts: What does being acknowledged in a medical journal imply?

texts:
Comments on another question pointed out that many medical journals require "written consent of any cited individual(s) noted in acknowledgments or personal communications".

I find this requirement exceedingly strange.  In my own field (theoretical computer science), acknowledgements and citations of personal communications are just another form of citation.  Just as ideas/results/techniques/data from another publication require citation, ideas/results/techniques/data from another human being require some form of acknowledgement.  Otherwise, in both cases, the author is dishonestly claiming credit for someone else's work.  An acknowledgement gives the person being thanked no more responsibility or credit for the work than a citation to one of their papers.  A citation to "personal communication" is even more clearly equivalent to a paper citation.

Clearly attitudes toward citation and acknowledgement are different in medicine, and possibly in other fields; I'd like to understand why.  Does being acknowledged by a medical paper imply some responsibility toward or endorsement of the content of the paper?  Does acknowledging someone famous increase a medical paper's chances of being accepted or cited?  Why don't the same issues attach to paper citations?


texts:
My professors always point out that figures only serve as a supplement to the results. They should not be the main star of the results/discussion section. The writer must be able to articulate the main results and only point to the figures as a supplement.

Well, this is all good and clear until I found myself unable to articulate what I wanted to say. I am doing work on computer simulations and it is quite normal that figures should be part of the results/discussion part of the paper.

How should I make my results be the "star" of the paper, and not just point the readers to the figures and interpret them thoroughly?


texts: Does emailing a journal to ask if my article is within scope hurt chances of getting published?

texts:
When I started my "quest for knowledge" several years ago I began in an already ill defined-field which was on the borders between science and philosophy but as I progressed I drifted further and further into something I can only classify as "something pertaining to many sciences but not really a part of any one field". It became some even I-can-not-tell-what field of science and although I have completed my quest and came with a sound paradigm it doesn't really pertain to the scope of any of the journals in my area which I use in my references. Or to be more precise, it pertains to all of them but only "a little bit", this is why selecting the proper journal seems so difficult now.

In order to solve the problem, and actually thinking this is a solution, I decided to write a small e-mail to journals explaining my situation and what I have done. It was something like a 200-300 word abstract so they know what my paper is about and then asked if this is within the scope of their journal. None have answered me!

Has anyone had a similar experience? Did I do the right thing writing their editorial boards these e-mails? Did I shoot myself in the foot by doing this? Any suggestions what the effect of these e-mails could have been (e.g. they think I am a crackpot, they just deleted them, they put me in a "forbidden list")? Am I doing something terribly wrong here? Can anybody give me advice as to how I can handle the situation from now on? Do such e-mails effect my chances of publishing there negatively or outright stop them?


texts: Postdoc health insurance for dependents in US?

texts: I am looking towards a postdoc position at a US institution. Do university employers typically contribute to/pay for health insurance coverage for dependents of the employed (i.e. my wife and child)? As a PhD student, my health insurance was covered, but we had to pay $2000 up front each year for my wife's health insurance...


texts:
I have the forum data for several MOOCs. Can I legally share it with someone else without going through IRBs or some other administrative process?

The data contain timestamp, post title, post body, and username. Since all data was publicly available by browsing the forum as a MOOC user, I would tend to believe I can legally share it.

I am located in the United States, if that matters.


texts: Pros and cons of sharing dissertation on a specialised website?

texts: I am wondering what are the advantages/drawbacks of sharing a dissertation on a specialised website (for example Social Capital Gateway). There are a number of repositories available and they seem to be more widely known. Are these sites more for the benefit of the facilitators than the contributors (who in this case are the PhD researchers).


texts: PhD in CS after 4 year bachelors in ECE + 1 year CS masters

texts: I hold a 4 year Bachelor in Electronics and Communication Engineering and will be enrolling in a 1 year Msc in Computer Science. Will I be eligible for PhD in CS anywhere?


texts: How do I "briefly but clearly comment my choice of research area(s) of interest"?

texts:
I am filling McGill's Area of Research and Applicant Profile Form for admission to the Electrical Engineering M.Eng. program. I'm not sure how I should answer this (the 2nd field):

"For the specified research area(s) of interest, briefly but clearly comment on your choice. Further, if you have specified a supervisor(s), state why he or she would be your preferred mentor."

I have described my areas of interest and how I developed those interests and relevant experiences, in the previous space provided. I'm not sure what exactly should "comment" on. Do they expect me to write about, say, what Intelligent Systems is?


texts: Is it possible to get into a top-10 engineering graduate program without publications?

texts: I would like to know if it is possible to get into top 10 engineering schools for MS/Phd program without any publications?


texts: Are references from an employer in an unrelated field useful when applying for graduate school?

texts: I am applying for grad school and a bit confused about taking references. Should I take a reference from my employer where I had worked on an unrelated field for one and half year? Or Should I prefer taking it from academia from a Prof. with whom I have worked on unrelated field again.


texts: How to present a review paper at a conference?

texts: I sent an abstract of a review paper for oral presentation to a conference, and it was accepted. The presentation will be about the most important developments and contributions made in the last decade on my specific area of research. Now I am preparing the speech, but I am not sure how to give a 12-minutes speech about all the work that has been done (it's a lot). Can someone give some suggestions on how to do a nice presentation about a review paper?


texts: Counting the the number of publications citing all of a given set of publications

texts:
I would like to specify a list of publications and find out which articles cited the ones in my list.

Is there such tool?


texts: Will quitting a PhD to try an industry job severely reduce my chances of being accepted to another PhD program later?

texts:
I know there are already a lot of "should I quit my PhD" questions on this site. But I have a specific dilemma  and I'd like to get some external thoughts.

After my Bachelor in mathematics, I didn't hesitate and started a PhD in pure math. After 7 months in the program, I'm having second thoughts. Research is not as enjoyable as I thought it would be. And I'm afraid that I might be missing out on other potential careers that would fit me better than academia.

So I'm thinking of quitting my PhD, get a Master in applied math and try to get a job in the industry. I'm 20 years old, so I feel that this is the last moment to try another line of work without too many consequences.

However, if I do that but don't like working in industry, what are my chances of being accepted in another PhD program? I'm afraid that quitting a PhD once will severely reduce my chances. Are the graduate admission comitees likely to understand the "if you love it, let it go" flavor of my experience? Or will they dismiss my application thinking that they can't trust someone who has already quit once?

It may seem weird that I'm already thinking of coming back to academia while talking about quitting my PhD. The thing is that I have very little motivation to continue, and I feel like if I hang on, I will end up with a bad PhD after 5 miserable years. That's why I think of quitting. If after working in the industry I want to go back in academia, I think I will have a lot more motivation, knowing that there are no alternatives.


texts: What role do universities play in weapon manufacturing, design and research for the military?

texts:
I was reminded of a conversation I had with a professor while I was searching for a book on weapon physics and design for an unrelated application in designing an online RPG game.

It was during a grad interview at a top public university in the states when I mentioned that I became fascinated with laser sensing and radar technology due to the Israel-Palestinian conflict during 2013 when I saw how the Iron Dome technology was so effective at protecting the civilians from rockets fired across the gaza strip. I was expecting him to go deeper into the applications of his research focus in these areas but to my surprise he quickly switched the topic.

I had always interpreted this encounter as his lack of interest in discussing anything related to warfare and technological possibilities to that end and not his own personal politics (I would be extremely surprised if he had deep opinions on the conflict itself). For years I had taken the assumption that academics in general averts any discussion to military applications of their research and "things that can kill people". After all which department across North America would boast having research in machine vision for surveillance drones or deadly biological toxins?

But needless to say in the real world there are a lot of research into weapon, weapon making and theoretical weaponry as evident by the host of military weaponry technologies ranging from autonomous military robots, laser weapons, drones, algorithms for missile tracking that are coming out each year (sometimes on Youtube!). The Iron Dome technology didn't pop out of thin air. Someone smart had to design the system, someone rich had to fund such research.

I am curious as to the role that universities play in research into weapons and other military technology. I hope someone can provide me an answer to clear up the following questions:

Can we think of university and the military as two separate spheres
or are they intricately meshed together? Through what means?
Are there any programs or departments in public or private
universities in North America and elsewhere that place emphasis on
research into military applications?
Are harmless research results and findings from universities later on
weaponized at weapon research centers, military colleges, etc.? Or do weapons solely come out of weapon research facilities?
What is the general stance or attitude in academia with respect to research for military applications?


texts: Degree program changed before attending graduate school

texts:
I studied Bioinformatics at the undergraduate level but since I was short of one of the degree requirements and I had already been accepted to a graduate program, my university decided to re-name my degree to General Studies. The transcript obviously shows work done towards a Bioinformatics degree as does my research experience but the degree certificate would say Bachelor of General Studies.

Would a graduate school take issue with this even though I have been admitted?


texts: Are there any online tools to calculate academic collaboration distance (i.e. a generalisation of the Erdős number)?

texts:
The Erdős number is the academic collaboration distance someone has to Paul Erdős.  MathSciNet has a tool to calculate the collaboration distance between two mathematicians (where one may or may not be Erdős).  Alas, I am not a mathematician, and if I have an Erdős number at all, it's probably quite large.  But the concept of collaboration distance is, of course, not limited to mathematics.

Source: Wikimedia Commons, user h2g2bob, cc-by-sa

Are there any online tools to calculate the collaboration distance between two arbitrary scientists, whether in mathematics or not?  In principle this should be possible using any large database of scientific publications.  It would be fun to know if I have an Erdős number, or what my distance (and the route!) is to famous scientists in my field.


texts: How can I convert my MSc thesis into a publishable research article?

texts:
Suppose (only suppose) I have implemented the following 3rd-party research article for my MSc thesis:

  Deep learning and image processing for automated crack detection and defect measurement in underground structures
  F. Panella 1,2, *, J. Boehm 1, Y. Loo 2, A. Kaushik 2, D. Gonzalez 2

I have validated their theory and earned some skills in the area (say, tools, programming languages, and so on). And, now, I want to write my own research-paper in order to publish in a peer-reviewed journal.

How can I get started?


texts: How common are shortlist notifications for math postdocs?

texts:
As the title says, how common is it for mathematics departments (in the US) to notify postdoc applicants when they're shortlisted?

As I'm currently waiting for postdoc offers and haven't got any shortlist notification yet, I want to know if I should start to panic.


texts: I have been involved in a postodoctoral program for 7 months and I progressively discovered that my advisor is really bad from a scientific standpoint. By working hard, I got to submit two papers which relate to his area of research but now it looks like he is unable to go on and to suggest me new meaningful directions to work on. Luckily I do have my reserch network and I keep working with other people and producing publications and I was also offered another position to which I will transit in a few months. However, my current advisor, who knows I'll be leaving soon, keeps pushing me to work on something with him without proposing anything worth. So my question is, how can I deal with that during the time left here? Thanks!


texts: How to find out the editorial times (for article review) of CS journals?

texts:
Elsevier has recently lunched a tool called Journal Finder by which researchers can use paper's title and abstract, and field of study to find a suitable journal for their manuscript. Here is the sample
 in which the editorial time is 12 weeks. They surely maintain database for their own, but is there any other source we can do this for other non-Elsevier journals, like IEEE or ACM? I know WoS provides some information about it, but WoS's database accuracy is not yet clear to me since I have seen lots of inaccurate information in WoS reports (for instance, number of "review article" published is often inaccurate).


texts: A professor who is less knowledgeable in certain subjects than a student

texts:
What is a proper way of showing academic knowledge with assignments when your professors and or school is not on par with a particular students knowledge, so-to-speak?

A student is extremely smart but lacks communication skills due to a disability and is completing advanced work when it is not required. In return, the professors have become egotistical and grade his papers for made up biased issues which have been confirmed to be incorrect grading from other members of the field.

How might a student handle a situation such as this and yet still prosper and graduate with a network of potential workplaces when the professors cannot handle someone who knows more then they do and go after him to encourage failure?


texts: My PhD advisor has unrealistic expectations on my capabilities to research independently

texts:
I worked as an undergraduate volunteer researcher, and then worked in an industry laboratory before returning to school. And my program did not have have rotations.  I am starting to wonder what I got myself into because it seems like I was thrown into the deep end on my first day of swim lessons.  I thought there would be training and community work to get us to the point where we could be independent by the end of our graduate career, not at the beginning.  I basically feel like my boss wanted a postdoc and expected a graduate student to know what to do.

Originally, I thought it was me, but based on the following list of evidences maybe it is not.

My advisor told me that she only talked with her advisor a couple of times a year during her PHD.
I am the first graduate student she has had and she constantly refers to how underprepared American grad students are.
Our program has since offered rotations, some of the students rotated through our laboratory and they had skills far below me when I started.  They all said they did not want to work for her because she expected too much and provided no direction.  Some of them did not know how to run gels or do transformations for instance.
Even undergraduate students have a short lifespan in her laboratory. Many claiming it stressed them out.
My project has nothing to do with anything else in the lab, and to answer the questions in my project, I have to do techniques that no one in the lab knows. Each one takes months to get working right and has resulted in slow progress. I asked if I could be involved in her main project, which she has NIH funding for, and she said that I will just be seen as a helper unless I have my own idea that is completely separate from hers.  She says that my troubleshooting needs to improve if I cant do these techniques quickly.

I really thought I was just not good enough, but I’m starting to think not.  I have participated in journal clubs with other graduate students at the university, and I can tell they are way less knowledgable about the experiments and the purpose of each step in the paper.

Can someone give me some guidance on what to do?  I have started running out of motivation, to be honest.  I honestly want to see if she will let me leave with a master’s, so I can just leave science all together.  My passion is gone she has ruined my love of science and the community. If I ask to leave with a master’s, she may just fire me, though.  I really need a master’s to get a specific job, I want after this, but I don’t know what to do.  The only thing I still like is bioinformatics, because there are a lot of self-teaching tools for that, and she can’t hold me back from exploring questions in programs.

Can I switch to another advisor for a year and leave with a master’s?


texts: How can I compare schools of business between universities in terms of research productivity and impact?

texts:
In trying to assess the learning, research and engagement opportunities of different universities at the undergraduate level (acknowledging that at undergrad level they all offer much more than the students may ever need) the websites usually provide extremely extensive rosters of faculty, and researching each teacher is frankly unwieldy.
If we were to use the number and quality of the publications; or alternatively, the number of programs available to undergrads in a discipline such as business, what would be a methodical way of going about it? Would other search-able parameters be more meaningful? Rankings in the media sound as objective as a used-car sales advisor.
For instance, I would like to focus on a concrete example, such as University of Connecticut versus Tulane University.


texts: Do Australian academic jobs have similar tenure track policies as USA?

texts: Is the Australian academia following the same system as the US one? i.e., tenure track for a few years, and then tenured? Or it is more like the British one where there is 'probation' period?


texts: Does a literature survey/review paper require a 'Conclusion' section?

texts:
It is clear how a conclusion is necessary for an original research article as it summarized the main aspects of the procedure, experimental results, or inferences drawn from the results. But in a survey or review paper, is it necessary?

From the many survey papers I've read, not all of it include an explicit Conclusion section. Some very good surveys and reviews do end with Furture, others with Open problems. It can be noticed that the people who differ from the norm do seem to be have established reputation in their field.

Provided the paper includes a detailed Discussion section, just how necessary is it to have a Conclusion section in a survey/review paper from the viewpoint of a reviewer (not as a reader)?


texts: Reference management software to get the link of references

texts: I use Mendeley to organize and view articles (pdf files). It is almost good, however I wish something similar with one additional feature. A software to make a link for every reference in the Reference section of any article I read (not my own articles) and when I click on the link it searches the web for it, or if it has a downloadable version, directly points to that file and if it is already exists in my articles opens it.


texts: Writing a paper on a smartphone implementation of previous work

texts:
Three months ago, I submitted a paper in an IEEE conference. The paper described a method to detect 'X' in images and a method to recover detected 'X' areas.

Now we want to show the performance and results of such an application on an android smartphone. For this, we have implemented the same detection method that we proposed earlier, however, we have also borrowed ideas from some other papers for a different recovery method (the recovery method proposed earlier was computationally expensive).

To summarise, the present work differs from our previous work in following aspects:

First work to demonstrate detection and recovery of 'X' in an
android smartphone.
A new recovery method, but which it is inspired from other's work.

Does it make a good paper for publishing in a conference like: ICPR?


texts: Change a graph of an accepted conference paper (before submitting the camera-ready version)

texts:
My paper has been accepted to an IEEE conference. But recently, I found some minor errors in my simulation data (using matlab software), and I would like to modify the existing graph before submitting my camera-ready version.

This change will not have major impact on my results as well as the quality of the paper.

The question is, can I simply make this change or do I have to explain this change?


texts: Progression through Computer Science Path

texts:
I am currently in undergraduate studies, and currently participating in computer related studies (mainly security focused). I wish to (as an end goal) pursue a MS and PhD.

I am not sure exactly the experience in graduate level programs as far as focus. Is there a possible focus on Network Security/Infrastructure built into graduate programs or would curriculum be more of a wide range (albeit focused in the realm of computer science)?

If not is there a path which would end at a doctoral level involving information security?


texts: Do reviewers go over the calculations (i.e do the calculations themselves) when reviewing?

texts:
The question is clear:

Do reviewers go over the calculations (i.e do the calculations themselves) in the paper? For example, it can be the derivation of an equation, or some numerical calculations.

Edit:

What I am trying to understand is that if I am reading a paper and seeing some derivations, should I assume that someone (possibly reviewers) other than the authors went through those derivations in detail.

Edit 2:

The question can be narrowed down to STEM fields only.


texts: How to politely decline an interview for a PhD program?

texts:
I've applied to three US universities (A, B, C) for PhD programs. Universities A and B offered me interviews on two separate weekends, which I accepted. I then made travel arrangements with Universities A and B for interviews.

I was then offered an interview with University C on the same date as my University A interview. I asked C for an alternate date, which happened to be the same weekend as my interview with B. I informed C of this and gave them a list of dates that I was free to interview but was told that those were the only two dates possible at University C.

I asked A and B about changing my interview date but was told that I could not since travel arrangements had already been made (through the university/a university-sponsored travel agency).

Universities A and B are both higher on my list than University C, so I've decided to decline University C's interview.

How can I do this politely? I don't want to burn any bridges with University C.

Related question: What should be done about conflicting invitations for graduate school interviews?


texts: Sharing articles with your department colleagues

texts:
Our group of researchers (~15 people) came to an agreement that it would be a good idea to have a database of journal articles that are worth sharing. Our department is becoming more and more focused on one direction, so it would save a lot of time for us to simply check what others have already read and suggested. In addition, the plan would also be to write a short summary (by the person who has read it) why this paper has been read and what does it offer (sometimes abstract is not enough). The questions I have are:

Is there available tool that would allow us to do so easily?
All of us have access to most of the non-open access journals, but is it okay if the papers are shared (in *.pdf) between our group, especially if the database is in the cloud?
Do you have a similar system in your research group? If no, how do you share 'worth reading' articles?

So far, we were thinking to use Dropbox, OneDrive or other service to store this information and provide access to each of us, but we are not sure if it is safe and how to make it efficient.

Please let me know your opinions about this idea and what do you use yourselves.