texts: How to mark/cite text that you only translated?

texts:
In my thesis I included some pages of a foreign specification. To improve the reader's convenience I have translated them as they are vital to my topic and I can't paraphrase them.

How do I properly cite these five pages/mark them as not my own?


texts: Student wants to show everybody how much he knows

texts:
I have read this question, where the OP asked how to handle silly questions. In the excellent answer of Irwin, the 6th point attracted my attention:

  If it's a matter of the student talking on and wasting time with questions, then you can ask the student politely to keep questions for after the class. If the student is trolling you with questions and is otherwise being a nuisance this option usually works as well.

I am a TA in mathematics at a university in continental Europe and I organized a weekly question time (one hour) where I answer questions of undergraduate mathematics students. Usually, these hours are very well visited so I struggle a lot to answer all questions in my limited amount of time. However, there is one student who constantly tries to prevent me from answering other student's questions. He first wants his questions answered. But most of the time his questions are not useful at all:

He wants to show the other students how much he knows. He uses a lot of mathematical terminology, sometimes even terminology which was not yet introduced in the lecture (and sometimes will not be introduced in the lecture). For example, if derivatives are the content of the lecture, he asks something about weak derivatives. My advice that he should first understand the special case and not the more general one is ignored. However, he also asks questions about the specific course (which fall into the category of the next two bullet points.)
He has a very tiring way of asking questions. If you answer his question, he often accuses you of "not understanding his question". If you answer his question and politely tell him why his question does not make sense, he usually changes the topic (if the question was about topic A, he says "But I was talking about topic B all the time, you did not understand my question"). Telling him that he has to ask more precisely is ignored, he thinks that the TA is not able to answer his questions, because they are too difficult to answer.
He always wants his questions to be answered first. This is very bad for the other students, because the other students have more or less useful questions which deserve to be answered well. Hence, this student is just wasting time, which could be used in a better way to answer more useful questions. Of course, the other students are annoyed by him, too. I think that it is just a question of time until one of the other students tells him that the question times cannot stay like this.

Now my question is: How do I deal with such a student? The cited advice above does not quite apply here. He does come to my question time and also to the question time of other TAs (who have the same impression of him). If you ask him to keep his questions, he just does not stop asking and disturbs you in the process of answering other questions. For example, if you answer a question, he just interrupts you and says "But isn't it like that? (...)", saying this with a tone which expresses that you are wrong and he is right.

I also offered him to come to my office to discuss his mathematical problems, but he apparently does not want to, because he has never appeared in my office (and I think he won't in the future). My impression (and also the impression of the other TAs plus the professor's) is that he just wants to ask questions publicly to express how much he knows and to demonstrate that he is very intelligent.


texts: What is the hourly pay for TA/RA at good math PhD programs in the U.S.?

texts:
I'm interested in the first tier (the top six programs e.g. MIT and UCB) and the second tier (the next ten programs e.g. Columbia and Caltech) math PhD programs in the U.S. According to the link, MIT's math dept. pays $3,050 monthly to a TA who works for 12 hours per week. Since I'm an int'l student, I can work for another 8 hours per week in this case. Since this TA job may cover a part of the tuition and fee (40k~50k) as well, working for an extra hour may increase the pay at the rate higher than $56/h(=$3,050/55), assuming that I work for 55 hours per week.

I'm sure the difference in pay scale between each program is large, but I'd appreciate if you could give me the answer for any program of the above type you're familiar with regarding the approximate hourly pay for a TA job above the required minimum length.


texts: Should I cite a result if the paper doesn't include a proof?

texts:
I'm writing a mathematical paper. In it, I use a lemma. The lemma is not hard to prove and I have verified it myself. The proof is too tedious to include in the paper, so I want to just include a citation. I found a paper that includes the result. However, that paper does not actually include a proof. I cannot find any other place where this lemma appears.

I see three options:

State the lemma without proof or citation.
State the lemma without proof, but cite the paper (that states the lemma without proof or citation).
Provide a proof of the lemma.

Which is most appropriate? Option 1 is easiest, but might annoy some readers who don't believe me. Option 2 seems like a cop out. Option 3 is safest, but I don't think it's necessary, as the proof is really just a long and boring calculation.

ADDED: To be clear, the lemma is basically an integral. The proof consists of splitting up the domain of integration to remove absolute values, evaluating each of the parts (easy enough for symbolic integration packages like mathematica), and then joining them back up. This is "obvious", but messy because the expressions are quite long. My writeup is two pages.

Maybe a better way to phrase my question: The result is trivial -- I think so, the authors of the other paper think so, and the journal they published in thinks so. Should I still provide a citation? Is it misleading to cite the other paper without clarifying that it doesn't provide a proof?


texts: Can you contribute to Public Loan Forgiveness (US) while pursuing a funded Masters/PhD?

texts:
I think I can, if I'm understanding the rules right, but I was wondering if anyone had done this/could give advice.

I recently completed a JD. My dream in college was always to get a PhD in literature, but for several reasons, some good some bad, I chose to go for the JD instead (it isn't completely unrelated to my literature interests, so it isn't a total wash). I am working in the public sector after graduation, and will be paying down my JD loans using Public Loan Forgiveness, so when I sat down and thought about it I realized I might not have to abandon my PhD dream after all. After a year or two breather from school, I'd like to go back and start working towards a PhD, because if law school and working in the legal field has convinced me of one thing it is that literature (and hopefully a professorship) are where I will be truly happy.

As an overview of PLF: after 120 monthly payments made on my loans while working in the public sector (10 years) the government would forgive my federal loans (which make up 90% of my loans). I can pay income-based repayment while working towards PLF as well. I will never be able to pay my loans off on a gov salary otherwise, but 10 years and then they are forgiven is actually a pretty sweet deal.

Basically to qualify for PLF I have to be employed in a public sector job--generally government or a nonprofit--working full time, or two public sector jobs that combined mean at least 30 hours/wk. As most TA or RA positions for funded programs (MA or PhD) seem to be about 20 hours a week, doing 10 hours a week in another public position would, if I'm right, qualify me for public loan forgiveness. Probably I'd look at doing 10-15 hours of legal aid through a nonprofit or government agency to keep my legal skills up.

Has anyone done PLF while finishing a PhD? Is this dream possible, or am I crazy? I don't mind not making a lot of money--I never have, and am not making much $$ now. But I really want to go back to literature. I'm just hoping the JD won't have killed that dream for me. :/


texts: How does Faculty of Graduate Studies work?

texts:
Canadian universities have Faculty of Graduate Studies for supporting graduate programs and students. However, I do not under stand how it can operates without conflicting overlap with the technical departments/faculties.

For example, someone is a student in Department of X, Faculty of Y. His academic and official matters are normally within the Department/Faculty. Now with the presence of Faculty of Graduate Studies, how is dealing with other different academic units?

How is the role of Faculty of Graduate Studies in parallel with the technical Department/Faculty?
Is there an equivalent system in the US or UK (an other European) universities too?


texts: Are engineering PhDs more relevant to industry careers than science PhDs?

texts:
So I am considering pursuing a PhD in robotics (or a related field) after spending a year in the industry. I want to make an informed decision about my career path and be reasonable about things. The thing is, frequently when presented with a potential reason for why graduate education is a bad idea, I seem to dismiss it thinking: "but engineering is different!.."

In particular, people saying that there is no point in going for a PhD, unless one wants to pursue a career in academia, seem to strike me as not relevant to the engineering disciplines. In the end there is plenty of technical R&D going on around, and even my medium-sized company employs their fair share of wise folk whose only job is to come up with ideas and research into them to see if anything interesting comes out.

Somehow, in my mind, engineering PhD's are applicable, employable, can quit it half-way to return back to industry with no harm to their CV, etc. etc. (not to mention there's always funding for them!).

I do acknowledge that there exist some pretty theoretical or not-applicable technical fields out there, but they don't really come into my calculation as my interests lay elsewhere.

Where is the flaw in my thinking? Where am I most likely to get burned with my expectations?


texts:
How should one cite materials taken from a Massively Open Online Course (MOOC)? This may be a specific case of the more general, "How should one cite a university course?"

For a concrete example, consider how I should cite the "Resampling Wheel" algorithm for implementing a particle filter, taken from Sebastian Thrun's Artificial Intelligence for Robotics course on Udacity?


texts:
I am a student from Poland. I am bachelor in Economics and Logistics and now I am doing my Masters from Econometrics. I have quite good achievements (1-year scholarship in Japan, ambassador program for a big NGO, few wins or good places in the contests etc). I am also waiting for publishing my first research paper and plan to do 2 more untill I will graduate.

There is one problem though. My GPA is not very good. It's a combination of 3 varriables. First, on the beggining of my studies I planned to go to bussiness rather then academic work. Second I have a mild/average form of brittle bone disease which result of having to take 3 years of medical leave (not at once). And sometimes in cases when the injury was not to bad (for example 2-3 months) i tried to make up the classes and I left deciding that i rather not lose another year and pass on B- or C then to go the other way. Third factor is the fact that going from economics to very math-based field as statistics and econometrics is not easy. I am managing this but with having to make up the material from bachelor's in this field it's rather B on average then straight A.

I love to do the research, and to analise data. My papers and articles are usually recieved as really good. And I would love to be able to get to one of top 100 Universities for a PhD program. Is there a chance if I would have a good Master's thesis, nice GRE/TOELF score and 3 academic papers?

I would be gratefull for all the answers :)


texts:
I'm currently starting my PhD and I'm contemplating whether I should stay with my current advisor and topic or switch before its too late.

Current subfield

The recent work in this subfield has been very cool and my advisor's strong track record in this area was what attracted me to his lab.
I don't have much of a background in this field. I feel like I'm struggling when I do research in this field, and I'm not sure how effective I would be if I went into this long term. (I don't think I'm playing to my strengths if I entered this subfield).
I have heard from others that academic job prospects in this subfield are lower than other areas.

Other subfields

I feel more comfortable with other subfields and I think I would be playing more toward my strengths even in certain other subfields where I have less of a background.
The labs in other subfields are more popular amongst grad students, and I suspect each student gets less attention than they would with my current advisor.

Any advice on whether to stay and switch? Is it best to wait and switch, or switch ASAP.


texts: Why do German universities rank so low internationally?

texts:
There are very well known American and British universities, which have a very good reputation in a lot of different fields. Obvious examples being Cambridge, Harvard or Princeton.
But what about the state funded German universities, how is their international reputation? Why are the German schools ranked so poorly in international rankings like the Shanghai ranking?


texts: How should I write a "Personal History Statement" - does a lack of "challenges" mean I cannot contribute to diversity?

texts:
I am hesitating whether to apply to some of the "University of California" universities. The problem is, many of them ask for a "personal history statement":

  Describe how your background, accomplishments, and life experiences led to your decision to pursue the graduate degree for which you are applying. Include any educational, personal, cultural, economic, or social experiences, challenges or opportunities relevant to your academic journey. In addition, please describe any aspects of your personal background, accomplishments, or achievements that will allow the department to evaluate your contributions to the University's diversity mission. Contributions to diversity and equal opportunity can take a variety of forms, such as efforts to advance equitable access to education, public service, that addresses the need of a diverse population, or research that explores inequalities.
  Your department may have special prompts and directions for the Personal History Statement; be sure to check the requirements.

(Note that the Personal History Statement is not the Statement of Purpose; it is a separate statement that is required in addition to the Statement of Purpose. See e.g. these application instructions. )

Honestly, as an Asian male international student, I really have nothing to say about this. I have a very happy family, so I really don't have "challenges". I honestly just want to study math because probably that's the only reason why someone would want to get a PhD in math.

I've been struggling with this for days but still have absolutely no idea how to write this. I mean, I live a happy life. My parents are divorced but I was not particularly "challenged" per se. Does that mean I cannot contribute to the diversity? I don't even know what they are looking for. Should I market myself being overcoming huge difficulties (even though I did not face huge difficulties)? Or should I pretend that I am really under-represented? :/


texts: When Is It Time To Get the Department Involved With MSc Progress?

texts:
I am a masters student approaching my expected graduation date (September), the problem however is that I have not a single result to speak to. However, this is not due to of a lack of serious effort and time invested on my part. The problem that I thought of was slated to be worth publishing in a top journal and the idea and execution that I had was considered good enough to be accepted as an abstract to two top conferences.

My issue is that my problem is simply too hard to solve (computationally speaking). At the beginning of the research, I simply would not have known or understood this and so I kept working on it and working on it and as of last month the stark reality hit me that my original idea had to be abandoned. I even found a possible path forward to solve my problem which is used extensively in the field of engineering and operations research, but I was told not to use it by my advisor.

I tried to simplify the idea which then requires me to completely change the method that I use to analyze the problem (changing the method sporadically also means my research question has to be altered). However, in order for me to use this new method I have to learn how to program with a new set of libraries, and solving my problem is non-trivial because I have nobody I can speak to locally about implementing the problem in the programming language I use (Python). Long story short, I am unable to implement this new method because I cannot figure it out and have nobody I can talk to locally about it. What feels even weirder is that I am trying to use a method for the sake of salvaging a problem, and this feels very unnatural to me as an inexperienced researcher.

I am three months away and I have no results. My masters program appears like it is going to take 2.5-3 years to complete, and on top of that, I will ultimately need to present something to my committee that I am not really proud of. Looking forward, I am somewhat worried that PhD programs might not be interested if they see a masters student that took a much longer time to complete a masters program with no publications to speak of. Furthermore, I am concerned that funding for my project could run out from my supervisor, and then I would either need to get a job to continue on or try and find a new project with a different professor in the department.

No matter the case, I am sure that I will graduate at some point, but I am very concerned about how the end result will reflect on me if I wanted to apply to PhD programs afterwards.

Are these common occurrences in the paths of masters students or is it time I get somebody outside of my supervisor involved? It’s a difficult decision because I feel that I lack the experience and judgement to make such an important call. Furthermore, how could I make the best of this situation when I am applying for PhD programs in the future? I


texts: how to present a talk on work in preparation

texts:
I guess this is very common, to do a presentation to your lab. I wonder how I can cite in my slides that the presented work will be part of a future paper.

I remember to see in past presentations a footnote with " Author A & Author B (in preparation)", but I am not sure.

or I should forget all this and just present the work?


texts: What are your policies regarding ownership of computer code in your lab?

texts:
I work in a large US-based university, in biomedical sciences and am PI of my own research lab. One of my current interests is to develop a research line that uses machine/deep learning (ML) to solve certain challenges in my field.

Because of the ongoing enthusiasm regarding ML, junior trainees and younger colleagues with background in computer science have approached me to collaborate. I certainly welcome this, because I am not a specialist in ML. They would bring to the table coding experience, energy and fresh approaches. Their status at my institution is of employees of the institution (not directly my employees).

I have the (possibly wrong) impression that many people in their 20s-30s today grew up with heroes such as Zuckerberg, Jobs, and Larry Page, and want to succeed by inventing the next big thing and "selling it to Google". I very often catch some of these prospects inadvertently expressing a commercial motivation for endeavors like writing up code/software to solve some of the challenges in my field. I don't think this is necessarily wrong, but believe it is a somewhat misguided motivation, and should not be the primary driving force (IMHO, above all it should an unexplainable curiosity, urge for innovation and problem-solving).

My questions are:

how do you handle intellectual property / copyright in collaborations that involve developing code? Do you have different ways of dealing with this if it is with junior staff versus post-docs, grads, undergrads?
Do you discuss code ownership issues before starting a project? Do you have recommendations on how this should be approached so as not to hamper enthusiasm?
have you had a situation in which your collaborator (regardless of rank) changed their mind from open-source to commercial (or patenting)? Do you obtain formal/written agreements at the outset to avoid problems down the road? (my concern again is how doing this could seem like discussing divorce before getting married)

My inclination is towards openness and sharing, and any subsequent benefit (even if commercial) is likely to derive from that. I have no problem in explicitly stating that to collaborators, but wanted to know what the community has experienced in this regard. In my current biomedical research, which has no realistic commercial application, I am very clear at the outset with collaborators (regardless of rank) regarding my standards for integrity and authorship roles.


texts: How important is GRE in Econ Phd Applications?

texts: Does GRE play as a cut-off point in one's Economics Phd application even though s/he has a strong profile including 4.0 GPA, strong recommendation letters, good SOP, and relevant research and teaching experience?


texts: Does a low GPA in an unrelated (second) major affect math PhD admissions?

texts:
I'm a second year undergrad in Canada, double majoring in math and philosophy. I take philosophy only because it is a spare time interest in high school, but I'm planning to apply math PhD after my undergrad study.

The problem now is that, my philosophy grade is overall 3.3(77-79, B+), though my math grade is 4.0(85+,A).

I'm wondering whether or not my philosophy grade will affect my math PhD application (targeting a top 20 program in North America)?


texts: Is it OK to change mistakes/typos when you are in the minor revision stage of publication?

texts:
What I mean is to change mistakes/typos other than the proposed changes your reviewers pointed out to you.

As this article is based on a previous thesis (which had a very similar focus, only it was oriented towards a different cultural context) I've noticed a few paragraphs that could use a clean up (for example it would help to clarify that I use a certain term because it is related to the administrative divisions in my country,etc.).

I also noticed a typo on one of the results on the table that got carried over to the abstract. It doesn't change the results or findings or anything, basically it's just a decimal that should be lower.

My question is, would it be OK to change them now? And in case it was should I let the reviewers know I cleaned it up or go through each change, besides the ones they asked me to do, obviously.


texts: Is it appropriate to register a girlfriend with "companion registration" for an academic conference?

texts:
Maybe my question is rather weird, but actually it turned out it is also a question of my colleagues.
Usually when you register for an academic conference, there's an  option that you can register a companion. I'm wondering if it is appropriate to register my girlfriend as a companion? Does it sound so bad?


texts: How to decide what writing sample to include in a phd application?

texts:
I'm finishing my MA in about a month and I'm thinking of applying to a Phd program in the US (political science). My GPA is as high as it gets and my recommendation letters will be great but I'm worried about my SOP and my writing sample.

I don't know how to choose a good research topic...I feel like my interests are too broad and I don't know what topics could actually work...My MA thesis was closely linked to sociology and my preferred Phd field is International Relations...should I change the direction completely and go with something more orthodox for this field?

Regarding the required writing sample...I wrote a 200-pages-long research paper on collocation of recent social movements and included an original case-study. It's written in English so theoretically it should work but my professor never corrected a single word...which is disconcerting...how do I know it's actually good? Part of the problem is that I'm studying in Italy so I can't find a professor who understands the American Phd application process or anything of the sort.

Any suggestion would be highly appreciated since I'm navigating this application process on my own and I'm afraid I'm running in circles...


texts: Journal sent review request to my supervisor but the email was addressed to me

texts:
My PhD supervisor received an email from a journal asking for review of an article. However, the email was addressed as "Dear {my name}". Even the journal office created an account in my name on Editorial Manager to access the manuscript (as mentioned in the email).
My supervisor is not interested in accepting the review request since the email was not addressed to him. Now I am not sure how to proceed from here.
UPDATE: Per @wimi 's answer, I contacted the editor asking if I was the intended email recipient and expressing my willingness to review. The editor clarified that there was indeed an email mess-up and I have been invited to review the manuscript!


texts: How does authorship work in large collaborations?

texts:
I am not in a field in which large (twenty authors or more) collaborations are common. However, I have always been interested in how authorship is distributed in those cases, particularly for extremely large collaborations (i.e., hundreds to thousands of collaborators).

How is it determined whether someone has had a signifficant contribution to yield authorship (i.e., why are there 436 authors and not 437 or 435)? How are authors listed (I know that LIGO, for instance, lists alphabetically)? How does one determine the major contributor? How is the paper drafted? Does everyone in the collaboration approve the paper?


texts: What does "30 pp" mean for manuscript submissions?

texts:
A journal I'm planning on submitting an article to has not listed a word count, but rather, has listed this:

  There is a requirement of up to 30 pp. per manuscript, including references; each manuscript must also be double-spaced, font size 12, with at least 1" margins (for ALL margins).

What does "up to 30pp. per manuscript" mean? Is this "up to 30 pages accepted" in lieu of a word count?


texts: Professors refusing to write recommendation letter due to change of field

texts:
I am a chemistry undergraduate student applying for master’s programs in electrical and computer engineering or computer science (ECE/CS). All my programming skills are self-taught so my professors have no idea about my program switch.
I’ve already contacted some professors and they are willing to give me the references. But once I said I am not applying for a chemistry degree but ECE/CS, two of my references said they cannot give me the reference for non-chemistry related programs since they know nothing about my programming skills. Those two references are who know me the most (IMO) and I think I performed well in their courses/projects.
What can I do? I cannot put too much workload on each professor if two of whom quit.


texts: What can cause a delay of several weeks between an editor receiving reviews and you receiving a response from the editor?

texts: I had submitted research paper to a journal two and half months ago. It was under review for two months and now the status is showing that the paper is with editor from last ten days. If the paper has got reviewed why I am not getting any response from the editor.


texts: Enquiring PI about post-acceptance process of admission (PhD, Germany)

texts:
Recently I have been offered a PhD position from one of the research institutes in Germany. The PI told me that he has prepared the acceptance/contract draft and sent it to the HR department who are supposed to contact me. It’s been almost one month since then, but the HR people have not contacted me yet. Should I mail the PI requesting to let me know the status as some of the official things were halted (like visa application) from my side?

Generally how much time HR people will take to send this information to the candidates? Any experiences/suggestions would be appreciated.


texts: Which recommender should I go for getting a LOR for graduate school admission?

texts:
Before I state my query, you should know two things about me:

I'm an EE graduate
I'm working in field of VLSI for past one year.

I'm applying for Masters in VLSI for fall-2014 and I'm in a dilemma here.

I've approached my head of department and a lecturer from my department for getting  letter of recommendation. I only need one though. These are the reasons as to why I'm conflicted in deciding between the two.

My head of department has a PhD in VLSI while my lecturer is just a postgraduate.
My lecturer has guided me for my thesis project in my final year of my undergraduate course. My final year thesis project is NOT on VLSI.It is on power systems.
My lecturer has taken classes for me while my Head of department has not taken any class for me . So she doesn't have any benchmark to judge my academic capability. She knows me as a student body member who has organised technical events though.(Which is why she agreed to give me recommendation, that and the fact that I had a discussion with her on my current job responsibilities)

My other two recommenders are my technical manager from my workplace and a teacher who took Integrated circuits during undergrad level- (again not a PhD)

Whom should I choose? I am confused because My head of department has that PhD tag( none of my other recommenders are PhDs) . So I'm in doubt as to whether I should go for her credentials or take one from my senior lecturer( in which case none of my recommenders will have that PhD tag)


texts: To what extent may someone use the content of a published paper in an expository piece on that paper?

texts:
If someone s has a paper p published, and if s wants to write up a piece explaining the contents of p, then to what extent can s use the contents of p? Or, the person s has no right to mention the contents of p?

That is, if someone writes an article explaining the ideas in one of his published paper by rephrasing the published paper, then to what extent is such rephrasing legitimate?


texts: From which level of education, is it better to choose teacher assistants?

texts:
I think that it is normal to choose teacher assistants for BSc courses from MSc or PhD students and TAs for MSc courses to be from PhD students;

In case that the PhD or MSc students are not interested or are not applying for a teaching assistant position of the lower courses (lets say a BSc course); is it a good idea to choose an assistant from the interested last year BSc students (with good academic records and background) or it is better not to have TA for the course for a period of time until a PhD student applies for the TA position?


texts:
Problem

I am now applying for a Ph.D. in electrical engineering.

I have read Mor Harchol-Balter's very helpful guide in applying for computer science Ph.D., where she said

  ...Note that prior research experience does not mean that you need to have published paper...Create a website that has links to all of your papers in English. Explain in your application that all of your papers can be found on your website... (Page 12-14)

Even though I am not applying for computer science, but I guess the this piece of advice also applies in my case, where I have a undergrad thesis and several preprints I am proud of.

The question is how do I list these works in my CV, there seems to be two options.

Upload these papers to arXiv and then generate citation in my CV. The concern is that these early works may make me look bad if I get my Ph.D. (hopefully) and go onto the job market (maybe I am worrying too much).
Include some links in my CV. I do have a personal website to demonstrate my academic history. However, the issue is that I am not sure the committee members will actually type the long link in their browsers and read these works (someone told me a CV is at most skimmed 30 seconds), especially knowing that many other applicants have already published in some big famous conferences.


texts: Question regarding recommendation letters for statistics graduate applications

texts:
I am currently a math and statistics undergraduate who is applying to graduate programs in statistics this fall. Two of my professors have confirmed they will write letters of recommendations for me. They are both well respected probabilists in the math department. However I have heard it  strongly suggested to get at least one statistics faculty member to write a letter for me when applying to statistics, but I don't really know anyone noteworthy in my school's statistics faculty. I've been trying to get to know my professor who is teaching my theory of statistics course this term, but I still don't think he knows we well enough to write a strong letter for me.

However there is a third math professor who I believe would be willing to write me a letter. I've been in multiple of his classes (always coincidentally got relatively higher grades in his classes), met him at multiple conferences, we are on a first name basis etc. His work is mostly in dynamical systems and ergodic theory, the latter being a something of a sub-field in probability. The fact that he's an ergodic theorist is perhaps relevant since I've been told that strong skills in probability/analysis are highly valued in statistics programs now a days, and hence probabilists' recommendations are taken seriously. He's also been the math department head a couple times and has chaired the local mathematical sciences institute I think more than once.

Therefore I'm thinking of just getting my third recommendation from him, since we's a respected academic who could write me a strong letter. My question is how important do you think it is to get at least one reference from a statistician given that I'm applying to statistics? Do you think I should pick a more generic letter from my statistics prof or a stronger letter from a third math prof for my last letter?

Thanks!


texts: How can I emphasize my interest towards PhD with no real research experience?

texts:
I am 23, I have a Russian diploma in Computer Science and I am interested in getting into PhD in Computer Science in the US. But after reading this post and some google search I realized that I have some major problems in my application.

I don't have any research experience and results to show:
when I was 17 I moved in (big Russian city) to attend university there and I had to work really hard (40-60 hours per week) in night shifts to pay for myself (rent, food, books, etc). So I have got major health problems and haven't got any time (and other resources) for high-quality study. Now, a year after graduation, I still don't have enough time for this kind of project because I have to work hard towards exams. I also have to work hard to earn money for application because of the difference between dollar and ruble.
Recommendation letters from my university professors probably will not have any weight outside my country:
my university hasn't any famous projects or labs or publications even according to the standards of my own country. Of course, I remember that the most important thing about recommendation letter is that what does it tell about my professional and personal abilities. But will it make any sense since it's written by someone totally unknown for admission committee?

Also, I figured out some good points for my application:

I am very motivated and I already know what it's like to be alone in big city by myself. I already know what it's like to work hard and live on very limited amount of money. I know the difference between what I'm capable of and what I'm not.
I am good at doing an independent work. I did my diploma in digital sound processing and learned all the maths I needed during 3 months without guidance and without any background in this field (when I started I didn't even know what is a bitrate). Then I worked as a research C++ developer in one karaoke project, again in DSP field. There I learned how to work with angry bosses, how to summarise any completed work to present results to managers, how to deploy mathematical models in real project and how to do it fast and so on. This project had some business problems so I quit and started to freelance. For this purpose I had to develop a system for organizing myself and skills to set goals and to meet my own deadlines.
I have a lot of practical knowledge. I worked as a linux system administrator in a big hosting company for about a year, I can write on C++, python, php, Objective C and Java. I know how to work in team and how to communicate with different people.
For last two years I did great amount of work with myself. I quit smoking and drinking alcohol. I totally stopped to take caffeine in any doses, I lost more than 15 kilo (results of my health problems), I gained a lot of muscles and started to do some yoga. During all this time I learned a lot about neurophysiology, cognitive sciences and the basics of biology. I've got really inspired by all this knowledge and now I'm looking forward to work with neuroscience.
I have already took the TOEFL iBT test and have score of 104.
I have a GPA 4.98 from 5.0.

So my question is: how can I make my good points to overweight my problems?


texts: Using et al. for a last / senior author rather than for a first author

texts:
Suppose a paper has authors A, B, C, and D. The first author, A, isn't in academia anymore, and much of my work is inspired by the senior author, D. I've also only communicated with author D.

Can I say/write "author D et al."?

When I looked this up, "first author et al." is the recommended version, but I would rather prefer to say "author D et al."

This isn't for a formal paper submission, but rather for something like a blog post describing my recent findings, which I hope will be published in the near future.


texts: Citing personal communication for preliminary results

texts: I am writing a paper with a group of people, and we would like to cite preliminary results from another work, which one of the coauthors is involved along with yet other people. The preliminary results have not been published or even written up. Should we cite this as "Personal communication" and put the names of all members of the other group (which overlaps with the current group), or are there better ways to do it?


texts: Am I considered fulfilling postdoc duty in this situation?

texts:
General question:
I am a postdoc supported by a grant A. Is it OK for me to work with people not in the grant supporting me on a topic related to grant A, given that I will acknowledge the grant in all publications? Am I expected to include the PI as co-authors?

Details:
I am supported by a grant A. Then I did some works related to grant A and got a publication with other individuals not in the grant A. I acknowledged the grant supporting me in the publication, but without including the PI of grant A as a co-author.

I already did this, it seems the PI of grant A is OK with that. But I am not sure if I am doing something wrong/unethical. I just wonder if it is commonly acceptable. I am doing that because we are not fit each other, I stay for family reason and will leave soon.


texts: I'm not interested in working with this potential advisor. What to tell him? Or should I reconsider?

texts:
I met with a potential supervisor and initially he was nice and helpful. Although he tried to make me alter my thesis, something I wasn’t keen on because I love and breath the topic. He told me to go and read more. I have done enough reading about the topic and it’s time to set the topic then read more about it to unfold it further. I wanted his consent on the topic at least before I invest more time reading in case he rejects everything.
I left with loose conclusion, not sure about his impression about me, the topic or if he’s interested to supervise me.

I saw him in a mutual class the next day and he was hostile about my research questions. He made me feel so stupid and worthless. Is this a normal behavior of PhD supervisors?

What should I do?
Is it polite to cut ties? What’s the protocol in this situation?
I don’t want him to be my supervisor, he doesn’t seem patient at all.


texts: What are books and websites I should look at before trying to write a grant?

texts:
I am an undergraduate currently involved with a local arts nonprofit, and the folks in charge would like to write grants and proposals to the colleges in town for cooperating on an after-school program. What should I read to find:

Organizations I should be in touch with which offer grants
General guidelines/requirements for a successful proposal?

Also: How do I find somebody in my school or elsewhere whom I could ask to review my grants before I submit them?


texts: How to balance previous works and current idea in a research plan?

texts:
I am writing a research plan for a tenure-track position. I wrote a 5 pages of three sub-plans based on my previous successful works.

50% of each sub-plan is about my previous works, and 50% is about how I want to continue them. Is it the correct balance?
Is it required to cite my previous references in the research plan or the search committee see them in my CV?


texts: Doctorate with no affiliation submitting to a publication with an undergrad co-author

texts:
I am working on a paper to submit for publication. I hold a doctorate degree but I do not teach at a college or university and the paper has nothing to do with my current employer or job function.
My co-author has a bachelor's degree, is not in school, and is not my student however the paper is based on work she is doing for her job. Her company has approved the paper for publication as it contains no property information.
My question is how would I list the affiliation? Would I leave mine blank and her's as her company? also for bachelor's degree do you list the degree? (I have never seen that)
Would this be correct:
Philip D. Noah, D.Sc.
Jane Smith
XYZ Company


texts: Withdrawing conference paper (after acceptance) due to budget issue

texts:
I'm wondering if it is ethical to withdraw an accepted conference paper because the registration fees exceeded my budget?

The fees were only announced after the paper submission deadline thus I didn't know the fees would be so high when I submitted my paper. Now when it got accepted to be presented, I don't think I will be able to attend the conference. I have not submitted the camera-ready paper yet and the registration deadline is in a month. I'm thinking of withdrawing my paper, but would it be ethical to do so? What are the consequences of doing this?


texts: Does a year of entrepreneurship in an unrelated field affect an MS application?

texts:
I did my Bachelors in computer science. I have been working for 1.5 years in a reputed software firm working on distributed systems, information retrieval and such fields.

I want to apply for MS in CSE (distributed systems or ML) next year but before that I want to start my game development company which has been a dream. It might also help me earn a lot of money which I will need to study further. Game development is largely software engineering, but has nothing to do with distributed systems or ML. If my game development start-up fails I will happily do the MS right away.

Will switching from my current "related" job to a somewhat unrelated field trigger an alarm? Am I at a risk of getting rejected?

How can I patch things up if I have to after my game development gig?


texts: Is it ethical to award points for hilariously bad answers?

texts:
Q: Why are the outer planets of the Solar System so much more massive than the inner planets?
A: By the central limit theorem, everything eventually appears to look like a Bell curve. Therefore planet masses increase with distance to the Sun before decreasing, and the planets at the end of the distribution (Mercury & Pluto) have small masses while the planets in the middle (Jupiter) have large masses.

One doesn't need to know anything about astronomy or planetary formation to know this answer is nonsense.  Furthermore, the student should have known that Pluto isn't a planet (Mars is also less massive than both the Earth and Jupiter, and Neptune is more massive than Uranus as well, breaking the trend).
On the other hand, it's funny nonsense. Funny nonsense has gotten immortalized as internet jokes, and if the joke is to be believed, even led to an 'A' for the student. There's even a journal for funny research.
Is it ethical to award a few points for this answer?


texts: How do editors guarantee the quality of peer-review?

texts:
Inspired by this question (including a comment by @JeffE that a paper should be short to be reviewed within a few hours) and some other questions on this website.

Almost everyone believes that peer-review of a paper takes about 1 day and peer-review of 20-30 papers per month means low-quality reviews.

My supervisor receives 50-100 peer-review requests every month (I know because I organize his mailbox) and accepts 20-30 papers submitted to high-impact journals (say impact factor 10) to review. He never asks us to review (contrary to many comments) and he does the review personally. I do not have exact statistics, but based on his schedule, he shouldn't spend more than 1 hour to review a paper.

My question is: if his peer-review is careless and of low-quality (as assumed as a fact by many here), then, why do editors frequently invite him to review? Note that he is one of many.

If the editors do not consider the quality of reviews and simply invite famous people frequently. Then, there should be a flaw in the quality of high-impact journals.


texts: Should expository papers (e.g., in American Math Monthly) be listed in CV under Publications?

texts:
Should expository papers (e.g., in American Math Monthly) be listed in CV as if they are regular publications? These are usually not totally original research papers. For example, this is the description of articles to be submitted to American Math Monthly:

The Monthly's readers expect a high standard of exposition; they expect articles to inform, stimulate, challenge, enlighten, and even entertain. Monthly articles are meant to be read, enjoyed, and discussed, rather than just archived. Articles may be expositions of old or new results, historical or biographical essays, speculations or definitive treatments, broad developments, or explorations of a single application. Novelty and generality are far less important than clarity of exposition and broad appeal. Appropriate figures, diagrams, and photographs are encouraged.
Notes are short, sharply focused, and possibly informal. They are often gems that provide a new proof of an old theorem, a novel presentation of a familiar theme, or a lively discussion of a single issue.


texts: Is there a potential for bias when a researcher chooses a topic they personally find interesting?

texts:
When choosing a research topic, many researchers (in the field of psychology, in my case) often choose to study a topic they find interesting or have experience in. Does this introduce more potential for bias in their work?
I have done this myself. I am doing research into an area that I also work in, and enjoy as a hobby. I see that this has the benefit of existing knowledge in that area, and more motivation to continue researching the topic. But to what degree is it problematic that the researcher is personally involved in their field of interest? Is there a conflict of interest when someone struggling with addiction does academic research into addiction? Does the methodology affect this? Does a qualitative researcher have less personal bias than a qualitative researcher interpreting their findings?


texts:
Is it legal to include another person's result in my research paper?

For instance:

Theorem (Name of the author): Statement

Proof. The proof of this appeared in [1].


texts: Are IPython Notebooks code or slides? (for licensing purpose)

texts:
I prepared a short tutorial in IPython Notebook and want to release it on an open license. However, as it is something between code and slides, I do not know if Creative Commons licenses are suitable (they are not meant to be used for code) or should I rather something specific for code (say, MIT or BSD)?

If you are not familiar with IPython Notebook, it looks like that (not mine):

Introduction to Linear Regression (from this course)

Deep Dreams (with Caffe) - Google


texts: Reply an email from a potential professor?

texts:
I'm applying to a PhD program. I contacted one professor and told him that I would like to join in his research team. He replied to me as below. Is this a positive response? How could I reply to this email?

  Thanks for the e-mail inquiring about the position of the Ph.D. candidate. I am very happy if you can join our laboratory and work with us. The enrollment to the doctoral course at Univ X is basically free if you pass the entrance examination, but I guess you have no problem because you have already passed the master's program at Univ Z. I think you need a scholarship for studying, don't you? Currently, Univ X has some scholarship positions. You can apply for these positions. However, these positions will start
  Fall 2021.


texts:
A few months ago I attended a panel discussion on non-academic future careers for physics PhDs. The panel was made up of two senior physicists, a science communicator and freelance journalist, and a CEO of a finance corporation with a degree in physics. At some point I raised the question of whether the PhD program is functioning properly, and maybe we should do something about the PhD program before lecturing senior graduate students in theoretical physics on the importance of acquiring skills suitable for non-academic careers to get a job after grad school. To be more concrete, I referred to a Nature article that I had come across a few years earlier. The two physicist panelists blatantly dodged my question. The CEO, who I suppose had received his degree in early 2000s, added a comment along the lines that it is better to have more highly educated people in the society rather than fewer.

Are advisers hiring more graduate students to get more research done and compete better in getting grants, or there is an actual need for more PhDs, at least in natural sciences?


texts: How to compare the quality of research group?

texts: There are metrics on the quality of universities (e.g., rankings) and individual researchers (e.g., Google Scholar), but I found it harder to judge the performance and impact of individual research groups. Although the ranking of the university, departments and the profiles of the leading researchers are clear indicators for the entire group, I was wondering if there are any other good metrics, indicators or properties that indicate the impact and performance of a research group?


texts: Is it ethical/legal to obtain journal articles from reddit?

texts:
My university's subscription is really limited (I come from Lebanon). I never found any paper related to my research or essays using the database that my university is subscribing to; even the basic pioneering papers in business. Yesterday, I started writing my master's thesis and the very basic papers behind my topic cannot be accessed through my university's portal (cannot simply ignore them) and I, obviously, don't have access/cannot pay for individual papers. What to do in this case? Someone here recommended a Reddit page that provides and shares papers upon requests. How legal/ethical is that? The page claims that all the shared papers are based on the concept of fair use.

Eventually, I have 3 options: Follow this way, adopt a bad scholarship behavior by not tracking down original references to check myself (which is out of the question) or I just go home and forget about writing a master's thesis or a literature review because it's almost impossible to access those papers without the help of option 1. As for emailing individual authors, well none have replied so far so it isn't always a practical option as I cannot wait days for 1 particular paper to be received (if any).


texts: Do I have to be concerned about self-plagiarism in a short accessible methods description?

texts:
I published a methods paper about a data analysis method (in cognitive neuroscience), and I'm now working as a co-author with colleagues on two experimental papers using that method. Since the main audience of these papers will be much less technically inclined than that of my own, I have been asked to provide a concise (1 paragraph, about 300 words) summary of the method which explains its logic and workings as precisely as possible for that less technical audience. In one case the need for such a paragraph has been stated also by a reviewer, explicitly writing that just referring the reader to the methods paper is not sufficient.

My question is: Since the requirements of this paragraph for these two papers are identical, it would make sense to use the same text for both – but would this be considered as a case of self-plagiarism? And if yes, what can I do to avoid that?

Options I have considered:

– Include the text in one paper (likely to be published first) as-is, and then quote it in the other paper. However, explicit quotations either in quotation marks or as an indented block are extremely uncommon in (at least my) science. So would a footnote like "this paragraph has been copied verbatim from XYZ" be the right thing to do to mark it as a quotation?

– Slightly change the wording, sentence structure, etc. – In my understanding this is worse, because it just adds an attempt to disguise on top of the self-plagiarism.

– Just write a separate text for each. But because the requirements are identical and I'm writing them both within a matter of days, it his highly likely that I'll end up with near-identical text anyway, and that any differences would be artificial, just like in the last option. There are only so many ways one can explain a technical matter in a concise, clear, and accessible way.

In each case the paragraph is embedded in a longer passage that details how the method is applied to the specific experimental design of each study. In one case the text is going to go into the supplementary material, while in the other it will be part of a regular methods section.

Morally speaking I don't see any concern here, because this text in no way claims to be original anyway, but just paraphrases a paper which is of course properly cited. But should I be concerned about others seeing this as a case of self-plagiarism?

I'm interested in your personal evaluations of this matter, but if possible also in some "official" references.


texts: Notable academics or departments ranking list?

texts: Is there anything like a directory or list of notable leading living figures based on subject area or research concentration?


texts: Is it too late for me to be pursuing a degree in medicine?

texts:
I will be 26 years old soon. I did my bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and I worked in an investment bank for sometime. Then I joined a masters in Applications of Mathematics, but I dropped out without completing the degree. I have been working as a research assistant for the past six months.

I have no real exposure to biology or medicine. But of late I feel very interested in Medicine. I began with interests in mathematically modeling bio-processes. I am also interested in instrumentation for bio-medical purposes.

Given my current circumstances, I feel I can indeed pursue a Ph.D. that would allow me to get involved with some medicine, mathematics and engineering. And I seem content with that.

But I want to know:

If I too strongly feel like actually practicing Medicine (full-time with a license) after completing my Ph.D. will it be too late for me? Is it too late already?
At the moment I am not imagining myself to be seeing patients in the future. I imagine to be more invested in research, publishing and lab-work. Will pursuing a degree in medicine be the right decision for me? If I am not a MD, will I be able to run clinical trials? I have come across some MD-Ph.D. programs, but I wasn't too clear about them.

Thanks!


texts: Are lay articles good enough to be the main source of information for PhD research?

texts:
Doing PhD in new field that does not have enough resources in it. Most of the information I find are articles written in websites such as medium.com.
I really feel awkward citing a website article, as I feel it is not good enough. It is not from university, it has just the author name, not much info about him/her, and the way it is written is for non-academic purpose.

Is it ok to have many of these articles as the source of my information in my PhD? If it is not ok, then what can I do? there is no reliable resources! The field is Artificial Intelligence.

To be more specific: It is not about AI in general, it is about a topic in AI that has not been explored thoroughly, the only place that has done that is Google and they keep the research they have done private and not accessible for public, i have contacted them but they rejected to help with their research

Edit : I know that there are millions of AI researches in the internet. but there isn't anything I was able to find on the area i am studying. google has a product and they are selling as a service and they are not publishing the research they have done on that area, i have contacted google and they did not allow me to look at their research.. there are other researches on other areas may touch that field but none i found on that field specifically.


texts: Should I send my AP scores from highschool to a graduate school I am applying to?

texts: I scored a 3 on my Statistics test, and while it did not count for my undergraduate school as they only accept 4+, it would be a bonus when applying for a doctoral program in Clinical Psychology. However, since it was high school, would it do more harm than good?


texts: Dealing with a slow moving project as a professional researcher

texts:
I have an undergraduate degree and I'm working as a medical researcher in a research lab, affiliated with a University. I've done very little since being employed, due to problems such as:

lack of usable samples for projects
equipment being broken down for long periods of time
issues getting trained on equipment & techniques
waiting on reagents with an otherwise unspecified delivery date

Sadly, roughly the first 6 months or so into work I was given very little to do so had to try and self direct as much work as possible, which I filled by teaching myself software programming and data analysis automation. There were several attempts to get me trained on things that would support my project but due to people being too busy or not wanting to give up time for their own work, every attempt failed and the training would get forgotten about. This was a difficult situation as the people training me were not actually a part of my group (I don't actually do any work with my team), but collaborators/colleagues/students from other labs in the institute.

Programming worked very well for a good 4-5 months but now I'm back into another rut with all of my equipment being out of order with an unspecified ETA on repair as well still waiting on reagents. Whilst I know this happens in science all the time, when it comes on the back of nearly half a years worth of not a whole lot it's hard to keep spirits high.

This has caused a severe reduction in morale and 'excitedness' about work and I often come in day to day feeling depressed and unhappy because all I can do at the moment is busywork (lab stocklists, cleaning, etc). How do people go about dealing with a slow moving or otherwise stagnant project for long periods of time?

I should mention that I love the environment I work in, including my boss and the people I work with. I got the opportunity to move to an entirely new state and experience a different way of living, which has been very nice. My boss is happy with my work (I was re-contracted) and says I have very good ideas and is sympathetic to my current situation but has little to offer in terms of solution, granted he's not able to speed up repairs or make my reagents come in faster!

Clarification

I thought this warranted a clarification. I have done some work which has contributed to the project and provided some good insight. I am now trained and fully autonomous in the work that I need to do. My only restriction at this point is having the equipment I need to work and the reagents for them. A problem which is kind of rife throughout medical research.


texts: Changing thesis supervisor to avoid bad letter of recommendation from current supervisor?

texts:
I entered current school as a Master-Ph.D. integrated course in high energy physics, however, decided to graduate as a master in this year and will apply abroad in the next year since my research interest is different from that of current supervisor. The defense is upcoming, indeed is on this Friday.

I'm considering changing MS thesis advisor because I'm uncertain but I guess my current supervisor may write a bad letter of recommendation.
I had several troubles with him mainly because his research field and style is different from mine. He implicitly mentioned that I took other student's chance of being his student because my interest was different from the beginning. I asked him explicitly if he can write a letter for me, and although he said he will write the paper, many of what he said after this implied bad contents. For example, I asked him if I regularly report what I'm doing in next year, whether he can re-evaluate me or not. He politely rejected this saying once I graduate from his lab, I and his life should be independent and he shall not care about mine. He also mentioned that evaluation should arise naturally, not in such an artificial way.

My defense is on December first, so it's within this week. But I have been seriously considering to changing supervisor and to postpone graduation to the next semester. I already got approval from a faculty to whom I want to transfer. He also explained the project I will take on if I change the supervisor to him.

However, I am very worried that it would be very rude and inappropriate behavior to change supervisor due to the worries about a bad letter and within such a short interval before the defense. I'm also worried that doing this will make current advisor as an enemy. But I am confused because he had suggested me to change the supervisor at the end of March this year.

If I graduate this semester and get a bad recommendation letter next year, even though I got strong ones from other faculties and researchers, will it be a significant weakness in the Ph.D. application?

Can any advice or opinion?
Thanks.

P.S. In a comment I left, I mentioned that my advisor rejected advising me. To be specific, he told me that he is very busy so he will not advise me in person but instead he will ask two PDs in the lab for my thesis. He seemed very busy, but I was first student of his the only two students, and I know that he is regularly advising and being in discussion with an undergraduate student for his graduation thesis.
Also, he explicitly mentioned that since he doesn't trust my ability, he can't allow extending my work beyond the elementary scope when I asked him for adding contents beyond the Standard Model on my thesis.

P.S.2. I am quite certain that I can get a good reference from the faculty to whom I want to transfer. Even though I graduate this semester, I'm planning to work with him next year. In this case, if I have a bad reference from the past supervisor while also have a strong one from another faculty with whom I will work next year, will it seriously affect my application?


texts: Is it more respectful to address a professor who is an MD as "Dr." or "Professor" in email?

texts:
Thus far in my postgraduate academic career I have leaned towards addressing my (US MD) medical school professors who are MDs, MD/PhDs, or PhDs as "Professor", since we are not in a clinical setting. Today two of my classmates addressed one such MD as "Dr." in an email chain following my reply, as if to correct me (though maybe it was out of habit).

Was I less respectful than I could have been by addressing the professor as "Professor"? The latter title seems more prestigious in the context, but maybe I am mistaken.


texts:
The manuscripts version made online in journals are often updated. For example, from the "Accepted" to "Final" version.

Many times the version retrieved by sci-hub is outdated, is there any way to force sci-hub to get the last published version?


texts: Transferring / re-applying to PhD programs - Humanities

texts:
For humanities PhDs:

If you find that your research topic has changed such that you no longer are a good fit in your program, is it possible to re-apply and get accepted into the same program at other schools that would be a better fit?  Can anyone speak to this experience?


texts:
How much is an editor of a typical research journal (e.g., with annual 12 issues and 5,000 pages) paid?

I talked with a book editor, and he said he received less than $3,000 of the book sales for a research book with over 1,000 pages and 30 chapters.

I am curious if is it comparable to a full salary or is it just an honorarium, and editors provide this service because of scientific prestige only?


texts: Should I abandon any further higher education knowing that I was dishonest as an undergraduate?

texts:
This feels uncomfortable to ask, because I know my actions have undermined what I've worked toward.

A little background: I graduated with a bachelors degree, and then went on to get a masters degree in a different field from a different school. I did well in both programs, including a few years of research during my undergrad. That was a few years ago, and since then I have been working professionally outside of academia. My goal has been to eventually go back and earn a PhD.

That is still my goal, and although I didn't behave unethically during my masters, I am troubled by academically dishonest actions I took as an undergrad and I'm not sure how to reconcile them. There are two specific incidents that particularly bother me.

In the first incident, I gave a class presentation that kind of followed a secondary source while only citing the primary sources. I now understand that is also plagiarism. In the second incident, I was panicked because I was struggling in a class. Another student had evidently found the solutions manual to the homework. He approached me, and I ended up giving him a small sum of cash in exchange. This is especially bad.

I have a few questions. Although it could certainly never happen, If I faced sanctions from the undergraduate university, would they revoke my degree? Would sanctions prompt the other universities to revoke my other degrees, including my masters and a PhD if I had earned it? How should I move forward? Would it be wrong for me to enter a PhD program?


texts: How to handle ethics review (IRB) when moving between institutions

texts:
Is it convention for a researcher who changes institutions to reapply for ethical review (IRB) on ongoing projects at a new institution, or keep working with the IRB files at the institution where the researcher originally applied, until the studies are ready to be closed?

For context, I just finished my PhD in a social science and I'm moving to a new institution for a postdoc. As a social scientist, my projects are either solo or with a few co-PIs, so any answer may be different from people in the sciences.

For clarity, IRB is the term for US universities' ethics review committees. From Wikipedia: "An institutional review board (IRB), also known as an independent ethics committee (IEC), ethical review board (ERB), or research ethics board (REB), is a type of committee that applies research ethics by reviewing the methods proposed for research to ensure that they are ethical." source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_review_board


texts: Final report rejected, institution asked to return funding and prosecute my supervisor

texts:
When I finished my PhD, I was working on a small grant project worth €6000 with the aim of integrating computational software and public services offered by another institution. In our final report, I stated why we did not achieve one of the objectives (due to technical complexity discovered during the project beyond the project scope: the technical complexity might be known by experts; however, we were not experts at the time of writing the grant proposal).

The other objectives were met; the grant report was finalized and left to my supervisor, who was the coordinator of the project.

Due to several circumstances, the project was evaluated after 2 years. It was rejected, as the funding was not met in part of university participation, the reviewers rejected also the project due to not fulfilling some of the objectives.

It seems that supervisor will be liable and need to return the funding, or it will be deducted from his salary.

Am I morally liable to participate in this return, even though no fraud or misconduct was done?


texts: If I drop from my architecture studies in ETHZ Zurich, can I restart in Manchester?

texts:
I think about studying architecture in ETHZ Zurich (Switzerland), but due relatively high student dropout I have certain concerns if I would manage to go through.

Assuming I fail the necessary exams enough times to be asked to abandon studies, would it be possible then to try exactly the same (or closely related) subject in another leading university like Manchester University (United Kingdom)?

If the details are important, the details are Europe, ETHZ, Manchester University. If the answer can be generalized somehow, this would be obviously great.

I am aware that if I drop from ETHZ I cannot restart studies any relative discipline there. I am not sure however is it just an ETHZ specific internal rule or some unwritten rule with potentially much wider coverage.


texts: Do physics grad school look for an undergrad math degree?

texts:
I am currently a second year. I'm thinking about going to condensed matter physics grad school, but I don't know what degree combination would be the best. Does physics + chemistry sound like a good choice? I saw that many people going to physics grad school have a math degree. But I already run out of class slots to be a math + physics double major. I'm also afraid that physics grad school would not appreciate a chemistry degree.

I do have an interest in math. But I somehow feel that the math for physicists/chemists(specifically physical chemists) is a little different from that for mathematicians. Does it mean that physicists/chemists just pick up math along the way in their own fields? Which means I don't need to major in math in order to do physics research in grad school?


texts: Is it always necessary to mathematically define an existing algorithm (which can easily be researched elsewhere) in a paper?

texts: I'm writing a paper which explores a new forecasting method. I compare the results with those of an existing algorithm as a baseline. Plenty of literature already exists on the existing algorithm, and the definitions for the new forecasting method already make the paper very math-heavy. Being in-depth mathematical definitions of the existing algorithm can easily be found, is it necessary to define it mathematically in the paper? Would it suffice to clearly describe what it does in English? Adding math for the existing algorithm on top of the math for the new one adds significant complexity for the reader. On the other hand, readers who want the full definition may have to research elsewhere which could lessen the appeal of the paper to peer reviewers. Any thoughts?


texts:
In December I applied for a post doctoral position. After 4 months I had my job interview and now one month later they are ready to make a decision.

Is a long interviewing process a red flag? I am concerned that this shows that the department has a bad organizational structure and decisions are slow to be made.


texts: Pure mathematics graduate scholarships in Europe for international students with a bachelor degree only in engineering?

texts:
Short Question: Are there any graduate (PHD or masters) pure math scholarships available in Europe for  international (non-European) engineering students ? I would like to get examples.

Long Question: I am a mechanical engineering major who wants to study mathematics at a graduate level. Due to extreme circumstances, I wasn't able to get a bachelor degree in mathematics. However, I self studied lots of mathematics. I self studied graduate math topics as well. Some mathematicians at my university were following some of my mathematical progress for 2-3 years. I expect to get excellent recommendation letters from them. I also coauthored a paper with one of these mathematicians (not published yet). I also participated in a national math competition held at my country four times and achieved first position. Thus, I believe the only thing I am lacking is a bachelor in mathematics. Another problem is that my GPA in engineering isn't too high (because I lacked interest in my engineering courses), it lies in the open interval ]3.3,3.35[.

Specifically, I would like to know about scholarship opportunities in Europe where a person with a strong math background but without an undergraduate degree in mathematics is likely to be accepted.

An example of a scholarship that I know of is this one :

https://diploma.ictp.it/application-admission/diploma-programme

However, it doesn't meet the criteria for this question since it requires applicants to have a bachelor degree in mathematics.


texts: Which address to state as my own at top of publication?

texts:
i am a MSc Computer Science student writing on a Work-in-Progress publication for ACM SIGCHI.

This format including PDF drafts is defined here:
(http://chi2015.acm.org/authors/works-in-progress/)!

At the beginning of the paper the address for each author is defined separately. Both my mentor (PhD student) and his Professor have their institute address standing under their names, both the same address (institute at our Uni for electrical engineering). Me and my fellow student are studying at the institute for computer science, i.e. another faculty with significant another address and we are not working nor having an office/address there.

What address should be stated under our names?

I think we need an address, under which letters arrive us, which I think is not the case for the electrical engineering faculty nor the computer science faculty of our Uni. Do you think so, too?

Consequently, I think our personal home addresses have to be stated. But then it appears strange or unprofessional, because it looks like we are not affiliated with anyone.

What would you think?

Thanks in advance!


texts: One of the master's student is working on a research problem. I am a PhD student. I have an idea which I proposed to my advisor on the same problem. Now he wants me and the masters student to work on that idea and publish a paper. Would I be treated as a first author in that paper or would I be a second author?


texts: Should I challenge my professor who thinks he's always right?

texts:
One of my professors has been in the IT development fields for over 40 years. He thinks he is up-to-date with all the latest research and technology. But I believe he's not.

The problem is - he hates when a student (like me) dares to point out his mistakes or flaws in reasoning. Or when a student suggests a better (modern) solution to a problem.

How to deal with such a situation - should I keep challenging him or keep quiet until the end of semester? I don't want to lose grades (he's been known to give lower grades to students who asked him too many questions he wasn't able to properly answer).


texts: Should former group member be included as a co-author in a follow-up to his work?

texts:
The field is chemistry. We had a postdoc in our group who made three members of a series of compounds. He collected data, analyzed it, and wrote a paper (several other members of the group were included as co-authors for their contributions to various analyses).

The postdoc then left the group to take up a junior faculty position in another university.

Subsequently other members of the group (including co-authors of the original paper) synthesized further members of the original series, collected data, analyzed it and are in the process of writing another paper.

The topic of discussion is whether the original postdoc should be included as a co-author?

On the one hand, he did not make the samples, analyze them, or directly contribute to the second paper. All of the work happened after he had left the group. But on the other hand, the second paper is very much a follow-up to the original work, and would probably not have been possible without the work he put in on the project.

Should he be recognized in some way (co-authorship? acknowledgement?) or not?


texts:
I am currently considering offers for non-tenure track teaching-oriented positions (full-time, multi-year contracts) and wanted to get advice on whether to take the offer now, or wait another cycle to apply again for tenure-track positions.  My ideal job would be a tenure-track position with a better balance of research and teaching responsibilities.

When I graduated from my PhD program two years ago, I had a tenure track offer but decided to decline because I wanted to experience what it was like to work in industry.  However, I quickly found I missed academia (the agency, the ability to contribute new knowledge, working directly with students) and decided to try to return to academia after working for a year.

However, I think my lack of recent publications during the time I was working in industry hurt my job prospects, and the only offers I currently have are for non-tenure track (all worse offers in terms of both salary and start-up package than the tenure-track offer I had two years ago).  The industry job I currently have is not research oriented and would not afford me the opportunity to publish the work that I do day-to-day.

I worry that the teaching responsibilities of a non-tenure track position (6 classes a year) will make it difficult for me to devote time to doing substantial research.  At the same time, being in a university will provide facilities as well as students to be in a better position to do research in whatever time I may have outside of teaching.  I'm also concerned that staying in my current industry position will not improve my chances during the next application cycle as I am not doing publishable work.

Should I take the teaching position and just do my best to publish and keep my eyes out for a future tenure track position?  Or is there another option I haven't thought of?


texts: Is it possible to resubmit a corrected manuscript when the manuscript is under review?

texts:
About 10 days ago, I submitted a revised manuscript based on the comments of Referee. But I just found out that I made a mistake in the newly added appendix. Now, the revised manuscript is under review, and I am not sure if the Referee is reading it or not.
So I want to know if it is appropriate to submit a new manuscript with the mistake corrected.
It is the first time I encountered this embarrassing situation. I should have been more careful.


texts: What are the benefits of doing a PhD on a case study?

texts:
As I review PhD positions available in my field (environmental engineering/sciences), it seems to me that some subjects are simply big case studies. I mean that the entire research is about applying an existing method to a new place or context rather than developing a new method.

Of course, since no place is truly unique, the method will have to be adapted to it and this might lead to a significant contribution to research. But still it leaves me with the open question of what is the benefit of such a PhD for the student's future career?

I would guess that doing a PhD on a case study rather than on fundamental research leads to better job perspective outside academia, for example as a consultant, but that might hinder your chances of doing an academic career. The problem is that with a BSc or MSc you can already do consulting, so such a PhD seems pretty useless. But maybe I'm missing something of the big picture, hence my question here

Finally, are such PhD offers common in academia in general or limited to some fields/geographical areas?


texts: Is it safe to use up all the words available in a word count limit when submitting a journal article?

texts: Let's say that a journal article submission wordcount limit is 10,000 words. Does this mean that only really awesome or important submissions should be over 9,500 words? Or any article can be at 9,999 without predisposing the editors against it?


texts: Is applying for other positions during the early stages of a PhD you don't like considered bad?

texts:
I've recently started a PhD position in a university and I figured out that many aspects deject me. At the moment I'm employed in a test phase of a few months, and this has led me to think of leaving this position if it didn't fulfil me by then.
With that in mind,

Is it ethical/professional/acceptable to ask my references for additional recommendation letters, again, for the new positions I'm going to apply to?
Is a sign of lack of commitment and interest (and therefore, unprofessional)?

I appreciate your opinions.

PS: Even though I have accepted this position, it never was among my top choices. In fact, my decision was very much affected by the situation of COVID in my country and the market recession.
UPDATE
The main reasons unprofessionalism strikes my mind are the following. I hope it clarifies my situation more.

I'm in the very early days of my PhD, the transient phase so to speak. So any extrapolation of my current situation to the future isn't reliable. I'm afraid that I'm making my mind during this transition time, before adjusting myself or tasting the research as much as I should.

As far as I can feel, the non-academic aspects of my unhappiness outweigh the academic part; For instance, the cold environment of the campus and the city, the depressing atmosphere of the only accommodation I could find, as well as my flatmates (please look at PS2) who are desperately are looking for jobs in the wakes of the pandemic, all transfer a sense of stagnation to me. Although some of these issues can be solved, I believe they need an immense amount energy and time, probably comparable to the effort I need to put on my research.

I accepted this position with one vital side goal in mind, which (to be honest) is as important for me as the PhD degree if not more: learning the local language (until B1 level). Learning a new language is though, especially alongside a PhD. I know it needs extra focus and perseverance. But with all I have to face (summarized in the previous number), and knowing my personal mental capacity, I'm seriously sceptical about being able to achieve this.

I believe these are decent arguments on a personal level, but maybe not academically. I'm afraid that Academic institutes may find this chain of reasoning unsatisfactory, a set of excuses, or a sign of unreliability. As I'm barely a researcher at this point, I'd be grateful if you can shed more light on these arguments and resolve their (lack of) pertinence to the academic world to me, as an experienced outer observer.

PS2: My flatmates are good people. However, I'd rather like to be surrounded by people who are trying to push forward a meaningful protect with passion. That kind of people whose perseverance inspires others. And I'm not talking about superman; For me, any other PhD candidate is a good example of such a group.)


texts: PhD student wanting to do "the minimum required"

texts:
I have met a strange situation with one of my 2nd-year PhD students. During the past year, their progress was minimum. They implement and retest existing literature material but haven't been able to develop new contributions based on their research plan (although the ideas are there). I set up a monitoring scheme with biweekly written updates and feedback, sent multiple (written) warnings and talked to the student many times (in the presence of other faculty).

At the annual review, the student was warned that they are endangering to fail their PhD. The student then complained that they believe I have "unrealistic requirements" from them, that I should judge them based on the "minimum requirements" for a PhD. They provided an example of other students from different groups (not my group) that are doing worse than the student.

The minimum requirements of the university are "a thesis with evidence of original work and independent critical ability considered suitable for publication". So, the student claims that my requests for submitting conference/journal publications during the PhD are unrealistic.

Have you ever met this situation before? How do you deal with this?
I have no control over the student's funding stream (external). The only thing I can do is to make a suggestion at the School level. But this will become a "what about" discussion.


texts: is it possible for me to Co-author research paper(s)/article(s) and get it published?

texts: I hold a M.Sc. in Finance from UK and currently live in Toronto, Canada. I want to Co-author research paper(s)/article(s) with a professor/PhD academic and get the paper published in good journal. I want to do this on volunteer basis to gain experience of conducting high quality research and publication. Is this possible in Toronto or Canada?


texts: Should my references be famous if I want to get into top schools for PhD?

texts:
So I've been researching my field of interest and I'm increasingly getting drawn to apply to a few "top" departments (in pure math) -- it seems like such a strong fit at the moment given that I've done relatively serious undergraduate research, though it was more of a "directed" study kind of thing, and my approaches to some of the problems have been fruitless, but have gotten me exposed to so much mathematics that got me excited to learn and think more about the topics I was looking at initially. I have the grades and the GRE scores (past the 80th percentile on the subject test in math, which seems like the unadvertised minimum). However, my reference letter writers don't appear to have any connections to some of these top places. From some research online, it appears that admission committees want to hear from known mathematicians -- but what if my reference letter writers aren't known in said department? Is such an application doomed from the
start?

For people who have served on admission committees, what is your take on this and how would you advise an applicant like me? Unfortunately there's no time to rectify this by going to an REU or the like.


texts: Adding co-author for a revised manuscript

texts:
Is it possible to add a new co-author when requested for a second revision?

Another co-author would help improve the quality of the manuscript, but I am not sure if this is possible.


texts: Is there advantage an for a student to know out of the course question in Ph.D. interview?

texts:
I am an undergrad student with Physics Major, currently in my last year. I'm from India, and recently I have given my first interview for an integrated Ph.D. in Physics. And there are several interviews that are ahead of me.

What I need to know is this: suppose the interviewer asks a student a question, which is off-topic that is to say, rarely thought of at the undergraduate level in any of the universities. The  student might simply say, "I don't have a knowledge of the topic as we haven't learned this in our undergrad course." Or there are some students who go beyond their course and learn the topic by themselves. So suppose another student gives the answer to the same question because they learned it by themself. Can the interviewer judge the students based on this question? Is there any advantage for student B to read stuff that is out of the course?


texts: Is it worthy to publish an extended abstract in a conference?

texts: I have an accepted Extended abstract in an international conference. As a master student, it is heavy to pay for an extended abstract (400 Euros ).  But at the same time is it good for my future to publish an extended abstract ( 2 pages paper ) in a conference?


texts: Can I ask for first authorship on future publications that may come out of my design?

texts:
I am working on a 2-phase design. The first phase is where ideas are proved and verified. The second phase is an implementation of the first stage (Basically, like having a schematic of a building and actually building it). I have done lots of work on the first phase. My supervisor is asking me to give the final work to another person, who we don't yet know who he is, for implementation and work on something else. While my advisor has some contribution, I did almost everything.

Can I ask for first authorship for any papers and publications that come out of this now?


texts: Is it wise to target three different proposals for three different fellowships with three different supervisors/hosts?

texts: I have options to apply for three different fellowships. I want to go for three different proposals with three different hosts. Is it wise and ethical to do so?


texts: Why is the Marie Curie Individual Fellowship only for 'experienced researchers'?

texts:
The Marie Curie Individual Fellowship (IF) has the following eligibility requirement:

"Researchers must be experienced researchers (ER), i.e. at the date of the call deadline (for IF) ... be in possession of a doctoral degree or have at least four years of full-time equivalent research experience." (page 80 of the PDF Work Programme 2018-2020: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions).

By my calculations, this means that that a student spending 4 or fewer years in graduate school must have a lag time of 6-12 months after obtaining the PhD before they could begin to recieve funding. Why is this desirable? Are there any other EU-wide fellowships for STEM which could fill the gap?

(I am aware of other postdoc funding opportunities but none that are as prestigious.)

EDIT: To clarify, why are PhD students not eligible to apply in the fall of their final year, unless they already have "four years of full-time equivalent research experience" at that point? (i.e. a student graduating in May 2021 and applying in September 2020)


texts: Is a copied acknowledgements section considered plagiarism?

texts:
A friend of mine has told me that his Master student (Chemistry) defended his thesis sometimes ago and everything went alright and he graduated.
He recently realized that in the acknowledgements part the student has copied practically (word by word, line by line) the acknowledgements of another thesis available on the Internet by replacing the name of my colleague with the name of the supervisor of that thesis. He added that he was hurt by the fact that the student has not tried to say his 'thank you' words by his own words.

My first question is that can this be considered as a plagiarism?

My second question is that is it necessary to inform the student about this possible (if any) misconduct?


texts: Late bachelors graduating overlaps with possible future masters degree start

texts:
I am posting this question on behalf of my friend. Currently my friend is attending the last year of the bachelors degree and has a interest on following up the bachelor with a masters degree.

Now the issue is in following it up with a masters degree. The university my friend attends is located in Israel and rather strangely their third and final year started very late. Which means that the actual final exams will be around September 2017. Now my friend has a interest in pursuing a masters degree in Europe, however this possibly overlaps because most masters also start in September 2017 in Europe and the bachelors degree exams might still be going on, without knowing if my friend graduated or not.

To summarize:

Most European universities start around September 2017;
The bachelors degree exams finishes around September 2017;
There's a chance that a masters study might have started while my friend is still finishing up their bachelors;
My friend has no delays in the current study and actually has excellent grades.

I guess that perhaps some agreement can be made with a university about this issue. However my friend is wondering what a general accepted thing in this situation would be. Would a layover year be enforced unfortunately or some agreements can be made with the new university, so there can be started later and everything is good as long my friend  graduates.

So my question: The ending/exams of my friends bachelors degree and possibly follow up masters degree start in Europe overlaps. How to proceed with this to make sure no year has to be wasted on waiting to start 'on time' next year.


texts:
How do European PhD interviews work when a candidate is not local? Are virtual interviews common?

Edit: In particular, I am interested in interviewing for a German CS position when I am in Slovenia.


texts: Do you spell out Thm., Prop., Eq., Ch. in mathematical papers?

texts:
Just as the title says: do you spell out Thm., Prop., Eq., Ch. and comparable abbreviations in a mathematical paper?

I suppose that, if in doubt, it is always best to stay consistent (in whatever way) throughout ones writing for the least. Do journals have (different) policies on this, or is there a prefered style when in doubt?


texts: “Contribution to technical achievement” in Australia for the purpose of applying for a Lecturer position

texts: For the purpose of applying for a lecturer position in Australia in computer science, what is actually a "contribution to technical achievement"? This phrase occurs among the selection criteria but seems to me way too broad from a purely linguistic viewpoint. According to the text describing the selection criteria, a "contribution to technical achievement" is supposed to be separate from research experience, teaching experience, experience outside university, creative achievements, and professional contributions – they are measured separately.


texts: Can I submit just two great letters of recommendation if the application calls for three?

texts:
I'm getting ready to apply for a graduate program in biophysics at a few different universities. I'd just like to ask a question regarding the quantity and quality of letters of recommendations.

I'll first give some background about my current application. I have a 3.0 cumulative GPA (there is a valid reason for a few low grades early on in my career which I won't get into here, but my GPA has increased dramatically since then), my physics GRE score is a little low and my general is above the 55th percentile in all three fields.

I have two strong letters of recommendation. One from the director of my lab, and one from the head of experimental physics at my university. My question is regarding a third letter. Most applications state that 3 letters are required. I have two options for the third letter at this point; the first being from my advisor, who I've never taken a class with but knows me well, and the other is from a professor who said he'd write me one but it wouldn't be very strong as he can only discuss my character and, to quote him, "general interest in science".

I'm afraid that a third letter would hurt my application, regardless if two of the letters are strong. How damaging would two letters be in applying to a physics graduate program?

Thank you.


texts: Does a PhD from US carry *more academic value* as compared to one in India even if the research skill set developed is same?

texts:
I am currently an Indian undergrad in physics in my final year. My area of interest has very strong groups at two institutes in my country, and I have both the options before me.  But the story does not end here.
I have a friend who is a graduate student at an Ivy college in the US who has recently suggested that it would be much better to get into a PhD program in the US, because according to them

even if the knowledge and research skill set developed could easily be the same between X,Y institutes and a top school in the US, to apply for academic positions in India, a PhD from the US has more value.

But many people I have talked to have told me that a PhD is not really about QS rankings or a country. It is about the quality of the work that you have done as well as how strong the corresponding research community is at your institute.
These two views are opposites of each other, and I am not sure how to proceed from here. I personally prefer to stay in my own country due to a number of reasons.
Any help is appreciated.