date
stringlengths 10
10
| nb_tokens
int64 60
629k
| text_size
int64 234
1.02M
| content
stringlengths 234
1.02M
|
|---|---|---|---|
2015/10/22
| 644
| 2,698
|
<issue_start>username_0: Is there a term similar to "ABD" (All But Dissertation) that denotes a PhD student who has completed all coursework, but who hasn't taken comprehensive exams and of course hasn't done the dissertation?
I left my PhD program unfinished, just before taking the comps. Hoping there's something similar to "ABD" that I can put on my CV/resume.
Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: In the US, you'd have completed the coursework master's portion of a typical PhD program. There's no shorthand for this. Some people take a master's degree at this point and go on to something else. It's reasonably common to do so. I don't know if typical corporate recruiters know about all of this, but academic-ish labs, government labs, and similar organizations that employ a lot of folks with advanced degrees will understand what happened. So much so that you probably want to have a good stock answer for what happened to your PhD aspirations that isn't a complaint of some sort.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In PhD programs where entering with a master's degree is not expected, then the best way I can think of to denote this status is to list your enrollment in a PhD program for a period of years and then list that you got a master's degree at the end. (**Added**: Forgive me for not mentioning this explicitly, but: of course you actually have to get a master's degree at the end in order to do this! What was left implicit is that this is a very common procedure for students who drop out in the middle of a PhD program. Often it is something that can be arranged with relatively little trouble.) This does not correspond to exactly what you asked for: you mentioned "completed all coursework", but in fact many PhD programs do not have much in the way of required coursework. I think it gives approximately the right spirit: i.e., you left in the middle of a PhD program, you were not *almost* finished in any sense, but there is a recognizable sense in which you completed some of the work.
If you entered your program with a master's degree, you could still list this if you've gotten a second master's degree (I have seen this happen). However if you were enrolled in a program which has a master's degree as a prerequisite, then I don't know what you can write: at least in my experience there is not a clearly defined level of "PhD coursework" separate from both master's coursework and exams and PhD-level exams.
I should also mention that in most non-academic walks of life, "attended a PhD program and didn't complete it" is about as fine a point as most others will naturally draw. There is usually little or no stigma in having left a PhD program.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/22
| 672
| 2,752
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have recently defended my thesis in Sweden and started to look for positions, pretty much anywhere. As a part of the process I am currently trying to update and freshen my CV, linked-in profile etc.
I noticed that I am having difficulties in fitting into the existing templates when describing my profile. My work is of a rather [interdisciplinary](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/10798/interpretation-of-a-phd-degree-in-a-very-broad-interdisciplinary-field) nature, in a research group that is not very close to what the other research groups within the department work with.
So say my research groups is working on *Bowling* and our department is named *Joggling*. This rather odd organization of research groups is due to the "common use" of bowling pins. In this rather silly metaphor, my own research would be on *Wood wax*, relevant for bowling but not so much for circus trickery. So calling myself a "PhD in Joggling" would be extremely misleading when looking for jobs, whereas "PhD in Woodwax" is technically lying.
Given space, I can describe what I do and effectively dodge the bullet by something like "*I have a PhD from Department of Joggling, focusing/working on Woodwax*". However when the number of characters is limited it becomes rather tricky.
Are there any good ways of handling this?<issue_comment>username_1: I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you have a PhD from the Department of Joggling, you have a PhD in Joggling more or less by definition.
Most people in academia are aware that a specific research project can go quite far away from the basic area of the department that it is done in. Whenever someone tries to evaluate whether you're a good fit to a certain area, the department you got your PhD in is only one of many, and not the most significant, aspect.
In your CV, you can easily state the title of your PhD thesis. It's reasonably short and hopefully conveys the exact field you worked on most clearly. When there's no space for that, it's sufficient to say that you have a PhD in Joggling.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Your Ph.D. is in the department is says it is in, and there's nothing that you can (or should) do about it. For example, my Ph.D. is in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, but my thesis didn't really have anything to do with EE. That's OK: most people understand that the actual names and structures of departments are complex and often historical artifacts.
What will really speak for you in your application is your thesis and publications. If the titles of those clearly show your area of work, then just make sure that they appear clearly and prominently wherever you present yourself.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/22
| 600
| 2,582
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm writing my first paper, so I'm unsure about the guidelines I should follow. The subject is within the field of mechatronics and computer simulation.
If I use some basic physics equation in it (say Newton's second law), should I always add some reference that validates this formula? Or such basic equations don't need to be validated?
If the answer to the above is no, then what if I introduce a lesser known physical model (such as Coulomb's friction model)? Should I then add some reference explaining it in detail to the reader?<issue_comment>username_1: Justifications are for claims you make that need to be justified. Everyone reading your paper will know about Newton's second law. Everyone reading one of my papers (in quantum theory) will know Schrodinger's equation. I don't think people generally cite them, because everyone will need to know them to understand anything in the paper even a little.
On the other hand, I don't know what "Coulomb's friction model" is off the top of my head. If you introduce this, you should cite it. In general, if it's something that's well-established (but not necessarily well-known) I often see people referencing a textbook. This is quite common for things like mathematical theories. If it's less well-established or more particular, find a paper or review article.
My main recommendation, however, is to learn from your surroundings. If you're writing a paper, you must be citing a lot of previous work. What do they say, and what do they cite? That can tell you what the expected norms are in your field.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The problem is how do you define "common knowledge". I usually add a general book on the subject, if the concept is crucial to understand what I'm trying to say in the current work.
>
> One of the main ideas behind citations is to provide a path to the reader obtain further knowledge in the mentioned subject.
>
>
>
While you may think that newton's 2nd law is common knowledge, is that really true for all your potential readers? If you have space for it, which is a few lines on the references section, why not? That's particularly true when a commonly defined concept has different possible interpretations, by specifically mentioning a book, you are clearing that possible ambiguity (that the reader will find just by googling the subject...)
Of course, I usually do not cite someone when defining addition, at least not the regular one... so the problem is mainly there, just a little further down the road :)
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/10/22
| 790
| 3,253
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have applied for a Ph.D. in Computer Science. I do not, however, plan to become an academic afterward. What I want to achieve is to try to commercialize my research by founding a startup or find a job outside of Academia, using the knowledge I will obtain for enhancing or building products/services for my employer.
What I would like ideally, is to achieve Academic as well as Industry expertise in machine learning and AI, through a job or by trying to found a startup with a related thematology. Becoming a professor is completely out of my goals. However, I want to be able to study academic literature with ease.
Do you think my goal is reasonable, or a Ph.D. is an overkill that would make me overqualified, losing precious time in case I change my mind in the future?
The reason I want the Ph.D. is to learn more things and receive more hands-on experience in Machine Learning. I believe that this process will also enhance my critical skills and analytical thinking.
I understand this can get difficult and risky but I am willing to try.
Does my goal make any sense or do I need a reality check? I need a hard critique...
Is that a healthy reason for attending graduate school?<issue_comment>username_1: Both fields are currently "hot" and have several practical applications. Thinking IBM research, MS research, tableau.com, just to name the few that I've applied to... there is absolutely no shortage of jobs. If you interface that with big data, you should be ok for a few decades, at least...
Full disclosure: My phd was in image processing (well, not quite, but not ML either) and I'm currently changing my research area exactly because of that demand...
I know it is not on your plans, but just to be complete, that is even more true for professors and TT positions... cra.org has at least 1 new opening/day in those fields...
So yes, if you wanna work ML Research, a good PhD, with publications (think CVPR+) is *the* way to go.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: **Working at your startup**
One thing for sure is that, if you want to start a company (a *startup*), you should not be afraid of being overqualified, since you will be "the boss" and there is no one to classify you as such.
**Working in the industry**
While being overqualified sometimes (perhaps, even, often) applies to positions in the *industry*, a Ph.D. graduate is highly unlikely to be considered as such in ML/AI domain, where it is often a *requirement* for most positions.
**Working for other people's startup**
Even though most startups generally don't care about degrees, those, working in ML/AI-related domains, will be happy to consider and hire a good Ph.D. graduate for the obvious reason: due to relatively *high complexity* of the required ML/AI-related subject domain expertise.
**P.S.** Please note that my answer addresses only your concern of being overqualified, but does not touch a larger question of feasibility of your plan, factors to consider in decision making and so on. However, it implicitly suggests that this one of possible routes to achieve your goal (whether it's the best or the optimal one, depends on a lot of factors, including your personal circumstances).
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
|
2015/10/23
| 3,396
| 14,338
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am currently an undergraduate student. I noticed that regardless of what courses I'm taking, there are always a handful of people who view everything as a huge competition. That is, they would do anything possible (other than committing academic offenses) to ensure that the final grade they receive is higher than everyone else's. They create a rather hostile environment.
However, I always thought that Academia is about advancing knowledge, which means we need to help each other, not put each other down.
I am still young, but I have been thinking of pursue an academic career. So my question is, are there any reasons for this competitive behaviour? Is this just an undergraduate problem that will go away when I enter graduate school? Or am I just way too naive of how the world really works?<issue_comment>username_1: People will be people, in short.
Some people are competitive. Some of them fiercely so. And some people are jackasses. Some of them fiercely so. Some are both at once. Some of those, fiercely so. They'll all be pretty much everywhere you ever are, being the people they are, because what else can you really expect them to be or do? Academia, offices, your family, the corner gas station, even your friends probably...they'll be everywhere, living their lives, doing their thing. I suggest you just get used to this facet of the tapestry of human personalities.
If you happen to think they have driven things into a violation of university rules--sexual harassment and discrimination could certainly cause a hostile environment--then you should report it to the appropriate authorities, as that is not okay and is not something to simply "get used to".
You may also be experiencing the typical shock of reality from an idealistic view of "college will be totally different from high school." It's really not that much different, especially for Freshman, other than that most of the students have easier access to sex and alcohol (and drugs, honestly). All of your fellow undergrads were high school students not too long ago, after all.
Lastly, depending on your college or the grading policies of your specific courses, the competition may be *actively encouraged*. Some universities have held policies such as "Only the top 10% in a course can get an A, no matter what," which means even if the class is nothing but Einsteins then only 10% of them will get an A and they will obviously have to compete for those positions. This can be even more pronounced when the number of B's is also limited, which can mean students may find themselves with a very bad-looking grade if they aren't willing and able to compete for a better one.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: You've asked a question that is both very important and very difficult, as well as one that is likely to draw different answers from different people depending on their own experiences in academia.
This is because there are both competitive and cooperative aspects to academia. Different people take different strategies with respect to the balance between these two, and that affects their communities as well, so that the mixture of competition and cooperation that you encounter will also radically differ between different academic communities.
Some of the key factors for inducing cooperation are:
* Science is *hard*.
* Working together, people can accomplish things that they cannot possibly accomplish alone.
* Cooperation in a team gives you an advantage when competing with other teams.
* Many people enjoy working together in teams, and this is just as true for science as it is for any other human endeavor.
* Scientific discovery feels *awesome* and it can be really fun to share that feeling with other people.
Some of the key factors for inducing competition are:
* Inherent conflict of ideas: when theories compete, people often become polarized and begin competing based on the "team" they support intellectually.
* Limited resources: you've got a good idea, but a lot of other people have good ideas too, and there is not enough funding to support all of them fully: some people will not get what they want. Likewise, the Hubble space telescope can only point at one thing at a time, and there are a lot more things people want to point at than time to point at them.
* Explicit competition set up by external agencies. For example, DARPA will sometimes make scientists in the same program compete with one another, and the loser gets their funding cut off.
* Many people are just plain competitive, and want to "win" over other people in various different ways, and this is just as true for science as it is for any other human endeavor.
Bottom line: just like everything else, academia can be a competition, and everyone faces some aspects of a competition. But it's not *just* a competition, and I feel sad for anyone who experiences it in that manner.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I think that academia, as many things in our life, is a rather complex phenomenon. As such, it very much depends on how you look at it. By "how" I mean from which *perspective* as well as at what level of consideration, usually referred to in academia as *unit of analysis*. Based on this framework, one can discover, as is expected for a complex system, that academia exhibits both aspects you've mentioned (*advancing knowledge* and *competition*), along with many others. It seems that levels of those aspects are different both in nature and effects, based on perspectives and units of analysis.
For example, at an organizational level, we see generation of significant advancements in knowledge, but also some, and sometimes significant, competition for prestige, funds, talent, etc. Similarly, at an individual level, there is both advancement and competition, but their nature, intensiveness and effects. It can be argued that, under specific conditions, competition positively affects advancement of knowledge to some degree, directly and indirectly, at the various levels of analysis. More generally, it can be argued that those aspects, along with other related factors, affect each other and provide an interesting and important area of research.
In regard to the competition, especially, on an individual level, I think that it represents a complex phenomenon as well, combining *internal psychological* factors (i.e., proving one's worth to yourself, natural evolutionary "survival of the fittest" instinct) and *external economic* (i.e., career advancement as a safety net) ones. Considering the subject at higher, organizational levels only adds complexity to potential analysis. Your question is indeed interesting and important (hence +1), but large and complex, so my answer hasn't even scratched the surface in terms of comprehensive description. However, I hope that it will provide some food for thought and further discussion.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: No, universities (academia) generally aim to educate for the sake of it. By definition, this is the goal of academia. This is usually reflected in their admissions requirements, which are purposefully low enough to only pose a barrier to those who are unlikely to benefit from the education offered. This often puts universities at odds with prospective students who feel entitled to displace others based on having **exceeded** the admission requirements to a greater degree. This competitive attitude is encouraged by society's promotion of higher education as a mere vehicle for attaining greater relative wealth, and not as a worthy pursuit in and of itself.
Graduate school will be better.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: The world is one big competition. However, as privileged individuals, we can choose how much we participate in that competition.
In general, when something is described as *top* something, it's a sign that more competition lies that way. By steering clear of such places, you can live a less competitive and less stressful life.
Academic research is interesting and fun. Unfortunately, the rest of the world isn't willing to provide for everyone who wants to be an academic. As a result, there is always going to be more competition in the academia than people would like.
The best way to avoid excessive competition is being flexible. Don't work on the fashionable topics everyone else is working on. Find your own niche with some low-hanging fruit, and become *the* expert in that niche. Don't be too eager to get into the best positions at the top universities. There are hundreds of good universities around the world, and most of them can be good places to conduct research. The world is full of opportunities for those who can find and catch them.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: Apart from what @username_2 has posted, I have one more point to add: crowd mentality.
When the major portion of people who enter a field tend to excel, the rest of the population are pulled towards it. This is what leads to the resource conflict problem in the first place.
This comes under the Law of Supply and Demand. In today's world where education itself is considered as a commodity, we are considered as supply entities. When prices of the commodity increase, the supply also increase in the same direction. Sadly this also leads to the decrease in demand of the commodity. When only proportionately lesser entities can be allocated to the resources (jobs), the rest is up to the survival of the fittest.
One may not to keep all of the above in mind. As one of the comments stated, it would just ruin the rationale of education itself. If everyone just go for the field that interests them most *and* work at it, they would succeed regardless of the feeling of contest.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: I've found it also depends on the culture inside the university. Some of the universities I've studied in (and frankly and ironically, the ones that provided a better overall education) were non-competitive. There was no one-up-manship as you describe. Some of the classmates were clearly excelling beyond the rest, but there was no competitive spirit displayed.
Other universities have a more competitive spirit displayed. This comes from the level of the professors and is fostered by the overall culture.
An anecdote: I've noticed that lower-quality schools including some state schools seem to foster the competitive style. This is unhealthy and reduces the quality of the education. I have not noticed it as much - ironically - from the best schools like MIT and Stanford.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: >
> However, I always thought that Academia is about advancing knowledge,
> which means we need to help each other, not put each other down.
>
>
>
You are being judgmental. You may think that *Academia is about advancing knowledge*, but other people may disagree. Also, telling other people what they *need* to do, such as help each other, is generally not a good idea. Stop projecting your ideas on other people and take care of yourself.
>
> Or am I just way too naive of how the world really works?
>
>
>
Nobody knows how the world really works. Everyone just sees a certain slice of the whole complex phenomenon.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_9: >
> I am currently an undergraduate student. I noticed that regardless of
> what courses I'm taking, there are always a handful of people who view
> everything as a huge competition. That is, they would do anything
> possible (other than committing academic offenses) to ensure that the
> final grade they receive is higher than everyone else's. They create a
> rather hostile environment.
>
>
>
Unless you're enrolled someplace like ancient Sparta, if this behavior is causing problems ("rather hostile atmosphere" sounds like it is), you might report it to their teachers or other appropriate people at your college. If they're not sympathetic to your concerns, you might consider another college.
>
> However, I always thought that Academia is about advancing knowledge,
> which means we need to help each other, not put each other down.
>
>
>
I'd say that's a good principle. All such principles are just single perspectives, though. Real people and situations can be seen usefully from a variety of (often contrasting or even contradictory) perspectives.
>
> I am still young, but I have been thinking of pursue an academic
> career. So my question is, are there any reasons for this competitive
> behaviour?
>
>
>
Good question. Each situation is different. Perhaps it could be interesting and useful to discern what's happening in the cases around you. Various possibilities have been suggested in answers here. Could be the academic structure (grading curves, limited slots) or the ideas (and sicknesses) your culture, school, teachers, or maybe just certain students have.
You might also consider whether it's really a problem worth worrying about. People who think that "life" or "the world" are about competition, tend to express ideas designed to convince (themselves and) others, and this can suck others into needless concerns or arguments.
A perspective that can be useful is "what we resist, persists"; it may be best just to ignore or avoid such people. I'd hope that (outside Sparta) just being a good student will still be effective, regardless of their competitive antics.
>
> Is this just an undergraduate problem that will go away when I enter
> graduate school?
>
>
>
It could go away by going to a school or class that isn't like that. Few I've known would I call "extremely hostile"! Some graduate programs may be like that, but you can try to detect and avoid those. Subject can also tend to correlate to a difference (e.g. law school, business school, and limited (enrolment/grant) programs, versus humanities or less-overly-popular subjects).
>
> Or am I just way too naive of how the world really works?
>
>
>
No. Even if one were to adopt a selfish competitive philosophy (which I don't recommend), it would still be foolish (even in Sparta, or a sports program) to treat small-scale tasks as competitions and to fixate on beating everyone else and so create a hostile environment. That's undermining one's own learning environment, and to me indicates sickness.
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/10/23
| 1,200
| 5,166
|
<issue_start>username_0: Suppose I disagree with the methods and/or conclusions of a paper published in a scientific journal, and I produce some new results that refute the claims in this paper. What would be the best way to publish my contradictory results in a way that challenges the original paper, but also shows respect for the authors of the previous paper? Should I explicitly mention the positive merits of that paper before explaining why I think that the conclusions are wrong? Or would it be implicitly assumed that I disagree only with the previous paper's scientific conclusions, and I have no negative feelings towards its author(s)?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Should I explicitly mention the positive merits of that paper before explaining why I think that the conclusions are wrong?
>
>
>
Yes.
What does it hurt to say something nice? The key is to find something meaningful to be nice about.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Firstly, research isn't a contest and the authors of your mentioned paper are certainly not your rivals. Have you considered contacting them? Refuting their work directly, without doing so, may appear slightly rude.
Secondly, "stating your opinions" about their research at most belongs in a footnote, certainly not in the main body. If you want readers to believe the original method was incorrect, try to convince the reader in the most transparent way possible: science. If your method is better, prove it. If you can explain why their method wasn't as good, just contrast the two.
"Our method is based upon that of <NAME>'s 2014 paper{cite}, but we opt to use Thermite instead of flour; we base this decision on research by D. Evil, showing that Thermite has been shown to be more fun than flour in the bread-making process{cite}."
Whether or not you cite the research explicitly in the text depends on the journal's style guide. If it uses numbering, a direct mentioning of the author's research in the text body (as opposed to "just" a citation) is as polite as you can get.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: I would like to ask a counter question; what it the **main motivation** in you wanting to publish your contradicting results and your disagreement with the authors of that one paper?
I think the main motivation of a publication should be to **add** something to the literature, not the discuss results back and forth. That's what conferences are for.
Without knowing the specifics of your particular case at hand I see the following possibilities:
### Experiment presented is not the best way to test the hypothesis
If your reasons for refuting the article originates from the approach presented in the paper, then you are merely proposing an alternative approach to solve the same problem.
That's the easiest scenario, in my humble opinion, since you can easily refer to Smith et al. and say that your approach is superior/more accurate compared to theirs because X,Y,Z. That would essentially be a standard "original research" paper.
### Incorrect results
if you have tried to replicate the experiment by Smith et al. and cannot come up with the same results, then you can adopt the following steps in that order:
1. Redoing your experiment, once more, retracing your steps to make sure you have done **exactly** as explained by the authors.
2. Contacting the authors to tell them that you cannot replicate their results and whether or not there might be a key step that you might have overlooked. This is a sign of good faith for your fellow researchers.
3. In the case where despite all your efforts there is something just not right, you can try contacting the editor with evidence on contradicting results, which may lead to a correspondence type paper. This approach might come across as a more or less accusatory approach however.
### Misleading conclusions of results
If you think the specifics of the experiment (or equivalent) are solid but the conclusions drawn and presented are misleading, you can write an opinion piece, or a commentary and send it to the editor.
Be sure that the discussion (i.e. whose conclusions is more accurate) is **actually relevant to the general audience** in that field. Otherwise it's just scientific banter which can be carried out by email.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: When describing papers in general, when your results conflict with the one in another paper. You may do the following.
1. State the positive outcomes of the paper (that is not in contradiction)
2. State the matter that contradicts with your belief and how so.
3. Show how your results defend your belief.
Note that your aim is to *defend* your theory and not to *attack* the previously stated one.
It is natural for theories to evolve as further research goes on. We all know that the atom was first proposed to be an indivisible element which was then later found out to be composed of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Then, muons and mesons were discovered. In nowhere along these lines did the author of the successor had to worry about opposing the theory of the predecessor. That is the beauty of science.
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/10/23
| 1,576
| 6,872
|
<issue_start>username_0: I study mathematics and sometimes I have seen book that contains problems but not their solutions. Why are there no solutions available anywhere?
For example, the books I have read are:
* Neukirch: Algebraic number theory,
* Lang: Algebra,
* Liu: Algebraic geometry and arithmetic curves.<issue_comment>username_1: One possible reason is that the author foresees that students will be using the book as a textbook, with professors assigning homework questions from it.
Thus, they omit solutions from it.
Another equally possible reason is the lack of space (printing limited by number of pages).
Yet another possible reason is it takes too much time/effort on the part of the author. (Edit: changed the adjective)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: For graduate-level math books, the answer is typically not a value but a complete proof---typically of a related but relatively uninteresting topic. For example, one of the first exercises in the Neukirch book you reference is:
>
> Show that the ring Z[i] cannot be ordered.
>
>
>
For such problems, the proof itself is typically much less educational than the process of struggling with the concepts in order to produce said proof.
By the time that students are taking graduate-level mathematical courses, they are expected to have already mastered the general skills of constructing proofs. Seeing how somebody else has proved a point is thus not expected to be particularly educational, whereas struggling to prove something oneself forces a student to engage deeply with the material at hand.
Finally, examples of working with the concepts in the exercises are typically already given in the chapter, in the proofs of the main results, so adding extra examples by working proofs for the exercises would typically be of only incremental benefit, but undermine the value of students having to work through the proofs themselves.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Writing a graduate math textbook is a large effort that usually takes several years. The author typically has a vision of what material he/she wants to cover. After writing all the chapters and polishing everything, the exercises are probably the last part he/she works on. They are often meant as a pointer to additional more advanced topics in the literature that expand on the main content of the chapter, and adding solutions could require an effort comparable to writing an entirely new chapter (or several) to present that material in a polished, readable form. So, by that point the author feels that he/she is ready to move on to new projects and in any case the community is best served by releasing the book without exercise solutions. Solutions are sometimes added in later editions if the book is successful and the author is still passionate about the project.
Source: personal experience as a textbook author.
**Edit:** Another thought that occurs to me is that adding exercise solutions can substantially increase the book's size. If the book is already of a good length (say 300 pages or more) then doing this could make the publisher very unhappy, and could potentially make the book less appealing to readers, who would start being intimidated/turned off by the book's length.
TL;DR: [Real Artists Ship](http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Real_Artists_Ship.txt); [Less Is More](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/less_is_more).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: It is widely believed that there should be no solutions available, even privately, since this somehow ruins the game. This presumes that there should be "exercises" of the traditional sort in advanced mathematics courses, which is already partly dubious, since (as is often visible in commercially successful texts) it leads to make-work exercises often of questionable interest. I'd agree that there do exist significant, meaningful questions that may not fit into a small book... but would argue that then *good* write-ups of their solutions/resolutions should be available somewhere as models. Otherwise, all the students ever see is their peers' solutions... which in principle could be fine, but, observably, in practice, often overlook (through misunderstanding) ideas (from the text or otherwise) that make the resolution far more graceful and persuasive. That is, without *good* solutions, the only models anyone ever sees are "iffy".
(E.g., my abstract algebra text originally aimed to work a large fraction of the traditional significant questions as "examples", exactly to overcome the inertia of traditional-not-so-good alleged solutions of them, and have no "exercises" whatsoever. However, the publisher, who'd already made surprising concessions about intellectual property stuff, really-really wanted "exercises". So I made some near-clones of the worked exercises... And I've received several comments that I'm an anarchist for making those good solutions public!)
So, indeed, I think it's a bad idea to try somehow to suppress "good solutions". People will still grasp at *bad* solutions, and will be learning deficient versions of things to the extent they learn anything.
By the way, it is certainly *not* the case that the standard graduate mathematics texts provide means to resolve all their exercises. Often there is a considerable disjunction. Typically, the disjunction is that the theorems in the chapters do not at all suggest any quasi-algorithmic devices for doing computations in any particular case. E.g., abstract Galois theory usually disregards Lagrange resolvents, so does not hint at *how* to solve equations even when they can be proven solvable by radicals...
Nor is it the case that beginning math grad students are adepts at writing... so there is considerable feedback among them of marginal write-up style, marginal technical viewpoint, too much attention to secondary and tertiary details (often strictly demanded by in-my-opinion misguided texts or instructors), and needlessly distorted ambient language. Good writing models would help people "get over" this.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: It's a commercial decision driven by the wishes of professors (who assign textbooks). Not having the answers makes them more important. I know of one author who wrote a very well regarded textbook with all the answers and had to remove them in second edition because his publisher said it wasn't selling as well.
Note that textbooks from 100 years ago commonly had all the answers ESPECIALLY in college level math. So we have actually become less liberal, more restrictive over time.
I recommend people consult Schaum's, Kahn Academy, or look for books like Stroud or Granville that contain all the answers. It very much helps self study or even directed study (since the major learning comes NOT from the professor, but from working problems on your own).
Upvotes: -1
|
2015/10/23
| 5,445
| 21,586
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am teaching a class of about 100 undergraduates.
The class meets for a three-hour block every week
in a lecture hall which seats about 120.
We have about 2-3 breaks every lecture,
to give students time to buy food, go to the restroom,
and also to work on some in-class problems
which they have to submit after the lecture.
The problem that I am facing is
that many of the students like to chit-chat even when I am talking.
I find that this is distracting for the students
who want to concentrate on what I am saying.
What are some techniques which I can apply
to nicely tell the students to keep quiet?
**Clarification:**
When it's time to work on the in-class problems,
the students get 20 minutes to do so,
and are free to talk as much as they like.
The problem with the students being noisy
is that they are noisy during the lecture
when there are supposed to be quiet.<issue_comment>username_1: You can consider the following.
1. Make the parts when you are talking as brief as possible. If you have to deliver a lot of content, consider flipping the classroom and ask students to read the material before the lecture.
2. Engage students in group work, so they chit-chat for the right purpose.
3. Make sure that the time when you talk is valuable for students, engages them and contributes to their learning. If you do not feel enthusiastic about some part of your lecture, think how you can replace it.
4. Keep your voice at a right level and do not raise to speak over the chit-chat. Instead, you can ask students a question or attract their attention to the fact that you want to speak and fellow students may want to hear what you're saying.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: This relates to the issue of individual and group focus. The following worked for me in a foreign country, where they would speak in their own language and interrupted me as they pleased:
During presentation, after n slides, one slide is a question about the last n slides, where students need to solve it. Then ask two individuals what is the answer? They can't answer? More two... and so on.
**Note on the N**: This depends on the class; and how out of control they are. For me, a master class the n was 7 and for an undergraduate was 5.
**Note on the Question**: The question should not be too hard or easy. A little above the medium level.
After couple of classes like this, you will see, students will take things more seriously and the competitiveness of human nature will dominate the class; which is a good thing.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: This is a technique that my high school teacher used: ask questions, and ask the students who were chit-chatting.
* First, unless the students do not respect the professor, in which case it should be handled differently. In general, the students only chit-chat when thinking that the professor does not pay attention to them. When you ask the students questions, it is a message that "I'm looking at you". So these students will keep silent.
* Secondly, imagine you are talking with somebody, and suddenly the teacher ask you a question. Since you didn't pay attention, most of the cases you can't answer it. It is so embarrassed when all other students look at you, and you will keep silent until the end of the class, and likely the rest of the course as well. This also sets an example for other students.
I was also one of the students being asked in that way, I know how embarrassed it was :)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Call them out when you notice it. Stop what you're doing - single the chit-chatters out, and ask them if they have anything they'd like to say. If they have questions they should ask them so that the entire class can hear - that way everyone can learn. If they do have questions, remind them of whatever protocol you have for questions (raise a hand, hold questions for designated question breaks, etc).
Otherwise, make it clear that you won't tolerate chit-chat and, if they persist, simply remove them from the class. Make it clear that they are welcome to return to the next lecture on the condition that they keep quiet during the lecture. Be sure to be polite and cordial, of course, but don't waver on being firm.
It is not acceptable for a few noisy students to compromise the learning environment for everyone else. Just get them out of there. You probably won't have to do this more than once or twice before the rest figure out that you're serious. As a lecturer, you're the captain of the ship. Don't be afraid to *be* the captain - keeping order is your job. The quiet students are relying on you.
Also keep in mind that it is not your job to make sure that they pay attention - that's their job. ***"Listen to me"*** should not be your responsibility, it should be theirs. Your responsibility is primarily ***"Don't disrupt my lecture! Others are trying to listen to me"***. If they would like to quietly not pay attention, that's fine. They're paying for a seat in the lecture hall - what they do with it is up to them, so long as it does not affect the learning environment for everyone else (who are also paying for their seat in that lecture hall!).
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: This is probably not going to be the answer you are looking for but I would like to give it anyway.
Why do you feel the need to do anything? This is not High School anymore. The people who attend Tertiary institutions are supposed to be adults. If they behave themselves like children just plainly let them.
If they have so little respect for there fellow students and teachers then let them talk. Don't get mad just go on like you always do.
When these man children eventually fall behind you can be honest with them when (and if) they come to you for assistance.
Just remember you are their educator not their parents. You educate them. You don't raise them.
You do have to realise that there is absolutely nothing you can do for a student when there is a refusal to listen to your teachings. I had to find that painful truth out the hard way.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_6: I think it would be better to explain to them how it feels when they chit chat while someone is teaching. Try to make them understand instead of scolding or taking harsh actions. Be more friendly and teach as if thinking from their side(As in what you would've thought if you were one of the student). I think the slight change in your teaching methodology can do the trick.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: >
> Me: "You two with the conversation. What are your names?"
>
>
> Them: "Mike" "Dan"
>
>
> Me: "Hi Mike and Dan." "Class say hi to Mike and Dan."
>
>
> Class: "Hi Mike and Dan."
>
>
> Me: "Mike/Dan you must have some really good stuff you are talking
> about. Since your conversation is more important than your
> classmate's grades whatever you are talking about must be
> groundbreaking." "Can I get two volunteers to come up here."
>
>
> Two students come up (the other students love this).
>
>
> Me: "I am going to ask my volunteers to stand 30 feet apart. Mike/Dan
> come on down and stand next to one of my volunteers."
>
>
> Mike and Dan stand next to one of the volunteers.
>
>
> Me: "Now whisper to the volunteers what you were talking about and why
> it was important."
>
>
> 30 seconds later...
>
>
> Me: "OK volunteers can you share what they were talking about and why
> it was important?"
>
>
> And this is the fun. You will get some stupid reasons. But the
> funnest part is that the two stories hardly ever are the same. Which
> leads to...
>
>
> Me: "Mike/Dan given that you guys can't remember what you were talking
> about 3 minutes before I would suggest taking good notes."
>
>
>
This takes 5 minutes, it is entertaining, and I have never had to do it more than twice for one class.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_8: **Keep it short and simple.** They are adults, able to understand what you ask of them, and able to understand that you have the right to request this. At the first time, say something like: *"Please, you guys in the 5th row, your chatter is disturbing the class. If it's important for the class, you can always raise your hand and ask."* At the second time (which shouldn't happen): *"Please, if you really need to discuss something unrelated to the class, you can do it outside."* At the third time, ask them directly to leave.
Also, don't be too picky. Sometimes people mishear your words or aren't sure what you've written. It happens that they ask the neighbour and he replies. Pointing out this can be annoying to the students themselves, since it's often a result of the lecture, and it would be more annoying if they asked you to repeat stuff often.
Last but not least, do not tell them to listen to you and keep paying attention. Again, they are adults, they know why they are there and it's their responsibility. Make them keep paying attention by good lecturing, and ignore those that don't try to pay attention.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_9: Here are my 2 (euro)cents. Mostly are general remarks based on my -maybe lousy- experience, point 5 somehow answers your question.
1. Though breaks are useful for all the stated reasons and more, one
should always take into account that it takes some time to the
students to regain concentration after a break. During this time,
they typically continue to speak, eat food etc. I typically allow 1
break for a 3 h lecture and 2 breaks for a 4 h lecture (we had 4 h
lectures up to a few years ago).
2. Students, frequently, start to talk when the pace of the lesson is slow. Or put it in an another way: if they can find the time to talk, maybe the professor is not keeping them enough busy. Try to analyze the pace of your lecture and see if it might be worth increasing it.
3. Be sure to look at them when you speak, even if you have to write a lot on the blackboard.
4. Don't interleave too frequently the parts where you speak with those in which they work the exercises. Separate clearly the two parts (e.g. in the first 1.5 h you speak, in the second, they work).
5. When I think that students are speaking too much (rarely; they are typically quiet), I just stop talking, it is typically sufficient to regain the audience.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_10: I like Dmitry's general approach.
Some specific suggestions:
If you have mobility in the lecture hall, you can take a couple of index cards with you to remind yourself what you need to say, and wander around the room. This can be done in a natural way, as an expression of your dynamism and enthusiasm. Now, with great subtlety, pause a bit when you approach the chatty cluster. You must do this with subtlety so as not to embarrass them. Just your proximity, without you even needing to give them a *look,* will generally cause them to stop or taper off. If need be, you can park yourself briefly near them several times during the class.
Here's something you can do if you don't have mobility, or if the above procedure doesn't solve the problem: at some point during the class, say, "I'd like to ask Row 7, starting with green sweatshirt across to black and white baseball cap, to come and see me briefly at the end of class." End two minutes early. (If anyone else wants to talk to you, ask them to wait for you in the hall for a moment, and catch up with them there.) Now you may say to the chatty Hatties: "For next class, I'd like to ask you to temporarily separate and choose seats that are in different locations of the hall. Some students are having trouble hearing, and I need to find a quick solution to that." Do you see? You are not embarrassing them.
Have some classical music playing as the students are drifting into the class. Nothing noisy -- no full brass choir, no crash cymbals.
Periodically show a short, entertaining video at the end of class. Let the students propose these via email.
Last suggestion: do a course evaluation ASAP. Draft it in as constructive a form as you can.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_11: I have been to 1000's of lecture hours in my lifetime as a student/undergrad/postgrad/medical school.
In a smaller class scenario such as your's the best thing to do is specifically single and remove those students who fail to comply after atleast one (1) attempt has been made on your part asking for compliance.
Doing this effectively activates/deactivates the dopamine reward pathway system of the brain in both attentive/non-attentive students. Placing the burden of perhaps lost attendance/lack of information understanding on the troublesome students while not affecting those that are listening.
This is a cliche example of a scenario where it's better to be feared than liked.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_12: The root of the problem is of course that authority works very differently in schools than in universities and the workplace. Young undergraduates are still in the process of adjusting to the new environment, and in large groups they tend to feel strong and carry over the behaviour they have grown up with. In the eyes of the average high-school student, actual subject knowledge is almost dispensable, but a teacher who doesn't know the tricks of the trade is a weak teacher who is asking to be trampled upon.
I haven't tried this yet as I haven't been in a comparable situation, but based on some experience teaching both at school and university level, I suggest the following in conjunction with other techniques:
In each class with a noise problem, ask one student for his or her name. Ideally this should be one of the students who were noisy, but *this is not necessary*. In case of any escalation, ask that student (and possibly one or two others, but no more) to see you at the end of the class. Do *not* announce any consequences or threats whatsoever. The only real consequence will be that you will remember the student's name and will not forget it until the end of the semester.
If one of the students whose names you know is noisy, call that student by name. If someone in the neighbourhood of a student you know is noisy, still call the one whose name you already know. Only if you are absolutely sure that student was quiet, call one who you think was noisy, identifying them as, e.g., "the one in blue to the right of <NAME>".
Picking out a student even if you are not sure it's the right one is obviously not fair, but it's often *necessary* in this kind of environment, and that's why experienced high-school-level teachers often resort to this method. Announcing that you are going to have a word with a student later makes the students think about what could be the worst thing that might happen. Nobody wants to be swapped in for that student. Since most students have no idea of how restricted your options are, that is much more effective than any real threat, and you are not going to lose credibility if nothing happens. Actual threats or announced consequences are less effective, you risk the reaction "So cheap? I want that too so I appear equally cool before the others!", you risk losing all credibility if nothing happens, and it's often a lot of work to carry out whatever it is you announced.
Demonstrating that you remember the the names of (likely) noisy students is a similar strategy. Students will think of all sorts of ways (many of which would never occur to you) how you might manipulate the grades of those students you appear to have taken a dislike to. They don't know that their fears are unfounded before exams are over. (If you need to reinforce this fear, you might tell them sincerely but not too convincingly that you will do no such thing.)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_13: I have found that slowly reducing the volume of your voice can be effective. Students are trying to talk just loud enough to be heard by their neighbour but not so loud as to be noticed. Slowly bring down the volume over 1-2 mins and they will try and bring down theirs too so as not to be noticed. You have no chance if you try and talk over them with a big group (though that can be effective with a group of up to 40 or so). If you can learn a few names and ask "John" to be quiet rather than "the class" you will do better too.
Best of luck - sometimes the class dynamic can just kill you, so don't take it too much to heart.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_14: What username_13 says: "reducing the volume of your voice", is going to work very well.
If the students cannot hear you, they'll make sure they can hear hear you if they know that they need to ask their their neighbor to stop talking. I've seen this technique used with success quite often by some professors when I was a first year undergraduate. I guess what also helped here was the fact that only about 30% would pass the exam and that there was only one make up exam after which you had to wait a year. A significant fraction of the students attending the lecture were second year students who had failed the exam twice.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_15: I have a professor that will look at the person and politely ask, "I'm sorry, do you have a question?"
It typically works.
I think it's slightly embarrassing to the student, enough to get him to shut up, but not enough to humiliate him.
If the student continues, I'd pull him/her aside after class and ask that they not talk in class.
As a student, when someone is talking in class, it derails me from the lecture. I just sit there and think, "how could someone be so rude?" I know I shouldn't let something like that pull me away from the lecture, but it really is hard to concentrate with something like that going on. Because of this, I do think that something should be done.
And I'm not saying that when this happens, the professor is doing a poor job of running the classroom. **This happens often.** In upper level classes it seems less so the case.
Some professor lash out and go on a rampage -- I don't think this is the solution either. I've had professors do this to students and it kind of makes the professor unapproachable in my eyes. I'm worried I'll ask a "stupid" question and they'll yell at me and say, "Weren't you listening in lecture? I went over ALL of this!"
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_16: As noted by [J...](https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20760/j),
it is my responsibility rather than that of the quiet students
to help the noisy students to be quiet.
Here are some of the techniques that I have tried,
as well as my observations about their effectiveness.
**Note about the classroom:**
Due to the size of the lecture hall,
which is more than 100 people,
it is difficult for me to be heard unless I use a microphone.
A wired microphone is provided by the university,
but the wire is not long enough for me to walk
beyond the first row of seating for students.
1. If students who are seated near the front are talking
standing in front of the talking students
and looking more intently at them
is a subtle signal for them to stop talking.
This is quiet effective for some students,
but for others they seem to be oblivious to my presence and my stare.
2. If students who are seated near the back are talking,
I was able to walk through the middle aisle and speak there,
where I was closer to many of the noisy students.
When I was standing in the middle of the students,
many of them were more quiet.
I suspect that this is partly because
they were surprised to see me at that location in the lecture hall.
3. If a group of students is particularly noisy,
I will point out the general area where the students are located,
and tell them, "The students in this section are rather noisy.
Please keep quiet."
4. Catching the students' attention with something interesting
helps them to quieten down,
e.g., showing them a video that is relevant to the class,
or speaking English with a fake British accent.
Observations:
* Students take some time to settle down at the start of the lecture,
and also after every lecture break.
After about 10-15 minutes,
students are more quiet than they were at the beginning.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_17: I'd also like to emphasize that any strong confrontations should not happen in front of the class. I made the mistake of being very confrontational with a student.
She had repeatedly throughout the term been disruptive: talking, laughing, making gestures, playing on her phone etc. in a class of maybe 20. I stopped the lecture and asked her very directly, "Is something funny?" She absolutely lost it. She insulted and yelled at me in front of the class and then refused to leave when I asked her to. I had to call campus police to finally get her to go. Then I had to go through the process of arguing that she should be withdrawn from my class.
If it is a reoccurring problem that is not solved by soft, but firm rebuke, ask the student to stay after class, give them formal warning, follow this up with an email, and then withdraw them if necessary.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_18: Why not make your lecture more interactive, so that the students still chit-chat, but now their chit-chat *is* the learning experience? The flipped classroom, as mentioned by username_1, is one way to go about this, but if you don't have the resources to flip the classroom, you can achieve some of the same educational benefits by the "straightforward questions" and "surveying the class" methods of Steinert and Snell (1999, *Med. Teach.* **21**(1):37-42).
Upvotes: 0
|
2015/10/23
| 1,248
| 5,267
|
<issue_start>username_0: At my department, a thesis defence committee consists of 3-4 professors (including the advisor(s)), one of whom does not belong to the department (so could be pretty much anyone related to the field).
It is common for a grad student to know who his thesis defence committee members are going to be quite ahead of the defence date (usually the student will know before copies of his thesis are sent to the members for review).
In rare cases, the student can even assemble his committee together with his advisor -- this makes sense for example in the case where the student wishes to pursue a certain research direction after graduating, and he would like a potential advisor or reference who is an expert in the subfield to take a part in his evaluation.
However, the general policy of the university (and of some faculty members) is that a student is not supposed to have the information on who is included in the committee until the defence.
While I understand some potential reasons for it, such as avoiding bribery in any form, those precautions seem quite far fetched at a small department where everybody would probably know if any foul play was going on. Also, if it really were an issue, there should have been anonymity in other examination-related situation during one's studies.
From a different perspective, I personally would rather not discover that Euler is on my thesis defence committee when I walk into the examination room (and not because of the startling discovery of the existence of zombies).
What reasons, from your experience, lead to such no-transparency policies?
(I am not facing such a situation, the question arises from a case involving a colleague.)<issue_comment>username_1: This differs from university to university; and from a research group to another research group within the same university; moreover from a supervisor to another within the same research group. On top of all these, a student might be able to change a circumstance a little bit. For example, in my case, one of my advisors was a super random passive human being, where putting him in a room might end up him throwing random comments that would hurt other academics; so, I kindly asked the research group leader to not allow him come to my defence.
**Rationale Behind Secrecy and Openness**: Both points are valid. The openness minded community believe, Ph.D. was a ride, that would be celebrated at the end of the Ph.D. student's work. So they are all gather the people they want, appreciate the student work (if applicable) and might end up discuss the research topics and their future directions. In other other hand, the secrecy community believe people cheat and and/or abusing the system. So they keep things hush hush, as much as possible before the defence.
**When Secrecy is a Strategy**: In some extreme cases, where the student created bunch of trouble, by arguing with an academic and/or not doing his/her work for example; some academics use secrecy as an strategy to deal with this issue in most professional manner before things get out of hand (e.g., physical, law suit, etc.). This is to show the student, nothing is personal here, and you need to go back and do more work before getting your Ph.D.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: In some cases, there is an external bureaucratic entity within the university that imposes such rules on departments, along the way insinuating that an "outside examiner" (even if there is none qualified) is necessary to "maintain standards", because (supposedly) otherwise departments might grant crappy PhD's... But, at my university, such secrecy is not required, in fact, nor is prior communication of student with committee prohibited. After all, wouldn't such communication help everything?
Similarly, some faculty suspect or even explicitly accuse other faculty of having low standards, etc.
Oddly, my university gives PhD students exactly one attempt at a "final oral exam" (=thesis defense): if they "fail", they are terminated. That is, there cannot be any "message" to go back and do more work... which seems to me bizarre.
In my opinion, the scenario in which a student presents a thesis as a fait accommpli with a short time-table to do trivial revisions (as opposed to altering the scope, or, heaven forbid, really learning more things to do a better thing...) is a bad thing. That is, interacting with the committee only at the end of a multi-year project strikes me as bizarre and not useful. All the worse if the committee's composition itself is a last-minute surprise, so that nothing positive could have been done.
But, yes, some of my colleagues apparently believe that there are universal absolutes, so that the notion of discussion and negotiation is what is incomprehensible or corrupt. Indeed, as with some coursework, it seems that a large part of the "test" is to figure out what the "test" might be about. I suppose there is a watershed of opinion about whether such a meta-test isn't at a seriously more-expert level than the literal material. Certainly at the PhD level, the meta-questions can easily become so serious that experts don't agree, so it seems unreasonable to me to require novices figure this out on their own.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/23
| 306
| 1,408
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am applying for grad school, and its the same institution as my undergraduate studies. Can my proposed supervisors write me their recommendation letters as they are the ones that I interacted most closely with?<issue_comment>username_1: Obviously thats the whole point. It is unethical for an academic to write a recommendation letter for a student, he/she didn't interact with. Also, it does not create a problem, if the supervisor is at the same university where you are applying for a master course.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: To the best of my knowledge, it is generally quite accepted for a professor to write a recommendation for a student applying to their own program.
The purpose of the recommendation letter is typically not so much to provide "independent" judgement as it is to provide reliable and useful information about an applicant, beyond what can be gleaned from transcripts, publications, and the applicant's own statements. As such, a professor at the same institution is just as well positioned to provide a recommendation letter as one at another institution.
This can often give students an advantage in applying to their own institution---or a disadvantage if they have picked up a poor reputation. It's not clear to me, however, the degree to which whether there is any ethical issue with that, particularly at the Masters level.
Upvotes: 0
|
2015/10/23
| 2,647
| 11,353
|
<issue_start>username_0: **Note**: personal statement is a different to SOP/research statement. Some universities require this, while the others don't.
Unlike the research statement (SOP), the personal statement fragments into a lot of stories. For example, the structure of the SOP simply has four important points that your need to present well: what I have done, why I'm doing now, what I want to do in the future, and how the department suits me ([JeffE, 2012](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/1529/14341)). And at each point you only have one story to tell (at least for someone like me). But I don't know how to structure the personal statement. There are a lot of suggestions to *brainstorm the ideas* for it, such as:
* How you have overcome barriers to access higher education
* How you have come to understand the barriers faced by others
* Evidence of your academic service to advance equitable access to higher education for women, racial minorities, and individuals from other groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education
* Evidence of your research focusing on underserved populations or related issues of inequality
* Evidence of your leadership among such groups
* And more importantly, how your personal background and experiences inform your decision to pursue a graduate degree.
**Q**: I have stories for those. The point is, I don't know how to structure them in an **unified completed statement**. They are just different sides of mine, and the connections between them are weak. I think that numbering them is even better than just splitting them in paragraph. I don't know if it's OK or not.
Also, as this statement is used for knowing me as much as possible, should I just tell them all the stories I have? And is there any different between this statement and the SOP for undergraduate applications?<issue_comment>username_1: **Edit:** I misread the question and interpreted it as being about including personal aspects in the usual statement of purpose, rather than writing a separate personal statement. Berkeley is unusual among universities in having standardized university-wide on two essays for graduate admissions, a traditional [statement of purpose](http://grad.berkeley.edu/admissions/apply/statement-purpose/) and also a [personal statement](http://grad.berkeley.edu/admissions/apply/personal-statement/), which often deals with diversity and inclusion issues. The advice I give below is aimed at other universities with a single statement of purpose, while Berkeley may be looking for something different in a personal statement.
Don't worry about including all these things in your statement. You don't need them all, and trying to cram them all in will very likely lead to a worse statement. The goal is to write something coherent and well organized, rather than a brain dump of everything that might be relevant.
Overcoming barriers is worth mentioning, but it should not be the focus of your statement. The purpose is just to put your accomplishments in the context of the opportunities available to you, so the admissions committee can judge your potential even if you haven't had the same opportunities as other applicants.
Academic service regarding equitable access could also be worth mentioning, but in most cases it will be at best a very minor factor. It could in principle end up as a tie breaker between two candidates, but it's not going to overcome any weaknesses in your application. Mention it if you have something impressive to say, but don't give it a disproportionate amount of space.
Understanding the barriers faced by others is generally not relevant. It's a commendable personal trait, but not one of the admissions criteria for graduate school.
>
> Evidence of your research focusing on underserved populations or related issues of inequality
>
>
>
This is in an entirely different category from the other topics you mention. The motivation for and impact (potential or past) of your research are of real importance, and you certainly need to make this clear in your statement of purpose if you have something noteworthy to say.
>
> And more importantly, how your personal background and experiences inform your decision to pursue a graduate degree.
>
>
>
If you are talking about telling autobiographical stories to explain how you arrived at this point, it's almost never a good idea. Discussing your academic experiences in college is worthwhile. For example, you might discuss what you learned from different projects (summer research, senior thesis, etc.) and how your plans have taken that into account. Talking about high school is generally a bad idea: it looks bad if after college the most relevant things you can think of to discuss are from high school. Don't even bother mentioning anything earlier. Nobody cares at all who inspired you as a child or what your childhood dreams or accomplishments were.
>
> And is there any different between this statement and the SOP for undergraduate applications?
>
>
>
Yes, it's almost completely different, which means advice for undergraduate application essays is at best useless and at worst actively harmful for graduate applications. At least in the U.S., undergraduate admission often takes into account what graduate admissions committees would consider to be ridiculous fluff (e.g., Caltech asks applicants about "an unusual way in which you have fun"). Your statement of purpose for graduate school should ideally not contain any fluff, and if it includes more than a tiny amount then it will hurt your chances.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Content and intention comes first. Structure follows.
Use your Personal Statement to answer the questions:
>
> 1. Who are you? (what makes you unique? different? distinct? unusual?)
> 2. What do you want? (what motivates you? what are your goals or priorities?)
> 3. What do you have to contribute? (to a community of scholars? to a research team or supervisor?)
>
>
>
First, write an essay that answer these questions. Make it as long as you want, without any structure.
Then read it aloud to a close friend, partner, or colleague. After you read it, complete this sentence:
>
> "What I'm really trying to say is..."
>
>
>
...and have that person write down what you say.
Then read the transcript of what you said. Look for some obvious signs of structure. Clarify that structure. Rewrite the content of the transcript using the clarified structure.
That is your Personal Statement.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: You mentioned in a comment to an older question that you were planning to apply at UC Berkeley. Hence, @AnonymousMathematician probably links to the particular situation your questions results from; although at schools where you have a like split between personal statement and SOP this might be similar.
It seems that this part of the application is meant to put a deserving candidate who faced obstacles (gender, race, financial, ...) but persevered on equal footing with those who didn't face such difficulties. In addition to influencing whether or not you might be admitted, the description mentions that your statement will be considered when fellowships are allocated.
It's a common concern in the U.S., but might not be something you, as a foreigner, are used to. In essence, though, in your country people are dealing with comparable challenges (an Indian friend who, despite being poor, found himself at a top IT and surrounded by very wealthy classmates certainly did, say). If you are part of any minority or group facing occasional hostility in your country, if you are gay in a country where this is still a problem, if you were a woman in a country still placing bounds on women's progress, if you had to work part-time to support yourself (or were supported by poor parents and felt guilty about it), etc. - this belongs into your personal statement; and if you assumed a leadership role, for yourself or others, in such matters, this would be particularly useful.
Now, none of this might apply. Note though that the description on the web page linked mentions that "you can repeat information about experiences in your research statement." So in this case do that, and add a bit about your background (e.g., parents' job or a mentor influenced your career choice; when taking class X, I realized that *this* is what I liked). In your particular case, you mention in another old question that you participated at a math Olympics, while being unnecessarily humble about not winning a medal. *That* strikes me as a good story to tell. I'd focus on the related travel and time in a foreign country (different food, habits, ....), and how meeting all those attending from over the world was fascinating. If you made a friend from another country at the Olympics, good story too.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: Your personal statement or statement of purpose has a huge impact on your chances of securing a place at the university of your choice. The best way to structure it is to break it down as follows:
1) The Hook - this is the all-important first paragraph that grabs the admission committee members’ attention and makes you stand out from the rest. Don't be afraid to get creative with your writing here, you need to construct a narrative that stands out.
2) Are you telling a story? Admissions officers are human too! Don't relay your life story in a dull rote fashion.You need to communicate how you have got to where you are today and where you are going and why!
3) Support your story with data and facts - back up your narrative with actual data to support your claims. be careful not to go overboard and make the statement a list of facts and figures only.
4) Avoid the use of clichés - pretty straight forward, instead of a lame clichés, give an example of something you have actually done and back it up with hard facts.
5) Tailor your admission essay to the university you are applying for - every college is different and every course is different so make sure you do not just talk about how great you are, but what is great about the institution you are applying for.
6) Appropriate language and tone - You are not drafting the constitution or bill of rights, strike a balance between making sure your application is taken seriously and communicating a little of your personality.
7) Be Truthful - avoid the temptation to completely make things up.
8) Are you convincing - ask yourself if this is really the course you want to study and the place you want to study it? If you cannot convince yourself, then you will not stand much chance with an admissions committee.
9) Is your statement logical and coherent? The statement should tell you personal story. There is no set format, but be methodical as you progress though your key points, building a portrait of yourself.
10) Is the language perfect? Speak in plain English and always proofread your finished piece. Better yet, have a professional proofreading service give your statement the once over.
This answer is based on an awesome [guide to writing a killer Statement of Purpose](https://www.vappingo.com/word-blog/how-to-write-a-statement-purpose-ultimate-guide/http://) from Vappingo.com. There is also a free handy checklist to download.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/23
| 1,280
| 5,337
|
<issue_start>username_0: Several researchers in my subfield (and in mathematics in general) use not-self-hosted `wordpress.com` subdomains for their *'professional blog'* (to blog about their research, their latest papers, or any topic related to their interests). *Few* of them use some pages of their blog as *'professional websites'* too (to upload their CV, list of publications, material for courses, and so on).
I've made up my mind to start blogging myself; also, I'd like to create a webpage 'independent' from the one on a subdomain of my current institution (to make my life easier when I'll change place and to have some more flexibility).
**Should I use a not-self-hosted website for both blogging and collecting academic materials?**
So far, these are the results of my research (in and outside my department) on the topic (but I'd like to examine some more objective and expert points):
**"Pros"**
* I like that it is easy to use and set up (without any need to set up (and pay) your hosting yourself and actually "code" your website -- which would be hard since my knowledge of computer science and programming is very limited). Plus, some free themes are nice, essential, and easy to navigate.
* I like the idea of connecting blogging and actual academic work.
**"Cons"** (i.e. the points that I'd mostly like you to address)
* A friend of mine (who is not in academia anymore) implied that not-self-hosted websites look very unprofessional and cannot be fully optimized and personalized. **Is the perception of not-self-hosted websites as unprofessional a real thing in the academic world?** (*In my opinion, on the contrary, seeing a website of the form `namesurname.com` could leave the impression of great pretense*).
* It has been pointed out to me (by a much senior researcher) that **having "serious"** (or at least would-be serious) **research achievements on the same website as "more relaxed, informal, or expository blog posts"** may be detrimental to the perception of the research itself. I strongly disagree on this point, but **I'd like to do a reality check to see if this is actually a potential issue or just an "old-styled-man's viewpoint".**
* These subdomains and (mostly) the themes can be unstable (or be no longer updated/supported) and thus force me to redo the set-up at some point in time. Specifically, they may be more unstable than the website of a university. *I really don't know about this, so I'd like to check, but I've heard it from a grad student in computer science.*<issue_comment>username_1: In academia, an *amateurish*-looking website can almost be worse than having no website at all. Now "amateurish" here does not mean "made yourself"; it instead refers to sites that use bad design practices (lots of garish colors, ill-chosen animations and transitions, poor design choices that make it hard to find information). However, there is not necessarily a strong link between poor design and web host. So, you can and should decide if the web host makes sense *for you*.
I know a number of researchers who have their websites that are hosted by sites such as Google Sites, but they do look professional enough to pass muster. On the other hand, the main issues for a web site in academia is that you are able to find the information you need. A bare-bones text-based website (which many people still use) is perfectly acceptable if you can access a researcher's CV, lists of interests and publications, and get contact information.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Wordpress.org gives more flexibility than wordpress.com. However, if you are going it alone, and are learning as you go, you might as well start out with wordpress.com. You can always switch to wordpress.org if and when you get frustrated with the limitations of wordpress.com.
If you're concerned about the unprofessional look that a long wordpress.com url might create, I would say, if you can afford to spend $10/year on a domain name, then by all means, buy yourself a nice, succinct domain name. It will be perfectly compatible with wordpress.com.
Regarding the choice of domain name, if namesurname.com makes you uncomfortable, then choose a name that means something to you. For example, if you are a researcher, you could name your site after your favorite research method. Or you could select some object or concept that intrigues you, and honor it in your domain name. Or if you have a favorite butterfly with an esoteric name, you could name your site after it. And you could incorporate a photograph of it into your theme. Etc., etc.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I don't have an opinion on domain names, but I do think you should be careful about mixing information on your research activities with blog content. At the very least, I think your blog should not be the only place someone can find your papers, CV, research interests, etc. Perhaps you could make your blog as planned, and also put up a bare-bones academic website on your department's server?
I say this because the people who want to read your blog and the people who want to know about your research interests are probably not as overlapping as you'd like them to be, and it's annoying for both groups to have to wade through irrelevant information to get to the content they want.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/24
| 730
| 3,096
|
<issue_start>username_0: I will be taking GRE this November 2015 (giving four colleges name whose application I will fill fall 2016) , but will start the application process by next year. Will the college keep my GRE score for fall applications of 2016.?.Please help me.Thanks in advance.<issue_comment>username_1: In academia, an *amateurish*-looking website can almost be worse than having no website at all. Now "amateurish" here does not mean "made yourself"; it instead refers to sites that use bad design practices (lots of garish colors, ill-chosen animations and transitions, poor design choices that make it hard to find information). However, there is not necessarily a strong link between poor design and web host. So, you can and should decide if the web host makes sense *for you*.
I know a number of researchers who have their websites that are hosted by sites such as Google Sites, but they do look professional enough to pass muster. On the other hand, the main issues for a web site in academia is that you are able to find the information you need. A bare-bones text-based website (which many people still use) is perfectly acceptable if you can access a researcher's CV, lists of interests and publications, and get contact information.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Wordpress.org gives more flexibility than wordpress.com. However, if you are going it alone, and are learning as you go, you might as well start out with wordpress.com. You can always switch to wordpress.org if and when you get frustrated with the limitations of wordpress.com.
If you're concerned about the unprofessional look that a long wordpress.com url might create, I would say, if you can afford to spend $10/year on a domain name, then by all means, buy yourself a nice, succinct domain name. It will be perfectly compatible with wordpress.com.
Regarding the choice of domain name, if namesurname.com makes you uncomfortable, then choose a name that means something to you. For example, if you are a researcher, you could name your site after your favorite research method. Or you could select some object or concept that intrigues you, and honor it in your domain name. Or if you have a favorite butterfly with an esoteric name, you could name your site after it. And you could incorporate a photograph of it into your theme. Etc., etc.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I don't have an opinion on domain names, but I do think you should be careful about mixing information on your research activities with blog content. At the very least, I think your blog should not be the only place someone can find your papers, CV, research interests, etc. Perhaps you could make your blog as planned, and also put up a bare-bones academic website on your department's server?
I say this because the people who want to read your blog and the people who want to know about your research interests are probably not as overlapping as you'd like them to be, and it's annoying for both groups to have to wade through irrelevant information to get to the content they want.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/24
| 619
| 2,629
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am currently working on my masters thesis in mathematical biology. The work I am doing extends previous work by introducing new biological findings that are relatively recent.
Initially the plan was to take the models in an early paper in the field, reproduce the results, and apply my extensions. But, after a fair bit of work I discovered an error in a model which was bad enough that I couldn't continue to use it as a basis for further work.
This paper is significant in the field (lots of citations, good journal, respected author etc, etc). The error I spotted does have a significant effect on some parts of the analysis. But, to be perfectly honest it's not exactly a world shaking discovery - the original purpose of the paper was to convince researchers in this field that certain mechanisms were plausible and shouldn't be over looked and it certainly did that.
Now, because I found this error, the path of my thesis has taken quite a turn. I've had to propose my own model, perform a similar analysis as the paper, and *then* apply my extension. In other words I've had to redo a non-negligible amount of the authors work in order to do my intended work.
Discussing the error is important for motivating the extra work I've done. **How can I do this tactfully?** What is fair to say, and what should I avoid saying? What kind of language should I use? Should I avoid mentioning it altogether?<issue_comment>username_1: When describing papers in general, when your results conflict with the one in another paper. You may do the following.
1. State the positive outcomes of the paper (that is not in contradiction)
2. State the matter that contradicts with your belief and how so.
3. Show how your results defend your belief.
Note that your aim is to *defend* your theory and not to *attack* the previously stated one.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Use neutral and respectful language, but don't beat about the bush. If the model is wrong, say so. And remember to attack the idea, not the person.
Perhaps say something like:
"This work determined that the while the assumption that [quantity] is conserved is correct in the simpler case of model 1, this does not appear to be correct for the more complex case presented in model 2. This was established by [details of work that lead you to this conclusion]. It was instead found that the quantity is determined by [formula]. Model 2 therefore needs to be amended to [something]."
(I'm not sure if I've quite met all the requirements I've listed, but hopefully it'll give you something to go on.)
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2015/10/24
| 1,265
| 5,108
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am presenting several (11) data sets in a written communication (my dissertation). I have grouped the data separating it into several figures which fill two and a half pages, one after the other. Each figure shows the same three subplots, just with the new data set.
**Is it better to include the same caption in each set of subfigures (a fifth of the page each time) or to reference the previous caption?**
The first option would repeat the something like the following (this is a mock example):
>
> Fig 6. **2x167 in 10–200 mM KCl:** (a) shows the reduced intensity for the varied sample conditions with the inset showing a key region. (b) shows how the scale applied to each data as a function of the concentration. (c) shows the time dependence.
>
>
>
The second option would have subsequent captions that look something like the following:
>
> Fig 7. **3x167 in 10–200 mM KCl:** (a)–(c) as labeled in Fig. 6.
>
>
>
**Edit:**
I was originally inclined to do the first as I am not short on space, but the fact that they are identical has made me less certain. Also, with the captions, two of the groups each fill a page, breaking up the overlapping sentence significantly. This would be somewhat less of a problem if I had more to say about the figure, but I do not need a page of text to explain the differences. I could put them all in an appendix, and only show an example (or make them smaller, as long as the labels do not get too small).<issue_comment>username_1: In a similar situation, I think I put something like "Fig. 6: Results for case X [see text]"...
Ideally, the captions should be self-contained, but in repetition, IMHO, you can skip the long text if you make it clear that is the same situation...
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: If you aren't in a bad space crunch, I would recommend putting the full caption in each one, just as if all of the other captions did not exist. That way, a person who is looking at the figure can get all of the information in one place, rather than needing to flip back and forth between a figure and the relevant caption on another page.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: It depends on several factors:
* Can you expect readers to read this part of the caption only once and remember *everything important* for the rest of the reading? Or do you expect that readers need to constantly consult the caption to understand your figure?
* Do you expect figures to be read in order? Or is it likely that a reader will look at a later figure in the series first?
* How much information does the caption contain? This is not the same as the first point, as not all of this information needs to be important. Also, this is not exactly about length; a short caption with a lot of numbers is worse than a long caption describing straightforward concepts.
* Do you need the space used by the repeated captions?
Positive answers to the respective first questions are in favour of referencing.
But **why reference at all, unless you need the space?** Because redudancy, in particular in technical aspects is annoying and time-consuming for the reader. If a caption references another caption the reader still remembers, this is the quickest way of communicating it. Otherwise the reader has to read the same (usually boring) text again. Moreover, if there is an unneeded redundancy, I would expect that there is a reason for this, e.g., that you changed some details of what is described in the caption. This would usually make me frantically compare the two caption (and thus flipping back and forth).
If you have the space, I suggest a **third way** that takes the best of both worlds:
>
> Fig 7. 2×167 in 10–200 mM KCl: (a)–(c) as labeled in Fig. 6, namely: (a) shows the reduced intensity for the varied sample conditions with the inset showing a key region. (b) shows how the scale applied to each data as a function of the concentration. (c) shows the time dependence.
>
>
>
This way, all the information is available for the reader who does not remember or has never read the earlier figure’s caption. But the reader who did, knows that the rest of the caption is redundant.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: I'd place a summary caption (different in each case, explaining the differences that justify the different figures) under each of the figures, summarize in the text that "figures 1 through 25 show that..." and perhaps add a table highlighting differences. If they truly show the same (or only slightly different) situation, perhaps the best solution is to plot different curves/sets of data on one figure only (or a small set of figures, perhaps with one "general summary curve").
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: I prefer the former one (as a reader)
(a) journals are now published on-line, and the space limitation won't be a problem in the long run.
(b) fewer people read papers from the beginnings to the ends. Most of them would skim through, and they probably won't enjoying jumping through the figures just to figure out what does a line mean.
Upvotes: 0
|
2015/10/24
| 399
| 1,825
|
<issue_start>username_0: Recently, I have reviewed an article for the IEEE (a very good article too). Within the article, the authors place great emphasis on a particular algorithm they developed and used, without disclosing any actual code - but explained very well that it could be replicated (which I won't do)..
Now, after I have provided an anonymous review, it occurred to me that I could further test their algorithm in my similar field of research (giving due credit of course).
How would one go about asking for details of an algorithm developed in an article in review?<issue_comment>username_1: In a similar situation, I have sent an email to the editor asking to pass on a message and giving permission to reveal my name and contact details to the authors if they wish to respond.
Alternatively, but more problematic, you state that you may be able to replicate it. You could go ahead and do that and by the time your work is complete, the original article is likely to be available to be cited. If you were to go down this path, though, you should still be discussing this with the editor as part of your agreement as a reviewer is that you don't do this.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It isn't wrong to request for the code of a paper you refer (after it is accepted for publication). I've provided the code of my algorithm for a few myself upon such requests coming from my readers.
This can be regardless of the fact that you've reviewed the article. But this information can be included in your request as a supporting factor thus indicating your genuineness as you could have asked so during the review.
You may request as soon as the paper is accepted to be published and is available online at least in the open archive as facilitated in some journal publishers.
Upvotes: 0
|
2015/10/24
| 1,469
| 6,086
|
<issue_start>username_0: **TL;DR**: Thinking about leaving my PhD program after 6 months.
1.) The program is not what I imagined it would be.
2.) I'm not positive I need a PhD to do what I want to do.
3.) I've been offered a pretty great opportunity that would put me back on a track that I was happy with prior to my program.
4.) However, I do not want to burn bridges with faculty/people that have invested time and resources in me.
I would love to hear any thought exercises or lines of self-inquiry that people have found useful in making a decision of this nature! **tl;dr/close**
---
I will keep details in the following fairly vague to avoid identifiers.
I am a 1st year PhD Student (6 months in). I've spent several years in "the real world" in between my Masters and my current position. I was achieving just about everything I wanted to during this time, but felt that a little more access to independence and/or creative discretion in designing projects would be nice. I decided to pursue a PhD, visualizing 4-5 years of independent research in a free-thinking environment, and then returning to an applied position outside of the academic arena.
Without getting stuck in the weeds, I'll just say that my program, and academia in general, is not what I had built up in my mind, and I am now incredibly disillusioned with the work of my cohort. I feel as though the end result of my research ideas will simply be research products that remain one or two steps removed from being applied in practice, whereas prior to this work I was taking ideas and just implementing. Creativity realized. I'm not sure a PhD is necessary for what I ultimately want to do. In the end I'd rather share my ideas with a broad audience of practitioners, researchers, as well as lay communities. No textbooks. "Regular books" with complex ideas distilled into elegant simplicity that even the public could ponder.
I have recently been offered a pretty great position that would place me back in an applied position and on the track I was on previously. My intuition tells me to find a graceful way to exit my program, but I also know that I am new. I would give the decision more time, but the external opportunity requires fairly immediate action, and I'd hate to become more ingrained in a current team project and have folks invest more resources in me.
I would love to hear any thought exercises or lines of self-inquiry that people have found useful in making a decision of this nature!
Thanks in advance!<issue_comment>username_1: Been to similar situation. Here couple of points:
**Decision and Responsibility**: You have enough personal reasons to leave. In fact, I'm impressed you figured it out in the first 6 months, which is a good thing. Here is the thing: ***You need to make a decision, and take the full responsibility for it***. Other people in your research group, might have different agendas, and therefore might give you the answer which is good for them. Probably your supervisor spent decades in research and does not get you, or doesn't want you to leave, because he/she spent time and energy in the last couple of months to guide you through your early PhD stage. you see what I'm trying to say here?
**Burning Bridges**: If you decide to leave, this is your answer to your current situation, and other side effects are out of your hands. They are not your wife/husband that you need to take to your consideration. It is a professional decision you made for yourself. Good thing is, you are a PhD student and not a supervisor to leave number of students and their future behind.
**Interaction To Your Supervisor**: First have a meeting with your supervisor, and tell him/her, your decision. Tell him/her sorry for the situation created but you have to do what you have to do.
**Interaction With Friends**: You can also let others know about this, and wish them best of luck.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I'm in a PhD and I absolutely love it, and I fully appreciate how fortunate that is. It's not for everyone, and you've given very good reasons why it's not for you. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that!
Regarding burning bridges, just be open and honest. They'll understand, and they'll appreciate that you won't spend the next 4 years wasting their time and money.
The important thing is you tried, and your decision is based on your experience rather than assumption or hearsay.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Perhaps more a comment on @MercedesSchrödinger's answer, take into consideration that your advisor/school *did* commit resources to you (a place in the research group, some founding, time, a potential thesis thema, ...). Don't believe that you just walking away will go over just like that.
Taking such a step *is* burning some bridges. It is not something to be taken lightly. You might consider putting your PhD on temporary hold (but not for too long!) until your sort out your dilemma.
In any case, if you rummage around here (and also by personal experience, both undergraduate and more acutely during the PhD), you'll see that doubting if you are on the right track is quite common. Sit down, clear your mind, and work through the issues. Write down pros and contras, weight them carefully *with a cool head*, and lay out your future path.
Whatever you decide, good luck.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: ...perhaps this might serve you as well as it does me:
Imagine that you have arrived at the end of your life, and are on your deathbed. Looking back upon your life, enumerate that which you would like to have accomplished in life.
If any of those accomplishments necessitate as consequence the PhD which you currently pursue, then perhaps you might reasonably bear out the current course.
Wise would be remembering a simple truth: that each of us is *infinite* at the core of our conscious awareness. Infinite possibilities we each might at any moment enact, conjure, attract, or cause to precipitate in reality, within the external illusion of the physical world.
Best of luck,
F.
Upvotes: 0
|
2015/10/24
| 943
| 3,852
|
<issue_start>username_0: We recently had a c.s. theory / networks paper accepted at a special issue after addressing a major revision. After we got the letter of acceptance, author proofs, signed the copyright release, etc., we got a letter saying
>
> the paper was inadvertently marked as "Accepted" which was not the decision of the guest editors of the special issue. Apologies for the confusion.
>
>
>
They then ask us to strengthen our revisions to the same reports we responded to before:
>
> Please understand that although we believe that you made a considerable effort in revising your manuscript, we think that reviewers' comments 5, 8, 9, and 11 require further attention.
>
>
>
But they misinterpret what the referees want in those points. One example is that the referee originally asks
>
> Why not use testbed experiment to evaluate it?
>
>
>
(we have given reasons in our paper why testbed experiments are not necessary) but the editor writes
>
> the reviewers ask to perform testbed experiments
>
>
>
They close with
>
> If the paper is successfully revised and the reviews are positive, then it could be accepted and appear in a later addendum to the special issue.
>
>
>
**In short, the editors claim to have accidentally pressed "accept" and then forgotten about our paper for 2 months while it went through the editorial and publishing process, and that we have not met the reviewer's demands, which the editor has clearly misinterpreted.**
How do we proceed in a way that ensures our fair treatment and, ultimately, the publication of our paper at this journal?<issue_comment>username_1: Unfortunately, these things do happen sometimes, and there's not much you can do about it. If the journal does not want to publish your paper yet, there's not much you can do to get it to publish your paper without carrying out the revisions that they request. At least they caught their mistake before it was actually published, [unlike in this case at PLOS ONE](http://retractionwatch.com/2015/08/26/a-mess-plos-mistakenly-publishes-rejected-adhd-herbicide-paper-retracts-it/), so you don't have a retraction on your record.
I would suggest you treat this just as any other request for revision: improve the paper and hope that the next revision is sufficient for publication.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: No one here can tell you what will insure the publication of your article beyond satisfactorily making the changes that the reviewer wants.
On the other hand, I have had at least one successful case writing a strongly worded, polite, and well-reasoned rebuttal letter to the editor explaining why the reviewer is wrong. You might be able to convince the editor that the article is fine as is so that it can be published without additional changes. This route probably has lower odds of success since you have to convince the editor that they were wrong and that their hand-picked reviewer is wrong, but if what the reviewer wants is impossible or nonsensical, you might have to try this approach.
You might try writing the letter and not sending it. Get a couple of close colleagues who are not co-authors to read the paper, the reviewer report, and the letter, and tell you how they feel. You don't have to send it. If you can't convince a friend, maybe you shouldn't try to convince the editor.
Edited to add: This is a strategy that you should only undertake with the help and complete assent of your current co-authors. When I did it, my PhD supervisor and I were the only authors. He agreed, strongly, that the editor was wrong to agree with the reviewer, and we worked on a nice rebuttal letter that was convincing. We sent it under our joint names, but it would have appeared to have come from me more since I was first author and we listed my name first in the letter.
Upvotes: 3
|
2015/10/25
| 1,518
| 6,597
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am in a master's program, and one of my peers in the program is in two classes with me. He is a nice person, but he tends to ask a *lot* of questions in lectures; both of which are very large, and often ends up derailing the lecture for 25-30 minutes.
It has (long since) gotten to the point where many people are bothered by it. He will ask a question if he is hazy on *any* details, and often doesn't allow us to cover all of the material in a lecture because of it. In addition, the professor is typically forced to just repeat him/herself, so we don't even learn anything new from his questions. Of course, we are still responsible for that material regardless of whether it is covered lecture. The professors appear to be bothered by his behavior, though I wouldn't presume to know for sure.
Can and should I say something to this person? I don't want to discourage him from asking questions or feel disliked by his peers in the program, but it seems unreasonable to allow him to negatively affect my and other students' learning experience (and to a rather severe degree).
Note that I am aware of [this post](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36428/how-to-handle-relevant-but-disruptive-questions) detailing how to handle disruptive questions, but I think my question is different because it concerns how to handle it from the perspective of a fellow student rather than a professor.<issue_comment>username_1: Unless this student is a close friend of yours, I think you should bring it up with the course instructors, not directly with him. The person who is in charge of making sure the course is operating smoothly and well is the instructor. In a class with more than a few students, spending 25-30 minutes responding solely to one student sounds like a clear mistake to me. (The fact that this is happening in multiple classes and none of the instructors have done anything about it is curious to me, but I don't really know what to make of it.)
I would make an appointment to speak to each instructor in question about it. I would come to that appointment with specific information about other students who feel the same way. If we are talking about a few students, then probably you should come to the office together. I am a university professor, and if several students came jointly to my office to express concern about the way my class was run, I would have to take that very seriously.
If the number of students who are concerned about this is more than could comfortably fit in your instructor's office, then I think you should make a list of such students in some way, e.g. by writing up a brief, politely worded statement describing your feelings on the situation and getting other students to sign it. Or perhaps even in the second situation it might be better to start with a few students who come visit your instructor's office. Things to worry about in the second situation are (i) you don't want to attribute a complaint to a classmate unless you have specifically talked to them about it and gotten their approval and (ii) if you don't handle things with enough discretion it could get back to your inquisitive peer in a way that you don't want.
Perhaps others will disagree, but I really do feel that if the behavior is acceptable to the course instructors then it has to be grudgingly acceptable to you: I would *not* try to persuade your peer to change his ways. If the additional time spent on your inquisitive peer has consequences in terms of the learning experience, you should bring those consequences to the attention of the instructor, specifically and repeatedly if need be. For instance, if the lectures do not cover all the material that the syllabus says they should, you could ask the instructor what to do about that and whether the exams will be adjusted accordingly. (This is a pointed, but fair, question.) If at the end of the course it turns out that indeed the learning experience was compromised in this way, then you should give appropriate feedback about it.
The only case I can think of in which I would confront your peer directly is if you have as much discussion with the instructor(s) as you can, they agree that the questions are derailing the lectures but are themselves unwilling to do anything in response. They are then really not doing their job, and I think at that point you would be justified in trying to intervene: it seems like the least evil.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I wouldn't make an appointment. Simply wait until the next time this student uses up more than 10 minutes in a class. At the end of class, approach the instructor and wait until others leave. Then say "Joe's question really cut into our class time today, and not for the first time." This should start the conversation in which you can express your concerns about material not getting covered, or you not getting to ask questions, or it just being boring to listen to Joe's one-on-one tutoring sessions.
Why do I not want you to make an appointment, bring other students, bring a list of who else feels this way and won't fit in the office, and explain to your prof specifically what gets missed when 20 out of 50 minutes are spent tutoring one student? Because it's patronizing. It's making a big formal deal out of something that your prof already knows. Some "help vampires" are very good at derailing intelligent people, who intellectually know they should not be helping the person right here and now, and getting their help right here and now.
Given that your prof knows intellectually this shouldn't be happening, all they really need is a little reminder and support, as close to the incident as possible. Waiting for an appointment, gathering your posse, meeting with others to write out the (incredibly obvious really) consequences of the time spent inappropriately in lectures - this may all feel exciting and important, but there's no need for it.
If your class has a post class tutorial, Joe should be dominating that instead. I had a student who would use the whole hour if no-one else came. If someone else came, he would let them ask all they wanted and use all the remaining time. We had some very interesting conversations. But he never interrupted lectures for them. If you don't have a tutorial session then Joe should be going to office hours or whatever is needed to grasp the material. Your prof already knows this, but is having trouble saying it when Joe's hand goes up. Don't try to teach your prof this, just remind and support, that's all.
Upvotes: 4
|
2015/10/25
| 1,030
| 4,419
|
<issue_start>username_0: Many years ago, when I was very new to the world of scientific paper publishing, I was a co-author to a paper that was subsequently retracted after an investigation of the findings. This was before I did my PhD (was a Master's student in a different field that I am currently in).
To explain, my role in the data collection and analysis was quite specific, and in the investigation it was deemed that my part of the work was verifiable and sound. In hindsight, I have long realised that I should have taken on a more active role in proof-reading the article as a whole, cross checking the findings and being more active in the article writing process. For that, I have always taken responsibility - so, even though I do not have anything to do with the lead author anymore - I am not blaming anyone.
Since then, I have been co-author and first author of over a dozen more papers - many are published without difficulty (we check, cross-check and check everything again nowadays).
But, the question remains, in terms of applying for postdocs, funding, grants and the like - how damaging is it to have been a co-author of a retracted paper?<issue_comment>username_1: [The effect of retractions on scientific careers has been studied](http://retractionwatch.com/2015/06/16/life-after-retraction-in-many-cases-its-forgive-and-forget/), and the conclusion is essentially that retractions don't hurt scientists who are behaving carefully and ethically.
For your case, it sounds like you were clearly exonerated, and that your only fault was being a junior researcher who wasn't proactive about ensuring honesty on the part of your collaborators. Since you've since gone on to be more fully educated as a researcher and to establish a good publication record, I would not expect that this past retraction is likely to have any significant effect on your current prospects.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You do not mention the specifics and what exactly the investigation was about, but a reasonable person would expect the *reason* (pun intended) for the retraction to be of importance:
* "It seems that our [equipment was faulty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_FDIV_bug); it turns out that the results of our 6-month long experiments on whether *frumbling* the *meerps* is more efficient than just *frobbing* them are not statistically significant after all".
This happens all the time. Depending on the situation, the authors might repeat their study from scratch, they might publish a study on *why* their previous work was invalid and how to avoid the same issues - or they might decide that retracting the paper is a better solution, especially if they cannot provide a follow-up in a timely manner. I would expect this behavior to be expected and even applauded - provided that it does not happen *too often* in which case it would indicate lack of due diligence when researching.
* "Immediately after our theoretical paper was published, Dr. Jones from the Coruscant University pointed out a contradiction with the well known and frequently repeated experiments performed by Dr. Hamil."
While slightly more embarrassing, this also happens all the time. It could be a simple error in the arithmetic, or it could be that the author was not aware of all the implications of their results in all fields, especially if they have limited access to online libraries. Depending on the field and the actual cause an author might follow-up with work that expands on the original assumption ("Let's see what happens in a universe where two parallel lines actually do intersect at a non-infinite distance") - or they just retract the incorrect paper to avoid references of the "here why that paper is wrong" kind in the future.
* "Noted anesthesiologist Dr. Palpatine was relieved of his position yesterday, after the revelation that the clinical studies on rectal constructs referenced in more than 200 of his papers never actually occurred."
Now *this* is a bit different. It would certainly help if an investigation has cleared you by ascertaining both the validity of your own contribution and your lack of knowledge about (let alone participation in) any fraudulent activity. But keep in mind that some people would always be reluctant, (rightfully?) assuming that in many such cases the absence of proof of guilt is not equal to proof of innocence.
Upvotes: 3
|
2015/10/25
| 1,150
| 5,056
|
<issue_start>username_0: The question is pretty much the title. To start off, I'm not really worried about my record in pure mathematics classes/research. However, solely for the purpose of having a career backup I've also picked up a second major in applied math and several CS courses. I generally have little passion for these classes and ended up with a fair share of B's. My overall GPA is still fairly high but I was wondering if these grades would hurt my application to pure math programs and if I should address this in my personal statement.<issue_comment>username_1: The GPA is certainly one of the competitive aspects of an application for a graduate program in mathematics (and presumably, in most other academic fields), so *anything* which brings down your GPA hurts your application some positive amount. Lackluster grades in applied math and CS are probably going to hurt more than lackluster grades in history and cinema studies.
As is often the case with admissions advice, it's hard to be more precise because the individual admissions committee gets to make up its own mind on how strongly to weight everything. (And this may not be a bad thing: this is what allows one school of a certain caliber to accept your application while another school of the exact same caliber rejects it.)
For this issue, the structure of the department and university may play a role. Namely, for undergraduate programs at US colleges and universities (your profile lists you as living in the United States) it is relatively rare for pure math and applied math to be truly separate majors. In my department for instance applied math is an "area of emphasis" within the math major. Yet more commonly, there's just one major and students show where they fall on the spectrum by their choice of classes. If the graduate program to which you're applying is really just a pure math department (again, relatively rare at American universities, though my own graduate program was like this), then they may (perhaps) be used to ignoring or discounting applied math courses. If there's just one math department then admissions faculty who look at your transcript are probably going to view the applied math classes as math classes, and the amount that you will get dinged for your performance will probably be non-negligible.
Now comes the time to say that I find your overall approach curious. You should not major in a subject for which you have "little passion". If you know you are not interested in something then the obvious -- a bit narrow-minded, but strategically sound -- plan is to take the minimal number of courses required in that subject but make sure that you do well in them. (Most often required undergraduate level courses at US universities are not too challenging for the type of students who are going on to graduate study.) You don't like applied math or CS but you might, as a consolation prize, want a career in them? This doesn't really scan. I think it is much better to pursue serious career goals one at a time: if you don't get into graduate school for pure math you can still get a real world job with a major in pure math, and if at that time you discover that necessity has given birth to interest in these other fields: so be it, you can learn more about them then.
You ask whether you should address this in your personal statement. Perhaps, but since I find your explanation a bit strange I'm not sure what you should write. Consider providing less pointed information: e.g. you were considering a technical / industrial career until you discovered the depth of your interest in pure mathematics....Yeah, I find it tough to put a good spin on your situation that is faithful to the information given. So a brief "sorry, these grades are anomalous; what I really like is **this** and notice how stellar my performance is there" may be the way to go.
Good luck.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: B's in the major you are not planning to pursue in grad school are not a disaster.
Sure, in grad school you don't want to have multiple B's in your transcript. But we're talking about your *undergrad* transcript here. B's are allowed.
Your strength in pure math will be apparent in your pure math grades, your math GRE, your undergrad research experience if you have any (this item is optional, so if you don't have it, don't fret), and your essay. I recommend that you speak in your essay about what really gets you fired up, in positive terms. (Leave out anything about how if you never have to write or debug another large piece of code again it will be too soon.)
There are plenty of schools where pure math and applied math are in separate departments. To be on the safe side, make sure at least one of your applications is to such a school.
And tell your parents (who of course want the best for you, but perhaps are not trained mathematicians), *real men and women do pure math!* (I'm saying that out of support for what *you* like. I personally like applied math best -- but everybody's different!)
Upvotes: 0
|
2015/10/25
| 538
| 2,497
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have a strong background in programming and I'm interested in solving computational problems in other areas like physics or economics. During my bachelor studies I have been involved in several research projects. However, my contribution was mostly limited to solving computational problems. The theoretical side of our research was done by others and I'm far away from really understanding it.
Is there a possibility for someone like me to find a suitable job in academics? Someone, who likes to apply computer science, but not just as a tool for solving simple problems. I'm thinking more in terms of developing algorithms or methods for other sciences, which can be reused and published.
Or is it the fate of computer scientists, who work interdisciplinarily, to only be "used" for programming purposes and not contribute to their group's research any further?<issue_comment>username_1: There is a concept of a research programmer, but it's pretty rare. My primary degrees are in maths and social sciences. While my PhD is in computer science, I use programming as a tool to do social science and am not really a great programmer. However, there is a lot of programming in the research projects that I tend to be involved in. For some projects, we would include a research programmer - someone with excellent programming skills who is doing methods development research. That is, the person would be developing new algorithms to solve some social science problem and implementing it. It sounds like this is what you are trying to find.
If so, such jobs do exist. However, they do not lead to a stable academic job since there's not a clear set of subjects that such a person can teach. Furthermore, the jobs are fairly rare.
Nevertheless, if you want this sort of job, you really need to work out what you ARE interested in. That is, economics or physics or whatever else. After that, you can think about what sort of problems are amenable to computational methods for their solutions. For example, look at computational social sciences (I do network science and agent-based modelling) and computational economics.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I would think you have a phenomenal career in store as an informaticist or data scientist/analyst. Perhaps look into such programs -- they will typically be newer. If you're not keen on another degree, you might even be able to secure a job doing data science now, for that matter.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/25
| 1,048
| 4,274
|
<issue_start>username_0: National Science Foundation (NSF) in US enforces a limit on salary compensation over all grants, often referred to as the [**two-ninths-rule**](http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/pappguide/nsf08_1/aag_5.jsp):
>
> Summer salary for faculty members on academic-year appointments is
> limited to no more than two-ninths of their regular academic-year
> salary. This limit includes summer salary received from all NSF-funded
> grants.
>
>
>
So, for a 9-mo faculty who can fill up to 3 months of their own summer salary, NSF as the sole source of salary compensation doesn't work no matter how many grants one has.
Compared to the NIH model where there is no such limit, in fact 100% of salary can be recovered in theory via NIH grants, this is a rather strong limit.
What is the motivation of the NSF two-ninths-rule? Why not three-ninths to cover the whole summer salary?<issue_comment>username_1: The motivation is to reduce the scarceness of money the NSF has available. It's there to encourage everyone to apply to other agencies and sources of summer salary. NSF grants are very competitive, and if everyone went for 3 months salary, NSF'd run out of funds sooner, or program officers would spend more time cutting budgets to try to fund everything that reviewed well.
It's also not a hard and fast rule. with PO permission, you can get around it if necessary. Plenty of large instruments have full-time staff funded by NSF grants alone.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: username_1 already outlines one part of the reason: to alleviate the scarcity of resources. Another one is that NSF's mission includes education, and allowing faculty to only do research instead of paying their salaries exclusively from external funding would undermine their ability to integrate research and education.
This might call for a 3-months rule instead of the current 2-months rule; the difference may be explained using arguments such as Bill's.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: I don't know for sure if this is historically accurate, but the story I've always heard is that the two-ninths rule was an attempt to avoid the vacation issue. If you take three months of summer salary, then that leaves no time at all for any vacation, since you can't accept summer salary for any time not spent on research. The fear was that if three months of summer salary were allowed, lots of people would request it (since a 9% salary increase would be tough to resist), but the public would be concerned that many of them were probably cheating and going on holiday with their families for part of that time anyway. The two-ninths rule minimizes the extent to which the NSF has to deal with this issue, since there's one month reserved for vacation or other activities.
Incidentally, this fits consistently with username_1's answer: solving the vacation problem this way is probably more attractive for an agency that has less money in the first place.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: One way to look at this is actually look at your question slightly differently - what assumptions do NSF vs. NIH funding make about who you are, and why they're funding you.
The NIH model is *clearly* meant to support dedicated, purely-NIH funded research positions run on 100% soft money, or something very, very near to it (a floating hard money fund for like, 5% effort to cover proposal development time, for example, is somewhat common). This implicitly implies that the NIH is funding the usual employment-related absences - sick days, vacation, etc. And that anything they *don't* pay for might as well not exist, in the case of a 100% soft money position.
In contrast, the NSF model is clearly paying for directed research time, under the assumption that someone else (presumably state/university funding) is picking up the rest of the tab. There's no reason then, for them to pay for things like vacation time or the other things. They only want to pay for the time one might reasonably be expected to be working directly on NSF-funded projects, and between other summer responsibilities and travel, that's probably not your entire summer. As some other's have said, that they're also cash constrained probably helps inform that position.
Upvotes: 3
|
2015/10/25
| 396
| 1,619
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am thinking about where the borderline is with citations.
I made a new picture based on three different sources, so I wrote under the picture "adapted from [3,6,9]." This, however, seems to be funny.
When do you need to include citations for your modifications of pictures?<issue_comment>username_1: It depends on what kind of information you are adapting from original pictures.
If original picture has some very well accepted content in field which you are adapting, you can modify it and use it in your figure. In that case you don't need to give citations. For example, if you are using symbols used in original figures which are well accepted in field, you can use without citing original source.
In contrast, if picture has some new content or some unique concept which you are adapting then you should acknowledge it. For example, if original figure is showing some unique symbol which is output of their new research or imagination, then you should acknowledge it.
However it is always **best practice to cite all** images from which you have adapted content.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I think your first instinct is correct, it just needs a little bit of clarification in wording. I would suggest something like:
>
> Created by combining adaptations of Figure X from [3], Figure Y from [6], and Figure Z from [9].
>
>
>
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: >
> When do you need to include citations for your modifications of pictures?
>
>
>
ALWAYS.
=======
Any time you modify somebody else's work, you **must** cite them.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/25
| 248
| 945
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am interested in doing a PhD in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at any of the premier American Universities. I have a postgraduate degree in Industrial Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India, which I completed in 1983. I have about 30 years of working experience in India as an Industrial Engineer.<issue_comment>username_1: Certainly you can. I personally believed that you will not only be competitive, but respected. My advice, apply, apply, and apply.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Certainly. It is not your age that matters, but the will to excel. Although rare, there are some who do pursue PhD past 50. I don't see why shouldn't you apply. If you are passionate about your aim, by all means go for it.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Well, I was 58 when I applied for the Ph.D. program from which I received my doctorate, so the answer is yes.
Upvotes: 4
|
2015/10/25
| 899
| 3,706
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am applying to our organization‘s scholarship program to pay for graduate school (if I get accepted).
One of essay questions is:
>
> Why is graduate study important at this time in your life?
>
>
>
Well, there are lot of personal reasons for that. For instance, I wish to get my mind off a terrible tragedy in my life that happened about a year or two ago, and they say being productive and busy is one of the best ways to get over things.
Question: How much personal things to include in a scholarship essay? Would this add depth to the essay, or simply detract. I mean, the word *life* is in the question and it includes all sorts of things beyond academics and career.
### Update
Thank you all for your feedback.
It also answered other questions that *I did not post*, so a big thank you to all.<issue_comment>username_1: You should probably keep your academic interests as the main point. If you write that you are applying to recover from a tragedy in your life, it might not be clear whether you are actually interested in that specific program (or are you just looking for something to do) or whether you might change your mind later.
Also, someone could suspect whether you could tolerate additional stress right now.
Anyway, if you have been out of work or study for a long time due to the tragedy, it is probably best to briefly mention it.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I would caution against including too much intimate personal information on scholarship application.
First, it is not clear how your personal story will be received by the people reading your application. Depending on the nature of the tragedy, some people may feel sympathy, but others may find themselves offended or uncomfortable when reading the essay.
Secondly, certain personal tragedies are "stereotypical", such as wanting to study cancer biology after the death of a family member or wanting to study clinical psychology after suffering from mental disorders. Although there is nothing wrong with these experiences motivating your desire to study a particular field, such stories have been used so many times that they tell very little about you as a suitable applicant to graduate school.
Finally, I don't see how the personal tragedy provides a compelling reason why your graduate study should be funded. True, being a graduate student will keep you busy, but there are many other cheaper ways to keep yourself engaged. If you insisting on putting this personal experience in your essay, you should think about why graduate study stands out as the best course of actions.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: You want the readers to feel like you want to be running to something - not away from something.
>
> For instance, I wish to get my mind off a terrible tragedy in my life that happened about a year or two ago, and they say being productive and busy is one of the best ways to get over things.
>
>
>
When you say this, I read it as:
>
> I want to distract myself since I'm emotionally unstable and a wreck. I'm hoping to bury myself in my work and make my problems go away and not deal with them.
>
>
>
It's important to consider how the person reading what you write will interpret it. You might say, in your words, one thing but those reading it might interpret something very different.
In this case, there is nearly no way to write what you are attempting to communicate without worrying the reader.
Instead, write something more like:
* I really want to focus on learning. I have a passion for this and I've really been missing the focused learning available in graduate school
or something similar, etc.
Upvotes: 4
|
2015/10/25
| 1,797
| 7,608
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm working on a data model which, I think, produces more accurate and valid results than *some* of previous works by others, including my supervisor, who by the way supports my work. But so far, the relevant community in general hasn't paid enough attention to the need for such more accurate results in this field.
When presenting my work (verbal/poster/paper), I need to emphasise the importance of the problem and the need to using better models, and that if we used less valid models (such as some of the existing ones) we should expect less accurate results.
Is it rude to use the computer science axiom "[*garbage in, garbage out*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_in,_garbage_out)" (or similar phrases) when referring to others' works in this context?
**Edit:** I missed important details. In my case, by 'garbage' I specifically mean the low-quality data usually used to solve the problem, which makes other models less valid. Even though, **I would never use** it as it might be misinterpreted as evaluation of the works *per se*, rather than the resources used!
But I was surprised and not comfortable to read the analogy in a published comment which criticised another author's results for using unreliable data!<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, it's rude to describe somebody else's work as garbage, and unnecessarily so. You've already said it much better yourself:
>
> if we used less valid models we should expect less accurate results
>
>
>
There's no reason to confuse this simple factual statement with a value judgement. Just because something works poorly doesn't mean it's garbage---it may also simply be earlier and less well engineered. Would you call a Model T "garbage" just because it gives inferior performance compared to a current car?
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Not only would this be rude, but also downright wrong. Science proceeds by successive approximation producing better and better models. But when we find a better approximation, we don't start calling all the previous models "garbage", for at least two reasons:
1. Out of respect, because we know that we wouldn't have found this new model without all the previous ones. And should someone else find a better model than the one devised by us, we wouldn't like to hear our work called garbage.
2. A new and better model does not necessarily remove all the previous models, because the domain of applicability may not completely overlap.
Therefore, highlight the qualities of your work, but don't be rude about the work of those who came before you.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: I think the thing here is that you're conflating the invalid input/invalid output of garbage in garbage out with, well, less accurate models being replaced by more accurate models, which is ENTIRELY a different thing. If you put garbage data in to your model, you would get garbage results out of your model. This does not change no matter how sophisticated the model is.
In short, no, from both a CS standpoint - your model would have the same problem as any other model, or indeed any piece of code, taking invalid input -, and, as others have said, a propriety standpoint, in that you really shouldn't be insulting everyone else's work.
E: Perhaps another way to put this. You're confusing the input with the actual calculations and modeling. If someone input that same guy's data in to your model, it would be equally as shaky in the reliability of the calculations. Accuracy of calculations is another matter entirely.
Another note: I am approaching this solely from a programmer's viewpoint, but the points about not insulting other people are all very good reasons to not use GIGO in your presentation.
E2:Okay, I seem to be serial-editing as I think of stuff.
As regards your edit ("missed important details..."):
I don't get what you're saying there.
Are you saying that you're pushing for more accurate input? Or are you saying something else? Your question and your clarification are at odds.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I'm going to disagree with some of the other opinions here.
GIGO is a recognized term in the industry. Using it appropriately is, well, appropriate, even if people in other industries wouldn't recognize the term as a very common, and appropriately used, term.
Also, in the real business world, people poke fun at competition in advertisements. I've certainly seen it done before. A lot of academia is designed to prepare you for the business world.
You may brush on some sensitivities, and perhaps even offend some people, while other people may chuckle. In short, your level of success may depend on how well you know your audience. What works well for computer programmers might not work as well for an audience that doesn't recognize the jargon and places a lot of value on things like showing respect for others.
However, even if your audience could appreciate a GIGO reference, you must make sure you're using the term right. As a computer programmer myself, I am familiar with the phrase. "Garbage", in this case, doesn't usually mean "low quality data". It means "wrong data", or "random data that could be wrong, and there is a high probability of (at least some data being) wrong". "Low quality" doesn't really fit that technical description of "garbage". Any craftiness points you might deserve would be offset by the inappropriateness of your simple wrongness.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: You initially began by talking about models, but in your update it seems you're really talking about collected data. I'm still a bit unclear.
But it seems that you're grappling with uncertainty in different data sets, so I propose that instead of using the computer science term GIGO, you use a signal processing term: noise. All data is noisy, your new techniques give you a less noisy dataset and therefore allow more accurate predictions.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: It actually depends on if they understand that their work wasn't good enough or look for a better pharse like 'what you put in is what you get out'
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_7: The [golden rule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule) "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" (and the various equivalent statements that appear in a variety of ethical codes) applies just as much to academia as elsewhere. Ask yourself, would I consider it rude if someone (1) referred to my work as "garbage" in the context of GIGO? If the answer is "yes, probably", that suggests it would also be rude for you to use it to refer to the work of others.
I suppose technically that still leaves the question as to whether it is acceptable to be rude to others in an academic paper! ;o)
(1) They say "familiarity breeds contempt", and nobody is more familiar with my research than I am, but there is a difference between being contemptuous of my own work and having somebody else do it for me!
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_8: Yes, it is conditionlessly rude. Other answers explain very well, how bad is if you communicate negatively in a hierarchy. I extend this from the other site:
Although it is rude, it can be justifiable. Sometimes people do garbage, it can have many reasons, many of them is tolerable, many of them isn't.
And, naming the things as they are, makes the situation much clear if the reality is masked by complex polite formulas.
It depends on the balance. But, don't forget: people around you will weigh the real hardness of your negative words probably more serious, as you intended it!
Upvotes: -1
|
2015/10/25
| 644
| 2,784
|
<issue_start>username_0: Is it usual for postdocs (I'm in the US) to sign one contract with the department and then have to accept a notice of appointment online which supercedes the initial one signed?
I signed my postdoc job offer before moving to the US to take up the position and then when I arrived in the country I had to accept what turned out to be my actual contract online which differed from the original one (different start date and end date). This second one stipulates that it supersedes any previous documents signed or verbal agreements given. This has now happened again after a year in the post. A pay rise which was agreed to start on one date has now been pushed back a fortnight on the second document which I am now expected to accept.
Is this normal? Is this fair? Any advice appreciated.<issue_comment>username_1: It is not fair. It is not normal, but it is also unsurprising. Bureaucratic errors happen in large organizations. For example, once I received a contract after the deadline to sign and return it. I advise you politely ask the university to revise the contract before you sign it. They will probably need the online contract because the paper contract is too hard to keep track of.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: From the OP's comment:
>
> When questioned, I was told that this is what the contract is now.
>
>
>
Hmm. Most of the point of a contract is that it cannot be unilaterally changed during the period it applies to. So you can absolutely insist on the old contract -- in fact, just by not signing the new one -- but the last six words of the previous sentence are key. If you signed a one year contract but have the expectation (or even informal agreement) of longer employment, then refusing to sign the new contract could place your future employment in serious jeopardy.
You are really not being treated properly, but you have to decide whether it's worth it to take action. I couldn't be completely sure, but it sounds like you are saying that you signed a contract for a certain salary and are now being asked to sign a contract to cover the same employment period for a lesser salary. Isn't that kind of the gold standard of unacceptable (and of course, illegal) employer behavior? If I were in that situation I would not be willing to sign a contract lowering my own salary. I would do my best to work the situation out amicably, but I would understand that this might lead to a parting of ways between me and the university.
In case it's not obvious, this is definitely something to discuss with both your supervisor and the department head. Their attitude might be "We know it sucks, and there's nothing we can do about it" but even so you should get their advice and, if possible, their support.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/25
| 1,367
| 6,287
|
<issue_start>username_0: I performed a small set of experiments for a few published papers. The authors of these papers decided that my work was not significant enough to warrant my name on the papers. I am not mentioned in the acknowledgement section either, so my name isn't anywhere on the papers. (I left the group due to a lack of funding before they published the papers.)
I'm currently updating my CV and I'm wondering what category I should include these papers under. It should probably be separate from the "Publications" section where I am authors of those papers.
The field is in Biology and Biochemistry. Everything is done in the U.S., in a nationally-recognized lab.
Update: Thanks for all the answers and discussion. I am planning to just describe the experiments I did under "Work Experience" and add an author of the papers as a reference, in case there is a need for verification.<issue_comment>username_1: I don't think there's any good way to include these papers on your CV.
It's not conventional to list anyone else's papers on your CV, so by default everyone will assume you are one of the authors of each paper you list. If you aren't exceptionally clear, so clear that nobody could possibly misunderstand even if they are just skimming and not reading carefully, then you could easily upset people and give the impression that you are misleadingly inflating your publication record.
I think you could probably write it clearly enough (e.g., a section called "Papers in which I am acknowledged but not an author" or something equally explicit, in a substantially different location in the CV from your own papers). However, drawing too much attention to this unconventional choice would itself be a problem. You want the most attention-getting part of your CV to be your own accomplishments. If readers get distracted by something strange, then it will work against the primary purpose of the CV.
These papers would count for almost nothing on your CV anyway, so I see no purpose to including them. In fact, including something like this could look bad, by suggested a desperation to list as much as possible, regardless of how meaningful or important it was. The one case I can think of in which it might be a good idea is a student applying to grad school, with no publications yet but with acknowledgments in a paper or two. Then highlighting these contributions would at least be better than saying nothing. (But it's not worth it if you are an author on other papers.)
As I was finishing this answer, I noticed the comment that no mention is made of this contribution in the acknowledgments. In this case, the CV is absolutely the wrong place to deal with this issue, since it doesn't give an opportunity to clarify. Intentionally omitting someone who carried out experiments from the acknowledgments is unethical, and doing is accidentally is a serious oversight, but your CV is not a good place to accuse someone of poor ethics or sloppiness. (Without an explanation, nobody would have any idea what to make of this section of your CV.)
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Crediting yourself for a published work for which your name appears nowhere creates a verifiability problem: how can the interested reader of your CV confirm that you did what you wrote you did? I also think that putting this work on your CV could create an awkward dissonance between your claim that the work that you did was significant and the lack of external acknowledgement of it.
I would suggest leaving this material off of your CV entirely -- except of course to mention the lab you worked in -- and then get a letter of recommendation from your lab supervisor. If this letter talks about your contributions to the lab, it will be much more convincing than if you mention it yourself. If you cannot persuade the appropriate party to acknowledge your work in a letter then you have a problem, for which the only easy solution is to drop the matter and not try to get "credit" in this way.
When you stop working on an academic project but still want to get credit for it, you should have a discussion there and then. For people who have continued to work on a project for months or years after you have dropped out of it, it is psychologically natural for them to regard you as "no longer interested". This does not mean that it is the right thing to do for them to forget about all your past contributions, but there is a risk of that happening unless you work to counteract it.
You should also understand it from their perspective: there is a world of difference between *contributing something to a project* and *seeing a project through to its successful completion*. To do a little bit of work on something, leave without showing any interest in the project's completion, and then insist on being credited with what you did no matter how much long, hard work the others have done in the meantime: that's not being a great team player. Even if you leave a lab and move away halfway across the world, it would be more professional to continue to signal interest in the successful completion of the project, including volunteering to contribute to routine writing and editing tasks. Doing this will probably result in much warmer endorsements from your former supervisors.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Another point of view: I'm a tripartite faculty and part of my duties involve consulting in statistics (I also do a small amount of chemistry research, but I'm primarily a statistician). I help with about 100 projects a year, sometimes as little as a half hour for help with a statistical analysis to very substantial work with researchers. In the latter case, I often get co-authorship, but not for the vast majority of these projects (I don't think I could ethically claim authorship when my contribution is relatively small). Where does this all go? Under consulting. It devolves from my research expertise and is part of my job. It would be silly to say that I can't put consulting on my CV because my contribution didn't rise to coauthorship.
How would it be verified? The same as any technical or consulting work... it they want, they can talk to the people I assisted, or else talk with the people who paid me.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/26
| 578
| 2,231
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am compiling my thesis, and have noticed that the LaTeX template that I am using provides space for a dedication.
Whilst I do have an individual whom I want to credit with being a source of inspiration for my research and career motivation, I'm curious as to if honours theses normally include a dedication, and if I would be better to wait until I write my doctorate.<issue_comment>username_1: Dedication generally comes in your [front matter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_design#Front_matter) section in your thesis. It will depend on your university rules and guidelines. Generally "dedication" is **not mandatory** in most of universities. However it is advisable to check with your academic office.
Quoting from [Harvard](http://www.gov.harvard.edu/files/form_of_dissertation.pdf) guidelines for thesis writing,
>
> Front matter may include: acknowledgments of help or encouragement from individuals or institutions; a dedication; a list of illustrations or of tables; a glossary of terms; one or more epigraphs—pertinent quotations at the beginning of a dissertation or a chapter
>
>
>
My personal opinion is that dedication gives emotional touch. It is good to have dedication page in your work.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: To be absolutely sure, ask your advisor/supervisor – but they’ll probably advise that it is up to you, depending on the university’s guidelines.
Adding a dedication for, as you say, is a source of inspiration for your work, is a very kind and apt addition to your thesis. I agree with [username_1](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/56920/7734), that is a good thing to include.
I had dedication pages in my honours, masters and PhD theses, and these had no negative affect on the peer review that my work went through to be assessed (here, a thesis is peer-reviewed for assessment). One reviewer even noted that it was a “nice touch”.
Another to consider is that a “to the point” dedication for the inspiration for your work could garner positive exposure to the influential person’s work – which is also a very nice thing too.
But, when it comes down to it, it will be the academic content of your thesis that will truly matter.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/26
| 1,062
| 4,067
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am dithering between an NZ/Australia PhD, and the US/Canada one. Is it ever possible to teach in the US/Canadian universities with an NZ/Aus PhD?<issue_comment>username_1: Australian Ph.D. programs tend to be shorter than American Ph.D. programs because [their system is similar to that of the United Kingdom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Philosophy#Australia); I believe that New Zealand is much the same. This isn't "worse", just different. This sort of difference is familiar to many scholars, and there are no special barriers to Australia/New Zealand scientists getting faculty positions in the US or Canada. These days, of course, they will likely need to do a postdoc first, just like any other scientist.
A nice example of an Australian scientist who has done well in America is [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Brooks), famous roboticist at MIT for many years before he headed out for greener pastures.
So why do you see so few Australians and New Zealanders in the US and Canada? Let's start with the simple fact that there aren't all that many around, period. Right now, there's about 24 million Australians and 4.5 million New Zealanders. By contrast, there are about 320 million Americans and 35 million Canadians. Thus, even if there were perfect mixing between the two countries there would be a pretty small percentage of Australians and New Zealanders in American and Canadian faculties. And of course, it's not perfect mixing: scientists are much more mobile than many other professions, but even scientists are most likely to stay in their home country, where their professional networks are strongest and where they are likely to have good personal reasons to stay as well. Put those together, and I would be surprised to see more than about 1% Australians in US faculties, no matter how good their education.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: It definitely is possible, but it is somewhat unusual for someone from Australia or New Zealand to get an academic career in the US after doing the PhD. From a New Zealand perspective, most of our famous scientists did their PhDs overseas. For example, the most famous New Zealand mathematician, <NAME>, did his PhD overseas and never came back. So did the most famous New Zealand physicist, <NAME>. (It might be different in your field; I have no idea.)
A couple of reasons why a New Zealand PhD might make it difficult to get a job in the US later:
* New Zealand academics tend to be working in niche areas because the opportunities for overseas collaboration are necessarily more limited. In a PhD here, unless you are really well-funded, you might get one trip to the US or Europe during your PhD, and several to Australia.
(As for people coming in the other direction, sometimes one of our universities will puff itself up because a famous person is coming to NZ to do a lecture tour, but really they are often just taking a paid vacation.)
* As username_1 says, our PhD is shorter.
* It is very expensive for a US institution to bring you over for an interview. Even if universities claim that they don't take this into consideration, I am sure that they do.
So, if you have the chance to do a PhD in Aus/NZ, I would think carefully about it unless you have the chance to work with a real international celebrity, or unless you are happy spending the rest of your life down here if you are determined to remain in academia. Because it can be hard to escape.
My current boss did a PhD in New Zealand and he said that he wouldn't have done it if he had been planning to stay in academia, even though he was at one of the best departments in his field. Furthermore, if you look at the profiles of academics in Aus and NZ, you will find that many of them have PhDs from Europe and the US too. So even here, a PhD from NZ is considered somewhat inferior. I remember when I was asking for PhD advice as an undergrad, everyone strongly encouraged me to go overseas. (It's not like you can't return later!)
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/10/26
| 872
| 3,896
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm a senior applying for admissions to Ph.D. programs in mathematics. The departments I'm applying to all ask for three recommendations and encourage (but don't usually require) them to be from math professors.
I have three math professors whom I plan to ask for letters, and I believe all of them will be strong, but perhaps not superlative. In addition, I know a professor who is primarily from the philosophy department (whose interests are related to math) who I believe would write a stronger letter than the other three. (He supervised an unusual independent study course for me and it was fairly successful).
The subjects I studied with him were entirely mathematical (logic), but his own work is more distinctly on the philosophy side (philosophy of science/math and related topics, not mathematical logic) .
Could asking this professor to write a fourth letter harm my application in any way? I think the letter itself would represent me in a good light and highlight an unusual aspect of my resume, but I don't want it to replace a letter from a mathematician for fear of admissions committees looking negatively at a letter from someone in the wrong department.
**EDIT** In response to the comment: I've worked closely will all three math professors. I've done long-term research projects with two of them (my university requires a junior and senior thesis; they were my advisors), and a year-long independent study with the third. I believe they were all reasonably happy with my performance, but I'm not sure I was able to blow them away. The independent study project I did with the professor from the philosophy department was more unusual, took more initiative on my part, and I believe I made a stronger positive impression.<issue_comment>username_1: Honestly, there are no wrong departments and they will not punish you for sending such a letter. Nevertheless, you must understand that they want to evaluate you, and a letter from another department will probably have a different weight when compared with a letter from someone who belongs to your same area.
In my opinion, since they ask for three letters, I suggest you to apply only three. In case someone misses your invitation for writing a letter, you can ask from this person (from philosophy).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I read about 200 graduate applications a year. In my department we take a fairly dim view of people who do not conform to the specified application process. For one, it displays a wilful ignorance of the departments' requests, which are typically not arbitrary. Secondly, it can be construed as arrogant—as if you think you somehow deserve or require something that everyone else does not get. Lastly, each letter of reference takes about two or three minutes to read. If every candidate was permitted to flout the rules then our admissions panel members would each have to spend an extra ten hours reading redundant recommendation letters.
Others may take a more relaxed view of course, but I would urge you to submit exactly the material requested by the departments to which you are applying. That includes complying with the requested length of any research proposal, etc.
As far as letters are concerned, select whichever three you believe will make the strongest case for admission to your target programmes. It may well be that the optimal strategy is to send two mathematics letters along with the philosophy one. After all, getting a PhD is about more than subject knowledge: it requires originality/creativity, self-discipline and motivation, ability to work with the literature, etc. All of these are strengths that the philosophy professor could possibly comment on. A good strategy might be to ask a neutral party—such as the head of admissions in your current department—for advice as norms vary from discipline to discipline.
Upvotes: 3
|
2015/10/26
| 1,604
| 7,066
|
<issue_start>username_0: Why is access to research databases (ebrary, EBSCO, JSTOR, LexisNexis, Project MUSE, Proquest, Sage, Science Direct, etc) – *even when you’re a student or faculty member at an institution with a subscription* - such a hassle, especially when off-campus or on a phone/tablet? Is there any way to solve this?
I’m also curious which database is least painful to deal with, and what a solution to this problem could be. Who would be best positioned to fix this problem? How should they fix it?<issue_comment>username_1: The fundamental reason for friction is that these are commercially licensed resources, and so the licensors have a strong motive to ensure that only people who've paid for it in some way have access to them. Without that requirement, there'd be no reason to throw up the barriers.
The exact ways in which this friction manifests vary a lot - my understanding is that different access methods can be preferred in different places. I'll try and be general here, and explain what's currently used.
There are two basic methods for authorisation.
1. Site verification.
2. Individual verification.
The first of these involves identifying that you, the user, are coming from a site which has access. This is pretty trivial if you are on-campus and that campus has a defined IP range - "oh, they're coming from 1.2.3.4, they must be at Wherever University, let them in". In these cases, it can be completely seamless - in fact, so seamless that one real problem is that users can believe the resources are public, and get frustrated when they go home and they're not there! It also allows for 'walk-in' access - many licenses explicitly provide that if you're physically using the library, even as a visitor, you can access these databases. I am guessing from your post that you normally use this approach.
The second, individual verification, relies on each user having a signin to the database. This can be an enormous headache for both institutions and users, especially when you have *multiple* systems you need to sign in to. IP authentication is thus more popular.
However, IP verification breaks down if your institution shares its IP ranges with someone else (this is more common outside the West). If two institutions have a shared IP range, there's no practical way to provide access to users from one but block them from the other. If *most of a country* shares an IP range... you can see where this is going.
A similar problem arises if you are at an institution that uses IP authentication and you go somewhere else - perhaps you're at a conference, perhaps you're working from home, but either way you're not on the right network. One approach to get around this is to provide a VPN system, which drives all your traffic back through the "right" IPs. This is a hassle for users (and for the provider), and may not always be available. Another approach is to use a proxy server, but this is again something of a hassle for users. Both can lead to long network delays, and you have the associated problems of actually getting *into* the VPN/proxy server.
A common approach is to fall back on individual authentication. Most major databases offer optional individual logins, which let you save papers, set your viewing preferences, etc. These can be repurposed as logins which 'remember' that you have access rights, and let you use the service when away from your home network. They'll usually stop providing access after a while (a few weeks or months?) if you haven't signed in to it from your home network at some point, in order to prevent them remaining active forever. However, this still has the too-many-names problem of individual verification - no-one wants to juggle a ScienceDirect account *and* a JSTOR account *and* a Lexis account etc etc etc.
The best solution to this is to use an identity management/single sign-on system. The most common of these at the moment (less common in the US, I believe) is Shibboleth. Shibboleth provides a single login screen for all participating services. A user selects their home institution, is taken to a page there, signs in (or is automatically authenticated), and returns to the database service with authorised access. If done effectively, this can even completely replace IP authentication - you can do the necessary authentication for people on a local network automatically.
In theory, a system like Shibboleth should reduce friction **dramatically** - it can provide a standard sign-on system for all databases, and only require a single username/password which the user already knows (usually because it gets them into their email...). Compare to, eg, the ubiquitous "sign in with Facebook/Twitter/Google" buttons on web services. However, the problem is that each individual provider service has to set it up. The big databases like ScienceDirect or JSTOR are usually happy to do this, but small journals or databases - especially if the majority of their customers are happy with IP authentication - may not be willing to go to the effort of setting it up.
In an ideal world, we'd all be standardising on something like this. Unfortunately, there's a lot of people who all have to pull in the same direction for it to happen, and what is most convenient for publishers is not always what's most convenient for libraries or for users.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Why is this a hassle? One of the motivations, and in many cases the primary motivation, of those hosting the databases is to make money via subscription fees. For example LexisNexis is a subdivision of Elsevier, a company which made over US$1,000,000,000 in profits last year and which is the subject of an ongoing [boycott](http://thecostofknowledge.com). The financial interests of companies like Elsevier dictate that their first priority is to make research inaccessible to those who have not paid.
In the short term, your university library might be able to make this easier by means of a VPN or something similar. You might contact your librarian and ask for instructions (which will be specific to your institution).
In the long term, you can help this problem by publishing your research in open-access, freely available venues. For example in mathematics it is common to publish papers in journals and also (in preprint form) to the free, open-access [arXiv](http://arxiv.org). Doing so helps to reduce our dependence on closed-access venues such as the ones you described.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: **Low demand.**
The vast majority of researchers have little knowledge about these and to what purpose they can be used. An increasing number of scholars have a hard time locating the library on campus or mentioning an online service from their library or one to which it subscribed.
Also, these are relatively modest commercial operations, and we are increasingly used to highly efficient data queries and search engines. There is no way they can compete e.g. with a Google service in terms of absence of "friction".
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/10/26
| 1,583
| 6,702
|
<issue_start>username_0: I did my PhD four years back. I was funded from my home country and I have done all the work. I started writing papers before submitting my thesis.
I am sending my supervisor drafts every year until now. Altogether I have now done 32 drafts. Since last year alone, I have rewritten my paper 12 times but he still is not happy to submit it and not willing to make any changes by himself. He is even not letting me to show it to the reviewers.
My supervisor is a lecturer and I was his first PhD student. I acquired the opinion of two professors (one of them is my 2nd supervisor and is a co-author) recently about the quaility of paper and they recommended to send it to a good journal (impact factor of 10 and above). After many years of struggle my supervisor wished to publish it in a journal with an impact factor less than 1. Above all he is not willing to pay publication costs and he is not allowing me to try for good journal. I am the one who did all the work, who paid for work, who wrote paper and who is paying for publication costs and i am not allowed to try any good journal.
One thing about his recomened changes: He did not ask repeating any experiments, redoing any analysis or revisiting any conclusions. It’s only text style that is being changed over last four years.
I contacted the university services and they told me that I don’t qualify for university help as they only cover two years post PhD duration.
What can I do now? Can I publish my work without him as co author. Can I just acknowlege him for hosting me and remove his name from the author list?<issue_comment>username_1: In the following I assume that your assessment of the situation is accurate, in particular:
* >
> I have done all the work.
>
>
>
I assume that this means that your supervisor did not make any intellectual contributions to your work. Be aware though that setting the general direction of your work may be considered as an intellectual contribution.
* >
> he still is […] not willing to make any changes by himself.
>
>
>
I assume that this means your supervisor did not write anything himself and thus did not only fail to significantly participate in writing the paper in terms of authorship ethics but also does not hold any copyright on its content.
* >
> It’s only text style that is being changed over last four years.
>
>
>
So, your supervisor did not give you any signficant intellectual input that may qualify for authorship.
In this case, you may publish that paper without your supervisor as an author in terms of authorship standards and ethics. A central requirement for academic authorship is making intellectual contributions and it looks as if your supervisor may not have made any.
Just giving critical comments on a paper or reviewing it does not qualify for authorship – if it did, I could claim authorship of twice as many papers as I have right now and would have twice as many coauthors as well.
However, it may very well be that your supervisor accuses you of stealing authorship from him (we have some questions here about similar cases). To avoid any trouble from this, I strongly suggest collecting evidence and discuss the situation with your other co-author (in particular, if they are a professor at your supervisor’s university) and ascertain their support in this case. This should also serve as a sanity check of your assessment of the situation, as it sounds quite extraordinary.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Can I just acknowledge him for hosting me and remove his name from the author list?
>
>
>
Probably not. If he deserves to be an author based on his intellectual contributions to the paper, then it would be unethical to deny him authorship based on being difficult to work with. He presumably thinks he deserves to be an author, or he wouldn't have spent years going over the drafts with you, and you apparently thought he deserved authorship at the beginning of the process.
Theoretically, you could declare that you have changed your mind and now think he never met the criteria for authorship. That would be risky: he'll presumably be angry, and you'll need to have a very persuasive argument regarding authorship to avoid major damage to your career. You should not try this unless you are certain that you are right and that the community will agree with you. Would you make the same decision if your supervisor were cooperative and easy to work with? If not, then you have no grounds for removing him as an author.
>
> I acquired the opinion of two professors (one of them is my 2nd supervisor and is a co-author) recently about the quality of paper and they recommended to send it to a good journal (impact factor of 10 and above). After many years of struggle my supervisor wished to publish it in a journal with an impact factor less than 1.
>
>
>
Why aren't all the coauthors discussing this matter together? That sounds like how the issue of where to submit should be resolved. You can start an e-mail discussion or schedule a phone call, everyone can make a case for where they'd like to submit the paper, and then you can debate the issue. Hopefully you are all reasonable people and can come to some sort of agreement.
If this doesn't happen, then hopefully your other coauthor will decide that your supervisor is being unreasonable and will be willing to have a private discussion with him and try to get him to behave better. On the other hand, if your other coauthor doesn't think your supervisor is being unreasonable, then you probably won't get anywhere with your complaints.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I'd consider doing the following:
Send it to publication with him not on the author's list. Somewhere in the paper (beginning, or end, or what not) just say what happened: "Person X contributed to this work to the degree of meriting consideration as one of its authors, but does not agree with this form of presentation and/or with the choice of venue, hence he is not listed as an author. For details please contact the authors and/or Person X at <EMAIL>" . Also mention this point in the submission notes.
It's perfectly fair, I believe; nobody can accuse you of doing anything underhanded; and, well, it's the truth, right?`
**Notes:**
* This is a suggestion which can be put in the practice despite the supervisor's objection. If you can reach some agreement with him, that's another story.
* If your advisor says "hey, if you sent it, why didn't you make me an author?" - then just do that. There's always enough time for this before publication. Just make sure to inform him soon enough (e.g. on acceptance).
Upvotes: -1
|
2015/10/26
| 1,076
| 4,541
|
<issue_start>username_0: **Is it possible to become a researcher on my own? How do I replicate the grad school experience through self study or being an autodidact?**
I came across these two sites: [How to Become a Pure Mathematician (or Statistician)](http://hbpms.blogspot.in/) and [How to become a
GOOD Theoretical Physicist](http://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~gadda001/goodtheorist/index.html).
I came across such a thing on [CS Theory Stack Exchange](https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/2966/what-would-you-advise-someone-who-wants-to-do-research-as-a-hobby) too.
Is it true that if I follow actively what has been given in these sites I’d be a physicist or mathematician or an independent researcher? I don’t know about publishing papers. At the best, I can access arXiv and Google Scholar on my internet connection. I don’t think I’d be actively ‘contributing’ to research or advancing the frontiers of knowledge. At the best, I guess I can try answer questions on SE sites.<issue_comment>username_1: Is it possible to become a researcher on your own? In theory, yes, but in practice there are many obstacles for unaffiliated scientists without PhDs. It also depends on what you mean by independent research.
First of all, <NAME> spends a significant amount of space on that website encouraging aspiring physicists to go to school. He's not advocating independent science without formal education. The PhD has been designed to train people to be researchers, and it's difficult to obtain that kind of formal training without an equivalent experience. You can read all the books in the world about theoretical physics; that doesn't make you a researcher. That just means you know a lot about theoretical physics. Researchers don't just consume knowledge; they produce it using a specific set of methodologies and communicate it to other scientists in pretty specific ways.
Second, there are structures in place that make it difficult even for independent scientists with a PhD to do research. First, there's the cost of the work itself. Theoretical physics and pure math may be pretty inexpensive without the need for fancy equipment, but you'd still need a small budget - and a salary to provide you with the time to do the research. But nobody is going to pay or give a grant to an unaffiliated non-PhD holding person to do theoretical physics research. Universities aren't going to hire you as a faculty member. The PhD is the qualification for that. And part of NSF grant evaluations is the environment in which you do the work. So you'd have to hold another full-time job to pay the bills, limiting your time to do research. Then there's the background reading. Academic journals are very expensive, and most scientists access them through subscriptions their university or institutional library has paid for. I know physics has a tradition on arXiv, but not everything is on there - especially the foundational work. Speaking on the lecture circuit will also be difficult without an institutional affiliation: people won't invite you to speak places, and submitting to conferences as an independent scholar will likely be a challenge.
So contributing to the formal conversation of science is going to be nigh impossible without the formal training of a PhD program and an apprenticeship with a practicing physicist (which is essentially what it is). If you wanted to do science as a hobbyist, there's more possibility for that. You could blog about your findings, or post them on arXiv yourself, or find some other way to disseminate. If you live nearby a university, you could audit graduate classes and attend seminars and lectures. You could read a lot on your own. It won't be the same as a career as a researcher, but only you can determine what level of participation is acceptable for you.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The short answer is: you can't replicate it.
The longer answer is: yes, you might be able to talk intelligently to someone who has a background in the field, but as previous poster mentioned, the reason why one goes to grad school is not just to learn the material, but to have access to resources. These resources are physical, but they are also mental. Part of what grad school gives you is access to **people** who have extensive knowledge in the field, can help direct you in your research, as well as provide crucial feedback. Without this one-on-one and group interaction, it is IMO impossible to become a researcher on par with a professional academic.
Upvotes: 3
|
2015/10/26
| 4,812
| 20,253
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am from country A and am studying in country B. A researcher from country C would like to collaborate with me. However, my home country (country A) has poor (hostile) relations with the researcher's country (country C). I'm concerned that if I accept this collaboration offer, which will be done in country B, I may get into serious trouble when I return home (should officials in my home country realize what I've done).
I do not want to lose this offer, as it may result in a paper which would be helpful for my career. Is there a way that I could use a pseudonym on any paper but still be able to claim authorship in the future when applying for jobs?
**Edit**
I am a PhD student and I do not care if I don't get the credit of the possible paper when I get retired in coming decades! I just need it for my first post doc position. I hoped others who had similar situation would write about their experience. I am sure I am not the first person in country A who is in this situation.
I hoped that I might use a fake name but use my original ORCID ID, so that when needed I can expose the paper in my profile for a limited time.
I also thought that a recommendation letter from the coauthors would be good too even if I choose not be a coauthor of the paper.<issue_comment>username_1: You are clearly in a tricky situation that the usual customs of academic publishing are ill-prepared to deal with. There definitely doesn't seem to be a standard, off-the-shelf solution to your problem like some kind of registry for anonymous authors. However, with a bit of creativity there might be a path forward. I suggest the following:
1. Agree to collaborate with the researcher from country C, but make clear to him/her that you would like your identity to be kept secret for an indefinite period. Make sure that the collaborator is okay with mentioning you as an anonymous coauthor not just in the paper you end up publishing but also in talks, presentations, posters etc. Make sure this is a person reliable enough to trust on such a serious matter, and keep in mind that as with any secret, there is always an unavoidable risk that the truth will come out and somehow make itself known to officials in your country.
2. If/when you write a paper on the project, have the collaborator submit it to a journal, asking the journal to list you as an anonymous coauthor, under a name such as "<NAME>", with a note explaining that this author chooses to remain anonymous due to fear of political persecution. I cannot be sure, but this strikes me as a request that a reasonable journal is likely to agree to. The journal may ask to have your identity disclosed to them so that they can at least have it on record for legal reasons. It may be okay to reveal your identity to them (which could actually help later on in your career when you wish to get the credit for the work), but keep in mind that this again increases the risk that the secret will come out before you intended it to or will become known to the wrong people.
3. If/when you ever wish to claim credit for the work in connection with job applications or other career-related reasons, make sure you have a reliable promise from your collaborator to vouch that you are indeed the coauthor, as well as some supporting evidence like email records, files, notes, etc. E.g., you and the collaborator can plan to have him/her send a letter of recommendation explaining the situation if and when you need it. Or, you can have the collaborator publicly disclose your authorship, e.g. in a signed letter he/she will send to you that you can post on your website. If the journal knows your identity you can ask for similar confirmations of your authorship from the journal.
Keep in mind that it may be good to have a backup plan in case something goes wrong, e.g., the collaborator dies or turns out to be unreliable, or is worried about political repercussions for him/herself in country C. Having supporting evidence as I mentioned above, and having a few other people you trust know about your authorship, will all make it easier for you to confirm your authorship if and when you want to. Of course, the more people know your secret, again the higher the risk that the truth will come out in an unintended way.
The thing to remember in this analysis is that **there is no approach that is entirely without risk**. Given that political persecution is no joking matter, you would be well-advised to give very serious thought to the risk you are taking versus the possible reward. I don't know which countries you're referring to in the question, but I can think of examples where if your actions became known you could easily be accused of espionage and thrown in jail for many years.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Publishing under a pseudonym and receiving credit later has been possible under rare circumstances. For example, [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sealy_Gosset) published under the name "Student" because of restrictions imposed by his employer, and his discovery of Student's t-test wasn't publicly credited to him until after his death. username_1's excellent answer outlines a reasonable path to trying to accomplish this.
However, it's worth thinking about ways this could go wrong. If someone in my department had a pseudonymous coauthor, it would be fascinating news, and some of the grad students would surely jump at the challenge of figuring out who it might be (on the grounds that there must be something exciting going on). Maybe a friend or visitor? Maybe someone else who recently attended a workshop on this topic? The grad students would chat at length about possible candidates and reasons why they might have wanted to keep their identities secret.
Of course it's unlikely that they could prove it was you, and the discussion would probably never reach your government in any case. However, it's possible that your name would come up in these discussions as a candidate (and conceivable that these discussions would even appear in web searches for your name, although I think they would mostly be in person rather than on the web). If this would freak you out, then I'd be wary of publishing under a pseudonym, since it's noteworthy enough that it's pretty much guaranteed to attract speculation. However, it could be worth trying if unproven speculation wouldn't bother you.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: I would keep it very very low key, don't inform the editor, don't put in a note about political prosecution. That just makes people dig for more information. Some reader is going to inform your authorities, there are not that many possible countries.
The editor is not your friend either, you don't want him to mention your case when he gives a talk about his interesting life, maybe even in your country.
Take the name of your cat, something that is slighltly unusual, that will increase yhe chance of people believing you later.
If you decide to claim the article, put a note in you cv that it was published under a pseudonym, if people don't believe you, they won't hire you either.
No one will ever ask you for a formal proof of authorship.
Keep all the drafts, and higher resolution images than used in the print version. Just for the fun of it, you could embed a secret that only you know, e.g. a hash of a secret text, a product of two big primes or similar. Extra points for embedding those in a way that no one recognizes.
And think whethe it is really worth the risk, most articles are probably not.
Edit:
In many cases, editors have not kept the names of reviewers anonymous, also, it is common knowledge that interesting articles are often shared pre publication with competing groups. One of my friends had an editor steal her idea, delay the article, and then write a better version himself. Of course, most editors are honest, but you don't want to trust someone like <NAME>, former editor of Chaos, Solitons and Fractals.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: If your common project is sufficiently large, you can agree in advance to split it into two publications. You submit paper #1 under your real name and your coauthor submit paper #2 under his real name. Each paper cites the other paper (I hope this is not a problem with the authorities in your country to cite an author from a hostile country). This way, each of you receives proper credit and even a citation.
If your papers become sufficiently important, it is likely that future researchers will cite both papers, so you won't lose anything in terms of citation ratings.
A disadvantage of this approach is that MAY be considered "salami publishing", [defined as](https://www.springer.com/gp/authors-editors/editors/publishing-ethics-for-journals/4176#c4224): "the situation that one study is split into several parts and submitted to two or more journals". This may be considered unethical. However, if your project is sufficiently substantial, it may be too long for a single paper anyway, so the splitting may be justified from an academic perspective. As an example, see [these two papers](http://www.citeulike.org/user/erelsegal-halevi/author/Stacchetti) by Gul and Stacchetti, which are on the same topic and were published in the same journal in two consecutive years. Each paper cites the other "companion paper".
---
Just for fun, I would also use ideas from username_3' answer: "you could embed a secret that only you know, e.g. a hash of a secret text, a product of two big primes or similar. Extra points for embedding those in a way that no one recognizes"
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Honestly, depending on just how sour the relationship between those two countries is it might not be a good idea to openly in your paper mention that the name of one of the authors was withheld due to political tensions and the like. The cool thing however is that modern cryptography provides a solution here that I think is pretty good:
1. Use a fake (realistic) name without any special meaning
2. Place in the article links to the homepages of all the authors, creating a special homepage for your pseudonym author.
In some fields this is pretty common, in some less, but I think that most editors would be quite understanding if you explain the reasons... provided you don't work in a field where it's common to have lots and lots of co-authors.
3. On 'your' homepage (the homepage of the pseudonym author) list only the one article and a public key from a public and private key pair
Now, if you ever apply for a job and you wish to prove that you were the author of the article all you need to do is tell them to follow the link in the article, download your public key and verify that you are capable of signing a message with the corresponding private key. Now, I wouldn't be surprised if this sounds like magic to you, but here is a [wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-key_cryptography) and if you Google around there are a lot of ways you could set this up (for example, a lot of sites explain how you can set up this kind of scheme for email). If you want you can go even one step further and use your public key to encrypt a message which you place on your site explaining your circumstances.
The nice thing about this entire set up is that:
* Anybody looking at the article will not be suspicious
* If you apply for a job you can simply state 'Articles published under the pseudonym X due to political tensions (can proof ownership if need be)'. You do **not** need to involve your co-authors or editor at this point (for example if they die) and there is virtually no way to forge this (especially if the homepage is hosted on a third party system with logged history).
Oh well, it's a bit unorthodox and slightly harder to set up initially, but I just thought I would add this solution as it's pretty robust.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: I would like to somewhat second username_5's idea to use cryptography to support your authorship claim in case it is ever needed. However, there is a simpler approach.
1. Use a pseudonym in the paper as your author name. As suggested before, it should be roughly unique (so *<NAME>* is not a good name). For simplicity, have the pseudonym match your gender.
2. Add a footnote to the title page of the article stating something like the following:
**Due to a strained relationship between the authors' countries, the (first/second) author used a pseudonym. Should at some point the (first/second) author be able to disclose its identity to some individuals or the public, she/he will do so by providing an explanation document with the SHA256 checksum A4D3.....F1**.
This approach has the advantage that it is compatible with the "archival" idea, and is minimally invasive to the standard way of handling things in journals. Obviously, the document will need to be prepared and stored safely before submitting the final version of the paper, and its contents should be presentable to the public *and* hiring committee members, i.e., to every person whom you may ever want to prove authorship of the article.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_7: ### *It's as easy as 1, 2, 3!*
Step 1: Cryptography
--------------------
Using the fundamentals of the [RSA cryptosystem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA_%28cryptosystem%29), you can find two *sutible, very large* prime numbers `P` & `Q` and multiply them together to get a resulting semi-prime number `N`. If the prime numbers are chosen correctly (software will do this for you), factoring this semiprime number `N` to determine `P` & `Q` will be computationally infeasible. The only feasible way to factor the semiprime `N` will be by saving the original two prime numbers `P` & `Q` used to produce the semiprime `N`. However it is trivially easy to check that `N = P*Q` if `P` & `Q` are given to you.
Step 2: Publishing
------------------
Publish anonymously as <NAME> or a similar pseudonym and include the semiprime `N` you calculated earlier with the published paper. Keep the prime numbers `P` & `Q` used to create semiprime `N` secret! Store them in a password protected file, or write them down and put them in a trusted location such as a safe or with a friend outside Country A. How you safely store the prime numbers is up to you but you must have confidence that they will not be disclosed, either by betrayal of trust from a third party or from being coerced yourself, before you are ready to claim authorship.
Step 3: Profit
--------------
When you are finally ready to claim authorship either publicly to the whole world or privately to an individual on an post-doc selection committee you will do so by proving that you can factor the semiprime `N` included with the publication. You announce that:
>
> I [`user43259`](https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/43259/user43259), am in fact the author of `Paper X`. I remained
> anonymous in publication for fear of political reprisal. As proof of
> authorship I show that factorization of the semiprime `N` in `Paper X` is `N = P*Q`.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: If you are genuinely worried that the government of your country of citizenship will persecute you, your friends or your family for collaborating with a researcher from an "enemy" country then the *only* way to stay safe is to avoid that collaboration.
All of the answers that propose ways to maintain your anonymity require you to trust a number of complete strangers (your collaborator, journal editors, employers, etc.) with a secret and, if any of them reveal that secret, deliberately or accidentally, you believe you will be in serious trouble.
Even if none of these people reveals the secret, you're still at risk from any of following, which could occur if your government observes that you left the country to study differential widget theory and a paper about that has appeared authored by somebody from the enemy country C and somebody who's probably from your country because he's made a big song and dance about not wanting to be identified.
* They ask you about it when you next go to visit your family.
* They hack your computer and find lots of drafts and emails to and from your co-author.
* They hack your co-author's computer and find lots of emails to and from you.
If you think the risk of your government knowing you worked with this person is genuine, none of the solutions offered will keep you safe from that risk. The only safe option is to decline the collaboration. Whether or not you give the true reason for declining is up to you.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: I'd like to expand on an earlier answer <https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/56983/6026> by username_6.
When publishing the paper, do it under a unique name, but DO NOT include any explanations about persecution, especially if you fear that an early investigation might be launched to connect the dots.
Instead of thinking up of a good explanation to [**`sha256`**](http://mdoc.su/f/sha256), just do it to a **final or near-final version of the paper**, but with your full name and attribution fully present.
I would also suggest that you might want to do it to a ***text-only*** version of the paper, as opposed to a ***binary PDF***, because, ultimately with binary files, it may eventually be possible to generate hash collisions if the attacker is allowed to change the content (since the attacker could then change one of the hidden parts of the binary file to engineer a collision), whereas with a text-only version of the file, with just one of the author's name being different (and with the requirement of having to link it to an existing identity of the perpetrator, potentially over more than one paper), generating a collision is simply nearly mathematically impossible, since there's only so much of the visible information that you could amend without notice (even if you do use a hash on a non-final version of the paper).
Subsequently, once you have the [**`sha256`**](http://mdoc.su/o/sha256) in question, use the procedure outlined at **<http://cr.yp.to/bib/documentid.html>** to incorporate the mention into the paper, effectively ***without arising any suspicion!*** (Well, at least it wouldn't arise any if your field is anywhere near mathematics and computer science!)
>
> When I write a new paper, I create a new ``document ID'' for that paper, and list the ID inside the paper:
>
>
> Date: 2004.04.02. Permanent ID of this document: …
>
>
>
Subsequently, when making references in your resume, provide an brief explanation of the situation, along with the original files used to generate the checksums in question.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_10: Without knowing which countries are involved and the research discipline, this is impossible to effectively answer. In some cases, such collaborations could run afoul of laws governing such things as export control of restricted technologies/dual-purpose technologies or international sanctions. It depends on the project on which you are working, the source of funding, the regulations about technology export in country B, as well as the laws governing technology export to countries A and C from B as well as relationships and laws between countries A and C. (Aside: If one of these countries is the USA, this is a non-trivial problem and a potential risk that deserves thorough investigation. Anonymous international research in an area of technology that even remotely connected to anything export controlled could easily trigger an investigation).
So, while some of the strategies suggested here for how to publish anonymously may work in theory, without knowing the countries involved and the area(s) of research, the advice given in some of the answers could carry penalties and risks as big (or bigger) than those you seek to avoid.
Having said all that: assuming there are no specific legal risks (and your only concern is reputation or political fallout from publishing your collaboration), you need to find out if the journals you intend to publish in will even allow anonymous authorship. Until you do that, strategies for how to protect your anonymity are moot.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/26
| 237
| 997
|
<issue_start>username_0: If I did a bachelors a long time ago in an unrelated field and I am applying for a job that requires a PhD And a Master's should I put the bachelor's degree? Is it necessary?<issue_comment>username_1: Yes. An academic CV should list every academic degree that you have earned.
If you don't list it, it will look as though you got a PhD without ever getting a bachelor's degree at all, which would be very strange and perhaps suspicious.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You not only should put in the bachelor's degree, in most cases you **must** do so. Many schools consider falsifying or submitting an incomplete record a form of fraud, and consider that sufficient grounds to terminate employment if it's discovered after the hiring process is complete.
The only exception I can think of is in situations where the information asked for specifically includes a statement such as "please list only your most recent degree" or something to that effect.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/27
| 701
| 2,924
|
<issue_start>username_0: It has been proven that the source of funding can have an influence on the results of a research ([funding bias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funding_bias), well documented [here](http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/en/d/Js8109e/6.11.html) and [here](http://www.tufts.edu/~skrimsky/PDF/Funding%20Effect%20and%20Bias.PDF)).
When we check for pieces of research, for example through the Pubmed database, how can we check the source of funding? (And check for possible financial conflict of interest?)<issue_comment>username_1: I wouldn't say that two studies is "proven," especially when neither of those is empirical: The first one is a literature review, and the second one is a theoretical article. Besides, both of them talk almost exclusively about the funding of medical/pharmaceutical research by pharmaceutical companies, and not about funding agencies as a whole.
That said, journals are supposed to be the gatekeepers of this information. When scientists submit a journal article, most journals these days ask them to disclose a conflict of interest: whether their funding or other personal interests is tied up with the research they're doing. Some journals publish this information publicly for readers to see, and others do not. Some journals require a funding statement - a little paragraph in the footnotes that states where the funding comes from
But this is done inconsistently; there's no standard from journal to journal, and not all journals report the information at all. The one "exception" is NIH funding - because of new NIH regulations, scientists have to disclose their NIH funding in the journal article and link their funding to the articles themselves, so theoretically the public can see where their tax dollars are going. In practice, the process of linking can take several weeks to several months (although this will probably speed up as it becomes more commonplace).
So the answer is - often times the only way to check IS what authors themselves report in the paper, short of contacting the author(s) and asking them yourself.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: All funds I've been involved in did *require* thanking the source (and often state the exact grant) in any publications.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Reputable journals might require authors to disclose funding sources, but as noted, this practice, reputable journals notwithstanding, is inconsistent. Beyond this, there are no standards for determining what is a reputable journal.
As to the comment that two citations do not prove the point, the literature is replete with studies demonstrating funding bias; a few examples: Pharmaceutical industry sponsorship and research outcome and quality, <NAME> et al; Avoiding biasing the conduct and reporting…, Hillman, Eisenberg, et al; Systematic review of empirical evidence of study publication bias, <NAME> et al.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/27
| 3,109
| 12,417
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a first year PhD student, and it's the fourth week of school. I am taking two classes, doing one grad class TA and doing a lab rotation. I am in Electrical Engineering (Controls and DSP).
I start my day thinking- "I'll go to class from 10 am to 12 pm, solve 5 homework problems from 1 pm- 3 pm, do some TA work from 4 pm to 6 pm, and read a bunch of papers from 7 pm to 9 pm, then cook and sleep. How optimistic.
In reality, when I start the homework problems at 1 pm, I end up having to read a bunch of textbooks to understand stuff in it (I'm doing Convex Analysis), and by the time 3 pm rolls around, I have finished only one problem. Feeling discouraged, I keep at this homework, vowing to stop only when I'm done with my quota of 5. My efficiency starts to drop severely after a few hours, but since I'm in school with my laptop and stuff, I can't go anywhere to 'relax', so I just keep sitting and start redditing or something. And then my concentration further drops when I try to resume real work. This goes on, I miss dinner, I sleep late, and the efficiency just plummets through the week.
My past couple of weeks have been so inefficient, I want to do something about it before it's too late.
In short, my question is, when your work is way too difficult to achieve your goal of the day in your allotted time, do you switch work, or do you keep going? I have always believed that output is more important than input, that is, putting in two hours for each task without achieving much in anything is not as good as putting in, say, eight hours for just one and finishing something in it nicely. However, this strategy of mine is failing me for the first time in my life, because even if I put in eight hours, I am not able to finish anything. The work is so difficult. I'm not complaining, just really need guidance.<issue_comment>username_1: If it's not against the rules of your program or classes (which I doubt), you need to start doing your problem sets with other students. You then can still work on all questions if you feel like it, but getting pointers when stuck from someone else, then finishing in a 1-2 hour meeting with your group or fellow student, should help you tremendously. If you're lucky, you even find friends like this, and have a beer after your meeting which might be good for your psyche too.
In my experience, those planning to work alone through the coursework of a STEM grad school soon notice what you just did: it's a bad idea.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> When your work is way too difficult to achieve your goal of the day in your allotted time
>
>
>
... get used to it. If you are an interesting person doing interesting things, there is never going to be enough time for all the things you want to do. And as soon as the work you're doing now starts to get easier for you, you'll get new, more challenging responsibilities :)
You won't be able to manage your time more effectively until you get a little better at estimating how long things will take, so start there. It's pretty common to underestimate how long things will take - try quadrupling your initial estimate, and see where that gets you.
When you can judge more accurately how long things will take, you will be in a better position to manage your commitments. Once you realize that your homework takes you 8 hours, not 2, you will be able to plan your week accordingly, without [feeling guilty](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17988/how-to-stop-feeling-guilty-about-the-unfinished-work) when you invariably have to drop something else in order to do your homework properly.
In the meantime,
>
> **Keep forgiving yourself and keep working**
>
>
>
That's from [this answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/18009/11365) by [<NAME>dal](https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49/piotr-migdal), which I highly recommend you read.
>
> I miss dinner, I sleep late, and the efficiency just plummets through the week.
>
>
>
You don't need me to tell you the answer to this one. Take care of yourself. For more details, see [How to prevent physical/psychological health side effects of workaholism in academia and research?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/26779/how-to-prevent-physical-psychological-health-side-effects-of-workaholism-in-acad).
>
> do you switch work, or do you keep going?
>
>
>
It helps to have tasks you can work on when you are low on intellectual energy, but that are still more productive than staring at reddit. [Here's a list of ways to procrastinate productively](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28336/what-productive-academic-work-can-you-do-with-minimal-attention-in-a-small-30/28337#28337).
Ultimately, though, if you need to take a break to recharge, just do it - then you'll get back to work and be much more effective.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: In addition to the suggestions of the other answers, I'm going to suggest a more vicious piece of triage. If your TA is a full 20-hours per week commitment, then you probably can't reasonably both do significant research and perform strongly in classes. Instead, you're going to have to pick something to triage.
You don't say what country you are in, but if it's the US, then the first year or two of graduate school is typically expected to be essentially full-time coursework. Rather than think of this as a distraction from your research ambitions, think of it as a *foundation* for those ambitions: **you are doing (early) work on your research by studying well in class.** Try calculating how much time you'd need to spend reading the literature to obtain the same knowledge that you are gaining in class. Then give yourself some slack on the research front: don't do nothing, but let it be the thing that you do last, after your fulfilled your other responsibilities, and don't have high expectations for what you can achieve in research while working full-time on TAing and coursework.
Obviously, this only applies if the class is at least somewhat related to your research interests. If it's not, consider slacking on your coursework. Not so much that you get a grad-school-threatening grade, but since you're in a Ph.D. program, it's likely that you're the sort of personal who habitually works to a very high standard in all your classes. Now, however, you need to learn how to relax into a B when appropriate.
Finally, if your TAing is *not* a strong 20-hours per week commitment, you need to consider whether you are being too committed a teacher. Teaching is wonderful and important and can be very rewarding. It's also not your primary responsibility as a Ph.D. student. There were certainly times, in my graduate career, when I worked very hard on teaching because going above and beyond my responsibilities there was easier than facing my other, less well-defined research tasks.
In short: you don't have time to be excellent in all three at once. Pick two, and just make sure you don't fail notably at the third.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: As a person with the same responsibilities this semester, let me tell you that the reality will be efficient time planning and figuring out the shortest path to get the work done.
1. For your course you have to find the way to solve the HW as fast as possible. Talk to the TAs and the Professors for hints. It would be great to read all the textbooks and get all the knowledge required for the answer. But, in reality you will only have time to read/look up what you need and figure out the answer as fast as possible.
2. For your TA responsibilities - Grade or evaluate, a x number of students, every one or two days. Don't let the work accumulate. Make sure you're there for your office hours. But, try to keep other time outside of office hours for yourself. Don't accommodate requests from students to discuss problem 1-on-1 outside of office hours unless it's rare occasion. TA'ing can be great reward when you get to re-learn the basics to teach someone else. Also, it helps at those internship interviews ;)
3. Research - Reality is that your research will suffer. This is why fellowships or RAs are such a great thing. A funding source like that gives you so much more time for your actual research. Coming back to the matter at hand, the time you have left, after doing (1) and (2) will go for research. This means sacrificed weekends, and semester breaks.
4. Health - Lots of people ignore their health. I always take 30 mins a day for exercise. If you do it like drinking coffee/tea in the morning, it gets done. Don't ignore it.
This is the life of a grad student. It can be awesome or disappointing depending on how you approach it.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: To begin with a note of encouragement, you're just starting out and some things will get a little easier over time. Reading papers is a skill, so is teaching, and so is doing research. At the beginning, it's going to take a lot more time than anticipated to do some of these things and you'll get more efficient at them as you practice.
Next, one strategy to try is to break your tasks into much smaller chunks. For example, instead of saying, "I'm going to solve 5 homework problems from 1-3pm," you might try an approach of making a list of the things you're trying to complete that day. List each problem as a separate task. If they require a considerable amount of backreading, list the backreading as a separate task as well.
This will do a few things. First, it'll start giving you a much more accurate idea of how to make time estimates. Second, it will allow you to give yourself permission to switch contexts/tasks. And last but not least, it'll help to keep from feeling like you're not getting anywhere.
By making smaller tasks, it also gives you more natural break points where you can try other strategies, like changing locations or going for a quick walk to keep your brain from turning to mush. There were times in grad school where I felt like changing contexts (e.g., I finished writing the related work section at the office, now I'm going to go to the gym and read a paper while walking, then I'm going to go to the lab to grade a quarter of these papers) kept me from losing it. There were also times where I'd try to chunk out work that was too much and then I'd end the day feeling like I hadn't accomplished anything because I had only gotten one thing done. If that happens, break it into smaller tasks.
The task list will also help you to prioritize. For example, if you've finished four out of five of your problems and you haven't done any of your TA work, maybe you up the priority on getting one of those tasks done next. Hang in there and good luck! :)
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: Honestly, I'm just going to pass the piece of advice my adviser gave to me when I took up a 6 courses per quarter year: only consider the time that you're writing as work. The rest of it is interesting, but as a graduate student you're only judged on what you write, so only consider that time as actual "working time". And to add to that: only consider what you write as work if it's pushing some research.
So outside of lecture, just write. Write down homework answers, spending more time on things closer to your research (maybe answering things in more depth and addressing side questions when it's related to your research, and just kind of meh if it's not). Don't just read publications: actively take notes, get ready a seminar presentation on the paper, make your own "little HW" filling out some detail on one of their proof sketches to see if it can lead somewhere new, etc. One page a day towards a publication gets one out in about a month, so just keep writing! Undergrad is for reading, grad is for writing.
Since adopting this strategy, I have been much more productive. 16 hour days of writing produces a lot of material, and you'll learn things in much more depth too if you're drafting and re-drafting your ideas.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: I am in a similar siutation (Second year PhD student in EE) and I think it is simply a problem of having too much on your plate. Problem solving takes a long time because of how it is. It is meant to take that long. At this point, I would drop the TAing. You simply do not have time to do it. Focus on your courses and research.
Upvotes: 0
|
2015/10/27
| 429
| 1,881
|
<issue_start>username_0: I came across [this](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221249261530018X) article which has a section named **uncited references**.
Why it is there and what is the purpose of that section?<issue_comment>username_1: I have seen this a couple of times before in published works. In my fields, it does not occur too often.
Uncited references refer to relevant papers, books etc related in some way to the study in the paper, but were not directly cited in the study itself (they are included in the References section). Essentially, it is an 'additional reading list'.
This can potentially add some legitimacy to the study by listing related published peer review research, but also could be seen as unnecessary 'clutter'.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Note that the article you linked to is a review article. A review article summarizes primary literature, often reporting on the most important findings regarding a particular question or questions being addressed. In reviewing many articles, there may be papers that the author(s) reviewed in order to derive the results and major findings of the paper, but that didn't have anything interesting or exemplary of the major findings to report/cite directly in the manuscript. In that case, the author(s) would still need to cite the paper somewhere because it was part of the data collection component of the manuscript.
Journals may deal with those references in different ways. When feasible, authors may have few enough references such that they fit into a table in the manuscript, or they may report papers used in the data collection as supplementary data. If neither of those options is used, the author must cite those papers somewhere in the manuscript because they were a part of the study, and an "Uncited References" section may be one option for doing that.
Upvotes: 3
|
2015/10/27
| 1,004
| 3,938
|
<issue_start>username_0: This might sound odd, yet here is my story. I was lucky to get governmental scholarship (GSch) for 4-5 years of PhD to study abroad. But It requires student to work as Assistant Professor in a relatively smaller university in my homeland for 8-10 years afterwards. Which I would not like myself bound to after my PhD.
This is an advantage for sure to get admission in a top university. But by myself (without using GSch), I might also get funded by TA/RA. In that case, I wouldn't use GSch.
Should I mention GSch in the first contact with PIs or in PhD applications (i.e. in SOP)? I am asking this because once I inform them about GSch, it is unlikely to get TA/RA funds even though I deserve. I also don't want to lose the chance of PhD in a top university, I use GSch if needed. So there is a trade-off.
I can think of three possibility:
1 - Mentioning the GSch in the first contact, hoping that they will promise funding anyway if they this I deserve.
2 - Mentioning it in the first contact as it is a possibility.
3 - Sending another email and mention it if they reject me because of lack of funding (Would they say it is lack of funding?).
P.S. : I am planning to apply mostly to positions in U.S.
P.S.2 : Sorry for bad English level, edits are welcome.
Edit : If I decide not to get back to my country, I have to pay scholarship in 5 years with ~50% interest.<issue_comment>username_1: I see a few things to consider:
* First, you need to read the terms and conditions of your GSch scholarship very carefully. Especially, what would happen if you decide not to return to your country.
* How much of an advantage would GSch give you in your admission process? Have you contacted past GSch scholarship holders? Do you know what their experiences are? Ask them how this scholarship helped them getting into top grad schools.
* Once you obtained information regarding these two points I listed above, re-evaluate your plans.
Good luck!
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: This is a tricky situation. If you mention the scholarship without explaining your reservations, then it might help you get admitted, but you'll be admitted with the understanding that you'll use this scholarship. Not having to pay for you is exactly why it could give you an advantage, so the department would probably be upset to learn that you didn't plan to use it. It would feel like a form of cheating, and you might face pressure (such as withholding other sources of funding on the grounds that you had this scholarship available).
If you don't mention it, then you don't have to use it but it won't help you.
Sadly, there's not much room in between these possibilities. You could try mentioning it but explaining your reservations about using the scholarship. However, this isn't likely to help your chances (nobody cares about the scholarship if you won't actually use it), and it might create an awkward situation if they try to convince you to use it.
>
> I also don't want to lose the chance of PhD in a top university, I use GSch if needed.
>
>
>
This is a judgment call you'll have to make regarding when to reveal the scholarship.
>
> Sending another email and mention it if they reject me because of lack of funding (Would they say it is lack of funding?).
>
>
>
Probably not. At least in my experience, rejected candidates are not given a specific explanation. On the other hand, you might end up on a waiting list, where you may be admitted if a suitable spot opens up (for example, if someone else turns down an offer). That could be a time when revealing the scholarship would help your chances, if you are willing to use it.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: You should list this scholarship on CV as an award with "(declined)" after it. This will make clear that you were qualified to obtain the scholarship, but do not want to use it to fund your studies.
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/10/27
| 782
| 3,256
|
<issue_start>username_0: Some journals require you to state the conflicts of interests (if any). According to the Wikipedia definition,
>
> A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial interest, or otherwise, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation of the individual or organization.
>
>
>
What exactly is a conflict of interest in the context of journals? How does it affect the publication process? All papers I've read so far has the declaration "*The authors declare they have no conflict of interests*" in that section. Could anyone give some sample published papers which *has* a notable conflict of interest in it?<issue_comment>username_1: I see a few things to consider:
* First, you need to read the terms and conditions of your GSch scholarship very carefully. Especially, what would happen if you decide not to return to your country.
* How much of an advantage would GSch give you in your admission process? Have you contacted past GSch scholarship holders? Do you know what their experiences are? Ask them how this scholarship helped them getting into top grad schools.
* Once you obtained information regarding these two points I listed above, re-evaluate your plans.
Good luck!
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: This is a tricky situation. If you mention the scholarship without explaining your reservations, then it might help you get admitted, but you'll be admitted with the understanding that you'll use this scholarship. Not having to pay for you is exactly why it could give you an advantage, so the department would probably be upset to learn that you didn't plan to use it. It would feel like a form of cheating, and you might face pressure (such as withholding other sources of funding on the grounds that you had this scholarship available).
If you don't mention it, then you don't have to use it but it won't help you.
Sadly, there's not much room in between these possibilities. You could try mentioning it but explaining your reservations about using the scholarship. However, this isn't likely to help your chances (nobody cares about the scholarship if you won't actually use it), and it might create an awkward situation if they try to convince you to use it.
>
> I also don't want to lose the chance of PhD in a top university, I use GSch if needed.
>
>
>
This is a judgment call you'll have to make regarding when to reveal the scholarship.
>
> Sending another email and mention it if they reject me because of lack of funding (Would they say it is lack of funding?).
>
>
>
Probably not. At least in my experience, rejected candidates are not given a specific explanation. On the other hand, you might end up on a waiting list, where you may be admitted if a suitable spot opens up (for example, if someone else turns down an offer). That could be a time when revealing the scholarship would help your chances, if you are willing to use it.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: You should list this scholarship on CV as an award with "(declined)" after it. This will make clear that you were qualified to obtain the scholarship, but do not want to use it to fund your studies.
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/10/27
| 4,022
| 16,210
|
<issue_start>username_0: **Assumption based upon my experience from CS:** Typically, the business model of academic publishers is to archive and disseminate papers whose authors have transferred exclusive publication rights to the publisher. Sometimes, there are limited provisions such as authors being allowed to host a copy on their personal website. In general, though, the revenue of publishers is based upon providing paid access to the papers.
This is reflected by the choice authors often face upon publication:
* Transfer exclusive publication rights of the paper, pay nothing.
* Retain publication rights so as to provide open access to the paper, pay a (usually substantial) fee1.
Now, the fee in the latter case is obviously the way publishers make up for their loss in revenue by not being able to restrict access to the paper to paying subscribers. This is discussed e.g. [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3113/is-it-ethical-to-pay-a-journal-substantially-to-publish-a-paper/3114) and [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17070/does-gold-i-e-author-pay-open-access-really-help-access-to-science-and-save/17121).
**Point of this question:** Recently, the [University of California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California) has [announced](http://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/2015/10/groundbreaking-presidential-oa-policy-covers-all-employees/) a "Presidential Open Access Policy" ([other announcement](http://escholarship.org/about_open_access.html), [other article](http://dailybruin.com/2015/10/26/presidential-open-access-policy-makes-uc-research-accessible-to-public/)). In short, it sounds like all university employees are asked to transfer rights to their papers to the university prior to transferring rights to any commercial publisher. Furthermore, the announcements make it sound as if the consequence were that publishers simply do not receive exclusive publication rights and the university provides open access to the papers in addition to the publishers, all else apparently equal.
Now, to me, this raises a huge question mark and some speculation. In one question, I am asking here: **How does this *actually* work?** But to make things clearer and more explicit, I'm going to list the various facets of this big question one by one:
* To my knowledge, universities weren't the obstacle so far when it came to publishing as open access. Publishers were, because they wanted exclusive rights or a substantial fee, as described above. How is it that a *university policy* can change this?
* Do publishers readily provide a modified license transfer agreement because of such a policy? One that does not insist on exclusive rights? Otherwise, granting rights to the university first, and then signing an exclusive copyright transfer agreement sounds like the author is on their way to committing copyright infringement (or at least a breach of contract) themselves, rather than a witty way around the publishers' restrictions.
* Is this actually a legal loophole that allows authors to circumvent the publishers' wishes? If so, it would seem quite an obvious loophole ("Don't want to transfer exclusive rights? Easy. Just grant someone else rights before."); why isn't everyone doing it? Is the University of California administration just the first to have the idea for some reason?
* Do publishers just comply with this because the University of California is a comparably "big player" (as the [press release](http://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/2015/10/groundbreaking-presidential-oa-policy-covers-all-employees/) states, "the UC system is responsible for over 2% of the world’s total research publications")? Even if so, what do publishers gain from complying? One might say they're not getting less, they're getting absolutely nothing.
+ And even if so, how would UC threaten them? Would they threaten to use only [their in-house publisher](http://www.ucpress.edu/), which offers free open access hosting in accordance with the policy?
- Does the in-house publisher actually offer free open access hosting? It seems like [UC Press relies on its sales](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_press#Mounting_financial_pressures) just like commercial publishers.
+ If so, would the in-house publisher offer that hosting also to non-UC employees? Otherwise, it would seem unlikely that any journal or conference would switch to that in-house publisher, hence such a boycot would amount to banning oneself from participating in research for at least some months (if not years), until the boycot has an effect.
* Is the University of California simply testing its limits here, as a part of an [ongoing legal battle](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11193/how-tightly-enforced-are-open-access-embargoes/15859) of varying degrees of copyright enforcement by publishers and varying degrees of copyright infringement by authors and their institutions?
* Does the policy actually mean that all university departments are obliged to pay the open access publication fee to the publishers (i.e. requests by employees to get reimbursed for such a fee cannot be dismissed)? I was told (and hence cannot provide an accessible reference) for wealthy universities like the University of California, the open access publication fees in the lower thousands of dollars per paper might be negligible (?)
+ The latter speculation might not apply completely. [Other wealthy universities are having issues to pay for subscriptions](http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/apr/24/harvard-university-journal-publishers-prices), and in numbers, these issues seem to be well in a range where one might get by paying all those open access fees, as well. But ... is this maybe a bureaucracy thing? Library subscriptions have to be paid from some (relatively limited) permanent account, whereas open access fees would apply upon publication and can thus be paid from (possibly much more generous) research grants?
* Or of course: Am I missing anything crucial about the announcement?
1: For instance, [ACM](http://authors.acm.org/main.html) charges (for non-members) USD 900 per conference paper and USD 1,700 per journal paper.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> To my knowledge, universities weren't the obstacle so far when it came to publishing as open access. Publishers were, because they wanted exclusive rights or a substantial fee, as described above. How is it that a university policy can change this?
>
>
>
Many publishers already allow self-archiving, partly as a result of pressure from authors who want to freely allow others to access their research. University open access policies and open access policies of funding agencies ([like the NIH](https://publicaccess.nih.gov/)) are another way to exert pressure on publishers to allow self-archiving, deposit in institutional repositories, and other forms of open access.
---
>
> Do publishers readily provide a modified license transfer agreement because of such a policy?
>
>
>
Some do. From the [Columbia FAQ](http://scholcomm.columbia.edu/open-access/open-access-policies/frequently-asked-questions/):
>
> For example, the Columbia Libraries have identified the top 20 journals in which articles by faculty and staff at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory have appeared most often in recent years. Of those 20 journals, 19 of them include in their standard agreement a provision allowing deposit of some version of the article with a university repository.
>
>
>
For publishers whose copyright transfer agreement conflicts with the institution's policy, authors may include an [addendum](http://cdss.library.oregonstate.edu/amend) with their signed copyright agreement.
If a publisher is unwilling to accept the OA terms, authors can [opt out](http://libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/mit-open-access/open-access-at-mit/mit-open-access-policy/mit-faculty-open-access-policy-faq/#optout) of the institutional policy. According to [Oregon State University](http://cdss.library.oregonstate.edu/oa-faq):
>
> A small number of publishers require that authors at institutions with open access policies receive a waiver from the policy. The following publishers have informed the library that they require a waiver: ARRS, Imprint Academic, Institute of Physics, JTE Multimedia. AAAS and Nature Publishing Group also routinely require waivers from university Open Access policies.
>
>
>
[MIT](http://libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/mit-open-access/open-access-at-mit/mit-open-access-policy/publishers-and-the-mit-faculty-open-access-policy/) keeps a list of publishers' responses to the policy, including whether or not authors must submit an addendum and whether or not authors must opt out of the institutional open access policy. The [University of California](http://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/open-access-policy/publisher-communications/) has a list of the number of waivers requested by UC authors for various publishers between August 2013, when the UC-wide policy was announced, and August 2015.
---
>
> Is this actually a legal loophole that allows authors to circumvent the publishers' wishes?
>
>
>
The University of California is not the first to enact an open access policy for faculty. See for example [MIT open access policy](https://libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/mit-open-access/open-access-at-mit/mit-open-access-policy/), [Oregon State open access policy](http://cdss.library.oregonstate.edu/open-access), [Duke open access policy](http://provost.duke.edu/wp-content/uploads/FHB_App_P.pdf), etc.
To the best of my knowledge, these have not yet been tested in court. However, there does seem to be a legal basis for the idea that a license granted to the university will persist even if an author later signs a conflicting copyright transfer agreement:
>
> Section 205(e) of the Copyright Act provides that a prior nonexclusive license evidenced in a writing signed by the right holder
> prevails over a subsequent conflicting transfer of copyright ownership, so the answer appears to turn on whether permission mandates satisfy the requirements of § 205(e).
>
>
>
([Source: "Copyright and the Harvard Open Access Mandate", <NAME>, Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property, 2012](http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1172&context=njtip))
It is feasible that
>
> permission mandates satisfy the requirements of § 205(e) and establish the license’s priority over the subsequent transfer of copyright ownership largely because they fulfill the underlying purposes of § 205(e) by providing sufficient evidence and notice of the license to potential copyright transferees (typically academic publishers).
>
>
>
The legal rationale is beyond the scope of this answer, but can be found [here](http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1172&context=njtip).
Note that there are steps a university can take to make *sure* to satisfy these requirements, so that their license will be durable. For example, Harvard had all faculty sign a paper agreement to satisfy the requirements of § 205(e).
>
> I would rather expect that granting a license to the university and transferring copyright later to a publisher would mean that the latter action is invalid, as the author has probably (?) forfeited the option to transfer copyright due to the previously granted license. (It's like selling something you do not own any more.)
>
>
>
Not really. As long as you hold the copyright, you can transfer it. If you grant someone a non-exclusive license, you still hold the copyright and are free to later transfer the copyright or grant an exclusive license to someone else. (An exclusive license is treated as a transfer of rights by the law.)
If you do so, the person with the non-exclusive license can still use it under the terms of that license (assuming a non-revocable license). The new copyright holder or person with the exclusive license can enforce its rights and prevent anyone except for the non-exclusive license holder from infringing.
You cannot, however, transfer copyright (or exclusive license) twice. *That* would be equivalent to selling something you don't own anymore.
This is just like the way in which an author can grant arXiv a non-exclusive license to distribute, and still transfer the copyright to a journal later. From the [arXiv license FAQ](https://arxiv.org/help/license):
>
> However, granting rights for arXiv to distribute an article does not preclude later copyright assignment. Authors are thus free to publish submissions that already appear on arXiv. Authors may wish to inform the journal publisher that a prior non-exclusive license exists before transferring copyright or granting a publication license.
>
>
>
(Of course, a publisher is free to decide as a matter of policy that they're not interested in publishing content that has previously been licensed to someone else, in which case an author at an institution with an OA policy may take advantage of the waiver mentioned above.)
---
>
> Does the policy actually mean that all university departments are obliged to pay the open access publication fee to the publishers
>
>
>
No. The author (or author's institution) does not pay open access fees to the publisher. The *publisher* is not making the article available as an open access article.
The [University of California FAQ](http://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/open-access-policy/policy-faq/) clarifies:
>
> ### My publisher charges $\_\_\_\_ for open access. Do I have to pay that to comply with UC’s OA policies?
>
>
> No. The publisher charges those fees to fund open access publication of your article at the journal’s website, but there are two ways to make scholarship open: through publisher-hosted OA (which sometimes involves fees) and through self-archiving by an author. UC’s OA policies use the latter route, by reserving rights for authors to include the author’s version of their articles in an open access repository like eScholarship. There is no fee associated with this self-archiving function. Authors may choose to pursue paid, publisher-hosted OA for their own reasons, but that is not required or suggested by the UC OA policies.
>
>
>
---
>
> What do publishers gain from complying? One might say they're not getting less, they're getting absolutely nothing.
>
>
>
It's not entirely clear yet what the effect of green OA is on publisher revenue. There is some evidence that the number of downloads of an article from the publisher's site is reduced, but no evidence of cancelled subscriptions. Some journals have found that certain kinds of OA policies (e.g. OA after a short embargo) increases subscriptions and submissions. You can find more information [here](https://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/content/openaccess/Suber_15_chap8.html).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I will quote from the "Senate" policy, which now extends to non-faculty.
>
> Each Faculty member grants to the University of California a
> *nonexclusive*, irrevocable, worldwide *license* to exercise any and all
> rights under copyright relating to each of his or her scholarly
> articles, in any medium, and to authorize others to do the same, for
> the purpose of making their articles widely and freely available in an
> open access repository. Any other systematic uses of the licensed
> articles by the University of California must be approved by the
> Academic Senate. This policy *does not transfer copyright ownership*,
> which remains with Faculty authors under existing University of
> California policy.
>
>
>
They do not transfer rights to the university, they simply allow the university to distribute copies for free (and only for free). This effectively forces all academic articles to be openly accessible. I expect that as a consequence of this policy, and as such policies spread, publishers will have to modify their copyright policies and drop the unconditional transfer of rights (which a number have done). In disciplines other than CS, licensing rather than transfer may be more common.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/27
| 1,943
| 8,319
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have just passed my transfer for a PhD project I don't enjoy, and am trying to decide what to do next.
Some background first:
I graduated originally as an MEng, but have been out of engineering practise for approximately 10 years. I started my PhD at a UK Doctoral Training Centre with a view to re-entering engineering with some more up to date knowledge/discovering academia was where I wanted to be and staying. With 20-20 hindsight, I should have probably done a Masters to find this out, but anyway.
I had a fairly free project choice, and chose something I thought would be interesting, but in a new area for me. I have had doubts for about six months, but told myself that I was just stressed about transfer, and shouldn't make any decisions until I had got through that and could think clearly. In doing so I may well have dug myself in deeper. I have two years of funding left, and could leave with a Masters at any time.
Anyway, as far as I see it I have three options:
Re-shape my project to see if I can finish it. My reservations about this are that I am not really part of a research group and one of the difficulties I have faced is not having anyone to guide me when I get stuck. I'm pretty much learning everything for the first time, alone. While I could reshape the project, I worry that I will just find myself back here again in a few more months. I have convinced myself a number of times already that "it will be alright" but it still isn't.
Approach other academics at the Uni to start again with something completely new (I am funded, not the project). Has anyone else completely changed their project a year in and completed on time? Has anyone changed after transfer/upgrade - is this even possible?
Go to the engineering industry and try and convince them that the masters I have as a result of the first part of my studies is useful, and that the career path I have had to date (which has been varied) will settle with a return to engineering. How I convince them that I have the sticking power and the skills after 10 years off and a half-finished research degree is another matter...
I have started to talk to my tutor at University about option one and two, but would appreciate some advice from those not invested in the outcome. Thanks<issue_comment>username_1: I am going to assume as a funded science PhD, you have something in the region of 3.5 years of funding.
You're only a year in, so it's not too late to change. There is even time for you to change completely (though it could be a lot of work to get done on time before your money runs out).
Typically I would say the first year of your PhD will involve you gaining useful knowledge and skills, though a project that may well not end up being what you write about in your thesis. It's your second and more the third year where you have the skills and can really do some research for your thesis.
Saying that, don't hang about! Organise a meeting with your supervisor asap to go over the options with them, they are given the position of supervisor as they should know how to steer their students to get a good PhD, but they can only help you if you tell them that you're not happy and what you want to do. You will have gained useful skills, so the time hasn't been wasted, but you do need to sort it out sooner rather than later.
I would hope there are other projects available you can move into, but the worst case scenario isn't the end of the world. Like you say with minimal effort you should be able to write up what you have done and get a Masters, then move on with that qualification and experience.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: **Short Answer**: Stick with the PhD, if your problem is the project approach and/or solving problem on your own.
Read your question carefully two times, and here are couple of points based on your question, my own and other friends' situation similar to yours:
**Aim of Ph.D.**: Ok, lets go back to basic. What is the aim of Ph.D. at least within UK universities: to 'contribute' something to a field, and learn how to read and write research.
**'Perfect' Project**: There is not such a thing, at least at the Ph.D. level; and don't waste time looking for it. This is because, perfection in your eyes are subjective and based on your incomplete knowledge of all the sub sections of your field. The point here is that, there is a Ph.D. level problem and you want to solve it and contribute a solution to its field.
**I'm Alone & Depressed**: If you are fortunate enough the supervisor(s) gave you the freedom to 'sink or swim' then take the challenge and learn how to 'swim' and contribute to the field. If you suffer from depression you need to talk to the student service first hand; if not useful talk to your GP (free in the UK) he/she will guide you to get professional help.
**Two Years of Funding**: You have actually enough time and money. You will have a year to finish your research and another one to write up your thesis and submit.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Is there something that **does** interest you? From your question, it appears that you don't already have something in mind. In practice, this means you would likely spend another 6 months casting around for a research question. If this is true, then your timing is tighter than you think. One option is to suspend while you are working this out (and get a job during that time).
Ultimately, you should consider why you are doing a PhD. If you are after the piece of paper to get access to an academic career, then the project itself is less important. In this situation, you could try and address the 'working alone' problem without changing projects. For example, do you have some skills that are different to your project team and you could collaborate on a small project with another student, or provide data analysis or programming assistance? Could you establish a journal club or something similar to learn with the other students?
On the other hand, if you are doing a PhD because you have a burning desire to do research in a particular field, then the project is more important. Not just because you want to develop expertise in that field, but also because the PhD research starts your contact network and partly positions you for post-doc jobs.
I did change topics (drastically) nine months into my PhD. I took a 3 month break during which I earned some money, did some reading and thought about a new question. My particular scholarship had extension provisions so I was funded for 3 years after I re-entered. I did complete within that extended time and could definitely have completed more quickly if I needed to. I wasn't in the UK system, so I can't comment on how much change you are permitted, but I had to do some paperwork that was mostly because I changed part of the supervisor team.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: My own Phd drifted off from its initial question and I spent considerable extra time to finish it. This required financing out of my own pocket by keeping a job and doing the thesis in parallel. I cannot recommend it, but at least 'I got it my way'.
I have no advice, but a comment: Your framing of the problem reveals two different logics: Your engineering training shows through in a utalitarian idea of normative decision making. But wondering if the options will be accepted by your fellows and former emplyees suggests an approach to decisionmaking as appropriatness. Amartya Sen has argued that there are different levels to be considered, where acting morally or appropriate is at a different level than acting opportunistic or utalitarian. It might be that your problem is situated at a conflict between your trained rational-choice reasoning and your intuitive ideas of what is the right thing to do. I have no idea where it would lead you, but what about asking your gut what you feel is the right thing; towards yourself, your financiers, the academic community, the engineering business environment or your friends and family: Which option will make you and your fellows proud of your choice? If you prefer an intellectual approach to adjacent lines of thinking, you could do some reading on 'the logic of appropriateness' or 'social contract and choice'.
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/10/27
| 631
| 2,776
|
<issue_start>username_0: In my opinion, UI/UX (user interface / user experience) or programming syntax are just like a piece of art. Some people will like your work, some won’t – it depends on a number of factors varying among people. I am doing *research* in designing UI/UX or programming syntax, and I have a few questions:
1. Can invention of UI/UX or programming syntax become a publication?
2. Which way of doing research can make those works look more academic?
Why do I ask these questions?
Because I think that when we talk about *good* or *bad* in scientific research, it should be universal, independent of human opinion. That’s why in the second question, I ask for research *methods* to approach scientific work, instead of creating artwork.<issue_comment>username_1: In principle, everything that has a *research contribution* can become a publication. Especially in computer science, a research contribution is very roughly defined as knowledge that is useful independently of the concrete implementation technology.
That means that *"look at my nice draft for an UI / syntax"* isn't a research contribution, but showing (e.g., through a user study) that a given design is better than the currently prevalent design in one or more dimensions is. Of course this means that you will need to do more than just propose the new design: firstly you need to be quite intimately aware what the current state of the art is (and the reasoning behind the current design), and secondly you will need to conduct a useful study.
As a sidenote, as soon as you are asking yourself ...
>
> Which way of doing research can make those works look more academics?
>
>
>
.. you are almost certainly doing it wrong. You should not conduct some work and afterwards think about how to make it "seem more academic". You should think from the beginning what the research question of your work is, and if you can't find any, question whether you *should* be conducting this work in the first place. Any attempt to make work "seem academic" after the fact is typically hard to publish, as reviewers are, at least usually, not stupid and able to look beyond simple deceptions.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: **Yes!**
Researchers in *Human-Computer Interaction* study the impacts of such things. While a syntax on its own isn't research worthy, it is publishable if you learn something generalizable. For example, some potential research questions might be: can programmers read/comprehend/edit code using your syntax faster or easier than some other syntax?
There have been such papers published at CHI. More recently I have been seeing a lot of papers on how we can annotate existing code with additional information to support programmers.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
|
2015/10/27
| 1,448
| 5,924
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am preparing slides for a short (10min) talk at the group meeting. The talk is about a fairly serious piece of (pure) mathematics, and it so happens that there is a very relevant one-panel webcomic. A thought appeared to me, and got some support from my fellow PhD students, that it would be cool to include this comic, perhaps at the final thank-you-for-your-attention slide.
I am probably not going to do it, so I'm asking mostly out of curiousity: Would this be a bad idea to go ahead and include a comic on the final slide?
Note: The comic is genuinely funny (based on a sample of 6 non-randomly selected students). It is not - as far as I can tell - offensive in any way. It could come across as somewhat silly.<issue_comment>username_1: I don't object to have fun, but I would object to have fun when you need to be serious. Because when the audience need you to be serious to your talk, then a funny picture will disrupt the thinking and they will be anxious.
If your talk in **short**, then I suggest you to put the comic at the end of the talk. If your talk is **long**, then I think putting it in the middle of the talk is fine, as long as the picture appears when no thinking is required, e.g. the transition between two sections. Not from section 2.1 to 2.2, but from 2 to 3.
(Personally I would put the funny slide after the discussion. Not only saving the best for the last, but also at that time, no one will think anymore, and indeed they are needed to be relaxed.)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/4bGLj.jpg)
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Human cognition is a strange thing, and I won't pretend I know it well enough to give you a guide, but I will suggest that you simply consider your audience and how you want them to move through the information.
A dense, heavy talk with few breaks will tire most audiences.
A light talk that doesn't require much thought will result in many people letting their mind wander.
A talk which carefully weaves the "story" with a variety of dense to light moments, may actually improve retention.
Adding levity in the form of a joke or humor, if the joke is very relevant to the talk, can actually increase retention, as long as it isn't too much of a distraction. Placing it appropriately is key, though, and I wouldn't do it at the end, because that's what people will remember. The last few sentences should be a quick summary of the talk and should be memorable.
Placing it in the middle, during a transition - for instance between the problem statement and the methodology - could be good, and allow a release of tension if the problem statement was pretty densely packed.
Starting off with it, as an into to the topic and a method to get attention is also a pretty good choice.
In all things, though, consider your audience first. What is the journey you are taking them on, and when would be an appropriate point for a rest break, a transition, a wake-up, etc.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: A big part of making an effective presentation is understanding your audience. You are going to be the best judge of how a funny slide will be received, since you know your group better than any of us do.
I can tell you that funny slides are not *always* a bad idea, just like they are not *always* a good idea - it depends on your audience and the goals of your presentation.
If you do use a funny slide, do it for a reason - but that should be true of all your slides. Every slide should have a clear purpose and be designed to communicate something to your audience (preferably one thing per slide). Funny "thank you" slides are no different. Decide what the purpose of your "thank you" slide is, and whether this comic will communicate that purpose to your particular audience, and then you will have your answer.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Whether you should include funny pictures in your slides has already been adequately answered by others, but I wanted to give you some more practical considerations to keep in mind when making this decision.
when using art from 3rd party artists, whether they are webcomic authors, paper comic authors, artists in classic media (paint, crayon, charcoal, firstborn blood) or another medium entirely, it is important to A) get their permission and B) have proper attribution. Both of these ensure that people who found the image interesting and want to see more can do so in a way that supports the content creator, on top of the more academic reasons for proper permission and attribution.
SMBC doesn't mention how to refer to them, so use your own judgment for determining how to best attribute. Definitely mention the artist (<NAME>), the website source ([www.smbc-comics.com](http://www.smbc-comics.com)) and the date (2013-02-01).
Some people in comments have said to slightly crop the picture to remove the bit about tenure. DO NOT DO THIS WITHOUT AUTHOR PERMISSION! The work is copyrighted and while there is a fair-use exemption for educational use of copyrighted material, the line about tenure is part of what makes this funny, especially for non-combinational theorists (although I doubt those will be present at your presentation). Without this punchline, the joke kinda falls flat because it is just another completely wrong definition of a scientific term, and there are plenty of those already.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: There is a message or several messages you want to get across in your talk. If the cartoon helps to get the message you want to make at a given point in your presentation across (probably not, in the specific case), the cartoon can be useful. Otherwise, the cartoon is noise and dilutes your message. A cartoon will get the attention of your audience- but not necessarily to the message you want to get across.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/27
| 530
| 2,296
|
<issue_start>username_0: A graduate student's main task would be the concentration on the research and scientific stuffs for stepping on the path of progression, as well as possible.
Social programs within the university would be effective in cultural view point, but could distract the student's concentration and waste his/her time. One might assert that a typical social program would be such useful (in perspective of the personal and social denouements) that the risk of the imbalance within the time sharing between expecting research and extracurricular activities could be neglected.
***Greek Life*** is just among both the most intriguing social programs and most time-consuming ones.
What kind of outcomes could be conceived for a graduate student, who takes part in ***Greek Life***, actively?<issue_comment>username_1: To restate what everyone is saying in an answer:
this usually isn't an option for graduate students.
To say a bit more...
Your time in graduate school should be career focused. There will be plenty of departmental activities that will provide an outlet for socialization (and dare I say drinking). If joining a frat/sorority is even possible, it's a bad idea.
You should be making connections with your academic peers and professors--not other university students generally.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In my experience, I don't know of any graduate student Fraternities (I attend FSU). However, as a grad student your experience has some similarities of a frat, at least in my experience. You are in classes with the same (or many of the same) people every day. Our business school has many gatherings and social events for the entire business school as well as within each specific department. I am now in the PhD program and there is a PhD student association that also has many gatherings. The people you go through these types of degrees become your brothers, as you both struggle to overcome the same obstacles. So it's similar to a fraternity, but instead of "obstacles" meaning sliding down a slip and slide with another drunk guy into a human pyramid of cheerleaders, you are trying to pass a quantitatively intense test with another person seeking a professional career. Yea, they're basically one in the same ;)
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/10/27
| 930
| 4,263
|
<issue_start>username_0: If I presented a poster at a conference that contained the results of some research, can I then write a paper using those same results and submit it to another conference as a full paper?<issue_comment>username_1: This depends a great deal on the field and conference that you have in mind. Generally, **it should be stated in the call for papers**. If there is no explicit mention of *novelty requirements*, that probably means the research cannot be resubmitted in a longer form or that the field has a very clear, established convention.
To take [an example from a premier conference in Computer Science](http://sigmod2016.org/calls_papers_sigmod_research.shtml), a poster paper can be resubmitted, with the addition of novel contributions, provided that the previous submission was sufficiently short and not published in a journal:
>
> Every research paper submitted to SIGMOD 2016 must present substantial novel research not described in any prior publication. In this context, a prior publication is (a) a paper of five pages or more presented, or accepted for presentation, at a refereed conference or workshop with proceedings; or (b) an article published, or accepted for publication, in a refereed journal. If a SIGMOD 2016 submission has overlap with a prior publication, the submission must cite the prior publication, along with all other relevant published work, following the guidelines in the Anonymity Requirements for Double-Blind Reviewing section below.
>
>
>
However, the paper is still likely to be rejected if there is not sufficiently more material in the new paper; I cannot imagine any venue of high quality simply republishing material that has already appeared somewhere else.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: *This depends on the customs of the field and the venue. I will answer based upon my experience from an HCI-related subfield of CS:*
Conferences usually have some requirement of novelty for published works. Therefore, if a paper associated with the poster already appeared in some proceedings of the first conference, you might not fulfil this requirement. First, however, some different cases might apply:
* If the poster was not "formally published" (i.e. did not appear as a (short) paper in any kind of proceedings), you should be good to go.
* If the poster was supposed to be "formally published", but the conference organizers never got around to setting up the proceedings of the poster session, you're in a bit of an inconvenient situation. Your work is not published in a way that it can be cited (well, it can, but it doesn't look as verifiable as other papers and is not archived by any publisher), but it has been presented. You may want to contact the conference organizers in this case whether publishing your work again is ok, or else you may want to wrap your work in something larger (i.e. present something new, but reiterate the points from the poster as a part of the exposition).
Even if your poster was published in some kind of proceedings, there may be some options:
* Posters are often allowed to present work in progress. If your poster (and the connected paper) was presented in a way to present work in progress, your new conference paper might indeed present the final state of whatever you devised. This can essentially match the content of your poster, but provide more details (see also below).
* Even if the poster presented final results, the term "results" seems to be seen in a very wide sense at least in my fields, possibly in others. A full conference paper provides much more space than a poster paper, and on the poster, you probably presented different (more visual) things than you would in text. As such, you can shift the focus of your conference paper compared to the poster; where the poster focused on the results, the conference paper might discuss the methods used to obtain the results in depth, including design decisions, citations of similar experiments, a verification of the reliability of your experiments, etc. This kind of description can be useful for the community and subsequent works, and as such should provide enough new content, despite being based upon the same material as the poster.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2015/10/27
| 1,077
| 4,832
|
<issue_start>username_0: My question is regarding how to go against advice given by advisers/faculty in a professional way, specifically in applying to graduate schools (but I am interested in the general case as well). Due to my poor test scores, one of my mentors has explicitly said that I should not apply to school X and Y. However, the location of the school and research interests of the faculty align well with my preferences so I want to apply anyways (although I must agree with my adviser that my chances are slim at best). How should I let my adviser know (he is likely to be a letter-writer for me as well)?
On a related note, should I follow his advice? I don't want to "waste" time applying to a school that is a big reach for me but I also don't want to lose hope.<issue_comment>username_1: This depends a great deal on the field and conference that you have in mind. Generally, **it should be stated in the call for papers**. If there is no explicit mention of *novelty requirements*, that probably means the research cannot be resubmitted in a longer form or that the field has a very clear, established convention.
To take [an example from a premier conference in Computer Science](http://sigmod2016.org/calls_papers_sigmod_research.shtml), a poster paper can be resubmitted, with the addition of novel contributions, provided that the previous submission was sufficiently short and not published in a journal:
>
> Every research paper submitted to SIGMOD 2016 must present substantial novel research not described in any prior publication. In this context, a prior publication is (a) a paper of five pages or more presented, or accepted for presentation, at a refereed conference or workshop with proceedings; or (b) an article published, or accepted for publication, in a refereed journal. If a SIGMOD 2016 submission has overlap with a prior publication, the submission must cite the prior publication, along with all other relevant published work, following the guidelines in the Anonymity Requirements for Double-Blind Reviewing section below.
>
>
>
However, the paper is still likely to be rejected if there is not sufficiently more material in the new paper; I cannot imagine any venue of high quality simply republishing material that has already appeared somewhere else.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: *This depends on the customs of the field and the venue. I will answer based upon my experience from an HCI-related subfield of CS:*
Conferences usually have some requirement of novelty for published works. Therefore, if a paper associated with the poster already appeared in some proceedings of the first conference, you might not fulfil this requirement. First, however, some different cases might apply:
* If the poster was not "formally published" (i.e. did not appear as a (short) paper in any kind of proceedings), you should be good to go.
* If the poster was supposed to be "formally published", but the conference organizers never got around to setting up the proceedings of the poster session, you're in a bit of an inconvenient situation. Your work is not published in a way that it can be cited (well, it can, but it doesn't look as verifiable as other papers and is not archived by any publisher), but it has been presented. You may want to contact the conference organizers in this case whether publishing your work again is ok, or else you may want to wrap your work in something larger (i.e. present something new, but reiterate the points from the poster as a part of the exposition).
Even if your poster was published in some kind of proceedings, there may be some options:
* Posters are often allowed to present work in progress. If your poster (and the connected paper) was presented in a way to present work in progress, your new conference paper might indeed present the final state of whatever you devised. This can essentially match the content of your poster, but provide more details (see also below).
* Even if the poster presented final results, the term "results" seems to be seen in a very wide sense at least in my fields, possibly in others. A full conference paper provides much more space than a poster paper, and on the poster, you probably presented different (more visual) things than you would in text. As such, you can shift the focus of your conference paper compared to the poster; where the poster focused on the results, the conference paper might discuss the methods used to obtain the results in depth, including design decisions, citations of similar experiments, a verification of the reliability of your experiments, etc. This kind of description can be useful for the community and subsequent works, and as such should provide enough new content, despite being based upon the same material as the poster.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2015/10/28
| 6,371
| 26,314
|
<issue_start>username_0: Background: I am a fourth year math graduate student working as a TA for an introduction to proofs course with a focus on analysis.
I really enjoy the teaching component of my position as a graduate student, but this semester I feel as though students are taking advantage of my generosity.
As is typical for a TA in the math department at my university, I hold a couple (in my case, two) office hours per week, plus additional availability via appointment. My office hours are nearly always occupied, which generally pleases me. However, my students nearly always stay well past the point when my office hours are supposed to end, even a couple hours worth in most cases.
In addition, I tend to spend nearly all my waking hours at my office, so I have no problem meeting with students at a wide variety of times. They are well aware of this, and several of them have requested frequent appointments that do not coincide with my office hours. Again, the main issue here is that these appointments often last much, much longer than an hour.
I understand that the material of this course is challenging, and I am glad that my students desire to improve their abilities. However, their behavior is seriously impinging upon my ability to progress in my research.
What are acceptable avenues for reaching a compromise between my need to progress in my work and my desire to assist my students? So far I've considered the following:
1. I've attempted to subtly imply that I would appreciate less consumption of my time, but I don't want to discourage their eager approach to their work and they don't seem to be getting the hint.
2. Alternatively, I could lie about having meetings, other appointments, obligations, etc, but I would feel wrong doing so.
3. I could obviously just tell them that they can't stay late because I have other work that I need to perform, but again, I don't want to directly shut them down.
Ultimately, I would love to find some systematic way to decrease the strain that they place on my schedule. One trick I have utilized is the deliberate scheduling of an office hour immediately before the taught class, since both me and any students have to leave at that time to go to class. Are there other things like this I could do?
I'm not merely looking for a solution for this semester, because I'd like to prevent this problem in the future as well.<issue_comment>username_1: You don't need a "trick" to solve this problem. They're staying past the end of your scheduled office hours because you have been tolerant of this so far. (I suspect they completely missed your subtle hints.)
**It sounds like you have made it too easy for them to use you as a crutch, rather than doing the work on their own and then coming to you with specific, focused questions.** (Very much like [this situation](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17231/how-to-deal-with-students-asking-very-incremental-questions).) It's not good for you and it's not good for them.
At the end of your scheduled office hours, say (with a smile):
>
> Thanks, everyone, for coming! Don't forget that if you need extra help, you can also schedule an appointment with me.
>
>
>
You can do the same thing at the end of a scheduled appointment:
>
> It seems like we made some progress here. If you realize you still have questions after working on this some more, you can schedule another appointment.
>
>
>
Then if you need more of a reason to usher them out the door, grab your jacket and announce that you're going out for some coffee/air/exercise/something to eat.
If you think students *are* using office hours productively and genuinely *need* more time with a TA, consider letting the course instructor know - perhaps he/she should hire another TA to offer extra support.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: 3 every time. As a teaching assistant, you are employed by the university. They employ you for office hours. You have no obligation to anyone, including the university, outside of those hours.
If instead of being at work, you were sitting at a table in the pub with beers in front of you (which out of hours you are entitled to be), would you accept students coming to you to ask questions? If not, why not? And now, why is your situation here any different?
The solution is simple – print out an A4 notice saying
>
> Student enquiries between 9 am and 5 pm, please.
>
>
>
and stick it to the door. If you particularly want to break your own rule for a particular student/question, that’s up to you. But you’ve then established that outside of these times, you have a right to not be available.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I'm also a TA, and I greatly enjoy working with my students during my office hours. When my two hours are up, I'm often in the middle of working with a student, and there are other students who want my help. Here's how I handle the situation:
Whenever a student comes up to me and asks me for help when my office hours are officially over, I turn them down. If they're a student from my class, I let them know they can schedule an appointment with me, and if they're from another class, I help them find a different TA instead. (In my department, TAs prioritize helping their own students but are expected to help students from any class.)
Then, I let the student I'm working with know that I can help for a while longer, usually 15 to 30 minutes, depending on how busy I am. Then, if I can help them resolve their problem by that time, great! I can leave knowing my work is done. Otherwise, I help them find another TA who can help them and leave.
My situation sounds a little different than yours because I can ask other TAs to cover me when my office hours are over. However, there are still a couple things I do that you can, too:
1. When a student comes in after your office hours are over, even if you're helping another student, tell them to set up an appointment with you or come back the following week.
2. When a student stays past the end of your office hours, give them a cut-off time 10-20 minutes in advance. If the student still needs more help after that, ask them to set up an appointment.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: You can try to deal with this problem using email. You strictly enforce your office hours, but you tell the students that if they need extra help, they can email you. You can then deal with the questions of the students whenever it suits you best. Replies can be brief, you'll find it a lot easier to only give a few hints compared to a face to face meeting where it's difficult to not go into details.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: This is a common occurrence - a young, approachable instructor, one who seems more like his/her students than their other instructors, is a natural attraction to students - they believe you will understand *them* not just their problems in the course. Others here have offered good suggestions for you, but basically, you'll have to wend your way through this until you establish boundaries that are clear but sympathetic to the situation. For the following semesters, you can set the ground rules by explaining that while you are contractually required to hold only two office hours, you have on occasion allowed more time to a student's particularly difficult or complex problem, but that extra time is not usual, as *your* academic responsibilities extend beyond the course you teach. Suggest that students talk to one another (peer learning is exceedingly positive), and if there is a common question, they should come as a group, not as individuals to maximize the time you do have available for them. Students can understand everything if it is explained to them. Mostly, they are kids looking for a kind word of support from someone they respect, trust, and who appears to be like them. Showing them that you care doesn't mean that you care to the exclusion of the rest of *your* life. They'll get it.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Make the students reserve a slot of your time. Bonus if it is done using a web page (thus there's not a person who needs to turn them down). If they want to meet you in the morning, it's no problem, it gets debited anyway from your assigned weekly hours. If there are no hours left, they are showed an error message and will need to wait till next week (or maybe allow them to join another student… assuming you can handle both at the same time).
You could allow them to use up all your yearly office hours in the first month, but I would recommend not to allow them to expend so much office hours. At most for this month imho.
Finally, this also allows you to record the time spent helping students, both to students (see, I have been asked all these hours), to the department (if there's such demand maybe they should add more TAs?) and to yourself (it is easy not to realise how much time you really are dedicating).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: I think that if you carefully consider the whole set of things you've said, you'll see that you already know the answer.
First, there is the negative situation that you want to stop:
* "Students are taking advantage of my generosity"
* "Students nearly always stay well past the point when my office hours are supposed to end, even a couple hours worth in most cases"
* "The main issue here is that these appointments often last much, much longer than an hour"
* "Their behavior is seriously impinging upon my ability to progress in my research"
Second, while you do want to solve this problem, you revealed some results you don't want as you solve it:
* "I don't want to discourage their eager approach to their work"
* "I don't want to directly shut them down"
Third, there's what you've tried so far to get them to use less of your time:
* You have office hours (presumably posted) that state an ending time.
* "Subtly imply that I would appreciate less consumption of my time."
* "Deliberate scheduling of an office hour immediately before the taught class"
And finally, it seems like your goal is:
* "Compromise between my need to progress in my work and my desire to assist my students"
Frankly, it looks like the real problem (to me) is that you want students to leave when they've taken up a reasonable amount of your time, without you having to directly tell anyone it's time to go.
But you have to ask yourself, *why on Earth would they do that*? All you've done is bend over backwards to accommodate their use of your time at every turn! And even if you had been more clear, there is a difference between what's *reasonable* and what's *realistic*. It may be *reasonable* for them to value your time more (by using less of it), but it's completely *unrealistic* for you to expect that to happen, without you doing something to make it happen somehow. People are fundamentally selfish and will use as much of your time as you don't stop them from using. It's up to you to stop them.
You want a compromise without changing your own actions, but that's not a compromise. Part of the compromise you have to make will be giving up some degree or quantity of your apparent wishes/goals in order to get others that you value more. Specifically, you may have to disappoint some students from time to time, and until you're willing to do that, you'll continue to feel like a doormat and be used like one.
It basically comes down to this: **You need to decide what you want, and then make that happen**. You don't know what you want right now, besides wanting to not have to deal directly with the problem of students taking more time than you wish. Except... I think you do know. You want the problem to fix itself, but know deep down that it won't. What you're afraid of is true: you have to do the hard thing and set limits.
Also, I would like to suggest that setting limits on student use of your time is *not* "shutting someone down" or "discouraging eager work". Saying those things is, in my mind, just a means to avoid the unpleasantness of having to tell someone to leave and being firm about it. If students need more help than you can give, *that's not your problem to solve for each and every student*. Live in the real world, where you have a limited amount of resources and you must apply them wisely. Your resource of time is being misused, and you must stop that. It is not fair to you to be used all the way up. Students have to study by themselves eventually, and you need to give them a reason to do that.
Here are some ideas.
1. Communicate. Actually tell them what's going on and ask for help. Hold a meeting with all the students, or print up a flyer, or put each student's name in a book and check it off once you've communicated this. Tell them, "Dear Student, I love helping all of you, and wish that I could continue helping you in the way I have until now, giving you all of my time and energy. However, as much as I hate the idea of leaving you hanging, I have to reduce the time I'm spending, and from now on I'll be ending office hours at the stated time and appointments after 1 hour." Ask for them to brainstorm with you how to fix the situation. Ask for their help directly. Ask how they actually want to grow as people and if just relying on you is their idea of true personal growth? Whatever you decide on and you clearly say will happen, **do it**.
2. Delegate. Brainstorm with the students to find ways to use your time more effectively. Suggest they set up their own study groups. Get the more advanced/smarter students to tutor the less so. Assign a student to come and kick people out for you.
3. Be consistent. Do make use of strategies for avoiding the confrontation of saying "it's time to go", but don't use *only* these strategies if that leaves times when you don't make someone leave. You have to change the way things work in order to set clear expectations. The moment you let even one student stay late, you set up expectations that are at variance with what you want, and that is truly an uphill battle. Students have to know you stinkin' mean business about ending at the right time, and the only way they know that (no matter what you *tell* them) is by actually *doing* it. Every time.
4. Demonstrate. One strategy that can help you is to use non-verbal signals. Get up and walk away when something is over. Even if you can't leave the room, can you get up from the study table and walk back to your desk? Can you take off your glasses, turn off a light, go into a different room, close up books and put them in packs? Get a neon light that you turn on when it's consultation time, then turn it off when it's over. Go open the door and stand there holding it, looking expectantly at them. Look obviously at your watch. Set a timer or alarm that rings (use a 15-minute warning if you like, too). Start talking about next time. Act as if you don't have to tell them they need to leave, act as if they already are in the process of leaving, and you'll find that they get the message. Physically break eye contact, turn your body away from them, and take a few steps. Leave the room and walk away, asking them to make sure the door closes when they leave. All these can be easier than having to say "it's time to go now." I *promise* they'll work for almost every student.
5. Be firm. By this, I mean precisely one thing: don't discuss it at leaving time. Discuss the new rules all you want, but *never at leaving time*. Leaving time is for *leaving*. Talk about it next time you meet. Make an appointment. Send an email. Write a reminder note. But get them out the door.
6. Be oblivious. Use this as a last resort, but for any students who still have trouble leaving, and you truly still feel so uncomfortable repeatedly saying "see you at our next meeting" or "I really have some work to do" and really making them leave, then simply act as if they've left. Ignore them. Get busy with your own work. When they impinge on your awareness, act startled, and say "oh, are you still here? Office hours are over." Then go back to your work and ignore them. It will work. You don't even have to tell them to leave.
7. Give yourself a break. Recognize that you are the only one who can decide what you want, and you're the only one who can make what you want happen. If you don't choose to make what you want happen, you're the only one to blame for that (I guess you didn't really want it, enough, after all). So don't beat yourself up for not being Superman. You deserve to have the kind of life you want (within reason). It's clear you love your students, but it's not loving to them if you burn yourself out, or come to resent them over time.
8. Get real. You may not actually be helping your students all that much by being on call for them all the time. Will they ever learn how to study on their own? Are they learning the right habits that will help them in their future studies and careers? At some point, you have to stop flying your babies around and let them use their own wings.
**Important note**: I'm cognizant there is tension between *be consistent* and *be firm* on the one hand, and *be oblivious* (and possibly, *demonstrate*) on the other. However, realize that we're not dealing with a perfect world full of superhuman gods and goddesses—we've got a somewhat harried yet good-hearted T.A., a mere human, who struggles with setting firm limits on people he or she otherwise loves to serve, and who doesn't exactly relish confrontations that result in their disappointment. Since we're living in the real world, instead, I offered both what I think *should* happen (be firm and consistent) and also threw out a rescue line for situations where a particularly insistent or oblivious student makes things difficult. Think about it: once the lesson is learned (by the T.A.) on how to help people leave, and the experience is gained, even using the *be oblivious* "game" I suggested, change will occur within, and in time, this game won't be required. Consider: in utilizing these strategies, the O.P. will more likely be successful at the *firm* part, because in no case will he or she continue assisting the student past the requisite time, *and that's the important part*.
Don't assume others are exactly like you, and please recognize that sometimes, less-than-perfect coping strategies are necessary. For people who can stand to grow and are finding it difficult, they may need baby steps. Have some compassion!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: Point at the door. Say "Out!"
Then, something like "Come back again at [office hours] if you'd like some more help."
Then, continue pointing and don't say anything else but "Out!" till they start collecting their stuff.
Have you heard of ["Idiot Compassion"](http://bigthink.com/21st-century-spirituality/idiot-compassion-and-mindfulness)?
"It refers to something we all do a lot of and call it compassion. **In some ways, it’s what’s called enabling.** It’s the general tendency to give people what they want because you can't bear to see them suffering.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_9: Be honest. Then be strict. Value your time.
My suggestion:
>
> 1) At the beginning of office hours, genuinely express your thoughts and feelings to your students. You likely don't want to limit their learning. You like to teach them, yet *you* can only offer so much.
>
>
> 2) Define a strict stopping time. Write it on the board if needed. Make it clear that after the end of office hours, the office returns to be *your* office.
>
>
> 3) Live by your words. End on time.
>
>
>
You remind me of myself. I too tend to teach students on my off-hours. It's enjoyable, agreed. As long as you seem to understand that this is completely pro-bono work, and as long as you enjoy it, then I guess that's cool.
But you have to be reasonable. It seems like you're not respecting your own time, or perhaps, you have naively weighed how much time you have. Reflect on this. You can use that time in *so* many other ways. It's not just research time that you're likely losing.
Clearly announcing your intentions and feelings, as suggested, can alleviate any personal (and wholly irrational) guilt. Second, it serves as a catalyst to action; it'll make it harder to renege on your decision.
Speaking of which, I think I've spent more than my fair share of time on Stack Exchange today...
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: The most important is that you find the best way to help your students and yourself in the manner you deem fitting. Giving more time to students may not actually bring you closer to this goal if you think about it, nor may it be optimal even if it does.
What is not often emphasized is that students learn better when they have to explain what they think to other students, be it their questions or answers. In many cases simply getting them to write out their question in a clear and detailed manner for everyone to see can help them find their own answer in the process of thinking how to express themselves.
And even if they can't figure out the answer themselves, there are always other students who can help and would be glad to help, just like you. Collaboration in pedagogy is quite under-valued. Ultimately, you do not have to be the solitary teacher, and arguably should not be, since teaching other students does not only help their own learning process but should in fact be one of the most significant goals of education. Students cannot merely learn to solve problems but must learn to convey and discuss their ideas with others.
Your role is to facilitate this process, by checking what students tell one another and stepping in only when serious conceptual errors arise, but letting them be active participants in the teaching. After all, if you can impart your knowledge and your ability to teach to just 2 students, they in turn can teach 4 others...
All this is easiest if there is some common forum for students to participate in, where you would have to encourage them to post their questions.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: It might help if you limit each student that sees you to a set time interval--say, 10 or 15 minutes. Or have a sign in sheet on your door that limits the number of students you will see on any particular day. You seem to understand that YOU set the limits, the start and stop times. But you also need to enforce those times and reschedule the overflow to a different day.
It may help for you to require the students that see you to post answers to the questions they have in a FAQ blog about the course. Then you will not spend time with multiple students going over the same material. Most quantitative courses have "lab" sessions with finite endpoints. As a mathematician, I'm sure you appreciate that it is helpful to set clear limits on the set of all students you are teaching:)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_12: I'd say that in academia "defending your time" always needs to be priority #1. Requests and demands on your time can expand endlessly, and the work is frequently invisible to supervisors (not on a clock, frequently at home, including nights and weekends), so you must set boundaries for yourself. If you get burned out or overworked then you won't be able to help yourself or any future students. Presumably your institution has an idea of how much time you should spend on office hours (sounds like 2 hours per week; for me it's 3), so you should follow that guideline and not extend it.
Personally, I'm of the mind that students always coming to office hours is **not** a good thing. They should be able to pick up most of the material from the lectures, book, and study with other students; anything else is a sign of a system breakdown. Office hour time with faculty should be a last-stop emergency measure (most of my friends with bachelors' degrees never went to faculty office hours their whole college career).
For practical purposes, your #3 item is very solid (it's basically what I do). Consider also scheduling the office hour at the very start or end of the day, so that you have uninterrupted work time to mentally focus on other tasks. Possibly schedule it right before a lunch or dinner hour and commit to leaving for that when the time comes. Tell students when they arrive how long you can work for them (e.g., "We have until 5:20", or "Let's work for 10 minutes so the next student waiting can come in"); I find that students get better at focusing, prioritizing, and coming in with sharp questions when I do this.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_13: >
> Alternatively, I could lie about having meetings, other appointments, obligations, etc, but I would feel wrong doing so.
>
>
>
You don't need to "lie", because it's none of their business what other things you have to do, or even if you have no other things to do.
Simply allot *x* time for your meeting with the students, and when it is over, you simply tell them that time is up and they will have to look forward to the next session. And "goodbye". That is *it*. No justification, no excuses. The meeting is over.
This is not hard, and it is not specific to academia. It is basic, basic, basic human interaction. "Sorry, I have to go now" is a phrase you must surely know by now.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_14: If you're just a pushover by nature, you may need to either find a different location to hold your office hours and additional appointments, or find a different location to do your own work.
Is the course too difficult for the students at their current level?
If not, just get the student unstuck about a particular question or stumbling block, then say, "I think you're well on your way now, off you go. Have fun!" If the student is reluctant to leave, say, "I have full confidence in you. You will be fine. Let me know if you get stuck again." Then walk out to the bathroom or the water fountain.
I love user21280's idea about fostering collaboration among students. You can facilitate this by grouping two to four students at a time for particular questions, and after a little bit, suggesting they get together for regular study group meetings. You can also take a page out of online teaching and get everybody into a google group talking to each other.
Upvotes: 0
|
2015/10/28
| 1,702
| 6,545
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a PhD student from computer science and try to submit a paper to IEEE transactions. In addition, I also submitted it to arXiv under the CC0 license (Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication), where it was already published. This might be unacceptable for IEEE.
My question is: Can I just withdraw the current version, and resubmit it to arXiv under non-exclusive license? It seems like that there will be a record in arXiv. Will it affect my IEEE publication?<issue_comment>username_1: There are precedents that suggest this may be [unacceptable to the IEEE](http://cr.yp.to/writing/ieee.html), although the only way to know for sure is to ask. They may be more sympathetic if they see it as an unfortunate mistake, rather than an attempt to undermine their copyright policies. On the other hand, they may still wish to avoid any precedents that could be used to undermine those policies, regardless of whether that was your intent.
>
> Can I just withdraw the current version, and resubmit it to arXiv under non-exclusive license?
>
>
>
If you try to do that, the arXiv's plagiarism/duplicate detection will alert them and they will be upset. You are definitely not allowed to withdraw and then resubmit independently.
Instead, you should write to them to ask what, if anything, you can do to fix this.
One option is to update the current paper. I think you are allowed to choose a new license for the update, but I assume it does not change the license for the previous version (which will still be available). If that's the case, then this will not solve your problem.
Creative Commons licenses are irrevocable, so there is nothing you can do to prevent the article from being distributed under the CC0 license if someone has a CC0-licensed copy and wishes to do that (see [this FAQ](https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Frequently_Asked_Questions#What_if_I_change_my_mind.3F)). However, the arXiv might be willing to change the license they distribute the article under in the future, especially if your paper was just posted recently and you explain that the license choice was a mistake. I don't know what the chances are that they would agree, but it can't hurt to ask.
This would not completely solve the problem (anyone who downloaded the paper already under the CC0 license could still do whatever they wanted with it and redistribute it further), but it would mitigate it. I do not know how the IEEE would react.
Ultimately, there's no perfect solution, since nothing you can do will ever eliminate the possibility of CC0-licensed copies somewhere on the internet. All you can do is address the issue as best you can and then explain it to the IEEE and hope they feel you have done enough.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: ### Passively play along like a boss.
@AnonymousMathematician's practical suggestion for undoing things on ArXiv may work, but let's suppose it doesn't. What do you do now?
Well, just do exactly what other academics usually do: Sign that [IEEE paper](https://www.eptc-ieee.net/uploads/exhibitors-pdf/59c22cf8b853e_Copyright%20form.pdf)!
(Note: This is a variation on the [**standard trick**](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/119002/7319) for circumventing publisher attempts to restrict publication.)
First, regardless of what it says - you have plausible deniability even if it contradicts your having dedicated the paper to the public domain: "Gee, I just signed the form like everybody else, I didn't really read it through. I don't really understand what it says, either. I'm an absent-minded [insert discipline here], not an IP lawyer!"
Even that will likely work just fine.
But, let's look at the actual document:
>
> The undersigned hereby assigns to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Incorporated (the “IEEE”) all rights under copyright that may exist in and to the above Work, and any revised or expanded derivative works submitted to the IEEE by the undersigned based on the Work.
>
>
>
Check. You assign all rights that may exist. It just so happens that these are no relevant rights to assign.
>
> The undersigned hereby warrants that
> the Work is original and that he/she is the author of the Work; to the
> extent the Work incorporates text passages, figures, data or other material from the works of others, the undersigned has obtained any necessary permissions.
>
>
>
Sure, that's not effected by the work being in the public domain.
>
> Authors must ensure that their Work meets the requirements of IEEE Policy 6.4, including provisions covering originality, authorship, author responsibilities and author misconduct.
>
>
>
It's original, you're the author, you're a responsible person and you're a really nice guy who does no mischief. "Policy 6.4"? What's that?
>
> * The undersigned represents that he/she has the power and authority to make and execute this assignment.
>
>
>
I'm not mentally feeble, so sure. This doesn't say the author is the current sole holder of any specific rights.
>
> * The undersigned agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the IEEE from any damage or expense that may arise in the event of a breach of any of the
>
> warranties set forth above.
>
>
>
Actually, indemnification clauses are absolutely horrible regardless of anything else. In many countries these are simply considered null and void, at least on standard-form contracts.
>
> * In the event the above work is not accepted and published by the IEEE or is
> withdrawn by the author(s) before acceptance by the IEEE, the foregoing
> copyright transfer shall become null and void and all materials embodying the Work
> submitted to the IEEE will be destroyed.
>
>
>
Fine.
>
> * For jointly authored Works, all joint authors should sign, or one of the authors should sign as authorized agent for the others.
>
>
>
Sure. (This is another loophole by the way, but never mind.)
>
> RETAINED RIGHTS/TERMS AND CONDITIONS
>
>
>
This only detracts from what you've "given" them in the above.
>
> INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS
>
>
>
No problem, just information.
... and this concludes the form. There might be other versions of it, but that's the basic idea. No apparent contradiction with the paper being in the public domain. Now, could a lawyer argue that a contradiction does exist? I think not, but even if they could: 1. They won't. 2. You could claim signing based on a good faith reading of the text, which is even stronger than the "Whoops" argument above.
Upvotes: 3
|
2015/10/28
| 2,674
| 11,096
|
<issue_start>username_0: Update: There isn't any disabilities office. Not US...
I'd like to expand on a comment I just made down there: I'm not trying to find a silver bullet. I just want a reasonable starting point.
---
It is a pretty straightforward question:
>
> As a teacher, what can I do to make sure the course is accessible to people with physical disabilities?
>
>
>
I have limited experience with these issues; a student lost some of his eyesight midway through the course. It wasn't that big of an issue; the only change we made was to print the exams using a bigger font.
I'm thinking specifically blindness and deafness, but then again, my lack of experience in this matter might lead me to forget important stuff :)
Therefore I'm aiming my question to anyone with some experience at this, from both sides of the table. What changes did you make to the material? Classes? Exams, etc., etc., etc.?
Official guidelines are helpful too. I'll try to find the guidelines at my university and add it here, if relevant.
---
Rather than edit it, I'll append a more detailed version:
>
> What are the best practices to prepare material when dealing with students with blindness or deafness?
>
>
>
---
I know the question is quite general. That is because I'm trying to be proactive. I'm aware that these issues should be dealt in a case-by-case manner, but I'm looking for general good practices/experience to reduce the work needed to perform these adaptations, on both sides.
A few examples following jakebeal's answer:
* There are a few file formats that don't play nice with accessibility software (screen readers and protected PDF files).
* What multimedia material would you prepare? A subtitled video can be useful to deaf students, for instance.<issue_comment>username_1: Please note that there is (at least a possibility) of legal contention in cases like the ones you are describing, so this is largely a matter of university policy, and not for individual instructors to decide. That being said, universities generally set up some *office of disability services*, which offer customized advice, on individual case-by-case basis. For example, [here](http://www.bu.edu/disability) is this office for Boston University, and [here](http://accessibility.harvard.edu) for Harvard. Other universities also follow suite, as far as I know.
Thus, a general answer to this question is not possible, this is really something that these offices are going to answer for you, and that advice will be legally binding.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: As noted by [The Dark Side](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/57055/20058) universities typically have offices to arrange proper solutions for students with disabilities.
In the past, I had a visually impaired student (partially blind), and the university paid a student assistant to help him taking notes during the lessons.
For the exam, I printed the exam sheet with a much larger font and gave him a bit of extra time. He agreed that this was sufficient for him.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I would like to echo the other answers and enhance by focusing specifically on the breadth of ability challenges that may be faced by various students. There are *many* different types of physical challenges that students may face, and even for a given challenge the answers may be different. For example, did you know [that most blind people can actually see](http://www.afb.org/info/living-with-vision-loss/for-job-seekers/for-employers/visual-impairment-and-your-current-workforce/learning-about-blindness/12345), just so poorly that it cannot be effectively corrected, and that "blindness" actually covers a wide range of different conditions?
The key approach to any student with physical impairments that need accommodation is:
1. Do not assume that you should be handling it alone, or that you have the necessary knowledge to make an appropriate accommodation *for that individual*.
2. **Ask the student.** They are the world's foremost expert on their condition and needs. You'll generally do much better if you begin by just treating them like any other capable adult.
3. Get the university's experts involved, who will help you work out an appropriate plan tailored to an individual student.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: First off, I'd recommend reading Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the regulations that implemented those statutes at 34 C.F.R. Part 104 and 28 C.F.R Part 35. That will give you information about the legal portion. Know that the US Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) does enforce these regulations for higher education. Your local DSS department can help you with specifics.
TL;DR: check here for examples:
<http://webaim.org/standards/508/checklist> and here
<https://wcetblog.wordpress.com/2015/09/29/universal-design/>
Since there are no strict "Do this, then do this" rules to HOW you're to implement this, many Universities and Colleges have differing standards and implementations. However, most all of them follow a certain set of loose guidelines. I'm not sure if you're asking about all formats, handouts, web pages, videos, etc. There's a TON of information out there, but no centralized spot to find it all.
I've found lots of stuff by searching for things like Accessibility, accessible documents, and section 504.
If you want to send me a DM, I can send you some more specific information, and guidelines that we use.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: At my university, there is an entire Services for Students with Disabilities office that handles these kinds of issues. Students with health issues that require accommodations are referred, usually by their teachers or doctors, to the office. At the office, they are screened for which types of accommodations will truly help them while being fair to other students given the circumstances. Then, the students can go to their professors with official forms indicating what kinds of accommodations they can receive.
This system allows professors to give very specific and reasonable accommodations. There's no risk that they'll make decisions that are too generous or restrictive, make the situation worse, are taken in by a student who is lying or refuse to believe a student who really has an issue, or fall for any of the other very serious risks associated with trying to decide what to do on their own.
I strongly suspect that your university has a similar department. You should do some research and see whether that's the case.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_6: I think deafness and blindness are so rare that preparing beforehand is a waste of resources. Dealing with such cases when they occur should be sufficient, in particular because you are probably not able to completely accomodate them without external expert assistance.
What you *can* and arguable *should* consider are issues that occur more frequently, such as color-blindness. Statistics suggest that every sizable course has at least a handful of afflicted students, so you can be *sure* your effor pays off. Plus, color blindness is usually quite easy to work around by using suitable color palettes and/or using markings besides color. As a nice bonus, such scripts/slides also *print* better, so you incidentally help every student.
I'm sure there are more disadvantages that frequently appear; I'll not try to give a complete list. Browse some resources on physical, mental and social issues that have high incidence (meaning that they are likely to occur in every 100-student-classroom), that may impede learning in your course as it is, *and* that you can actually accomodate to some extent given your skills and resources.
*Tl;dr:* Accept that you won't be able to prepare for all eventualities. Pick your battles; spend your resources effectively.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_7: The part of the question about how you can amend your teaching to make it inclusive for disabilities does not seem to have been addressed so far.
Although you may not be in an institution that has a disability office, or in a territory that has anti-discrimination legislation, many readers of the question may be. Thus answers that suggest consulting someone centrally that can advise on institutional policy and practice is a sensible generic response.
The observation that complete blindness or deafness is so uncommon in normal university teaching that one should not specifically amend teaching practices to accommodate is a statistically valid observation.
However, teachers still need to know what to do. Further, vision impairment and hearing impairment are spectrum disorders and it will be certain that not all students in a class can hear everything that is said and see everything that is shown to them. I suspect many of us have been to presentations when we could not hear every word or see every image with sufficient clarity.
I advise my colleagues in similar situations, and this answer is based on the advice that I give.
Almost every institution has a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) of some sort. Sometimes it is a simple primitive set of web pages and sometimes it is more capable. Before we had VLEs we had class handout sheets, notice boards and so forth. Whatever level of information technology you are equipped with, you should use it to improve and enhance the mechanisms of information distribution to the class.
Ensure, therefore, that critical information points are communicated in more than one medium. If you verbalise something important, ensure it is also written down somewhere, whether than is in a handout, on the VLE or in the textbook, it doesn't matter. If you show something, such as writing on the board, try and verbalise it also (it does not need to be verbatim); just enough that those who can't quite see know what you have done. Sometimes, with diagrams and illustrations shown on the screen this can be more difficult, but with practice you will find that it improves your teaching for everyone.
Machine readable copies of material on the VLE become accessible to students with impairment by the use of technology. I suggest to my colleagues that copies of the notes or slides are put up on the VLE just in advance of the class. Then some students can follow along by using magnification software on their tablet, laptop or smartphone rather than looking at the screen or board.
By being more inclusive in this way, you enable the material to those with other conditions also, such as dyslexia, Irlens syndrome and a wider variety of SpLDs (Specific Learning Differences). One then moves away from Disability being a problem and an issue to an appreciation of social model where we are all differently enabled.
References:
[1] <NAME>, 2007,
[*Experiences of Teaching Disabled Students of Computing at UK Universities*](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HyDEhfzTTC4ify6EvISFCTsN2hPLYt4JSd1N9iIPiFQ/edit?usp=sharing)
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2015/10/28
| 576
| 2,677
|
<issue_start>username_0: I just found out that the lecturer of an undergraduate course I'm tutoring in has given the students an assignment to evaluate a product from the company he works for. To evaluate it, they need to read articles written by people in his company and write up a report. They don't have alternative assessment options. Is this okay? It feels weird to me, but I suppose there's nothing wrong with it? I just wish I'd known before because I would have mentioned conflict of interest to them, but we presented the papers as straight research papers (when they were actually written by the same people who sell the product).<issue_comment>username_1: If the students are doing original work such as research on the current market or work to expand or improve the product it would be an issue. If the assignment was something simple and the professor assigned it due to his/her knowledge of the area, it's not as big a deal, but still may be ethically dubious. It's unlikely the students are specifically being exploited as unpaid labor by the professor, but it's still possible they violated the school's guidelines.
Your school should have an ethics policy or guidelines for what constitutes conflicts of interest that you can consult to see if any major rules were broken.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: It would be ethically questionable if the person who assigns the question gets to benefit from the assignment, directly or indirectly. For example, if students had to buy a product and the lecturer gets a cut of the revenue from his employer. Or if the company later uses student reports to improve the product or its marketing, and the instructor benefits from this.
On the other hand, if it's just an exercise in evaluating articles and writing reports, then what the topic really is doesn't matter all that much. After all, we give homework on all sorts of completely made up and contrived topics; why not use a real-world testcase, in particular if the instructor is familiar with it and can give actual and informed feedback? You might learn more from this example than you might if the instructor made up the documents you have to evaluate, or if you had to evaluate things the instructor is only marginally familiar with.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: It is unlikely that undergraduates in the field would be contributing anything groundbreaking to the market research of the product. But if it were a graduate class, then, maybe. Based on what you've said, I assume the teacher is just teaching from something he or she knows intimately, which can often produce the best constructive feedback for his or her students.
Upvotes: 0
|
2015/10/28
| 795
| 3,434
|
<issue_start>username_0: I wonder why so many publishing venues limit the length of paper submissions. I understand that such page limits were first created when papers were published offline, but nowadays, what are the reasons? One important downside of page limits it that authors often crop useful details out, which hinders reproducibility and/or understanding.<issue_comment>username_1: Page limit in conferences and/or symposiums are based on the research field. For example a full paper in a high rank electronic journal is 4 pages, where in computer science is 10-12. Two main reasons:
**Enough Information:** The page limit is given by the conference organisers and it should be enough to provide enough information about a topic in that field.
**Not a Journal Nor an Abstract**: They should draw a line somewhere, if there are too many pages, then the publication become journal. If not then it becomes an abstract. Most of the time the page limit is somewhere in between.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: There are a couple reasons I can think of why page limits might be imposed:
1. "when papers were published offline, but nowadays"...I've got six physical journals sitting on my desk. Papers are still published offline.
2. Even if they don't arrive in bound journal form, many people, myself included, still *print* journal articles. How an article is distributed and how it is actually read are not the same thing.
3. For journals that provide typesetting, copy editing, etc., the amount of work they're required to do will scale upwards as the length of articles gets longer. Having a page limit at least imposes some sort of ceiling on that.
4. It imposes a kind of discipline on the paper writing process that hopefully makes a paper more acceptable. Long, undirected digressions, spending a lot of time in the metaphorical "weeds' in the methods section, etc. are discouraged with size limits - again, hopefully promoting papers appearing in a way that's of general interest and readable to the audience of the journal. As some people have mentioned, unstructured supplemental material is often offered for those longer form sections that are only of interest to a much more narrow audience.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Earlier this year, I attended an editor’s panel at a conference, which included some editors of letter journals, i.e., journals with a strong length limit and higher relevance threshold (e.g., [PRL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Review_Letters) with a limit of 3500 words, if you have no figures). In their presentations and answers they implied the following benefits of a length limit for these letter journals:
* It accelerates the peer-review process, as the reviewers need to read less.
* It makes the papers more attractive for readers (and thus increases the impact), as they need less time to read them and focus on the central results.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: An additional reason is that it may become impossible to secure reviews, or decent reviews, if the paper is too long. I would decline to review any paper that is longer than 50 pages unless it was clearly superb, and many reviewers would accept, but then not do a high-quality review. However, if an article contains large amounts of supporting data which does not need to be scrutinized piece-by-piece, then greater page length might not be an impediment for reviewers.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/28
| 9,239
| 38,669
|
<issue_start>username_0: My accounting professor created a large binder full of notes for us to use instead of an actual textbook. He created it, and since he's the head of the accounting department at my university, he has implemented it into all of the accounting curricula. In this binder, there are news articles and random cartoons which are almost entirely unrelated to accounting. For example, there is a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip on almost every other page and the content of the strips are not in the least related to accounting.
An exam is coming up so I started studying from the beginning of the section and I happened across an unusual piece that was photocopied into the notes. This piece is the Italian telling of "Sleeping Beauty". No explanation or anything saying what it is; I was only able to figure out what it is because I was so offended by it (*read further* for an explanation of the offense) that I researched what it was, so I could maybe develop an understanding of why my professor would dare to include this in what he is teaching us.
If you are not familiar with the Italian (arguably the original) telling of this fairy tale, it is rather simple, and goes as follows: A young woman is drugged; she appears to be dead to her family so they leave her body in peace in a cabin that they seal up. One day a rich king comes across the cabin and breaks in; he sees the YOUNG woman and assumes she is asleep so he rapes her because she's so beautiful. This young woman eventually gives birth to twins and through a series of events they wake her from her drugged and practically dead state. Skipping some information I don't think is necessary, the young woman considers her rape and rapist blessings and is thankful for said horrific rape.
Now, my question is that **I want to know if this is acceptable?** I was disgusted when I read it (while studying for an exam, mind you). I consider myself a feminist and as a woman myself, I found the story offensive in the extreme. I also feel that this is helping to perpetuate the belief that women should be thankful for their rapists because it is a compliment. Can my university (a state university) legally, ethically, and morally publish this to their students in a faculty made textbook? I want to take action but I am not sure if this is even allowed and do not want to make a fool of myself.
Update (posted in comments):
I have spoken with the professor who created this book (it is more of a textbook than lecture notes) and he admitted he was in the wrong for including this. He stated that he likes to include things unrelated to accounting in his book just because. There was no explanation about the story, no relating back to accounting or econ or anything.<issue_comment>username_1: Speaking strictly legally and specifically with respect to the United States, your university is bound by title IX to take steps to prevent and mitigate hostile environments due to gender. The precise nature of these steps depends a great deal upon your universities' specific policies and implementation. It may be that your school's policies are more far-reaching than this, however so long as your school receives money from the federal government, it is required to meet this bar.
A hostile environment is generally considered to exist when there is conduct such that a student's access to education is impeded on the basis of the student's sex. The impediment does not necessarily need to be "a big deal" to meet this standard. Examples of behavior which may lead to a hostile environment could range from an attempted assault, to lewd remarks. There are subjective and objective components used to determine whether or not an environment could be considered hostile. First, did anyone subjectively feel that the environment was hostile? Second, would a reasonable person have found that the behavior led to a hostile environment?
If the inclusion of the story created a hostile environment, then the university has an obligation to remediate the situation. That determination will probably be made by your school's title IX office, upon the receipt of a complaint, if you or someone else were to choose to file one. In deciding whether or not to file such a complaint, you might consider asking yourself whether you, personally, felt that your access to your notes or ability to study was impeded. In the most recent final ruling, the Department of Education interpreted the changes to Title IX made by the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) as including protections for people who file official complaints.
If you feel strongly enough about this, filing a complaint with your Title IX office is probably your best bet, however it should be noted that this can only possibly cause the school to compel the professor to change textbooks or remove the offending sections. Furthermore, while I am speaking about law, you should also understand that I am not a lawyer, I am not your lawyer, and the precise obligations and policies governing these things depends upon the precise wording of your school's policies and what jurisdiction it falls under.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Inappropriate in what sense? Moral versus according to academic ethics?
IMO it's inappropriate in both senses. It could be inappropriate in neither. It's possible that it's only inappropriate in the former, i.e., maybe the material relates, but you just don't know how. You should try to find out.
You're going to run into some strange professors while you're in college. Some are just downright bad. They've been teaching forever, and will do whatever they feel like doing regarding curriculum. There is often no oversight for professors who have been teaching a long time. For example, one of the longest tenured professors in our department spent his class periods talking about his ex-wife...
There are a couple of approaches. You can go straight to student services and lodge a complaint.
If you're feeling more comfortable (maybe take an ally with you), you might approach him with your frustrations. Explain to him why the material is upsetting to you, and ask him to explain how it's related to the course. He might just be a bit eccentric. You can lodge a complaint based on his response to your questioning, but you might find that the university does nothing.
Eccentricity is not a crime.
You can also try approaching the chair of the department, or the undergraduate adviser for the department. This is a nice middle-ground IMO.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: In economics a "sleeping beauty" is a company primed for takeover, often because it is under-valued. Asset valuation is quite a large topic in accounting, since it can have a huge impact on the final total value of the company.
Some authors are of the opinion that the [(European) sovereign debt crisis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_debt_crisis) created a mentality shift in accounting. That is, valuation tended towards more conservative methods, and in so doing, accountants created more sleeping beauties than before the crisis.
It is my guess that your professor did not have time to cover this topic in your course. Or perhaps it is used in another course? Why don't you ask him?
If you feel that there is hostile environment against women, then go right ahead and report it. You should not feel guilty in any way.
However, the professor could simply be trying to grab your attention with a small "shock", as asset valuation is considered by many students (that I have met) to be both mundane and boring.
We do not need more political correctness (PC) or micro aggression within higher education. So please ask yourself if he really ment to promote rape, or if you are simply taking this completely out of context. Again, what is stopping you e-mailing him? Write that you you do not see how it is related to the course, and ask for a clarification. His response should give you a clear indication of how to continue.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_4: 1. *Now, my question is that I want to know if this is acceptable?* --- This may or may not be acceptable, depending on the context in which this example is used in the teaching process. For example, it is acceptable to use this story to reflect on how the dominant attitude to women rights changed in time.
2. *I found the story offensive in the extreme* --- I sympathise with your feelings. However, the story is not about you, and I hope the lecturer does not encourage you or other students to use it as a model of good practice.
3. *Can my university (a state university) legally, ethically, and morally publish this to their students in a faculty made textbook?* --- Definitely yes. On the same grounds as it can publish a story of people killing each other in a war conflict to help students learn about this episode and reflect on it. It does not assume that the University encourages students to kill other people.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_5: At my institution in the US, professors for upper-level courses are given a lot of freedom to explore topics they deem relevant as the course material. These are often elective courses, or "selected topics" courses where either the instructor -or collaboration with the instructor/enrolled students- produces a focused presentation of course content in a given area agreed upon at the beginning of the term. Other times, an instructor may use a specific textbook, but survey only the elements they deem as relevant to the course. Some Professors also recycle powerpoints term-to-term and test on a "know everything" basis. I think that for some courses, a little creative control by the instructor goes an extra mile for immersing the student in the materials.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_6: One cannot presume to know why the professor included the story in his notes. Since he's obviously experienced in his job, it's probably reasonable to give him the benefit of a doubt.
Additionally, this is a fairy tale that was probably written more than 100 years ago. Of course it's not going to be PC for today, very few are. It is reasonable to expect that an adult today would be able to distinguish between reality and fantasy and would not model their behavior on hundred-year-old fairy tales.
There probably is a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why this was included. I would just ask.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: There's pleny of arguments that could be made in defense of that prof - most boil down to his freedom to decide the means of his teaching.
But I think that your analysis is right on point - using this tale to illustrate anything in accounting is disempowering to survivors of rape, and it doesn't really matter what the intentions of that prof are. This is a tale that justifies rape by the identyfying with the rapist and by talking about "positive" effects of the rape - isn't it funny that some of the comments and answers focus on the prof's intentions and goals, instead of his effects on survivors? (I'm not comparing him to a rapist, but the defense parallels the tale's rape justification.)
Realistically, since "sleeping beauty" is indeed used for an undervalued company, this isn't so much about your prof's judgement, it's more about an element of rape culture in economice (equating an undervalued company to a "sleeping beauty" that just needs to be raped have worth, and it seems like they don't even realize what they're saying.) Given his position and the fact that this behaviour doesn't seem too far astray from the pack, don't make it too much about him or his intentions.
This isn't appropriate, and it's certainly hostile to survivors. On the other hand he's providing evidence that the sexualisation of economic power exists.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_8: To summarize your question, there seem to be two issues with the binder:
1. The binder is very poor, full of superflous or irrelevant material, yet is used as either the main text or a supporting text in all accounting curricula at your university, even when very good accounting textbooks obviously exist and are in use at other universities.
2. One among many 'pieces' of irrelevant material in the binder is a misogynistic, medieval folk story about the benefits of rape on rape survivors.
So the sleeping beauty story is a particularly egregious illustration of the more general problem, that the binder is not a good set of materials.
While the term sleeping beauty is used as a metaphor in finance and a number of other disciplines, that is because (the modern version of) the story is well known to pretty much anyone. There is absolutely no need to include the full story in an accounting text, because the details are completely irrelevant to students of accounting. To choose a medieval telling of the story, in which sleeping beauty is raped, is at best outrageously poor judgement. The professor would know as much if he had spent just a few seconds critically reflecting on what he was up to.
So to summarize, I think you are right to be offended, and you should lodge a complaint - possibly after your exam.
But would you be happy if this one story gets removed from the binder, for it then to continue as reading material of choice for all accounting courses at your university? Assuming not, I think your complaint should focus on the more general problem, citing sleeping beauty and other cases as examples. The general problem being, that the standard of quality expected from a state university is not being upheld.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_9: To get back to the overall topic question(s):
**Is it appropriate for my professor to teach us something that can be controversial?**
In general, yes. New ideas are often controversial, almost by definition. If you spend much time in the better parts of academia, you'll be exposed to boatloads of "controversial" ideas.
Of course there are degrees of controversy. It's one thing to argue that Heisenberg was wrong about quantum mechanics, and entirely another to argue that Hitler was right about exterminating Jews.
The measure of an idea and its suitability in the academic context isn't whether it's controversial, it's whether the idea is built upon rational foundations and if/how well it stands up to logical scrutiny.
**Is it appropriate for my professor to teach us something completely unrelated to the class subject matter?**
I once had a statistics professor who, when discussing confidence intervals, would often go off on tangents about things which could be proven to a very high level of certainty, chiefly among them being the non-existence of god.
I think that's a good example of non-relevant material that's arguably inappropriate to the subject matter. And I say that even though I personally agree with his position. His opinions on the presence or non-presence of a creator entity were *completely irrelevant* to the subject of statistics. And over the course of a semester he probably wasted several hours of course time while off on his tangents, which tended to last 10-15 minutes at a time and were repeated on practically a weekly basis.
I don't think that was appropriate. Specifically, I don't think *spending that much time on a tangential subject* was appropriate. And what did I do about it? At the end of the semester, there was a routine survey taken to get feedback on the course. As part of my feedback, I noted that while philosophy was all well and good, it wasn't really necessary or relevant in a course on statistics.
So what's the point? That there are degrees of inappropriateness. And that the measure should be not whether you feel something is inappropriate, but whether or not the inappropriate behavior is actually detrimental to the course. The problem, in my case, was that we lost hours of instruction time to the professor's tangential rants about religion. If he had just mentioned his opinion once or twice in passing, it wouldn't have even been worth mentioning (though certainly, there still may be people who would find that "inappropriate").
Professors are people too, and their teaching styles can vary wildly. Some can be quite conversational, which often leads to the discussion of off-topic/"inappropriate" subjects. But it's really only a problem when it causes a significant distraction from the intended subject matter.
Now to your specific question:
**I want to know if this is acceptable?**
To be clear, the "this" in your question is that you found a copy of an old fairy tale amongst a binder full of notes, and it contains content that is sexist and/or misogynist when viewed in a modern context. You seem to have inferred that its *mere presence* in the notebook means that the instructor is "teaching" you that story and the sexist message contained within it. You also seem to have inferred that the professor is *deliberately* promulgating that message.
However, from your question, it's not clear that the inspector has *taught* anything at all yet. Let alone anything controversial or unrelated to the subject matter. Including a story in a set of notes is not the same thing as *teaching*. It's not the same thing as *endorsing* the story or its content. And it's not the same thing as *advocating* that people take the message of the story to heart.
Have you considered the alternative possibilities that exist, such as:
1. The professor is bad at preparing notes and other course materials.
2. The material is in fact [relevant to the subject matter](http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sleepingbeauty.asp), in a way that the professor will eventually make clear during lecture time, when he is *actually teaching*.
3. The professor likes to go off on his own tangents about the progression of societal views over time, and has included the story to demonstrate how views towards women have changed, and to illustrate how barbaric they once were.
A big part of being in academia is keeping an open mind, and not jumping to conclusions.
I believe you need to give your professor a chance to contextualize the material before you can make a rational and informed decision about whether or not it's relevant, controversial, or acceptable. Instead of, you know, prejudging the issue because you find some of the notes personally distasteful when viewed completely out of context.
**Edit**
Based upon your updates, it sounds like #1 (above) was indeed the case. From the details provided, the professor's methodology for preparing notes is essentially arbitrary. He did a careless and academically unprofessional thing (times two since there *are* valid justifications for the content, which the professor never had and failed to come up with), and if he cannot relate the reference material to the subject matter in any way, it's appropriate that the reference material be removed (due to non-relevance).
That said, arguing that the professor's actions or that the presence of a 400 year old fairy tale in reference materials amount to a propagation of rape culture is way, way over the top.
The point I want to make is, I hope you take the incident as a learning experience instead of simply an excuse to further an ideological viewpoint. Academics isn't about exposing you to only the safe, comfortable, familiar ideas. Challenging students with opposing (and often, uncomfortable) viewpoints is a normal part of the learning process, and helps develop both self-confidence and critical-thinking skills (both of which you'll *need* if you ever make it as far as having to defend a thesis). If you *never* feel uncomfortable, your instructors aren't doing their job.
The best way, academically speaking, to confront upsetting, hurtful, or *just plain wrong* ideas is to disprove/discredit them through open and rational discourse.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_10: You are not at university just to be efficiently given useful knowledge - at least, most universities do not see that as their function. They imagine part of their job is to teach you to think, in a very general sense, and your professor may see that as part of his job. It is not reasonable to expect this to be painless on your part.
1. The professor could be pointing out that both the phrase 'Sleeping Beauty' as used in finance, and the modern Bowdlerized fairy tale, trace back to something surprising. Professors often like to trace the *origins* and evolution of things, as that is both part of deep knowledge of a field, and a widely held academic value. Carefully and dispassionately examining ideas is also a fundamental academic value, as others have pointed out.
2. This could be an *easter egg* - on some test the professor will ask a question that you can only answer correctly if you read, or at least *found*, the Sleeping Beauty page in his binder. This would reward those who carefully examined all the material in the binder, and punish those who skimmed or skipped. ...In which case - you win!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_11: Building on the excellent answer by @GalenHarrison:
"Title IX also prohibits gender-based harassment, which may include acts of verbal, nonverbal, or physical aggression, intimidation, or hostility based on sex or **sex-stereotyping**, even if those acts do not involve conduct of a sexual nature" (footnote 9 on p. 3 of the 2011 Office for Civil Rights [Dear Colleague letter about Title IX](https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/dcl-title-ix-coordinators-guide-201504.pdf)).
"Harassing conduct may take many forms, including verbal acts and name-calling, as well as nonverbal behavior, such as graphic and **written statements**, or conduct that is physically threatening, harmful, or **humiliating**" (p. 15 of the 2015 Department of Education [Title IX Resource Guide](https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/dcl-title-ix-coordinators-guide-201504.pdf)).
A 2001 Title IX guidance document published by the Office for Civil Rights ([Revised Sexual Harassment Guidance: Harassment of Students by School Employees, Other Students, or Third Parties](http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/shguide.pdf)) provides guidelines about a school's responsibility to address internal complaints regarding a "hostile environment that denies or limits the student’s ability to
participate in or benefit from the school’s program."
Your institution should have a Title IX Coordinator. That would be a good place to start. When you go in to talk to him or her, I would not expect you to be made uncomfortable in any way (for example, any implication that you are making a fool of yourself).
If you have the bad luck to find that your Title IX Coordinator does not handle your complaint effectively, you can try going higher in your institution's administration. If that does not turn things around, you could file a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights about both the original offensive and discriminatory material, as well as the institution's ineffective response to your complaint.
But in today's climate I would be very surprised if your Title IX Coordinator didn't act quickly on this. What I expect would happen is that the Title IX Coordinator and the relevant dean would have a prompt behind-the-scenes chat with the professor, and a revised set of course notes is issued quite quickly.
My guess is that you would be within your rights to request an opportunity to retake that exam, if you wished to do so.
Please note, you are expressly protected from any retaliation by the professor himself or anyone else related to your complaint.
I hope you'll keep us updated!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_12: Wow, I really disagree with the current highly voted answers defending this prof.
This is terrible teaching.
* A highly dramatic story like this is going to distract from the material, and leave people thinking about rape, not about whatever the book is supposed to focus on. Just today, I did a lecture on principal component analysis and I showed how you could use it to clump together cars with similar features. (Thanks [stats.SE](https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/78990/good-pca-examples-for-teaching)!) I could have showed how to use PCA to clump human racial groups instead. I didn't, because I wanted to talk about linear maps, high dimensional geometry and singular value decomposition, not about race. If I'd brought the controversial material into the classroom, students would have woken up, yes, but they would have been entirely focused on racial politics, not on mathematics.
Cars are interesting and practical enough for people to get the point, while still thinking about math.
* Rape is a fairly common crime, and one which is known to create particularly strong flashbacks and phobias in its victims. It is reasonable to assume that, in a large university lecture, there will be rape victims. Now, if rape is relevant, that is a reason to discuss the material with sensitivity. But when rape has nothing to do with the lecture, just don't bring it up.
Responses to points I can imagine some people making:
* One needs some humor/interest to keep students paying attention. Sure. But it should be light humor and it should be brief; they are supposed to be paying attention to the course material. Secondly, for many people, this isn't going to be funny or interesting, it is going to be severely upsetting. If I flashed a slide of a giant tarantula in the middle of a lecture on eigenvalues, it would get people's attention, but it wouldn't be kind or helpful.
* The story was meant to illustrate the investment slang term [Sleeping Beauty](http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sleepingbeauty.asp). First of all, we have no actual evidence of that. Secondly, the description at the link suggests that the metaphor is usually used in the sense of a company that needs to "wake up" to achieve its potential, not the sense of a company that needs to be raped in order to produce other productive companies. The latter would, I guess, be a metaphor for something like acquiring a company in the expectation of using its buildings/machinery etc to do something else. One could imagine a course talking about the ethics of doing that. And the discussion would go a whole lot better if the prof. didn't bias the conversation by comparing it
to rape.
* Blaming the university, as the OP seems to do when she writes "Can my university (a state university) legally, ethically, and morally publish this to their students in a faculty made textbook?" seems silly to me. Universities don't generally censor their professors coursepacks; it is the professor's job to build something appropriate. And I think that is a good system. (Oh, and it is certainly legal. IANAL, but I don't see how this possibly fails to have first amendment protection -- as do many other bad ideas.)
* The professor has the right to do this. Yeah, sure. And I, and all his students, have the right to criticize him. And he has the right to criticize us ad infinitum. You have the right to criticize that whole chain of criticisms -- for the mathematicians, that would be an ω criticism. (See? Connecting mathematics to humor in an inoffensive way! Not so hard!)
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_13: >
> Now, my question is that **I want to know if this is acceptable?**
>
>
>
The prior paragraph spoke of rape. It is clear whether you consider the story to be acceptable, so presumably you're asking about whether inclusion of the professor's extra material is acceptable.
Actually, no. And, specifically, here's what is not acceptable with including all of this material:
>
> For example, there is a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip on almost every other page and the content of the strips are not in the least related to accounting.
>
>
>
This is likely a violation. [UniversalUClick FAQ page on Reprints](http://www.universaluclick.com/help/faq-reprints) has a FAQ's answer which says, "All correspondence for <NAME> is handled by our office. Mr. Watterson does not make his contact information public." (He's the creator of <NAME> Hobbes.) [EmuReprints: Educational Use](http://www.amureprints.com/licensing_permissions/educational_use) seems to indicate that up to 7 strips can be used. Your description ("almost every other page" of "a large binder") makes it sound like this book violates the granted permission. (The violation seems particularly unnecessary since he could just include URLs to a legal references. Namely, I believe that [Calvin and Hobbes online](http://gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1985/11/18) is likely to be fully legal.)
I also think that including the entire story of "Sleeping Beauty" is quite a bit of material that is off-topic from the class's main subject of accounting. If this is included in "required reading", then this may be a bit disrespectful of students' time.
Now, I think most of the question was intended to be something other than Copyright or respect. Much of the question was about rape, so let's focus on that aspect. As the question summarized the story (but with the emphasis added by myself)...
>
> One day a rich king comes [...] so he **rapes** her because she's so beautiful. This young woman eventually gives birth to twins [... later...] the young woman considers her **rape** and **rapist** blessings and is thankful for said horrific **rape**.
>
>
>
I understand that this "king" did not follow our modern society's rules of ensuring her explicit permission, since she was unconscious. Before we impose our ideals upon this fictitious man and demonize his criminal act of violating the woman's rights, we should remember how much weight our beliefs deserve to have as we ponder such a situation. The story's authors (including some of the story's updaters over the centuries) had very different perspectives than many modern opinions.
While considering these attitudes, my goal is not to acquit the king's actions, but rather to quickly investigate how this action would have been understood by the authors, the likely recipients (who read this story or, more likely, hear it), and the characters within the story. I'm not even trying to touch upon the topic of what our judgments or attitudes should be. I'm simply saying, let's momentarily consider what the impact of the culture's values would have been, and how they would have influenced the thoughts of people living in this era.
The society (which created this story) may have been prone to heavily honor an act which essentially converted a virgin into a mother. Since this young woman's culture embraced child-making as a feminine duty, she may have felt greatly benefited by the increased dignity of being a mother, not to mention the pleasure of being able to raise children without consciously needing to suffer morning sickness and going through labor. She may not have been very concerned about the idea of her rights being violated because she was a part of a society that did not officially grant women with these rights, and which was a society that promoted raising children more than other values that our society holds more dear (like a woman being able to exert more control over her role in society).
I'm not saying that the woman would have liked every aspect of the story, nor that every woman would have such an attitude/decision. I am simply pointing out some existing culture influences that made such attitudes feel a bit more believable in that culture than this culture.
Besides the evidence of the woman apparently embracing the situation she found herself in, there is additional evidence that the visiting king broke neither any law of the land, nor performed any action that would be viewed as a terrible violation of the sleeper. He not only returned to the land, he checked on her and freely confessed what he had done. Had he impregnated a woman, and then left her to raise offspring on her own, then that would likely have been terribly disgraceful to that society. What he actually did (which is to perform his role in starting the child-making process, and then follow up) would not have been judged nearly as harshly by that society (as compared/contrasted to how those same actions would have been condemned by ours).
In order to answer to the main question here, we actually do ***not*** need to determine which society values are superior. Whether the content of the story is good, including whether the story was ever suitable for children, is also an entirely different question from a more applicable point, which is whether college students should see the results (this story) of what historically happened (when the story was created and shared). The big question here is whether inclusion of this story was "acceptable". To that end, I would ask two questions:
* Is exposure to such material an appropriate thing for people who are old enough to be in college?
* Is it right for colleges to point out some of the different attitudes exposed by different cultures?
To the first question, I suggest the answer is yes, for the same reason that studying atrocities in history, including death found in war, is worthwhile.
If this story's inclusion led to you thinking about different values (even indirectly, by getting a student so incensed that a question got posted on [Academia.StackExchange.com](http://academia.stackexchange.com)), then I'm inclined to think that the story's inclusion successfully performed the role of helping to accomplishing the mission and purpose of higher education, which is to get people to be more familiar with certain aspects of life.
In some cases, determining what "is acceptable" can be rather clear-cut if we accept some standards that are presumably likely to be very common ground, such as disapproving of copyright violations. In many other cases, determining the real answer to what "is acceptable" may be subject to individual opinions. So, I will share with you mine.
Perhaps this story was inappropriate to include in an accounting class because it is off-topic, more properly belonging to a class in humanities, history, or literature. Maybe the professor just wanted to help students in ways other than just economics/math. I personally am not in strong favor of having this included, but the reason is not because I feel the professor had an obligation to avoid these origins of a widely respected story. Despite my inclination to not include such material, since my experience as a college instructor, I am rather inclined to lean in favor of giving instructors significant liberty to design their course. So, although I find the Calvin and Hobbes material to be an unacceptable inclusion for entirely different reasons, and although I disagree with the decision to include this Sleeping Beauty variant as arguably off-topic material (and I do not believe I would be prone to making the same decision myself), I am currently thinking that I find this story's inclusion to be within the realm of what I would consider to be acceptable.
Since I'm judging the inclusion to be "acceptable" (not necessarily preferable, but within the realm of acceptability), if I were overseeing the instructor, the actions I think I would probably make would be to pass along the feedback for the instructor's consideration, but not make any reprimand or formal actions that would negatively affect the instructor, nor to order any changes. I would continue to leave this at instructor discretion.
I know this answer is already a bit long, but before I end, I like to provide complete answers, so I will address some remaining questions/comments:
>
> Can my university (a state university) legally, ethically, and morally publish this to their students in a faculty made textbook?
>
>
>
Regarding what is legal, that will determine where you live. Since you mention "a state university", I am inclined to believe you are referring to America. Due to the nation's freedom of speech, I find it highly likely that this will be completely legal. I would guess that even the vague descriptions of sexual activity (such as [the story](http://talesoffaerie.blogspot.com/2013/07/perceforest-early-sleeping-beauty.html) saying “he decided to follow the tenets of Venus”) would probably even be legal for teenagers, and much more for adults. If you happen to disagree, well, you could pursue exploring that further if you like. This isn't really the forum for exploring legality in any depth.
Regarding ethics/morals, I think that was covered by my previous assessment (about what is "acceptable").
>
> I want to take action but I am not sure if this is even allowed and do not want to make a fool of myself.
>
>
>
I'm taking this as a few implied questions:
* what action should you take?
* is something (action?) allowed?
* and: how to not make a fool of yourself?
Your best bet is likely to find that the actions violated a policy of the university, college, or department. Many places that do have such a policy may have an established process on how to handle problems, so if you wish to pursue this further, start by checking if there is a formal process. You've already spoken to the instructor. If you wish to take further actions that are not very formal, but which may impact this instructor's behavior, your best bet may be to contact the office of the department chair/head, or the office of a dean. Conceivably, either position could have someone address the issue directly, or provide you with guidance on how to pursue the matter further. Unfortunately, since different institutions (universities, or even departments) may have some variances in how they operate, with different people being involved, I can't give you universal advice on what would be more effective. However, if the department chair doesn't handle things, you might still have an open door to escalate to the dean. So I would suggest checking within the department. Before taking additional action, though, I would consider what you would hope to be accomplishing at this point.
For the second bullet point, that will depend on policies. Again, I state that I have no universal advice due to policies/procedures that differ.
Finally, about how to not make a fool of yourself**:** don't be demanding. In my opinion, mentioning that you are offended may work in your favor, or against you. (Perhaps both. Perhaps depending on your audience(s).) Your best bet may be to start by researching any published policies, and then have your next step be to ask questions in informal contexts, being willing to go from the bottom up, before trying taking any actions.
Upvotes: -1
|
2015/10/28
| 752
| 2,883
|
<issue_start>username_0: We all know that someone with a doctorate is called a Doctor (or abbreviated as Dr.), is there a formal title for someone with a Masters degree? I've never heard someone refer to a person with a masters as "Master". I've also heard that Esquire is sometimes used as a formal title for someone with a masters, is this correct or is there another title?<issue_comment>username_1: In the United States there's no formal pre-nominal title held by individuals holding a Master's degree that I know of, so it's very unlike Dr. Xxxx that one holding a Ph.D., etc. might be addressed. In text, you would address such a person with a post-nominal suffix like M.A., MBA, etc. I'm sure the logic is different among specific types of degree, where Esq. for Esquire is a post-nominal suffix for those in the legal profession in the US. To give you an example, though: If I hold an M.Sc., you might refer to me as "Kendall, M.Sc." if you wanted to address me in an email or letter, but I would realistically expect Mr. Kendall or what have you face-to-face.
I should also add that courtesy titles like Esq. or Mr., and academic titles don't get used at the same time. Kendall, Esq. M.Sc. would be wrong, as would Mr. Kendall, M.Sc.!
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The official title is "Master of xxx" for someone who has attained a Master's degree in a given topic. I have also heard the phrase "Mistress of xxx" been used for a female; though I cannot speak to whether it is a traditional title. However, as others have said it is now customary to address someone with a master's or bachelor's degree with a post-nominal suffix rather than as a "master" or a "bachelor".
The merits of the title have evolved over time -- in the late middle ages, someone who had been granted the title of master was typically eligible to teach at a university. In addition, in those times it was considered more proper to refer to someone as a master if they had earned such a degree in a university. However, having a higher degree in those times was much less common than it is today.
It is worth noting that this [question was asked](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/45092/if-i-attain-a-masters-degree-how-do-i-refer-to-myself) on the English stack exchange board as well.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: A somewhat archaic title someone holding a Masters degree is ["Magister"](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/magister). Similar to Doctor, it comes from a Latin word for teacher.
In the English speaking world, this title has essentially disappeared though, so would be met with incomprehension. In many other places [Magisters degrees are conferred](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magister_(degree)), but tend to be equivalent to doctorate, thus making use of the term even more inadvisable (but a fun thing to know about).
Upvotes: 3
|
2015/10/29
| 1,181
| 5,012
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a young researcher, and recently, I find that the drive to publish and advance my career has created an unhealthy mindset. In particular, I find that when I have a good idea, I am worried that someone will have the same idea, carry out the analysis, and publish before I do. While this worry has greatly speeded up my research, sometimes I feel it is unhealthy, in that my work becomes more sloppy, my analysis is less careful, I check for errors less, and as a result I'm more prone to making mistakes. I think this is an undesirable outcome, because it can potentially reduce the quality of my research results.
However, the tradeoff is real - the more time one spends vetting one's results for accuracy and making improvements large or small, the later one publishes, and the risk of getting preempted is higher. Even if one is still able to publish, not being the first will reduce the impact of your publication.
I am interested in hearing what others think about this, and approaches to dealing with and think about this issue, to have a healthy mindset and research environment.<issue_comment>username_1: I worked on a project during the summer and fall of 2014 that I never published. Someone else beat me to it, publishing a very good and very thorough paper that did everything I had thought to do and more.
Do I regret that time I spent on that project? Not at all. I learned some useful new methods that I have since been able to apply to other ideas. I have a much deeper understanding of this problem than I would have just from reading my competitor's paper, and I'm sure that will come in handy someday. I've taken my version of the idea in a totally different direction, and it's stronger for it.
I suggest you consider the potential consequences of being "scooped":
* Maybe you'll read their work and discover that although it seems very similar, the details are fundamentally different. Great! You'll cite the work in your own paper. The fact that other people are paying attention to this area shows that it's relevant and helps motivate your paper. Also see: [Scoopage](http://bridgeblog.scientopia.org/2010/11/19/scoopage/)
* Maybe you'll read their work and discover that it actually does accomplish everything you set out to do. Now you get to be flexible and take your project in a different direction. After you've done some preliminary work in this new direction, get in touch with them and propose a collaboration, which is likely to make your own work even stronger.
Know that being scooped doesn't necessarily mean everything you have done is wasted. ([This article](http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj7104-842a) has some more advice on moving on from being scooped.)
Also, there are steps you can take to help avoid being scooped (although you can't guarantee anything, of course):
* Know your strengths. If you're working in a crowded area, what can *you* contribute that you already have some expertise in? If you can apply what you already have to something new and interesting, you're ahead of those people who don't already have that expertise.
* Read a lot. Identify the people in your field who are doing similar work, talk to them at conferences, generally keep track of what they are working on, so that you're less likely to be caught off guard.
* Be open about what *you* are working on: give talks, poster presentations, chat with people at conferences, etc. about your ongoing work. If everybody in your field knows "LCW is working on X," then people interested in X may come to you for collaboration instead of working independently. When you do publish (a careful, accurate, not-sloppy paper), everyone working in the area will know about it and will probably cite it in their own work.
These are measures that can help alleviate your anxiety *and* improve the quality of your research.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In addition to the excellent answer by @username_1, you may want to look at the size of "publication unit" that you are trying to produce.
When a person is a perfectionist, as you describe yourself, it is sometimes the case that they will attempt to write "the one true paper" that ties everything on a topic up into a neat bundle. This tends to delay publication unnecessarily and exposes one to more danger of being scooped---but also, it's bad for one's research in general, since they aren't getting feedback from reviewers as they go.
Consider, instead, publishing early results, partial results, etc., in respectable but less "splashy" locations. In some fields, where there are peer-reviewed workshop and conference publications, the development of such results is explicitly supported, and papers can afterward be "upgraded" into a full journal version.
If you follow such a strategy, you are less likely to publish in Nature or Science, but more likely to build a solid record of good publications and also less likely to get scooped.
Upvotes: 3
|
2015/10/29
| 4,139
| 16,898
|
<issue_start>username_0: Can I put the name of my baby as one of the co-authors of a scientific paper?
I know it sounds disturbing, but it's a way of mine to protest against co-authors that haven't made any contribution (they haven't even read it or are part of the research area) to a paper, but they are part of the research group.
What are the legal / ethic concerns?
So technically I was writing the paper with my baby in my hand and the baby was talking with me in its own language. The baby even wrote a few characters in the paper when it managed to get near the keyboard while I was holding it.<issue_comment>username_1: No, that is not okay. I will quote <NAME>'s answer to a question on this site, [Is it common to claim co-authorship by helping writing a paper without doing any research](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/21269):
The so called *Vancouver protocol* (developed by [ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors)](http://www.icmje.org/) and its definition of authorship has been mentioned in many questions of this kind here on Academia but I think they deserve being repeated. The protocol describes authorship through three components which every author must fulfil:
>
> 1. Conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of data, and
> 2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, and
> 3. Final approval of the version to be published.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: There was a similar case in 1975, when an American mathematician and physicist, Professor <NAME> of Michigan State University, added his cat as a co-author. Apparently, a collegaue who had reviewed his manuscript, had pointed out that he had used "we" and "us" throughout the manuscript, but this was incorrect as he was the sole author. so, instead of typing out the entire document once again (those were the days before Ctrl H), he decided to speed up the process and added the name of Chester, his pet cat as a co-author. However, to disguise the fact, he put "FDC Willard" as the name, with FD standing for "felix domesticus" and the C for "Chester." And Willard was the name of Chester's father.
However, these days, with so many regulations in place, I'm not sure if it would be ethical to include your baby's name. If however, you choose to do so, I would suggest you inform the editor and mention this in a disclaimer somewhere within the title page, so that readers are not misled about your intent.
Another well known case is the paper "*In a fully H-2 incompatible chimera, T cells of donor origin can respond to minor histocompatibility antigens in association with either donor or host H-2 type.*" by <NAME> and <NAME> in The Journal of Experimental Medicine, 1978.
As <NAME> described it in his book Bold Science, "Refusing to write in the usual scientific passive voice ('steps were taken') and too insecure to write in the first person ('I took the steps'), she instead invented a coauthor": her <NAME>, <NAME>. Once discovered, papers on which she was a major author were then barred from the journal until the editor died and was replaced by another.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I disagree with most of the other answers, which are basically telling you that it's unethical and you shouldn't do it. Their reasoning is sound and conservative, but overlooks the basic idea that this is an act of protest.
Yes, it is unethical to add your baby as a co-author. However, you believe that you are *already* being forced to do an equivalent unethical action by your group. In effect, what you are doing is planting a signpost that says (without being explicit), that you are aware of the unethical actions that you are taking and protest against being forced to do so.
This is a risky stance to take, from a professional career perspective, but from a legal and ethical perspective you are doing nothing worse than you are being forced to do already. It does, however, change the situation slightly for each of them:
* You are more likely to face consequences with the publisher, because a completely implausible author makes the unethical co-authorship more likely to be detected .
* I think you are actually in a *better* position ethically, since you have declared your disapproval of the behavior that you consider unethical.
I would thus judge your proposed course of action to be an ethical act of protest of an unethical situation. It would be better to get rid of the unethical coauthors in the first place, but if you cannot do that, this is within the reasonable traditions of scientific defiance ([<NAME>](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/57131/22733) being another example, as are the uses of [SCIgen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCIgen)).
You need to be aware, however, that doing this is likely to create enemies out of everyone in your research group, and may end your scientific career. That is a reason that many people would choose to not make a fuss about the unethical co-authorship and instead perpetuate the problem. Only you know how important your personal goals are, and whether this act of protest is worth the likelihood that you will make enemies and may destroy your career. From an ethical and legal standpoint, however, I think that you are fine.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_4: So, you're saying that your chosen way of protesting against a practice you disagree with is to do the exact same thing but on an even worse scale? How does that make any sense? If you object to co-authors who haven't made a significant contribution being listed, you already know the ethical concerns involved. How can doing it yourself be a reasonable way of protesting? That's akin to honking your horn to protest against people who honk their horns.
More importantly, your problem seems to be with the people involved in your project. Why are you now wishing to make the problem affect the general community? If you have issues with the way authorship is assigned in your research group, take it up with your PI or your collaborators. Your paper will be read by people in different institutes and countries. They won't give a hoot about your personal issues with your co-authors and they shouldn't be dragged into a private dispute. There is a very real problem in certain academic fields with authors being listed despite their lack of contribution. Your suggested "protest" will only add to this and make the problem worse.
In addition, your "protest" will be completely pointless since i) nobody will know *why* you've included your baby's name and ii) nobody will know your baby isn't a *bona fide* co-author, so what's the point? You will just be adding to the problem, cluttering up the authors' list with yet another name that doesn't deserve to be there, and all to make a pretty pointless statement.
If you want to protest, do so, please! I'm all for it. But chose a way that might actually produce some beneficial results and which doesn't constitute precisely the type of offense you are trying to protest against.
If you are truly so offended by this, as you have every right to be, and talking to your PI or collaborators doesn't help, then don't publish the paper. Either block it completely or walk away and don't put your name to it. What you certainly cannot do is both accept the non-contributing authors *and* add an extra non-contributing author as a form of protest. In other words, either have the courage of your conviction and stage a real protest or do nothing. This sort of half measure might make you feel better but I can't imagine how it will have any sort of beneficial effect in the long term, and it will definitely have an immediate detrimental effect since you will be including yet another extra author who has no right to be there.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: I broadly agree with username_3, except for this point. While it is against the rules of the journal, but it is not unethical given what you aim to do. It's not all that different from deliberately submitting an article with false content to prove a point like [Alan Sokal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair) did. Of course, knowingly submitting a nonsensical article is against the rules. While in general it would be unethical, but not if you do this to prove a valid point. Another example is the way <NAME> went about to prove that the parapsychology field was severely corrupted by bad research practices. He let two of his apprentices pretend to be psychics who were able to fool the researches of their alleged psychic powers.
The fact that people are actually more or less free to take such actions makes science more reliable. E.g. in discussions with climate skeptics, I often make the point of why they don't submit an article to a journal if they think they know better than most scientists in the field. They then usually respond by claiming that the field has been so corrupted that any nonsensical article would be accepted, provided it is promoting what they call is the "left wing socialist climate alarmist agenda". I'll then counter by asking that if this is true then why not submit a hoax article to prove your point. And then we come to the point of why such hoax articles don't already exist given that there are so many vocal skeptics around.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: Don't. Just don't.
I get the frustration with including authors that didn't contribute much. I've actually *lost* a publication due to exactly this kind of thing. But listing a baby as a co-author? It just doubles down on the absurdity, further muddies the concept of authorship, and is essentially indefensible by *any* authorship criteria you could come up with.
Be the change you want to see. If you want to make a principled stand against adding courtesy authors, *make a principled stand*. Don't stick an infants name on a paper.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_7: It is quite well-known in at least combinatorics, that the author [<NAME>](http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~zeilberg/ekhad.html) is none other than <NAME>'s computer...
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: What would I think if I found out that someone had listed their baby as a coauthor?
1. This author is out of touch with academic publishing practices. His/her judgment probably can't be trusted in other matters either.
2. It could be an attempt to be funny.
3. It could be intended as an sentimental tribute to the baby.
4. It could be a way of thumbing one's nose at academic ethics.
I would not guess it was in any way a form of protest against the forced inclusion of other authors on the paper. A protest that does not appear to be a protest defeats the purpose of protesting. If you don't call attention to the problem and express disapproval, then you can't really consider it a protest at all.
I might not even believe it was truly intended as a protest if that was explained after the fact. Instead, I might see it as just one aspect of a larger pattern of misbehavior and lump you in with your coauthors. For comparison, if you are caught breaking windows during a riot, you can't expect leniency if you explain that your real intention was to protest against looting.
In practice, I imagine that including your baby as a coauthor would lead to a worse outcome for you and a better outcome for your unethical coauthors if there were an investigation. For the other people inappropriately listed as authors, someone would presumably vouch for them and explain why they merited authorship. The explanation might be a lie, but it's often hard to prove that someone definitely didn't deserve authorship. On the other hand, it's easy to prove that your baby didn't deserve authorship, and your coauthors would surely do everything they could to undermine your credibility. If you explained that your act was intended as protest, they might counter that in your inexperience you mistakenly thought you detected something unethical, so you got carried away and started committing unethical acts yourself in some bizarre payback fantasy (while their only sin was being overly trusting in assuming the coauthor you added must have contributed in ways they weren't aware of, because why would you have added them otherwise?). Everybody would look bad, but your transgression would be much more easily proved, and you might well end up being thrown under the bus to get the whole situation resolved. Having a scapegoat is a good way to keep the real villains safe.
To summarize: don't do this. It's inappropriate in itself, it's not an effective form of protest, and it might help deflect attention away from your coauthors in an investigation.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_9: <NAME>, <NAME> and <NAME>, Growth Rates in the Quaquaversal Tiling, Discrete Comput. Geom. 23 (2000), 419-435.
<NAME> is a stuffed toy dragon.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: I am very skeptical about the chosen action.
If OP does not have control over who they list as Coauthor, having gone down that road and fought that battle, why would they get away with adding their baby as well? Wouldn't whoever is actually "in control" not allow this?
Let's say the case is that the OP has already agreed and signed to list the group as coauthors in order to use equipment or learn (*turned out to be unrelevant*) information from them. Meaning the OP is somehow already stuck in a situation where they must list this group - but technically they could add anybody else they wanted.
So then the OP is protesting what, exactly? Being careful who you choose to work with and reading the fine print?
On top of all that, the inclusion of the child's name as Co-Author isn't even going to accomplish whatever point that is trying to be made. If I learned a co-author was the writer's child, I would think it was for sentimental reason, or that the child provided a brief moment of inspiration leading to a big solution (*which is still a "sentimental reason"*) - and an inappropriate use of co-authorship. I would **not** think, "*these other authors must all be fake too*"...
To make it clear enough what is being protested - it has to be highlighted. Meaning they will receive resistance from the same source resisting being removed from the paper, or, risk the paper just not getting published.
---
I'll state it again. I am very skeptical about the chosen action. I don't think it could possibly turn out well for the OP. I believe there is probably a better way to "protest". But it's impossible to know for certain, because we actually don't have any background about what, exactly, is being protested.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: The most important ethical concern has not yet been discussed at all:
**On the long term, what is the impact for your *child*?**
It might be funny to have your little one as a co-author. However, the little one will grow up, while the "funny" co-authorship will stay forever – internet databases do not forget.
So what happens if your little one is going to follow you in your footsteps, aiming at an academic career in the same discipline?
Could it happen that your child one day find itself in awkward situations having to explain where this thirty year old paper comes from?
Maybe it still makes a good story then. Maybe not. We just don't know.
So while I do sympathize with your intentions, do not forget about the **personal rights of your own kid**.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_12: You risk the ire of your co-authors, which may not be worth it, especially if you are already unwilling to confront your co-authors about their lack of co-authoring. But if you do, following the answer by @username_2, you can add the disclaimer in the Acknowledgements (I lack sufficient points to add a comment to that question). Or you can simply add a sarcastic reference in the acknowledgements to having written it by yourself. But again, you risk ire.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_13: I do support you to do something to protest, but it is unfair to use your baby as the tool.
You are forcing your kid to perform an unethical action as his guardian. I personally won't do it. The fact the someone else has done something unethical is not the reason for me to do something more unethical.
To protest, I will do something (possibly) equally unethical yet still rationalizable, for example let an undergrad research assistant do slightly more jobs and include his or her name in the paper. If others ask why the undergrad is in the paper, I will implicitly tell them that that student did more than you guys.
Or, alternatively, you could add your cat or dog, because this practice happened before, was tolerated, and no one accused the author for being unethical.
Upvotes: 0
|
2015/10/29
| 945
| 4,027
|
<issue_start>username_0: [The guide in Berkeley](http://grad.berkeley.edu/admissions/apply/personal-statement/) states:
>
> The personal statement should give concrete evidence of your promise as a member of the academic community, giving the committee an image of you **as a person.**
>
>
>
So what tone should I use here? If *as a person* is *as yourself*, then is it better to use informal voice, like writing in a blog? Or should I keep the formal voice as most statements require you to be professional?<issue_comment>username_1: I guess that the guide encourages applicants to not hide behind a neutral tone. You should "be yourself" and write in the way you normally talk to people in the workplace.
You may consider reading your personal statement (or asking someone to read it), and then try to assess the tone and imagine how you could describe a person who wrote it. Can you say something about the author which is not already explicitly mentioned in the text? If you can not see a specific tone and can not guess anything beyond what is already written, then the personal statement is probably too neutral.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: In my opinion (and three years working in the admission committee), it's less about the tone but the arguments and evidences you cite in the statement.
For tone, keep it overall professional and formal, do not use slang and do not write to them as if they're your high school friends. Write as if you're writing to a teacher you respect.
For your arguments and evidences, I'd suggest focusing on:
* A certain story and experience that gave you the epiphany, inspiration, or determination to pursue this study/career. Stay true to the experience and avoid using too many tacky expressions/cliches.
* Combination of training and past experience that have made you a unique and valuable member of the institute and field of study.
* Career aspiration with specific goals in mind. For instance, how would the degrees or positions enable you to achieve new goals. While the goals and aims can be of personal level, it's important that you can also integrate your own goals into a larger system (like the field of study, or the larger entities your field serves) as well.
The decision of whether to include some personality traits of one self is really situation-dependent. But if you want to let the committee know that you're a "good communicator," remember to provide concrete examples as well.
Hope this helps and good luck!
---
>
> ... the answers there kinda encourage to use informal tone. What do
> you think?
>
>
>
To me, being "informal" can mean, among many things, use of slang, figures of speech, and conversation-like writing style. Some of these do add color to the personal statement but I'm reluctant to endorse the statement that one should go informally without clearly listing what kind of informal speeches are to be used. Even within figures of speech, some are more acceptable than others in a personal statement. "Deer in headlight" may be fine; "a kick in the balls" is probably not.
I'd suggest, as I have said, don't get bogged down by the tone. Be your polite and eager self, and make a case on the three points to persuade the committee members. Treat them like someone you respect and it should be fine.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: For a personal statement, I would recommend speaking in the first-person and using a tone that is sufficiently informal to make it sound like you are talking to someone, rather than talking in the third-person about the skills of an applicant. Don't go overboard with the informality ---don't swear or use slang--- but make sure that the reader feels they are hearing your normal voice (which just so happens to be brilliant and articulate). The substance of your statement will be more important than the style, though the latter is part of showing that you can communicate clearly and in language that is suitable for presentations and academic work.
Upvotes: -1
|
2015/10/29
| 1,458
| 6,472
|
<issue_start>username_0: Some universities in the UK require that all purchases from budget available to researchers happen through one or more authorized suppliers. They tend to be strict in this regard, even though some equipment might not be available or the price of it might be higher than elsewhere.
What is the rationale behind this policy?
I fail to see any. If university where concerned with financial control then allowing outside purchase should make no difference, as they would still have to be approved by the administrative personal. If they are concerned with providing adequate IT support this might be done as well, just under a different contract with the supplier.<issue_comment>username_1: This is often done to prevent funneling money from the university to friends outside the university. If Prof A has a friend who sells IT gear, the prof cannot preferentially funnel orders to that friend's company unless they are on the approved list. Having an approved list means that each and every order for paper, staples, or whatever does not need to be scrutinized for these kinds of conflicts of interest. It would be very expensive to audit every purchase from a large university for these kinds of conflicts of interest.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: 1. Some universities can get a better deal from a supplier by promising them to buy exclusively, or to buy sufficiently much from them
2. It is easier for the accounting department to deal with the same provider, since they can re-use the same documents.
3. Dealing with a new provider has a certain degree of risk, including the quality of products, the timeliness of delivery, etc. If you deal with the same provider, you acquire enough information to feel yourself in control.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: In addition to exclusivity clauses (which tend to give benefit to central university finances at the expense of individual departments\*), purchasing like to be in control of the process and the supplier list for a few reasons, most of which apply at least to some extent to big businesses as well.
Universities often have labyrinthine purchasing systems and try to impose significant conditions on all contracts. Both of these can cause hassle for suppliers as well as staff. So purchasing want to make sure the suppliers can deal with this (as well as not going out of business taking the money with them.
For some purchases, particularly as public bodies, universities have to follow certain legal procedures (multiple quotes, public tenders etc.). While this doesn't inherently require that the suppliers are restricted to a list, in practice there's a whole supply-chain management system that does.
The good news is that it's often quite easy to get a supplier (of low-value items at least) added to the list; it can be much harder in industry. And the right people can work wonders when it comes to getting round some of the other difficulties.
\*"If you buy all your PCs from us we'll give you a massive discount next time you upgrade your library computer room (but we'll charge a small fortune if someone wants a CAD workstation or a machine with extra slots to talk to hardware)."
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: It's the same at many corporations. The simple reason is that the invoicing and payment to the vendor has already been set up in both systems. The cost may be higher than the norm (or current for the product) but the overall reduction in paperwork and approvals etc. hopefully offsets the increased purchase price. The downside is that almost no university/corporation revisits these relationships after they are set up. Note that many of the answers include some sort of discount. If this was true you wouldn't want to go someplace else. Very rarely is there a product discount involved in these situations. Ideally the policy would be to purchase from an approved vendor unless there was a sizeable reduction in cost (30%).
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: As in any big organization, it's not about doing the best thing (tm). It's about shunning responsibility (aka covering your own ass). Sad but true.
It's very simple. Imagine you are the person who approves or rejects every purchase. Your biggest problem is to determine if any given purchase was legitimate (that is purchased at proper quality and appropriate price) or fraudulent (purchased at substandard quality and/or inflated price and the difference pocketed). Now imagine you have to review dozens of such purchases every day, most of them outside your field of specialization. Will you take the responsibility of approving it and open yourself to possibility of being accused of failing your job by not detecting a scam? Or reject perfectly legit purchase and break someone's career mislabeling him/her as a scammer (and then get sued for it)? How can you judge if the price and quality are right?
No. It's simply easier to demand a list of pre-approved vendors. Then your job is narrowed down to asking one question only: "Is it on The List?". Voila. Clear criteria. No responsibility. It's not your money, you don't care if the item could be purchased a bit cheaper.
"No one ever got fired for buying IBM".
University, corporation, government agency - it works like that everywhere the organization is big enough that cogs in the machine couldn't care less about subjects of their job.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: This certainly isn't norm for all universities or big companies. I have been a BIG COMPANY and we have flipped on this back and forth 3 times at least.
Let's be honest. There is someone or a small group of upper level people that decide this.
**Why would they choose going with a vendor (or not)?**
* because it saves them money based on one set of payments, based on discounted prices, based more features (ability to buy certain things or more help)
* because they don't trust their staff or think that their staff is too stupid buy things correctly
* because they want to do something different. This is usually the norm. Something isn't perfect, so the next VP coming in wants to put their stamp on something.
* because the vendors have sweet talked them into something. This might be the vendor showing them the extreme savings (maybe incorrectly), offering them perks, or pseudo-vacations. I have even seen vendors basically offer to do part of an upper-managers job by allocating staff to them.
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/10/29
| 1,356
| 5,570
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am in a graduate course of functional analysis (in the abstract setting of topological vector spaces) in which the professor uses his own notes. The notes are very condensed and terse and there is no reference. Classes consist of student presentations in turn and the professor does not lecture.
I struggle with the materials in the notes and try to read related books (e.g., *Functional Analysis* by Rudin, *Topological Vector Spaces* by Schaefer, *Topological Vector Spaces* by Narici and Beckenstein) as much as I can, so that I can somehow understand it. I find this ridiculously time-consuming and painful. The worst thing is that approaches in the notes are usually quite different from the standard references I can find and I am not even familiar with those references.
Is such situation common in the graduate schools in US (especially for math majors)? What shall I do to deal with such difficulties and (maybe) benefit from a class like this?<issue_comment>username_1: Find a book to supplement the professor's notes? I used <NAME> and <NAME>. *Functional Analysis.* CRC Press. 1996. when I took the course from Prof. Demkowicz in ~2000. I found it useful and still have occasion to reference it from time to time.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: To directly respond to your first question: yes, "density" is quite common in middle-to-top tier grad programs in math in the U.S., once one gets beyond the "required/core" courses. There is a lot of backstory for almost all subjects, and faculty want to catch up to somewhere close to current events. It is also common that one's conception of an incisive, efficient, insightful course is not mirrored accurately in existing textbooks, so one writes notes to match. (This is better than "in the old days", pre-TeX, when most often there were no published notes of any kind, not even hand-written, so note-taking in class was critical.)
About "abstract" functional analysis in particular, yes, I think it is fair to say that the *style* of many of the standard texts (and of practitioners) has drifted in a certain direction, including a sort of "density". The hilarious and not-really-helpful *opposite*, from an older time, was the Dunford-Schwartz 3-volume extravaganza, which treated nearly every bit of mathematics as though readers would not have heard of it. Determinants, polynomials, etc. Naturally, this low-density high-volume approach created its own problems, not the least of which was locating the key examples that were not part of "general" mathematics, but specific to the functional-analytic ideas.
The subsequent decades' monographs or texts on "topological vector spaces" have always struck me as peculiarly unhelpful in making connections to other parts of mathematics, though "maybe it's just me". I cannot keep all the possible adjectives straight, and I do not see the point of many of them, nor are examples clear to me. Again, maybe it's just my own limited interest, since I care about "functional analysis" for "applications" (to automorphic forms and related matters) rather than to itself, or to "applications outside mathematics".
A point that was not clear to me for a long time is that the "more exotic" types of topological vector spaces (and families thereof, as in Sobolev-space theory) *are* not merely "handy", but *essential* in making many innocent-seeming discussions legitimate. So, not merely Frechet spaces, but LF-spaces (strict inductive limits of Frechet) already appearing as the correct topology on $C^o\_c(\mathbb R)$, for example. The notion of quasi-completeness really is necessary, since LF-spaces are never "complete" (unless they're secretly Frechet), but are always quasi-complete. *And* quasi-completeness is enough for many essential things to still work, like the Gelfand-Pettis (or Bochner) ideas about vector-valued integrals, and Grothendieck's results about holomorphic vector-valued functions, and the strong operator topology (weaker than the Banach-space uniform norm topology on operators on a Hilbert space). Holomorphic distribution-valued functions, and so on. (My on-line functional analysis notes certainly go in such directions.)
In short, *examples* are critical, both to illustrate adjectives and theorems, and to see the *necessity* of introducing various seemingly-exotic types of topological vector spaces.
At the same time, I think building up a resistance to random counter-example demands is good, much as with point-set topology. Some counter-examples are significant, others aren't. Much time can be killed, not terribly profitably, by trying to illustrate every possible logical distinction. Don't do it.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Functional analysis is one of those subjects that can be organized in so many different ways that two randomly-chosen textbooks will almost never have the topics in a similar order, logically or pedagogically. For instance, one textbook might prove Theorem B as a consequence of Theorem A, where another book (or your class notes) might prove Theorem B from scratch, and use it to prove Theorem A. For that reason, your outside references could be confusing the issue more than they're helping. Seeing a different presentation may be very helpful after this class is over, but for now, I think you should double down on understanding the professor's notes, such as they are. Study groups can help tremendously with this, as can asking your professor questions in office hours (which he hopefully has).
Upvotes: 3
|
2015/10/29
| 906
| 4,064
|
<issue_start>username_0: I feel like after graduate students pass their qualifying exams, they still have a lot of learning to do before they're knowledgeable enough in a specific area to understand and work on the open questions in that area. But how do they get there? Do they just take advanced courses in the area of interest, or are they expected to read up on their research area outside of coursework? If the second, should they be doing this while they're still taking classes, or do they start doing this after they're done with their coursework?<issue_comment>username_1: It depends. My PhD supervisor got me involved from Day 1 in research projects in his lab. He was down on programs where things were much more serial (do the required classes, pass the qual, do a proposal, do the research, defend). His students all had some research tasks from the beginning. If the student was unprepared for the task, there were papers to read or book suggestions, etc. This worked really well for me, though it may have resulted in me being somewhat under-prepared for the quals the first time I took them! I eventually passed and graduated.
Some advisors and programs take a different approach. They really want the student to concentrate on nothing but getting through courses and the quals until they pass the quals. Then it's the proposal (if they require one). How one gets the knowledge to get from proposal to defense is up to the student and the advisor to work out. I didn't complete my coursework requirement until late in my program, so I used courses to close knowledge gaps where a relevant course was available. Where it wasn't, I worked through books and papers that I could find that helped.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes, you're right, "starting research" prior to an adequate basic education can result in huge wastes of time. But it also makes little sense to "wait a few years" until all the required coursework is done. And, yes, even then, one is not over-educated.
Seriously, I think (and recommend to my students) that they maintain several different threads. The two main ones are attention to standard core material and more advanced courses, while also trying to skip forward to read about current events. The trickier third thread is trying to back-fill from current events to "standard material", as needed.
Almost any choice of "single thread" seems misguided.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: While I totally agree with the other answers, I would like to point out that there is a third variety out there in the *market* as well, over and above the two major approaches to coursework already pointed out. At least to me, this appears to be a more evolved approach, but of course, neither one is flawless and universally applicable (i.e. a lot depends on individual cases).
The idea is - first figure out how much do you need to get started with proper research-level work. This would be difficult for the student to work out on his/her own, and definitely requires inputs from the adviser. Once this part has been marked out, this should be approached at full throttle, i.e. no actual research till this part is behind you. After this is done, and in parallel with the actual research work thus started, keep on expanding your sphere of knowledge. A good idea is devote a stipulated number of hours everyday, forcibly detaching yourself from the actual problem, and just reading around the part you people decided on as minimum. The more you know, the better prepared you will be for your research, but it is not sensible to wait indefinitely for the same to happen, especially since there are (typically) progress metrics also involved (*or something like an end-semester presentation of the work done in that semester, etc.*).
IMO, the advantage of this strategy is - you are not deferring research work unnecessarily, and also, not just hitting on a research-level problem without being in any position to do so. And with time, the situation certainly gets better and better.
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/10/29
| 872
| 3,810
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am an undergraduate student with an interest in Computer science, so recently i have discovered new concepts and algorithms related to patterns and simulations (i.e biological simulations & computational models simulations), and how they can be related easily, extremely easily to mathematics in a way that it would envolve a single rule of (1+1=2) and it would take forever to fully analyse and understand all the possible outputs (all the biological & computational simulations) based on that simple rule.
So i have read about similar ideas that exist today (suppose we name it X), it took about (3) well-known physicists and mathematicians (20-30) years to introduce (X) and be accepted in the literature, mainly (X) is based on two important topics in computer science (Turing machines & Self-replicating machines) these two topics can be considered as the core idea of computers, so like any other researcher i wrote the ideas explaining every detail neatly and revised it more than (30) times then contacted (3) journals about it and they refused to publish although they said and know that the ideas are novel, new and applicable ...
I went to contact some professional people in the field, they still suggested me to submit it to a journal or present it in a conference, so i went for the second choice, they replied "the proofs and ideas in the research paper are true but you can't present something that is not in your area of expertise and even if it was, you still can't because the different academic level between the presenter and the audience, it would be suitable to publish it in a journal", so here is my problem: As an undergraduate, i have a valid proof of something, how to publish it ? So,
1) I have contacted some related journals and they refused.
2) I have submitted the paper to a conference and they refused.
3) Contacted professional people and refered to option (1) & (2).
What's next to do ? Also, this seems to be on-the-edge situation, but i know there is one more thing i can do.<issue_comment>username_1: Assuming that your findings are modest, there are undergraduate and graduate journals as well as student conferences organized by your peers. I would suggest that you look at those venues.
If you do think that your findings rise up to the level of the professional journals, then I would try to find a better advisor who can guide you through the process of selecting a more appropriate venue.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I will echo @jakebeal's skepticism about your results themselves - I would suggest having a long, serious, and honest discussion with a professional mentor about the novelty and importance of what you've found. This is important both for presenting your ideas, and deciding where they should end up - I certainly have thoughts that I know don't "rate" $TopJournal.
That being said, there's nothing about being an undergraduate student that would present you from publishing in a solid journal. For example, *as an undergraduate* working in the field you described, I published in several solid journals. There's nothing that would stop a paper from being published *just* because the author is an undergraduate.
You've said you've contacted several journals and conferences, and they've refused - have they said *why*? Have you spoken to your mentors to make sure your paper is actually submission ready - the process is non-trivial, and important even if your findings are genuinely important. What you should do next, if you're genuinely interested in moving your finding forward, is to talk to people in the field, make sure the idea is ready to publish and that you've got a solid notion both of its importance and how to "sell" the concept to an editor, and then proceed from there.
Upvotes: 3
|
2015/10/29
| 1,936
| 8,112
|
<issue_start>username_0: Some courses at different departments are very related in content. Is it fine or a university should offer 1 specific course across all departments?<issue_comment>username_1: There are different approaches to this, sometimes within the same university. Until recently at mine, for historical reasons, the teaching of basic statistics was spread all over the university. Now a new department has been formed to deal with stats and a few related thing. Psychology had its own version, and so did physics. Calculus, on the other hand, was taught as a service course by the math department for students from all over the university. Physics teaches one version of each of the basic courses that students from all disciplines that need them come over to Physics to take.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: It can be done, but it often takes political work from curriculum committees. The chief danger of different departments offering "the same" course (for certain values of "same," obviously) is that they split the enrollment, such that neither course is an efficient use of instructor time. Departments sometimes also guard their turf jealously against perceived encroachment.
Ways to avoid turf wars include:
* Clearly delineating audience. Taking the statistics example in username_1's answer, "Statistics in Political Science" and "Biostatistics" can probably coexist peacefully; they're aimed at completely different audiences, neither of which would find the other's course congenial.
* Clear change in course intensity or focus. Some institutions, for example, have "computing for non-CS-majors" courses alongside standard CS introductory offerings. Some CS departments frankly turn up their noses at teaching non-majors anyway, so if it's going to be done at all, some other department will have to do it.
* Clear change in desired learning outcomes. I teach one of the abovementioned computing-for-layfolk courses; my department avoided upsetting CS by including a large "tech for social justice" component that our local CS department wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.
Sometimes conflicts can be avoided by crosslisting a course; this also allows the crosslisting departments to share the teaching load if the course becomes popular.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: There are a number of reasons why a department would want to teach their own version of a class, even if it's very similar to a course taught by another department:
1. They think they can do it better. Imagine if most graduate students in your Department A end up taking a class in Department B. Department B views this as something of an imposition, not really interesting, not taken by many of their students, etc. so treats it as a dumping ground for new or poor teachers. Department A might decide to teach their own version to the level they think it warrants.
2. Different audiences. What one needs to know may differ by department in terms of sophistication or focus. For example, very few students in departments who *use* statistical methods might need to know the nuances behind how variance is calculated, or be equipped with the background to develop their own estimator, whereas a student in a statistics department might very well need to. Splitting these courses allows for fine-tuning of content and pre-requisites (do you need to know Linear Alegbra?).
3. Field specific focuses. Epidemiology, as a field, is by and large uninterested in prediction for its own sake, and so really doesn't do much with machine learning (see [here](https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/92854/how-to-gently-introduce-epidemiologists-public-health-coworkers-to-advanced-pred/174945#174945)). Other fields are *keenly* interested in exactly those methods. So rather than try to teach a course that's a little unsatisfactory to everyone, why not split them? Similarly, while an Applied Math department could very well teach a class on "Mathematical Modeling", the assumptions and methods needed in Physics vs. Chemistry vs. Ecology vs. Epidemiology vs. Engineering are all different enough that those departments might be well served by bringing their class in house, if for no other reason than to make sure most of the examples are relevant.
4. Geography. As @tomasz points out, the "logical" department for a course to be held in might be quite far from a department, leading to students not taking a class, not knowing about it entirely, or complicating their schedule. For example, a statistics or math department might be on the "main" Liberal Arts campus of a university, while many of the potentially interested students may be located on a specialized Health Sciences campus a considerable distance away (at the University of Iowa, for example, they would be across the Iowa River from one another).
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: In addition to other good answers: by-now-many years ago, in my math dept in a large state uni, it occurred to me to literally (!) do a poll of engineering (and some other) departments to see what they wanted from a calculus course (and related), ... and why they didn't just want to do it themselves.
Yes, this is an opposite issue to that in the question. But, in fact, as I've seen over a few decades, and, unsurprisingly, knowing how to answer one family of questions answers the other.
The reason they didn't want to teach basic mathematics was that they didn't want to spend their time that way. Bang. Oooookeeeeyyy, service department math, sure, ... Well, ok, we don't want to spend out time that way *either*, but somehow it seems advisable... maybe...
About calculus, then: the College of Biological Sciences here has a high reputation, does not want to teach calculus (because all the faculty there are doing something else, srsly, get-a-life, ...) *and* the math dept (despite some vulgar, stupid blunders) has generally been cooperative with that "College of...", so we have calculus courses tailored to their students. Yes, for some years various math faculty railed against this, or tried to sabotage it, or simply did a horrific job at it (while claiming good faith), ... but through the substantial (and risky!) efforts of a few of my colleagues, there appears to be a useful, stable situation. (Note to self and note to all: these sorts of things apparently depend on the on-going effort/energy of one or more individuals, not rules or policies...)
One opposite sort of example in my uni is about "numerical analysis"... especially when seen in some historical perspective. Years ago, this was not so much a dignified academic subject, despite WWII's illustration, and other, that literal mathematics/physics could matter in the world. Indeed, not all natterings in such directions are of any consequence. Things have certainly evolved in the last several decades so that "numerical methods" are "a thing" (as they say on the introwebs...) in many scientific pursuits. While several of my colleagues have very incisive mathematical (and more) insights into such things... it would be ridiculous to pretend that there should be homogenization across the uni in the explanation to students how these things work.
That is, in the end, the very descriptors of "content" are routinely so naive as to be irrelevant. So two things that get the same labels by external, uninformed parties (yet who control some PR aspects, course catalogues, ...) should not be interpreted as anything but ... a hint.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Around here you have to justify yourself to a committee if you try to step on someone else's territory. It *can* be done but you have to show that the "owner" of that territory is unable or unwilling to teach a course that meets your needs. (It is considered a pretty hostile act to suggest teaching it yourself until you've been around a couple of times in trying to work out an arrangement.)
An unwritten corollary is that if no one claims a subject as one of their own, then anyone who needs their students to know that subject will have to teach it themselves.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/29
| 1,176
| 4,996
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm a first-year student at a private university in America. One of my classes for my first semester is essentially our English General Education requirement - it's called "Rhetoric & Composition". However, the class completely surpassed my expectations of the depth of discussion that would be had - we are learning a lot about research, academic integrity, academic "conversations" and professional mediums like academic journals and papers.
In our first unit we wrote rhetorical summaries of a few articles, our second unit had us researching different areas of health in refugee camps - a specific research area. Now, in our third unit, we're really delving into research - focused on the subject of cosmopolitanism vs. patriotism.
**Our professor started today with a presentation on research in general** - showing us the process of discovery, how researchers commit their lives to just a few academic ideas and submit their new perspectives on the world for ruthless critique by their peers... **It was a very eye-opening discussion on how the real world works, where our cultural and scientific ideas come from, and why I'm even here, at college.**
**My question is... why did it take me eighteen years to receive this discussion? Why did our education system wait until adulthood to tell me these things: how ideas are discovered, why people go to graduate school...**
Frankly I think education on "academia" should be a big part of your primary schooling. Ask an elementary schooler what they want to be when they grow up, and you'll probably get an answer of "firefighter" or "astronaut" or "doctor". Ask any high-schooler and most won't be able to tell you, because they know those easy answers aren't what they want but they don't know how most other professions work: [as many as 75% of college students enter undecided on a major or change their major at least once](https://www.central.edu/academics/majors/exploring/). If we educate students on how academia works, where new knowledge comes from, they can start developing a well-informed decision on their career - whether it be in research or applying knowledge to a profession.
Our present high school english classes largely educate us on classic and modern literature - both fictional and non-fiction narratives or other types of creative works. Why not provide a better balance with academic english? Showing youth how degree-professions really work could inspire more to pursue higher education as opposed to stopping after high school because "why should I continue learning this boring literature and math and history when I could just go get a job and pursue my hobbies?" (Which is not a bad way to lead a life - but if someone has academic potential, we shouldn't be discouraging them like this.)
My aim with this question is primarily to open discussion about it, but I still think it's suitable for the stack exchange format. An accepted answer would look like an actual discussion/debate/set of arguments from political bodies or researchers or really anything that's established, but I like the idea of opening the discussion because all insights are valuable.<issue_comment>username_1: **In terms of work:**
Because the world is gigantic and varied and for all its intriguing features, academia is only a small part of it.
Think about your high school cohort and where they ended up. Some of them are seeking a baccalaureate degree. Many aren't. Some of the latter group are in trades, others working retail or food-service, others health or other personal service, others finance, and so on. The number that will even so much as consider a career in academia is tiny; the number that will actually achieve one even smaller. Why, then, privilege academic work?
**In terms of information sources:**
I do think it would be worthwhile for more high-school-age students to be taught a little epistemology ("how we know what we know") with specific reference to academic research. This happens to some extent with science fairs and National History Day and so on, but more would be welcome!
Again, though, academic research is only one information source among many... and given how much of it is paywalled away from everyone who isn't a career academic, what's the point of making a big deal out of it to people who mostly won't ever have access to it?
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Sometimes we do teach these concepts to younger students. In my opinion, it works. "Early college" is a growing trend. [Simon's Rock College](http://simons-rock.edu) is an example that offers what you describe, under the name of "Freshman Seminar", to younger students.
To rephrase your question, why are these opportunities not available to all students? The answer is underinvestment of prestige and money in education. Few primary and secondary institutions possess expertise in academia. And some students from tertiary institutions may never learn where ideas come from.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/29
| 448
| 1,663
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am unsure if this is the right place to ask this but I have seen this style of diagrams (shamelessly stolen from [this](https://engineering.stackexchange.com/questions/5665/differential-equations-of-a-simplified-loading-bridge) question):
mostly in an academic setting, i.e. assignments, exams, publications, etc. Anyone have any idea how these diagrams are created. Are they created in Latex/Tikz/PGF, illustrator, paint, something else?<issue_comment>username_1: TikZ is the correct answer. It takes some time to learn.
<https://www.ctan.org/pkg/pgf?lang=en>
I suppose illustrator or any other vector graphics program could work.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: This definitely looks like LaTeX rendered fonts, however, there looks to be some imprecisions in the alignment of the wheels, which might imply they are organized by hand.
Perhaps it is a combination of LaTeX and Inkscape? Inkscape can export to LaTeX-embeddable files so that LaTeX is in charge of rendering text.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Since it is my picture you 'shamelessly' stole (It is okay by the way).
I only used Inkscape to create this figure. With the help of the grid and alignment lines it is pretty easy to create a better picture than mine. It is supposed to be a quick sketch while I had no scanner nearby.
The Fonts are from here: [LaTeX Equation Editor](http://www.codecogs.com/latex/eqneditor.php)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: The free maths software GeoGebra would do a nice job of this. Images can be exported in a variety of formats.
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/10/30
| 2,012
| 8,726
|
<issue_start>username_0: Difficult to title this, but in essence, I am working on the premise that ethically, the work done in the lab belongs to the PI and the lab as a group. So if there is another question that deals with this I have not found it.
In the case where a lab takes undergraduate interns or UROP positions, such that the undergraduate is not a student of the PI, how to inform them (as it is their first research experience) that the work they contribute to is not their own research to go and publish.
In a situation such that the student is put on a project and is guided to developing some code or doing some analysis (without their own substantial intellectual contribution, just development and applying standard methods), the student then leaves the internship or position. How to make it clear to the student without some threatening way, maybe by showing some international/online standards that explain, they can not take the work they did and publish it on their own?
Likewise, how should the PI reasonably decide authorship, and explain that students authorship or lack of, due to insignificant contributions of the final work.
For example, on a given project, I may have 4 or 5 undergraduates over time interning and doing some develop, exploration, etc. I want to be encouraging, and so I try to over emphasize the 'great job' they are doing. At the same time, I do not want them to misinterpret this as them being given authorship. In some case, I had an undergraduate that after awhile of working together, decided to drop everything and quit. The student now seems to have an attitude that the work they had been doing is theirs to go and publish on their own (in some low quality journal, as it is just part of a larger project that they do not have all material for).<issue_comment>username_1: Written policy, presented to the student before they accept the internship. Anything else starts to smell of exploitation.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: In the United States, if you paid them, it is [work for hire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire). I think it is more ethical to pay undergraduate researchers.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: It can be difficult to convince people, that the work they did belongs to someone else, unless they are well compensated for this work and the conditions of employment are clear upfront.
It is even more difficult to convince a student, that something they *learned* through their work in the lab belongs to someone else. Presumably, they pay for their education, and therefore feel themselves free to do whatever they like with the knowledge they obtained, e.g. write about it in a blog or in an academic paper and try to publish it.
It may be easier to explain to the students, that it is in their best interests to collaborate with the lab even after the work is done. In particular, it is in everyone's best interest, if the publications which come out of this work are made by the lab collectively:
1. PI gets credit and can get more grants to buy equipment
2. Lab assistants and techs get some credit and are more keen to keep supporting researchers in their study
3. The paper is checked by more experienced member of the lab, details are verified, badge of authority is attached to it, and it can go to a more prestigious journal
4. Student shows that he/she is a team-working member of academic community, who understands the unwritten rules and agrees to follow them.
5. By maintaining the contact with the lab, student has a chance to be involved in future work and publications.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I think that you are not referring to the right reason why your former students cannot simply go on and publish the small projects they did under your supervision in lower-tier journals (or any other journal for what matters).
It's not that *the work done in the lab belongs to the PI and the lab as a group*, it's that **you and possibly other people in your group contributed to these projects**, at least by providing scientific guidance and supervision (I think the answer to your question is to explain them that bit).
As such, your former students **cannot claim that the work is solely theirs** by not mentioning you as co-authors and, as a corollary, cannot publish without your explicit consent.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: I think this is a very interesting practical question for the experimental sciences. We often have projects that have the need for a bunch of "menial" work (e.g., programming in many of my projects, wet lab work in other fields, ...). I think a lot of the existing answers already highlight important issues (I particularly like Dmitry's), but let me chip in some more thoughts.
I think there are basically two angles you need to think about.
**Angle 1: how to explain to students that they can't publish their own work because it will be part of a larger paper, *even though they themselves will not be co-authors of said paper***
I understand that if this is the situation, it will seem unfair and exploitative to the student. It seems that this is potentially one of these situations that are hard to explain to an "outsider" because, well, they actually are not particularly fair if you consider them from the point of view of the student.
I understand that not every tiny contribution to a project warrants co-authorship. I usually use the metaphor of an open source project to explain this to students - a large open source project like the Linux kernel is a collaboration of many, *many* people, but only those that contribute significantly enough over a longer period of time get to be maintainers (or co-authors). However (and this part is directly relevant to this question), the individual contributions of each contributor always remain their own "work" - the maintainers can choose whether or not to use them, but they can *never* pretend that they actually wrote them. Hence, I would urge you to go away from the mindset that the *"work of the students is owned by the lab"*. It isn't. Whatever the student does, it is owned by the student - you can use their work for a publication, but it never becomes "your" work. You didn't do it, and you can't ever pretend you did.
As a direct consequence of this, it is also potentially difficult to prevent students from publishing their own research if the only reason against doing it is that it would hamper your own publication plans. As their work is their work, they should be free to publish it if it is strong enough. Practically, I would strive for a compromise. If your "big" paper is for instance on the analysis of certain data, and the student wrote the tool to collect the data, you can write a tool paper together with the student in parallel or after the submission of the "big" paper. This way nobody can use your tool paper to scoop you on the main paper, and the student still gets his stuff published.
**Angle 2: how to decide whether a student should be a co-author?**
My simple rule of thumb here is that if the student did *anything* that shows up in the paper, (s)he is in. To reuse the example of above, if the student wrote a tool to collect data, and the tool is never explained (because it is standard or straight-foward how to do this), I would not make her/him a co-author. If there is a section "Experiment Design" that describes the tool in any length, (s)he is a co-author. Personally, I have a lenient approach to this - if in doubt, make her/him a co-author, maybe under the requirement that (s)he needs to contribute heavily to the rest of the project.
The most important part is to communicate this early - telling a research undergrad that he *may* be a co-author, and then, after (s)he dilligently did all her/his work, decide against it is a big letdown. Decide when you define the project whether it will be enough for co-authorship and communicate this clearly.
I feel it is also important here to keep in mind that (at least here) many undergrads are "in it for the co-authorship". That is, they are doing free research specifically with the expectation that they will be "paid" in a co-authored paper if the project works out (and good letters, of course). This is another reason to communicate early and honestly with a student - giving a student a project that, even if done nicely, will not be sufficient for co-authorship may be perceived as a "setup" from their side. That is, they may feel that you really just used them as cheap programming labour, without real chance for them to get what they expected out of it. Telling them then about the things they have learned will not smooth things over anymore.
Upvotes: 3
|
2015/10/30
| 1,050
| 4,215
|
<issue_start>username_0: I know a professor who is really brilliant, but also very modest. This professor has helped me to progress in life. Now, I want to express my gratitude by nominating him as [ACM Fellow](http://awards.acm.org/fellow/). However, I have no experience in situations of this kind and I would like to ask you a couple of questions:
1. When you are nominating a professor for a fellow title, do you need to ask permission to him? or should I keep the process in secrecy?
2. In case the fellow title may not be granted to him, could this fact hurt his reputation?
3. Is it ethical to try convince other professors to support my nomination application?<issue_comment>username_1: First make sure that you have read all the regulations for the award (in the case of ACM fellows: <http://awards.acm.org/fellow_nom_guide.cfm>). You see that the nomination in this case is quite some work. Especially question 3 is already answered there: You need five endorsers. Hence, it is expected that you "convince five people to support the nomination".
For question 2 it seems pretty clear that the ACM fellowship is really very competitive, so not getting the fellowship will not really hurt (not getting the Nobel price is also not a big deal for most people).
For question 1: In my opinion you do not need to ask for permission. The awardees do not have any obligations so they will not have any burden from this award. I also think (but I am not sure about this) that is usual to not inform people that you want to nominate them. However, you need to provide a lot of information to the award giving institution and it is also not unusual to ask the person that you want to nominate "I (better: We) plan to nominate you for this award and would appreciate if you could provide us this and that information to prepare the nomination."
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: It's great that you would like to help your mentor, but this is a tricky issue.
First, writing a good nomination is not easy, and it's far from obvious what the conventions are. If you don't get advice and guidance from someone more experienced, you are unlikely to write a successful nomination.
Second, nominators are usually senior and accomplished academics, typically fellows themselves or scholars of equivalent stature. (I don't know for sure about the ACM, but this is the case for analogous mathematical societies.) This isn't strictly necessary, but the committee will generally not have any expertise in the specific subject matter of each nomination, so they need to be able to rely on the judgment and perspective of the nominator. If you are young or inexperienced, then the committee will be much more skeptical of your nomination. In extreme cases they might not take it seriously at all.
>
> In case the fellow title may not be granted to him, could this fact hurt his reputation?
>
>
>
That won't be a problem in itself. However, the situation might look bad to the committee. Self-nominations are generally highly discouraged, if they are allowed at all, so people who wish to become fellows sometimes ask other people to nominate them. The committee might wonder whether your mentor asked you to do this, in which case choosing someone inexperienced could make your mentor look unwise.
>
> When you are nominating a professor for a fellow title, do you need to ask permission to him? or should I keep the process in secrecy?
>
>
>
You don't need to ask permission in general. It's unclear to me whether you should do so here. On the one hand, it's an unusual situation and your mentor might prefer not to be nominated under these circumstances. On the other hand, he might feel put on the spot, having to either agree to be nominated or find a tactful way of declining.
My recommendation is that you should find another way to express your gratitude, since this nomination is unlikely to work and could be awkward. (But I don't mean this as criticism: there's no way you could have known this without more experience.)
Instead of writing a nomination yourself, you could talk with other faculty about whether they would be willing to do it, but don't push them if they seem reluctant.
Upvotes: 3
|
2015/10/30
| 272
| 1,140
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am working on a confidential research project. I'm not allowed to talk to anybody outside of the group without explicit permission. However, my colleagues from other groups are curious of what I am doing. I don't want to damage the working relationship but I just can't share too much details. Should I lie something (they won't know) or ask them to shut up?<issue_comment>username_1: It is perfectly fine to say: "I am working on something, but I was told by my boss Dr Who to keep it confidential. You can ask Dr Who if you are interested."
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Simply tell them you are not at liberty to discuss the details of the project.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Lying is unnecessary, and has the potential to backfire. Simply reiterate that you do not have permission to speak about it.
If they persist, then they are damaging the working relationship, as they would be a nuisance.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: The fact that you are working on a confidential research project is not the confidential part, so you are free to mention that.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/30
| 398
| 1,706
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have a MS in CS with strong interest in statistics. I am very much interested in doing a PhD in bioinformatics as it gives me best of both worlds. After my PhD my goal is to get an academic position but I am not sure if bioinformatics is the correct path to take or should I do a PhD in CS with focus on bioinformatics. Does it makes a difference what my PhD is in when applying for a job in bioinformatics/computational biology/statistical genomics field?<issue_comment>username_1: Like many other answers I am sure you will hear, it really depends what you want to do. Either path will be fine, what it will matter more in terms of job searching (academia or industry) would be:
1. You research project
2. Your PI
3. The reputation of the program you enrolled in (unfortunately)
In general, doing a PhD requires patience, dedication, and hard work. Focus more on what types of projects you want to spend 4-5 years on rather than worrying about what field degree you will walk out with in the end.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: It really depends in which direction you want your career to go. The closer you work to biological fields, the more biology you will need to know to advance in your career. This is due to the fact that the questions you are addressing with your research matter much more than the actual way you use to address your questions. While addressing the questions requires CS skills, finding questions considered good by other biologists requires biological skills. So if you want to move closer to biological applications and become a professor, a PhD in bioinformatics would be preferred to a PhD in CS with focus on bioinformatics.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/30
| 770
| 3,460
|
<issue_start>username_0: I recently finished Medical School and I'm interested in getting into a MSc program in Cognitive Neurosciences in Germany.
Regarding my CV, what should I emphasize? I only have two articles in press and another one is under review at a well positioned journal. However I am worried because I don't know if they are too few. Are publications determinant for a Msc program admission, or... are grades and research experience ( i.e. working at my Uni research lab) more important? Also, is teaching experience something important for admission?
Also, I spoke recently with a lady working at admissions in Berlin and she told me that in Germany, specifically for a MSc it is not necessary to contact your possible principal investigator before applying, because you choose your research group during the second year. Is this true? or should I contact a possible PI and ask him for admission before applying to the University?<issue_comment>username_1: In Germany, and Europe in general, MSc programs are separate from PhD ones, and if you are applying for an MSc program, a publication record is not necessary at all although it definitely would put you on edge over other applicants, especially if you are applying for a popular program!
Your GPA is important, and it sounds really good. What is really important though, is the **course relevance**. I would recommend you to check the courses of the program you are applying for and see what courses are required and if you have taken them as part of your BSc studies or somewhere else.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Most German students coming out of an BSc program will not have any publications at all. Most of our BSc programs are 3 year programs with a 3 to 6 months thesis at the end, which is not enough to get publishable research. And it's just plain not enough *time* to get something published if you are directly applying for a MSc. Getting a paper written and accepted on top of writing a thesis takes months. This is of course a generalization - but from the about 70 students that graduated with me (Biology), none had a publication at the end.
Teaching experience is also usually not necessary. MSc students only rarely have to teach anything, that's for PhD students/postdocs /professors.
MSc programs are also usually more general than you seem used to. The first year is taking courses, the second year is doing research and writing a thesis with a group you got to know in that first year. There is no need to get in contact with a specific professor before applying and they might not be able to help you have a successful application anyway. You might of course want to look around already so that you know there's a few groups you'd be interested in working with at the university you choose.
Publications and research and teaching experience are of course not a bad thing, on the contrary, they give you an advantage when applying and you emphasize them in your application . They are just not required because German students often don't have publications when graduating from their BSc programs. Grades are very important for universities here, in fact, when I applied for my MSc (which was 9 years ago, though, when Germany was just starting to switch to the Bachelor/Master model), they were really the only thing the admissions comitee looked at. The university website should tell you a bit more about what they expect, though.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/30
| 544
| 2,359
|
<issue_start>username_0: The [majority of papers](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/29137/452) don't share their code. However, I sometimes want to reproduce the results, and therefore re-code the experiments to try to reproduce the papers.
Where shall I share the code, findings, comments, and potentially some data sets, put aside from GitHub? Ideally I am looking for a common place where people share the work they have done when reproducing papers.
I am mostly interested in computer science papers.<issue_comment>username_1: In the field of Computer Networks, there is the [Reproducing Networking Research blog](https://reproducingnetworkresearch.wordpress.com/about/), which allows anybody to contribute replications of networking experiments, or original research in a form that allows it to be replicated:
>
> This blog is a collection of network research stories, each of which includes full instructions to replicate experiments. Our goal is to kickstart a discussion of repeatable research in the network systems community, by showing that “runnable papers” are indeed possible, today. If every result in every figure of a paper could be replicated easily (by anyone with a local or EC2 VM), it would be much easier to build on prior code, results, and scripts, understand the concepts behind them, and most importantly: put them to practice in the real world.
>
>
>
If there is no such equivalent in your field, consider starting one. You can do what <NAME> did with the networking blog - seed the blog by teaching a class in which students are required to reproduce a published result as an assignment, and invite them to contribute it to the blog.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Sometimes you may even be able to submit a replication to the original journal or conference. For instance, [the *International Journal of Forecasting* explicitly encourages short correspondences on replications](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169207009001824).
If you are already writing up your findings anyway, it wouldn't hurt to submit them just to see what happens. The journal itself certainly does have a vested interest in replications of their articles. Of course, replications could be judged "too boring" and be rejected. However, the interest in replications seems to have been growing recently.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/30
| 957
| 4,122
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a second year clinical psychology PhD student. I have had some difficulties with my adviser in terms of never feeling good enough or that my efforts are acknowledged. The adviser has recently made more explicit comments regarding the lack of progress I have made on my critical/academic writing skills. As background, I came straight from my undergraduate psychology program (with a BS) into this PhD program. All the other members of my cohort have had 2+ years of research and this type of writing experience. So from the start I have felt that I have had to make up for my deficit. However, I'm not making the improvements that my adviser wants to see. The most recent discussion with my adviser ended with telling me that I am causing serious concern about my ability to complete the program and that maybe a less writing focused career would be better. Needless to say- I lost it. I have no plan b, and this is my dream. I have clinical and research plans that I am very passionate about but I do recognize that I am in the "needs to improve" category in terms of my academic writing ability. So it's this balance of seeing I do need to improve, which is virtually why we enter grad school. I have only had the last year and one month (I began my program in Sept of 2014) to begin developing and working with this academic writing style.
The first of my two questions is, has anyone else experienced such words of discouragement from an adviser? I don't know how to un-feel or un-hear those words that felt like a punch to my stomach.
Secondly, have any other psychology (or any discipline) students experienced difficulties in academic writing? If so, how you did you improve or what helped you make the necessary strides to improve at a faster rate? I have bought various writing books, I have writing meetings with my lab, and what seems to be the best advice from friends in the field and the books-- practice.
I want to improve and exceed. I just feel so discouraged when the person who is meant to mentor me has virtually given no helpful feedback on how I can improve, because the response to my inquiry on how to improve was I don't know and I feel so discouraged.
Thank you to all who read this. Everyone have a great day!<issue_comment>username_1: In the field of Computer Networks, there is the [Reproducing Networking Research blog](https://reproducingnetworkresearch.wordpress.com/about/), which allows anybody to contribute replications of networking experiments, or original research in a form that allows it to be replicated:
>
> This blog is a collection of network research stories, each of which includes full instructions to replicate experiments. Our goal is to kickstart a discussion of repeatable research in the network systems community, by showing that “runnable papers” are indeed possible, today. If every result in every figure of a paper could be replicated easily (by anyone with a local or EC2 VM), it would be much easier to build on prior code, results, and scripts, understand the concepts behind them, and most importantly: put them to practice in the real world.
>
>
>
If there is no such equivalent in your field, consider starting one. You can do what <NAME> did with the networking blog - seed the blog by teaching a class in which students are required to reproduce a published result as an assignment, and invite them to contribute it to the blog.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Sometimes you may even be able to submit a replication to the original journal or conference. For instance, [the *International Journal of Forecasting* explicitly encourages short correspondences on replications](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169207009001824).
If you are already writing up your findings anyway, it wouldn't hurt to submit them just to see what happens. The journal itself certainly does have a vested interest in replications of their articles. Of course, replications could be judged "too boring" and be rejected. However, the interest in replications seems to have been growing recently.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/30
| 1,043
| 4,181
|
<issue_start>username_0: When applying for Master in an European country, English certificates such as CAE, CPE, TOEFL, IELTS are required. Is there a limit about the "age" of the certificate?
I got CPE 5 or 6 years ago. Is it acceptable or a more recent is needed? The programs which I have seen, do not clear that out.<issue_comment>username_1: Yes there is an expiration limit on these language tests.
I believe most tests are valid for 2 years. I know for instance that the [TOEFL test has a 2 year expiration date](http://www.toeflgoanywhere.org/toefl-questions). Unfortunately, I do not have any experience with the CPE test, but I have personally never heard of any standardized test being valid for more than 5 years.
I would suggest you retake the test. That being said, you should **contact the program you are applying to directly** to get the most information about what tests are/are not accepted and for how long they are valid after taking them.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I have taken the CAE (Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English) which is one level below the CPE and I was told at the time that the CAE and CPE do not expire at all.
But check with the program you are applying to, because they may view this differently.
This is what [Cambridge English Language Assessment](http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/23124-research-notes-10.pdf) has to say about the shelf life of their certificates, including CAE, CPE and IELTS (emphasis mine):
>
> **Shelf life of certificates**
>
>
> We are sometimes asked how long the **Cambridge ESOL
> certificates** last, or whether a candidate who took an exam some
> years ago needs to retake the exam.
>
>
> The simple answer is that **the certificates do not expire**. They
> show that on a particular date the holder demonstrated that they
> had attained the specified level of language skills. For most
> candidates, the certificate is the result of a specific preparation
> course and serves as a mark of achievement in completing the
> course successfully.
>
>
> It is clear, however, that language skills can diminish over time –
> a phenomenon often referred to as ‘language attrition’. In deciding
> whether to rely on a certificate obtained some years ago,
> educational institutions and employers need to take into account a
> number of factors, most importantly whether the holder has kept
> up his or her use of the language and whether the level of the
> certificate is significantly higher than that required for the job or
> course in question.
>
>
> There are therefore no hard-and-fast guidelines for the period
> since obtaining a Cambridge ESOL certificate after which
> additional evidence of current language ability may be required by
> employers or institutions.
>
>
> The Test Report Form provided by IELTS is not a certificate since
> it is not focussed on a particular level of language ability; for this
> reason, **the normal shelf life for an IELTS Test Report Form is two
> years** (see under Results in the IELTS Handbook).
>
>
>
My conclusion: CAE and CPE do not expire. IELTS doesn't really expire either but there is a 2 year recommendation.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: There is an English language requirement for university entry, so there will be an 'expiry date' for English language proficiency certificates obtained for acceptance into university. This is because a fairly old certificate (more than 1.5 or 2 years) would not reflect your current language ability - it can be possible that your level of proficiency may have decreased to levels lower than the certificate states during that period. So, to answer your question, yes! - a new English language test certificate would be needed. Please check with the university beforehand to see which certificates they accept and choose from that range.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: Specifically for IELTS, there is a two-year recommended retake period, but no formal requirement to retake. Universities may impose their own restrictions.
Personal experience: when I applied for PhD, they took my three-years-old IELTS results.
Upvotes: 0
|
2015/10/30
| 997
| 4,250
|
<issue_start>username_0: I've been wondering about this for some time. I did my PhD at the big university A. I had access to hundreds of online journals and ebooks. I was downloading papers and ebooks, classifying them, reading them, taking notes on the pdf, etc. At the end of my PhD, I had some 1.2 GB of annotated ebooks, papers, and digital material. **None of the material is confidential (no datasets, project material, etc.), just journal and conference papers, ebooks, book chapters, etc.**
Fast forward today, I am working at a small university B, that is subscribed to a small subset of the journals/publishers of A. **Is it ethical/ legal that I keep the material and use it for my research?** Should I delete all the papers from journals my current uni doesn't have subscriptions?<issue_comment>username_1: This is an interesting question -- and yet when you think about it, it's horrifying that we'd have to consider even for an instant the propriety and legality of keeping our own annotated research materials. But, to provide a proper answer:
In principle, this may depend on the terms of the license under which you downloaded these papers. In practice, you are very likely to be in the right, both legally and morally. In general, I believe that the licenses allow you to reproduce (i.e., print or save) the document for research purposes -- without specifying a time limit or maximum duration of their subsequent use. See e.g. [JSTOR's terms of service](http://about.jstor.org/terms).
If you are asking about the ethical/moral propriety of what you are doing, you are clearly in the right to retain your collection of papers and notes on those papers. In fact, you may even have an ethical obligation to *retain* those materials if the notes therein are necessary to reproduce any of your present work.
As an analogy, think about what I did many years ago when moving from one university to another. I had an extensive paper collection of reprints, many photocopied from my institution's library and many extensively annotated. I boxed all of these up and brought them with me. No one in their right mind -- nor even most copyright lawyers, I'd imagine -- would have had me go through those files and discard the articles not in volumes held by my new institution.
**Disclaimer:** I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. It does seem to be good common sense, though, and sometimes that can be worth at least as much as anything a lawyer would tell you.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Continuing on this thread of purely amateur legal advice in the comments and username_1's excellent answer, I would like to point out the somewhat relevant concept of an **unconscionable contract**. This is a legal concept that refers to a contract with conditions that are immoral or unethical, such that even if a consenting adult knowingly entered into the contract it would be held to be legally unenforceable due to its unethical nature. See [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconscionability) for a detailed discussion including some country-specific information.
The point is that even in the unlikely event that some of the files you downloaded while at your old university came with some kind of licensing restriction that would require you to delete them upon termination of your relationship with the university, I would argue (again, purely based on common sense rather than on any legal expertise) that this is precisely such an unconscionable and legally unenforceable restriction. My verdict regarding your question is therefore:
1. >
> Is it ethical for me to keep the material and use it for my research?
>
>
>
Absolutely. Any restriction that forbids you from continuing to use your files for private study or research is unethical and morally void.
2. >
> Is it legal for me to keep the material and use it for my research?
>
>
>
Yes. Even if it might appear that you are technically violating a clause in some license that you (or your university) "agreed" to, personally I would consider such an obligation to be unconscionable and would feel myself free to ignore it. By my own understanding of the law I would not be breaking any legally binding obligation.
Upvotes: 4
|
2015/10/31
| 1,398
| 5,886
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have evaluated a software project which has been created by a consortium of top scientists in the field. However, the project itself it doesn't really work, and has only been developed as a proof-of-concept rather than an end product (i.e., it works only with 2-3 scenarios).
This software application should perform 4 steps in order to successfully execute. Each step takes an input file, and produces an output file. The output file from the previous step is used as input in the current step.
Initially, you start with 1 file. This file is used as input for step 1. After step 1, another file is produced. Let’s call the input file `general_input_file`, and the output file `general_output_file`. When `general_input_file` is loaded into the application, `general_output_file` should be produced. Now, I have an input file which I will call `my_input_file`. I expect the application to produce `my_output_file`. However, the application only accepts `specific_input_file` and will produce a `specific_output_file`. This means that it only works with 2 files which has been previously generated. Both files exist in the project. When I look at the part of the project which should process the `general_input_file`, there is a statement which looks like this: if the name of the given input file equals `specific_input_file`, then return `specific_output_file`. This is a file inside the project. Otherwise, try to process the `generate_input_file` and generate `general_output_file`. At this point the software breaks. A number of exceptions are thrown, and debugging and fixing this is beyond of the work that I’m doing.
The question is: in the paper, how do you approach this issue? And how do you argue, in the paper, that the reason you're unable to evaluate the software in a different scenario is due to the limitations of the software? What is the best wording to be used, without being offensive to the authors?<issue_comment>username_1: Does it need to work?
I know the question is weird, but researchers are not software engineers. If the objective of the project is to create a fully functional piece of software, then the low quality of the software is worrying. In the other hand, if the objective of the project is to devise new ways of doing stuff, then this software is a prototype, a proof of concept, as you mentioned, then working in a few cases is a remarkable feat.
Once the proof of concept is done, the software engineers can come and turn this into a product, which is a fully functional software. Don't make researchers do engineer's work, they are bad at it :). To each its own.
Understand the context to understand the results..
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> When I look at the part of the project which should process the
> general\_input\_file, there is a statement which looks like this: if the
> name of the given input file equals specific\_input\_file, then return
> specific\_output\_file. [...]
> Otherwise, try to process the generate\_input\_file and generate
> general\_output\_file. At this point the software breaks.
>
>
>
By your description, it sounds like the code you are looking at is **cheating** by returning a precomputed output known to be correct if the input matches a single sample input the authors included with their code (presumably to demonstrate its correctness and because including a sample input was required to get their paper accepted). For all input instances other than this one sample input, *the code does something entirely different, which doesn't produce correct results*.
This sort of behavior would without question merit a failing grade in a programming course homework assignment or exam. If done in the context of a commercial product, similar behavior would justify [the resignation of the CEO and a multibillion dollar scandal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal). So, saying that the code is "of low quality" seems to me so euphemistic as to be itself a dishonest statement. The way I would describe it is: **if the authors are claiming that their code is correct, then they are lying.**
Now, I could discuss your actual question of how to discuss this situation in your follow-up paper "without being offensive to the authors," but honestly, I don't see the point. I would ask instead, **why would you want to *not* be offensive to the authors?** It's not just that the authors' algorithm may be wrong and that their code is of poor quality; they are seemingly committing academic fraud by submitting an incorrect algorithm with code dishonestly tweaked to make it seem like the algorithm is working. I'm willing to leave a 3% chance that some other more innocent explanation can be proposed, but given the description you've provided I really can't think of one. I'll be happy to reconsider if you provide a bit more detail on how the authors' claims are presented in the paper.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: The least offensive way to indicate that you tried to use system-X (and it didn't work) is to say something like
>
> We also attempted to process our data using system-X [1023],
> but were unable to do so successfully due to run-time errors.
>
>
>
That avoids assigning any blame, whilst acknowledging the existence of the project. I am guessing that there is a very high chance that at least one of the scientists associated with system-X will be a reviewer for your paper. If the system doesn't work, they have still gotten a cite. If there is a newer version of the software that does work, you may elicit a useful comment.
You might also try sending an email to the authors to see if there is a way around the error, or if there is a newer software release. Including the exception log as an attachment, and avoiding mentioning having looked behind the curtain may be diplomatic.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/10/31
| 1,111
| 4,460
|
<issue_start>username_0: Should I report a graduate student who "hires" other people to do their coursework? Is this a proper course of action to take? I understand the repercussions will be outstanding for the individual.
---
Thank you for the input. I've talked to some old professors as well as people in the industry and they all agreed that I should bring it to the attention of the dean and other professors because it is unfair to the people who have worked hard to get into the program, the people he has been scamming, and also people who were denied entry into the program because he was deemed the better candidate. As far as evidence goes, I have substantial evidence both from him and an upset developer who contacted me through his friends list on Facebook.<issue_comment>username_1: Yes. You're describing academic dishonesty, and it doesn't matter if it's essay-buying, texting answers during an exam, involves undergraduates vs. graduates... academic dishonesty should be reported.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: That kind of behaviour you are describing in your comments is against the principles of academia. It is unethical and malpractice. Hence, he is not helping himself at all by avoiding to do what he ***has*** to do. So yes.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Let us not forget the the formal grades a student is assigned are often used to evaluate candidates for scholarships, internships and right-out-of-school jobs. This is less important when we're talking about grad school than it would have been for undergraduate work, but it doesn't go away.
In other words, this stuff has very real consequences in the real word and can profoundly affect career arcs. Indeed, if grades didn't matter why would anyone ever bother cheating in the first place.
So here is the point: a student who receives moderately good grades doing their own work might be passed over for something important in favor of a student who gets slightly better grades by hiring out the work, and every time that happens the cheater has ***stolen*** something from the person skipped over.
Cheating is a moral issue on the same level as theft at the capital scale. It is up to you to decide if you want to abet that or not.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I personally think there is more than just one aspect here. Plus I believe we're not getting the fully story.
Yes, what this guy is allegedly doing is wrong. He cheats at university, and he seems to cheat the people he hires (OP clarified this in a comment to his post). And still we're speaking about two very different things.
In the latter case, there is a contract between him and the hired person (the "dev", as you said). Even if there is no written contract, there will be other evidence supporting the contract. So he could sue him. But here is one thing I find a bit strange: if I was ordering such work with the purpose to cheat, I would be much too scared to not pay the bill since the dev could rat on me. If this thing would even go to court, my career would be over. Why risk it?
Anyway, for the sake of argument, let's assume that the dev is not going to take any action for whatever reason. The next question then is: how did you find out that the guy is cheating? From the way you describe it it sounds as if he confided in you. I mean, it's a bad thing to cheat alright, but how is misusing a friend's trust any better? I wouldn't want to have business with any of you.
I would agree with what the user O.R. Mapper wrote in a comment to your question:
>
> "I don't see myself as the enforcer of other's morality, and find it
> good policy to focus on my own life and shortcomings" - as often in
> such questions, it's not (exclusively) about enforcing anything
> towards others, but about making sure that your degrees and
> certificates are not devalued by granting the same degrees and
> certificates to fraudsters.
>
>
>
Frauds will be exposed for what they are, sooner or later, be sure about it. I know of people having had their degree revoked even 10 years after they graduated because fraud was discovered. And frankly, with this guy cheating even on the people he hires, it will be sooner rather than later for him.
If this guy is your friend, make sure he understands that you disagree with his actions and, as a last resort, break up the friendship if he won't stop it. I just don't see it in your responsibility to tell on him.
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/10/31
| 2,087
| 8,659
|
<issue_start>username_0: Software piracy is obviously illegal as well as being wrong for a variety of reasons. However, from my experience it is extremely common to see pirated software being used by research students. This appears to be implicitly condoned/encouraged by some academic staff.
Usually software piracy is done by an individual for their own use. In academia it is being done with implicit consent by the organisation and for the purposes of conducting research which may end up with commercial applications, or be built upon by others.
How can software piracy in academia be reduced/eliminated?<issue_comment>username_1: The main cause of this behavior is the premise that "for educational purposes" makes certain acts acceptable, in the eyes of the perpetrators. Universities may negotiate deals with software vendors, but the terms may not be favorable enough, or they might be for the wrong brand: or, they have unclear or unseen terms of use (such as requiring the software to be uninstalled when the person leaves the university – but that is buried in a EULA that most people don't actually read). There are really only two solutions. One is that universities will just have to bite the bullet and pay for the millions of dollars worth of software that staff and students feel they need; the other is for individuals to realize that "But it's for educational purposes" is not a passkey entitling you to all electronic content out there.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Actually, part of this is by design.
Software companies turn a blind eye to students and faculty pirating their software, so the students learn how to use their program. Once they go on to companies, they will request to use what they know best, and the companies will pay the hefty fees.
How can we avoid this? The best solution is at the root: replace all commercial software by open source versions, when this alternative has a comparable level of quality. This has two costs that would have to be weighted before doing the switch:
* The instructors would need to learn another software, that is perhaps not what they are using for their research.
* If the industry standard is a commercial software, the students will have to learn it, preferably when still at university.
On the other hand, sometimes the open source version is superior to the commercial version. For example, I think the Scipy ecosystem is much better than MATLAB except for a few niches. So, when MATLAB users do the exercise of evaluating the quality of Scipy for their applications, they may discover that making the switch in both teaching and research is, perhaps, a good move.
This switch should be encouraged even more for introductory classes, where none of the advanced features come into play, and classes where the software is only used marginally (limited to, for example, one or two practical sessions). Once students have knowledge of the free alternatives, they would have alternative resources before pirating.
*(Disclaimer: I personally dislike MATLAB quite a lot, but I know of many people from many fields that are making the switch, and of no one that is doing it back. YMMV.)*
Another front is in the software companies themselves. My university provides some commercial licenses for free for us staff. But the list of instructions to install and launch some of the programs is as long as my arm, and quite often (judging from the emails the IT department sends), unreliable. So, even though people can get a legal version for free, the pirated version may prove to be easier and more reliable; so I wouldn't be surprised if several people had chosen that option.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Piracy is not eliminated because in academia people usually have a lot of freedom, so I guess the prevalence of piracy is more or less the same as in the general population.
In the end it's the same with all piracy: if you make paying an easy, affordable option, people will do it. Nobody is going to pay full price for Adobe CS because they make 2 posters and 5 figures per year. And apparently my university isn't paying full price, otherwise not all students and staff would have the full suite all the time. So this works (and at their first jobs all the students will ask for Adobe stuff).
Other licenses besides "full" ones also help. I have one program I use maybe 5 times per week, but every time only 5-10 minutes. We only have licenses for 5-10% of the staff, if too many people have started the program you have to wait a few minutes but this rarely happens. But companies have to allow this system.
Switching to open source was also suggested: while this works for certain types of programs, it's not always possible / desirable. Even if the software is available, there might not be sufficient documentation, people might need a lot of training to switch or specific required functionality is missing.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: Since this is an open-ended question: a possible solution would be **changing the copyright laws** to redefine all educational use as "fair use" exempt from copyright restrictions.
Do not change the behavior (which is perfectly ethically acceptable, in my view); change the laws that define it as illegal.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: The best would probably be for educational institutions - and for all government (all levels) - to switch to open-source software, which preferably used only open standards and file-formats. This would allow competition between providers, and not lock institutions into proprietary programs (often with yearly license fees) "for ever". The Government should also spend money funding developing of open-source software - perhaps developed at Colleges.
But I guess you were more asking how software-companies can collect what students owe them, than how the industry could be improved... As for big software houses, they could always try to lower their prices and/or have cheaper software available for students - under separate license agreements and/or through the schools.
It's not that I don't understand developing high-quality software can't be expensive, but when you keep re-packaging software that was mostly developed 20+ years ago (only with a bit of added functions and the occasional face-lift), and *still* charge $1000-$10000 for something that had earned back it's development 10 years ago, then you're just being greedy.
Capitalism is about free and open *competition* - *not* monopolies, patents and locking customers into something sub-par for eternity. Sadly with locked file-formats and such, competition gets inhibited.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_6: The answer is obvious. Make a confidential report to the [Business Software Alliance](https://reporting.bsa.org/r/report/add.aspx?ln=en-us&src=us&cmpid=reggus003230&gclid=CjwKEAiA04S3BRCYteOr6b-roSUSJABE1-6BrkprBBqtvg0_Y2xTfrjC7W3kUro-5WAIpzYhaQWDCRoCKqDw_wcB). The BSA will investigate your university and if they receive a monetary settlement will pay you a reward.
After a university gets whacked by the BSA stick, they will find ways to reduce or eliminate software piracy (if they had not done so before).
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_7: [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman) creator of the GPL Free Software License and the GNU project has talked about this moral dilemma:
>
> ...If you use a program without freedom 2 then you end up in a moral dilemma. If someone says “Hey, great software Can I get a copy?”. In this case you should choose lesser of two evils, which is to violate the license and give your friend a copy. Being the lesser evil doesn’t mean it’s good though. When you’ve fully studied this dilemma what should you do? Option 1: don’t have any friends! That what the proprietary debs would have you do. Option 2: don’t have that software in the first place so you don’t end up in the dilemma in the first place...
>
>
>
For me that is the solution, don't use propietary software in class, I teach all my courses using Free Software.
The biggest reason why this doesn't change is because many teachers use proprietary tools. i.e. They wouldn't like to change their Power Point presentatons or Word documents to Libre Office. Or stop using Matlab and use Octave. Because the effort to adapt is deemed too big of an inconvenience.
And as students and PHD students become teachers themselves the cycle is perpetuated.
However more and more things are changing the push for Open Access, Open Science and reproducible research is motivating more and more to use software that you can distribute.
Upvotes: 0
|
2015/10/31
| 655
| 2,902
|
<issue_start>username_0: I collected a large amount of data for a research project at my university for a professor who is not my advisor. I was originally told that I would get the opportunity to collaborate on a manuscript. I would write one paper while the PI would write the other.
Now that I have collected huge amounts of data, it appears that the PI is no longer interested in talking with me about the data. However, I see that the PI is writing a manuscript that very likely contains some of the data I collected. The PI now seems very secretive about the manuscript and does not show it to me. Any ideas about what I should do?<issue_comment>username_1: If you gathered data for a manuscript, you should generally be given a chance to participate in the writing of that manuscript and to become an author of the resulting paper. Moreover, it sounds like this was an explicit understanding at the time when you started the project, in which case it would be even more clearly inappropriate to renege without a clear discussion.
Regarding what you should do: the first key question is whether you have documentation of the earlier plans the PI had made with you, e.g., in email. If so, then you have a much clearer and less ambiguous position. If not, then it is possible that there might be a legitimate misunderstanding---or that the PI might attempt to convince people that this is the case.
I would then recommend beginning by talking with your advisor. I would also recommend approaching the subject not by claiming that you have been wronged, but from a perspective of discomfort and concern about the situation. Your advisor will probably have longer experience with this colleague and a better outsider perspective and can hopefully help to either mediate the situation or else point you to the appropriate people in the department or larger university who can do so (e.g., ombudsmen). The best case scenario, however, is that this can all be sorted out amicably with a minimum of fireworks, and a quiet approach beginning with your advisor is a likely good path for doing so.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Your situation is more than omnipresent. Sometimes people just forget about you; sometimes your text needs a serious proof-reading or adjustment prior to publication, so at the very end it is not actually yours; sometimes people are fantastically greedy, etc. I would not suggest to give rise to an intra-departamental quarrel out of that.
There is a pretty easy way for you, however. Immediately put your review text on a preprint website, such as arxiv.org. If your failed collaborator indeed uses your text in the published paper, (s)he will cause easily-provable ethical violations. BTW, putting a preprint does not prevent you from a collaboration on the paper with that same person or publish those data alone in the peer-reviewed journal some day.
Upvotes: 0
|
2015/11/01
| 3,834
| 16,053
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am taking a graduate machine learning course and am working with another student in the class on a final project. In his undergraduate studies, the other student wrote code that accomplished a similar task, and mentioned in our previous meeting that we would be able to leverage much of this code for our current project if we wanted to. I responded that I believe it would constitute textbook cheating and self-plagiarism, but the other student disagrees and believes that re-using the code would not constitute self-plagiarism because he himself wrote it, and it would be redundant to re-write what he had already done.
Now, the course instructors have made it clear that we are not allowed to use any external libraries to perform certain classes of algorithms for this project. This students' prior code would fall under this category of prohibited tools, but he claims that it doesn't qualify because he wrote the code himself (so it is not an "external library"). I believe this is hyperbole, but he disagrees. It is also worth mentioning that this code is licensed under an [MIT License](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License), though it is not widely used at all.
It has gotten to the point where I am uncomfortable going forward with the project by re-using his old code, and he does not want to do work on the project that he considers to be redundant. My worry is that if it turns out we're not allowed to reuse the code, then using it could cause us to fail the course and severely negatively affect our reputations. Even if we don't get caught, I personally feel that it would be unethical to copy-paste old code and present it as though it's fresh code for this current project.
I am unsure of how to proceed. I have tried reaching out to the professor of the course some time ago (she has been traveling for some conferences recently and will be for a while) but I have not heard back from her. Additionally, the course TAs have been unwilling to weigh-in on the situation.
I have the following questions:
1. Is the above situation usually considered to be self plagiarism? Why or why not?
2. Is the above act typically allowed in an academic setting?
3. Assuming you are in my position, and consider re-using the code to be cheating and/or unethical, what is the best way to proceed; both in terms of how to make progress on the project, how to compromise with my group mate, and how to protect myself if my group mate refuses to budge.<issue_comment>username_1: I'm afraid you are understanding "self-plagiarism" incorrectly. The purpose of coursework project is to help students understand the algorithms. That's why the professor does not allow the use of external libraries.
However, in your case, your partner did implement the task by himself (if his partner in undergraduate did that, it is a different story). So he does not cheat here.
Actually, for this project it is better for you to take the responsibility of doing the task that your partner have done. Because he already fully understood the task, and you don't.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Like qsp, I'm not of the opinion that this is self-plagarism.
Nor do I think it's an 'external library' by any meaningful sense of the word. For that matter, what are you expecting him to really do - he's already written code to do this, even if he wrote it again from scratch, is he not allowed to refer to other things he's done? I *constantly* look back at old code (I did this in a clever way sometime last year...). Where do you draw the line - are you allowed to look back at *your* old code if you can't remember something basic, but know you've done it before?
If you want to make the argument that *you* won't learn anything if it's already done and implemented, I could understand that. The problem is that you've dug in your heels on making this an ethical issue when that's at best questionable, and to be frank, if you used the language you've used about your partner with me, you'd likely poison our working relationship as well.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: What should you do? You should ask the professor politely and without imposing your pre-judgement on whether this is or is not prohibited by the rules of the class. You are not in a position to make this judgement. The only person who can give a definitive ruling is the professor who set the rules.
I recommend an approach like:
>
> My teammate has previously created code that would be very applicable to this project. Can we use that code, or does it count as an external library, and we should instead write it again as an exercise?
>
>
>
While you are waiting for a response, I would recommend proceeding in two ways in parallel:
1. You implement a new version of the library from scratch, while
2. Your partner builds upon the existing library.
That way, you get the educational value of building the library, rather than using the pre-existing library, and your partner can push on ahead without either of you being stalled while waiting for the result.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: Your question raises interesting issues of honesty, teamwork and psychology. Let's examine how some of those ideas interact in your situation.
>
> Now, the course instructors have made it clear that we are not allowed
> to use any external libraries to perform certain classes of algorithms
> for this project. This students' prior code would fall under this
> category of prohibited tools, but he claims that it doesn't qualify
> because he wrote the code himself (so it is not an "external
> library"). I believe this is hyperbole, but he staunchly disagrees.
>
>
>
Okay, so you and your partner disagree about something; this is not an infrequent occurrence during a collaboration. However, it seems to me that you are approaching this debate from a point of view that assumes that there is some objective truth here, and furthermore feel very strongly that that truth is on your side: your partner's old code logically seems to you to be an external library, and you are having a hard time believing that anyone could honestly think otherwise, unless he is motivated by laziness or self-interest. Well, actually I think that's far from the case; not only is it not obvious to me and to some of the other users here whether old code will count as "external library" or whether reusing it counts as self-plagiarism, but I think even the course professor might not be sure and have to think a bit when asked this question (and I say this as a professor who has some experience being asked unusual questions that I did not expect by my students in connection to my course policies). So, a first piece of advice I would give you is to tone down your rhetoric a bit. Yes, *maybe* reusing old code is a bad idea and will be seen as dishonest, especially if done without acknowledging it. You are quite reasonable in being concerned about this and worrying about your reputation. You should certainly check this, but before you start throwing around words like "hyperbole", it's a good idea to be a little bit more humble, make fewer assumptions and be more open to the possibility that other very reasonable people may disagree with you about this.
>
> It has gotten to the point where the other student and I cannot see
> eye to eye on this issue, and I am worried that if he refuses to
> simply accept that we have to do all the work for this project [...]
>
>
>
I think you need to remember that your partner is a **member of your team**. You are not his boss and cannot demand that he do things exactly the way you want or accept your way of thinking. Furthermore, this project is not just an exercise in programming, it is also meant to teach you teamwork -- the art of working as a team, which is something that's highly valued by employers, in some cases much more than specific programming or machine learning wizardry. When you talk about him "refusing to simply accept that we have to [do things my way]", and say that you have reached a point where you and your partner are close to being completely unable to work with each other, I see this as a failure to establish effective teamwork. Disagreements will come up in any collaborative project; you are now being tested on your ability to work through them effectively, by *talking* to your team member, and also by *listening* to him and being open to hearing and accepting his point of view.
>
> Nobody has answered my question, they've only said, "it's not
> cheating". [...] that doesn't answer the question of how to handle it
> if it *is* cheating. That was my question. Assume it's plagiarism.
> How do you protect yourself?
>
>
>
Well, if all you want is an answer to your literal question and don't care to hear any additional analysis: if I had a project partner who was a cheater and I couldn't convince him not to cheat, I would not partner with him. I would go to my professor and ask to be partnered with someone else, or to be given a solo project if that's the only practical option, and explain that working with the current partner is ethically untenable for me.
However, if you *are* willing to consider additional analysis, I will venture to offer my opinion that you are asking the wrong question. Based on my understanding of your situation, I think you are too sure that you are in the right and your partner is in the wrong, and in this case, refusing to partner with him will reflect poorly on you, since it will indicate that you do not have good teamwork skills, which is part of what this project is meant to test and help you develop.
To summarize, the core of your question is actually about a simple matter of how to interpret a course policy that forbids the use of external libraries in a programming project. When professors write their course policies they don't always think of all possible scenarios that could arise, so it is not uncommon for ambiguities to exist. When this happens, the best thing to do is simply to ask the professor (but please ask politely and in a neutral way that does not assume what the correct answer is), then follow their instructions. If you do this, I don't see how your reputation can be hurt.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: In formal academic writing, the problem of self-plagiarism is answered by citing the sources that were used, even if the sources are by the same author. I think it would not be unethical to reuse the code earlier written by your groupmate as long as your groupmate explicitly states to your professor that the code was written by the groupmate for an earlier course. Ask your professor if this arrangement is acceptable and does not violate school policy.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: Regarding the rules made by the professor, the letter of the law is clear insofar that it absolutely allows both your interpretation and that of your colleague. So disregard it and look for **intent**.
In terms of intent, what we can do is make an educated guess, but a much easier way to find out about intent is to simply ask the one who made the rule.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_7: I don't see what the problem is. If you have written code before to neatly display certain data, or ask for input from the user, it is silly to not re-use this code. Just make sure to add a comment above the functions or code blocks that have been re-used and briefly list that you are the author, and where you have used it before.
If the course itself is for learning about algorithms, it is unwise to re-use any code that had to do with algorithms. First of all, it is likely not tailored to the problem at hand. Second of all, you do not learn much with copy-pasting. If you have completed the course before, the professor would likely have given you permission to skip the practical assignment. If the professor did not do this, it is likely they want you to redo at least that part.
That said, re-using (part of) the code for tree-building and tree-traversal when you need to implement a search algorithm is fine as far as I am concerned. Trees are not that difficult to implement, but it is boring to have to write that code again and might introduce bugs you already have solved before. You are likely studying computer science and aren't trying to get a degree in Typist Science. Solving problems you have already solved before is not productive. Spend that energy on understanding and implementing the new stuff. If you have done a lot of the project before, just spend time on polishing the project, or ask for a more challenging project. Again, just make sure that there can not be a misunderstanding about where code comes from by puting a comment with author, source location and possible license above the code that has been re-used.
---
Thas said, I think you should learn two things from this:
* Make sure that you and your partner are on the same page at the beginning of the project. It sounds like you might have put off working on the project until it was too late to back out.
* If there are unbridgeable differences between you and your partner, you still have an obligation to finish the project before the deadline. Don't sit around argueing with each other, but work on the project on your own and encourage the partner to do the same. If the differences are not bridgeable in the future, you might need to hand in the project alone. Make sure you make clear which part you did with your former partner, and which part you did alone.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: Imagine the problem this way: Each class you take, is like you being a contractor for that class, writing code for the "company" that is running that class. So, when you finish the semester, and move on to the next gig (i.e. the new semester starts and you're now in this project), the problem you have here is that, in principle, your partner *does not own that code.* It's not strictly true, but it's essentially the same type of issue!
You can bring concepts from place to place, but you can't carry CODE from place to place, and that's the same in academia (apparently so in this circumstance, anyway!). The definitive answer is that you and your partner have to take what is called a "green-field" approach to the code he wants to carry forward...you have to re-write it anew.
Also, the so-called problem of self-plagiarizing is very real and a very common problem. You can't just pick up academic work done for one class and re-submit it for another class...if you're caught, it's usually a big problem. You can get by it by going FULL DISCLOSURE, and full citation (to yourself as the previous author) but that's something that requires direct and prescribed intervention BEFORE you hand it in, with the professor involved. Some will be ok with it, some decidedly not. It's their call.
My suggestion? You propose along with your partner that you re-implement his existing API with new code. You bring the code to the instructor, say that it is what you intend, and get her prior blessing.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_9: I'll go for a more succinct answer.
>
> Is the above situation usually considered to be self plagiarism? Why or why not?
>
>
>
**No**, because: 1. It's not a publication, nobody can plagiarize anything. 2. You're not pretending to have come up with original research results in this assignment.
>
> Is the above act typically allowed in an academic setting?
>
>
>
**Yes** in my experience (as a student and TA). Really, we don't care about this kind of stuff. Projects and homework are a courtesy to you students, to help you reach a better understanding of the material; and grades are just a rough statistical mechanism.
>
> Assuming you are in my position... what is the best way to proceed... ?
>
>
>
**You should "cheat"** in this situation. Even if it "doesn't feel right" to you - objectively it's not cheating, and it *is* acceptable to about everyone else concerned.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/11/01
| 2,584
| 11,069
|
<issue_start>username_0: I’m a senior in my final year of a B.S. degree in Engineering in the United States. One of my professors is in a geriatric state (he is not tenured). His class is largely themed around student presentations which form the core curriculum and all material tested on exams.
Unfortunately, the professor often falls asleep during these presentations which he should be grading as they are delivered. He does very little to facilitate discussion in class. When he generates the exam, he often just reviews the slides and picks out extraneous details for questions. To make matters worse, there is a small group of students who have taken advantage of the said professor’s poor proctoring skills and have used their phones to view the slides hence giving them a magnificent advantage over even the best students in the class.
I have already notified our department head, who is peripherally aware of the situation, and his superior, the college division head. However, they seemed concerned but have not taken means to solve or even observe any of the issue for themselves.
What else can I do to address such an issue?<issue_comment>username_1: The department head is the proper address to turn to. Nag them again. If they don't help, look for university-level resources to take your complaint to, e.g.: graduate student union, university ombudsman, graduate studies. Another option is to complain to student judicial affairs about the dishonest students. It's true the professor in his negligence is facilitating their dishonesty, but by complaining about the students (who certainly also deserve to be held accountable) you will set in motion an investigation that hopefully will lead to the professor being reprimanded as well. Good luck!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: The first thing I want to say is that you should be careful with the information you provide on the internet. In ten minutes of routine searching I was able to determine the identity of your instructor and other information about him: e.g. he is 84 years old, that his highest degree is a master's degree, and that he is (as mentioned) not tenure-track at your institution. Thus you have publicly enough claimed that someone is senile. That opinion is yours to express...but it is not very nice. If you have not already had at least one conversation about the instructor himself about what you find unsatisfactory about his teaching, then complaining about him *to everyone* is not an honorable thing to do. I think it would be better to remove identifying details from your profile.
Now moving on to your question: I think you have at least two issues here. The first is that you claim that rampant cheating will put you at a disadvantage in your classes with this instructor. The second is that you think the instructor is unfit to teach at your institution. These are pretty different: one of them is localized to a particular situation and is primarily about *you*. The other is a general problem and is primarily the concern of the *institution*. I would recommend decoupling these concerns at least in your own mind and thinking about how to pursue them separately.
As for the first concern: **is the cheating you're describing taking place in a class you are now taking?** Your question suggests that but doesn't quite say it, and in my internet research I couldn't find any courses that the instructor in question is teaching this semester. If yes, this is a pressing issue, and **of course you should bring it up first with the instructor himself**. Does he know that students are cheating by looking at their phones in class? What is his response to that? If he hasn't been informed of the cheating, it is not very reasonable of you to blame him for it. If his response is "I don't hold truck with those devilish pocket phones" then that's inadequate and merits escalation. It sounds however that you're trying to bring forth action on a more generalized "everyone knows this is happening" cheating situation that may not even be taking place this semester. That's going to be hard to do. You lament that many students complain about this but are unwilling to do anything formal about it. You're right to lament, because that probably will kill the matter right there. I am a university professor and I've had the experience of students who complained to me about cheating but were unwilling to take it any further. That was very unpleasant for me, because there was nothing I could do about it....other than make sure that the circumstances that allowed the cheating did not present themselves in the future.
In terms of your second concern: whether this man is fit to be an instructor at your regional campus of a state institution is primarily the concern of that institution. I am **not** trying to say that this is none of your business. What I'm saying is that it's more their problem than yours, and you should take the attitude that you are helping them out by informing them about it. Do you see what I'm saying? If you come to an administrator saying that a certain instructor is not fit to teach...*and you are not asking for any personal reparations for that in your own coursework*, then it puts a different spin on things that may make the administrator take it more seriously. (That's why I would consider separating out discussion of this with the cheating issue: if you discuss them at the same time, then it can look like you have a conflict of interest, because something good could happen to your course grade if the instructor's incompetence is recognized.)
In terms of informing administrators that the instructor is unfit to teach: you have to realize that this is a long game. It is extremely unlikely that someone is going to get pulled from teaching in the middle of a semester for reasons of "senility". Firing a faculty member -- even a temporary or untenured one, and especially someone who has been working there for many years -- is not something to be done lightly. You can't really know that the administration is not looking into this or will not look into this in the future. Maybe they are. However, in the absence of any positive evidence, yes, maybe they're not. In that regard username_1's advice is on point: bring this up repeatedly. If other students feel the same way, get them involved. (If really no one other than you wants to get involved...what's up with that? It's worth thinking about.)
Another thing that students don't necessarily appreciate is that universities have limited resources, and the in current economic climate many academic programs are being held together with string and chewing gum. Every once in a while I get an evaluation from a calculus student saying something like "Dr. Clark knows his math, but I'm not sure if he's ready to teach UGA students." Which makes me smile a little bit: I was a tenure-track (now tenured) faculty member. Do the students think that teaching freshman calculus is a privilege only earned by the very best, and that some time in the penalty box would make me rethink the error of my ways? That's just not the way things work. At my university faculty members get tenured for excellent research and *unproblematic* teaching. Freshman calculus students are going to be stuck with my teaching -- which, according to student feedback, is below the departmental average -- for the foreseeable future.
At your institution I noticed that there are a lot of non-tenure track faculty, often without PhDs, teaching courses for majors. Your administration would certainly prefer if such courses were taught by people with PhDs: it would add considerably to its academic prestige. The fact that they have courses taught by non-PhD faculty probably means that they have limited resources and/or haven't had the chance to do enough hiring to correct the problem. To put it more starkly: if your octogenarian instructor gets released, who will replace him? If they don't have such a person, then they are probably working towards getting one and thinking that in the meantime he is a lot better than nothing.
I will end by saying: you are right to be concerned about this, and if what you say is true than in my opinion you are helping out your university by doing so. Good on you, and I hope you follow through with it. Definitely **do not** do anything like publicly shaming your university by uploading incriminating videos: that is not a step towards a solution of the problem.
**Added**: Based on information provided by the OP, I have changed my mind about who the faculty member is. I now believe he is 79 years old. Anyway, the point is that when you reveal your institution and department any complaint about faculty members is certainly not anonymous. Any slightly interested party can make a guess. Maybe they will guess wrong...which is not so great either.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: There is nothing that you can do.
There are more students than there are qualified instructors.
A University cannot fire an instructor unless they can find a better replacement.
As of the year 2015, roughly 1 in 3 Americans get baccalaureate degrees. Not so many Americans used go to college. Not only do 1 in 3 Americans get bachelor degrees, but the percentage keeps going up.
---
Suppose that there were only 50 high quality martial arts teachers on planet earth.
For purposes of this hypothetical scenario, also assume than each martial arts master takes exactly one student per year.
Unrealistic though it may be, students and teacher in thought experiment have a one-on-one relationship for one year. After one year, the student turns into Jet Lee and leaves. It is not necessary to train for 10, 20, 30 years.
If there are only 25 students per year, that's great.
If there are only 40 students per year, that works too.
What if there are 10,000 students?
There are only 50 good teachers.
If there are a sufficiently large number of students, then some students will find themselves a charlatan.
---
As another analogy, when I was in high school school cafeteria sometimes offered a popular food item: the Chicken Parmesan. On most days, the cafeteria food was terrible. However, the percentage of students who liked Chicken Parmesan more than the usual fare was more than 50%. The cafeteria manager was not the sharpest tool in the shed. The cafeteria manager assumed that students ate the same number of meals each day no matter what awful slop was served. Well, if there are fewer plates of Chicken Parmesan available than there are hungry students, some of the students might end up eating something else; or in some cases, not eating anything at all.
---
There are more students than there are high quality teachers. In the long run, you can create, or train, more University professors. However, in the short run, you end up hiring people who aren't that great.
If you need 50 horses, but only 20 horses with good teeth are available, then you will probably end up buying some horses with rotten teeth.
Upvotes: -1
|
2015/11/01
| 1,724
| 7,772
|
<issue_start>username_0: I want to write three papers from my thesis. But actually I am stuck. What is the first step to do?
Do I first choose the journal (more precise scope) and then I move on to write the article according to this scope. (Of course the choice of journal is based on my research topic.)
Or do I start with writing the paper and then move to choose the journal and readjust the paper according to the template and ameliorate it?<issue_comment>username_1: Different journals will only differ in terms of their manuscript templates, the exact content of your articles shall remain the same, only typeset according to the journal style. These things are very easy to manage if you are writing using LaTeX, since the body of the article stays the same, only the header part in the preamble gets altered, i.e. you call the relevant template in the document class. On the other hand, if you are using MS Word etc. too, the option of copy-paste remains valid, only the process is more messy.
It certainly makes no sense to jump the gun - first keep writing everything in some file (Latex/Word) in an arbitrary format, and finalize all these aspects only at the time when you have actually finalized stuff enough to be submitted to a journal. When that happens, you can adopt the relevant journal style.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: *This may be field-dependent; I am answering from the point of view of an HCI-related CS subfield that is frequently in touch with other fields (for different use cases etc.).*
**Always choose your venue (concrete journal or conference) first before writing the manuscript.**
The underlying core information you want to convey will remain the same no matter what. Hence, you may prepare a very abstract outline first. However, writing the paper before choosing a venue does not make much sense:
* Important if you are in a field where manuscripts are formatted with the final styleguide: **Each venue will require a particular formatting styleguide.** While you should largely keep contents and format separate in your document, there are still more than enough detail decisions that require changes in your document according to the styleguide.
+ For instance, if you use [LaTeX](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX), depending on the venue-specific document template used, usually only one out of three or so alternative existing packages for a specific feature (e.g. subfigures, special tables, ...) will be compatible with the template.-
+ Also, at least I frequently find myself in a situation where I fill a paper up to the very last line (and page restrictions are very strict in my field). While different styleguides and page restrictions are *roughly* equivalent across venues, switching from one venue to another can easily mean gaining space for an additional figure or subsection.
* **Different venues have different audiences:**
+ Even when presenting the very same procedure and findings, you will have to add a different set of explanations, references, etc., depending on the primary audience of the target venue.
+ Likewise, depending on the audience, sometimes you are better off starting with formal definitions and then presenting a concrete use case, whereas other communities prefer starting with a concrete problem and a case-specific solution description, and then formalizing that to a generic model.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: For most papers and journals, the adaption to the journal’s style, requirements and audience is comparably easy – the main exception being journals with a length limit. It happens very often that a paper has to be adapted because it was rejected by a journal and shall be submitted to another and often this can be done within a short time.
Nontheless, I recommend to try choosing a target journal before you start writing. The reason for this are:
* Usually, choosing a journal does not cost more time when done writing the paper than afterwards. So there is no disadvantage to this.
* Even if your paper would have only few journal-specific adaptions, it is still less work to consider or include them from the beginning. You are also less prone to make your work inconsistent due to this.
* If you happen to choose a journal with a length limit, it may help a lot to know this from the beginning, so you can decide which information to include in the paper, include in the supplementary material or leave out altogether.
* Choosing the journal and looking at journal’s guidelines and scopes may give you important information or reminders on how to best write a paper in the respective field. Of course, you could look at those independently of choosing a journal, but then you would have to look twice.
* Having selected a journal and downloaded its style file you have done something for a start. This may help you overcome the initial writer’s block for your work. Looking at the journal’s guidelines may also help you in that respect. Finally, the same goes for selecting a journal in the first place, which may require you to make up your mind as to what will be the rough contents of your paper and what your central message and audience is.
Of course, this is only a general recommendation and needs not always be the best choice. If you have big trouble deciding a journal, it may help to write the paper first.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Depending on your field of research, I would suggest that the first step is coming up with a publication tree for the article. In other words, for any given paper idea, figure out the different potential venues the product paper might have. That way you can know what will happen if your first candidate venue rejects the paper. For your own career, there's nothing worse than having papers that cannot be published anywhere which took months or years of your time to write.
Then write the paper with the top candidate venue in mind. Get feedback along the way, etc.
It's not super important to follow their formatting guidelines while initially drafting, because it's purpose-less to master these for any given journal unless that's the only journal you're going to be publishing in. Instead, once the paper is written, then read their formatting guidelines and implement them.
Finally, submit, revise, etc.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Answering more for the biomedical sciences, but I'll echo what some other people have said: Yes, I'd choose at least a target journal, or at the very least a "genre" of journals if there are several competing journals, before writing a manuscript. This helps inform a number of things:
* Format. This seems obvious, and is probably the easiest to simply adjust per journal, but it's still fiddly and time consuming, and you might as well skip the "Format Draft into Paper for Journal Target #1" step from the get-go.
* Style. If you're working at all across disciplines, there's likely discipline-specific language that will come up from time to time, and the choice of journal can help determine that. For example, phrases like "...but this effect was not statistically significant" are less likely to fly in several major epidemiology journals, and conventions like "...is left as an exercise to the reader" just don't happen at all.
* Content. Similarly, if you're writing for a general interest journal, a society journal with a narrow focus, of a *different society journal* with a different narrow focus, there's going to be some fine-tuning of content - what gets put in, what gets taken out, etc. Again, by way of example, the number of equations that I'd put in the same paper going to say *Mathematical Biosciences* versus *American Journal of Epidemiology* versus a clinical journal are *vastly* different.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/11/01
| 2,093
| 9,092
|
<issue_start>username_0: In the question about [choosing research ideas to include in a statement of purpose](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/1529/14341), JeffE advised how to write the last paragraph of the SOP:
>
> How does my department fit your research goals? (If the rest of your statement is well-written, the reader already knows the answer to this question, but you also need convince the reader that you know.)
>
>
>
What should I really say here, without having repetition? This is the sum up part, which doesn't need to explain again, and should be short. I would add that this part also needs to raise the emotion of the readers. They have used their rationale enough in the main part. Whether I succeed in satisfying them or not, I have already tried my best, and there is no need to prove that I'm good anymore.
Or, as JeffE says, I need to convince the reader that **I know I'm good\***. My preference is to make the scarcity here, because the feeling of losing is one of the most strongest emotions. However, when I have the draft proofed, it is highly criticized that it is hubris, or at least unnecessary. I have given my rationale, but no one respond. Here is the draft:
>
> To sum up, I hope that If I get admitted, I will be a valuable asset to the lab, the department, and the university. I will be a new researcher with a compelling plan to maturing the theory; a new student who can enrich the diversity of the X department; and a future scientist working to accomplish the Y school’s vision: create a better world.
>
>
>
So:
1. How to write this part?
2. Should I use this part to raise their emotions?
3. Should I use scarcity to raise their emotion?
\*Emboldening is only to emphasize the needed words, not to be hubris.<issue_comment>username_1: Different journals will only differ in terms of their manuscript templates, the exact content of your articles shall remain the same, only typeset according to the journal style. These things are very easy to manage if you are writing using LaTeX, since the body of the article stays the same, only the header part in the preamble gets altered, i.e. you call the relevant template in the document class. On the other hand, if you are using MS Word etc. too, the option of copy-paste remains valid, only the process is more messy.
It certainly makes no sense to jump the gun - first keep writing everything in some file (Latex/Word) in an arbitrary format, and finalize all these aspects only at the time when you have actually finalized stuff enough to be submitted to a journal. When that happens, you can adopt the relevant journal style.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: *This may be field-dependent; I am answering from the point of view of an HCI-related CS subfield that is frequently in touch with other fields (for different use cases etc.).*
**Always choose your venue (concrete journal or conference) first before writing the manuscript.**
The underlying core information you want to convey will remain the same no matter what. Hence, you may prepare a very abstract outline first. However, writing the paper before choosing a venue does not make much sense:
* Important if you are in a field where manuscripts are formatted with the final styleguide: **Each venue will require a particular formatting styleguide.** While you should largely keep contents and format separate in your document, there are still more than enough detail decisions that require changes in your document according to the styleguide.
+ For instance, if you use [LaTeX](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX), depending on the venue-specific document template used, usually only one out of three or so alternative existing packages for a specific feature (e.g. subfigures, special tables, ...) will be compatible with the template.-
+ Also, at least I frequently find myself in a situation where I fill a paper up to the very last line (and page restrictions are very strict in my field). While different styleguides and page restrictions are *roughly* equivalent across venues, switching from one venue to another can easily mean gaining space for an additional figure or subsection.
* **Different venues have different audiences:**
+ Even when presenting the very same procedure and findings, you will have to add a different set of explanations, references, etc., depending on the primary audience of the target venue.
+ Likewise, depending on the audience, sometimes you are better off starting with formal definitions and then presenting a concrete use case, whereas other communities prefer starting with a concrete problem and a case-specific solution description, and then formalizing that to a generic model.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: For most papers and journals, the adaption to the journal’s style, requirements and audience is comparably easy – the main exception being journals with a length limit. It happens very often that a paper has to be adapted because it was rejected by a journal and shall be submitted to another and often this can be done within a short time.
Nontheless, I recommend to try choosing a target journal before you start writing. The reason for this are:
* Usually, choosing a journal does not cost more time when done writing the paper than afterwards. So there is no disadvantage to this.
* Even if your paper would have only few journal-specific adaptions, it is still less work to consider or include them from the beginning. You are also less prone to make your work inconsistent due to this.
* If you happen to choose a journal with a length limit, it may help a lot to know this from the beginning, so you can decide which information to include in the paper, include in the supplementary material or leave out altogether.
* Choosing the journal and looking at journal’s guidelines and scopes may give you important information or reminders on how to best write a paper in the respective field. Of course, you could look at those independently of choosing a journal, but then you would have to look twice.
* Having selected a journal and downloaded its style file you have done something for a start. This may help you overcome the initial writer’s block for your work. Looking at the journal’s guidelines may also help you in that respect. Finally, the same goes for selecting a journal in the first place, which may require you to make up your mind as to what will be the rough contents of your paper and what your central message and audience is.
Of course, this is only a general recommendation and needs not always be the best choice. If you have big trouble deciding a journal, it may help to write the paper first.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Depending on your field of research, I would suggest that the first step is coming up with a publication tree for the article. In other words, for any given paper idea, figure out the different potential venues the product paper might have. That way you can know what will happen if your first candidate venue rejects the paper. For your own career, there's nothing worse than having papers that cannot be published anywhere which took months or years of your time to write.
Then write the paper with the top candidate venue in mind. Get feedback along the way, etc.
It's not super important to follow their formatting guidelines while initially drafting, because it's purpose-less to master these for any given journal unless that's the only journal you're going to be publishing in. Instead, once the paper is written, then read their formatting guidelines and implement them.
Finally, submit, revise, etc.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Answering more for the biomedical sciences, but I'll echo what some other people have said: Yes, I'd choose at least a target journal, or at the very least a "genre" of journals if there are several competing journals, before writing a manuscript. This helps inform a number of things:
* Format. This seems obvious, and is probably the easiest to simply adjust per journal, but it's still fiddly and time consuming, and you might as well skip the "Format Draft into Paper for Journal Target #1" step from the get-go.
* Style. If you're working at all across disciplines, there's likely discipline-specific language that will come up from time to time, and the choice of journal can help determine that. For example, phrases like "...but this effect was not statistically significant" are less likely to fly in several major epidemiology journals, and conventions like "...is left as an exercise to the reader" just don't happen at all.
* Content. Similarly, if you're writing for a general interest journal, a society journal with a narrow focus, of a *different society journal* with a different narrow focus, there's going to be some fine-tuning of content - what gets put in, what gets taken out, etc. Again, by way of example, the number of equations that I'd put in the same paper going to say *Mathematical Biosciences* versus *American Journal of Epidemiology* versus a clinical journal are *vastly* different.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/11/01
| 1,289
| 5,455
|
<issue_start>username_0: If a graduate student knows that they are on the lower end of the stipends offered to their cohort, and if they are performing as good or better than their other cohort members (as measured by grades, number of publications, number of current collaborations, etc.), then is it acceptable to ask for a higher stipend? If so, how would you go about this?<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, you can certainly ask that the department reconsider the amount of your stipend. However, you should also prepare for the case where they do not adjust it.
Normally, I would start by talking with your advisor, as she will most likely have to be on board for any increase to be successful. Then, I'd approach either the graduate student advisor orthe graduate student administrator for the department. There may already be rules and policies in place for how to request a stipend increase. If that doesn't work, the next steps are probably to contact the chair of the department and the dean for graduate students (or other appropriate officer at your institution).
However, depending on where your funding comes from, it may or may not be possible to get an increase. For instance, NSF or NIH stipends are normally set at a uniform level across a college or university. It's also possible that the students with higher stipends have outside funding which reduces the actual cost to the college. Finally, your advisor may not be able to afford a large stipend increase.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Graduate students are not expected to have a lot of money. Just enough money to live, plus a beer or two at the weekend, is the general consensus in Biology. In my PhD intake, we were all placed on 50% contracts (approx. $1300), while the following year's intake all got a 60% contracts (approx. $1400). This came after years of student protests by current and former Max Plank graduates.
And $100 a month goes a long way - at the very least I could get some health insurance, so I asked a few times if could be bumped up to the 60% contract, and the response from the Max Plank was a resounding "NO!"
But then one day I received an electricity bill for $2000, which was the sum of the last two years bills combined which I thought was included in the rent but now apparently had to pay. I went to the institute's financing department to ask for help or legal advice, but again I received a definite "not our problem."
After this I became quite poor. I sold what luxuries I had acquired over the last 10 years, I started working evenings as a freelance programmer, and I became quite depressed. I was "visibly poor" so to speak. Poor, depressed and very very tired.
That year my old contract was canceled, then a new contract given to me at 60% rate.
So I see the moral of this story as, you don't have to be nice to your sheep, but dead sheep are no use to anyone. Use the little leverage you have by saying to your institute "Pay me more money or I will have to divert my time and energy into something that does", and you will see the true value of your meat in the academic marketplace.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: I'd recommend talking with your advisor or another mentor to see whether they have any information about how stipend decisions are made behind the scenes. The $6k disparity sounds high to me, and it's really awkward if it gets decided early on and then never adjusted, since how impressive someone seems on entering is imperfectly correlated with their accomplishments four years later. On the other hand, no department wants to individually negotiate each stipend on a yearly basis.
The first question is whether you are proposing an isolated fix for yourself (with the theory being that the current system is generally good, except for the poor result in your case), or a systemic change. If it's the latter, then it's probably best if you can get a faculty member to take up the cause, since they can try to build widespread faculty support in a less confrontational way than graduate students could. The best chances of change are probably if there's some clear unfairness or disparate impact. For example, if the current system is on average giving lower stipends to female students, not explicitly because of gender or performance but (let's say) because they negotiate less vigorously before signing, then I'd bet the administration will be eager to make changes. On the other hand, other large-scale changes may take more time and political finesse.
If you are just dealing with your own case, then you could still benefit from an advocate but can more easily try to make the case yourself. How tricky it is depends on what sort of argument you are making:
1. You might argue that your stipend was wrongly set from the beginning. This will be a difficult argument to win unless you can point to something objective, because the department will not want to set a precedent that might encourage half the grad students to try making the same argument. However, it can't hurt to try if you do it tactfully (nobody likes to be told that they screwed up in the past, so you should treat this gingerly).
2. You might argue that your initial stipend was reasonable, but the circumstances have changed dramatically. This may be your best shot, but again you need an objective argument that distinguishes you from the other students who would also like increased stipends.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/11/01
| 595
| 2,529
|
<issue_start>username_0: Update/follow up: Can this have something to do with the specific rank? I mean, does it make sense to require this for the rank of Assistant professor for some reason?
Link for the posting: <http://cra.org/job/umass_lowell-assistantassociate-professor-computer-science-2-positions/>
---
I was checking some postings from cra.org, and found this remark:
>
> For appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor, by the time of appointment, applicants must either have a PhD degree from a US university, or have at least one year as a post-doctoral researcher in a US university or US research lab.
>
>
>
However, I didn't find that in other postings. Is this unusual or so common that isn't usually spelled out?<issue_comment>username_1: Prior experience working in a particular country is a sufficiently specialized requirement that it cannot be "implicitly assumed." Such requirements should appear in every such position to which it applies. (Personally, I have only seen such requirements posted for positions outside the US, with the requirement being one or more years abroad, not specifically in the US.)
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: This is a bizarre requirement that I have never seen and sounds unwise to me, except maybe for a position requiring specific U.S.-centric expertise, e.g. a search for a law school faculty member specializing in U.S. constitutional law (even then, requiring a U.S. PhD/postdoc sounds to me like the wrong way to ensure that the candidate possesses the relevant expertise). And no, I do not see why it should matter that this is an Assistant Professor position.
Based on my experience with bizarre/illogical rules at organizations, I'm guessing that what happened is that the department that is requiring this at one time had a really bad experience hiring someone without a U.S. background, and after that someone there decided to make sure that that particular mistake would not be repeated, no matter how many good opportunities that would mean missing out on.
Note that while I think this is a silly requirement, at many U.S. universities a tenure-track candidate who has no U.S. teaching experience could reasonably be considered by some people to be less competitive than another candidate who possesses such experience, all other things being equal. But this judgment call does not require a special rule, since being well qualified to teach to the standards of the university is already a requirement of the job.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
|
2015/11/01
| 708
| 2,799
|
<issue_start>username_0: Is there any issue with using a course title that is similar to a book title or a course at other university, or it would be better to have a unique name?<issue_comment>username_1: I don't see any issue. There is no copyright issue since a title would not generally be protected by copyright (see [here](http://copyright.gov/circs/circ34.pdf)). It doesn't strike me as plagiarism unless the course title is especially unique and you are passing off its creation as your own.
The only possible problem I could see is if it is for an online course that is still be offered at another online source. This could create confusion for students searching for that particular class.
For most courses there are not a huge number of informative course title one could plausibly use.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I think the question here hinges upon how specific the book title is. If you could not repeat book titles, there would be hundreds if not thousands of calculus and organic chemistry courses in violation, for instance.
However, if the title of the book in question is *Sprockets and Doohickeys: A History of Widgets in 20th Century Television*, you might want to find an alternate title do the course. Technically it's not a copyright violation, but it does betray a lack of independent thought on the part of the instructor in a specialized course.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: As others have commented, using a course title that's identical to the title of an existing course or book does not raise issues of copyright infringement, at least in the United States. However, it may raise issues of *trademark* infringement, e.g., if your course title is or contains a protected trademark, as in "Quantum Mechanics For Dummies".
See [here](http://www.mmblawfirm.com/publications/articles/franchise/67.htm) for a related discussion.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: There is a very famous introductory CS book named "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" (SICP) by <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>man in MIT. This is known as one of the best books ever written about introductory computer science: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure_and_Interpretation_of_Computer_Programs>
I don't know if other universities have any similar courses (they probably do) but University of California, Berkeley has a course with exactly same name, **twice**. CS 61A and CS 61AS are named after this book probably due to legacy reasons:
<http://cs61a.org/> <http://www.cs61as.org/>
Considering that both MIT and Berkeley are top-notch universities in CS (arguably top-3) it convinces me that it is okay to give name to your course after a good textbook in your field, written in a different university.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/11/01
| 382
| 1,591
|
<issue_start>username_0: If one wants to do research in computational neuroscience, which PhD program would increase the chances of getting a professor job at a research university immediately upon graduation from that PhD program the most? Assuming, all else being equal.
A) PhD in Computer Science
B) PhD in Computational Neuroscience
In other words, for which of the two PhD degrees is there more demand and less supply in academic job markets, if research interests are in neuroscience?<issue_comment>username_1: Both of them will not "increase the chances of getting a professor job at a research university immediately upon graduation from that PhD program".
Once u graduate you might become a lecturer and after you have been a lecturer for at least 10~20 years, you could have become a professor then.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: I will share my own results from my research as I am on the same boat (Torn between Bioinformatics/CS). From looking at profiles of recently appointed faculty across institutions, it certainly seems easier to get a position if you are a CS graduate.
Due to higher volumes of CS PhD's, most end up going in industry or doing post-docs for 1-2 yrs before getting a faculty position. Whereas grads from other disciplines (Computational neuroscience/bioinformatics) usually end up doing post-docs for a bit longer and I have rarely seen a recent faculty appointment in these areas without a post-doc.
All reasons aside, It will greatly depend on your research/publications and to some degree the institution and your supervisor.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/11/01
| 463
| 2,160
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am thinking of applying at several Biology PhD programmes and for this I need several recommendation letters. Have you experienced the situation where the head of the targeted Department asked the person that recommended you further details about you, even though the letters already contain references to your work/behaviour in the lab? How much does the content of the letters count?
Any shared experience will be greatly appreciated!<issue_comment>username_1: Letters of recommendation often end with
>
> "...If you need further details do not hesitate to contact me on...",
>
>
>
and this is not a useless formality. If committee members have some questions about the candidate, they are very likely to email or telephone the person who wrote the recommendation and ask them. The content of the letter matters greatly, but it is even more important that the person who signs under the letter actually knows you well.
This is the main reason why a general and vague letter does not make you much good. Sadly, some professors are too busy to write the letter themselves, and they sometimes ask their students to prepare a letter which they are happy to sign. Be vary of this line, as the busy professor is likely to forget your name the next minute you step out his door, and therefore will not be able to provide details on you if asked. This also diminishes the effect of the recommendation, if not negates it.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: There is a common process these days, that recommendation letters are sent using a service specific to that task. Using the service solves several problems: one of which is the student that asks for multitudes of recommendations (each of which is a huge time-sink for the professor) and second, the "chain of control" problem, which is, "did the student handle or have contact with the recommendations somewhere along the line?"
So yes, it is entirely possible that the professor sent a somewhat generic letter, and it's entirely reasonable and typical for someone at a graduate program where there is REAL interest, to elicit further detail.
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/11/01
| 361
| 1,554
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm currently applying to Grad school- mechanical engineering-and have a full academic scholarship to continue my education from the government.
Does this make it easier for me to gain acceptance to top schools like Stanford and Carnegie for masters? I'm doing the GRE in 3 weeks, but will I still need a 165+ in the math section to be admitted just like everyone else?
My GPA isn't stellar either. I guess the only stellar thing about my application is that I already secured funding.<issue_comment>username_1: Having your own funding may help, e.g. if you are a good match for a faculty member who has an interest in supervising a PhD student, but does not have enough funding to support one at the moment. But no department wants to waste time and resources (e.g. supervision resources, for example) on a student that is not capable of meeting standards in the department. And given that a department's PhD students represent its "brand," no department wants to admit a student whose work will reflect negatively on the department.
So yes, even if you have your own funding, you still need to show the department you're applying to that you're capable of meeting their standards.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Generally speaking, in the calibre of institutions you're identifying, the admissions process does not include financial considerations in its decision. However, It certainly doesn't hurt to have a full scholarship, and it would be great to mention if the scholarship was a merit-based prize.
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/11/02
| 668
| 2,688
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am attempting to do my PhD "in the open", to treat the entire project of getting my degree (whose research is unrelatedly Computer Science), as a study. That is, I am going to collect my thought processes and outputs in an [Open Notebook Science](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_notebook_science) way. To legitimize this I am creating at Data Management Plan, and it asks if I need IRB approval?
On the one hand, it seems silly that I should need approval to study myself; but I am a human subject. Do people typically need approval to study themselves?<issue_comment>username_1: In general, single subject studies often do not require IRB review in the United States because they do not meet the federal definition of research (they are not "generalizable.")
However, there are some exceptions to this rule. For example, a [single subject oral history study](http://www.ithaca.edu/sponsored-research/faqs/faq/2125/) or a [single subject retrospective case study](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/55933/do-case-reports-require-ethical-approvals/) does not generally require IRB approval, but a [single subject clinical study that involves collection of data that would not ordinarily be collected in the course of treatment](http://ora.research.ucla.edu/OHRPP/Documents/Policy/3/Activities_Requiring_Review.pdf) does.
If you'd like to be sure, I suggest an email to your IRB.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: What you describe in your question does not match your title, but let's assume you are interested in the question in the title. My field is related to medicine and in general to the question of whether ethics approval is necessary or not, experiments on oneself are **not treated differently** than experiments on any other human being. Which means, you *do* need ethics approval. According to [this article](http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/04.29/11-selfexperiment.html) from the Harvard Gazette
>
> Some [institutional review boards] have categorically excluded investigators from their own experiments; others have considered the issue case by case.
>
>
>
Moreover, self-experimentation is very likely to give useless results (there are notable exceptions) because of the obvious bias present when subject and experimenter are the same. Think about all the efforts we put into designing double-blind studies, placebo control groups, etc. not to mention you'd end up with a *N* of 1, hardly enough to draw meaningful conclusions.
I can't find the exact document but I remember that the NIH formally disregard publications where the experiments were conducted on the authors themselves.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/11/02
| 1,506
| 6,046
|
<issue_start>username_0: **Background**
As the title suggest, a year before I'm in the current program I'm in, I left another Ph.D. program in a different field and got a master.
**Issues**
As for now, I prefer not to talk about it if I don't need to. Most people don't ask and don't care. However sometime a conversation goes certain way where inevitably I have to mention something in the past. For example (X indicates the other person in the conversation),
>
> X: So do you have a master?
>
>
> fmlin: Um, yes, but in a different field.
>
>
> X: What was it? Why didn't you continue Ph.D. in that?
>
>
>
or
>
> X: Where did you go for undergraduate? Did you go to graduate school immediately after you finished undergraduate?
>
>
> fmlin: [A short answer indicates I was once in another Ph.D. program but didn't finished]
>
>
> X: [Many questions out of curiosity]
>
>
>
The reasons I don't like to discuss my past are
(a). It's a record of dropping out. It sounds bad despite I think I'm not morally wrong.
(b). I believe I was abused by my former advisor and was not treated properly (see my other answers on this site if you want to know some detail). I had confrontations with him, and some other faculties in the same department.
(c). It takes long time to explain (b). and incomplete information on (b). sometime causes people evaluate me negatively.
(d). Discussing these things in the past can never help what I'm doing now.
**Questions**
So far I only had similar conversations with some fellow students and it's not a big deal. However, sooner or later I'll start meeting potential advisors in my current department. I worry that, if they ask similar questions, these things in the past will make me look bad.
As the title suggest, my question is, if I have to, what's the most harmless way to address my past record of leaving Ph.D. program in a different field? The goal is to **not** make people suspect I'm a problematic student (and I'm indeed not!) that confronts supervisors for no reason.<issue_comment>username_1: Based on the information you provided in the question, I think you should focus on reason (b). You should probably avoid using words like "abuse" or "confrontation", at least in the beginning of the conversation, as they come off as really strong and thus tend to motivate people to question deeper. State that you have had problems with the previous environment (including the adviser and the department) and that it was in the mutual best interest that you continued your career somewhere else. Avoid blaming anyone. If the conversational partner seeks to question further, reveal details to what extent you deem best, but again it is good practice to avoid bad-mouthing your former environment. Stay as objective as possible.
Like you said, most people don't care that much. For those that do care, you can't really stop them from taking it negatively (much as you can't stop anyone from taking anything about you negatively), but you can stay true to yourself, by being honest and objective without bad-mouthing your previous adviser, department, etc.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Apart from the detailed answer provided by @username_1, an alternative answer could be
>
> *"I felt that my previous environment was not suited for my research. Besides, after much progress I realised that I'd do better in field X within my current environment."*
>
>
>
Switching fields isn't entirely uncommon, especially in PhD. The same also goes switching from one grad school to another. There's nothing to feel guilty about in this issue.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: If it is a topic you just don't want to discuss, and your interlocutor shouldn't care about, you can just say that you discovered that topic wasn't your cup of tea. If they insist, say that [new topic] is much more interesting for [couple of reasons].
A more truthful answer is that you had disagreements with your advisor on the direction or purpose of the project. That doesn't mean that either of you was at fault, or that there was a culprit in the first place. Don't give much detail, and if they insist on asking, politely say you don't want to talk about it.
If they do have a reason for asking, you can elaborate saying that you found some flaws in the previous work that your professor and you disagreed on its importance and the necessary effort to fix it. But in any case, going from computational chemistry to pure mathematics is a big jump. A bad advisor would explain changing university, not field, and I think this is where you should focus. It is also what would strike people the most.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: For those who want to know, simply tell your story, while leaving out as much drama as you can. Simply say while you were doing research in XXX, you became more excited about YYY and decided to continue pursuing that instead. If the topic of your advisor comes up, just say you weren't a good fit for each other.
It's common for students to change focus in graduate work, or for a student and advisor to not be a good match, so don't feel like you have something to hide when you answer.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: You care far more than other people do about this reason.
People care about, "will you be able to commit to this program and succeed?" and past experience is an *indication* about that. Questions about this issue will almost always be indirectly a way to answer that question.
Something like:
* "I was doing a PhD for X, but it really wasn't working out. I was having a really hard time being engaged with the program and it was hard for me to feel connected. I'm excited about this opportunity as my previous experience has helped clarify what I am looking for in a PhD program and I believe this program meets the needs."
Flattery (well, honest flattery) goes a long way and if the above is not actually true... they and you yourself probably SHOULD question your motivations for applying.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/11/02
| 1,116
| 4,550
|
<issue_start>username_0: I know that submitting a paper to a conference implies a promise to present the paper if it's accepted. However, I have seen conferences where a *paper* that you submit could be accepted as a *poster* instead. I have a limited travel budget (who doesn't?), and I would rather not travel just for a poster presentation, so I haven't submitted anything to that type of conference.
However, now I'm wondering: If you submit a *paper*, and it's accepted as a *poster*, would it be perceived poorly if you decide not to present the poster? (Of course, if you do that, your abstract wouldn't appear in any proceedings.)
EDIT: By "decide not to present the poster", I mean withdrawing it. I certainly wouldn't plan on being a no-show!<issue_comment>username_1: For some conferences, the proceedings do not actually distinguish between oral and poster presentation. For a conference of this sort, you should treat it as just as important to go as if you were giving a talk.
Even for conferences where posters are given lesser publication or are not published at all, however, if you do not intend to present you should formally withdraw your submission in a timely fashion after you learn of the decision.
There is no stigma associated with doing so, though it does signal clearly that you are more interested in the publication than the community. It will, however, look bad if you don't withdraw and just fail to turn up.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: A paper submitted to a conference can be accepted either as an oral talk, a poster talk, or a short demo/industry track, with variations (small talks, long talks, plenary talks, e-posters, etc.). In some fields, the poster is considered less important, and will not be published as a paper in proceedings. In others, they have the same importance.
Conferences have two main purposes (I forgot about vacations in paradise places):
* present your paper, either talk or poster,
* attend other talks/posters, meet people.
To me, "submitting a paper to a conference implies a moral obligation for one of the authors to present the talk or the poster, if the paper is accepted". If one does not attend, the submission should be withdrawed, for different potential reasons:
* you (and your co-authors) do not need, or cannot afford a poster presentation,
* the conference program is not good enough for your purposes,
* you should not fool attendees with papers that will not be presented.
In the conferences I do summit to, both oral and poster are considered even. I now do:
* prefer posters when I present, as I have more time (1h-2h vs 15 min-20 min) to present, to talk with attendees, adapt to their background,
* prefer attend to posters than to orals, except when I spot a specific point for a given talk.
Plus, I do bring along with me small copies of the poster, copies of papers that are related to the work at hand, that I can offer to attendees. Reminder of the root: a "publication" means: make a research "public". Posters are a good vector for that, and bring you more feedback (very few questions asked in traditional oral sessions). Sometimes, somebody who cannot attend your allotted slot can propose a specific meeting. I should admit I even went to a person presenting a poster, to ask him about her/his previous work.
In those conferences, poster chairs spot "no shows": poster panels without posters, posters without presenters, posters with a presenter who is not a co-author.
>
> [Example:](http://www.icip2015.org/policies.html) No-show papers are defined as papers submitted by
> authors who subsequently did not present the paper in-person (no
> videos, no remote cast) at the technical meeting. Presentations by
> proxies are not allowed, unless explicitly approved before the
> conference by the technical co-chairs. No-show papers that were not
> withdrawn and were published in the Proceedings must be identified as
> "No-Show" in the files submitted to IEEE for further publication (IEEE
> Xplore). No-shows will not be available on IEEE Xplore or other public
> access IEEE forums. IEEE will maintain an archive of no-shows.
>
>
>
Authors of "no show" are sometimes blacklisted, and can be banned of publications in the scientific organization places (future conferences, even journals) for a couple of years.
So it will be perceived poorly if you do not warn the organizers and withdraw the paper, is unethical to other attendees, and involves consequences for you and your co-authors.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
|
2015/11/02
| 500
| 2,093
|
<issue_start>username_0: For my Ph.D. thesis, I developed a new usability method which focuses on a survey. The main contribution is a description for practitioners how to conduct such a survey. For this, I could not develop a standard questionnaire, but gave guidelines on how to construct one.
I am validating the method by conducting such a survey myself. My target population consists of German-speaking people (I’m measuring the usability of a software available only with a German interface), so my questionnaire is in German.
I want to add the questionnaire in the appendix. But my thesis is written in English. Now, my question is: Should I provide the questionnaire in English or in German?
* If I provide it in German, some readers won’t be able to understand it, and it won’t be useful as an example if some of them want to apply the method themselves. Note that my reviewers speak German, so this won’t be a problem for them.
* If I provide it in English, it won’t be a documentation of what I actually used in the experiment. Note that in psychometry, a translated questionnaire *is not considered equivalent to the original* and when a standard questionnaire is developed, any translation is required to be validated again.
What is the proper thing to do here? Use the original experiment material, even if it is of no use to many readers, or create an approximation which has not really been validated and whose usefulness is thus diminished as well?
---
Returning back to my old question, now that I am close to finishing - there is about 15 pages per questionnaire, with 4 questionnaires, so I already have a 60 pages in this appendix. I also have another appendix with 50 pages. If I double the questionnaire-containing appendix, I will have 170 pages worth of appendices at a 100-115 pages thesis, which seems excessive.<issue_comment>username_1: Providing both the original and the translation would satisfy everyone.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: **Both**. Depending on how you structure your thesis, you may include one of them in an appendix.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/11/02
| 1,441
| 6,216
|
<issue_start>username_0: What is the implication of the peer-reviewed journal to state "you cannot recommend the reviewers"? (one can inform the "oppose reviewers" only).
What good does the journal get out of such a practice? Just curious.<issue_comment>username_1: One possibility is to avoid [fake peer review](http://www.nature.com/news/faked-peer-reviews-prompt-64-retractions-1.18202):
>
> The practice can occur when researchers submitting a paper for publication suggest reviewers, but supply contact details for them that actually route requests for review back to the researchers themselves.
>
>
>
See [Publishing: The peer-review scam](http://www.nature.com/news/publishing-the-peer-review-scam-1.16400) and the [faked emails](http://retractionwatch.com/category/by-reason-for-retraction/faked-emails/) tag on Retraction Watch for more examples.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: I completely agree with username_1’s answer about avoiding fake peer review, but there’s more to it than that.
Asking an editor not to use a certain reviewer is reasonable, because there may be a conflict of interest or rivalry that the editor is not aware of but that could compromise the peer-review process. However, what’s the purpose of suggesting reviewers? That seems really biased, since presumably most authors aren’t going to suggest anyone they don’t think will like the paper.
As an editor, I’m not interested in getting reports from reviewers chosen by the authors to have a positive opinion. Instead, I’d prefer to use my own choices, and given that I’m not going to make any effort to follow the authors’ suggestions, I’d rather not see them at all.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: The option by many publishers / journals to allow authors to suggest reviewers grew, in large part, from the difficulties faced by editors in finding suitable reviewers. The online systems introduced ~10-15 years ago facilitated the ability to easily collect this information. Editors then, could potentially use the info to e.g. calibrate their own ideas on good reviewers, as well as their knowledge of people in the field.
When used ethically and properly - by authors in suggesting reviewers, and by editors making checks to ensure no conflicts-of-interest - it can be a useful tool. For example, when suggesting reviewers for my own papers, I would suggest people I didn't know personally but who were important in the field - I saw this as a way to at least (potentially) get them to read and comment on my work. As an editor, I only ever used suggestions when I had exhausted my own stock of potential reviewers (>10 refusals brings on a sinking feeling); I used them rarely as it took a lot of work to try to judge the COIs (mainly via literature and the omnipotence of Google).
The clear issues that have to be hurdled, as ever, come down to the individuals concerned. Perhaps the journal in question encountered problems over the years and rejected it as an option.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: It is relatively common in some fields to not have the capability to suggest reviewers, or even to exclude some potential reviewers. There are a number of reasons that might exist for something like this:
* Both lists are inherently biased. While there's definitely some reasons to support being able to say "I don't think $Person would be able to impartially judge my article" and exclude them, no one is going to pick people for their list of recommended reviewers who aren't at least marginally friendly to the line of research you're doing. At best, it's "Whose friendly in the field?" and at worst, as @username_1 notes, it's "Who do I have a standing agreement with?" Neither one is particularly desirable, and drawing from those lists means a paper isn't getting a fully-critical peer review.
* It's unfair. Having a stronger "social network" of researchers who you can recommend for papers advantages more senior, established researchers and (I suspect) researchers with certain geographic and demographic characteristics.
* It leaves the editor in an awkward spot. What if you suggest a professor, but they're notorious in the journal for taking ages to write their reviews? What weight is given to suggested reviewers, and is it fair if you discard someone's list? Or if they think they won't give a review that's keeping with the journal's target - for example, if you suggest a panel of applied mathematicians and no clinicians for a paper going to a clinical journal.
* It's a threat to blind peer-review. It's *much* more likely someone will recognize an anonymous paper as "yours" if they're familiar enough with your work for you to be comfortable recommending them as a reviewer.
A better question, in my mind, is "What does an editor gain by allowing you to recommend reviewers?" The best I can come up with is they save themselves a little bit of time.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I am belatedly answering this question because I was planning to ask, essentially, the opposite: is there actually enough of a benefit to allowing suggested reviewers that it actually should have any role in the review process at all?
Someone pointed out the issue of fake reviewers, where someone provides contact info for someone who isn't actually the person doing the review. I've also come across collusion in which a reviewer provides a review supplied by the author.
As a member of a governing body overseeing many peer-reviewed publications, I am pushing for a uniform policy banning suggested reviewers, rather than the current approach of letting them be supplied and relying on the judgment of editors as to how to use them.
So to answer the original question, prohibiting suggested reviewers avoids either type of inappropriate influence on the review process. But I haven't seen much here in defense of the practice, other than some assuming that by default nothing nefarious is going on. I agree that most suggestions are undoubtedly completely legit. But given some clearly aren't, why even go down that path? I invite additional comments -- I expect there to be some debate on this in a couple of months, instigated by my inquiry.
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/11/02
| 738
| 3,102
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am currently updating my CV before applying for postdoc positions (and grants) and got a bit puzzled about a small but possibly important detail.
The chapters I have on my CV are Education, Experience, Extracurricular/Voluntary Work and Publications. While I am not forced to keep this structure, I find it very logical and rather neat, so unless there is a good reason to do so I will probably keep the structure.
Now, to the question, I am not sure if I should include my PhD years under education or under experience. Not sure if it's the same elsewhere but over here in Sweden, the years as PhD student counts as both education and full-time employment. I think there are points to both sides of the coin.
The work I have done as a PhD student is quite relevant for the type of stuff I will be applying to hence an argument for listing under work experience. Besides I am not too happy about the last entry in my "Experience" section to be from 4 years ago, as it stands looks a bit like I am "fresh off the school".
Is there a generally accepted way to tackle that?<issue_comment>username_1: I put it in both places. Under Education I list my time as a graduate student, and under Experience (as "Appointments"), I list my time as a Graduate Research Assistant. I've seen this on lots of CVs in the US. Both are true, and both convey the right meaning.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: **Education**. Under sub-points you can list the part-time positions you held, such as research assistant, or teaching assistant. I personally keep *experience* field for my full-time roles and internships.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: There is a fine line here that needs to be drawn. Surely, you do research during your PhD, but that is still a part of your education - you are being taught how to do research, and are (at least formally) being supervised in doing so. Generally, the *experience* part refers to the work experience you possess, over and above the experience you have acquired as a part of your education. Sometimes, people specify this explicitly, by mentioning that research experience during PhD, or acquired in the duration of PhD (e.g. any guest faculty position before PhD defense) won't count as teaching/research experience being sought by them, so it is easy to perceive what they are talking about. But even when they don't, it makes sense to write it in this manner, since you would anyways be talking about your research during PhD while talking about it in the *education* section. So, if there is someone who doesn't want this kind of a distinction, he can anyways get that info from your CV.
As far as teaching assistantship experience is concerned, it is definitely acquired during the PhD period - you can put it, and while that indicates some exposure with teaching and supervision, it isn't the kind of experience that they are seeking anyways.
IMO, writing the same thing twice in a CV is definitely not advisable, at least according to me.
So, **tl;dr** - Answer - In the *education* section.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/11/02
| 619
| 2,261
|
<issue_start>username_0: The date format is usually written as mm/dd/yy and sometimes the month written out followed by the day followed by a comma and the year. My question is: is it academically acceptable to write the date in mm.dd.yy format? I like the . . . format better than the / / / format, which is why I ask the question.<issue_comment>username_1: If someone else has authority over your format, for example your advisor or the publisher of the journal you're writing for, then follow that someone's format requirements. If there's nobody with such authority, or if the person with authority doesn't care about the format, then use whatever format you like (but make sure you use it consistently).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: The International Standard ISO 8601 is **YYYY-MM-DD**.
See [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601#Dates) and [A summary of the international standard date and time notation](https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-time.html).
Sadly this is not used by everyone as can be seen in this [article about date formats per country](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_format_by_country):
* The most popular order is *day-month-year* (*Little-Endian*, cyan in the image), used by about 57% of the world population.
* Next is *year-month-day* (*Big-Endian*, yellow), used by about 29%.
* Then *month-day-year* (*Middle-Endian*, magenta), used by about 6%.
* The remaining 8% use a mix of the above.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/nIfql.png)
But, in the end the most important is the standards used in your university or the conference or journal you are sending your papers to.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I would agree with the recommendation to use ISO8601. Not only is it an recognized international standard, it's logical, it removes ambiguity, and by using it, you'll help to spread awareness. The sooner all of the other formats for date and time die off, the better for everyone.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: As a millennium programmer the only way to remove ambiguity I've found is that you spell out the month and use 4 numbers for the year:
December 4th 2015
4 December 2015
2015 December 4
Upvotes: 3
|
2015/11/02
| 1,072
| 4,581
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have seen [several](http://www.academic-conferences.org/ecel/ecel2015/ecel15-registration.htm) [conferences](http://www.cis.fiu.edu/wise2015/) that specify:
>
> If multiple papers are accepted for presentation, each paper requires a separate registration fee.
>
>
>
Why? Is that purely financially motivated (e.g. an author with 2 submissions may cause another potential attendee not to come, or cost of submitting the paper to the publisher), or does it aim to reduce multiple submissions from the same author? Are there other reasons?<issue_comment>username_1: Why... The conference organizers make money on attendees. Do you really need such a conference?
(Never seen this business in my professional field; up to 2-3 presentations per author are free of additional charges)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: For most conferences, the primary costs are:
* Venue
* Catering
* Society fees
* Program and proceedings
* Keynote / scholarship travel sponsorship
The price of these is wildly variable depending on the arrangements that have been made. At the low end, consider a conference using university meeting rooms, asking people to go out for lunch on their own, using volunteer labor and keeping program and proceedings electronic. This can be extremely cheap, on the order of a couple of dollars per attendee, even for a rather large meeting.
When a conference meets in a hotel, the expenses go up like crazy. For a week-long conference in a major city hotel, the venue and catering expenses can easily run as high as $500/person. These are often required to be booked far in advance, based on the number of people expected to register for the conference, and there may be limited flexibility to change these numbers if attendance falls short.
Hotels also frequently ask a conference to have attendees book in the hotel, and will ask for "insurance" from a conference in the form of a commitment to get at least a certain number of rooms booked and to pay for unbooked rooms if the conference falls short of that commitment. This can add thousands of dollars of expenses. These factors can operate at universities too, which sometimes demand high venue and catering fees even when their own professors are organizing.
With an expensive venue, then, a conference's organizers can thus get very nervous about whether they will have enough money to cover their anticipated expenses, if registrations are less than anticipated. This is especially the case if the conference has had difficulty meeting its expenses in the past, and may be in trouble with its sponsoring society as a result.
Forcing people to register per paper is one response to trying to avoid this type of shortfall. Not only is there the fee, but if you're registering a second time, you're more likely to send a second person from the group, who will likely have their own hotel room. For a conference that may be facing a shortfall in its hotel commitments, a single registration easily can be worth $2000 in increased income and decreased hotel penalty.
Personally, I still don't approve: I think that a conference operating at such a razor's edge would do better to take other approaches to trying to make up its budget shortfall. I can understand, however, why the organizers of respectable conferences sometimes choose to do it: it's not that they are getting rich, but that they are trying to keep from going bankrupt while they make their venue rich.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Apart from @username_2's answer, I believe the charges per paper are imposed as publication charges. It is true that the factors like venue, catering and travel sponsorship are the same regardless of multiple publications in the same conference, the article itself is considered doesn't.
This is because some conferences may have a hard limit on the number of articles to be published and the accommodation charges (like those constant factors) are arranged on that basis. Although you don't consume the resources allocated for that conference more than for what is provided for a single person, they are allocated for you nonetheless. Of course in other conferences, such expenses can be dynamic as the allocation of resources can be done after the total members (not total papers) are confirmed.
IMHO, I don't really think it would be advisable to publish more than one paper in the same conference as far as the corresponding author is concerned. You would be able to get a diverse feedback when publishing in separate conferences.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/11/03
| 585
| 2,543
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am currently applying to Ph.D programs in the US in Mathematics and am trying to decide what to list for my research interests. I am very interested in field Y, but I also have a background (and slightly less interested) in field X. I have enough knowledge to discuss both, but I definitely know more about field Y. That said, field Y is very small, with most departments I am applying to having only one or two people working in it, while X is definitely more common, popular topic. My question is, should I discuss more the topic which is less popular or more? Does it matter, or is it just my interests in something that is being assessed?
Edit: In this case Y=topological modular forms, and X=gauge theory, in particular floer homology.<issue_comment>username_1: In general, your goal in applying to schools is **to get admitted**. Anything that improves your chances in that respect is helpful. If that means listing some esoteric areas in the hopes that someone at the department sees that listing and thinks "I'd like to work with this candidate!", then by all means go for it. (That assumes, of course, you actually want to study that topic. Lying to gain admission will eventually backfire on you.)
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I am impressed that an undergraduate student could speak knowledgeably about either Floer homology or topological modular forms, let alone both. I would include both interests in your applications: by describing both, it seems implicit that you are not wedded to either one, so I don't see your interest closing any doors.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: **There is no downside to listing a topic that people might not be interested in.** No one will think "We don't want any topological modular forms guys around here"! And it shows breadth of knowledge on your part, which is a positive.
On the other hand, **there is a significant potential downside to not mentioning it**. You might miss out on the opportunity to do a PhD in this area by not listing it, which would be a big loss if this is what you are most interested in.
**Your judgment that the less popular area is less likely to lead to a PhD opportunity is not necessarily correct, either.** There may be fewer people working on the more esoteric topic, but it is also quite likely that there are fewer potential PhD students in that area. Those who are studying it might have trouble finding good PhD candidates, and thus be quite pleased to have someone with your interests come along.
Upvotes: 3
|
2015/11/03
| 745
| 3,089
|
<issue_start>username_0: After I read about 40 papers in my research topic, I summarized 25 of them in my thesis, explaining methods used and solutions provided in the literature survey and literature-review sections. I found out a gap in the previous researches and would like to point it out in my thesis, in order to explain where my work would fit.
Should I call this section *research gap*, or there are a better scientific terms usually used?<issue_comment>username_1: "Literature review" would be a good term. It refers to the section in a paper where you review the existing literature and show where your new piece of research fits in.
Don't confuse this with a "review article", which summarizes and integrates a large number of previous publications, typically far more publications than you'd review for an original article. A review article typically *only* does the synthesis, and does not add any original research of its own, although it may well point out gaps in existing research for subsequent investigations.
In you want to draw specific attention to the fact that the question you will investigate has not been covered in previous research, you could call it "open questions".
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Open problem, unsolved problem, need for research, unexploted potentials, areas not covered by previuos research, questions not asked in previous reseach,
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> I found out a gap in the previous researches and would like to point it out in my thesis, in order to explain where my work would fit.
>
>
> Should I call this section research gap, or there are a better scientific terms usually used?
>
>
>
There are two parts to this.
First is the literature review, or summary of existing literature. These are short summaries of the 40 papers you have researched and descriptions of their key points.
Second, you might want to have a section called *research questions* or *research issues*. This can take the form of statements like, "existing literature does not appropriately address X, Y, or Z" or "existing literature presents weaknesses for addressing A, B, C" types of things. Basically building the case for why your thesis exists. What problems with existing literature are you trying to solve?
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: The standard phrase is "a gap in the literature."
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: The meaning of differentiation in [dictionary.cambridge.org][1]is given as :
>
> "the act of showing or finding the difference between things that are compared".
>
>
>
So I suggest you may use the phrase "**The research differentiation**".
[1]: <https://dictionary.cambridge.org/>
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_6: "Knowledge gap" is another way to express that there is something missing from the literature.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_7: **Contribution**
This would also work as a (sub-) section heading. I prefer it to "research gap/lacuna/desideratum" etc., because it focuses on what your research does to close the "gap".
Upvotes: 0
|
2015/11/03
| 1,910
| 7,596
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have submitted a paper to an IEEE conference before this. I received a rejection today despite the fact that, both reviewers recommend to accept my paper.
The reason for rejection is not mentioned at all in the email. I try to analyze the reason and from my point of view:
1. The paper is not out of the conference's scope. If my paper is out of scope, it should be rejected at the first place without sending out to be reviewed.
2. Both reviewers recommend to accept my paper.
3. The conference should have not received too many papers. This is because the deadline for submission has just been extended to 10 Nov. In other words, they continue to accept submission of papers at this point.
I was really surprise after I read the following email:
>
> Dear xxx:
>
>
> Unfortunately, your paper xxx for xxx has not been accepted for
> publication. We hope that you will find the reviews useful when
> revising your paper.
>
>
> The reviews are below or can be found at xxx.
>
>
> ======= Review 1 =======
>
>
> \*\*\* Originality: New or Novel contribution Strong Accept (10)
>
>
> \*\*\* Technical Contribution: Technical/Scientific Contribution, also consider papers that contributes to development of applications.
> Accept (8)
>
>
> \*\*\* Significance of Topic: Relating to knowledge contribution & conference scope (relevant to Science, Engineering & Technology)
> Strong Accept (10)
>
>
> \*\*\* Presentation: Clarity and Organisation of Content (Includes Language & Formatting) Accept (8)
>
>
> \*\*\* Recommendation: Overall view and recommendation Strong Accept (10)
>
>
> \*\*\* Detailed comments: What are the major issues addressed in the paper? Do you consider them important? What are the major reasons to
> accept or reject the paper? Comment on the degree of novelty,
> creativity and technical depth in the paper.[Be brief.]
>
>
> Please provide detailed comments that will be helpful to the TPC for
> assessing the paper, as well as feedback to the authors.
>
>
> The paper was reporting an original findings by the authors based on
> their simulation. xxx. I reckon it is of sufficient quality for the
> conference.
>
>
> ======= Review 2 =======
>
>
> \*\*\* Originality: New or Novel contribution Accept (8)
>
>
> \*\*\* Technical Contribution: Technical/Scientific Contribution, also consider papers that contributes to development of applications.
> Accept (8)
>
>
> \*\*\* Significance of Topic: Relating to knowledge contribution & conference scope (relevant to Science, Engineering & Technology)
> Accept (8)
>
>
> \*\*\* Presentation: Clarity and Organisation of Content (Includes Language & Formatting) Accept (8)
>
>
> \*\*\* Recommendation: Overall view and recommendation Accept (8)
>
>
> \*\*\* Detailed comments: What are the major issues addressed in the paper? Do you consider them important? What are the major reasons to
> accept or reject the paper? Comment on the degree of novelty,
> creativity and technical depth in the paper.[Be brief.]
>
>
> Please provide detailed comments that will be helpful to the TPC for
> assessing the paper, as well as feedback to the authors.
>
>
> Good paper and well written. Easy to understand. xxx.
>
>
>
I replaced some of the reviewers' comments with 'xxx' because it will reveal my unpublished works. Please believe me when I say they are all positive.
Has someone been in this situation before? What is the possible reasons for rejection?<issue_comment>username_1: **This is a perfectly possible result.** The reviewers' recommendations are just that: recommendations. The conference's scientific committee has the ultimate say over whether a paper is accepted, and they do not always follow reviewers' recommendations.
There may be quite legitimate reasons for a paper to be rejected despite positive reviews. For example:
* **There might be an abundance of high quality submissions on the particular topic you submitted on** (even if the deadline was extended because they didn't get enough submissions in other areas).
* **There still could be a scope issue.** Yes, a paper that is clearly out of scope should be rejected before it goes to review. However, if the committee felt it was at the margins of acceptable scope, they might send it to review but ultimately reject it because the reviewers' comments weren't sufficient to overcome the scope problem.
* **The conference reviewers were generous**. It is hard to interpret the meaning of the reviewers' scores without seeing the distribution of all scores. It is possible that the reviewers were really "nice" and scores tended to be high for everyone. It is quite difficult for many people to give a negative decision when they know that someone else is going to see the result and be affected by it, so scores can tend toward the positive, and rejection recommendations may be rare.
* **There was some kind of rule preventing them from accepting it** (This should have led to rejection before review, but it could have been missed. Of course, they also should have told you the reason if this were the case).
**You are correct, however, that this is a fairly unusual decision.** I think you ought to follow up and ask for clarification. It would be helpful for you to know the reason for rejection, and there is always the chance that there was some kind of clerical error, as well.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: As *ff524* says in a comment, the conference seems to be of a dubious nature, and it might be better not to want to publish there at all. Here are some of the red flags, but note that it is entirely possible for a number of excellent conferences to trigger one or more of them. It's just that all of them together suggest that some background checking is called for.
>
> "The paper was reporting an original findings by the authors based on their simulation. xxx. I reckon it is of sufficient quality for the conference."
>
>
>
"was reporting" and "an original findings" reveals extremely poor English, and poor English is highly correlated with crackpot publications. "reckon" is quite informal and has not much place in a review, in my opinion.
>
> "Good paper and well written. Easy to understand. xxx."
>
>
>
Like the other review, this one does not sound genuine.
>
> The conference should have not received too many papers. This is because the deadline for submission has just been extended to 10 Nov. In other words, they continue to accept submission of papers at this point.
>
>
>
The best well-established CS conferences (especially the main ones rather than the smaller conferences with narrow focus) usually receive too many papers and end up rejecting even papers they deem a good fit for the conference simply because there are too many excellent submissions, and they usually do not arbitrarily extend deadline for submission just like that either.
>
> the deadline for submission was first on 31/10. On 1/11, they extended it to 10/11. I received a decision on 3/11
>
>
>
As *ff524* said, this implies that they reviewed your paper within 3 days. It's not impossible but just another tiny bell goes off, since there are already some ringing.
>
> They reject your paper despite reviewers recommending acceptance but seem to be looking for more.
>
>
>
If you exclude the possibilities mentioned by *dan1111*, then this would be a warning sign.
At the very least, if you want to publish at a good conference, you had better be careful and check this one out thoroughly.
Upvotes: 2
|